Well, here we are my darlings, another day of planning our way out of this mess. This will be a joy-scroll, buckle up, it’ll be fun.
So, let’s get the bad news out of the way. It’s not good times on the injury front for Thomas Partey. If he’s fucked the same thing he fucked before, he’s going to be out of contention for maybe 8 weeks. That would be a huge blow to the project. You can understand why Mikel and his team took the chance. A willing player and a shit situation, but the reality is, they took a huge risk on a game we weren’t likely to win. Short term thinking to save a sinking season. Now the ship is sunk, then gamble looks a poor one.
The shame is that Gabriel M will be back early. He safely passed through 45 minutes of football and he’s well on his way to the first team. A huge moment for the team. He is the exact profile of player you want to see Arsenal stock up on going forward. He’s young, he’s hungry, he’s terrifying because he works like a dog, he wants to grow with the team.
As we move into December, Mikel Arteta needs to reshape the way he operates. He needs to bin the players who let him down, even if they’re the good guys behind the scenes. The fragility in this squad is both attitude, and sadly, functional purpose to the system.
Thomas Partey exiting the starting 11 should not be another opportunity for players that have been given countless chances under countless managers. It’s time to try something new.
The most obvious candidate for a run in the side is Ainsley Maitland-Niles. I can not longer tolerate the idea that he isn’t the correct choice for our midfield. I have seen the others fail, I know what the best is with them, it’s time to give someone a career here and coach the bad bits out.
Ainsley has the correct athletic profile. We’ve seen him pocket Traore. We’ve seen him control City attackers. When he is on, he is something we don’t have in the squad at Arsenal. He’s mobile, he’s dynamic, he has an underrated passing range and he should be developed.
The mistakes Arteta has made are clear. He wanted to shortcut to the Champions League and he made bum decisions that should have been rectified by a strong Technical Director. David Luiz, Auba, and Willian were not good decisions. Thinking he could take a squad where the senior players were either dreaming of their retirement or Bosman signings was fanciful.
The first stage of rectifying bad phase in the workplace is to identify the biggest problems you have. I don’t think Mikel has looked at himself, I don’t think he has people in his staff that are correcting him, but if he wants to escape this moment, it’s time to admit where it’s going wrong.
If you put 100 problems up on a wall at Arsenal and found the core patterns, you’d land on:
- Senior players letting the club down because they don’t give a fuck on and off the pitch. Auba is in the mixer I’m afraid.
- The wrong talent profile of players to operate a coherrant system so it’s functional
- Young players not ready to hit the heights of the ambition the club promised in the summer
Now, clearly it’s an oversimplification, but I write a blog, I don’t run corporate workshops of beleaguered football clubs.
But solve those three problems and you steady the fanbase, you show true leadership by admitting your vision wasn’t right, and you give people a taste of where things are going in a lower pressure environment.
The young players aren’t ready.
That’s a major problem if you are kidding the world Arsenal will be more than a midtable side this season. If Arteta starts dealing in truth, namely, the squad he enabled for another season is not fit for purpose, we can move forward.
If he sets out a new plan, one that works to his strengths, the fans might buy it. Arteta is a great coach, he will work better with kids than senior players who don’t care for developing, so focus on the kids.
At this point, most of us would be over the moon if we shifted to a Hale-Enders project. Fuck the players that never change. Give me a kid that sees Arsenal as the biggest opportunity in their world. Fuck the players thinking about their retirement fund and unauthorised weekends away with Salt Bae. Fuck the player that think they are too good for Europa. We are tired of those that think their seniority and past achievements mean they don’t have to hit the required level.
Being honest gives Arteta permission to play the system he wants to play. Will it make top 4? No. Will we get spanked occasionally? Yes. Will there be days when we turn it on and everyone salivates? Absolutely. The mission here is to show the fans where the football could go when we bring in more quality players that can do the things required.
The Hale-Enders aren’t perfect, but they sure as hell give more of a shit than the preferred starting 11 on offer now. You think Balogun is going to fuck his chance to be a big player? You think ESR would be static when a midfielder breaks the lines from deep? You think Reiss Nelson isn’t going to bleed to be a part of Arsenal’s future?
