For the first time since 1996 when the virtually unknown manager Arsene Wenger was selected to replace Bruce Rioch (after his only season in charge) have Arsenal Football Club been in the market to appoint a new manager.
There is no doubt the appointment of Wenger was a masterstroke as he secured 3 League titles, 7 FA Cups and 7 Community Shields as well as leading the Gunners to 20 consecutive seasons of qualifying for Europe’s top football club competition.
Wenger even steered the team to the final of the Champions League only to lose to Barca 2-1 after Jens Lehman had been sent off early and Sol Campbell had put Wenger’s men ahead.
Sadly however it was not to be but Wenger still has the chance to win a European trophy with Arsenal if he can lead his team to the Europa League final by beating Atletico Madrid over a two leg semi-final to face either Red Bull Salzburg or Marseille.
So at the moment the main candidates for the Arsenal manager’s post are in no particular order: Thomas Tuchel, Carlos Ancelotti, Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry, Mikel Arteta, Marco Silva, Brendan Rodgers, Luis Enrique, Massimiliano Allegri, Manuel Pellegrini, Roberto Mancini and a host of other names are also in the mix. You can get excellent odds on the candidates to replace Wenger at Sportingbet where they are offering odds on a whole host of potential Wenger replacements.
From what Ivan Gazidis has said so far nothing will be announced until the appointment has been made once the season is concluded and apparently Arsene Wenger will have no influence over who replaces him which sounds like an excellent idea. Especially when you consider how well Sir Alex Ferguson’s self-picked replacement of David Moyes got on at Man United where the former Everton boss only lasted 10 months in a very underwhelming stint as the United boss before being released.
Although Arsenal are in a bit of dip in form after failing to secure a top 4 finish for the past two seasons (they could still secure a place in the Champions League for next season by winning the Europa League.
A victory would leave Wenger as only missing out on the Champions League with Arsenal once in his entire tenure since he was appointed in 1996.
Arsenal have been upgrading the squad in recent times with the fine additions of Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and the resigning of Mesut Ozil so the new manager will have a decent squad to work with and likely a decent transfer kitty to mark his stamp on the team.
It will be interesting to see who gets the Arsenal boss’ job but the new manager will know he has quite a task to follow in the footsteps of Arsene Wenger.