Protests against Arsene Wenger are set to reach new heights after disgruntled Arsenal supporters launched a crowdfunding campaign to fly an aircraft over the Hawthorns Stadium this weekend.
Around 300 fans marched against Wenger for the second game in succession ahead of Saturday’s visit of Lincoln City to the Emirates.
Now those protests are set to follow Arsenal on the road, starting with the away fixture against West Brom.
The campaign is already over halfway towards its target of £2,500, with £1,455 raised at the time of writing, with 75 supporters making a pledge in the last two days.
A supporter has already paid the £750 cost of hiring the plane and will be reimbursed out of the crowdfunding earnings. With hundreds more pounds available for their protest supporters are considering spending on mobile billboards and balloons and beach balls emblazoned with “Wenger Out”.
“I drove from North Devon and back for the Bayern protest,” Chris Butler, the campaign founder, said. “It was a ten hour round trip and I didn’t even go to the game. That’s how strongly I feel about this.
Arsenal fans protest against Arsene Wenger | March 7, 2017
“I don’t care what people say, we’re trying to keep it respectful, not effing and blinding. To us this is respectful: Wenger Out, no new contract. We don’t want to say ‘get the hell out’ but it’s getting to us because he’s ignoring us.
“If he said he was leaving we’d get behind him and let him go with some dignity. But he’s ruining that. We are long, long, long suffering. He still hasn’t apologised for the Bayern game. What is the point of being in Europe if we can’t compete? We’re an embarrassment.”
Wenger has insisted that he will consider fans’ views when deliberating whether to sign the two-year new contract understood to be on offer from the club, but warned that it would not be “the most important factor”.
Arsenal chairman Sir Chips Keswick released a statement on Thursday in which he said that any decision over Wenger’s contract would be made “mutually”.
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The Gunners currently sit fifth in the Premier League table, five points off Liverpool in the last Champions League spot but with two games in hand, while Saturday’s victory over Lincoln saw them progress to FA Cup semi-finals.