I have consistently written about Arsenal not being honest about their situation over the years. We have constantly let our ‘rep’ get in the way of the rebuild. In messy business rebuild, you have to go to the bottom to build back up. The foundations need to be set properly. You need good process. Then you build the right talent density to move things up a level. You get some things right, some wrong, but if the mission is clear, your rectify mistakes early and move incrementally forward on a quarterly basis
Arsenal has been unwilling to do the hard work. So many of our decisions are half baked. Ivan goes? Give the job to two unqualified people. Sven Mislintat quits because he was horrified by the antics of a horror show of a Football Director. What do we do? We let that soiled director carry on and replace scouting expertise with a coterie of shite super agents. We then hire a Technical Director that arrived via a super agent. Hire an inexperienced manager, watch him do some great work, then PROMOTE HIM almost immediately to a manager on the same level as the Technical Director people don’t rate.
Wow… the banter of that paragraph was intense.
Arsenal do not like hard work. They do not like a plan. They cannot be honest about the path forward being hard, so they shortcut it over and over. The hardest thing to do in football is to admit to fans that things are going to be shit for a bit, to show patience, and commit to something that makes sense.
We should be re-upping Project Youth. Imagine that team with the spine we have now? We’d be a top 3 side.
Arsenal should move to a Dortmund+ model. Come to Arsenal, give us 3 seasons, we’ll give you game time at the best stadium in London, and we’ll make you famous. Then you can fuck off for £100m.
Sign athletes. Sign players that care more about self-improvement than money (Balogun is agitating for game time, not £90k a week). Sign players with high ceilings. Make Arsenal a destination for progressive football.
I would buy that vision. You would buy that vision. It’d be exciting. It’d allow us to get back to an identity. It’d bring in a new fanbase. It would mean when we do make the Champions League, we’d actually have a squad that could compete for it, not disintegrate because they were injecting themselves with horse placenta to make it to the team bus.
Strong leadership is needed to admit that what is going on right now is not taking us the promised land. We need a new direction. Tough decisions need to be made around staffing, players, and the hard work ahead. The only way Arteta gets back on track is to do something different. He fucked the summer, his ambitions were too big for his belly, his idea has no chance of success, he has to change that now and craft a path forward and save his career.
Time to roll up the sleeves. He can do it. Does he have the cajones to? Jury is out…
LISTEN TO OUR NEW PODCAST. Matt and I talk about the root cause of our issues. Leadership, hard work, and lack of strategy… still. We also talk some positives as well.
Wengaball
**What exactly is he good at? ****
Bullshite.
One of all the time great Bullshitters is Mikel.
And to achieve that in UK soccer , is no mean feat.Because its absolutley choc full of them.
He will be soon sweet talking another silly club around too after this one and take his own non negotiable tripe there and Round will come to play as well.
Probably thats why the media love him so much.
CG
I don’t think Arteta’s even good at bullshit – it’s cringe worthy watching him now.
The media love him because he’s an easy story.
Wengaball
The Martinez situation was difficult. Didn’t seem like much of a market for Leno as we would have wanted at least the £22m we paid for him. Martinez wanted to play every week and we needed the money.
Straw poll:
If we could have Wenger back just for the rest of season, bearing in mind he was a master of bringing through young players to the senior team…
Yes or no?
Pedro Excellent article. It’s a shit show and has been for years. This goes beyond Arteta as it did Wenger. As you say: ‘Strong leadership is needed to admit that what is going on right now is not taking us the promised land. We need a new direction. Tough decisions need to be made around staffing, players, and the hard work ahead. ‘ Arsenal are a lazy club and I’m afraid it comes right from the top. Therefore, It does baffle me exactly why you give Stan and Co. a free pass. It’s as if he’s got nothing to do… Read more »
Spanish dave
He won the FA cup.
Alexander
Fuck off with the no money bullshit – we’ve spent a fortune.
Leeds
Yes to Arsene. I miss him.
Marc
Not for years after we moved to the stadium.
..and there;’s no reason to be be so fucking rude- so fuck you.
