Arsene Wenger is a forward thinking manager, with him often signing young players with potential holding hope that they will turn into world stars - something he has become renowned for doing well. At 61 years of age however, the Frenchman is looking at his own future, as well as the future of the club he has served for 15 years, Arsenal. Wenger has said that he "will coach for as long as I am healthy enough" and "I am planning to remain with Arsenal until the end of my new contract", but now he has told of the man who he would like to replace him when he does decide to move on. That is Serbian coach Dragan Stojkovic.
Stojkovic was long time captain of the Yugoslavia national football team and Red Star Belgrade, and is considered one of the best players in the history of Yugoslavian and Serbian football.
He currently manages the Japanese football team, Nagoya Grampus who play in the J-League, who he formerly played with under Arsene Wenger.
Stojkovic led them to their first ever J.League trophy in the 2010 season as well as leading them to qualification to the Champions League for the first time.
Wenger said:
“I would love Stojkovic to be my successor, there are a hundred reasons for that.
”Our ideas are the same and we both strive for perfect football. I knew he was going to have teams playing attacking football with many passes… He has done that, showing he will be a great coach. I told him that if he could transmit his football imagination to his players he would fly high.”
“Dragan comes to London at least once a year. We meet up, chat and try to outsmart each other. It’s a great achievement for him to have won a championship. I was a coach in Japan for two years and didn’t manage it even though I had Piksi [Stojkovic], who was the best player in the league, in my team.”
"At 65 I will certainly move to some different job, unless I still feel like I feel today.”
