Arsenal continue to dither over the managerial situation at the club. Although murmurings are afoot that Arsene Wenger is happy to sign the contract on the table, the lack of an announcement leaves everything up in the air for the fans, the players and other potential bosses.
The players might know what’s going on of course, Wenger hopefully knows himself and the board will surely know once any decision has been made. We could be awaiting an inevitable announcement of two more Wenger years of frustration, fan protests and underwhelming signings. We could also be going through a period of delaying tactics from the boss to put off his own tricky decision, something that could be jeopardising the future of the club.
The overwhelming favourite for the post – other than Wenger signing an extension – is Max Allegri. That is serial title winner and Juventus manager Max Allegri. The Italian has been linked with the Barcelona job – which Luis Enrique is relinquishing – but is unlikely to leave the Old Lady in truth. While he may see this as a great time to move for the sake of his career, Allegri’s desires are for the Italian National Team job. That job will likely be available after the 2018 World Cup, but Allegri would as good as rule himself out of the running for the top post if he were to change clubs at this juncture.
Whatever his desires, though, Arsenal’s slow progress over their summer dugout situation may force Allegri’s hand. Even if – and this is hard to envisage – he would prefer the Arsenal job to the Barcelona one, the Gunners are running out of time to make a move. This sluggish, indecisiveness from the club and from Wenger himself will quickly close down options as we edge towards a summer without any major international competition.
Allegri may not be their numero uno, but the Italian’s situation will be similar to many others. Arsenal could be making ground towards appointing Wenger’s successor at the moment, instead they are dithering around a contract that has been offered to a manager who is increasingly causing a toxic atmosphere around the club. Wenger, in an ideal world, should have left after their drought-ending FA Cup victory when a pool of top class managers were available. Jurgen Klopp seemed the ideal man to sit in the red Emirates dugout seats, but they have left themselves with few reputable managers to pick from. The men they would primarily have targeted have all been snapped up.
The team is visibly struggling with the uncertainty, and Wenger is facing questions on nothing else. It may seem like a minor distraction, but it is inevitably going to be impacting the forward planning of the club. In a time when the managerial elite are largely signed up on long contracts at clubs in far more favourable circumstances than Arsenal, time-wasting cannot be accepted by the Arsenal board regardless of Wenger’s back catalogue and icon status.
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