Arsenal: Patrick Vieira is the only one capable of “replacing” Arsene Wenger

Arsenal need to be incredibly careful when choosing their Arsene Wenger replacement, but no one fits the billing better than Patrick Vieira.

Arsenal‘s post-Arsene Wenger years have been the subject of intense discussion over the past five or so years. Names have been tossed around, come and gone, and everyone has their opinion, but to me, there is a pretty clear checklist of what we should be looking for in a manager.

For starters, we don’t want to do a David Moyes at Manchester United. You don’t just hire a typical manager and hope he can fill the void – spoiler alert, no one can. Especially when you take into account that any new manager would bring their own style which would uproot all of the current system.

There are some things that don’t work in Arsene Wenger’s system, but the solution is not to just find the opposite of Wenger.

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The answer isn’t going to be found in Carlo Ancelotti – someone who has success but brings his own power structure. This is what United went for with Jose Mourinho and I’m not all about that life.

Ideally, we want someone young, who can be here for the long haul. The absolute worst imaginable outcome would be to get caught up in the manager roulette. Avoid that at all costs by avoiding “big name” older managers who want to turn the club around by ripping out all the roots and starting over.

That isn’t necessary.

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Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, Arsenal is much closer to being successful than you’d think. They have a lot of pieces in place and they don’t need a complete overhaul. Honestly, they need someone to take what Arsene Wenger has done and push it over the finish line, which could be as simple as just a new face with a few new philosophies.

Two philosophies stand out in general – the willingness to stand up to star players and sit them if they are ineffective, and somehow teaching the team how not to crumble when Plan A fails and you need a plan B.

There is one clear-cut candidate that can deliver on all of these things, and it is Patrick Vieira. Vieira took a struggling New York City Football Club and imparted Wenger-esque tactics (just improved) to push them to the top of MLS, where they have been competing with the best for years now. They have improved every single year.

The team traditionally builds from the back, but they don’t live and die by their ability to do so. There are plenty of other facilities when urgency is required, something Arsenal could learn from.

Then there is the matter of star players and people that just aren’t working. Vieira had no qualms sitting Andrea Pirlo when he didn’t fit the budding, effort-driven set-up that he was employing. He went with little-known Alexander Ring, a midfield enforcer and workhorse, and the results proved his decision right.

These are the tough decision that Wenger should be making, but seemingly can’t. They are the decision that Vieira can.

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Don’t destroy the system. Give it the final piece it needs to get over the hump of mediocrity.