That was the beginning of the end of Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal career.
I was wrong about him. He let us all down. There’s little chance he recovers from this, and that’s coming from me, his biggest fanboy.
The young ‘manager’ had it all and he blew it. It’s not all his fault, but when you demand full responsibility, go out of your way to bolster your own power, then boy do you have to deliver. He helped create the ingredients of his own failure. Shame on Arsenal for allowing it, but there we are.
The Villareal loss was sickening for many reasons, but mostly because they aren’t very good and nor is their manager. We were totally schooled by Unai fucking Emery. That is humiliating.
Core issues from the game last night will be kept punchy and short.
Galaxy Brain
Arteta doesn’t have a back to basics function. When he’s struggling, his default seems to be to show the world how clever he is. A week after embarrassing himself by opting for a kid as a false #9, he went for Thomas Partey pivoting the entire midfield. He made us play out of the back with Hector and Holding in his defence. He gave the gloves to Leno, who wants out. He fucked the entire structure with his forwards to the point where all our best creators could barely muster a shot on target over TWO legs.
Fear
Our players aren’t the best, but that squad could easily finish top 4. We’ve seen them go to war in big games and hold their own against the best. Against Villareal, they were petrified. It was pathetic how meek we were. That comes from one person… Arteta. Whatever he’s up to behind the scenes, it’s demotivating the players and putting doubt in their minds. There was no belief they had what it took. You knew no goal was coming yesterday, you could feel what the game was going to be like after minute 5, that is shameful.
Boring
Arsenal is a boring proposition. There’s literally nothing to our football. No style, no identity, no plan for where the game is going. We were utterly bland. We have been for weeks. This project is 18 months in and all the good bits we were seeing have gone. We can’t defend, we can’t attack, we’re a total mess… but the main thing for me, we’re really boring. Villareal in a semi-final should be exciting, it wasn’t, it was a really painful 90 minutes. Arsene Wenger, with that side, would have absolutely crushed them. Sad to say it, but so would Unai Emery.
The project is now over. Arsenal can give him a summer, they can bury their heads in the sand, but the reality is… this manager nicked his jugular last night and he’s bleeding out.
There’s money available for sure. Edu and Arteta are planning a big summer. Josh and Vinai should put a stop to it and remove both of them before they do any more damage to the club.
Edu will not have a good plan. It’ll be a bang average unimaginative offering that’ll waste another year. The two of them have appalling taste in players. Neither knows how to implement ideas. They have not earned the right to have another crack at it. Vinai is embarrassingly weak though, he’ll happily blow through another £100m of average because it’s the easy decision, he’ll let Arteta run the team into the ground again, then hire Roberto Martinez to fix the mess.
… and that does sound negative, I agree. But Arteta brought this on himself. That shit performance last night will stick hard with the players. They’ll know he’s on thin ice now, so if things go against Arsenal next season, the boys will absolutely down him just like they did under Emery.
Arsenal needs to move on Arteta now because he’s not going to save this. Too much is broken. The training ground is not a happy place. Arteta was given Wenger power without the receipts, and he blew it. He was allowed to hire average yes men around him and now he’s paying the price with a lack of know how. His goalkeeper coach is despised, that’s why Leno’s form has tanked and he wants out. Arteta’s contribution? He sacked Sal Bibbo and sanctioned Runarsson. Has he addressed the issue at all? No. He put his hire over one of our best players in the same way he favoured Willian over the kids. Why? His ego. Steve Round was the guy who worked with Moyes when he crashed United, hardly the future of football you want to cushion a rookie coach. What has his input been to tame Arteta’s weaknesses? Are our setpieces better with a specialist coach? Have our subs got better? Do we rotate well to protect players? Do we pick players based on merit? Do our stars look fit or motivated? Is anyone dying out there for the cause like they were last season?
The answer to those questions is no.
Time and investment is a reward for progress. We do not have anything to show on that front. The club now needs to act ruthlessly to protect the limited resources on offer.
