Last month it was reported that Arsenal director Josh Kroenke – son of majority shareholder Stan Kroenke – suggested club legend Thierry Henry would be his preferred candidate to replace Arsene Wenger if the long-serving manager is to leave the club at the end of the season.
Fans may have their doubts over whether an inexperienced coach is the right man to replace someone as ingrained in the DNA of the club as Wenger, even if that inexperience might be balanced out with a level of popularity that can only come with the status Henry enjoyed during his playing days, but the idea of Stan Kroenke replacing a manager of 20 years with a relative novice is not as far-fetched as it seems.
Indeed, if we look at Kroenke Sr's recruitment record with his other soccer investment, the Colorado Rapids, the prospect of a vastly experienced arrival – someone like Max Allegri, one of the bookmakers' favourites for the role – would be out of keeping with the 69-year-old's record.
Since taking over the MLS franchise in 2004, he has appointed four head coaches. Just one of the four had even a single minute of senior management experience under their belt before taking charge of their first Rapids game.
Fernando Clavijo
Ahead of Kroenke's first full season at the helm, he responded to the club's failure to progress beyond the Western Conference semi-finals by parting ways with Tim Hankinson – at the time the club's longest-serving head coach – and bringing in former United States international Fernando Clavijo at the behest of Charlie Wright, the new General Manager who Kroenke personally appointed to replace Dan Counce.
There is arguably more freedom in MLS for owners to take more of a hands-off approach, leaving such recruitment matters to the GM.
The absence of a promotion/relegation system theoretically allows a club to rebound from one poor season, while the relative youth of the league means there is less of a danger of upsetting the balance by avoiding a manager/chairman relationship the likes of which English fans have become familiar with.
The decline of Wenger's Arsenal, in the eyes of many, coincides with the departure of former vice-chairman David Dein from the club in 2007, who acted as a buffer between the manager and the owner.
A solution could be to institute a more American-style general manager system, perhaps even with Wenger in the position, retaining some responsibility for changes in the club's coaching staff.
It is under such a system that Kroenke was able to deliver the Rapids their first (and so far their only) MLS Cup. And they did so not only with a rookie manager, but with a man who had Arsenal ties before crossing the Atlantic.
Gary Smith
Gary Smith originally came to Colorado in a dual role, acting as assistant to Clavijo while also helping establish an Arsenal academy in the state as part of a strategic partnership between the Gunners and the Rapids following Kroenke's investment in the former in 2008. His CV at the time included a stint in charge of Watford's reserves, while he had been working as a scout for Arsenal when the Rapids came calling.
It seems safe to say his rise wasn’t entirely expected. Clavijo stepped down during the 2008 season with the club on course for a second straight year outside the playoffs, with Smith taking over initially on an interim basis. But he did enough to earn a full-time role.
His tenure suggests that if a new face is brought in to replace Wenger, they will be given time at the helm rather than risk a repeat of what happened when David Moyes succeeded Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United – probably the closest comparison when it comes to the Premier League.
The Englishman’s first season saw the club narrowly miss out on a playoff berth – finishing with the same points tally as eventual champions Real Salt Lake – but his second ended with captain Pablo Mastroeni lifting MLS Cup aloft after an unlikely run to glory.
The club had few huge stars - instead it was more about a tight-knit team grinding out results. Their eventual MLS Cup triumph came after extra-time, via an own goal from FC Dallas defender George John.
Essentially, to compare Smith's Rapids with next season's Arsenal is an apples/oranges situation, or at least it would be without the anomaly of 2015/16 Leicester.
If Arsenal are to lose one of Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil this summer, leaving them with a squad weaker than those of their competitors, they may have the small consolation of knowing Kroenke is not afraid to batten down the hatches in an effort to get the best out of a squad – or at least to delegate someone else to do just that.
If Smith's arrival provided a level of continuity from Clavijo's four-year tenure, the opposite can be said of the fallout from the title-winning coach's departure in 2011. Smith’s team fell at the first hurdle in the playoffs, having produced a near-identical record to their class of in the regular season, but a reported fallout with technical director Paul Bravo – coupled with differences of opinion with senior staff on the budget for the 2012 campaign (sound familiar, Arsenal fans?) – saw him dismissed for what can probably be described as non-footballing reasons.
Oscar Pareja
While Kroenke and his staff might have been able to choose from a variety of established coaches, given the presence of a squad still boasting a number of members of the victorious 2010 roster, the club instead opted for Oscar Pareja, a man whose highest-profile position up to that point has been as assistant to veteran Dallas coach Schellas Hyndman. There was a significant amount of upheaval when it came to the playing staff, too, and the new man was unable to turn that into a third straight season in the playoffs.
A Colombian international with more than 150 MLS appearances for the Texan outfit, Pareja's appointment marked a return to someone who could be seen to know the league, even if his role would be different to anything he had held in the past, and the same can be said of his successor.
Pablo Mastroeni
Pareja resigned in January 2014 when Dallas came calling, but it just so happened that his departure came at a time when a Rapids hero was looking to get his own coaching career underway. If Henry has his badges in time for the 2017/18 season, as looks to be the case, the Belgium assistant manager could yet find himself in a similar position as that enjoyed by Pablo Mastroeni following his retirement at the end of the 2013 season.
US international Mastroeni, a veteran of the 2002 and 2006 World Cups, has made more appearances and racked up more minutes than any player in the club's history. He made his debut for the United States while on the club's books and played the full 120 minutes in that 2010 MLS Cup triumph, making him a popular figure around Dick's Sporting Goods Park even if he wasn't everyone's first choice as Pareja's successor, and the time given to him suggests similar grace may be afforded whoever succeeds Wenger in North London.
Mastroeni's first season at the helm can be generously described as a learning process – the Rapids finished the regular season with the worst defence in the league – and while the former combative midfielder was able to tighten things up at the back in his second year, the Rapids still fell way short of the playoffs.
The ownership's refusal to panic can potentially be traced back to Clavijo's slow start, with a much-changed squad languishing in the lower reaches of the standings in the first half of his maiden season before kicking into gear to make it to the Western Conference Final and a loss to a Landon Donovan-inspired LA Galaxy.
The same thing has happened with Mastroeni, albeit considerably slower. Something clicked in year three, helped no doubt by the mid-season arrival of Tim Howard in goal.
The Rapids finished second in the Western Conference standings and were the only team in either conference to finish the campaign averaging less than one goal conceded per game. They lost out to Seattle Sounders in the Western Conference Final, but the season's performances were enough to earn Mastroeni a contract extension.
It is not just at the head coach level where Kroenke and his staff have provided jobs to members of the Rapids family. The aforementioned technical director Paul Bravo is the club's second highest goalscorer of all time, while Lopez is currently serving as the club's Director of Soccer after joining in December 2014 with Mastroeni's blessing.
The danger for Arsenal, of course, is that if Kroenke is half as patient with Wenger's successor then the club could be in for a tough couple of years – but Manchester United have shown that such an eventuality is tough to avoid when replacing a manager who has helped a club transition from one era of football to the next.
And it will surely be easier for fans to be patient if the man in charge already has a rapport with them from his playing days.
Kroenke