Trevor Steven: Why Diego Simeone is my choice to succeed Arsene Wenger as Arsenal manager
Sunday’s comprehensive defeat to Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final has left the Europa League as the only straw for Arsene Wenger to clutch at in the hope of staying in charge of Arsenal beyond the summer.
But while winning that trophy – their only realistic hope of returning to the Champions League – might muddy the waters, my gut feeling is that the Gunners need to and will make a change this summer regardless.
The club’s fans have made their feelings known – albeit harshly at times, I feel, because Wenger has had a tremendous record – but everyone can now see that Arsenal have been allowed to drift into mediocrity.
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Supporters have had enough of their team’s soft underbelly and Jekyll and Hyde performances – symptoms of Wenger being too soft on his players – and the failure to address long-standing problems in central midfield.
I don’t see the Frenchman stepping down with a year still to run on his contract. He still has great faith in himself, even if he too must be questioning where improvements will come from.
Wenger has been a safe pair of hands for owner Stan Kroenke but, with the era of Arsenal’s regular Champions League participation over, that is no longer a reasonable argument for him to continue.
Change is no guarantee of success but the dice has to be rolled. And that means that the board is facing a big decision over which direction to take the club in.
Plenty of names have been mooted – Leonardo Jardim, Carlo Ancelotti, Joachim Low, Brendan Rodgers, Max Allegri, even Antonio Conte – but there is no obvious candidate to succeed Wenger.
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Ancelotti would appear to offer the smoothest transition, the least likely to rip up the Arsenal handbook. On the other hand perhaps his approach is too similar to Wenger’s and the Gunners would benefit from a bolder move.
If I was in a player in that dressing room I would want the board to go after Simeone.
The Argentinian has steered the ship at Atletico Madrid very well for several years, has taken them to two Champions League finals, and has experience at the very highest level as a player and coach.
He’d take Arsenal out of their comfort zone and put a spring back in pre-season training. These are good players but they need to know that they have to deliver more consistent performances. Too often they lose key battles, but Simeone would help with that.
Wenger has only the Europa League left to play for this season (Source: Getty)
I wouldn’t be concerned that he would change their style for the worse. If you’re winning you will play good football anyway because your confidence is high.
The last thing Arsenal need now is this debate going on until the end of the season and distracting them from doing as well as they can in the Europa League.
We’ve been here before with Wenger and contract issues around key players. The club has not been good at sorting these matters quickly.
It would be preferable for the board to wait until the end of the season to make a decision but, with Wenger’s departure now seemingly inevitable, they need to have conversations about his successor now.
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