How the next move by the Arsenal board is pivotal
Trouble at t’mill
Well the days are counting down, the moment is soon upon us, who will get the most talked about position in England?
No I’m not talking about the General Election, there’s more than enough diatribe on the internet for you to read and gasp at , so it doesn’t need my two cents.
I’m of course talking about who will be appointed the full time head coach of Arsenal football club. There are many candidates spanning across all of world football, many with varying ideas about how much they want for the privilege and when they want to start.
Current interim head coach Freddie Ljungberg, would be the less hassle option for Raul Sanllehi, Josh Kroenke and big Vinnie although sadly, so far Freddie has not had the desired effect on results as it was hoped, with a draw against Norwich and a loss to Brighton.
It remains to be seen if Ljungberg can turn Arsenal’s season around, although it does seem the selecting committee are partial to the idea of a former player taking the reigns, with Patrick Vieira, Mikel Arteta also being linked with the full time job.
Ideally Ljungberg would be doing an average to good job, which allows Arsenal to agree to certain managers like Max Allegri or Arteta, to join on their requested pre season date. Sadly as it stands Arsenal need someone to come in now and have an instant impact on the team, or they risk qualification for the Champions league for yet another season.
Why it matters
Stan Kroenke and his investment group have been associated with Arsenal for near 12 years now. It all started when Kroenke’s holdings bought an initial 9.9% from ITV plc in April 2007, slowly but surely KSE as his group is now known, have gobbled up percentage after percentage of shares from various people at the club until finally by August of last year Stan Kroenke was the sole owner of Arsenal football club, when he bought the remaining shares for a fee of around £550 million.
Over the past 12 years Arsenal have had various figureheads at the club,although for the most part it was Arsene Wenger, so it was pretty clear what his vision for the club was, regardless of funds , he always endeavoured to win titles and play beautiful football.
When Wenger left some 18 months ago Arsenal were left with Ivan Gazidis, as the man representing the shareholders and indeed Enos Stan Kroenke. Gazidis was seen by many as a mere corporate suit, ready to give eloquent yet disingenuous speeches to the masses of Arsenal fans as they begged for crumbs of information about the direction of the club and the steps it was taking to compete against the rest of Europe.
With Ivan Gazidis now gone to AC Milan, helping his buddy’s at Elliott Management Corp.turn AC Milan into a more sell-able asset, Arsenal were left with a vacuum of power being left.
All the aforementioned events forced KSE to increase Stan Kroenke’s son, Josh Kroenke’s responsibilities at the club, but also to add Raul Sanllehi and Vinai Venkatesham into the key decision making positions of the club. Although Edu Gaspar was appointed as technical director at Arsenal , be under no illusions he is not the king maker here.
With all that said we now finally after nicknames of “silent Stan” and Arsenal fans for many years questioning the ambition of the Kroenke’s, get to see what Arsenal mean to them, do KSE simply see Arsenal as a revenue creator for them or do they have ambition to win trophies?
The appointment of the next head coach of Arsenal football club will tell us if KSE want to be ambitious and appoint a big name like Max Allegri or Mauricio Pochettino or will they go safe and appoint a run of the mill name like Marcelino or Roberto Martinez. Arsenal fans could also be satisfied with a good young coach like an Eddie Howe or Marco Rose, if it showed there was a long term plan in place.
This is no doubt the biggest decision and biggest indicator we have on the future of Arsenal and the intentions of Raul Sanllehi along with his bosses Stan and Josh Kroenke.
So who’s got your vote?
I got into football as a kid watching Italian football in the afternoons and ever since I’ve been hooked on tactics and the continental side of the game. I’ve written about Italian football in the past among other things but now it’s time to write about, the embodiment of how I see the beautiful game, Arsenal. Hopefully writing things and opinions about the game you haven’t seen before, I like a bit of a joke too.
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