Wenger Out? Arsenal need to find their own Mauricio Pochettino to replace Arsene

A march to protest against the South African president Jacob Zuma. The entrance to the Melbourne Cricket Ground. A World Cup qualifier between New Zealand and Fiji. Wrestlemania in Orlando. A Coldplay concert in Singapore. A Saudi Arabian basketball game. A rugby sevens match in Vancouver. A music festival in Miami. An anti-Donald Trump rally in London.

One thing links them, and almost certainly only one: Wenger Out banners.

If the situation is both profoundly sad and rather ridiculous, there have been rather fewer sightings of 2017’s must-have accessory on the grounds of America’s ninth-biggest landowner.

The sense is that ‘Silent Stan' Kroenke is quietly hoping for an upturn in form, preferably accompanied by Arsenal’s annual top-four finish, to smooth the path for Wenger to sign a new contract. The signs are that Arsenal’s decline is too dramatic and too public for that to happen. Unrest has become entrenched, underperforming contagious.

The probability is that Arsenal’s powerbrokers have been taken aback, and not merely because Wenger was a guarantee of a brand of relentless, if divisive, consistency. Succession planning seems conspicuous by its absence. If Kroenke and co never considered replacing Wenger before, now they may need to fast-track it just as it seems at its most difficult.

Look for available candidates with proven expertise at major clubs and the field is comparatively bare. Many of the best suited committed themselves elsewhere last summer. Pep Guardiola, Antonio Conte, Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti all found new employers in 2016.

Now three names seem to dominate discussions. Each, potentially, has much to offer. Diego Simeone’s intensity might jolt Arsenal into life. Massimiliano Allegri could be the latest to show that the tactical nous required to prosper in Serie A equips a manager to win the Premier League. Thomas Tuchel seems to promise the exciting football and faith in youth that were once Wenger’s calling cards.

But the indications are that the Argentinian is likelier to leave Atletico Madrid in 2018, not 2017; that the Italian will remain at Juventus while postponing his plan to work in England; and that the German sees himself at Borussia Dortmund in the longer term. Even if not, each is managing a possible Champions League semi-finalist. Arsenal’s slide has been ill-timed in more ways than one. Each might look at his current team and argue they are considerably better than the increasingly shambolic Gunners now. Considering Monaco’s precocious brilliance, Leonardo Jardim could come to the same conclusion.

All of which threatens to leave a void.

Manchester United already represent the warning from relatively recent history about what can happen when the end of a long reign is followed by poor managerial choices. In their different ways, David Moyes and Louis van Gaal showed the problems of appointing those who had not spent their immediate past flourishing at superclubs.

Now, like Moyes before him, Eddie Howe may be the best of British but, brilliantly as he has done at Bournemouth, comparatively little of that qualifies him to manage Arsenal. Ronald Koeman, another of those to change clubs last year, was vocal in January when he felt the Everton board were not backing him in the transfer market, which is not the Arsenal way, but now appears to have a sizeable budget and a future at Goodison Park. Rafa Benitez’s relations with employers can be fractious but appears to have patched up his relations with Newcastle to such an extent that he is expected to stay. Scroll down the betting through a motley crew with no unifying theme – Patrick Vieira, Brendan Rodgers, Andre Villas-Boas, Luis Enrique, Julian Nagelsmann, Roberto Mancini – and none looks an obvious Arsenal manager right now.

There are two men who seem to tick every box. They may not promise trophies, but that scarcely seems a concern of Kroenke’s. But they promote youngsters, play a brand of football that helps a club forge the sort of progressive identity that makes silverware a lesser requirement, live within their means and never complain about their employers. Both are on course to deliver Champions League football on a budget.

But if Jurgen Klopp has long felt the great lost Arsenal manager, Mauricio Pochettino is the man inverting the power dynamic in north London. For years, it seemed Tottenham were trying to hire their Wenger. Now Arsenal appear to need their version of Pochettino.

Finding one poses certain problems, and not merely because 2016, 2018 or virtually any other year may be a better time to embark on a managerial search than 2017. Two decades ago, Wenger was a leftfield appointment, but there is no evidence Arsenal’s current board have the footballing knowledge and inspired decision-making to spring such a successful surprise. Rather they seem to combine a lack of foresight with a lack of experience of picking managers that, in the past, had rendered their decision to stick with Wenger wise.

Now, as Arsenal’s question of the succession gets harder to resolve, Arsene may not be their best option as much as their only one, continuing by default to a backdrop of protests in ever more unlikely places.

It is easy to say Wenger Out, but it’s harder to work out who comes in.