Earlier this week, James Olley wrote in the Evening Standard about how Arsenal have targetted Carlo Ancelotti as the man to take over from Arsene Wenger.

The piece suggested the 58 year old is seen as the perfect candidate to help transition the club from the Wenger Era into one which will require experience and new structures put in place.

Some of those appear to be happening right now, with Sven Mislintat appointed Head of Recruitment, while Spaniard Raul Sanllehi will join next month as Head of Football Relations (Definitely Not Director of Football).

While the Italian is a very obvious name to throw into the ring, the article also sounded like bits of it had come from Ivan Gazidis himself, as he looks to airbrush his profile for the post-Wenger years. For example:

Gazidis’s aim is seemingly to reshape Arsenal so that their newly-acquired infrastructure embodies their core values and philosophy and not the idiosyncrasies of a manager’s personality.

Anyway, today in Corriere dello Sport, they report that the club’s hierarchy have decided Wenger will go this summer, and that Ancelotti will be handed a four year contract to take over.

They suggest that the man who has managed Juventus, Milan, Chelsea, PSG, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich turned down an approach to manage the Italian national side because of the Arsenal offer.

Whether they’ve been prompted into this by the Standard piece is unclear, and he would make sense as a replacement for Arsene Wenger, but we’ll have to wait and see what else emerges on this one.

Thoughts on this folks? Would Ancelotti be your choice as an experienced coach to help the club deal with what will be a seismic change when the Frenchman’s reign finally ends?