A Ramble through Europe – Which Managers should we keep an eye on?

27 Replies to “A Ramble through Europe – Which Managers should we keep an eye on?”

1. LOL Wenger out! Pulis in!
   Oh my god did I really write this… even just as a joke…

2. Excellent way of looking at things Andrew.
   What we do need after Wenger is indeed a manager who can improve a team compared to the richer teams. Mourinho and Pep can’t do this. They need the most money and the most expensive teams to get results. And even then it doesn’t always work out for them.

   The Leipzig manager is maybe a good thing to look at. Yes Leipzig has bought a lot of players but not really big names or expensive players. Their manager is building a team. And that is the only way Arsenal can compete with the big spenders like MU, MC and Chelsea.

3. Walter..

   The progress of Leipzig will be measured next season. Are they equivalent of Abramovich’s Chelsea – or are they Leicester in disguise?

4. As far as I’m concerned, I’d be seriously looking at Lucien Favre at OGC Nice in France.
   He did some great things with Herta Berlin and Borussia Mönchengladbach in the past.
   He is good at bringing up young players, spotting talents and teams play flowing attacking football.
   And het gets the most out of his teams.

5. Another great article! Many thanks

6. I don’t think there is a need at this time to start rambling through the landscape of Europe searching for who will be the next Arsenal manager. For, from all indications, Monsieur Wenger has no intention of quitting from his managerial job at Arsenal now. More so if he won one of the titles of the PL and CL this season with the former being the most preferred by the Gooners.

   Arsenal are third and ahead of Chelsea in the PL squad value table. I don’t think it’s only the squad value in a club that will make the club to win the PL title. Other factors such as the quality of players in the squad and more importantly the consistent top form of the team in the squad are significant contributions that can make a club to win the title or titles.

   What was the squad value of Leicester City and their position in the squad value table when they won the PL title last season? Just over £180m and 9th in table and 7 places below Arsenal and not up to half of Arsenal’s players squad value. What has this told us? I think it has told us that it’s the most consistent team in top form in a League which may not necessarily have a big squad value could win the PL title. Leicester City’s top form was higher and remained consistently higher than the form of the rest of the top teams in the PL’s top six clubs throughout last season’s PL campaign which saw them won the title.

   After I’ve read Cesc Fabregas comment in the media yesterday in which he has allured to the believes that the physically, fitter, stronger, powerfull and faster player has taken preference and precedence over the talented smaller framed body player in today’s modern football. Then I began to wonder and ask myself if there have been the lacking of some of these quality ingredients in the Arsenal’s first team squads that have followed the invincibles team era which have hindered our subsequent teams to credibly pushed for title winnings in last twelve seasons?

   I think Le Prof may need re access his signings in the next windows to see that any of the above quality ingredients that is not present in his team is sufficiently addressed. So that the next Arsenal team will be an all-round team in terms of all the required top quality ingredients that should be in the top team squad of Arsenal team caliber.

7. Chris, I didn’t know that Favre was now at Nice to be honest.

8. Do we need another French Chap? Media not been too kind with the current one.

9. Excellent piece, Andrew.

   Last year I wrote a three-part article about possible candidates for our next manager. 13 different candidates were considered including three former Arsenal players.

   Thierry Henry is the Belgium assistant manager.

   Dennis Bergkamp is still at Ajax as the assistant manager to Peter Bosz.

   Patrick Vieira is the New York FC manager.

   Roberto Martinez is the Belgium manager.

   Ronald Koeman is at Everton.

   Jose Mourinho is at Manchester United.

   Roberto Mancini is currently unemployed after leaving Inter Milan in August 2016.

   Laurent Blanc is currently unemployed after leaving PSG after the end of the last season.

   Thomas Tuchel is still at Borussia Dortmund.

   Diego Simeone is still at Atletico Madrid, with his contract length being reduced from 2020 to 2018.

   Joachim Löw is still at Germany, with his contract being prolonged until 2020.