Edu is a terrible technical director, just look at his record. He’s not a leader, he has no new ideas, he doesn’t know how to extract value from the market, and he will do bad things this summer with the guilt money he’s been given by our owners. He’s just a footballer who looks nice in a suit, yet a £2b valued organisation is going to trust him to strategise us out of this hole after he gave Willian a 3 year deal on £250k a week? Are you KIDDING ME. No, I’m not. Vinai is so weak, he’d rather promote Arteta to shield a massive error, than grow a pair and address the elephant in the room. There is ZERO leadership at Arsenal. I cannot say it loud enough.
Arteta cannot be trusted as a manager. He signed off Cedric and Willian. He crashed Thomas Partey. He made Auba a 10 goal a season striker in his prime. He benched Martinelli over and over again… and played Willian. He leaves Balogun at home and goes for two sub keepers. He binned William Saliba. Chose Leno over Martinez. All of these decisions made a difference to our shocking season.
When you have trophies and top 4 you can get away with these moves. When you fail like this, it shines a dark light on your limitations.
This failure could have been avoided. The job of a CEO is to build teams capable of competing. Vinai found a talented young coach then let him rot in a Petree dish of power. He should have hired him a complimentary technical director that could support his weaknesses. He should have controlled who the team around him was and put limitations on what he could do. He should have resisted the weird urge to promote him after 6 months.
… but he didn’t.
Therein lies the problem. We have a CEO who takes the easy option, every single time. He didn’t move fast enough to recognise the things Arteta needed to succeed. That should have been the job of the Technical Director, but Vinai already knew he was bad, hence the demotion last season. There is no one man fix in 2021 for the problems we have as a club. If Arsenal move on Arteta, they have to get serious and realise that the problems went way beyond just him.
… but we can talk about that another day.
I’ll be back with better thoughts later, but while you’re here… listen to The Arsenal Opinion podcast with Johnny and Matt.
The tragedy is there is no one at the club now who has any clue of what to do, how to turn this around.
The glory days are not coming back guys. This may sound like a troll thing to say, but my sense is there is no way back from mediocrity now.
It hurts me – not for my own sake – but for my ten year old. It is so hard to see the disappointment on his face after each disaster.
I doubt if Josh even knows who Rangnick or Overmats or Ten Haag are.
And who is going to tell him – Vinai or Edu or Arteta?
You mean they are going to recommend their own replacements? 🤷🏻♂️
Wengaball
My 10 year old has never seen anyting like the old days. he still likes the videos on youtube and plays fifa endlessly so he knows lots of players and teams but has missed on the great days we once had.
I keep telling him that things will turn around, but even he is saying Arteta out now.
Funny-
He wants Ek to buy the team… he knows that Stan is shit
@Tony Thanks for the DM links I extracted a few memorable lines from the three articles and just like you I hope that the owner will read them. Things were starting to fall apart before Wenger left. That much is true. Even he could not disguise the malaise that was spreading through the club any longer. But since he left, the owners have no camouflage. Everything is falling apart in plain sight. Semi-interested, semi-committed, semi-competent, Arsenal are a no man’s land of a football club. Long gone are the glory days when Arsenal would torment opposition defences with their scintillating,… Read more »
The smartest thing to do would be to replace Edu with Rangnick now.
Let him decide if we should sack Arteta and who to replace him with.
Rangnick is massively experienced, maybe he could guide Arteta.
NO thank you to guiding Arteta the ego maniac
there is nothing for us keeping him on
Wengaball you’re so on the money there Who is the person to tell Josh what needs to happen when the only football people in the club are the ones who have led us into the mess? That is such a true and correct way to sum up the issue. It’s also why we will probably not course correct any time soon. The only way things potentially get better are if we 1) sell the club to someone who knows and cares. This person will in turn take an axe to our whole setup hopefully and instigate change 2) keep rolling… Read more »
Guns
But it’s looking 99% certain Arteta is staying. I’m sure he’d do a lot better with someone experienced behind him rather than Edu.
Obviously I’d prefer Arteta sacked right now along with Edu.
