The least Arsène Wenger deserves is a royal Arsenal send-off

It is never easy planning a long goodbye but that is what Arsenal must do now and how much might the mood shift at the Emirates if everyone knows for sure this is his last season?

Take a walk around the Emirates Stadium and it is difficult to think of another football ground in the world where there are so many statues. Herbert Chapman’s is just across from what is now the Danny Fiszman Bridge. Keep on going past the Clock End and you will find Tony Adams immortalised in bronze, arms outstretched, celebrating happier times. Thierry Henry’s statue is another classic pose: on his knees, fists pumped, back arched. Dennis Bergkamp’s is in close proximity, as he often was when they were Highbury team‑mates, and it is not just the three players and one of English football’s iconic managers who have been honoured this way.

The story goes that a 12-year-old Ken Friar was playing football in Avenell Road in 1945 when the ball rolled under a car that turned out to belong to George Allison, the then manager. When Allison appeared from Highbury’s marble halls he liked the youngster’s determination to retrieve it so much he told him to report to the offices the next day and awarded him a job as a match-day messenger. Friar has been there ever since, working his way up to become managing director, and now has his own statue approaching the stadium he helped to design.

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