Wenger Out

Submission 46,353

Part of a series on Association Football. [View Related Entries]

About

Wenger Out refers to a movement among Arsenal Football Club fans asking the team to not give a new contract to their longtime manager Arsène Wenger. The movement has manifested in protest signs reading "Wenger Out" appearing in unexpected places across the globe, which in turn led to famous photographs being photoshopped to include a person holding a "Wenger Out" sign.

Origin

Arsène Wenger has managed Arsenal Football Club since 1996.^[1] He had tremendous success in the mid-2000s, leading the club to an undefeated league season in 2004. However, between 2006 and 2014, Arsenal did not win a trophy. In the 2014-2015 season, the team began to perform better, finishing fourth in the Premier League. They then finished runners up in the 2015-2016 season. With championship hopes high heading into the 2016-2017 season, Arsenal started strongly, but lost important matches midway through the year, resulting in their championship hopes being jeopardized. Wenger also received a four-game suspension in this time for pushing a referee.
Even when the team was performing well in the mid-2010s, some supporters still wanted Wenger sacked from the club.^[2] However, with Arsenal's disappointing 2016-2017 season, fans grew more united in wanting Wenger gone as manager. One of the catalysts for the #WengerOut movement was Arsenal's 5-1 loss to Bayern Munich on February 15th, 2017.^[3]

Spread

On February 20th, a sign reading "Wenger Out" appeared at a UK protest of U.S. President Donald Trump visiting London,^[4] starting the trend of "Wenger Out" signs appearing in unexpected places.

Over the following months, more signs reading "Wenger Out" appeared in unexpected places across the globe. Some of the more notable places include WWE's Wrestlemania 33 pre-show and the following night's Monday Night Raw.

The prevalence of real-life examples of the sign popping up in unexpected place led to photographs photoshopped to include a protestor holding the sign. One such image circulated on Twitter during the Kendall Jenner's Pepsi Ad controversy (shown below).