‘Toughness’ of Arteta called into question

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I am in LA this week. Outside my hotel? Drip Doctors. That weird little place Samir Nasri went to get an intravenous drip. I am going to head in their tomorrow and ask for whatever he had.

Back onto Arsenal. Arteta landed a vote of no-confidence from Henry Winter on the Sunday Supplement. He’s strongly against the Spaniard, citing Diego Simeone as the man we need to sort out the soft underbelly of the weak Arsenal stars.

“Arsenal need a complete clear out – they need a strong, experienced, individual to address the failings,”

“Someone needs to go in and sort out that dressing room, to get rid of Shkodran Mustafi and to coach Hector Bellerin.

“How many world class players are there in that squad? Mesut Ozil, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang?

“They need a Diego Simeone type. Someone who is tough and can get into that soft dressing room, that soft boardroom – there is a soft executive feel at that club. There is a malaise that runs right through the club, which won’t be solved by Wenger going – he was only partly the cause of it. They need stronger individuals in there.”

“Arteta was part of the problem with the Wenger era in terms of he was supposed to be a leader there when the club was drifting. He’s got to explain how he can break that.”

Aggressive words there, and I’m sure many Arsenal fans will buy into them. But for me, they’re off the mark.

The notion of a big scary coach is an old-fashioned one. You can’t shout your way to success these days, and I have my doubts that fear and intimidation is how Diego is extracting the most from his players so consistently.

I also don’t know where the notion that Arteta isn’t tough comes from? He left Spain to play in France, before taking his pretty boy looks up to Glasgow (which is a pretty brutal league and city). Then he played at Everton for years, before coming to a broken Arsenal that was replacing Cesc and Nasri. We didn’t drop out the top 4 under Arteta. In his last season, we made 2nd for the first time since 2005.

This piece out of Per’s book gives you a good idea of how bad things were under Wenger.

The youth players who were promoted to the first team smiled at these exercises. They thought we were meditating. They were happy with the ball at their feet but for everything else there was a lack of desire. “I play football and go to training. That’s enough.”

Footballers are used to working only three hours a day. And out of the three hours they are at the training ground they are on their mobiles for half of that.

A lot of players don’t even know what maximum is – for them it is about having fun on the pitch. But there is more to being a professional than that.

In the autumn of 2017 an under-18 player came and asked whether we could sit down for a chat. I nearly fell over, I was so surprised. That hadn’t happened in the six and a half years I had been there. He wanted to speak to me about leadership.

I used a lot of energy trying to convince team-mates they should do more for their bodies and try new things. But working long term to improve their weaknesses? Hardly anyone.

I just cannot imagine being a young pro and not wanting to leech the experience from a World Cup winner like Per! I told you the real story about how average Wenger was would  creep out once he retired, there’s a little snippet.

Malaise doesn’t come from the players, it comes from the manager. When you’re at Arsenal’s level, there isn’t really such thing as a lazy professional, just an unmotivated one.

Just look at how many players left Arsenal during the banter years and won major honours. Look at how many great players came in and went totally off the rails. It was never about the players, it was always about a bad manager who didn’t care about the details.

The weakness at the executive level that Henry mentioned appears to have been addressed. We’ve hired the exSporting Director of Barcelona. We’ve hired in the best scout in the world. We hired in an elite contracts guy. Stan has taken a back seat to Josh K, who knows if that’s a good move, all I know is Wenger is gone and Josh has been here 14minutes.

Ivan is making the right moves.

He’s also making an ambitious play with his manager. He’s ignoring calls for a big name… and remember, the same folk calling for a winner were probably celebrating LVG at United, and then his subsequent replacement in Mourinho.

No one guarantees success, and the people least likely to give you that are the ones that have already failed. Carlo doesn’t have the ideas to better Pep, especially at a team that doesn’t have anywhere near the resources he’s had at previous clubs. Enrique and Allegri have already thrown in the towel, both leaking that they’d need £200m to do the job. Arsenal need a coach who is ambitious to do great things with the tools he has at his disposal. Klopp is doing it at Liverpool at the moment, he didn’t bitch about money. He just cracked on.

Arteta is a risk, but for me, the rewards on offer are very exciting should it work out. Give me someone with desire over a hack just in it for the pay bump. Just look at Conte this season, all he wants is a payoff and a nice sabbatical. Chelsea means nothing to him.