   Frank de Boer had a horrible stint at Inter Milan where he was fired after just FOURTEEN games in charge.

   Dragan Stojkovic is currently at Guangzhou R & F in China (don’t confuse it with Guangzhou Evergrande) and his contract allegedly expires in 2017 (except Transfermarkt suggests it expires in 2020).

   Of all new names that have been mentioned ever since (Howe, Allegri, Hassenhüttl, Jardim), I am terrified of thought we’d get the first one. Howe would become our Moyes. Allegri has done excellent job with AC Milan and Juventus but he is also the only manager in this decade that failed to win the league with Zlatan Ibrahimović in the team (Jose Mourinho will become the second one in a few months and – just like it happened to Allegri in 2011-12 – it seems Antonio Conte will lift the trophy come May). Hassenhüttl and Jardim have both assembled a lot of young yet expensive talents and now reap the rewards for their work. Jardim has an asterisk at his name though as there were sparks between him and Mr Wenger after our defeat to Monaco in 2014-15. Back then, Jardim played a rather defensive football but now his Monaco play the most exciting football in Europe averaging almost three goals per game (70 goals in 24 games) and they have beaten Spuds twice this season so it’s a huge plus for Jardim.

10. Maybe what we need when Arsene Wenger has retired or leaves is someone similar to Arsene Wenger but more ruthless when it comes to mediocre players.
    Players like Almunia and Nikolas Bendtner should never had repeated contract renewals at a top club like Arsenal.
    We also need a manager we accepts paying top dollar for top players when the club has £200m plus sitting in the bank.

    I think a manager with Wenger’s playing philosophy but who is prepared to spend big on players like Suarez is what we need.

    Welbeck is a Man Utd reject. He was sold by Man Utd because he isn’t clinical in front of goal. United wanted a clinical striker.

    If he isn’t clinical enough for United, he most likely isn’t clinical enough for us. Man Utd would never sell a top quality striker to Arsenal.

    Arsene Wenger is a brilliant manager but he has his weaknesses.
    Maybe one of the reasons he doesn’t correct his weaknesses is that the CEO and the board are very satisfied when Wenger buys average players like Elneny for £5m instead of the true market value of £15m or so. The Arsenal board are very happy that Arsene Wenger always generates healthy profits for the club.

    Every club owner would love to have Arsene Wenger as the boss. He generates profits. He makes his team stay within the Top 4. He plays beautiful football. He always tries to buy players on the cheap.

11. Wenger himself says finishing Top 4 isn’t the target. He wants to win the league.

    More and more fans are also saying Top 4 is not enough. Arsenal as a World Top 7 club in terms wealth and riches should be winning league titles or getting into Champions League finals.

    The only reason why Arsenal is not achieving these higher targets is NOT because we have an interior manager. I think it is because we have interior players but a healthy bank balance with over £200m. If we had players like Sol Campbell, like Pires, like Dennis Berkhamp, like Thierry, like Patrick Viera we would be winning league titles and not always getting knocked out in the Last 16 in the Champions League.

    We are now aiming for success on the cheap. And often we fail.

12. Zurivi
    If Chelsea and Man City hadn’t suddenly become mega wealthy overnight and if we hadn’t invested £400 million into a stadium I am sure we would have lifted a few more league titles over the last few years.

13. Sorry Zuruvi I misspelt your name.

14. @Zuruvi

    “If we had players like Sol Campbell, like Pires, like Dennis Berkhamp, like Thierry, like Patrick Viera we would be winning league titles and not always getting knocked out in the Last 16 in the Champions League.”

    Campbell, Pires, Bergkamp, Henry and Vieira had played together for 4 years.

    In 2001-02 we won the league but we were knocked out in the Second Champions League Group Stage – equivalent of today’s Round of 16. In fact, we had a negative European record (5 victories, a draw, six defeats). Thierry missed two penalties in a row in our home defeat to Deportivo and in our away defeat to Juventus.