Recently as well people kept talking about us always being on the wrong end of fine margins
But when you’re always on the wrong end it should tell you something. Occasionally that happens to anyone, but the best teams are not always on the end of them. It should be sending alarm bells ringing that over a whole season we seem to always be on the wrong side. Why does that happen again and again? Well we know the answer but Mikel doesn’t
Samir why do you think arteta will do better with a good DOF? Arteta supposedly had two great strengths. Coaching and communication. Safe to say he’s failed badly on both of these fronts What else does he even have beyond those and he’s not even good at those. This idea that he’s even a good coach has now been refuted. As someone keeps saying what happened to Gabriel this season? He came in and was a match winning CB for us in the first couple of months. I think he was player of the month in August and maybe September… Read more »
Does Kroenke even know we lost the Europa semi?
I doubt it, he is too busy trying to find his toupe and his dentures
Tbf it was only after Stan came in and results slipped we started to claim top 4 was like a trophy. I don’t doubt for one second arteta has already explained to Stan that because the PL is so competitive in fact top 10 is like a trophy. A damn fine one at that
I would be amazed if Josh is as uninformed as some think. What he chooses to do with the information he receives is another thing. At the very least he’d have an assistant doing some level of Arsenal blogs together with social media monitoring. Whatever is happening with Vinai and the board is ultimately going to be directed by Stan & Josh to suit their financial driven agenda. By doing this the Kroenkes are assuming our fans, especially those with boots on the ground, are going to eventually fall in line with news of a good TW kitty, as we… Read more »
Martinez, Ozil, Mhkitarayan, Willock, AMN, Guendouzi, Sokratis, Mustafi, Kolasinac, Torreira, Mavropanos, Saliba All have left the club or are on loan this season.. The weird thing is that no strikers and no wide offensive players are on that list.. The common concesus on le grove and in the media is that it was a mistake to go into the season without a no.10 type player in the squad.. The Ozil obsessives can’t quite bring themselves to admit that the season would have turned out differently with Ozil(or Mhkitarayan) in the squad.. Instead on Le Grove we have post after post… Read more »
Pierre
You are advocating Ozil , I see him failing in even Turkey . What has he acheived there so far . Stop your childish fanboying over Ozil .
Pierre needs help.
Divinesherlock We have missed Ozil’s influence in the side , it’s not childish to say that , it’s a fact, just look at how many games we have lost in the last 12 months , the lack of goals through the lack of creativity is there for all to see. Arteta cocked it up 12 months ago when he got involved in the pay dispute , he took a wrong turning and never recovered.. Why is Le Grove bemoaning our lack of creativity when 95% of them agreed with the ludicrous decision to omit him from the squads for ”… Read more »
Jamie
Anyone who defends the sale of Martinez needs help..
I’m not surprised that you defend the 2 most damaging decisions that Arteta has made for Arsenal football club.
Omitting Ozil from the squad and selling Martinez.
Someone here said it here the other day that we haven’t been the same since Santi stopped regularly featuring in the starting 11. And it’s somewhat true. We don’t have anyone in the squad approaching his level of technical ability, vision, creativity and intelligence. You see our midfield now and you weep for the days of him, a prime Ozil, and going back further Cesc, Hleb and Rosicky. Why has our midfield recruitment been so bad for years? Are these types of players simply not out there anymore? Of course they are. Why is the club not moving heaven and… Read more »
Almunia Thanks. One gets tired of the ephemeral day to day stuff about our evident demise (although this place is definitely a source of truth) so it was good to read a considered piece that went deeper. It’s as if we’re going through something quite a bit less dramatic than actual grief, but which is nonetheless painful and involves various stages (sorrow, loss, anger etc.). This has been going on for years as you say and we are powerless to prevent it, nor can we miraculously flick a switch and change what we feel. I think I’m going to check… Read more »
Chris
“. Why is the club not moving heaven and earth to sign the next Cesc/Santi? Can we even attract that calibre of player anymore?”
Technique, intelligence and composure are dirty words these days at Arsenal .
They have been replaced by power, energy , running , intensity …
I look at the Chelsea side and I see small technical players in midfield and attack .
The game hasn’t changed, good teams still let the ball do the work .
