Kevin Kilbane on Arsene Wenger’s Successor

I’ve never heard a co-commentator being so critical in a game as Gary Neville was during the League Cup final on Sunday, but he was absolutely on the money about Arsenal.

Gary Neville was spot on
I wrote in this blog a couple of weeks back about Arsene Wenger’s future and you feel sad for him now, given all he has achieved in English football, what he brought to Arsenal and how he revolutionised that football club. His legacy is waning. I’ve loved football since I was a boy, you heard these great names in the past, that you never got to see play or manage and Arsene Wenger is amongst those all-time greats.

His whole reign at Arsenal is being called into question by the younger generation who aren’t liking what they’re seeing.

Something Gary Neville touched on, and something I’ve said over the last year or so, is that they don’t actually play great football. Over the last 10 years you would say Arsenal are going to concede because they’re not great at the back but they’re playing wonderfully attacking football. The Gunners have had moments this season but overall I think they play slow, quite negative football and I don’t think they’re great to watch.

Wenger’s team lack character and have become a shadow of a team that had Bergkamp, Henry, Vieira & Pires once upon a time.

I think Arsene Wenger’s proximity to the board is quite easy to see, Stan Kroenke, the majority shareholder, seems to be happy for the club to remain as a money-making machine without necessarily having any serious interest in it. He appears quite happy to take the money out of the club without any real investment in the team, in recent years they’ve invested heavily in Ozil, Sanchez & Aubameyang but over a 15 year period they’ve not been able to compete at the top.

Henry not ready
It does seem to me that there needs to be a change at the top and who do I see going in to the Emirates hotseat?

I’ve read so many names this week, I feel it’s far too early for Thierry Henry..

..he lacks managerial experience although he is coaching with the Belgian national team. The former Borussia Dortmund boss Thomas Tuchel could go in, he plays free-flowing, attacking football but he doesn’t have the success to show for it.

Personally I love watching Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid; how defensively organised they are and how they build attacks from their defensive solidity.

I think Simeone would be the man to go to Arsenal to make them a solid unit, but would he be given 3 or 4 years to get it right?

To follow Arsene Wenger is going to be incredibly difficult for whoever succeeds Arsenal’s longest serving manager and another thing to bear in mind, could Chelsea take Diego Simeone if Antonio Conte was to move on in the summer?