I’m a newer fan who only started watching the club over the past 2 seasons. I’ve been trying to learn the history of the club, and I’m confused why there was hate for Wenger at the end of his career. I learned that he lead the invincible’s, and that amazing squad from the early 2000s, he gave us the only champions league final appearance in club history, and even after that he seem to do an amazing job. Heck he even got a new Stadium that is really nice. He seemed to be loved. By all accounts he should be a Saint to the gooners but then I look forward a few years, and they were all these Wenger out protests. What led to such a fall from grace.
There were huge problems at the club around mid 2010s. We were rotting from the inside. Gazidis and the entire board were to blame as much as Wenger himself, however, the club couldn’t move forward and adopt a modern club structure with Wenger in the way. He stubbornly refused to allow “football people” to have football jobs at the executive level. They were all money men. Gazidis - the CEO - and Wenger handled all the transfers.
In 2015/16 we only made one signing and it was Petr Cech. We then finished 2nd in the league to Leicester with our midfield depth being the likes of Flamini and an essentially retired Arteta, and our only striker alternate to Giroud being Danny Welbeck who wasn’t fit to play until the February of that season.
The following summer the club signed Xhaka, Mustafi, and Lucas Perez for almost 90 million total. These two windows are greatly attributed with our stagnant years without Champions League football that followed. And somewhere in there, Wenger signed a new 2 year contract, whilst results on the pitch got worse and worse. Not only were we getting battered by every top 6 team, we also got knocked out 10-2 on aggregate by Bayern in the UCL which turned out to be our final appearance in the competition until this season.
There’s a hell of a lot more to it than that but that’s a basic overview I guess.