As Wenger enters his 21st year in North London, we take a look at who might step into his shoes.
Apart from ending Arsenal’s decade-long title drought, turning the Gunners into a team capable of progressing beyond the last 16 of the Champions League, and quelling the vocal discontent among one of the most expectant fan-bases in the country, whoever replaces Arsene Wenger should have a pretty straight-forward job.
The Frenchman is, after all, nothing if not a long-term thinker. More than half of his twenty year stint in the Arsenal dug-out has been spent laying the groundwork for future success: nurturing young talent instead of buying ready-made stars, selling his best players to finance the club’s new stadium.
Wenger’s role at the club has become so all-encompassing that it’s difficult to conceive of any modern-day top-level coach who would be willing to – and, more to the point, capable of – taking over all of his responsibilities.
It’s possible, then, that his departure from the club will mean radical internal change at Arsenal. His successor, far from being an omnipresent figurehead who has a say in everything from the youth players they sign to the colour of their away strip, could simply be a training ground coach: tasked with managing the squad, not the bookkeeping.
Here are five men who might fit the bill.