by Jerrad Peters

I’m a light sleeper, which is why I tend to need a lot of it. My bedside alarm is really nothing more than a decoration as I’m sure to be awake long before it begins its irritating, incessant beeping, and chances are I will have woken up six or seven times throughout the night, anyway.

Sunday night was no exception. Only whenever I opened my eyes to check the time I also got out of bed to check the papers and the Arsenal Football Club website. You see, I had somehow convinced myself that Arsene Wenger would resign before Monday, and I wanted to know the second it happened.

Admittedly, I was rather delusional in my expectation. Wenger, after all, has managed Arsenal for a decade and a half, and in that time has overseen unprecedented success for the club.

But the most recent third of his tenure has been anything but glorious. Given the combination of those six, trophy-barren years, an embarrassing summer in the transfer market and an 8-2 loss to Manchester United (which followed a 2-0 loss to Liverpool and scoreless draw at Newcastle), I figured he’d do the honourable thing and fall on his sword. Lord knows the club’s fans would let him go on forever on nothing more than past glories, but Wenger is a proud man. I thought at some point during the night I’d click the refresh button and see a press release announcing his exit. I was almost sure I’d see it.

I didn’t see it. And in the clarity of morning I’m not surprised that I didn’t. There’s only two days to go until the transfer window closes, and while I don’t think Wenger will make a meaningful signing between now and then, he might as well get a chance to coach his squad—however thin, inexperienced and generally pathetic it might be—until the next one opens.

At that point Arsenal will likely be well off the pace in the Premier League, out of the Carling Cup and perhaps out of Europe as well. If, by some chance, they’re making a shock run in one of those three competitions, Wenger might as well get the remainder of the season. But I don’t see it happening. And it’s then that, if he doesn’t resign, either the Arsenal board or the club’s fans will have to take it upon themselves to force him out.

In my opinion, the latter scenario should have unfolded already, after last season when an epic, late-winter collapse ended Arsenal’s trophy ambitions on all fronts. That should have been the limit to the embarrassment tolerated at the club—embarrassment that had already included the losses of Eduardo, William Gallas, Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Adebyor, Mathieu Flamini, Jens Lehmann and Gilberto Silva the previous three summers without the addition of adequate replacements. And when the current transfer window opened and Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri and Gael Clichy bolted out of town while Wenger did nothing, the manager’s fate should have been sealed.

What must be frustrating to Arsenal fans is, despite the high-profile exits and the obvious gaps they were leaving in the side, you just knew Wenger wasn’t going to pursue the sort of players he so obviously needed, not only to fill those gaps, but also to enhance problem positions that had proved the team’s demise just a few months before. Instead, he bought another skillful winger in Gervinho, another up-and-coming forward in Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and a right-back in Carl Jenkinson who, just 12 months before, had been playing at Eastbourne Borough.

You could argue that Jenkinson was actually one of Arsenal’s better players at Old Trafford on Sunday. But at 19 and with just one Premier League appearance under his belt, he was always going to be in over his head.

He certainly would never have got into a team under Sir Alex Ferguson. The United manager buys many young players, but he also farms them out to other Premier League clubs for seasoning before he hands them a role in the first team. (Danny Welbeck and Tom Cleverley are perfect examples of that.) Wenger, however, tends to loan his youngsters to clubs in the lower divisions or leagues such as France—a strategy that works against him when it’s time to call them up.

But what’s even more baffling is Wenger’s disinterest in buying that certain type of player that would give Arsenal that edge, confidence and spirit they so desperately need. (It’s worth pointing out at this point that many such players in recent Arsenal history, such as Tony Adams, Nigel Winterburn, Lee Dixon, Martin Keown and Ray Parlour, were not actually signed by Wenger, but by George Graham.)

He could have had Diego Lugano—the physical, skilled and inspirational Uruguay captain—for a paltry €3 million; he could have had Roger Johnson for £7 million; he could have had Bakary Kone—a big, French West African defender who seems exactly the type of player Wenger would go after—for just €2 million, and he could’ve had any or all of them well before the season started. Instead, he made a joke of an offer to Bolton Wanderers for Gary Cahill and then sold Armand Traore to QPR. That sort of performance in the transfer window would be unacceptable at United, Liverpool, Chelsea or Manchester City. And it should be, quite frankly, unacceptable at Arsenal.

But, like I said off the top, they’re stuck with Wenger for the time being. No one they brought in at this point—be it Carlo Ancelotti, Martin O’Neill or David Moyes or whoever—would be able to make any sort of meaningful change before Wednesday night. (And don’t even think about using the “But who else could do a better job than Wenger?” excuse. The simple answer is, “Just about anyone.” It’s to the point where he’s a liability.)

By simply and carelessly running the transfer window out of time, Wenger has earned himself four months to right the ship and adjust his failed philosophy. If things aren’t on the uptick by then, it will behoove Arsenal supporters to facilitate his exit for him. Whether it’s Wenger or Wenger’s eventual replacement, a new vision is needed to take the club forward. The time for living off past glories is over.

Follow Jerrad Peters on Twitter @peterssoccer.