Three English managers Arsenal should consider as Emery replacement

English managers may not have exotic surnames but that does not mean they should be dismissed as candidates.

There has been a clamour for foreign coaches with expansive ideas ever since Arsene Wenger took over at Arsenal but that may soon be changing and Arsenal could, along with Chelsea, be at the forefront of that change.

Obviously three of the top managers in English football are foreign, well at least by reputations. Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and I hate to say it, Jose Mourinho.

But there is a clutch of quality English managers that arguably do a better job than a lot of their foreign counterparts.

Who are the three managers up for the sack right now? Manuel Pellegrini, Marco Silva and Unai Emery. Who are among the mangers that have been getting glowing praise? Chris Wilder, Eddie Howe and Graham Potter.

Of course, Nuno Santo is also getting highly praised at Wolves but why choose him over say, Chris Wilder?

Why take a chance of Mikel Arteta when Eddie Howe has done an astonishing job with limited resources at Bournemouth?

Why is Graham Potter not even being mentioned when he had done a remarkable job at Brighton? I mean, who knows the history of Potter at Ostersund in Sweden? I do, I am also aware of how that club has disintegrated since he left them.

There is the argument that any of these English managers could fail to take the step up, but so could Nuno Santo, he was hardly a roaring success at Valencia and Porto.

I am not suggesting that Howe, Wilder, Potter or even Sean Dyche will be a success but neither am I convinced they would do any worse than some of the names linked with the Arsenal job.

Chelsea took a chance with Frank Lampard, albeit forced by circumstances, and it is working out terrifically well for them.

There are huge advantages with taking a chance on an English manager, communication being the most obvious. But they are generally ignored and the only reason that Howe, Wilder and Dyche are doing well is that they were forced to get promotion to the Premier League to make their mark. Potter got his chance because Brighton was seen as guaranteed relegation fodder.

Arsenal can hardly do worse than going with an English manager until the end of the season, they are unlikely to make the top-four and will not be relegated, so why not take a chance until the end of the season?

25 Comments

  1. The funniest comments I have read about selecting the replacement for Emery. Let’s just say that I cannot believe our board would have such a lack of ambition. Even Nuno is nowhere near what we need to take us to the next level. We need a proven winner and not just a standby

  2. Every club wants a serial winner
    which fortunately doesn’t exist. Otherwise just imagine if MC, pool or any other team were to do so.
    As for Arsenal, the wolves or blades boss will do

  3. I don’t think Arsenal would choose one of those mid-table club managers

    I believe Arsenal would hire either an unemployed high profile manager or an ex player, to appease the fans

    1. @gotanidea
      Exactly👌Arsenal will not take a mid table club manager. That’s why Wolves Espirito has a chance. But I still prefer Mikel Arteta otherwise a top class coach.

  4. I would rather get rid of all players sabotaging our prospects on the field, just read a write up of Jermaine Pennant and you can draw conclusions. Like or dislike Emery, you cannot sabotage the team, its prospects and the fans who pay top dollar to watch the match. Such players need to removed from the team roster, irrespective of their age, seniority or past glory. No player is above the club and its supporters. These are the players who let Wenger down, now are letting Emery down and will do so for any other manager. I’d day it is better to promote the reserves, rather than these mercenaries who deliberately want the team to go down. If Emery leaves, this ugly problem will resurface the next season. We have Emery, he should have the courage, conviction and character to banish these players to the reserves or below if they are sabotaging the prospects or are unable to coexist as a team. All big teams and great managers do that. After all we are in 8th position, with the reserves we could do no worse.Frank Lampard is doing well with youngsters, Arsenal can do equal or much better.We need to remove the rotten eggs first before we replace our coach. I reiterate we need Erik tan Hag to take forward our young team once Emery’s term is over

    1. I presume you are referring to the likes of Auba, Ozil and such when you say rotten eggs. Let me remind you if not for Auba, Arsenal would be battling in the relegation zone last season. It’s very easy to overestimate youth and underestimate experience and the footballing brain that comes along with experience.

      That is what we are lacking in the midfield, a DM with experience and brain. The only guy we have with such experience is Xhaka but he is too reckless and pretty average himself to sort our midfield. We have youngsters with raw potential but they need to play alongside someone experienced and reliable enough to learn the craft from. We don’t have such a guy in the midfield. We can’t field a team of ALL youngsters and hope to win. Brains combined with exuberance is the way to go when structuring a team and we are strong in exuberance side in the midfield, we just lack thinking brains.

      1. Aubameyang and Lacazette worked their socks off for Arsenal, but they can leave if they don’t want to play for Arsenal anymore.

