Struggling: But Wenger has the backing of Arsenal's
board
Arsenal have given Arsene Wenger their unequivocal
backing and will give the beleaguered Frenchman £55million to
rebuild his ailing squad.
Majority shareholder Stan Kroenke and the Gunners board
remain 100 per cent behind the Frenchman despite being resigned to
a seventh consecutive season without a trophy.
The north London club's season went from bad to worse on
Saturday as they crashed out of the FA Cup after to a 2-0 defeat at
Sunderland.
Saturday's loss came just three days after Arsenal's
humiliating 4-0 defeat against AC Milan in the Champions League - a
result that virtually sealed their exit from the
competition.
This season's struggles have, for the first time, raised
major question marks over Wenger's role as manager.
However, the Arsenal board remain staunch in their backing
of the under-fire manager and still believe Wenger is the man to
revive the club's faltering fortunes.
Down and out: Arsenal will go trophy-less for a seventh
season
As it stands, Wenger is under no danger of the
sack - only a sensational shift in opinion between now and the end
of the season from the Gunners board will alter that
stance.
Furthermore, the Gunners hierarchy are adamant the Wenger
will remain the club's manager until, at the very least, his
contract expires in 2014.
The only situation that would result in Wenger no longer
remaining the Arsenal hotseat would be if he decided to resign at
the end of the season.
Cash injection: Wenger has the opportunity to bolster
his squad
The news will come as a major boost to Wenger, who
will now focus all of his attentions on securing Champions League
qualification.
And the Gunners board will underline their commitment to
Wenger in the summer by handing him a hefty transfer budget to help
bolster his squad.
As Sportsmail
revealed on Friday, Wenger is planning an overhaul of his squad in
the summer.
High profile names such as Mario Goetze, Lukas Podolski,
Eden Hazard and Matias Suarez all feature on Wenger's shopping
list.
Transfer target: Dortmund's Mario Goetze
But despite the Gunners hierarchy giving their
manager substantial financial backing,
Wenger knows he faces a huge fight to land his top targets,
especially if they fail to secure a top-four finish this
season.
Meanwhile, Gunners legend George Graham - who won nine
major trophies with the club during his time as a player and
manager - has launched a scathing attack on his former
club.
He said: 'I think Arsenal are in crisis. I think it’s been
slipping away for the last couple of years and they’ve not been
replacing the players that left four or five years ago. 'They’ve
got money to buy players and I can’t understand why Arsene didn’t
go out and buy some real quality players in the summer.
'Nowadays you’ve got to
introduce youngsters coming through like Sir Alex Ferguson does.
But at the same time he’ll buy the ready-made player who costs £25m
because they’re not afraid to do it.
'I think Arsene has overdone the
youth policy and the players coming in are not as good as the ones
that have left.'
Scathing attack: George Graham slammed Wenger's youth
policy