If you’re going to write off Arteta, let’s make sure we’re slamming him for the right reasons. Critiquing him for not being a tough guy is a nonsense. Alluding to needing a strong manager to scare the exec suite is also a bit of a myth. I’ve read so many people say the club are only hiring Arteta because they can control him.

THINK ABOUT THAT

No club in the world wants to hire a manager they can’t control, because a business is a structure built on hierarchy, values and respect. Accepting an out of control manager shows you are weak and insecure about what you want. It’s certainly not something any club would actively seek out. We’ve literally just binned a manager who bossed the board, and that problem took 10 years to solve.

The main stick to beat Arteta with is experience. He hasn’t managed a top club, and that’s certainly an issue when it comes to optics. However, we’ve seen countless examples of rookies crushing it this season, so if his ideas and vision for the club were exciting in the interview and the references check out… then you have an exciting problem.

Hopefully we’ll find out the decision this week…

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Redtruth

Lol yippee now lets all get behind Dick Emery….

champagne charlie

If Emery can bring Rabiot with him that’d be great…

Danish Gooner

Great,my personal favourite.

Akilan

Finally Le Grove can stop arguing about Arteta. Nobody knows anything about Arteta’s credentials, still we were arguing about him for a week. Thank fuck for the sake of our fans at least.

Let the Unai battle commence.

Freddie Ljungberg

Well, thank fuck for that, maybe they’re not completely incompetent after all, that’s a relief.
Please bring Rabiot and Draxler with you.

Elmo

Emery makes sense, if it is to be him.

Did good work at Sevilla, creating prestige for the club while not being anywhere near the biggest financial players in the league, and successfully collaborated with vaunted DoF Monchi, so he’ll be in tune with how our new structure works.

The appointment of his number 2 will be absolutely critical; he’s an outsider, so ideally it would be a club man, and someone with the reputation and gravitas to impose order on the dressing room.

Gooner63

Emery – “you are awful but we like you”

Redtruth

AKB’s must be gutted lol

Emiratesstroller

Your source needs sacking.
Arsdnal will promote from within lol

champagne charlie

You can never unsee it……

https://imgur.com/gallery/qT0NRSC

Danny

At least no bloody Arteta.

salpardisenyc

Only Arsenal could downgrade on Wenger.

Redtruth

Great news …..

Danish Gooner

Emery is an elite coach,he completely out thought Enrique at Barca and Klopp at Pool.He is very savy and tactically far superior to Wenger.

Vinca Rosea

Yes!! Bloody hell the last few days were agony. He’s got my vote; thank
Goodness not Arteta ! Sensible choice!

Gooner63

Only Arsenal could downgrade on Wenger.

wtf it could have been a toad and it would have been an upgrade

TR7

Emery appointment is a big disappointment as far as I am concerned. I don’t see what he brings to the table.

BacaryisGod

The important thing is for everyone to give the man a chance. So what if he slightly underperformed at PSG. He’s clearly a high pedigree manager and who cares if he brings in his assistants. They don’t need to be former Arsenal players. I would rather it be his preferred people so he can hit the ground running.

Danish Gooner

Emery is a tactical mastermind and dont accept bullshit performances,some of these Arsenal players will run crying home to mommy !!!!!

Paul Mc Daid

Sheer Relief,
A Proper Manager with Credientials.

Dissenter

Unai Emery it is
Orstein has twitted…the deed is done
All that fighting. To think I put off a fine poster in Receding hairline for nothing 🙂

Guns of SF

If it is Emery then Im happy with that. I think the club got their thinking straight. He makes sense, and ticks a lot of boxes. he will not be here 22 years, but will hopefully improve the team. He has the experience.
Good pick from the board.
Fredddie!!!! Im with you – bring Drax and Rabiot please…..!!!!!! Ill even take that crock Alves.!

Danish Gooner

He will get more time at Arsenal to work with his squad then he got at PSG.My PSG mate think he is the perfect manager for Arsenal,still young,very ambitious and tactically very astute.

Vinca Rosea

Good blend of pedigree and progression to handle our babies – PSG is another level of prima donnas! Happy middle between old experience head and young trailblazer. Good stuff

Guns of SF

Emery is a tactical mastermind and dont accept bullshit performances,some of these Arsenal players will run crying home to mommy !!!!!

LOL!!!!

