Former Arsenal defender Martin Keown thinks Arsene Wenger will stay on as manager this summer in order to give the club time to plan for his successor.
Wenger's future is in serious doubt after Arsenal's 3-1 loss to Chelsea on Saturday all but ended their Premier League title challenge. The 67-year-old Arsenal boss has yet to decide whether to renew his contract, which expires this summer, with a growing section of fans calling for him to step down.
But Keown, who won three Premier League titles under Wenger, thinks the Frenchman will sign one last contract extension.
.@martinkeown5 believes Wenger will decide when to leave @Arsenal and expects him to sign a new contract. #CHEARS https://t.co/Gazbr4ghTg
- BT Sport Score (@btsportscore) February 4, 2017
"I think if you look at it, Arsene Wenger will decide when he leaves the club. I believe he manages up and down within the club itself. They are going to want to have a run-up to a succession plan for a new manager and that will mean Arsene Wenger signing a new deal," Keown told BT Sport.
"I'm not sure if that sits completely well with the fans. But if you look at other situations, Manchester United losing Sir Alex Ferguson shows what can happen.
"I believe he will sign a new contract at that football club. It's just really the announcement and when is the right time to make that announcement."
Arsenal have not won the Premier League since 2004, Keown's last season with the club, and need to beat Bayern Munich in the Champions League to avoid going out in the round of 16 for the seventh year in a row.
And Alan Shearer, the former Newcastle striker, said Wenger has allowed his team to go soft.
"Arsene Wenger remains, yet the Arsenal DNA he had between 1997 and 2005 has been totally lost over the last decade," Shearer wrote in his column for the Sun. "That is what frustrates the fans, that a manager who gave them so much and put out such great teams can now be in charge of one of the softest sides in the club's history. One that rolls over when the going gets tough."
Wenger has only won two FA Cups since 2005, but has yet to finish outside the top four in his 20 seasons in charge, ensuring lucrative Champions League football every year.
And both Shearer and Keown believe it makes little sense financially for the Arsenal board to get rid of the Frenchman.
"Of course he needs to continue to do well enough to stay in the job. If he gets in the Champions League once more and perhaps wins a trophy. I know people are dissatisfied with that and they feel that change is necessary. but it could also go wrong completely the other way if Arsenal were to leap now and make a big change," Keown said.
"I think it sits with the way that he is as a manager to see the job through to the end of the season. And I do see him signing a new deal, but that would be, I feel, the last one. And Arsenal would be looking in that period to make a plan."