@Kroenkephobe
If losing next 4 games brings Arteta nearer to receiving his P45 then I’m all for it. Sorry. But sooner we get rid of the fraud tve sooner we can move on and pretend to be a football club again
Anyone seen Arteta agent Englandsbest?
Pierre Chelsea look very good right now. From what I have seen they can break at pace and they have a largely solid defensive shape. Pulisic and Mount are outstanding forwards. Unfortunately for us, I think they will do City again in the final. From our point of view, what we don’t lock now is a combative central midfielder who is a good foul for a technical wizard. I still think Partey can be that player for us, he is what we needed years ago. Now we don’t have the players to compliment him to make a completely midfield. I… Read more »
I think the only ones with real great interest in today’s match would be the dwindling Arteta fanboys.
A win and they will be grabbing onto it like a drowning man reaching for the life raft.
Hey Almunia
Just looked at Cassandra and her backstory. She was obviously as well regarded by her peers as cutlery bending Uri Geller. It actually took me back to my A level days. I think she featured in Sartre’s les Mouches which is the story of Agamemnon and Orestes, and gets a reference for her soothsaying abilities in the Wasteland by TS Eliot if my addled memory serves me right.
Nice to be thinking about something other than the absolute horror of who Tets will pick this afternoon!
Chris Players of the calibre of Cesc + Cazorla are extremely rare And even if they are out there, it’s unlikely Edu has even heard of them, let alone on the case to try and sign them We were apparently close to people around Bellingham before Edu showed up, and then lines of communication broke down This is our biggest issue Leno, Runarsson Bellerin, Soares, Chambers Tierney, Kolasinac, Niles Saliba, Holding, Luiz Gabriel, Mari, Mavropanos Partey, Elneny, Torreira Xhaka, Guendouzi Smith-Rowe, Willock Pepe, Saka, Willian, Nelson Aubameyang, Martinelli Lacazette, Nketiah, Balogun That’s 30 players, 29 if we don’t renew Luiz… Read more »
Chris
Totally agree on Partey….a partner for him is essential, unless of course Arteta sees xhaka as being his ideal partner.
I sometimes wonder if Partey looks around and thinks wtf is going on, especially after playing under Simione who was tactically superb.
Pierre
You don’t spend £45 on a player only to have his hand held.
Pierre
You don’t spend £45m on a player only to have his hand held.
Pierre
You don’t spend £45m on a player only for him to have his hand held.
A start would be to start signing players who want to do it for the Club, not their respective agents. The Arsenal has a recent history of signing or loaning players who play exceptional footie, till they get a better deal, or be are attracted to better suitors. It’s a shocking culture & Arsenal is infected…… badly!
Is there an echo in here?
Partey makes difficult passes look easy, and easy passes look difficult He’s shown quality in flashes, but can’t say I’ve been impressed so far, and based on form since Xmas, Xhaka has been by far our best midfielder Which really tells you everything you need to know about our other central midfield options Apparently Aouar is now available for €30 million, scored a lovely goal yesterday, but was again subbed on the hour, he’s only completed 90 minutes 6 times this season, has been dropped to the bench regularly recently, and had his application called into question on a couple… Read more »
The transfer policy will be dictated by the fact we are desperate so that puts us in a poor negotiating position. Secondly we dont have Euro football. Thirdly we are unstable with incoming players not being sure whether Arteta will remain manager beyond Xmas. So all this bollocks about reinvention is pure fantasy. It will require smart recruitment something thats been in chronically short supply recently. There is no miracle here, we need to dig ourselves out of this hole with the majority of the same players.
Rich
“He’s shown quality in flashes, but can’t say I’ve been impressed so far, and based on form since Xmas, Xhaka has been by far our best midfielder”
All these midfielders have looked shit alongside Xhaka haven’t they. Funny that isn’t it.
I use the term “alongside” loosely of course.
Xhaka praised for his “consistency” which the majority of the time consists of playing continuity passes in deeper areas.
Meanwhile he leaves his unfortunate partner in the real heat in the centre of midfield.
