Rumours have been circulating in the last couple of days about Arsene Wenger’s successor, the name that has been thrown about isn’t necessarily a household name which does not always make it a bad thing. Big names have been linked with the Arsenal managerial job in the last few season. Jurgen Klopp, Carlo Ancelotti , Diego Simeone and also Dennis Bergkamp who is currently Assistant to Frank De Boer at Ajax.
Paul Clement is the man that looks favourite to takeover from Wenger at the end of next season, with the Frenchman likely to go upstairs to a Director of Football role. Many fans would prefer that he left altogether because all the while he remains at the club he will have overriding authority over all aspects of the clubs day to day operations.
So what do we know about Clement? He is a very capable coach and currently works alongside one of the best in Carlo Ancelotti. Ancelotti holds the English coach in high regard so much so that he has worked with him at three different clubs; Chelsea, Paris St Germain and now Real Madrid on all three occasions he has been operating as Assistant to Ancelotti.
It is always a risk to take an Assistant Manager on as a head coach but Clement clearly has the right credentials and footballing education to succeed at the top level but only time will tell if he has the personality to lead a big club.
Many very capable Assistant Coaches have fallen by the way side when they have tried to make the step up to Management, Rene Meulensteen springs to mind, according to Sir Alex Ferguson one of the best Coaches he has ever worked with but when Meulensteen went to Fulham he was not capable of making the grade and lasted a mere 4 months in charge.
This is an interesting development when many were expected a big name from overseas to replace Wenger who has been at the club for 18 years, it could be a very shrewd appointment with a lot of British born players now within the squad a well traveled English coach could just be the right man to get the best out of them.
