Arsenal fans have been put out of their misery, Unai Emery is no more, but will the torture go on under another guise?
It certainly could if the new hierarchy doesn’t show the ambition and willing, and can cast aside the financial aspect of choosing the next what they will hope to be, long-term, Arsenal manager.
May 2018 and it appears that former club captain Mikel Arteta is the man who will replace the departing Arsene Wenger after 20 years in charge. That was until the now-former chief executive Ivan Gazidis was blown away by Unai Emery’s flip chart presentation. Now, it is important here to note that no new manager comes with any guarantee of success or indeed failure but flip charts aside Emery had managerial experience and at big clubs too and Arteta did not, and still doesn’t.
The point here is this, Wenger, Gazadis, and Emery a Gazadis holdover are all gone. This is a new dawn at Arsenal. A new appointment to be made by new appointees.
So how much ambition will Arsenal and in particular KSE show during the search for the new boss? Managers currently in work simply cost more than those who are not.
In the last few days, the media have been speculating on who is on the shortlist of Messrs Raul Sanllehi and Edu. Most of these names have been largely uninspiring and if Emery was seen as a ‘safe’ hire the likes of Nuno Espirito Santo and Mikel Arteta, (again), will come with fewer guarantees than Emery who had just won four trophies in two years at Paris St Germain.
The next issue Arsenal has in recruiting during the season is the reluctance of mangers currently in employment being allowed to leave thus causing unnecessary cost and upheaval to a club who simply does not need to make any such change.
If Arsenal wants to be seen as the big club that they are supposed to be, they should hold no such qualms about perusing coaches such as RB Leipzig’s Julian Nagelsmann or Athletico Madrid’s Diego Simeone. The cost of failure will surely outweigh the cost of getting one of these managers.
Of course, just throwing money at any highly regarded manager
doesn’t mean that they will be shortly arriving in North London but don’t Arsenal owe it to themselves to try?
A more realistic target is again one that was in the frame before Emery’s appointment in May 2018. Former Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri's interview for the Arsenal job was dismissed by Gazadis for reasons unknown to anyone other than him. Allegri, like Emery, does not speak the best English but it’s hard to believe that this was the deciding factor given that Gazadis fell for Emery.
At the time of writing Allegri's odds of becoming the next man in charge at the Emirates have significantly changed just hours after the club announced that they have an official vacancy. It has been reported in recent days that Allegri has been living in London and is currently learning the language. How far along he is with his education we currently do not know.
Two other managers who are currently unemployed and are potentially in the mix are former Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino, who during his five and a half years on the other side of North London won absolutely nothing and even said that winning trophies “only serves to build ego’s”. Not exactly an encouraging resume.
The name of another ex-Arsenal player has made the bookies list of potential new managers but hasn’t been bandied about in the media as yet is that of Giovanni Van Bronkhorst. Despite winning the Dutch league in 2016/17 and two KNVB cups in 2015/16 and 2017/18 Van Bronckhorst has been out of work since and is untried in a major league.
The two current remaining candidates are both presently employed in the Premier League, with Santo at Wolves and Arteta an assistant at Manchester City.
Nuno Espirito Santo took over at Wolves in the Summer of 2017 after previously managing at Valencia and Porto albeit for relatively short spells. He led Wolves to the Premier league finishing 7th. In possibly his biggest game as a manager, an F.A cup semi-final his team blew a comfortable two-goal lead eventually losing 3-2 to Watford, how very Arsenal like! If Emery was seen to be out of his depth then surely the same has to apply here.
Since Arsenal, admittedly with Gazadis largely involved almost appointing Arteta in 2018 surely they know everything they need too regarding his abilities and therefore if he isn’t the first choice this time around then he probably shouldn’t be in the running at all.
Whoever the heir apparent is they will have to hit the ground running if the club is serious about Champions league qualification after three years in the wilderness otherwise known as the Europa League. But there are further issues at hand. What does the new manager do with Granit Xhaka, stripped of the captaincy (eventually) by Emery after a bust-up with the supporters?
Mesut Ozil is another conundrum that will need to be solved. Largely frozen out by Emery his ability isn’t in question even if his constancy and commitment sometimes are.
Nicolas Pepe, the 72 million pound man who has been in and mostly out of the team, not allowing him time to settle in his new environment. Perhaps because Emery knew that time was something he didn’t have enough of.
There are certainly intriguing and tricky times ahead and we’ve barely mentioned the Stan Kroenke situation. Arsenal needs to address one problem at a time starting with making the right choice to replace the now-departed Unai Emery. The process has begun but the question should be, where will it end?
By Dave Squires
@davefalconUK
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