The priority for Arsenal and whoever is its first team coach/manager is to build a “competitive Team” and not worry about recruiting individual world class players. My real concern this season is and has been that we have not got a clue which is our best formation. The manager is constantly making changes without reaching a conclusion of his best starting eleven. By the end of the season you would expect that the bulk of the starting eleven should pick itself and that is sadly not the case. This is frankly far more important than worrying whether we can afford… Read more »
We see Jorginho of Chelsea actually engaging central midfield areas consistently.
Now that’s a regista that has real value to the team.
Rich is Arteta in and Xhaka in.
What a lethal combination.
Could down a whole country that combination.
Plenty on here turning their noses up at Jorginho when we were linked last summer
It’s not like our midfield has functioned with Partey + Ceballos
Elneny is ok as a 4th choice, but he’s bang average, there’s no escaping it
Ceballos looks like a world beater when teams stand off him, but struggles when the tempo gets turned up a notch
Blaming Xhaka for Partey continually misplacing 5 yard passes straight to the opponent, really is a stretch
And just shows the level of agenda some have against him
Rich
The turning up of the noses was mainly due to the notion of having two regista type players in midfield.
Now if Xhaka would only just fuck off I’m sure more would have been more receptive to the idea of Jorginho.
Hr would have looked shit alongside Xhaka as well.
Rich
Answer one question.
Does Xhaka engage the central midfield areas in any way on a consistent basis.
If not he is a luxury player on a grand scale though of course luxury that kills this side in many aspects. Luxury for Xhaka himself.
Ishola70 I don’t think Xhaka is as bad as you make him out to be, he’s got some qualities, he’s got some weaknesses, I think he’s a better player than Elneny, Torreira and Ceballos I don’t think our biggest issue is Arteta This doesn’t mean that I’m Arteta in or out, or Xhaka in or out Sacking Arteta won’t be the magic solution people seem to think it will be, not without solving some of the other issues Selling Xhaka won’t be the magic solution to our problems that you seem to think it will be, particularly with our record… Read more »
Rich
Context needs to be taken regarding Jorginho, and team mates he’d be playing with was quite he’d be a terrible signing for us . Him and xhaka a midfield with zero pace is a recipe for disaster.
On the auoar issue anyone know why he keeps getting pulled in 60 ? Playing badly ? Fitness isssue ? Tactical ?
We have a midfielder that can’t even play inbetween opposition bodies in the centre of midfield.
Golden.
Rich
Arteta is not a very good manager so I find it hard to take seriously your notion that nothing will really improve if he is replaced.
We all know the structure of the club as a whole is off as well but you don’t double down on it with an incapable manager as well.
Arteta is a product of the poor decision making. He is not separate from it.
Ishola
Your wasting your time trying to convince rich better managers improves things . For the life of me being that’s the case I can’t understand why Chelsea didn’t stick with Avram grant , Man U with van gaal , Liverpool with Roy Evans , Man City with mark hughes , us with Stuart Houston . We and all those teams would be in exactly the same positions had we all stuck with them managers I suppose
The only faint redemption Arteta could have going forward and it is very faint is that if he goes to town on the midfield and completely changes it’s structure and appearance.
Don’t hold your breathe.
But even then you would still have massive doubts about the man himself.
We don’t control matches.
When we do it is passive control.
With the attacking players we have if only we had a midfield that was actually capable of winning out in midfield then things would be much better.
This team is not miles away from competing more seriously than people think. It’s the continual disregard of midfield that is the main problem and key.
We have a good set of attackers at the club but we hear clueless ones telling us that this area is of the greatest concern.
Perhaps an ACM but that’s it in terms of attack.
Midfield meanwhile is dire in comparison.
And it looks like we have the completely wrong manager to resolve this as he advocates passive central midfield play or passive deep central midfield play.
