Arsenal’s current managerial situation appears to be fairly calm at the moment. Following the departure of club legend Arsene Wenger last summer, things could have gotten a bit shaky for the north London outfit. However, Unai Emery was somewhat surprisingly appointed head coach of the Gunners and currently has the club going in the right direction. In fact, Arsenal have 12 more points in the Premier League than they had at the same stage last season.

Emery, still just 47, is handling the tough assignment well and appears to have full support by the Arsenal brass. If he continues to impress, he should be at the club for quite a while. Nevertheless, it appears as if Arsenal may already be grooming someone else to be their next boss in the post-Emery future.

Former Arsenal legends Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira were thought by my fans and pundits as logical choices to eventually succeed the outgoing Wenger. However, it is a different club legend that could receive the job moving forward: Freddie Ljungberg.

Ljungberg made 328 total appearances as a player for Arsenal from 1998-2007. A mainstay in the unbeaten Invincibles team, Ljungberg was an outstanding player for the Gunners. During his time in north London, he was able to help the club win five major trophies, including two Premier League titles.

Following his retirement as a player, Ljungberg was given an ambassadorial role to help bring global awareness to the club in 2013. After three years at this position, the former Sweden international began his coaching career by helping the Arsenal U15s. He was then given an assistant coaching role by Andries Jonker at Wolfsburg in 2017. However, following Jonker’s sacking at the German club, Ljungberg was also let go and returned to Arsenal to coach the U23 team in the summer of 2018.

Ljungberg has certainly put his fingerprints on the Arsenal reserve team, as they are undoubtedly an attacking side. Though they are sitting just fourth place in the table, the U23 Gunners have scored the most goals in the league, an astounding 45 in just 21 matches. Surely a mix of coaching and player development, there are quite a few players in the Arsenal U23 team that are enjoying outstanding seasons. Eddie Nketiah, Bukayo Saka, Joe Willock, Xavier Amaechi, Tyreece John-Jules have all been brilliant going forward during the current campaign.

The Swede also made sure the academy team was entered into the EFL Trophy during his first season as coach, a competition that the club has declined to enter in the last few previous seasons. The young Gunners were eliminated in the knockout round by the eventual winners of the cup, Portsmouth.

Arsenal hope that Ljungberg will eventually become their version of Zinedine Zidane (shaved head and all). The former Real Madrid and France World Cup winner worked his way through the Real reserve team as a coach to eventually collecting three consecutive Champions League titles with the first team.

With a clear attacking style, club legend status, and a great personality, Ljungberg is quite possibly the perfect choice to eventually succeed Emery with the Arsenal first team. There is no rush, however, as Emery is currently doing just fine at the moment. The 41-year-old Ljungberg has time to be patient, while learning as much as he can in his current coaching role.