Arsene Wenger blamed the ‘hostile environment’ at the Emirates Stadium for Arsenal’s inability to finish inside the top four for the first time in 20 years this season, but all the vitriol being spewed is down to him.

Ill feeling at the club is in reaction to uncertainty over his future, and, whether or not, he is going to accept the terms of a new two-year contract.

If he had come out earlier in the campaign and announced that he was not staying on as coach — as is widely hoped and expected — the players could have rallied around and given him a better send-off, buoyed by the fact that change is afoot.

Instead, his procrastination has hung like a cloud over the club, negatively affecting their league position, and it now threatens to cost them the FA Cup in this Saturday’s final against Chelsea too.

In most seasons since not winning a league title in 13 years, a consistent top four finish and the occasional FA Cup triumph has been enough to buy Wenger yet another year of mediocrity.

However, after finishing fifth in the league and ahead of an inevitable defeat in this Saturday’s final, the argument for keeping him on because he balances the books and brings money in is now redundant.

Without Champions League football next season Arsenal are going struggle to bring in better players and the downward spiral is going to continue.

The board should have sensed this tipping point from plateau to decline earlier and refused to offer him a contract extension. Instead, swayed by supporter unrest and their own respect and loyalty for the stalwart, they have gone for half measures and tried to force Wenger to make the decision himself by offering an extension on the condition they can put a director of football in over his head.

They know he will object to this, and that’s presumably the reason he’s taking so long to decide on his future.

What he needed to do was admit that his time was up and bow out gracefully, maybe even finishing fourth and nicking the FA Cup surrounded by a crowd that was supportive and in the most part appreciative of his 21-year service.

Instead, his delay in declaring suggests he is going to sign the extension and brave the backlash even further, but that will only end in an even more undignified end halfway through next season.

If he does wait until after losing the FA Cup to announce his departure or even a move upstairs, fans will justifiably ask why he didn’t declare this earlier and angle for a brighter, more successful, farewell.

He’s hanging on. But the pressure surrounding Arsenal is so great at the moment that it needs something or someone to pop. Wenger leaving might throw the club into an even bigger initial decline than if he were stay on for another season or two, but in the long term it could be just what the club needs.