The Arsenal board drew up a five-strong shortlist to send to Stan Kroenke in the event of Arsene Wenger’s departure, according to reliable BBC journalist David Ornstein.
Ornstein wrote on the BBC website that even some of the club’s most important staff didn’t know anything about Wenger leaving until Thursday evening. However, plans “were tentatively being put in place”, with a shortlist prepared for this eventuality.
Now, they need to put the list into action, and make a decision before the end of the campaign.
Currently we don’t know the exact five names, but Ornstein has narrowed it down to eight. Here are those eight managers:
Max Allegri
Allegri is currently the manager of Juventus, but he admitted previously that he wants to move abroad when he leaves the Old Lady.
The media have linked him with Arsenal and Chelsea a lot in the past. Allegri may, however, find the stability on offer at Arsenal a far more attractive proposition than moving to a club that likes to sack managers the season after they win the Premier League.
PSG are also interested in signing the manager to replace Unai Emery, who is expected to be sacked at the end of the season. Recently though, the French side seem to be turning to former Dortmund manager Thomas Tuchel.
Allegri, 50, has had a lot of success in Italy in recent years. He led Milan to a Serie A title and a Supercoppa Italiana in 2011. Then he joined Juventus and won three Serie A titles, three Coppa Italias, one Suppercoppa Italiana and reached the Champions League final twice. There could be more to come before this season is up as well.
If he could achieve anything like that with Arsenal, he’d be a massive success.
Click ‘Next’ to find out who else Ornstein names as potentially on Arsenal’s shortlist
Luis Enrique
The media claimed this month that Arsenal are in ‘pole position’ to land Luis Enrique this summer.
Mundo Deportivo wrote that “the presence of Raül Sanllehí…would facilitate the possible incorporation of the Spaniard, who is without a team but has no lack of suitors.”
Enrique was also considered by PSG and held a meeting with their president, Nasser Al-Khelaifi in Doha recently. He is also being considered by Naples and Juventus.
Speaking recently, Enrique told Ibon Zugasti, the former Spanish cyclist, he has not yet been tempted by a new job. “It will depend on someone loving me, but it has to be something that really excites me,” he added.
Enrique won all there is to win with Barcelona. La Liga (twice), Copa del Rey (three times), Supercopa de Espana, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup, despite only spending three years at the club. Clearly he’s another manager with a lot of experience winning things at the top level.
Julian Nagelsmann
Certainly the youngest name on this list, Nagelsmann is only 30 years old, but already has a couple of years managing Hoffenheim behind him. According to the Daily Mail in March, Arsenal were keeping an eye on him this season.
The young German, who used to play for FC Augsburg II and 1860 Munich II over a decade ago, has only ever coached the Bundesliga team. Whilst he did help them finish in a Champions League qualifier spot for the first time in their history last term, he’s still really inexperienced.
What’s more, Nagelsmann has been referred to as a ‘mini-Mourinho’, which is terrifying enough.
I don’t think he’s necessarily the most likely candidate on this list, since you’d expect Arsenal to go for someone a bit more experienced for this transition.
Then again, who would’ve guessed they’d go for Arsene Wenger 22 years ago? Ornstein points out the Nagelsmann knows Mislintat from their time in Germany, so we’ll have to wait and see how this one pans out.
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.
Patrick Vieira
The Daily Mail write that Vieira is ‘a serious contender’ to return to the club as manager.
Vieira himself is still managing MLS side New York City FC at the moment. His team are top of the table and unbeaten in the early part of the new season. The 41-year-old also has some experience of management in England, having taken charge of the Manchester City Reserves for a couple of years after his retirement from playing.
Of course, the main reason why a fair number of Arsenal fans get excited by links to Vieira is his success on the pitch with the club. As captain of the side, the former midfielder led the team through the invincible season. He won three Premier League titles, three FA Cups and three Community Shields in London.
If he could bring anything like that kind of success back, he’d be a big success.
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.
The 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.
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.
Thomas Tuchel
Tuchel has been out of a job since he left Borussia Dortmund last May and the 44-year-old has been linked with a host of jobs.
He hit the headlines in connection with Arsenal recently when claims from Germany said he had agreed to take over at Arsenal, despite there not being any vacancy in north London just yet.
Coveted by Bayern Munich he both wants the Bayern job and has turned it down in favour of Arsenal, depending on where you do your reading.
Despite Sven Mislintat saying he would have no problem working with Tuchel, the fact is the pair don’t like each other in the slightest and it’s hard to imagine them working together so soon after the rift that helped to bring an end to Tuchel’s time at Dortmund after he banned Mislintat from the training ground.
Brian Meyers, BvB expert, said that Tuchel would “be petty enough to ask Arsenal fire their new head scout as a condition of hiring him.” That is not a move that’s likely to go down well with the fans who have taken a quick shine to the head scout, who moved quickly and decisively upon arriving at Arsenal and landed a young Greek centreback, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and was reportedly key to convincing Arsene Wenger to go after Henrikh Mkhitaryan as part of the Alexis Sanchez deal.
It doesn’t look like it’ll matter anyway, as reportedly Tuchel is now in line for the PSG job.