Kevin Whitcher
James Olley ran a story in Wednesday’s Evening Standard that Arsenal were lining up Carlo Ancelotti to succeed Wenger this summer. This tallies with information I have been told, specifically that, after his dismissal by Bayern Munich, Ancelotti had two meetings with the club during the autumn, and has been a regular attendee at Arsenal home matches, watching games discreetly from an executive box. Certainly, Olley would have been briefed by the club to get the idea out there and for people to get used to the possibility.
Additionally, a friend was in a restaurant in Parma before Christmas. He knows the owners well and Ancelotti was raised in a small town near Parma and visits the restaurant occasionally. The former Bayern manager had been in recently and said that he might be going to Arsenal. The Italian press carried the story yesterday, claiming he had been offered a four year deal worth £10 million a year.
Interestingly, Wenger himself has revealed that there is an option for him not to see out the last year of his deal, on both sides. Ancelotti’s family are moving to London, but there is certainly a case for the former Chelsea boss to return to his former club and take over from Antonio Conte. Yet one imagines Roman Abramovich would only use Ancelotti as a well-rewarded stopgap in case Conte departs before the end of the season, as Gus Hiddink was used twice in the past. For a permanent successor, the current story is that they would look to prise Massimiliano Allegri from Juventus in the summer.
For Arsenal, Ancelotti would be a good fit. A more sensible arrangement would be a two season deal, with an option to extend in the event of the Italian exceeding expectations in what is fundamentally a re-building job. However, Ancelotti may wish to have the security of a longer deal, demonstrating his ambition to see the job through rather than be merely a steadying hand in a period of transition. Going forward though, the club will be run on the same model as used by all other top clubs these days. The manager has some input in the players that come and go, but not the final decision. Raul Sanllehi will be in charge of player recruitment, and the scouting system will be overhauled under Sven Mislintat to get shot of Wenger’s long-term underperforming cronies. It's difficult to see Gilles Grimandi retain any employment from the club for one. Some of the backroom staff will remain, and Steve Bould may be given a chance to actually do some work on the defence. Figures like Neil Banfield, in a job because of the relationship between Arsene Wenger and his father (another of the scouting team) will be demoted or dispensed with.
Effectively, the first team squad will be completely rebuilt, and needs to be. It is fundamentally broken. By the time the 2020-21 season kicks off, I doubt there will be more than half a dozen of the current first team squad at the club. Ancelotti is an excellent choice for what might otherwise be a turbulent time, with his experience of winning the Premier League and managing far bigger clubs than Arsenal. No-one should expect a successful League title challenge before 2020-21, but can look forward to change and progress.
For starters, Arsenal will become more solid, and less one-dimensional in attack. Wengerball tactics will be resigned to history and in time, everyone will realise the club waited far too long to freshen up and try something different, even (privately) those fans still loyal to Wenger. Coasters like Theo Walcott will become a thing of the past. Young players will get actual coaching rather than be told to just go out and express themselves. Ancelotti’s CV is something a bit special. He is a level above what we have ever had at Arsenal, in that, like Wenger, he has built a genuinely great team (Milan in the early 2000s), but he has remained consistently successful elsewhere, winning titles and Champions Leagues with other clubs. At Bayern, he achieved exactly what Pep Guardiola did by winning the Bundesliga, but ultimately fell out with the powers that be at the club.
At 58 years of age Ancelotti is still sharp enough to oversee the necessary work to make Arsenal competitive again, providing a solid platform for the man who takes over the first team coaching duties once he moves on. Interesting times lie ahead. There will be a buzz again at Arsenal, something we have not felt for many, many seasons and all too rarely at the Emirates. Bring it on.
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