So, here Arsenal are again. One year, seven months and nine days after they had to think about how on earth to hire a manager for the first time in decades, the hierarchy are back at the drawing board.



In just that short space of time, enough has changed at the club for the process of selecting a permanent head coach to be slightly different this time around. There are other people involved in the pow-wows. Will they go back to the list they had not so long ago? Will they look in a new direction to find the person they hope can best take over from the interim head coach Freddie Ljungberg? With names fizzing around like pinballs, the need to be calm and methodical is paramount.



The crux is timing. Whether they feel the need to go for candidates currently available or have targets in mind that will depend on waiting for the summer informs all their talks, but the state Arsenal are in they would do well to look at all possibilities and weigh it up from...