If I could, for a moment, take a sample of one, to make a grandiose point about Public Relations.
The most-read article of the past year on Le Grove was the Mike McDonald post titled: What is Arteta doing?
Does this mean I should retire? Possibly. Mike smashed me. Are my feelings hurt? Absolutely. But let’s turn this into a positive.
The insight: Fans don’t know what is going on at Arsenal.
If there is an information vacuum, we fill it. Have you seen the comment: ‘Arteta plays boring football because he was a boring player.’ That is what happens when you don’t know what the plan is.
Fans spent all summer in the dark as to what the plans were. We spent 3 games not really grasping what was happening at the club. Only this week have we started to get a bit of information regarding some of the realities.
It took Per Mertesacker to explain what the expectations should be at Arsenal. Did it hurt to know that there are no quick fixes? A little bit. But now I know what the deal is, I can calibrate how I go into big games, and if I’m in the ground, I might be a little fairer when a young player drops a clanger.
Why does it take a blogger to explain what is going on with the football? Have you ever heard Arteta talk about what he is trying to do? I haven’t. I know he’s a salesman, he wouldn’t be in a job if he wasn’t, so when are we going to see him talk about the game and tell the fans where the football is going? Didn’t Pep G talk Sky through his tactical approach on a pitch board when he first started? Didn’t Emery do a Coaches Voice? Where is there a clear articulation of what Arteta is up to? The Athletic has TIFO who explain complex ideas. Statman Dave is elite at tactical systems, get him on that show. Put him on with The Arsenal Vision podcast. Do something.
Juego De Posicion sounds so damn cool. Imagine how much better-equipped fans would be if they could pronounce it or explain it at a dinner party?
If fans are blind, they get frustrated, and lash out. That’s been the complaint of the past 6 months. Where is this football going? When do we start creating mountains of chances? When does it speed up? When do we start beasting teams?
I worked in logistics years ago in a change management role. We’d go into companies, tell them they were doing it all wrong, and implement painful changes. To be effective at this, you have to have tact, you had to bring people along for the ride… because in a factory, if people think you are a dickhead, they will make your life absolutely miserable. You cannot be effective at change with only mind… there needs to be some heart. Per Mertesacker was heart yesterday.
Arsenal is a massive change management project. New leader, new ideas, new players, new staff, an exciting vision… that comes with extreme growing pains. Arteta and Edu are changing the computer systems, sacking staff, bringing in new people… but they are doing a terrible job explaining why all this pain is happening, and they don’t have a ‘BUT LOOK AT THIS SHINY THING’ to take our minds off the grim realities of mega disruption.
Wenger was world class at selling you a eutopic view of the future.
‘We’re going to bring the best young kids to Arsenal, raise them together, bond them to the club, then when they hit their prime, they will win big trophies’
It was a sexy vision and we bought it. Didn’t work out, but it was close.
Our shiny thing was the afterglow of an FA Cup win. Fan capital associated with that went in the pandemic. It’s time for Arsenal to rev up those communications plans and do something fresh like they did yesterday with The Beautiful Game podcast.
The amusing part about it… fans were initially furious, but because the news came from Per Mertesacker, they were fine listening to it.
‘Listen, I agree with the strategy, I like the idea, I understand… but’
That’s what you want.
but… Arteta needs to make the football better
but… I don’t think Arteta can move these players I like forward
but… I am furious we’re still in transition
All great points, all fair points, but… when you know what the plan is, you like the players, and you understand, you are actually broadly onboard. The rest of it goes without saying. Sacking Arteta now isn’t the move. But if he can’t move this idea forward, he will be. Winning games has to come this season. There needs to be a big improvement. We can’t be in transition forever. Brighton can’t be doing a better job than Arsenal with the same idea.
Someone else that needs a better comms strategy? Mr Wenger. I really can’t stand to see him in the press defending himself all the time.
In 2016 we finished second in the league. Leicester won but other teams were behind Leicester as well, and Leicester only lost three games. In 2017 we did not qualify for the top four for the first time in 20 years but we got 75 points.
I think the season Leicester won the league, every single club behind us in the table had changed their manager. We had a settled side, we’d been spending money, and we gave up a league to a team that had finished 16th the season before. You can’t defend that.
