Ivan Gazidis has already met with three managers in the search for Arsene Wenger’s successor, according to information in a recent report.
Goal published a report this week on the managers in line to replace Arsene Wenger, but the most interesting part was that Arsenal chief executive Gazidis has already met with some of them.
Let’s take a look at the three managers to hold talks with the 53-year-old, and how likely they are to end up taking over this summer.
Carlo Ancelotti
Goal report that Ivan Gazidis met with Ancelotti earlier this season, and for many he’s 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.
Manuel Pellegrini
Gazidis reportedly met with Pellegrini last campaign. This fits with other reports from earlier this season, when the Chilean media claimed Arsenal negotiated with the manager before his eventual move to Chinese Super League side Hebei China Fortune. He’s still managing in China today.
Manuel Pellegrini recently spent three seasons with Manchester City, winning the Premier League and two League Cups before he was replaced by Pep Guardiola.
He certainly has experience in England, though he wasn’t always the most popular with fans.
Back in 2016, he addressed a near empty stadium after his final appearance at the Etihad. He refused to blame supporters for that afterwards, but clearly they’d grown apathetic by that point.
Thomas Tuchel
Tuchel is out of a job since leaving Borussia Dortmund last May and the media have linked the 44-year-old with a host of jobs. According to Goal, he met with Gazidis this season.
He hit the headlines in connection with Arsenal in March 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.
Most recently, the French media have strongly linked him with a move to PSG. In fact, that is almost starting to look like a done deal.
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.