Friday 17 February 2017 10:58, UK
Arsene Wenger can secure his Arsenal legacy "in a heartbeat" by announcing now he will not sign a contract extension, according to Alan Smith.
Wenger is the club's longest-serving and most decorated manager, but Wednesday's 5-1 defeat at Bayern Munich was the latest in a series of poor results that has left a growing number of supporters calling for his departure this summer.
The Frenchman is in the final months of his deal and has consistently said he will sit down with the Arsenal board to discuss his future at the end of the season.
But with Champions League elimination all but confirmed and Chelsea 10 points ahead in the Premier League, former Gunners striker Smith told Sky Sports News HQ: "I do think we've come to the end of a cycle whereby it's time for a new man with a different voice and new methods.
"I think if he announced today or tomorrow that he was stepping down at the end of the season he would then be revered as the legend he is at the football club.
"That toxic atmosphere would be taken away in a heartbeat and it would help the team because the atmosphere would completely change at the Emirates."
The club's board has always publicly backed Wenger, and Smith believes the manager's apparent ability to decide his own future is "not healthy".
"It's a unique situation almost in world football and especially English football," he said. "[Owner] Stan Kroenke is happy with the status quo, from a financial point of view everything is hunky dory."
A lack of sporting ambition has taken hold at the club, according to Smith, who pointed to Wednesday night's stand-in skipper Kieran Gibbs as an example.
Gibbs took the armband on a rare start after Laurent Koscielny went off injured, and Smith said: "Quite clearly Kieran isn't a leader and in many ways he kind of typifies the situation there. They're not overly pushed.
"Somebody like Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain should have kicked on over the last few years but there hasn't been that demand for improvement in the way that there would be at other clubs.
"It's all a bit too nice. That's the overriding culture of the club and that has to change if they're to compete in the future."