The thing that he misses in all of this is that during this period, instead of capitalising on our position in world football, we gave it up. We didn’t look after our academy, we spent money badly, we didn’t sell players for money, we let contracts run down, our socialist pay scale got out of control, and the coaching didn’t evolve. I don’t think we made it past the last 16 of the Champions League in 8 seasons. Our record against top 6 sides was dreadful. We were existing in top 4 mediocrity because that was the target… then when we fell out, there wasn’t a squad to get back to the top, the culture was broken, and our dependence on failing ideas led us to where we are today. The model Wenger left us with wasn’t sustainable because he let it die. Liverpool and Spurs were well behind us, but the put the hard work in, both have been in a CL final.
I gave the best years of my career to develop what I think is important – the stadium and pay it back and put the club in a position where it was capable of facing the future and had the potential to do well.
At the end of the day, above all, we won and what I am most proud about is putting the club in that position.
This part is true. His legacy is strong. We’ll always remember what he gave us in the good years, and the immense job he did with Project Youth. I just wish he’d stop talking about the last 8 years and start giving us something about the best moments. His book was boring. If he’d been advised well, he’d have created a 4 part book series. Early years to 2000. 2001 to 2006. 2007 to the end. Arsene Wenger: Rules of Leadership. Someone else would have penned it. He’d have jumped in deep on the gossip, the thinking behind certain players, the thinking behind decisions… and he’d have rolled some people under the bus. His book was cliff notes.
‘Kanu was good’ is not acceptable.
Anyway, that’s a lot of words. Watch the video or listen to the podcast.
Ish it’s not as though i dont understand what youre saying, i’m just seeing different things perhaps. Like ramsdale, back in the summer someone put up some stats on ramsdale while the hatred for him was at its loudest. the stats said to me that here is a GK who can stop crosses, he was in the 90th+ percentile for grabbing crosses and some other similar stats. to me that was immediately saying here is our #1 either when leno fucks it or next season. Still the abuse and vitriol has only died down around him recently. I’m seeing similar… Read more »
thorough
i bet bissoumas wages would have been 2-3 times that of lokonga if wed signed him. i’d like to see him at arsenal but the reality is thast xhakas gotta leave before there’s going to be room for another proven talent in MF
zacharse The truth of the matter is that teams that progress significantly from one level to another in past history usually show certain traits that they are on that path of progression. We have not seen these tell tale traits from his Arsenal side so far. And I’m sorry but beating Norwich 1-0 and beating Burnley 1-0 after getting outplayed by them in the second half are not those indicators as yet of real progression. Let’s hope we can talk about these traits being evident in the near future. As it stands now they are not on show and never… Read more »
haha
except for the FA cup you hate talking about
if you can’t see the difference between when we win playing poorly vs. lose playing poorly, not sure there’s a whole lot to talk about brother
zacharse
The FA Cup win epitomises Arteta’s football overall that has actually seen him not evolving enough overall.
It seems you can’t separate the winning of that cup to the actual manner in which it was won.
Here’s a question for you.
If Arteta gets 8th again the EPL but wins another FA Cup by the end of this season and in winning that second FA Cup he has to resort again to underdog tactics to win it would that be enough to see him being given another season?
If I was owner i’d say no it’s not. but again your mistake is that i’m on arteta’s side here
zacharse
Go over again for us our mighty win over Man City in the FA Cup semi-final and tell us how it was achieved. In what manner.
And then after telling us how we achieved that win over Man City then tell us how that match has any significance or bearing in how Arteta would fare over a whole EPL campaign.
TLDB10 I concur.. . It’s slightly annoying when someone highlights there own extensive background in marketing to justify his points. Rather patronising don’t you think. I’ll be 60 next bday and my own background covers many different areas of project management, the hospitality industry, Sports and Leisure management and multi-sports coaching but apparently I’m blind. This is where Pedro losses my attention when he harps back to his background as if none of us have similar if not more extensive life experiences You are right though when you say it’s a ploy by our host to get a reaction. The… Read more »
personally, i care less about results than seeing some young players make big improvements and the side play cohesively. if these are players that are going to be with the side for 4-5 years then i’m in no rush. if there weren’t improvements in league position end of season then there weren’t improvements. i think you forget how many points we dropped last season on reffing, bad luck, and individual errors. those things get corrected we’re nearly top 4. so its gonna be tough for us to finish 8th again without some big ridiculous hard to miss mistakes on artetas… Read more »
anyone know if there is any livestream tonight (having previously thought it was scheduled for last night – lol)
ish man,
i don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about now. you’ve clearly misunderstood me, or what i’m saying, which is that you don’t win a cup final by mistake against a side like chelsea. on a continuum of achieving goals it certainly counts for something, even if there were setbacks afterwards with a rebuild
Anyone have a link to stream the game today?
