RB Leipzig coach Ralph Hasenhuttl has confirmed that he has been contacted about potentially taking over as Arsenal manager when Arsene Wenger leaves.
Reports earlier this week claimed officials from the Emirates had held informal talks with the Austrian as they assess their options on the off chance Wenger calls time on his Gunners reign when his contract ends in July.
“It was a well-researched story,” Hasenhuttl told a press conference when quizzed on the story.
“There was a lot of truth to it. I have heard of worse fates than succeeding the longest-serving manager in England. It’s not damaging my reputation, is it?”
“We don’t have to put too much thought into it,” he added. “I have found my luck here.”
Hasenhuttl was capped by Austria and enjoyed a steady playing career in his homeland (we think he may have played Arsenal in the European Cup while at Austria Wien), Belgium and Germany before starting his life as a coach in the lower leagues of the latter in 2007. After an unspectacular start in the dugout, his rise in the last three years has been phenomenal.
The 49-year-old led Ingolstadt to the top flight from the lower reaches of Bundesliga 2 in 2015 before moving to RB Leipzig in the summer. The Red Bull-funded franchise are currently unbeaten after 12 games and top the Bundesliga, three points ahead of giants Bayern Munich. Impressive stuff.
Of course, for all the recent headlines, it remains to be seen whether Herr Hasenhuttl is the new Jurgen Klopp or if he’s the continental answer to Owen Coyle…time will tell. Football moves very quickly.
What is certainly interesting is that the club appears to be putting feelers out on the coaching front. Arseblog News still expects Wenger to sign a new contract at the end of the season but in light of this news, it’s obviously not a foregone conclusion.
Red bull gives you wing(er)s?
I love wenger but if we underperform like we have in the last couple of years then I don’t think he’ll extend his contract. And we shouldn’t be worried at all, there are plenty of capable managers to take over. Here’s my shortlist in order: Ancelotti, Eddie Howe, Ralph hasenhuttl, and the young guy managing hoffenheim. My perfect case scenario would be Ancelotti signing on a 3 year contact taking one of our former players his number 2 like Madrid did with Zidane with that planned for his succession. No pressure Ivan!
Simeone or Tuchel for me
Definitely Simeon.He’s such energetic coach. He brings enthusiasms on the pitch. He is the kind of coach that we need at Arsenal. Take note of how Klopp, Pep , Conte do when they having a game. They won’t sit down and fold their hands in their arms. Instead, they are constantly walking up and down in their dugout area pumping their players up.
Simeone is just another mourinho. I’ve watched enough of his games to know he’s just good at setting up a team that can defend and is organized, if they can nick a goal here or there then great but the objective is to keep clean sheets. Our fans wouldn’t and shouldn’t tolerate that. Nor would they tolerate his mourinho like antics off the pitch. I’d actually really like tuchel, I just don’t see him leaving Dortmund, at least not yet.
Simeone has better hair than Mourinho. Good hair is important.
Passing sideways the whole match and giving 50% effort is not my idea of great excitement.
I’m more excited by winning and Champions League finals and giving 110% every game.
Did you really just choose ancelotti as the one to replace wenger…. we’d be worse off with ancelotti a lot like van gaal running United! To replace wenger would be a massive task and this guy certainly has a lot more credentials than a sacked Chelsea manager!
Sacked after winning the league for them. I can cope with that.
im glad that we’re looking at the right kind of manager to take arsenal forward , young and with fresh ideas.
it seems that germany is the breeding ground for the best coaches for this generation . this guy klopp , tuchel are all young upcoming coaches . i regularly follow good coaches and i this that guy from hoffenheim is the next big thing in coaching world . he has radical new ideas and the fact that that team is keeping pace with highly talented RB leipzeg and bayern alone tells you how good he is.
It’s a few games…
So what are the “radical new ideas” of “that guy from Hoffenheim”?
Hmm… so maybe the rumours flying around the internet that Wenger has signed a 1 year deal aren’t that accurate? maybe he is still stalling and the board are starting to get nervous. For me – I love Arsene, I think whoever we get in afterwards will really struggle to achieve anything like what Arsene has achieved in his time as the boss. I get that in the last 10 seasons we haven’t really done much apart from being really good at being consistent – if that makes any sense. And there will forever be the debate about why we… Read more »
Wenger was managing Nagoya Grampus Eight in Japan before he got appointed Arsenal manager, so your “just maybe its a slightly bigger jump to Arsenal than managing RB Leipzig” was probably accurate about Wenger back in the day.
