Arsene Wenger’s latest interview with L’Equipe has spurned rumours that the Frenchman might leave at the end of the season – if Arsenal finish the season without silverware.
Certain reports in and around London have linked former Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti to the Arsenal job, if Wenger supposedly leaves at the end of the season.
The Milan legend confirmed he is only looking for jobs in the Premier League.
Ideally, neither the fans nor the board would want Wenger to leave after turning their season round in recent weeks. The Loss of key players and terrible start to the new campaign left many believing the Frenchman’s time at the north London club was finally up. However, in one of his recent interviews with L’Equipe, The boss supposedly revealed that there were possibilities of his departure from Arsenal if things don’t go his way at the end of the season.
One policy that Wenger follows and expects every other player or manager to follow is that they should respect their contract. He very often says:
‘I have never broken a contract and never will. I expect others also to be the same.’
His contract is set to expire in 2014, but rumours suggest he may go back on his word and break his contract if his side suffer another ‘bad’ season.
But is Ancelotti the ideal choice if Wenger decides to bail out?
The Italian is 52-years-old and, in my opinion, still has another good 15 years of management left in him. He has managed four different teams in Italy and won a domestic double in his first season in English football, which is a terrific achievement considering the fact there had been only two non-Brits that have done this.
Ancelotti spent £111 million in the two years he was in charge of Chelsea – the amount looks enlarged purely because of one particular transfer (Torres). Out of those buys only Ramires (£17 million) and Sturridge (£4 million) could be considered as good buys. Zhirkov, who was an inflated buy at £18 million, left the club after an unhappy spell. Needless to say Luiz and Torres are still struggling to find their feet.
This could be seen in two ways. The Chelsea fans might argue that all those buys were necessary, but practically speaking, the Arsenal board would never give him that amount of cash to spend. And secondly, huge sections of the Arsenal fans may not prefer the Italian once Wenger is gone. Bringing in a manager like Ancelotti would spell an end to the beautiful football played by the Gunners since 1996.
Ancelotti has equal number of positives and negatives in his CV. He is not known to be a hard taskmaster either. He really struggled to revive Chelsea last year from their mid-season crisis. If Chelsea had faced some other team other than FC Copenhagen in the Round of 16 in the Champions League, then they might have not even progressed to the quarters of the competition.
It’s a tough question to answer, but I believe, if Wenger supposedly walks next summer, the Arsenal board must consider there options very, very carefully.
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Germany champion. couch. best. for arsenal.