NEW LOW FOR WENGER
Germany boss is favourite to replace under-fire Arsenal manager
JOACHIM LÖW is the front runner to take over from Arsene Wenger in the summer, although Arsenal will have to negotiate a complex exit strategy with the German FA to get their man, given that Löw has two years left on his contract and has to defend the World Cup with the national team this summer.
The German national team coach is emerging as the internal favourite as Wenger’s near 22 years with the club draws to a close.
However, owner Stan Kroenke may grant a stay of execution to Wenger, as he did last summer when an excellent FA Cup final win over Chelsea allowed the Arsenal manager to justify this current two-year contract.
Until that victory last May, even those close to Wenger remained unsure of his intentions or his fate.
What is new now is that the ‘catalyst for change’ which chief executive Ivan Gazidis promised prior to last summer has been delivered. Sven Mislintat (head of recruitment), Raul Sanllehi (head of football relations) and Huss Fahmy (contract negotiator) are the new executive team.
Jason Rosenfeld, of StanDNA, Arsenal’s analytics man who came in 2012 continues to have growing influence. Transfer negotiator Dick Law is going and chief scout Steve Rowley has stepped down to a consultancy role.
Bit by bit Wenger has been surrounded by Gazidis appointees and he is now isolated in a way he has never been before.
Löw represents something of a risk in that he hasn’t coached at club level since 2004 and has just two major trophies, the German Cup with VfB Stuttgart in 1997 and the Austrian Bundesliga in 2002 with Tirol Innsbruck.
That said, the last 12 years taking over from Jurgen Klinsmann as national team coach have been extraordinarily successful, with a World Cup win in 2014, third place at South Africa 2010, runners-up at Euro 2008 and semi-finalists at Euro 2012 and 2016.
He brings experience, a heavyweight reputation and a natural gravity in the eyes of the emerging young German players Arsenal would like to sign. Wenger benefited initially at Arsenal from the excellent generation of young French players, all of whom saw Arsenal as a club of choice because their compatriot was in charge.
That time has passed. Even Wenger’s closest friends have urged him to quit. And his admission in the fallout of Thursday’s 3-0 defeat to Manchester City, that this team is regressing, seemed to hint he is ready to take the hint. Asked whether this season was worse than last season, he said: ‘Yeah it is, because last year we won the cup and made 75 points. I don’t worry. I can live with reality.’
The question is whether the owner still wants to live with the reality of an Arsenal in sixth place. Now added into the political equation is the arrival of Josh Kroenke, a club director at 37 and potential heir to his father. Since January, he has been living mainly in London making his presence felt around the club, visiting departments and assessing the club’s capacity to compete with the big six.
Ostensibly he is here to learn about the club and develop an e-sports strategy, to absorb the rise of professional gamers and YouTubers into the club and to bring his experience from the Denver Nuggets NBA team and the Colarado Avalanche ice hockey team.
But it’s hard to see Kroenke junior’s presence as anything but the beginning of the end for Wenger. If he is to have a growing role at the club, and some think he is being prepared to take over from 78-year-old Sir Chips Keswick as chairman, then it will feel like Wenger is pretty much surrounded by agents of change.
Defeat to AC Milan in the Europa League and another season outside the Champions League would surely spell the end. Arsenal’s recent financial results demonstrated just how much the club are missing their Champions League income.
From June-November 2017, revenue fell by £23.4million compared to the same period in 2016 ‘as participation in the UEFA Europa League… adversely impacted broadcasting, ticketing and commercial revenues.’
At present, it looks like an adjustment the club will have to get used to, rather than a one-year blip. Just as disconcerting for the board, were the half-empty stands on Thursday indicating season-tickets holders can’t be bothered to turn up to a match-up which would’ve been anticipated as a priority game at the start of the season.
All around there is change at Arsenal: Sanllehi has only just arrived but beneath him, Fahmy, the contracts negotiator, has impressed with his ability to adapt to football. Mislintat is only now beginning to have influence. Next season, Per Mertesacker will become academy manager.
He might be a Wenger signing and is loyal to his manager, but he was a Gazidis appointee.
In all of this Wenger has the final say over transfers and control.
Yet there are less allies to advise or bolster him. Friends have departed and he no longer has the power and influence of old.
A new order is emerging. One club insider speaks of scrabbling for influence and position as the old order wanes. ‘Everyone is trying to build their own empire,’ the insider said. It’s because they all know that’s it’s the end of the Last Emperor of the Premier League.