Who’s to say this guy isn’t the next Wenger? You don’t know that, nobody does. Remember “Arsene who?”
I had the good fortune to be living in Nagoya when Wenger was there and I met him at a function. Nice memory!
It’s a very good point re: the prestige that Wenger brings to the club. Every time we sign a player they cite Wenger as being the catalyst to the move; “it’s an honour to work with such a manager”, “Wenger is a legend” etc. We’re a “big team” with or without him, but without recent titles under our belt, and somewhat less money than Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea, Bayern, Barca, Real and PSG, might our prestige drop with a manager of the up-and-coming variety? On all other fronts, it would be very welcome, and very Arsenal, to take a… Read more »
Ralph who?
If this was to happen, hope we have the same kind of impact Arsene Who, had on our club.
However, I suspect this is the usual negotiation tactic, maybe even a genuine back up plan, and we would quite likely see Wenger extend.
Yep….nice an’ cheap.
I for one welcome our new Austrian overlords.
The very thought of arsenal without arsene makes me sad… I started following football in my early teens and used to watch only cristiano ronaldo and i always thought that arsenal was named after arsene??.please extend the contract le prof?
You started off OK…
No, Wenger should go. I just want to see someone new there, someone with fresh ideas. We do the same thing every year. A cock up that costs us the title race, either at the start of the season or around early spring, a round of 16 Champions League exit and often some sort of embarassing cup exit. Two FA Cups were very nice indeed but it’s not enough that they’re our only trophies sinnce 2005 and we haven’t really built on them as much as we should have. I will always love seeing Arsenal win games and try to… Read more »
Will be awkward if they rename the club Hassenhuetenal
not ‘HASSENhüttl’, that would translate like ‘hate..’ its HASEN… which means rabbit in german. is a rabbit better than hate? i think yes 🙂
He would be cheap, which I expect is one of the primary considerations. Wouldn’t be much of a draw when trying to sign players though.
Why would we have any problem paying a high salary to a manager when that’s exactly what we’re doing right now?
Stop using logic and reason! Theres no place on the internet for that!
The owner does like to be cheap. More and more I feel as if they are going to cash in on Ozil and Sanchez at the end of this season. The stories from Real Madrid on Ozil rejoining aren’t helping. I’m sure if you asked Stan, would he keep Arsene at half wages he’d say yeah, lol. I was hoping the backup coach option was someone from Athletico Madrid. But alas he might cost too much.
Good thing Stan isn’t involved in the day to day running of the club! For once you could be glad he’s silent Stan!
The fact that it costs a lot of money to keep Arsene Wenger doesn’t mean the board won’t take the opportunity to try to do it cheaper; like everything else. Our next manager is going to be someone like this chap or Howe, and wages will be one of the reasons.
Maybe we should nab Mourinho. The results would be shite and the club’s name would be tarnished, but at least we’d be paying him a really high salary, and that’s the important thing.
Because we will have to pay a high salary to a new head coach, director of football, contract negotiator, fuck knows what else, more coaches probably, a tea boy, potentially a costlier assistant…. wenger gets paid so much because he does so much. So cut his wages in half thats what he is roughly getting paid for his head coach duties id suggest. Look we were shit last night. But i think and hope arsene has learnt now that 1. whatever it is he has tried to do with the tactic the last 3 seasons just hasnt been effective. 2.… Read more »
I think as long as he’s less than 8million a year we’ll be ok
It absolutely means nothing how much they’re payed as we’ve found out in recent years it’s not an accurate reflection of their ability but rather their agent’s strength and cuntness. Just look at Pele in the super Chinese league, he’s like the 5th highest paid player and I think giroud on an off day is better than he is. We all know what that’s like…
I’m pretty sure Pele doesn’t play professional football anymore
What’s his injury record like?
Expect Arsenal to offer Wenger a new contract, hopefully. Expect Wenger to sign the contract, hopefully. #OneArsèneWenger
I’m the most naive wenger fan.
BUT, if we don’t win the league or at least progress really far in the Champions League then it’s time to go.
This is Arsenal football club not a small family business.
You are clearly naive, I give you that.
But you are not a “Wenger fan”.
I never thought of this before, but it is actually possible that there is only one Arsene Wenger.
Not the most common of names, I think.
Am I alone in finding such outpourings from other managers distasteful?
Generally I find them pretty annoying, but it sounds like he was just answering a question about the validity of the report. I think it makes sense to be flattered when being pursued by one of the world’s biggest clubs.
anyone else think CocaCola would be out perfect sponsor? Red / white color and founded in 1886..