    In 2002-03 we were runners-up after spilling a huge lead ahead of Man United. Sol elbowed Solskjaer in the derby against Man United at Highbury and left us with a make-shift defence for the run-in. In Champions League, we failed to progress from The Second Group Stage again because we couldn’t beat Roma at Highbury despite being a goal up and having an extra man on the pitch for almost 70 minutes after Totti’s red card. The Guardian reporter described that Arsenal team with these words: “… but this group has developed an eccentric penchant for complicating their games, no matter what advantages they might hold.”

    In 2003-04 we won the league without a single defeat but we lost three European matches (one of those was the joint worst home defeat in European competitions of ALL TIMES) and were knocked out in CL quarterfinals against Chelsea when all big European clubs were out of the picture and our path to the European glory was cleared.

    In 2004-05 we were runners up and in Champions League we were knocked out of Champions League Round of 16 by…wait for it…Bayern Munich. We were thrashed in Munich with Kolo Toure scoring a consolation goal at 3:0 and Thierry scored the only goal of the game in the return leg but we were always the second best in that tie.

    My point is, we had all players you mentioned in the quoted post and still failed to reach the last eight in three out of four occasions. The only time we did, The Invincibles beat Celta Vigo who eventually got relegated from Primera. There are no guarantees Vieira, Bergkamp, Henry and Pires would immediately turn us into the best European club.

15. Josif, I share your fears on Howe…the only thing he would bring us would be better treatment from refs.
    i would take wenger for two more years with a proper succession plan over any of the options

16. @Josif.
    My view is that we need better players as we have a brilliant manager.
    Maybe you are saying it is not the players but the manager who is to blame for this inadequate achievement.

    I remember when we had these great players we were Invincibles, we competed for league titles, we won big games, etc.

    I think a brilliant manager can take average players only so far but no further (in most cases). In our case the “so far” is probably Top 4.

17. Or maybe you are saying both the players and the manager are NOT good enough.

18. There’s obviously something wrong. We need to improve our situation.
    I accept that the referees are a big handicap for us but I also think we have serious weaknesses in our team. It is too frequent after a defeat that we hear Arsene Wenger say “We were not ready for the fight. We were not ready for the duals. That’s why we lost.”
    Or Wenger will say “we created as many chances as them” but we lost the game 3-1. That means we are not clinical upfront or we are careless in defense or both.

19. Amazing. Have any of you ever considered the fact that it is the supporters that need to change? We all ‘know’ everything about football yet very few if any write to the club with our suggestions & views.
    I have written to the club & unfortunately got a very nice but negative response. I wanted the junior players to be coached in kicking technique. How to kick a dead ball with accuracy. How to make a ball ‘dip’. How to ‘bend’ a ball. How to pass a ball & slow it down once it his the ground. Techniques that are all simple to teach & to practice. Yet very few players can do half of these let alone kick a dead ball with accuracy.

    Our team is not the best but it certainly isn’t the worst. Our manager is amongst the best. The only weakness is our home support has not yet learned how to sing in unison & support the whole organisation – like the Icelandic fans did. What would that do to our players morale?

20. Most of the players who became part of the invincibles were either rejects , not performing well at their previous clubs or were almost unknowns .

    – Henry was having a poor time in Italy at Juventus.

    – Bergkamp was being ridiculed at Inter -from Wikipedia – ‘Because of his poor performance on the pitch, one Italian publication renamed their award given to the worst performance of the week, L’asino della settimana (Donkey of the Week) to Bergkamp della settimana.[17][

    – Kanu also was not faring much better at Inter following his heart surgery .

    -Vieira – Was a reserve , but being considered as future bright prospect at Millan when we signed him.

    Many of the others also joined as new commers and many were unknown to most. To me at least ! It took time , coaching and patience for them to gel and become the legends they are now .Their greatness was cemented at Arsenal , and not at the other clubs .

21. Menace..Nice one .Its not the managers fault.Its not the players fault.Its all the fans fault.And not forgetting the cheating northern white referees.You really are funnier than brickfields jokes.Pure comedy genius!!