TheLegendaryDB10

Elmo

The appointment of his number 2 will be absolutely critical; 

This is where I wouldn’t mind seeing Arteta as number 2. He would get to learn from being at the sides of an experienced manager and not be just “number 5” with Pep. This would be a step up for him before, who knows, getting the actual job as manager/head coach.

Ozy

Pedro must be in tears now that Arteta doesn’t sound so certain.

Dissenter

It seems the board punctured Gazidis plan and grew a back bone for once
Arteta’s camp are saying he rejected Arsenal

Pedro
You backed a loser 🙂

Pierre

TR7
“Emery appointment is a big disappointment as far as I am concerned. I don’t see what he brings to the table.”

Moules mariniere for starters

Dissenter

BREAKING: Arsenal to appoint Unai Emery as new manager. Thorough process produced 46yo Spaniard as unanimous choice. Available after leaving #PSG (1 Lg1 title, 4 cups), previously Sevilla (3 EL wins), not fluent English. Announcement + press conference likely later this week #AFC

Pierre

Shit… He’s Spanish

Vinca Rosea

And being Turkish might find a way through to the bug eyed one.

Waldo

Emery out….

Wait, too soon??? (Har har har)

Great to see an expernced club level manager instead of Arteta or the German national coach.

Dissenter

I’m waiting to see what type of tap-dancing Pedro will do with his next post

Arteta for man city manager in 2022

Guns of SF

Go Emery!
Show us what you can do…

Any links to the Arteta camps saying he rejected Arsenal… shit this just came down so fast….

Ozy

Oh, Emery basically confirmed? I can get behind that.

TR7

Are people really happy with Emery or just relieved it’s not Arteta?

Pierre you rate him?

Bankz

Now Pedro can stop trying to shove Arteta down our throats.
I’m not a big fan of Emery but surely he is 10 times better than Arteta as an option

Guns of SF

He is Spanish not Turkish

Dissenter

The board revolted against Gazidis and his minions.
The old bastards rose up

WengerEagle

Need to have a word with your ITK mate there CC.

Assume he’s already on course for a beatdown for costing you the few bob you stuck on Allegri no doubt.

😉

Dissenter

TR7
“Are people really happy with Emery or just relieved it’s not Arteta?”

Yes to question # 1
Yes to question # 2

WengerEagle

Not bowled over by Emery tbh, bit of an underwhelming choice given the calibre of gaffers out there.

Dissenter

Wenger Eagle
“Not bowled over by Emery tbh, bit of an underwhelming choice given the calibre of gaffers out there.”

He’s available …that was the tipping point.
He also did fantastically well as Seville. He used to be the brightest young thong in Spanish coaching to be honest.

salpardisenyc

Such a meh choice.

The same Emery who finished 7 points behind Monaco in his first season, spending double? Same season finished 2nd in Champions league group to Wenger, then bottled a 4 goal lead in the knockout stages loosing 6-1 at the Nou?

If you can’t do it at PSG with that budget, not sure how one arrives at conclusion he’s the guys to take Arsenal forward.

Much stronger choices in Jardim or Sarri if you’re going that direction.

WengerEagle

Will be interesting to see who he brings over with him from Paris.

Draxler, Rabiot and Meunier would be very nice, maybe even swing a Guedes deal?

Vinca Rosea

Ah oops , that’ll learn me…

TheLegendaryDB10

Guns of SF

He is Spanish not Turkish

Moules marinières is a French speciality.

Steveyg87

“The board revolted against Gazidis and his minions.
The old bastards rose up”

They put up with Wengers sh!t for over 2 decades, doubt they did anything of the sort

Elmo

DB10

Arteta would now make perfect sense as the number 2: young, ambitious, a club man, can give instruction on the PL to new gaffer, bi-lingual in Spanish and English to help Emery in early days.

But it simply won’t happen now as in his mind he would be losing too much face, having interviewed for the top job, and has the comfort of continuing under Guardiola at City.

Leedsgunner

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44203679

Am I late to the party?

Excellent, excellent news.

This is a good day for the Arsenal.

A bit about the new boss’s tactics!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PebERzMJGqk

Time to unite behind the club.

Gooner63

people need to realise we are not gonna be winning the league or CL any time soon

so now we have a manager who has recently won league and europa league titles and hopefully can get us top 4

thats about the best we gonna get for the next few years

hopefully will bring a few top players with him, or at least improvements on some of the dross we got

onwards n upwards

champagne charlie

Weagle

haha not at all mate, he can only pass on what he hears. At that time it was very much systems go for Allegri, it’s been 3/4 people since.

