Arsene Wenger could have made an extremely quick return to English football after he was reportedly offered the Fulham job ahead of Claudio Ranieri, who has made his own return to the Premier League.
Rarely do we get to the middle of November without a Premier League manager losing his job, these days it feels like we can’t get out of August, but Slaviša Jokanović’s sacking from Fulham on Wednesday morning gave him the win in this season’s ‘sack race.’
To be honest the former Watford manager was having an atrocious start to the season with the Cottagers. He did brilliantly to get them promoted last season but one win in 11 Premier League games and conceding 31 goals just isn’t good enough.
Out he’s gone and quickly in his place has come Claudio Ranieri, back in England after being sacked as Leicester City boss just months after shocking the world with his title win.
But it might not have been the Italian who was the man to step into the hot seat at Craven Cottage.
According to the Mirror the Fulham owners approached Arsene Wenger to see if he wanted to take the job but the Frenchman wasn’t interested in the role.
Wenger was always unlikely to return to England. Image: PA Images
When leaving Arsenal at the end of last season, after 22 years in charge, Wenger said that he didn’t want to take a job back in the Premier League and clearly couldn’t be persuaded when a job did come up.
The former Monaco manager is reportedly readying himself to get back into management sometime in the new year and is waiting for a big job on the continent.
Wenger was recently linked to AC Milan but the 69 year old refuted those claims whilst Real Madrid have given a contract to Santiago Solari till the end of 2021.
We’re all excited to see Ranieri back. Image: PA Images
Since leaving Leicester at the beginning of 2017 Ranieri has managed Nantes in Ligue 1 but he left at the end of last season.
His last job in England saw him take over at Leicester and defy the odds to win the league, there certainly was less people ruling out his appointment this time round.
How well will Ranieri do with Fulham?
Hits: 67