We saw it coming towards the end of last season Arteta couldn’t push for the top 4 when we had more than a decent chance to do so. We lost vital points we shouldn’t have Mostly because of Arteta’s shocking in game management and choice of substitutes And also of individual errors by serial offenders that he hoarded and still keeps playing All were highlighted here by most of the le grove faithful Guendouzi was made a scapegoat along with others. Olympiacos game was the ultimate horror show . We won the cup and thought things would improve, unfortunately it… Read more »
Alexander
What about the last 5 or 6 years? How much have we spent? How much have we squandered?
Hundreds of millions. You constant push this idea that the Kroenke’s are bleeding the club dry – they are not. Are they guilty of allowing the club to be run badly – yes. Are they guilty of not allowing the club to spend money – no.
G8
Agree – and what’s worrying is Guendozi was the scapegoat last season, right now it’s Auba, how long before it’s Martinelli?
Marc
After we moved, we were one of the lowest nett spenders in the PL for at least five seasons. That’s why we slipped out of contention and that’s why we were unable to recruit top players and consistently lost the better players we had. This, all because we had to conform to the Kroenke financial model.
We haven’t recovered since then.
Alexanderhenry – the Kroenkes are on record as stating that they had never refused Wenger any money that he asked for to spend on transfers. Wenger is also on record stating that if they had given him £100m he would have given it back. You may also recall that we magically found £100m+ down the back of the sofa after years of claiming to be poor – remember that huge cash surplus in the accounts year on year. We were restricted, but by Wenger’s ego, not a lack of resources. And don’t even get me started on our ridiculous wage… Read more »
andy
‘the Kroenkes are on record as stating that they had never refused Wenger any money that he asked for to spend on transfers.’
..and you believe that? I don’t.
alexander – what was our wage bill during that period? What was the famous quote from PHW and what was Wengers reply?
Alexander We moved in 2006 – you say we didn’t spend for 5 or so seasons? That’s almost 10 years ago, Liverpool have come from nowhere to winning the CL and PL in that time. Looks at the money we’ve spent (and seen much of itwasted) over the last few years – Sanchez effectively leaving for free, Ramsey leaving for free, £70 million on Mustafi and Xhaka with Mustafi leaving on a free in 6 months, Ozil’s contract. The list goes on and on. It amazes me that the Kroenke’s will give anyone more money to spend with how we’ve… Read more »
HAHAHAHA pedro It is amusing watching your rollercoasters. Auba has never been poor. you championed his extension as a neccessary thing to do in the summer. He is not playing well right mow but he is still a major piece in our jigsaw. And you were also defending the indefensible xhaka. I am glad you have changed your mind on him. Yes we should give arteta a bit more time but I dont think he has proved he is a great coach either. you repeat this hoping everyone changes their mind. And you say that someone should have told him… Read more »
What is CG’s new moniker?
We pay Özil £350k a week to play fortnite and keep himself in shape for his next club. Don’t tell me we don’t have money.
Sad to see Pedro continuously making up excuses for MA, is it pride that stops him admitting the truth anyway if he keeps it up pretty soon like excuses he will have no credibility left.
Wasi
It’s South African Gooner
Plus the Kronkes gave the club £45m to buy Partey straight up. A player that Arteta has utterly mismanaged most likely for the rest of the season.
Don’t tell me we don’t have money! We just spend it very badly!
@Marc 1224
Well said!
Leeds
Describing what we’ve done as spending badly is an understatement of epic proportions.
It’s more interesting at the moment reading the comments instead of the blog itself, which seems now to just mostly be using expletives to support whatever the veil argument is.
That really is bottom of the barrel stuff….
If the season is fucked already, and Arsenal are going to stay at 10th or 12th, who needs Edu? Who needs Arteta? Sack them both. Bastards who bought Willian shd be hanged upside down. Cunts who cud not buy Aouar be hanged. Cunts who let players like Bellingham and Lamptey pass through should be hanged.
Cunts who make Xhaka play for Arsenal have no place. Let both these ex-players leave now!!!!!
Shame on LG posts. Desperately sticking to errors of misjudging Arteta.
