Arsenal have reportedly not contacted any of their preferred managerial candidates as they want to show respect to the clubs they are currently working for.
Repect
Arsenal are hoping to announce their new manager before the World Cup on June 14.
Jeremy Wilson, writing in today’s Daily Telegraph, says the club have whittled their long list down to three preferred candidates, but they are waiting until the season wraps up across Europe before contacting any of them.
The club expect to move quickly once the main business of football is over.
“Arsenal,” he writes, “do not want to contact managers at an inconvenient moment and so will wait until most of the major European leagues have finished before accelerating their process.”
Wilson also reports that Arsenal have still not decided between an established manager and an up-and-coming, inexperienced one
When Arsene Wenegr announced that he was leaving Arsenal at the end of the season, David Ornstein said that the club had a short-list of five to replace the Frenchman. Three of those now remain as preferred candidates.
In the intervening weeks, this list grew quite spectacularly, but thankfully many of the fringe candidates who were awful choices have dropped away.
Gazidis also reportedly met with three managers before Wenger made his announcement. None of those three have made the short short list.
See Arsenal’s preferred trio next…
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 were also interested in signing the manager to replace Unai Emery, who will leave at the end of the season. The French side seem to be turning to former Dortmund manager Thomas Tuchel, however.
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.
He then joined Juventus and won three Serie A titles (with a fourth a formality this season), four Coppa Italias, one Suppercoppa Italiana and reached the Champions League final twice.
If he could achieve anything like that with Arsenal, he’d be a massive success.
Patrick Vieira
The Daily Mail write that Vieira is ‘a serious contender’ to return to the club as manager and Wilson reports he is one of the final three being seriously considered by Arsenal.
Vieira is still managing MLS side New York City FC at the moment. His team are top of the table and were unbeaten in the early part of the new season but have now lost two matches from thier opening 10. 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.