Dissenter

AKB is now EKB

WengerEagle

gambon must be happy, pretty sure Emery was his guy.

Dissenter

Arteta will be a great number two for Emery, a perfect one.

TR7

Fine Dissenter

I think he lost what was a one horse race to Monaco, blew away a 4-0 lead in CL and his PSG team never looked elite in Europe despite numerous top class players. I find nothing special about him but that’s just me.

Jeff

Just heard. Emery is going to be our new manager.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44203679

I can live with that. Good luck to him of course. He checks the tick boxes that I favoured which were that he should not be a failure from the PL and he should have some pedigree and experience of having managed a big club. They don’t come much bigger than PSG. I’m glad the board came to their senses – Arteta indeed.

WengerEagle

CC

You reckon Guedes is gettable?

He’s been great for Valencia but hard to envisage him breaking into that PSG side in the next few years if Di Maria and Draxler aren’t even able to.

Dissenter

Emery’s teams play beautiful football though. We may still need to bring in assistant managers that can teach the art and pride of defending.

Uk bubbler

It’s fair to say not one manager would please all the fans. Atleast this appointment if 100% has sound reasoning. No manager guarantee success, so Iam willing to get behind this appointment. Hows he with defence?

TheLegendaryDB10

Elmo

I know what you mean, but then again if he wants to fast track himself to the job it would be a good way of doing it. Unless he decides to take the hard way and manage a smaller club to learn and prove what he is made of.

Buckhurst Gun

“didn’t cover himself in glory in France”

Really ? Thought he just won the domestic treble
Out there ?

Leedsgunner

Arteta’s time will come, it’s just that now… let him earn his spurs elsewhere and make his mistakes somewhere else.

Leedsgunner

*it’s NOT now

WengerEagle

Dissenter

Yes he’s available but we all know that Allegri would have jumped at the chance to manage in the BPL on a bumper salary and test himself against the best coaches in the world on a weekly basis in Pep, Klopp, Mourinho, Conte, etc.

There’s nothing else left for Allegri to so in Italy, he isn’t winning the CL with Juventus, that much is clear.

Wallace

I’m good with Emery. very solid choice, although was very keen to see what Arteta could bring.

WengerEagle

‘I think he lost what was a one horse race to Monaco, blew away a 4-0 lead in CL and his PSG team never looked elite in Europe despite numerous top class players. I find nothing special about him but that’s just me.’

Not just you, agree with all that.

Pierre

TR7
Yes I do rate him.. I like his style of football.. He has a quality forward line to work with and I believe he will sort out the spine of our team… Starting with the keeper

champagne charlie

Weagle

There’s a lot of talk about a loan deal for Ousmane Dembele, so not sure about Guedes.

What seems quite certain though is Emery finding a partner for Xhaka in a midfield pivot. Though how much of a say on transfers is yet to materialise.

WengerEagle

‘Thought he just won the domestic treble
Out there ?’

One-horse league now, they crushed the competition when they signed M’Bappe.

Didn’t help that Monaco had B Silva, Mendy, Bakayoko purged too.

Akilan

“OzyMay 21, 2018 20:14:57
Pedro must be in tears now that Arteta doesn’t sound so certain.”

He’s having a meltdown.

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

I have a lot of old football that I need to get rid off
Any serious suggestions ?

champagne charlie

Monaco’s success is being criminally undervalued here, that season they were a ball hair from being THE best team in Europe.

Tip your cap to Jardim instead of deride Emery imo.

Dissenter

TR7 PSG belongs to Neymar. Neymar’s entrance into the club divided it into the pre-Neymar and anti-Neymar. I think Emery struggled to handle a star who was managed by the hierarchy as untouchable, moist managers would have struggled in that power dynamic too. Monaco has a perfect season the year before, it was an extended purple patch that was perhaps unmatchable. I wanted a defensive style coach like Simeone or Jardim. I wanted us to go back to ‘tough-to- beat” and 1-0 to the Arsenal”. Unai Mery was not on my radar but will do for now to stabilize the… Read more »

WengerEagle

CC

I’d do one better and simply replace Xhaka with Rabiot who is just a much better footballer.

Then look for a partner for Rabiot.