Marc
I don’t disagree, but those austerity years put us at a major disadvantage even though we were still able to finish top four- a position the club now covets above all else ironically.
In recent years we have spent- but badly and also appointed badly, negotiated badly, communicated badly and somehow it’s got nothing to do with the ownership.
Where does the buck stop in the end.
there is a lot of defending Arteta with all sorts of Arsenal bad decision making of the past and if you sack the manager you will not solve anything …..but in reality the problem is now , if Arteta has lost the dressing room , which seems likely from the player performance then he will have to go, in my opinion it is imperative he gets something out of the Burnley game AND HAS TO AVOID THE LOSS AT ALL COSTS if Burnley beat us at home then Arteta will be on extremely thin ice as a lot of the… Read more »
andy 1886 Yes I do know what Arteta’s plan is: to return Arsenal to the elite Nobody knows for sure how to get there, not even Arteta. But what we DO know are his ground rules with regard to,personnel, most of which have been enumerated: hard work, commitment, etc. But to get that, he needed the players to believe in him. From the start, his emphasis was on the young and vigorous. But, perforce, he was stuck with players he would rather be rid of. No doubt he would have replaced them, if he could, in the summer. But for… Read more »
How come a good poster like ‘englandsbest’ can get so obsessed with Arteta like this?
Some people will rather us play in the championship for the first time in our history than to fire Arteta.
eb
I bet criminals are fucking glad you’re not a defence Barrister because they’d all end up hanging.
“I know they did it but they promise to not do it again”
With every word you defend Arteta with you make the case for sacking him stronger.
When Emery came and everybody was salivating because he had the right message, I was sceptic, because he had the same initial message at PSG and it quickly went pear shaped because of his flaw and the dichotomy between what was said and what was done. When Arteta came, I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt as he was a blank canvas without any history positive or negative as a manager. However what I am seeing is rookie mistakes after rookie mistakes but also bad judgements and bad decisions not due to inexperience but to character… Read more »
We’ll have fans in the ground for the first time in a PL match on Sunday – does anyone think Arteta will get any stick from them?
About rectifying the 100 faults, specially about players not being adequate for a system is like putting the cart before the horse. We start a season with the staff we have and if we want to succeed we have to devise a system to fit the personnel. I will not ramble on WHO is responsible for quite a few “ wrong personnel “ we have at the Club. But we been seeing Arteta keeping on playing most out of their position. In few cases he could have just shuffled the pack. That obduracy is wholly down to Arteta who appears… Read more »
Can you imagine reading that if “Burnley beat us at home then Arteta will be on extremely thin ice”
Where is the bottom for these posters?
How bad do we need to get before they shake off the spell.
If Arsenal beat Burnley with a double deflected own goal, what does that prove?
If Edu isn’t already talking to replacement managers then he’s not fit for purpose.
I’m happy to hear that Edu and Arteta aren’t on good terms.
😂 you guys today are hilarious, stop it! lunch was sprayed over my screen for ‘Diet Emery’ and ‘Spanish Stewart Houston’ 😂
If the only reason to state Arteta is a great manager is because he won an FA Cup then I would say Di Matteo must be one of the worlds greatest for masterminding a Champions League trophy.
See how pathetic an argument this is?
When you read Arteta’s list of mistakes I can comfortably say it is far worse than anything Emery (the forbidden word on here) did. Emery at least has managerial pedigree, Arteta had no tangible experience of football management before Arsenal. Seemingly too good in his mind/arrogant to cut his teeth at a ‘lower’ level club. He’s also too arrogant to learn from his mistakes. Players are human, you think they will be in favour of treatment that certain players have endured from him whilst watching the likes of Willian put in shocking performances and still starting? Let’s not even delve… Read more »
The Arteta interviews are cringe worthy now. I almost feel sorry for him.
Anyway, the reason Arteta isn’t canned so much is due to subconscious reasons. He’s a good looking man. In our society we are more accommodating for good looking people. That’s why he isn’t getting pitch forks out en masse yet. Get an average looking guy in charge with these results and we’d be rounding him out. As it is, the tide is turning but some people stupidly still want to give him a season to inflict more damage on our once great club. I’m glad Edu is pointing the fingers at Arteta, we know the blame belongs to him. I… Read more »
No wonder Auba looks so miserable, he’s scored three headers from 74 crosses and this is the way we’re being set up to play. It doesn’t take a genius to know that trying to cross from out wide isn’t our bet bet to affect the scoresheet.
