London: Ivan Gazidis, the Arsenal chief executive, has looked ahead to life after Arsene Wenger and admitted that replacing the club’s “giant” of a manager will be their greatest challenge.
Wenger signed a new three-year contract at the end of last season and no timescale has been given on his eventual exit but, after 18 years with one manager, the club have given thought to their succession planning.
According to Gazidis, Wenger has steered the club expertly to this point but he knows that the “transition” is nearing and Arsenal will clearly want to manage that process rather more smoothly than the comparable challenge at Manchester United of Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement.
“So much of the attention on a football club is around an individual and that’s very understandable at Arsenal because we have a giant who’s managing us,” Gazidis said.
“Arsene has been a fantastic driver and has put the club in a great, great position. The biggest challenge we’re going to face as a club is that, when that transition from Arsene to the next manager of our football club happens — and I don’t know when that’s going to be — that we come through that strongly.”
Juergen Klopp, the Borussia Dortmund manager, and Everton’s Roberto Martinez would figure on any current shortlist but, given that there is unlikely to be a vacancy until 2017 at the earliest, predicting the next Arsenal manager amid the constant fluctuations of football is almost impossible.
Gazidis says that the club’s current aim is to move from being “off the shoulder of the world’s top teams” to joining the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich among the elite of European football.
That vision will be expanded upon at the club’s annual meeting on Thursday, when Arsenal shareholders will question majority owner Stan Kroenke over a £3 million (Dh17.7 million) payment to another of his companies and challenge Wenger about his summer transfer strategy.
The Daily Telegraph has seen a list of questions that have been tabled by prominent smaller shareholders and there is a focus on Arsenal’s payment to Kroenke Sports Enterprises for “strategic and advisory fees” and Wenger’s failure to add another defender this summer.
Theo Walcott, meanwhile, returned to full training on Monday for the first time in nine months following knee surgery, and Danny Welbeck has been given the all-clear after turning his ankle in England’s 1-0 win against Estonia on Sunday.
