As another season with the familiar hollow ring of no silverware lags to a close at Arsenal, the question of what’s to be done after Arsene Wenger eventually retires needs to be asked; driven largely by unrealistic whispers of Arsenal’s board showing him the door on the summers dawn. The odds of Wenger being sacked by Arsenal are remote. However one day he will need to be replaced and there is little doubt that the longer his team (and more importantly the structure it rests upon) fails to deliver results, the question becomes more complicated for Arsenal.

The greatest problem presented to Arsenal is that the Premier League’s landscape has altered so dramatically since Wenger created his template for Arsenal’s future. The unforeseen scale of outside investment at Chelsea and Manchester City, added to the already competitive structures at Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham has meant that Arsenal are not able to attract or retain the level of player they once could in a more financially competitive marketplace. Regardless of stadium repayments etc with Chelsea and Manchester City’s endless wealth added to the larger fan base and stronger international branding of Manchester United, can Arsenal’s model now ever reap the successes it could have a decade earlier?

Arsenal’s fertile youth system, rapid player development and extensive global scouting network is almost removed from criticism. However with rival clubs now regularly taking advantage of Arsenal’s lack of spending power and success, taking their best players before they have peaked or before they reach their peak value could become a permanent theme in this new atmosphere. With a recruitment policy based on showing patience in youth and playing a heavily technical style that demands a high level of player ability, Arsenal’s model clearly resembles that of Barcelona and Ajax, clubs that enjoy a historical domestic dominance not shared or realistically obtainable for Arsenal, within a more competitive climate where they now struggle to attract/keep hold of their major assets. Can this vision of the future succeed?

Would Arsenal’s board be wiser to consider a future after Wenger driven by a transfer guru in charge of player recruitment in the manner of many of Europe’s top clubs? Working on a more short-term view building successful teams for 3-year cycles, complete with a manager willing to amend his tactics to suit the opposition and the squad at his disposal to maximise results. The utopian possibilities of Arsenal as a perpetual force would be unlikely with this model, but with the correct people in position, the club could achieve a sporadic success seemingly out of the current team’s reach.

Alternatively with the onset of financial fair play and safe in the knowledge of their large income and strong youth development record, will Arsenal look for a manager to carry on working within the parameters of Wenger’s plan? Sure that despite sacrificing short term success, in the long term Arsenal have a structure to climb to the top of the English game in future years and stay there. It’s a big question for Arsenal; one that all their fans will hope is answered correctly when the time arrives.

Ibisevic celebrates with Hoffenheim fans

Talented strikers from the former Yugoslavia are a valuable commodity in the Bundesliga this season. A wave of Yugo-nostalgia has spread across the German league and is following a trend of Soviet Chic in Germany.

Matchday 19 highlighted the dependence many Bundesliga squads have on their striking stalwarts from nations that once belong to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia are all represented. Considered one-time compatriots, the Slovenian Milivoje Novakovic indulged himself in two goals playing alongside Serbia’s Nemanja Vucicevic. With his prim haircut and gangling gait, Novakovic eased his way to 12 Bundesliga goals in a 2-2 draw away to Eintracht Frankfurt. Meanwhile in Wolfsburg, Bosnian duo Zvjezdan Misimovic and Edin Dzeko combined to consign Bochum to a two-goal defeat. The opener was created by Misimovic, a nimble pass allowing an increasingly impressive Dzeko to strike from inside the area. Dzeko showed superb awareness for his second goal, this time craftily glancing a wayward Schäfer shot into the far corner.

The credibility of players from the region has certainly increased this season. The top scorer list is currently headed by Bosnian Vedad Ibiševic with 18 goals. His absence for the rest of the season due to a knee injury may well cost Hoffenheim their fairytale title – though they do boast another attacking Bosnian player in Sejad Salihovic. Serbia’s Marko Pantelic is also fronting Hertha Berlin’s unlikely title challenge, having stayed with the club during a frosty transfer window. His two goals at the start of the Rückrunde were dedicated to his pregnant spouse, Pantelic playing his part in furthering an already impressive Serbian contingent in the German capital including Gojko Kacar.

Success for these players may simply be for pragmatic footballing reasons: Ibisevic, Dzeko and Novakovic are all well over 6 feet tall, relatively slim and with assured yet graceless touches. Too slight for the Premiership, too awkward for La Liga and Serie A. There are also a breed of innovative ‘Number 10’ types such as Misimovic, whilst not forgetting Croatian-born Mladen Petric or Ivan Rakitic. The classiest exports from the region are already filtering through to England: Luka Modric, Niko Kranjcar and Zoran Tosic have all found themselves at Premier League clubs. Germany may however offer more cultural affinity to the region than other leading European football leagues – often acting as a port of call for eastern European migrants. Even Die Mannschaft’s preferred forward line at the last two major tournaments featured a striker born in Poland and the other who appears to have split loyalties with his lineage.

Should this trend continue, the Bundesliga might expect to see a swell of strikers from the newly-formed Montenegro national team. It certainly seems as if the particular set of identities in this region of South-East Europe fits the Bundesliga. However, Romanians and Bulgarians have not taken Germany by storm, suggesting a cultural rather than geographic  distance. Whatever the reason, there’s enough evidence to show the way forward for Europe’s most exciting league.