SO. It’s Mikel Arteta to Arsenal. And Carlo Ancelotti to Everton.
Indeed, it looks very much like the pair will be installed in their new jobs in time to face each other at Goodison on Saturday lunchtime.
Carlo Ancelotti may be a better fit at Arsenal and Mikel Arteta could be better suited to Everton
But it is not a huge leap of faith to question whether, in fact, their roles should ideally be reversed.
Would Ancelotti not be a better fit for the Emirates?
And would it not be better for Arteta to get his feet under the managerial table on Merseyside.
SunSport looks at the arguments that might make you think the smart move would be for the two new bosses on the Prem block to do a job swap BEFORE they actually take charge for the first time.
STYLE AND PERSONALITY
Arsenal are a mess. Broken and with the blame game in full force.
What they require now is a manager who can bring order and calmness.
Who is better at that than the wily old Italian fox himself?
Yes, Chelsea believed Ancelotti lost his way in his second season at Stamford Bridge and he has just fallen out with Napoli President Aurelio de Laurentiis, for the crime of backing the players against the club.
But the Chelsea hierarchy will now accept that sacking Ancelotti for the “failure” of following a Double-winning season by finishing second to Manchester United was perhaps the biggest mistake of the Abramovich era.
Everton, by contrast, have been boosted by the change of environment since the overdue and forced departure of Marco Silva.
Duncan Ferguson, who still has the dressing room smell in his nostrils, has been able to galvanise players who were going through the motions.
Arteta is not a pigeon-fancier like Ferguson but he is still young enough to understand the dressing room culture.
And he gets the Everton culture too. Indeed, he would always have been a star pupil at the “School of Science”.
BIG NAME MANAGEMENT
Arsenal have a collection of superstars who have not been putting in a shift.
But if they did not think Unai Emery had what it took to make them better, they could not make that accusation about Ancelotti.
His track record with the likes of Maldini and Shevchenko at Milan, Drogba, Terry and Lampard at Chelsea, Ronaldo and Bale at Real Madrid and elsewhere is clear and decisive proof he knows how to manage egos AND pick up the pieces when a dressing room has lost its way.
Arteta, by contrast, has never been in that position.
He has been alongside Pep Guardiola and clearly has the trust and faith of the Catalan on the training field.
That meant working with David Silva, Kevin de Bruyne, Sergio Aguero, Raheem Sterling and Co on a daily basis.
But Pep was very much the driver of that Manchester City revamp.
Arteta has never had to tell one of the dressing room leaders that he is being omitted from the starting team. Never had to carry the burden of responsibility.
And, while Everton have some top class players, it is hard to suggest any of them are in the same global bracket as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette or Mesut Ozil.
PREM EXPERIENCE AT THE SHARP END
Ancelotti knows all about the pressures of a big London club.
Indeed, by contrast with Chelsea in 2009-2011, when Roman Abramovich wanted to know and be part of everything, working for the Gunners might be a cakewalk.
At the same time, though, there is intense pressure on any new Arsenal manager, especially when, as seems the case at the moment, both Spurs and Chelsea look to be in better places.
Arteta is walking into a difficult situation, with the Emirates supporters increasingly questioning the direction the club is taking.
Ancelotti would be able to use his experience to put all that to one side and concentrate on his job.
At Everton, though, Ancelotti will find a club at the wrong end of the table, fighting different battles to the one he has become used to over the past 20 years.
Relegation should not be an issue – there are at least four teams who look worse than the Goodison side.
But you do wonder how temperamentally suited Ancelotti will be for a six-point battle with Burnley?
By contrast, at Everton Arteta would have more time to find his feet and put his stamp on the job.
While the Toffees are envious of the Champions League riches pouring into their rivals from across Stanley Park, there is not – at this stage – the same desperate need for a slice of that pie.
A MORE NATURAL FIT
Arteta, of course, played for both clubs, so neither environment would be completely new.
But while he did indeed spend five seasons on the books under Arsene Wenger, he was never the star of the show in the way he was at Goodison.
If there was a list of Arsenal stars of the 21st century, you would struggle to make much of an argument that Arteta would feature in the first 10 names.
On the Everton list, though, he would be likely to appear quite prominently.
The Goodison fans would certainly take to him and give him plenty of encouragement and latitude.
Ancelotti has never hidden his love of London and has long told friends of his ambitions to return to the capital.
It seems less likely that he spoke so wistfully about the prospect of life in Liverpool.
That does not mean he will not enjoy it. After all, Turin, Milan, Madrid, Munich, Paris and Naples are all industrial cities, too.
But you do think Carlo would feel more like a King inside the M25.
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TRANSFER MARKET
Ancelotti has always operated at the top end of the market.
Everton may have spending power, no question, but Goodison is a very different “sell” for the Italian than he is used to through the past two decades.
Even if Arsenal are flatlining, they still have a worldwide name and cachet, plus the lure of London. It makes it far easier to get the players they want.
That might be good for Arteta in some terms but big name players tend not to want “project” clubs.
It is the players who want to make a name for themselves who might be more tempted by what an Arteta regime could represent.
The sort of players who might be more easily acquired by Everton.
Carlo Ancelotti’s proposed Everton contract
Mikel Arteta talks passionately about what Arsenal means to him in last interview as player
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
