Arsene Wenger's Arsenal castle crumbling as Ivan Gazidis quietly lays foundations for new boss

Happy days: Gazidis with Wenger after Arsenal’s FA Cup triumph last year
AFP/Getty Images
James Olley10 January 2018

The sight of Arsenal playing in a cup semi-final without Arsene Wenger watching on from the dugout — or struggling with the zip on his jacket — is likely to set a few minds racing as to what lies ahead.

Wenger will sit in the stands at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday as he serves the second match of a three-game touchline ban and although it will still be his team that takes to the field, the physical void he leaves has a symbolic dimension given the bigger picture.

The Frenchman clung onto his job last summer, despite missing out on the Premier League’s top four for the first time in his 21-year reign and in spite of the vociferous opposition of a sizeable contingent of Arsenal supporters.

Chief executive Ivan Gazidis and majority shareholder Stan Kroenke also had their doubts. There has been little in the ensuing six months to suggest Wenger can reverse the club’s recent trajectory and mastermind a return to challenging for the biggest prizes.

Wenger’s frustration has — aside from results — in part been down to the quiet scaling back of his long-held autonomy.

Nothing has been done without the 68-year-old’s acquiescence and he retains final say on football affairs.However, the advisers are growing in number. Football expertise is not suddenly confined to the grey matter between Wenger’s ears. Allies including Steve Rowley and Dick Law have been lost.

He rather spitefully declared in November that Gazidis “has nothing to do with transfers” and claimed after Arsenal signed Konstantinos Mavropanos last week that “we know every single player in Europe before Sven arrived”, thereby downplaying the impact of Sven Mislintat, Arsenal’s new head of recruitment.

“Sometimes, in a little club in Germany, he might know somebody we might ignore,” came the somewhat damning follow-up.

Rowley has been retained in an advisory capacity but his meaningful involvement is effectively over. On the training ground, Jens Lehmann has been drafted in as first-team coach but those with an intimate knowledge of London Colney describe a role not always clearly defined amid the phalanx of Wenger‑defined positions.

The pieces are quietly being moved into place but Gazidis has so far proved unwilling to make the checkmate move by taking the King, even if relations with Wenger are strained as a result of the alterations.

There is seemingly no way Wenger can stay on beyond the agreed two‑year period and the mood music behind the scenes suggests he could give serious consideration to leaving this summer.

Wenger fought hard to stay on as manager and the fire still burns strong within him but performances on the pitch have to improve, especially as the restructuring only points to a future without him. What is effectively happening at the moment is something like a post-Wenger bump occurring, oddly, while he is still in charge.

Gazidis’s aim is seemingly to reshape Arsenal so that their newly-acquired infrastructure embodies their core values and philosophy and not the idiosyncrasies of a manager’s personality.

Wenger’s mammoth impact on the club means he is interwoven into the fabric of Arsenal and there is, of course, no desire to remove his prominent place in their evolution.

But the desire to find a head coach accepting of this continental structure yet possessing the gravitas to operate outside Wenger’s shadow has led to the consideration of Carlo Ancelotti as a possible successor.

The Italian is likely to return to management next season and is in the process of moving his family back to London. Former employers Chelsea may well complicate the picture if Antonio Conte departs the club.

It must be noted that Ancelotti is admired at Emirates Stadium rather than identified as a No1 target at this stage. But with Wenger struggling to prove Arsenal can move forward under his guidance, how many more elite managers can be allowed to slip by before Arsenal act?

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