Listen. And this must end now!
It’s really simple.
I don’t care if Arteta gets Arsenal FC relegated to League 1.
We must not, under any circumstance sack Arteta. The man oozes sauce. I mean… You’ve all seen him rock a suit???
Absolutely pathetic lowering of standards from fans to continue supporting this intern.
As a long time reader I was with Pedro on the Unai Emery criticism, however the lack of objectivity on Mikel Arteta’s reign has become laughable. Why is Arteta being afforded more leeway than Emery when the latter had vastly more experience? How could you be Emery out and not Arteta out when Arteta has been in the job for almost a year and has us sitting just above relegation!
I also remember Pedro claiming we were 2 players away from winning the league, beginning of the season he predicted top 4 and then the next season we could challenge?
Now all of a sudden it was clear our squad isn’t good enough and Arteta is telling porkys?
The flip flopping is unreal, please say it how it is before you lose more credibility!
@Kaz 100% Pedro loves a hipster manager, all ‘sauce’ but no substance.
@EB – I don’t want you to feel that I’m having a go at you but as Marc says you are making my point for me. “Return Arsenal to the Elite” is NOT a plan, it’s an ambition, a goal. If I told my employer that was my plan I’d be fired or at the very least laughed out of the room. The only way you achieve that goal is with a clear and well defined set of steps, measurable milestones and a time scale to achieve them. and a plan B, plan C etc, if plan A proves unsuccessful.… Read more »
We all know that sauce is just something you use to cover up a badly prepared meal….
Left
Don’t feel sorry for Arteta – Firstly he’s highly paid and wanted the job, Secondly if he doesn’t like it he can quit.
The fact that the problems are all of his own making is another issue altogether.
Pedro to Arteta – Accept that you have made a mistake, Yes you invested a lot of time in willian and xhaka but they are bums. Learn from mistakes and stop playing them.
Pedro to himself – Don’t accept that I have made a mistake with choosing arteta. Yes, i know he is a bum but let me continue supporting him because I have a lot invested on him. I will not learn from mistakes and continue supporting him.
Not sure about Edu. But DietPep Arteta certainly did not have ANY credentials for this job. He could have manipulated his way in here.
Huge mistake.
“We all know that sauce is just something you use to cover up a badly prepared meal”
Sharp! I like that, Andy.
While Gambon’s predicament is not incorrect, the pursuit for greatness and glory cannot be held hostage at the feet of misfortune. Now is the time Arsenal gets a new owner who want to see Arsenal where all we fans want to see, even at yhe cost of high-risk investments.
I sincerely hope that Arteta eases Martinelli back into the mix. What happened with Partey was pure naivety and worse, negligence not expected from someone who, as a former player, should and does know better than to rush back someone from injury.
OGS failure to substitute Fred in that PSG game when it was obvious a red card was inevitabley coming, cost them a place in the knockout stage
Expensive error
The media now stirring it on Pogba.
But kudos to OGS, took full responsibility and didn’t throw the blame on either Fred or Pogba
One of the best articles ever Pedro. Summed up here: Arsenal do not like hard work. They do not like a plan. They cannot be honest about the path forward being hard, so they shortcut it over and over. The hardest thing to do in football is to admit to fans that things are going to be shit for a bit, to show patience, and commit to something that makes sense. I also have thought for some time that we need to move to RB/Monaco/Dortmund level, we have many exciting young players (I’d like to see them get opportunity to… Read more »
EB
And what steps have you seen diet emery take to get us to the elite? Or is just wishing for it and talking about it enough? We are after all closer to championship than anything elite. Or does reality not factor into the plan?
As for the players, did the board shove willian, Cedric, mari, xhaka down MA throat? He championed these players and now it’s not his fault that they are shit?
“But kudos to OGS, took full responsibility and didn’t throw the blame on either Fred or Pogba”
But thats not “The Arsenal Way”, G8.
