Three replacements for Wenger after Gazidis speaks out

Arsenal, 20/1 to win the Premier League this season know they will have to face the inevitable decision eventually. Rivals Manchester United have recently gone through the same transition, having failed initially. It is, of course, headache they will have to go through when replacing long-time servant Arsene Wenger.

The club’s chief executive Ivan Gazidis has even has acknowledged his manager’s sensational success while he has been in charge of the north London outfit.

“So much of the attention on a football club is around an individual and that’s very understandable at Arsenal because we have a giant who’s managing us,” Gazidis said.

“Arsene has been a fantastic driver and has put the club in a great, great position. The biggest challenge we’re going to face as a club is that, when that transition from Arsene to the next manager of our football club happens – and I don’t know when that’s going to be – that we come through that strongly.”

The club won their first major trophy for nine years last season, when they lifted the FA Cup, following a barren period, during which they curbed their transfer spending to plough resources into a new stadium.

“Winning the FA Cup was a fantastic moment,” said Gazidis. “In my life, that’s one of my greatest moments. The moment you get away from that euphoria of the moment, the next question is, ‘How do we have more of that?’

“We want this football club to be at the top of the world’s game. If the manager believes in someone like Mesut Ozil, he can buy him. It’s the same with Alexis Sanchez. Underneath that tip of the iceberg, those star signings that we talk a lot about, there’s an awful lot else going on. Our youth development, for example, is going to be the foundation of this football club going forward,” Gazidis continued.

“Where we are currently is off the shoulder of the world’s top teams. I don’t think we’re at that level yet but that’s where we’re aiming to get to. We want Arsenal to be in that elite group of football clubs around the world.”

With all this in mind, Coral suggest three names who could adequately take over from Wenger, with the Frenchman widely predicted to ‘go upstairs’ into a director role, or similar.