Arsene Wenger’s position will be reviewed at the end of the season.
Arsene Wenger is still the Arsenal manager but it seems that planning for the post-Wenger era is already well underway. The first signs of preparation happened earlier in the season, when Sven Mislintat and Raul Sanllehi were appointed chief scout and head of football relations respectively, signalling a shift to a more continental management structure.
Now, following Arsenal’s miserable 3-0 defeat to Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday, The Telegraph is reporting that the north London club have drawn up their seven-man shortlist of potential candidates to replace Wenger.
The Frenchman’s contract runs until the end of next season but his position will reportedly come under review after the current campaign ends in May. Arsenal are currently sixth in the Premier League table, ten points adrift of the Champions League places.
Although they can still qualify by winning the Europa League, replicating Manchester United’s feat last year, the club are apparently concerned with how the league season has went, particularly considering the heavy investment in the squad with expensive signings such as Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
With a culture of change sweeping the Emirates Stadium, the hierarchy have come up with four possible successors. They are Mikel Arteta, the former Arsenal captain who is currently a coach under Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, Leonardo Jardim, the highly thought of Monaco boss, Joachim Low, the World Cup -winning Germany manager and Brendan Rodgers, who is currently in charge at Celtic.
📰 Brendan Rodgers could be on his way back to the Premier League – the Telegraph claim he is on Arsenal's shortlist to replace Arsene Wenger this summer. pic.twitter.com/ucB6Ox3b77
— This Is Anfield (@thisisanfield) February 27, 2018
Other names currently in the frame, but with less of a chance, are Thierry Henry who, as a club legend, would be a hugely popular but romantic appointment. Shakhtar Donetsk’s impressive coach Paulo Fonseca and Carlo Ancelotti round out the list.
It’s certainly an eclectic assortment of tactical philosophies. Jardim attracted plenty of admiration for leading Monaco to the Ligue 1 title last season, while it was impossible to ignore the club’s run to the Champions League semi-final, during which the likes of Benjamin Mendy, Bernardo Silva and Kylian Mbappe sealed lucrative moves away.
Rodgers would perhaps be divisive, especially considering how his Liverpool tenure ended. However, there is an appreciation at Arsenal that the Northern Irishman came within a whisker of delivering the Reds’ first Premier League title. The Carnlough native has rebuilt his image in Glasgow, leading Celtic to a domestic treble in his first season.
Although Henry dreams of managing Arsenal, the iconic former striker lacks experience. He has been coaching under Roberto Martinez with Belgium but there is perhaps a sense that more top-level pedigree is required in order to steer the club through what is certain to be a difficult transitional period.
