Italian manager coy on Arsenal link

The Juventus manager, Massimiliano Allegri, has been linked with succeeding Arsene Wenger for a few months, but until now, Allegri hasn’t commented on such links. That changed last night, with Allegri telling Mediaset Premium, “I won’t confirm or deny anything.”

The chief executive of Juventus, Giuseppe Marotta, later tamped down reports, saying that “there was no reason” for Allegri to leave. Which means that things are largely the same as they were.

I have no idea if Allegri would leave Juventus for Arsenal, nor if he’s on a list of managers to sound out, or if that list even exists. That Allegri would refuse to flat out deny links with Arsenal makes it seem as if he would be open to such a move and has perhaps had low-level talks, but Arsenal are also in the position of not being able to have more than low-level talks unless Arsene Wenger tells the board that he won’t stay. And so far, there’s been every indication that he will stay, just underlining the difficulty Arsenal have not only in replacing Wenger, but doing so in a timely fashion.