Arsenal's appeal shown to be based on playing style and traditions

While Stan Kroenke has been surveying from the west the increasingly discordant scenes at the club he owns, and Arsène Wenger has looked increasingly weary at the home of modern football, the commercial team expensively assembled at the Emirates by the chief executive, Ivan Gazidis, has been looking east.

Expansive research conducted by the operation to help capitalise on the crucial point in 2014 when long-term sponsorship, naming rights and kit deals with Emirates and Nike expire will play an unlikely role in the selection of the next Arsenal manager if and when Wenger departs.

Global research into Arsenal's brand and appeal surprised even club insiders with the extent to which their traditions of conducting their business in the right way on and off the pitch and playing attractive football were core elements of their appeal – even above short-term success. That is true both of the global fanbase that Arsenal are trying to reach under their new American owner, with last year's Asian tour to be followed this summer by a trip to Africa, and the commercial partners they hope to attract at a significant premium to their current long-term deals.

Ten-year contracts signed with Nike and Emirates before leaving Highbury were necessary to fund the move but Manchester United and Liverpool have extended their lead over Arsenal in commercial terms.

Gazidis has long trumpeted the "Arsenal way" as an integral element of the club's appeal and that is why he is unlikely to turn to a short‑term fix which may do long-term damage to that brand – such as José Mourinho or any of the go-to men of European football such as Guus Hiddink.

Instead Barcelona's Pep Guardiola, if he could be tempted away from Camp Nou, or – more riskily – Brendan Rodgers at Swansea, are seen as better bets to safeguard the club's values and keep momentum under new financial fair play rules that Gazidis hopes will dramatically favour Arsenal over their rivals.

It would help, of course, if any new manager could also put right a trend that is in danger of becoming another less welcome tradition – that of an empty trophy cabinet at the end of the season. All the analysis, surveys and defining brand characteristics in the world will not help if Arsenal cannot maintain a seat at European football's top table.

Source: Owen Gibson, The Guardian on 24 Feb 12