Arsenal On Alert As Rivals Plot £43m Deal For Manager Tipped To Replace Wenger
Nov 21, 2016 at 4:53 PM
Arsenal face a stiff contest from Inter Milan to appoint Diego Simeone as their new manager, according to latest reports.
Arsenal are bookies’ favourites to snap up Simeone as a replacement for Arsene Wenger.
Wenger is into the final year of his contract at the Gunners and formal talks over an extension are yet to get underway.
Simeone recently shortened his contract at Atletico Madrid so that it will expire in 2018, meaning Arsenal would have to pay compensation if they wanted to make the appointment next summer.
But Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport claim Inter are willing to pay big money to get Simeone before Arsenal do.
According to the report, Inter’s Chinese owners are willing to stump up the cash to make sure they have the right man in place after a string of managerial dismissals.
Inter are desperate to return to the Champions League and have already sacked one manager – Frank de Boer – this season.
They recently appointed Stefano Pioli on an 18-month contract but Corriere claim that officials in Nanjing are already working on securing Simeone.
They hope to prise the Argentine manager away from Madrid this summer with a hefty up-front fee and would have to at least match his £4.3m (€5m) yearly wages.
The most important thing in football – and since Simeone took over at Atletico in 2011, he has had a far better time of winning trophies than Wenger.
Not only that, the Argentine has succeeded in areas that continue to elude Wenger: he’s won a league title and a major European trophy.
Given his club’s limited resources in comparison to Barcelona and Real Madrid (Atletico earn a third of Spain’s big two in TV money alone), Simeone has done remarkably well.
Simeone has made his team believe they can upset the odds every time.