Dissenter
Would Fergie have played an injured partey? I don’t think he does.
Lots of people hammering on Arteta being a shit coach. But I am giving him leeway because No coach would get good performances out of these players in midfield. His choices are limited. But what also goes against him is the fact that he isn’t trying to change things and try tge kids. I think he probably can play attacking football but he needs players in midfield to create it. I also think it is the reason he has turned everything to the wings and we see so much crosses. If Xhaka and Ceballos were good enough to play higher… Read more »
Ernest, I know we have higher standards & values
Ya all I find that people who still have faith in Arteta and believe he is the right man to take us forward recycle the same words of smart and intelligent coach As arsenal fan I want to believe this, but I can’t find any tangible evidence to support their arguments. He has no previous history to rely on., the comparison to SAF or Klopp is rediculous In his short reign he broke all bad records in the PL. So at the moment, to me all the believe and support for Arteta feel as it’s based on a very good… Read more »
We have the following games to take us to midpoint season.
Burnley
Southampton
Everton
Chelsea
Brighton
west brom
crystal palace
newcastle
For me if he gets less than 14 out of 24 available points playing the current squad of senior mercenaries he has to go.
If he plays the younger guys and gets less than 10 then he has to go.
I give more leeway for the younger players as there will be a period of bedding in and short term pain for long term gain.
Ernest, spot on regards Martinelli. He needs to be eased in gently, don’t break him! While some may be slating Arteta if he doesn’t play the lad regularly from the off I certainly wouldn’t agree with that. MA has the tools to do better than he currently is without risking the lad’s career. Wilshere should be a salutary lesson in that regard.
What worries me when after NLD Arteta on camera said the team did exactly what I wanted them to do! A pundit said that Arteta is like someone just came back from the moon. He has never seen how Mou’s team or Leicester City plays. He ordered Bellerin to attack and let Son ran free. He watched on the sideline four of his players including Xhaka trying to tackle one Spuds player and gave up a 4 v 2 counter. That’s what he wanted his players to do, right? A poster said that Arteta is an intelligent man. Based on… Read more »
I really wanted Arteta to be that guy. And when he started he seemed like that guy. But he has been found out and cannot seem to find a way back. Its sad to say if he doesnt bring us back by Jan he has to go. The only issue is who will be in charge in the transition period? Those periods can be bad and u may as well let Arteta finish the season and then let him go…
I think we need a season without Europe to rebuild
One thing Pedro is right. We need an experienced DOF to keep Arteta in check and gives him advice. How stupid is it to order Xhaka to do high press in the opponent’s half…..
When a cultured man says something stupid, people still give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that maybe they misunderstood it and won’t challenge the statement.
On the other hand when a lower class looking person says something clever that challenge our assumption, immediately he/she is vilipended and considered as an idiot who missed the point.
Arteta may speak multiple languages and have great presenting skills, but that does not mean that he has the potential for being a great manager. Right now all evidence points to him being a poor manager.
