On Tuesday Morning, sources close to Arsenal revealed seven names on the club’s shortlist to replace Arsene Wenger at the end of the season.
Although nothing is confirmed yet, Tuesday’s Daily Mail and Telegraph both reported that Arsenal’s hierarchy are considering their options after the cup final defeat. The papers suggest that if Wenger fails to qualify the club for the Champions League, that could spell the end for the manager.
In preparation for the 68-year-old’s possible departure, Arsenal have drawn up a shortlist of potential replacements. Here are the seven candidates (via Telegraph):
Joachim Low
For the last 12 years, Low has been in charge of the German national team. The team have had a lot of success during that period, most notably winning the World Cup in 2014.
They also won the Confederations Cup in 2017, as well as finishing as runners up in the European Championship in 2008.
Their third-placed finishes in the World Cup and European Championships in 2010, 2012 and 2016 mean the country have finished in the top-three at the last five major international tournaments.
The main concern is that the 58-year-old would struggle to adapt to club management.
His last job as a club coach ended in 2004, and a massive amount has changed since then.
Plus, he was managing the likes of Austria Wien, Fenerbahce and VfB Stuttgart in those days. Not exactly the top teams in Europe.
Nonetheless, if Low can transfer his international success to Arsenal, he’d make a great appointment.
Mikel Arteta
Every Arsenal fan should already know Arteta from his time with the club as a player.
The Spaniard spent five years in North London, up until his retirement in 2016. After that he joined Manchester City to work as an assistant to Pep Guardiola.
Tuesday’s Telegraph says the 35-year-old is well regarded at Arsenal after his club captaincy. His existing connections with head of football relations Raul Sanllehi as well as Ivan Gazidis should help as well.
It would be a massive gamble to jump from one of the most experienced managers in the game to someone without a single day in charge of a club.
However, Arteta knows Arsenal, and he’s worked under some of the best coaches around.
Manchester City’s massive success this year should have taught him a lot.
He’s worth considering, at least.
Leonardo Jardim
Jardim is currently manager of AS Monaco, the club he joined in 2014, and he has a contract until 2020.
The 43-year-old’s main draw is the team he put together in 2016/17.
The young side played impressive attacking football as they won Ligue 1 ahead of Paris Saint-Germain.
They also made the Champions League semi-finals, the Coupe de France semi-finals and finished runners-up in the Coupe de la Ligue.
Monaco then sold most of their key players to a host of teams around Europe. The club have struggled to keep up this year as a result, although they’re still second in Ligue 1 behind PSG.
Such a young manager with experience managing in the biggest European matches could appeal to the Arsenal board.
They’d need to convince Monaco to let him go first, though.
Brendan Rodgers
Rodgers’ first experience of management came with the Chelsea reserves between 2004 and 2008.
He then moved onto senior sides in the Championship, before returning to the top flight with Swansea City. Liverpool signed him up after that, and came within a whisker of the Premier League title before Steven Gerrard’s hilarious slip.
Things then went from bad to worse, and eventually Liverpool let Rodgers go in 2015. He moved to Scotland to manage Celtic, and won a domestic treble in his first season.
They’re on course to do the same thing again this year, albeit with very little competition.
It’s hard to judge the 45-year-old on his achievements in Scotland when the league clearly isn’t on par with Europe’s top divisions.
It’s fair to say Rodgers wouldn’t be the most popular appointment with supporters, as the Northern Irish manager achieved a pretty bad reputation in the Premier League during his final seasons with Liverpool.
Though, unlike most of the managers on the list, at least he has some experience managing in England.
Carlo Ancelotti
For many, Ancelotti is the safe choice for Arsenal.
The 58-year-old has a massive amount of experience, having managed Juventus, Milan, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.
The Italian manager has also been very successful in picking up trophies. He lifted at least one with all of the above clubs, including the Champions League on three different occasions.
He also won the league with four of his last five clubs, only failing to do so with Madrid.
Since joining Chelsea in 2009, his win ratio with each club has never been less than 60%. Wenger’s current ratio with Arsenal is 57%.
The Gunners have already lost more games this season than Ancelotti lost in his entire spell with Bayern Munich. Although, in fairness, that isn’t saying much.
Ancelotti is currently on a leave of absence from management, after leaving Bayern Munich in September.
He should be available this summer, if the board want to make a change.
Paulo Fonseca
Fonseca isn’t the most recognisable name on this list, but he’s having a fantastic spell with Shakhtar Donetsk.
In 78 matches with the club so far, the manager has won 78% of the time.
The 44-year-old has picked up the Ukrainian Premier League, the Ukrainian Cup and the Ukrainian Super Cup in his first year and a half.
Perhaps even more impressively, his side are making great strides in Europe.
They finished runners-up to Manchester City in the group stage, beating Guardiola’s side 2-1 at home.
Then they won against AS Roma in the first leg of their round-of-16 tie.
Fonseca also spent a year managing Braga and FC Porto earlier in his career, winning the Portuguese Cup and Super Cup with the two teams respectively.
Thierry Henry
According to the Telegraph, Henry is more of a fan favourite than the board’s first choice.
The 40-year-old currently spends him time split between working as Belgium’s assistant manager and as a Sky Sports pundit.
Like Arteta, Henry doesn’t have any managerial experience, but he knows Arsenal, and the league.
He also works closely with a lot of Premier League stars with Belgium, like Kevin De Bruyne, Eden Hazard and Romelu Lukaku.
The club’s record goalscorer could almost certainly help Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette reach their potential.
The question is whether he could help the side defensively, because that’s where they probably need the most assistance.
The main advantage of hiring Henry is that most supporters would be willing to give him a chance, after all he’s given to the club.
It’s hard to judge whether the Frenchman is capable of taking that opportunity at this stage.
