Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says there could be female managers in the Premier League in the next 10 to 15 years.

The Arsenal boss, who signed a two-year contract extension at Emirates Stadium at the end of last season, told a Football Writers’ Association event in London that he foresees changes in the way top-flight clubs are run.

Wenger was reported to have railed against the introduction of a director of football at Arsenal as his unseemly contract saga rumbled on, and he senses a move towards more technical analysis in the running of clubs, with a shift away from what he terms ‘football specialists’.

‘I’m personally convinced that [a female manager in the Premier League] will happen soon,’ he said.

‘I’m convinced in 10 or 15 years it will not necessarily be a football specialist who is a manager of a club.

‘You will have so many scientists around the team that [the people] who will bring out the team to play on Saturday will be more management specialists than football specialists.

‘[This is] because the football decisions will be made by technological analysis.’

In Wenger’s homeland, Corinne Diacre is the head coach of Ligue 2 side Clermont Foot, a position she has held since she became the first woman to lead a professional men’s team in a competitive match in France three years ago.

– This story originally appeared on FourFourTwo.co.za