Alexanderhenry I somewhat agree with what you are saying regarding KSE. It is clear they have provided the club with funds to spend, but as we know a lot of it hasn’t been spent well. You only have to look at how many changes of personnel there has been in the background to see that they have been making poor decisions, or have been too distant to keep a proper handle on the situation of the club. This started before Wenger left the club, they were far too trusting of him, and they also handled his departure poorly. Ever since… Read more »
Bergkamp how does being out of the EL help us rebuild? It will cost us 20-35m in lost income, make us even less attractive to the players we want to sign and give our fringe and youth players one less tournament to get minutes in The idea that the EL needs to savage a squad’s fitness is a myth. Most of the opposition until the later stages are glorified pub teams which our second and third string players can readily beat. If arsenal beast their best 11 in it that’s just crap management I never get why people think being… Read more »
Listening to the podcast, now everything is on edu, I don’t buy it. People pie off responsibility on the manger by saying structure is shit. Yes to a point but the manager needs to deal with his controllables, he needs tk get a tune from the team he has, he needs to outline a vision for the team so fans can at least see oh ye with player x, y, z this could work. Currntly the ship is sinking, that isn’t on edu as whatever you say our players are not that average, we have no discernable style of play.… Read more »
One thing to come out of the Spurs game is the medias realisation of what an utter piece of shit Harry Kane is. Not sure if it has been spoken about on here, but his continuous attempts to purposefully hurt opposition players has gone under the radar for fat too long. What is referred to as “Tunnelling” in AFL. Where you see an opposition player jump for a ball and you back into them, knocking them off balance so they come crashing down. It is fucking disgusting and he gets away with it time after time. What sort of scumbag… Read more »
ET re your reply to me on the previous post, I’m sorry but why would arteta have needed 6 months to get an idea about his squad? He played with some of these guys. Most of the others have been here for 3 or more years. When wenger left he nearly got the job. Then he was constantly linked with the role before eventually getting it. There’s not even a 1% chance he didn’t know the senior players in incredible detail before he got the job. How on earth could he have not noticed players like xhaka and Bellerin were… Read more »
Also I never suggested he was to blame for not selling ozil. That’s all on wenger and Gazidis
Lot of good points there, Pedro. I think the core of it is they systemic dysfunction of the club from the top down. As you say, we are saddled with a CEO from business school, not a football environment, and a ‘technical director’ who seems way out of his comfort zone, with little experience of European football at the level of his job. As for those bewailing the board, the structure of the club since Kroenke bought it out, means that they have no real role, other than as rubber stamps, some oversight with next to no power. He obviously… Read more »
Spudnik
Play Ainsley Maitland-Niles in premier league games and xhaka can play in lower europe games till we can boot him off in january like we tried last year. But I know it wont happen under arteta and it will be the end of him.
That rb leipzig team has so much energy and legs, dominant cbs, running midfielders and overlapping fullbacks, why do we sign a d pick players that can’t run?
Luiz xhacka laca holding? Are we blinded by Santi, he had feeet from God and and runners beside him, these guys don’t so we get burnt every week.
If we employ the Dortmund model, then Arteta has no business being around this club.
‘Arteta is a great coach, he will work better with kids than senior players who don’t care for developing, so focus on the kids’
On what basis or evidence is Arteta a great coach? On the spurious claims he made Raheem Sterling and Sane better? Even if we believe that, then maybe all he is good for is making young players better. He should take over the u23s since he can’t be booted out..
I was about 6 months ahead of all of you.
Before the summer, I said just draw a line in the sand with this squad and other than the keepers if the player is over 25 then get rid of him and if he’s 25 and under keep him (with a couple of exceptions).
No half-measures. Do you have any idea how much money we would have to invest in new players if we had taken that approach?
No, your boss would not fire you, nor laugh you out of the room. He would ask how you intend to reach that goal.
In football, however, no manager knows for sure what that might be. The broad trajectory, yes, the details, no. There are too many imponderables. For example. the injury to Partey against Spurs.
My belief is that Arteta’s plan is to use only the young and vigorous. But right now there are not enough ready. That is what I mean by having no choice but to use the elderly. We should give him time.
bacaryisgod
Great idea but this isn’t football manager. I’m sure they tried to offload a load of players in the summer but no wanted them.
JP- of course it’s not football manager but over last summer and this summer we would have got rid of nearly all of them. We could have made a couple of sensible exceptions but you can’t tell me that Laca, Auba, Xhaka etc could have been offloaded? Mari, Cedric, Luiz and WIllian didn’t need to be signed etc?
None of this exactly stretches the imagination.
Let’s not forget he even tried to get Mustafi to sign a new deal too.
bacaryisgod -I was against us keeping Auba but understood that there were also competing arguments for r-signing him. -I infamously recommended Højbjerg or players with similar stats as an alternative to us signing Partey. We shouldn’t be signing midfielder with 45 million and paying them 200k weekly. -I wanted us to sell either of Laca or Auba, they don’t work well together. -I would have taken Ryan Fraser instead of Pepe 2 summers ago. -I got abuse here for dissing the Soares loan signing, talk less of the outrageous 4 year deal. -I wanted us to keep AMN and sell… Read more »
I’ll grant you this much. We definitely tried to move on a couple of players (I’m guessing Sokratis and Kolasinac at least). Covid certainly didn’t help in this regards.