Ishola70 You’re making the mistake in thinking that what comes next can’t be any worse, and I don’t know why you’d be so sure of that, our decision making has been horrendous for a long time, virtually everything we do is reactive Arteta is the manager of the club, which suggests the people behind him didn’t know what to do with the responsibility they had, so passed it around like a hot potato If you you’re happy for that hot potato to get passed back to Edu + Venkatesham, then fair enough, I’m just not convinced If we had any… Read more »
Rich
A manager that sees that the midfied needs an overhaul would instantly improve matters.
You have some cheek to imply it could get worse considering how badly this season has gone.
We have some good ingredients in this side. It is ruined by a sub par midfield.
Also the GK situation needs to be resolved.
Rich “ We’ll drift further into obscurity, and we’ll lose the few players that we don’t want to lose, and still be saddled with the ones we’d be happy to lose, but nobody will take off our hands” You seriously don’t think this would happen as well if we stick with arteta ? That would be another 2 years wasted while he buys more crap like willian . Arteta and in ultimate sauce Steve round who’s cv is more bland than eating a dry box of ryvitas are suddenly out of thy groan blue going to stumble upon playing a… Read more »
A new GK
A mobile central midfielder that can actually engage central midfield areas in among opposition players.
And perhaps an added ACM.
Improvements would be seen.
But unfortunately Arteta is highly likely to stick with his passive midfield.
Jesus wept , just read arteta’s latest interview and the man actually believes he’s on the right path . More of his bullshit or is he really that delusional that he needs sectioning ?
ARTETA HAS TO GO!…This is even more important as things stand that the replacement of Senior Club Management and The Board. Come the end of this Season it is imperative that a new coach is in place who is capable of making the right decisions in order to enable the team to improve.It is also imperative that he is given enough time to plan fir this in the first place. At this stage we are trying to support a side which is immersed in a mediocrity largely of it’s own making.Arteta has shown through his dreadful decision making,coaching,and man management… Read more »
@Peckobill
He needs sectioning mate. Everything he says is bollocks. A fraud at the highest level. I despise him with such a passion that if he was here now I’d be stamping on the arrogant cunts face
@Joel
Brilliantly put. Great post !
Very well put post JOEL.
Sums it up very well.
Rich “I don’t think our biggest issue is Arteta” Sorry mate but it is. Would you give your life savings to a drug addict hoping that it would be invested wisely for you? Didn’t think so. This ‘manager’ cannot read players, has no idea how to pick his best team, get a proper formation and get his team to play quick decisive creative football. This is despite having a long and varied career both as a player and coach/manager. He was under an excellent manager in pep and learnt nothing/nada!!!! And he ain’t ever going to learn – period. He… Read more »
Ishola70 When we sacked Emery, I was the only one saying things would likely get worse, before they get any better, and Emery was the least of our worries You all told me I was wrong, it’s not that I have the cheek, it’s that I’ve got form for being right I remember the common narrative with Wenger was that he had too many technicians, and all we needed was a defensive midfielder Now we’ve gone the other way, and fans are crying for more technicians again…. I remember the narrative that Giroud wasn’t good enough, and if only we… Read more »
Rich
Your logic for not replacing arteta isn’t very sound.
We should be heaping pressure on arsenal kroenkes to sack the manager but also be vocal what we want and experienced manager experienced at winning major silverware. If that means paying allegri or others of his ilk a kings ransom so be it. We can’t afford not to spend on quality at this point and bringing in a manager like allegri moves the needle of progress far more than fancy big name signings.
We are Everton. We hope to one day be Leicester and absolutely dred becoming Newcastle.
You know why money alone doesn’t fix this. Because chelsea gave Lampard money. It didn’t fix anything on its own. They needed to sell first. Then buy. Then recruit a good manager on top of that.
Sell. Buy. Coach. In what universe does Arsenal FC have these 3 crucial components.
We don’t sell who we should. We don’t buy who we should. Then to compound this problem our coach is a novice. Smh. You couldn’t make this level of incompetence up if you tried.
Rich
Appointing a novice rookie would have the chance of seeing things get worse than before with Emery.
You were not Nostrodamus in thinking that could happen.
Everyone on here said it was a big gamble with Arteta and a roll of the dice and in such circumstances things can go badly wrong.
They have.
