It’s natural that when the media has exhausted a list of candidates for a managers job, they look for names that are either obscure or just nonsensical. The list of recognisable names for Arsene Wenger’s job is a sizeable one but it seems a certain Italian and former England manager is the latest to be fancied by Ladbrokes for the position.
Fabio Capello, whose time with England showed that even foreign managers can’t work miracles is presumed to be on the wanted list. On reading this revelation in The Star, I almost choked on a cup of tea and fell off a chair.
Capello? A man who hasn’t won a major title since 2006. The same man who guided England to an embarrassing second-round exit in the World Cup. The man who now manages Jiangsu Suning Football Club. Perhaps he is a candidate, purely because, like Wenger, he hasn’t won a title for years either.
How about we offer the job to Steve McClaren or Sven-Göran Eriksson but let’s not stop there, what about the Chuckle brothers or Gary Neville. Surely they have about as much chance of managing Arsenal as Capello but it’s not just his inability to win recently that irks, it’s his style of play.
Durable, dogged and hard to break down is the usual remit, so as supporters we could even resurrect the chant ‘boring, boring Arsenal’ which I have to admit to missing. For the last eight or so seasons, it’s been used more ironically when Arsenal are coasting and have a healthy lead but it could be resurrected and used for its original purpose once more.
Since December, the candidates linked with the non-vacant job have included Roberto Martinez, Brendan Rogers, Thierry Henry, Mikel Arteta, Patrick Viera, Thomas Tuchel, Gus Hiddink, Joachim Low, Diego Simeone and Carlo Ancelotti and Rafa Benitez. Sadly there’s no room on the short/long list for Alan Pardew who has gone on record to announce that the North London club are unlikely to face a relegation battle and therefore he isn’t interested.
Capello is probably no more than a stalking horse on behalf of Ladbrokes to extract money from the pockets of gullible punters but surely there are no takers. There are others that don’t make the list at present such as Antonio Conte, Sean Dyche, Eddie Howe and Pep Guardiola but all four are a more realistic option than the Italian. Perhaps Sir Alex Ferguson could be tempted out of retirement to assume the job or they could summon up the spirit of Brian Clough at a local seance.
Yes, it’s getting that preposterous. As a fan and depending on your own preferences, you could probably compile a list of four top targets and find that you wouldn’t be that wide of the mark. Whoever it is will have to have experience at the highest level at both domestic and European levels.
They will probably have to be enticed away from another large club for a sizeable figure of compensation and they will need a proven track record in winning competitions within the last five or six years. Suddenly, that list is shrinking dramatically and it’s starting to form by way of a natural process of elimination from all of the lists above.
Tuchel apparently prefers Bayern Munich as his chosen destination. Joachim Low is rumoured to be interested in a move to the Premiership, Diego Simeone is under contract at Atlético. Madrid and only Antonio Conte will be available but not by choice, come the summer recess. The rest are probably there just to spread the odds around and earn Ladbrokes a sum the equivalent of half a Brazilian football player.
