Ever since Arsène Wenger announced his “decision” to step down as Arsenal’s manager, the press have been trying to find out two things: who will replace him and where will the 68-year-old go next.
His successor has yet to be announced, but Mikel Arteta appears to be the latest favourite for the role.
As to what the Frenchman’s future plans are, even he doesn’t know, but he’s already revealed a few options have landed on his desk.
One of them, according to France Football journalist Nabil Djellit a few days ago, was a ‘major role’ at Saint-Etienne in France, with Jérôme de Bontin, the man trying to buy the Ligue 1 club, contacting the Arsenal manager directly about it.
What that role is hasn’t been revealed, but Claude Puel was also approached, which could mean the businessman could have had a vision of the Leicester City manager being in the dugout with Wenger as a director of football to try and attract good players to the club.
Either way, Le10 Sport on Tuesday have an article of their own on the matter and, according to their own information, Wenger turned down the offer, not particularly interested by what was on the table.
There have been rumblings that Wenger could be waiting for the France job after the 2018 World Cup, but that all depends on Didier Deschamps’ performance in Russia, as his contract was renewed last year until 2020.
If France drop out of the competition before the semi-finals (the target set by the French Football Federation), we wouldn’t be surprised if the Arsenal manager was handed the role on a silver platter.
