9 months ago
29 The countdown has already begun for Jurgen Klopp, with the Liverpool manager only in charge of the club for another 16 Premier League matches – including at Arsenal on Sunday.
It really will be the end of an era for the German, and his final game will mark a before and after for the club.
Another Liverpool legend, Jamie Carragher, now a successful pundit, has made an intriguing claim regarding Klopp’s successor, and believes that the owners should be casting their eyes towards the Emirates Stadium when doing their due diligence.
‘Arsenal have been trying to follow a similar path to Klopp’s Liverpool for the last few seasons. There is some irony that as the teams prepare to meet on Sunday, we may soon be in a world in which Liverpool are closely scrutinising what Arsenal did as they consider the credentials of Klopp’s successor,’ he wrote in his column for the Daily Telegraph.
‘Arteta’s work in his first managerial post will be informative for Fenway Sports Group as they hear the arguments for and against frontrunner Xabi Alonso.
‘Arteta was a gamble when he stepped up in 2019 and embarked on a challenging rebuilding job.
‘[…] Arsenal had done enough due diligence to realise Arteta was a top manager in the making.
‘Whether they win the title under him or not, no-one will doubt he has been a great appointment.’
It’s worth recalling too how vocal the Gunners faithful were about having Arteta removed from his post when the team were bottom of the Premier League and North London rivals, Tottenham, were at the summit.
Fortunes soon changed of course, and it would be difficult to find any Arsenal fan now arguing that they don’t have exactly the right manager in place.

The immediacy that football supporters demand these days when it comes to winning silverware is the only thorny issue, because Arsenal an immeasurably better football team than they were before Arteta’s appointment.
Liverpool supporters worried about their own future will be hoping their owners get the next appointment exactly right, and the club could do worse than listen to Carragher’s opinion.
