Arsenal: Mikel Arteta, not Massimiliano Allegri, the structural fit

Arsenal are looking for a head coach, not a manager. That is why Mikel Arteta, and not Massimiliano Allegri, is the better structural fit to be Arsene Wenger’s successor.

Arsenal had a free look at what it is like to try and replace a manager who has been at a club for an extremely long period. It is quite a privilege to be able to learn from the mistakes of another and amend your behaviour accordingly. That, I believe, is precisely what the Gunners are doing in their search for Arsene Wenger’s successor.

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When Manchester United tried to replace Sir Alex Ferguson with a like-for-like heir in David Moyes, it did not go all too well. Moyes may have been chosen by Ferguson, but United were spurred to fire him after just one season in charge.

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That may or may not be the right decision. We will never really know. But it did provide the perfect picture of what happens when you place responsibilities on an individual who does not have the experience to handle such demands. And there is no individual in world football that has had the same power at his respective football club as Wenger has at Arsenal and as Sir Alex did at Man. Utd. Therefore, there is no person capable of slotting into the same structure as what Wenger and Ferguson mastered.

Arsenal have learnt that lesson thanks to United. And they are now seemingly acting smartly because of such lessons learned. As this piece by Miguel Delaney shows in The Independent, the candidates have slowly been whittled down one by one, with many being ruled out slowly over the past few weeks for a variety of reasons.

It has left two leading names, as well as one possibility, although he is a lesser possibility at this point: Mikel Arteta, the current Manchester City coach who has a prior connection with the club but has no experience of senior management whatsoever; and Massimiliano Allegri, one of the most decorated managers on the European stage in recent years, winning his fourth Serie A title with Juventus this week.

The other name that is still receiving consideration is young, German sensation, Julian Nagelsmann. The Hoffenheim coach has done a remarkable job, leading his team to successive top-four finishes despite losing three of his best players in the summer. The doubt with him, like Arteta, is age, experience, and the fact that he has no prior acclimatisation to the Premier League.

But there is a clear difference between Arteta and Allegri: The structure in which they work. Allegri is a manager. Arteta is a coach. And that, given the difficulties that United had in trying to replace Ferguson with a manager, rather than a more modern approach of a coach with a supporting team surrounding him, could be crucial in determining who is ultimately appointed.

The appointments of Raul Sanllehi as Head of Relations and Sven Mislintat as Head of Recruitment, as well as the growing influence of Chief Executive Ivan Gazidis, heavily hint at who the club will veer towards.

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Arsenal do not want a manager. They want a coach. For better or worse, Arteta, and Nagelsmann, for that matter, fits the structure far better than Allegri does. All signs are pointing towards it being  36-year-old risk. Let’s hope it pays off.