Arsenal urged to appoint Brendan Rodgers as Arsene Wenger's replacement - 7M sport

Arsenal urged to appoint Brendan Rodgers as Arsene Wenger's replacement



Posted Tuesday, March 13, 2018 by squawka.com

Arsenal urged to appoint Brendan Rodgers as Arsene Wenger's replacement

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has been backed to take over from Arsene Wenger at Arsenal by Paul Merson.

The former Liverpool boss has been in charge at Celtic Park since 2016, leading the Glasgow side to the Scottish Premiership last season as well as the Scottish Cup and two Scottish League Cups.

Celtic are currently nine points clear at the top of the table with a game in hand over their rivals Rangers, whom they beat 3-2 on Sunday despite going down to ten men.

And Merson believes Rodgers may not spend much longer in Scotland with the Arsenal job potentially up for grabs.

"I don't know how he doesn't get the Arsenal job," he told Sky. "He never really gets a mention.

"I think he fits Arsenal great. The nearest Liverpool have ever come to winning the league for a long, long time is when Brendan Rodgers was in charge.

"He's done nothing wrong at Celtic, to do what they've done. People can say 'oh, it's Scottish football, Celtic are head and shoulders [above the rest]' but every game they played on that run was a cup final for every other team," added the pundit.

"So you have to get that team up, which is difficult sometimes when you're Celtic and you know you're better than everyone else.

"I think he needs a change, I think he needs now to come back down and I'd be shocked if he didn't get a good job.

"I'd be quite shocked if he didn't get the Arsenal job."

Rodgers led Liverpool to second during the 2013/14 season, with the Reds leading the way at the top until the final weeks of the season when they lost to Chelsea and infamously drew with Crystal Palace having been 3-0 up.

Wenger's future as Arsenal manager has been in doubt over the past few weeks as they lost four games in a row in all competitions including two 3-0 defeats at the hands of Manchester City in the space of four days.

Celtic's unbeaten run under Rodgers

Finally beaten 4-0 by Hearts in December, 2017, Celtic went on a stunning 69-game unbeaten run in domestic competitions, beating their own British record of 62 which stood for 100 years.

Arsenal urged to appoint Brendan Rodgers as Arsene Wenger's replacement

The run officially started on the final day of the 2015/16 season when Celtic beat Motherwell 7-0 having lost to St Johnstone the week before.

But when Rodgers took over that summer, the Northern Irishman led the side to new heights domestically – finishing his first season unbeaten with a league, cup and League Cup treble.

Despite their dominance, Celtic have struggled in Europe under Rodgers, bowing out of the Champions League at the group stage on both occasions as well as already being knocked out of the Europa League this season by Russian side Zenit.



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