Rich There is a difference between saying arteta out let’s bring in x for reasons y Then saying just arteta out. The problem is people don’t finish the argument they only go halfway. I honestly think this board is so incompetent they literally drilled into them exactly what the fans want a top tier manager. It’s like with conte for instance why on earth did we not move heaven on earth to sign him. He took over an inter Milan that was a poor shadow of their former self and pretty much broke and has won their first title in… Read more »
If Arteta got us relegated, Rich would still back him and somehow find a silver lining out of the debacle
It may be nothing it may be something. Mabey it’s psychological. Tuchel is dripping in chelsea merch. Head to toe. He wears their colors unapologetically. He identifies himself with the brand, the club, and ultimately the players. At some point all these managers wear their teams colours. Even if its just a big blue and white scarf like Mancini used to for city.
Our manager.. not so much.
As a coach for city he did.
For us.. not so much.
Cazorla
What’s not reasonable about asking us to replace a dud rookie manager who broke numerious records for poor performance and results and asking for a top tier experience manager With a track record of winning.
If that’s unreasonable to you you’re a bit slow in the head and would seek the advice of some medical professional
Initially, it was a change hearing Arteta talk compared to Emery. Now he has been found out. His talk sounds hollow and full of excuses.
Nope Rich is talking nonsense like a few others on here. Going by Arteta’s work the last 18 months there’s no logical reason to persist with him. I think this has been covered enough on here. That early bounce we experienced under Arteta culminating in the cup win has long dissipated replaced with inconsistencies. Of course it is possible that the board carries on as is and make the investments Arteta is calling for. He then somehow turns things round next season. In that case the KSE would have gone against logic and evidence of the past 18 months not… Read more »
Pointless watching Arteta interviews saw the thumbnail and that was enough. He might come back as a good manager later but his job is done at Arsenal. I’m rarely wrong about these things.
Joel
Good post a lot of the National press are writing scathing articles about the club and its demise over the past ten years. Classless as some now put it.
We are a shell of a club living in the past and your right Arteta should go , but he wants the money so he will stay on.
I think the players will give up now
Really Arteta is cutting his own throat in implying heavy investment in the team.
He isn’t going to get top four any time soon whatever investment is made.
Getting into just the top six with heavy investment? Not good enough. Bye.
Rich’ For all your double spaces eloquence, you are really timid and overly cautious in your thinking. ‘ You’re making the mistake in thinking that what comes next can’t be any worse, and I don’t know why you’d be so sure of that, our decision making has been horrendous for a long time, virtually everything we do is reactive’ You’re running the be-careful-what-you-wish-for defense We have a manager who’s pushing crocked players back on the pitch, chopping and changing like a butcher, who doesn’t know his best central defending pair, who’s removing the players most likely to score when we… Read more »
Jorginho is average but Tuchel knows how to get the best out of his attackers something Diet Pep is clueless about.
Mason mount plays between the lines effectively, while Diet pep decided to shove ESR to the wings.
Tuchel stuck to contes 343 that won the title, No guesswork.
People on here are amazing I make the argument that if we make a few clever adjustments to our squad, and add some quality in key areas, that we’ll win more football games That I don’t trust Edu or Vinai to appoint Arteta’s successor, and I’d like us to clear the lot out and start again, because if we get the next appointment wrong, it’ll set us back 2 years That it won’t matter how talented our coaching staff are, if we don’t improve our overall decision making And what people read is “Rich loves Arteta, and doesn’t think he… Read more »
Dissenter
Things can always get worse
Why role the dice
When you can set the terms on a whole new game
Rich
“I make the argument that if we make a few clever adjustments to our squad, and add some quality in key areas, that we’ll win more football games”
Tell us these clever adjustments made to the team that will see Arteta move from at present failed manager to successful manager basically overnight.
Imagine Arteta telling the club to ‘ruthless’ in the summer
Doesn’t he understand that a ruthless club would have sacked him on Friday morning.
He’s the main beneficiary of the lack of ruthlessness in the club.
Sid
Good managers tend to keep it simple , play players in their most effective positions and employ tactics best suited to the players you got .
