Arsenal and Arsene Wenger: Risky path the right one

As Arsenal begin to look towards replacing Arsene Wenger, I cannot help but think that now is the time for the club to take a risk. They have little to lose and much to gain.

The future of Arsenal football club is very much up in the air. The man that has shaped every sinew in his own image will leave in the summer. The King is dead. Long live the King. Arsene Wenger is no more.

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With that change, which was announced beautifully on Friday morning, the Gunners must now look to do something that they haven’t done in over two decades: Hire a new manager. Let’s be honest here, not many people really know what this club looks for in a manager other than the characteristics that Wenger has modelled so wonderfully over the past 22 years.

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There is, though, one key aspect that I would like Arsenal to prioritise as they begin their search: Risk.

You see, this is possibly the second hardest job in the history of this sport after replacing Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United — some may point to replacing Bill Shankly at Liverpool or Matt Busby at Manchester United or Carlo Ancelotti at AC Milan or others, but I believe that Wenger and Ferguson had a unique influence on their clubs, even more so than those other great managers.

Whoever the Gunners choose to succeed Wenger, no matter how successful and experienced they are, they will find it tough going. That is just the nature of the job. So why not take a risk on someone who could reap huge reward?

There is another reason. Arsenal, as a club, are in the perfect chance to take a risk. Commercially, they are quite safe, although not quite perhaps at the level of the Manchester clubs. They will always be able to sell out the Emirates with Wenger now gone. They can suffer a bad year or two and still recover, very much like Liverpool have in recent years.

And for me, that means going young. Eddie Howe or Julian Nagelsman or Patrick Vieira or Mikel Arteta. They are all of the age and character that mean that they could build a team into their image over a number of years, very much like Wenger did when he arrived in 1996. So why not give one of them two or three seasons to re-invest in the squad and try to rebuild this team?

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There has never been a better time for this club to take a risk on a manager. It’s worth swinging for the fences. They have little to lose and oh so much to gain.