Flipping heck, I’m sure we were all expecting a bit of change at Arsenal when Arsene Wenger had moved on, but did any of us expect the type of noises that came out yesterday re: some of the coaching staff, to be so swift and decisive?

It was like Arsenal’s very own version of Night of the Long Knives, with Ivan deciding that his power needed consolidating by making sure that the old guard were given clear indications of where their futures were.

Away from from the club.

Gerry Peyton Gone. Neil Banfield gone. Sal Bibbo possibly gone (although still to be confirmed). Born Primorac gone. But probably the most alarming of all of the departures of Steve Gatting and Carl Laraman who, whilst they should be celebrating leading the Under-23s to their respective league title, instead find themselves suspended this morning following accusations of bullying.

IT’s this kind of news coming out, right at the end of it all, which starts to make you question just how many issues there were at the club that were just being left whilst Arsene had complete control. I’m not saying that Arsene new anything of the bullying issues, because he most certainly wouldn’t have tolerated it, but it feels to me like we’re starting to find out of some of the issues only now that his reign is ending and the natural assumption that he tried to portray at the club that everything was rosy in the Arsenal garden, clearly wasn’t the case.

Perhaps it’s the fact that after two decades of employment there were some people who thought their positions were without reproach or recrimination? P{perhaps a culture where everybody knew they would be protected by the overarching presence of Arsene Wenger? And perhaps his exit has now opened pandoras box?

Who knows. But there’s one thing we do know, and that there will be plenty of change at Arsenal this summer. Some people are speculating that these exits are part of an entourage for a big name manager coming in, but I’m not so sure, because as much as I’d love Allegri to come in and see what he can do with this collection of Arsenal players, I don’t think we’d be exactly to his liking right now. He’s a guy who will probably look at this Arsenal team and say “I need north of £120million to turn this side into winners” and as we’ve seen in recent years, Arsenal value sustainability and sound financial management above competitiveness in the Premier League.

So no, I don’t think this clearing out is for a big name to come in, but I do think that it is happening because Ivan, Raul and Sven probably all want to have a clean sweep of the old Arsene guard and get on with moving the club forward without any remnants of the old empire.

It does call into question the issue of getting a younger manager in though. Tricky Mickey Arteta has been long touted as a successor but he’s part of an entourage, not the man who brings the entourage, so would he really be the right man to be stipulating who comes in to join him? A younger manager also represents a bigger gamble too, so do you really want to take a risk on a younger manager and have him bring in a load of people, only to find it might not work out and then shunt them out of the door along with the manager if you have to sack them?

It’d be nice to have an indication as to how well the club are progressing with their search, but I can kind of understand why we haven’t seen very much just yet, not whilst the season is still ongoing. Technically. Ivan et al will want to see this season finish, then I suspect we’ll also have a bit of time for dust to settle, before a new man being announced. The club won’t want to be seen to be having a new man jumping into the seat of Wenger whilst the red leather manager chair is still warm I think. So I don’t think we’ll get anything from the club next week. Perhaps the week after but I would suspect we’ll have an announcement right at the beginning of June. That way it’ll give a decent amount of distance between the new and the old regime, some of the players leaving on a free transfer will be out, plus a new man will have a couple of week’s before the World Cup starts and so he can have some time to work out which games he’s going to watch his new players in during the World Cup.

It means another couple of weeks of frustrating silence from our perspective, but let’s all face it, this appointment sets the tone for where Arsenal want to go so it’s important that they get it right.

Right then, that’s me done for another one, I’m off to buy some World Cup stickers. Back tomorrow with a match preview. Maybe – i’ve got a Eurovision party and things can sometimes get boozy-messy….