RockyRoe
If you want to see positive steps taken by Arteta, look at the youngsters. Committed, enthusiastic, they have improved mightily. They are Arsenal’s future.
If you doubt Arteta, then look at the old and tainted. They would all be gone if he had his way. Auba is a stop-gap no more, until he can afford someone younger and better. Luiz, his voice in the dressing-room, Willian probably not his choice.
Berg10kampDecember 9, 2020 14:15:11 “I really wanted Arteta to be that guy.” Wanted Emery to be the guy but he never felt a right hire to me, want Arteta to be the guy but the deeper we get the more apparent it is this club is systematically shattered and potentially neither were the right pair of hands to move it forward under these circumstances. The great awakening of the sleeping giant moment post Wenger we all hoped is looking lost. This project really has the makings of being a very long road back. We have a timeline of decisions over… Read more »
Dissenter, -With Auba it was tricky. If the club was not going to seriously rebuild and opt for experience instead then it made sense to renew his deal. The cost of replacing his goals would have been greater than keeping him and he was outrageously good at the end of last season. -I agree with you on Højbjerg and was really surprised Spurs got him so cheap. However, I really like Partey. If he can get healthy I think he’ll prove good value even at the high fee. -I’ll forgive you for the Ryan Fraser comment. Still hard to believe… Read more »
The one thing i cant understand is that we’ve beat top six sides by being cautious, and hitting them on the break with 30% possession. we then go to the spuddies who are in good form while ours stinks out the place, and decide to play attacking football with a half fit partey. Were playing against mourinho whose career is mostly parking the bus and lobbing a ball over the top to his strikers on the break. Chelsea and drogba United and rashford. spuds & kane And we fall for it every time. Before the game i said it will… Read more »
EB – You obviously don’t know my bosses…
Of course there are unknowns, that’s why you build in some mitigation for predictable events, and injuries are predictable. No detail = no plan, it’s called ‘winging it’. You don’t get paid millions of pounds a year to come up with ‘use the young and vigorous’. Apart from which MA isn’t even doing that, Willian looks about as vigorous as an arthritic slug! And I’ve seen embalmed corpses move more quickly than Xhaka.
To take a leaf out of RedTruth/Calypso’s book, I’m gonna quote Karl Marx, who said: “History repeats itself – the first time as tragedy, the next time as farce.” In Arsenal’s case, Wenger’s late era failures were first repeated by Emery (a tragedy) and now by Arteta (a total farce.) Emery’s tragedy wasn’t his “good ebening” bad English, his crooked teeth, or even his bafflingly frequent changes of tactics – he just couldn’t organise a decent defence with the players he had, and he ultimately lost the dressing room. Arteta’s farce isn’t his so-called “non-negotiables”, which seem to apply exclusively… Read more »
Jim Lahey
Completely with you on Kane.
The problem is the dickhead won a penalty at Brighton pulling off that exact sly trick. So he will continue to do it until either some player breaks their neck or he’s punished by the refs, latter seems more unlikely given the treatment to date.
You just know that Mourinho is loving it too.
Wouldn’t you just love Pedro. We win our dead rubber Europa game and we get another ‘long read’ from him on how Arteta is the best thing since slice bread. This is going same way as the Gazidis gate, nice little ideas on paper and in the press but absolutely no substance.
Le Sauce – all hype and no substance? Sounds like someone is set for a long career in marketing….
I wouldn’t have sold Auba. Sounds stupid now that he’s not scoring but replacing the goals we would expect him to score would have been very difficult with our budget. The problem with Laca is that it seems Arteta’s original plan was to use him/Eddie as the 9 with Auba on the left. Selling Laca would have left us short. Mari not been hugely impressive but he was the best defender in South America last year and we got him for €8m. Fair enough on Cedric, Luiz and Willian but they were all free or small outlay in transfer costs.… Read more »
nice to see Rambo get the win over arch enemy Barca yesterday.
I am sure he has memories of the hiding we used to get from them, when he was with arsenal.