Arsenal: 5 managerial candidates who could replace Mikel Arteta

Mikel Arteta is still the manager of Arsenal Football Club. That is the state of play and as of yet, there are no indications that he is nearing the exit door. But matters change quickly in the world of football and as the toxicity levels continue to rise, who knows what is on the horizon.

Just as there is a rebuilding project underway, Arteta too is a project. The youngest manager in the Premier League, hiring someone with no prior experience as a head coach to lead an overhaul of this scale was the route Arsenal went under.

Many supported the decision. This was a full scale restructuring the club and having someone who knows Arsenal better than most felt like the natural course of action after the failings of Unai Emery. However, such an appointment can be justified so long as there is the guidance and infrastructure around him to allow him to flourish.

There is none of that in north London.

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Arsenal: 5 managerial candidates who could replace Mikel Arteta as calls for the Spaniard to be sacked grow after Manchester City defeat

Investing heavily over the summer and still undergoing the vast gutting of an ageing and underperforming squad, the commitment to Arteta as a whole is evident. He’s been backed through the darkest times many supporters will ever have known.

How long can it continue, though? Defeat to Manchester City ensured the Gunners have got off to their worst ever start to a season and the joint-worst of any club in Premier League history.

Calls for his removal grow stronger by the minute and while it would be a genuine surprise to not see him in place for the fixtures to come after the international break, it would be equally foolish to not have contingency plans in place.

Who could Arsenal realistically move for is a key point. There are pipe-dream names being flung about, as well as other unsuited to the project at hand, but people are beginning to draw up their lists.

Everyone should, however, hope it never comes to this. Arteta is the manager and anyone who doesn’t want him to succeed should reassess their position as a supporter. Stability trumps change so long as it’s stability with progression. We hope it never has to come to this, but here are five of the options being mentioned across the discourse.

Let’s start with the rumours, ones that can and already have been extinguished.

Who would have thought that Antonio Conte, a manager with the third highest accumulative spend in history and a preference towards purchasing older, more established players to achieve immediate short-term success in his usually brief reigns in charge wouldn’t want to join Arsenal?

As a club, you can’t go out and sign five players aged 23 or under, promote a core group of young players who’ve been handed key squad numbers like No.7, No. 8 and No. 10 with a long-term vision of seeing them peak at similar times only to banish that thought for a manager with an entirely different philosophy.

Nobody disputes Conte’s brilliance. He understands football better than most and has left players such as Cesc Fabregas hailing him as the best in the business.

Unless there was a £200m warchest waiting for him and a substantial salary there is no way he joins.

End this discussion now.

2. Erik ten Hag – Ajax

There is a Johan Cruyff influence in Erik ten Hag’s philosophy that is unavoidable. Of course there is going to be one, the connections almost implore it.

Hiring Arteta due to his successes under Pep Guardiola, the Spaniard, so far, appears to have inherited some of the less favourable traits of the Man City boss. Erik ten Hag, who was reserve team boss for two years under Guardiola at Bayern, instills some of the more enjoyable aspects of Cruyff and Guardiola’s style on his Ajax team.

With an emphasis on high-pressing, quick-passing and a possession-heavy brand of football, he, like Arteta, seeks to employ well scripted patterns of play in attacking areas that utilise his players’ best strengths, with one key difference being the level of success that brings.

Tactically flexible, as demonstrated during the Dutch side’s Champions League ventures, he can shift focus to centralised attacking combinations as well as exploiting wide zones where two-on-one situations can be forged. Interchangeability across front positions makes for enticing viewing. Ajax are not boring.

Tottenham were swooping around his signature during the summer as they sought a replacement for Jose Mourinho, with Ten Hag eventually signing a new contract at Ajax tying him down to 2023.

A pay-out would be unavoidable but in terms of allure, the 51-year-old has won all their is to win in his homeland with a fresh challenge potentially in his mind. Would he have other suitors? No doubt.

3. Graham Potter – Brighton

Many joke that it was Arsene Wenger who put Graham Potter on the managerial map as the latter’s Östersunds FK side left the Emirates Stadium with a historic 2-1 Europa League win back in February 2018. In truth, him leading them from the third tier of Swedish football into Europe was distinctly more important.

He took over at Swansea that same summer and recorded a 41.2% win percentage during his year in Wales, before Brighton poached him where he remains to this day.

He has many admirers. This despite recording 15th and 16th finishes in his two full terms in charge.

Adopting a 3-4-2-1/3-4-3 system, one in which Ben White flourished, he had garnered praise for the confident and youthful sides he puts out each week in the Premier League. His desire to build play from the goalkeeper through the thirds is one key reason behind supporters’ interest in him taking over from Arteta, should such a scenario arise.

Arsenal struggle to manage their way around a press, or indeed impose their own effectively, and as a coach Potter’s tactical fluidity with varying shapes and methods have seen Brighton gain many neutral followers.

Their routes to goal are intriguing, with the results all that lack. Infamous xG haters, the key question surrounding Potter is how much more effective his methods could be were he in charge of a higher quality of player. Which, sadly, rules Arsenal out.

Ha, ha.

4. Ralf Rangnick – Head of Sports and Development at FC Lokomotiv Moscow

Manager or as director of football?

If the question is would you rather have a superb director of football and an average coach or a superb coach and an average director of football, the decision would be a simple one.

Rangnick revolutionised German football with his pioneering of a back four in the Bundesliga. His work on transitional phases, intelligent pressing and effective counter-pressing have rightly seen him held in such high regard across the continent.

He also hasn’t held a managerial post since 2019. This wouldn’t be as an Arteta replacement. He could be, but this would be to help Arteta and remove Edu, so it’s sort of cheating even if his name continues to be mentioned.

The entire Red Bull footballing empire is testament to his vision. They may be a glorified branding scheme for a drinks company, but on a footballing level Rangnick has blended long-term strategic thinking with his own coaching expertise that reshapes from the ground up.

Talent ID, as well as focussing on early development and attacking principles, he is someone who everyone would trust and back to undergo the scale of rebuild at Arsenal. He wouldn’t be too shabby as a manager, either.

5. Luis Enrique – Spain

A candidate whose name has been flung around on a few occasions over the past few years is current Spain boss Luis Enrique.

Bringing plenty of his prior Barcelona traits into the current setup, his preference for verticality is clear: he wants the ball played forward with pace to the front men in a bid to disrupt the opposition and bypass shape and pressing.

There is such emphasis on winning possession back upon losing it that it can make for a pleasing spectacle, with his teams instructed to play in unison with one another and be well-positioned all all times to occupy space and cut off passing lanes. It’s effective, but it takes lots of time on the training pitch to master. Perhaps too much time.

This explosive style in attack when assuming possession helps bypass low blocks and rigid shapes, yet without the right technical calibre of players it can be hard to implement. Unique player profiles are key to him as witnessed with some interesting selection decisions made throughout the European Championships.

Wide players who make clever off-the-ball movements are part and parcel of Enrique’s approach and player intelligence, without possession crucially, is imperative to a fully functioning unit.

When in full flow it can be exciting. Who it takes and how long it needs to be perfected is key.