        Xhaka has been working hard, but he has been working for two different managers with bad results and he was not impressive in World Cup as well. However, I believe Nuno would love Xhaka, because of his long shots and set-piece skills

        Ozil has to be replaced as well, because he has declined badly in the last three years under Wenger/ Emery and we should gradually stop our dependency on no 10

        1. Why would Auba and Laca not want to play for Arsenal, they have carried the morale of the whole team and fans in the last season just by themselves, and you don’t do that without the passion and love for the club.

          Worrying thing is why such players of all, are reportedly showing signs of disinterest towards the club?

          And answers are pretty clear, Auba/Laca know if we have a good coach who plays with good tactics then they have enough gunpowder to take the team to CL or as a title contenders, they nearly pulled it off last season even with a much weaker team. It’s disheartening to see your efforts put to dust, because of a bad coach who just can’t get his tactics right.

          Now speaking of not playing well deliberately to get rid of the coach, I think the players know their coach much better than we do and if they think it’s better for the team if the coach leaves, maybe they know better. But it’s an arguable stance tbh.

          And Xhaka works hard no doubt, but I don’t know what position suits him the most really. He is not as reliable and defensively good to be DM, lacks enough speed and dribbling skills to be a CM. His best position is possibly as an AM, where he can provide pin point passes, and can attempt shots maybe, but that’s it. But Emery will never play him as a AM, so useless.

          And I won’t argue with you about Ozil really. I for one, also want Ozil to be gone as he wouldn’t work well with the current squad anyway. He needs to find a team who already has a midfield who are at least decent with their ball playing skills and one touch passing to do what he does best. Neither our midfield nor our strikers possess that. He is the kind of player who requires other players also to be good in their respective positions. In a good team, Ozil produces results, in a bad one, he doesn’t.

          And I for one don’t think the No 10 is an obsolete position in the modern football. As a club, it’s just more risky to rely on proper no 10 as the player with the required skill set is very hard to come by, and when on demand. So, it’s more convenient and sustainable to rely on tactics that don’t require a proper no 10 for creating chances. That’s why these modern counter pressing football are gaining popularity among clubs really. How many players are there actually who can play as a traditional no 10? Not many, so it’s just not a sustainable way for a club to devise tactics that require a free no 10.

          Not saying it won’t work better as other alternatives. In the right setup, it’s good. In the setup and players such as ours, playing a no 10 is probably not good. A more agile but less skillful player can contribute more to the team playing alongside our squad as we won’t be dictating possession with the kind of players we have anyway.

  5. JUST IN:

    Mauricio Pochettino has emerged as Arsenal’s first choice. An official approach is set to be made. Allegri move is off as demands will not be met.
    Ljungberg until summer and then Arteta is plan B. Arteta would also want to finish this season with City before moving

    Nuno news was a smokescreen. Arsenal hold him in high regard and have a huge respect for the job he’s done at Wolves but he’s not the clubs primary candidate.

        1. Well, he is 8/1 with the bookies, you could make yourself very rich Kev. Me? I am keeping my cash in my pocket on this one.

  6. Nuno will not speak about Arsenal soon to be vacancy as it would be “disrespectful, as there is a manager currently in the job”.

    For me this translates to his people have been at the very least been sounded out.

    I’ve read on here this would result in “not pretty football”, “no better than Emery” – have a day off.

    The Wolves performances have witnessed (inc’ 3 against us ) have been very, very impressive.

    I personally hope we can lure Nuno and his staff.

    Article I read last night, confirmed what I and others (Wolves fans absolutely love the guy and what’s happening with them right now) already knew – here’s a snippet.

    “The Portuguese delivered in style. 1st place in the Championship with 99 points, going up as Champions. The brand of football they played was a joy to watch. Exciting, energetic and full of goals. 82 to be precise.

    Nuno Espirito Santo has brilliantly constructed an amalgamation of tactical nous and sheer hard graft for his Wolves side to stray away from the norm of promoted teams that simply focus on survival by executing archaic approaches that promise no long-term sustainability. To stand toe to toe with not only the division’s finest but also Europe’s top dogs on their day is why this class of 2018 is different gravy. As Phil Neville succinctly summarized their exploits this season, they might well be “the best side that has ever come up from the Championship.”

    Polar opposite to Emery, and certainly “pretty” enough for me.

    1. I love how wolves play under Nuno. I would feel bad for Wolves though if Nuno comes here, as I have enjoyed seeing Wolves play under Nuno and how far they have come under him.

      I would welcome him nevertheless. But I doubt if he agrees to but his statement is giving me some hope though. It sounded more like a diplomatic statement than an assertive one to me.

