Arsenal great Ray Parlour has ranked his top six contenders for the vacant managerial post at the Emirates Stadium.
The Gunners are currently without a boss after sacking Unai Emery last week, and Parlour has outlined where the six top contenders lie in his estimation.
“Number one – I don’t think he’ll go to Arsenal – but I would love to see him there, is [Mauricio] Pochettino,” he said on talkSPORT [04/11; 09:50]. “But I think he goes to Manchester United first, if I’m honest.
“Number two, definitely, is Brendan Rodgers – I think he’s done a great job at Leicester and he’d improve Arsenal. Number three would be [Max] Allegri with his experience. Certainly fourth would be [Nuno Espirito] Santo. Wolves, he’s done a brilliant job there, as well.
“Freddie [Ljungberg] would be my fifth. And, believe it or not, the favourite is [Mikel] Arteta in getting the job, and he’d be the last choice for me. No experience.”
Has Parlour got his ranking correct?
Ultimately this is Parlour’s personal ranking of the candidates so there is no right and wrong, really, but he makes a lot of sense with what he says here. Basically, he wants a manager with experience of working at a top club.
Pochettino is his prime candidate because of the excellent job he did at Tottenham Hotspur, and Parlour clearly wouldn’t mind the Argentine crossing the north London divide. Next up is Rodgers, who has been in charge of Liverpool and Celtic, and now Leicester. He’s done a terrific job at all three.
Those two do seem like the top two candidates all things considered. They both have Premier League experience and have done very well in the top flight. They have both also shown that they are capable of improving players, as well, something which the Gunners desperately need.
Allegri is a terrific candidate given what he achieved at Juventus, but there is the language barrier and the fact that he has no experience of English football. You could make a case that Nuno should be above the Italian, but that’s up to you. Then Parlour has the duo at the bottom simply because they’re yet to properly manage a club, and you can’t really argue with that.