Also, dangerous to your health and only interested in profit at the expense of all other matters. Sounds like a perfect fit for Kroenke!! 😉
I find his comments on this in public very unhelpful and unprofessional. This will only cause rumour and clickbait journalists to drum up rubbish ‘headlines’ about Wenger leaving. Him commenting in public is an ego-driven exercise “look at me, Arsenal want me”. Managers should not talk about other players at clubs and certainly shouldn’t talk about other managers’ positions when nothing has been decided. He should take a leaf out of Wenger’s book, shut up and keep such matters private. I have taken an instant dislike to him over this.
WWWD? Actually we can see what he would do since he’s done it a few times. International jobs have come for him and he speculates he’s happy where he’s at and they should keep the current coach.
There’s a crucial bit of context that’s missing here, which is that Hasenhuttl was asked about Arsenal because The Sun (in case anyone isn’t aware, The Sun is a British tabloid newspaper that epitomises the gutter press and many of humanity’s worst impulses) ran the story linking him with us.
Can anyone who doesn’t like him speaking out please consider this? He didn’t just rock up at press conference and start talking about the subject so be cautious about hating on the guy.
Doesn’t matter! Wenger and other respectful managers are asked about linked players or other managerial positions by the press all the time. The respectful ones bat away the questions and keep schtum.
Schtum,… Sounds sweet and deliciou.
Schtum Schtan!
And oh look, today there is the perfect example of the difference in class that Wenger has. Asked about the England job with Southgate having just been appointed, his reply:
“Look, I need to keep confidential my conversations with The FA,” the 67-year-old Frenchman insisted. “I speak always with The FA, because I am a long time in English football, so when things go on, sometimes they contact me, yes.”
Classy and respectful!
I take your point, although doesn’t Wenger basically confirm that he has spoken with the FA – which isn’t too different from what Hassenhuttl infers?
Doesn’t seem like a whole lot of information to make the case that he’s not a “classy” or “respectful” manager.
I want either tuchel or diego.
I would prefer to see Diego Siemone at arsenal
If we do get him, I propose this chant:
HASENHUTTL!
do do do,
d-do d-do do do,
do do do,
d-do d-do do do,
(To the tune of https://youtu.be/qeUfDTn5huM?t=33s)
Ralph the mouth…what a clown for opening up about this. Last person we should go for now.
German Gunner here,
I don’t like the guy, I don’t like his interviews and Ingolstadt played some really dirty stuff last year. On the other hand is he successful and that’s what he would be paid for and not for my sympathy 🙂
Guess we should get used to the idea that our next manager will not be the likeable guy that Wenger is.
Do you think there’s a better option coaching in the Bundesliga who we should be looking at?
no not really apart from Tuchel. Pal Dardei is doing a really good job in Berlin as well, but he has to show, that he can do that in a long term. So Hasenhüttel and Tuchel would be the only reasonable options
Yeah I also hear good things about Julian Nagelsmann at Hoffenheim but he’s ridiculously young isn’t he? Tuchel and Simeone look the best contenders to me.
Would love for AW to extend a couple then maybe get someone like him, Eddie Howe or someone they feel can replace him to be a part of the straff and learn from the great
He is not a bad candidate and his team plays good football.
The guy who coaches Hoffenheim could be an option too. Seems like the next big thing. Wenger to extend with one year and sign that guy for the next.
Well, we do not know how good or bad he is, we must wait and see. However, if we really want to send a message and compete in recruitment, we must go.for Diego Simeone (if Inter let’s us). He needs a new and fresh challenge and Arsenal and EPL will provide that… get Griezman while you are in Atletico.;)
Maybe Arsenal sent Wilshere to scout Eddie Howe?
Hahaha! Maybe.
I can’t overstate how much I love the sound of that name. Plus it means something like ‘rabbit hut’? He must be ours.
Great news if it happens. Excellent manager and will take us forward.
Life after Wenger scares me.
I wouldn’t be disappointed with Hasenhuttl though.
Hass from hoff, dont it make you feel good
Looks like Philippe Auclair was right again
Played last ten in their 1-6
the only german the board should have gone for is at the mugmashers and turning them into a very good team again. diego simeone is no brainer.otherwise the likes of alexis and ozil won’t sign.
Max Allegri is a great coach, if think about his ways with Milan and Juve. Open minded, flair-driven, and highly adaptive. Similar to Wenger in taste, but more versatile in setup.