    2. AJ, you used the right words and I quote “Exciting, energetic and full of goals” to describe Nuno/Wolves. Who has those attributes at Arsenal at the moment? Ozil? Xhaka? Lucas? Socrates? Chambers?Kolasinac? Luiz? Of these 4 are EPL starters. Not happening this season for Arsenal even with Nuno / Poch or Arteta. The only one who would be tough on these would be Jose, bit now it is pointless discussing him. Time to get tough on the under performers.Discipline is paramount in the club, followed by discipline and determination on the field. The coach selects his players and these are highly paid pros, not working hands paid per hour.They share the blame more than the coach.

  7. With respect Nuno Santo and Wilder are doing well at Clubs where expectations are not as high as they are at Arsenal.They both play rigid, defensive based systems and have been accused by some as being one dimentional.That may be the case but as an Arsenal fan I would welcome some defensive structure to our team as a first step to keeping a clean sheet on a regular basis.However if we have aspirations for a top four finish we have to try to emulate the systems adopted by Man city, Liverpool and this season, Chelsea.Our next Manager need not be a serial winner.Emery has been a winner of trophies and has proved to be a disaster.In the absence of a ready made, available candidate, I would promote Ljumberg until the end of the season and use the next 6 months to evaluate thoroughly Manager’s who are likely to improve the team.It really does not matter who our Manager is , for until we are able to unload the bunch of sub standard players in our squad we are not going to improve.Ljumberg at least has an in depth knowledge of all the players and I’m pretty sure he would make selections based on ability, not price tag and experience.For example the sooner Sokratis and Luis are dropped the better our chances of improving defensively.

  8. Just been mailed by a long standing Wolves supporting mate .

    Decent read “from the other side” ;

    ” Well I watched Wolves completely take Bmth apart in first half. Now some might say that Bmth didn’t play well but most of the critics and Wolves fans and myself think it was more to do with the way the team played. It was fast, one touch flowing football and Bmth didn’t have an answer to it. So the Arsenal fan who thinks it would be boring I do wrong. Mind you, if he did take over then surely he would have to concentrate on your defence and defenders or lack of them at the moment.

    I do hope you are wrong about him though. The facts are:

    He is loved and treated like a hero by the club and fans.

    He has the respect and financial support from the board. I think Over £100 million in transfer fees already and still talk of more transfers in during January.

    He has the respect of the players.

    We are 5th in the table and almost into the knockout stages of the Europa competition.

    He has always said. He likes the whole project going on at Wolves

    It would be a major blow to Wolves ambition and the players ambitions if they let him go.
    Moutinho has just re signed to 2022. Not only that, I’m sure he would want his back room staff and a hand full of transfers. Neves etc. Would the Arsenal board sanction £100 million spend.

    All for what. The challenges, the uncertainty, the grief from Arse supporters if doesn’t go right from day one.

    Anyway I do hope you are wrong. But stranger things have happened in footie.

  9. Whoever, if ever, gets the job the first thing they will have to do is convince Auba Lacca and Ozil that they are at the right club and that they should stay, I do not feel that any of the managers mentioned would fill them with thoughts of Champs lge or prem titles,not that I do not rate any of them admin but this is a big club and none have experience of big players or a big club, for me there would only be Rodgers who can get us back to winning ways and putting a smile on the teams faces again,failing that It would have to be Allegri.

  10. I’d be ok with Howe.

    If they believe he’s the right choice then yes, that’s good enough for me. The guys being paid the big bucks should know more than us fans, fans go a lot on recent stuff and they go with their gut and favoritism, but they don’t extensively look up all of our choices like the decision makers do.

    I like Howe, he plays good football and he’s a likable and honest guy, the blue eyed and fair haired child. The media like him, the FA will like him, and I’d say players take to him very easily. With more money in his squad and a better quality of academy players, I think there’s a chance that it could make quite a bit of difference to his game, his teams see a lot of the ball and a big club should be trying to dominate possession (unlike a Mourinho side who picks and chooses and waits for openings more commonly)

    Allegri, you’d have to be happy enough with that one. With the list of candidates available he’d be one of the biggest names. Again though, we need the guys at AFC to know their stuff, does our club look a good fit for Allegri, younger players, PL football, is it a good fit.

    Simeone, I like his passion, I haven’t watched him too often though, only seen him in the CL on a number of occasions. A big name, will probably have the team playing with more fight (you’d expect anyhow). But are we confident that his football is most likely to rival the top teams in the PL – And does/did Arsenal’s academy bring through the sort of players that he likes. The PL is very attacking at the minute, but if they believe that this guy is the one for us, then I’m good with that.

    The Ajax manager, it’d be another attempt to bring through a Wenger alternative. Believe it or not, Emery was adjudged to be a not too dissimilar type in the beginning. Expansive football, and he’s used young players well enough for one season. More known over here than Wenger was all those years ago. Not sure if the board are considering this one.

    Nuno Espirito Santo, that sounds like a thing they say at exorcisms and communions. Maybe we need something like this guy, on a wing and a prayer.

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