Jens Lehmann believes Arsenal’s struggles in the post-Arsene Wenger era has highlighted just how ‘competent’ the Frenchman was.
The Gunners have failed to qualify for the Champions League since Wenger’s departure and have picked up a solitary FA Cup since he left in 2018 after his 22-year stint in north London.
Wenger incredibly secured Champions League qualification for 20 seasons running from the start of his Arsenal tenure, whilst the Gunners finished fifth with his successor Unai Emery and currently languish in tenth under Mikel Arteta.
Lehmann believes the quality of Wenger’s management has been accentuated more since his departure, admitting he was over-performing for the under-fire owner Stan Kroenke.
Asked about Arteta’s reign as Arsenal manager, the Invincibles legend told the talkSPORT Breakfast: “It’s not up to me to speak about Mikel Arteta but I can speak about Arsene Wenger.
“He’s still the most successful manager in terms of financial success and the Kroenkes were very happy to have him on board, and the whole of Arsenal was.
“If you compare the situation before he left the club and the situation now, you can not really say it has improved.
“It tells you something about competence in the right places. David Dein was there, for example, and we can say in our time we had a great team at Arsenal with great players, and it’s still what Arsenal are admired for.
“Now it has changed and it always goes down to the decision of the manager. Now it’s Mikel Arteta and before it was Arsene.
“If the management and ownership of the club was to make changes it has to be on a very competent level and they have to ask questions. And it’s about asking them at the beginning of a new era.
“If you don’t you will probably end up in a year’s time in the same situation.”
On Monday, Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek launched an Arsenal takeover bid – with the help of club legends Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Vieira.
The Swedish billionaire threw his hat into the proverbial ring over his interest in the north London club amid fan protests against current owner.
And Lehmann refused to rule out working with his former teammates and admitted that it would be ‘fantastic’ if they were handed the reins in some capacity.
“Josh Kroenke and his father are still interested, and they like to make people happy,” the German added on Tuesday morning.
“I only met Josh a couple of times, but he doesn’t seem to be not interested about his club.
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