ARSENE WENGER has set a December deadline to decide his Arsenal future.
The Emirates boss will give the Gunners board six months to come up with the new investment he needs to rebuild the team.
And if there is not significant change by Christmas, Wenger will quit at the end of next season.
He has one year left on his contract and remains BarcelonaÂ’s first choice to succeed Frank Rijkaard.
Wenger has told close friends he is frustrated at the lack of transfer funds and feels he has been let down by the clubÂ’s directors.
One friend told SunSport: “Arsene is fearful that the current squad is still too young to compete with Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool for the title.
“It’s obvious he needs to bring in some experience but has been told he must sell players to generate money to buy players.
“Arsenal have had to fight to make fourth in the past two years and Arsene knows that’s not good enough — but he feels his hands are tied.
“The departure of David Dein was a huge blow to him and he feels he can only wait as long as the turn of this year to see if things improve.
“If not, he is very unlikely to renew his contract.”
Wenger would prefer to see the club sold to Stan Kroenke — the American billionaire who recently acquired around 12 per cent of Arsenal’s shareholding.
Former vice-chairman Dein, WengerÂ’s great ally, was ousted after more than 20 years for recommending the owners accepted KroenkeÂ’s investment.
Ex-Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira shares the opinion that Wenger could be off.
Vieira, now at Inter Milan, said: “It is very difficult for Arsene now because he does not have David Dein with him at the club.
“They started this new era together and now there is only Arsene and that makes life hard for him. Arsenal need to bring in two or three good players to make things better for next season.”
It looks unlikely Wenger will be able to raise the cash to fund such a spree at the moment, with interest in their stars limited to Jose Reyes and Thierry Henry.
Reyes looked set to move to Atletico Madrid for around £8million but his goal-scoring heroics for arch-rivals Real last weekend have jeopardised that move.
Real have still not made an offer to convert the loan into a permanent transfer.
Henry, meanwhile, has yet to give a concrete answer about his future to either Arsenal or Barcelona.