zacharse “If I was owner i’d say no it’s not” Well that’s the correct answer. Because we would just be continuing going round in circles. He would be doing the exact same thing in winning the FA Cup with underdog tactics which he could not progress from before. But if he won the FA Cup with clearly more progressive tactics then that is another matter then. He would need to win that cup in a different way to what he did before for consideration to continue. But of course there will always be those that wouldn’t care how he won… Read more »
zacharse
Cup finals have been won by managers playing the underdog role before many times and many of them did not greatly advance from that.
So Arteta not advancing from winning the FA Cup in which underdog tactics were employed is not such a surprise.
ish my point was when we only had the players capable of shithousing we pulled it off, unlike emery. that gives him the right to say ‘i don’t want to play like this anymore’ PART 2: playing differently meh….. hasn’t worked out quite so well so far. this is where we’re all fixated. what does the club need to do to move the dial on this issue. for me, you can’t move the dial when the xhakas, ceballos, bellerins making individual errors left and right- when lacas and aubas are missing sitters 2-3/game- so now we’ve got a new look… Read more »
ish
again i get it but i’m not taking your word on prophecy for arteta’s career…
Very interesting article in the Athletic from A. Lawrence “Was a clean break from Wenger really in Arsenal’s best interests? Could he still help now?” Some quotes: “But the way the post-Wenger rebuild has gone, with increased slippage towards mediocrity, makes it worthwhile to wonder whether the club would be in a stronger position with his expertise and combination of sporting, political and social stature in the game helping them with the big-decision making. If he walks into any room, to talk to anyone connected to the game, they listen.” Pedro suggested listening to Per what about AW? Plus the… Read more »
In those wins, we were scoring goals and Auba was firing. Next season, nothing of the sort. Something happened. Auba having a bad season? Possible but the team was lacking in goals last season. That is a fact. Clearly a problem area and I am hoping this season we start to hit for 2 or more per game. If Auba can get 20 per season that turns potential losses to draws or wins… means more points I think for many of us, that is the metric to watch out for. Goals…. and how we create them. So far, its been… Read more »
brownie, try totalsportek or VIPbox. lots of pop ups but generally tends to have a link or two. or download live sport tv app.
If you were still Wenger in based on his winning three FA cups in four years ( 2013-17) and now you hold a similar position re Arteta, then good for you, you’re being consistent.
But if you were proud Wenger out despite those three late era FA cups , but now proclaim Arteta’s great promise based on his FA cup win, then you’re probably a bit confused.
Apologies if this has already been mentioned but interesting news today regarding trialling of safe standing in Premier League and Championship stadiums. Clubs can apply to trial it in January. I may be mistaken but I am sure I read or heard from somewhere that the current set up at the Emirates cannot install safe standing in its current guise. It would all have to be ripped up during the close season. I’m certainly all for it. With the greatest of respect to the families of those who tragically lost their lives at Hillsborough, it does feel like this is… Read more »
Tom
what about those who think specifically that the FA Cup symbolizes an achievement in some form vs. those who think losing it 3-0 is an equivalent achievement?
seems pretty straightforward view
Any thoughts on the game tonight? Everyone is obviously clamouring for an appearance from Charlie Patino. I’m sure we will be seeing some minutes from him but perhaps not as a starter. Arteta played largely a senior 11 against WBA. Perhaps in part to instil some confidence after the bad start to the league season but I also feel he tends to favour giving the subs bench game time rather than going full Wenger and playing the kids. Understandable to a degree but if we are going project youth it would be great to see the likes of Patino get… Read more »
Guns “In those wins, we were scoring goals and Auba was firing” You seriously think the win over Man City in the semi last year was some sort of blueprint? The Chelsea match was better but we have to admit that there were moments that fell into place in that one such as their sending off. But in both those matches we were playing the underdog role with Man City semi very extreme in that regard. You think it was a blueprint? If not a blueprint then not much to take away from it really was there in terms of… Read more »
Tom
“If you were still Wenger in based on his winning three FA cups”
Did Wenger ever “shithouse” FA Cup wins though?
I think he did once against Man United in the final and he wasn’t that happy with the manner in which he won it.
