Arsenal FC: 2 Possible Replacements for the Irreplaceable Arsene Wenger
How do you replace Arsene Wenger?
An excellent manager with tactical nous in copious amounts, his teams play excellent, crowd-pleasing football. He is also excellent in youth development, bringing several youngsters up to the first team in recent years, as well as improving some of the aforementioned youngsters when they need to raise their game.
His only possible deficiency is to be a tad inflexible, in terms of not adapting his footballing philosophy to current needs.
His replacement would need to have all these qualities, and would also need to have achieved some success in the big leagues with big teams (German, Spanish, English, Italian, etc.) so as to cope with the pressure of succeeding Arsene.
Josep Guardiola (Barcelona)
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The current Barcelona boss would be an adequate replacement for Arsene Wenger. Firstly, he works on a daily basis with La Masia, arguably the best youth academy in the world, and has helped bring through some of the best players in the world (Sergio Busquets and Pedro Rodriguez were promoted to the first team during Guardiola's first season).
Tactically, Guardiola is similar to Wenger, by way of them both playing a 4-3-3. However, Wenger's 4-3-3 approaches the more fluid style of play similar to the Frank Rijkaard's philosophy at Barcelona (Rijkaard's Barcelona were formed around Ronaldinho, Wenger's current Arsenal side is formed around Fabregas), rather than the more disciplined possession-style game currently utilized by Guardiola.
Guardiola copes with the pressure of upholding the "best team in the world" banner every week, and produces. This proves that he can handle the pressure of taking on the Arsenal job.
Dragan Stojkovic (Nagoya Grampus Eight)
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The Serb, as admitted by Arsene Wenger himself, is his ideal successor. Wenger added that "Our ideas are the same and we both strive for perfect football."
An Illustrious Yugoslavian international during his playing career, Stojkovic now manages Nagoya Grampus Eight.
It would appear, from Wenger's comments and his playing tenure under Wenger, that the Serb is schooled in the Wenger philosophy of football. Whether he would replicate that style, however, managing a club the size of Arsenal remains to be seen.