22. Did someone say comedy ? OK !

    All his life Kumar was a gangster. His life was an endless cycle of violence and thuggery, until one day he had a vision of the Lord in his dream.

    Taking it as an omen, Kumar had 108 hooks pierced onto his body and he prayed to the Everpresent.

    Lo and behold, the Lord appeared before him and with a booming voice the Lord asked , “What you really want in your life my son?”

    With a tremble in his voice and tears in his eyes Kumar answered “My life has been a history of violence. I have taken things I don’t own from people that don’t have. I wish that I never beat anyone anymore and I can give back to those who are less fortunate.”

    And the Lord answered “So let it be!” and waved his spear”.

    Poof…With a loud bang and a puff of smoke, Kumar turned into Liverpool FC.

    Now they don’t beat anyone and give aways points to all the small teams.

23. @Brickfields.
    It appears that since we were “lucky” in converting rejects and reserve players from other teams into Invincibles we now think that’s the only strategy.

    My view is that we have a brilliant manager but average players.

    Maybe because we coached a gifted Thierry Henry into a world-class player we now think we are able to coach Nikolas Bendtner and Yaya Sanogo into superstars if we hold onto these players for 6, 7 or 8 years.

    I still believe that the Invincibles were naturally talented players whom we bought and further developed.

    Wenger is brilliant.
    The players are average.
    The consequences are that we “overachieve” by finishing in Top 4 but we don’t win the top, top prizes.
    The quality of the cake is dependent on how good the baker is and also how good the ingredients are. Poor ingredients could undermine the good work of the master-baker.

24. @Brickfields.
    Kanu was a genius who had had a heart operation. Everyone knew that if he recovered from the operation he was a brilliant player.

    Bergkamp was a genius player before he came to Arsenal. He might have have a bad game or bad month at Inter but when we signed him I knew we had signed a brilliant player.

    Thierry Henry was a top, top young player when we signed him. He was a French international who had already been signed by the great Juventus team when Italian football was still great. Thierry was about 20 years old when he joined Juventus. He had to be a bit-part player because Juventus was a super club with mature players of top quality.

    Patrick Viera was a brilliant young player who was breaking into the great Milan team. He was internationally recognised as a star-in-the-making to those who followed French football.

    Typical of the British media at the time, they didn’t know of talented young French, Italian or Dutch players. So whenever Wenger bought a young superstar, everyone in England thought Wenger had picked someone from the moon. Guess what, the Italian clubs had already seen that French football has some interesting talents.

    So in conclusion, Arsenal has a brilliant manager but we are let down by having average players yet people here celebrate whenever we don’t buy players in transfer windows. We should use that £200 million to buy better players.

25. After days and days of anti-Wenger sentiment in the media, finally there’s some thing refreshing to read. Perspective.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/02/10/arsenal-fans-stop-moaning-dont-know-good-got/

26. @ Zuruvi – 10/02/2017 at 10:49 am – It wasn’t luck . The Prof built the sides slowly and patiently , which all came together to peak and attain success . As a team they were united , committed and worked well.
    Then only Man Utd were probably our only regular ans serious challengers. We all know that that has changed drastically .For whatever reasons it has still clicked of late , but I like to think that our players are quite good and ambitious enough.
    I like to think that AW still has it in him to guide this team , albeit with some further tweaking , to win things.
    Up the Gunners !

27. @Zuruvi

    Yes, Henry was excellent player even before joining Arsenal. I recall his exciting partnership with David Trezeguet at Monaco and Ronaldo’s words of praise at World Cup 1998.

    However, he wasn’t a bit part player at Juventus because of their superbness but because they were shite during those six months. They qualified for Intertoto Cup, suffered defeats everywhere including the one against Man United in CL semifinals. Ancelotti did a poor job with Thierry and instead of using him as a striker in the absence of Del Piero (he had a terrible ACL injury), he put him on the wing.

    True, Thierry did decide the title race by scoring two goals against Lazio in 3:1 Juventus victory. Milan won the league by a single point.