“brownie, try totalsportek or VIPbox. lots of pop ups but generally tends to have a link or two. or download live sport tv app.”
Thanks curse
Only an idiot would trash our last FA cup trophy success. Whichever way you want to down it, we actually defeated some good teams on the way to the final. These are the same know nothing that keep praising Emery for making Europa final in which he was trashed to high heaven. Glad the support the team get on match day negates what the usual posters were painting and hoping for. Enough of all these Saliba stuff to beat the manager because he is still out player and everyone is happy he is doing well over there except some who… Read more »
The FA Cup itself is not being trashed.
We are talking about Arteta’s failure to advance and progress from that FA Cup win.
Leno; Cedric, Holding, Mari, Tavares; Sambi, Partey, Maitland-Niles; Martinelli, Lacazette, Nketiah.
From reading the posts above, it appears that Pedro’s posts have had an opposite reaction. Time to give up the Cambridge Analytics type of opinion management.
Money has not been well spent. Time to let go being lapdog medium
Arteta gambles on Partey. If he plays more than the first half, then I am mad.
Arsenal subs vs AFC Wimbledon: Hein, Chambers, Kolasinac, Elneny, Smith Rowe, Saka, Balogun.
A couple important factoids that might shine some light on Arteta’s FA cup win and give it some additional perspective, without taking credit away from him for his achievement. – Chelsea have lost three of their past 10 FA Cup final matches, with all three coming against Arsenal. – The Gunners have won each of their past seven FA Cup final appearances since 2002. No team has had a longer run of successive final triumphs in the competition. Not like he took a club with zero history in this competition and delivered a feat previously unmatched. Arsenal own this competition,… Read more »
Tom
“Not like he took a club with zero history in this competition and delivered a feat previously unmatched.”
I’m not sure that what your saying has any relevance, it is and always will be difficult to win any trophy in England ….ask Pochettino and OGS
Another strange selection – Nketiah and Laca both playing
3 defensive midfielders
Kola on bench – why??
no place for Patino – huge opportunity lost esp as not using a CAM
Tom – what a bizarre comment – why would a past record of wins (by different managers and teams) make any difference to your chances of winning the FA Cup?
This team and bench selection once again underlines that MA has no commitment at all to developing the next gen. Really disappointing
No Patino????
Thought he would play or at least be on the bench.
Elneny is though.
Arteta cautious as ever.
Northbanker
“Another strange selection – Nketiah and Laca both playing3 defensive midfielders”
Will more than likely be 4-3-3 with eddie on the left but more inside left , same with Martinelli on the right.
Will more than likely be 4-3-3 with eddie on the left but more inside left , same with Martinelli on the right.
Martinelli usually plays on the left though.
Third Arsenal match in a row that is not televised in the UK, and 4th in 5 games.
It really is a bizarre, bizarre broadcasting model we have in this country.
Imagine supporting a ‘big club’ but there’s no way to ‘legitimately’ watch most games so far this season live, even if you’re paying out your nose for Sky / BT. It’s a whole model and mindset from a complete different era.
Not upset that we went strong for this one. But I will be disappointed against spurs if the Lokonga- Partey pivot isn’t back. If this somehow means Xhaka will walk straight back in to the XI against spurs, I will lose it. He deserves to earn his place back and we are doing much better without him.
Habesha
You know the answer to this already man
If this somehow means Xhaka will walk straight back in to the XI against spurs, I will lose it. He deserves to earn his place back and we are doing much better without him.
who’s got a stream?
Anyone got a link for todays game?
Zacharse
thorough
i bet bissoumas wages would have been 2-3 times that of lokonga if wed signed him. i’d like to see him at arsenal but the reality is thast xhakas gotta leave before there’s going to be room for another proven talent in
Exactly why the team containing Bissouma doesn’t include Xhaka. It takes a ridiculously dumb coach to miss out on 2 chances of selling Xhaka.
It takes a downright moron to offer him an extension.
Elmo – totally agree – I’m paying through the nose for mainly football subscriptions and now thats 3 games without. It really annoys me that we cant buy a digital season ticket for TV to see every game. That wouldn’t affect my decision to go to games proper at all. All other teams i can make do with highlights
Welcome to what it was like in the US prior to the EPL being shown on fox.
its called keep refreshing your browser. thats about it.
Dark ages again. lol
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/58566905
we are up one nil
Yeah Guns – think we’re all aware of that site thanks
There is no stream for the game.