Dissenter

CC
“Tip your cap to Jardim instead of deride Emery imo.”

Words of wisdom, well spoken

Dissenter

There was talk that City wanted us to pay compensation for Arteta.

TR7

Pierre

‘He has a quality forward line to work with and I believe he will sort out the spine of our team… Starting with the keeper’

Reading Cech has been given no 1 jersey 🙂

Leedsgunner

Neymar for Arsenal? 😉

gazzap

Emery often played Adrien Rabiot, Thiago Motta, and Marco Verratti together and it didn’t work. No ball winner in there. thats a slight worry but he did use one at Seville. Last year when he needed up upgrade the defence and midfield he actually went and spent money up front again. remind you of anyone? Emery not suited to managing a possession-based team. I don’t necessarily mind that. I am happy if he is allowed to manage in his style and get us winning again. but we’ll see how players like Miki, Lacazette, and Auba take it. but overall for… Read more »

WengerEagle

‘Tip your cap to Jardim instead of deride Emery imo.’

Fair, doesn’t excuse blowing a 4-0 lead to Barca though.

zaco

I wish to apologize to the likes of ES, as it has not (last minute) turned out, Alegri is no longer coming, now Emry gets it, I’m happy and sees him (Emry) as a better option than Arteta and will unite the fan base better than an Arteta appointment at this stage of his (Arteta) coaching career.

Gooner63

its weird

for so long every season has been just as expected

now cant wait for the season to start -excited

COME ON ARSENAL

Radio Raheem

Well said Sal but as a manager of a ‘developmental’ club, Sevilla, Emery did well.

Question is are we a developmental club ? Perhaps so but not to the extent of Sevilla.

Interesting appointment can’t wait to see how it goes.

Marko

Emery knows best

champagne charlie

Cech new number 1
Elneny new number 4
Xhaka new 34
Bellerin new number 2

A sign none of them are leaving?

Leedsgunner

“There was talk that City wanted us to pay compensation for Arteta.”

Did we offer them 2 packets of crisps and a £1? (To represent his managerial experience to date obviously.)

WengerEagle

Yeah Defo don’t see this as a long-term appointment.

Fuck it, best of luck to him.

Could have been worse boys, could have been Moyes.

London gunner

Men and women of le grove

Sell me on emery! What are his plus points?

What’s he good at?

What’s he known for?

I’d actually add it be better to look at his career at sevilla as opposed to PSG to see what he can do at Arsenal

So anyone fill me in on his sevilla career?

Dissenter

Does anyone think Emery wanted Neymar and Mbappe?
PSG would have done better without all the drama. He basically had to play two players no matter what. Think of what that does to a dressing room.
This is probably heresy but PSG is similar to the old galactico model of Real Madrid.

London gunner

Not moaning about emery there is rationale behind it unlike Arteta.

But I wonder why jardim wasn’t even in contention?

WengerEagle

Whatever about keeping Hector and having Cech as a wiley old no.2, fucking hope we don’t have to watch anymore of the Elneny-Xhaka midfield…

champagne charlie

“Fair, doesn’t excuse blowing a 4-0 lead to Barca though”

Ehh, judging on a one off game? That’s a bit rich I think.

I tend to think players should take a larger dose of blame in that situation than managers. They lost their nerve, didn’t execute, and ultimately got turned over. Barcelona are also Barcelona for the record, so pinch of salt required.

Ultimately I wouldn’t judge so harshly on that, Emery exits a club that has one ambition = CL winners.

Wallace

CC

“Monaco’s success is being criminally undervalued here, that season they were a ball hair from being THE best team in Europe. Tip your cap to Jardim instead of deride Emery imo.”

yup.

salpardisenyc

“Fair, doesn’t excuse blowing a 4-0 lead to Barca though.”

Or bottling it in Ludogrets thus finishing 2nd in group to Arsenal to face Barca in round of 16. Which I thought was our birthright.

Dissenter

Wenger Eagle
Could have been worse boys, could have been Moyes.
Actually it sould have been a novice manager using Arsenal to feel his way around. I’ll leave out the name because feelings are still raw right now.

WengerEagle

Yeah dunno weird alright considering as well that Emery is very mild-mannered and doesn’t speak English, two of the main critical points of Jardim by those against his appointment.

Redtruth

WTF did Guardiola do when he joined the best team in Europe….flopped in Europe….