So it appears that Arsenal legend and assistant manager Pat Rice will finally end his 27 year love affair as a staff member at the North London club, after several reports claim that the 62-year-old will retire at the end of the season when his current contract expires.
This will of course leave the Gunners chief, Arsene Wenger, considering possible replacements for the open vacancy this summer.
A number of names have already been thrown in the hat, from legendary centre-back Steve Bould to the ‘Ice man’ Dennis Bergkamp to…Gilles Grimandi!
But who would be best suited to fill the void left by Pat Rice this summer and, evidently, be Wenger’s right-hand man?
Give us your thoughts
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Ray Wilkins! former Chelsea assistant and ‘stay on your feet’ man…No thanks. We need someone who knows Arsenal and feels the same way the fans do, either bould or Dennis in.
What about Thierry?
what aresenal need is an outsider to objectively look at what is going wrong and what can be improved (set pieces etc!)
They wouldn’t have to be the best coach in the world, thats why there is a whole technical staff, but what we really need is someone to say to the manager, whether its still arsene or not that a tactic isnt working, a player isnt good enough and we as a team really need to work on x y or z rather than letting arsene blunder through as he is at the minute.
I think who ever it is should be a defensive minded coach/assistant because this is arsene’s main area of weakness
and please god NOT GRIMANDI, he was a second rate player
Martin keown
wilkins is the best man for the job because what we need now is someone with a different idea and perspective to football who will bring wengers head on a neck to make it stand, not someone who enjoyes playing like we do but believes in result and reinforcement of defence.
Its probly gona be that “draganovich”(/somthing like that) guy who’s managing that japanese club wenger used to, i remember wenger praising him as a gr8 manager in an interview somewhere…also who’s to say that kroenke wouldn’t install someone he believes can keep an eye on wenger and stoke the flames under his but a bit?
It goes without sayin, dennis bergkamp, the best player that i ever saw in an arsenal shirt .
If wengers picking he will be a Frenchman but let it be a great one or a defender with balls to tell wenger he’s faults.
No ones mentioned Gadaffi !
Lets think about this one people. We need a man like Andre Villas Boas within our ranks. Someone with the ability to provide an alternative to Wenger (in tactical approach), and enhance our overall game. The problem is, will he be happy with going from number 1 at Porto to future number 1 at Arsenal?
Martin Keown.
We need someone who can relate to our biggest problem. Defenders who cannot defend. Maybe Martin could whip our defenders into shape.
Big ask though.