Then there is arteta who thinks he got this higher intelligence intricate way of playing which no other person in the world understands while playing players out of position and playing to your sides weaknesses
Wouldn’t a clever adjustment be also to replace a failing manager.
In fact not clever but rather bleeding obvious.
Rich
Things can always get worse
And things can get much better. I would like to stay on the positive side.
How about a manager with Premier league experience thats a good start.
The whole core of the club is rotten. Cant trust the owner cos he’s never around. Vinai and Edu are complete cunts along with our arrogant manager. I don’t believe they’ll sack Arteta, even if they did, V&E haven’t got a clue who to replace him with. The whole place just needs to fuck off and have a reboot.
Dissenter
“He’s the main beneficiary of the lack of ruthlessness in the club.”
Yeah it’s tragically funny isn’t it.
And it just highlights that this talk of ruthlessness is full of bullshit.
It is just completely self serving on Arteta’s part.
It’s not me, not me. It’s the others that are at fault.
“while Diet pep decided to shove ESR to the wings.”
—————————————————————
Even worse playing him up front in the #9 position. He looked completely lost.He found himself in the no man’s land
Clever adjustments and Diet Pep is an oxymoron
Im telling you for free!
Rich
Will a new technical director manage games for Arteta or tell him what subs to make?
He’s not fit for purpose and you’re talking about making changes around him?
You’re trying to hard to be reasoned when decisiveness and clarity of purpose is required.
This is one of the proof that the Kroenkes are divorced from the club an don’t just get it.
‘Which manager plays Partey with two number 10s in a game that we need to win and also control?
coming out talking about being “Ruthless” makes me laugh. All PR and spin because they think it’s what the fans want to hear. It’s like their twitter feed showing training videos of how great our players are, banging them in – trying to make us believe we’ve turned the corner. Come matchday, it’s the same turgid shit football.
Arteta should’ve been sacked back in December after he lost against Everton.
Brighton Young keeper got good distribution.
Really impressed with the work Potter’s doing at Brighton. I’d like to see him at a bigger club.
You expect a rookie manager to make mistakes early on. But it’s when a manager repeats his mistakes again and again and again without learning any lesson that you know the guy is just not good enough. Arteta does not have the humility to self introspect. He always finds faults with others a la Mourinho.
Is there any downside to replacing Arteta with Bielsa ? If no then why are some people averse to replacing him ? Bielsa most certainly plays better football, will garner more respect from players and knows the league just like Arteta does.
Auba was scoring for fun under Emery, all that was need was, making the midfield solid
ie replace Xhakalson with Partey, find a way to work with Guen or find his replacement
Diet Pep decided Partey has the same footballing profile as Guen and Xhakalson is a DM, the job Partey should have been doing.
Nelson should have been rotated with Bellerin as RWB.
@TR7 –
“You expect a rookie manager to make mistakes early on.”
Yeah I can’t agree with this, no manager should be allowed to cut his teeth with a club the size of Arsenal, if you want to make rookie mistakes you go to the lower leagues, you don’t do it at one of the biggest clubs in Europe.
There should be no clemency towards Arteta because he is a rookie, you either perform or you you get sacked. Arteta has certainly not performed and should be sacked once the season wraps up.
I mean, you hire a man with zero experience and are shocked when it turns out to be a shit show? Heads should role for Arteta’s appointment, Edu and Vinai need to be held responsible.
You all told me I was wrong, it’s not that I have the cheek, it’s that I’ve got form for being right Classic nouveau rich-esque patter. I’m thinking of putting together an anthology of his arrogant and errant musings with a foreword by his philosophical soulmate Mikel Arteta. To be made available in all good right wing bookshops by Christmas. Priced for the freemarket at 99 quid plus VAT. Including other highlights and witticisms in Rich’s classic oeuvre – who can forget the Economics is an exact science farrago, the timeless macho men who chase things boreathon or his ever… Read more »
Jim
Barcelona and Real appointed Pep and Zidane as managers. Juventus took a punt with Pirlo. All these clubs are bigger than Arsenal. Not particularly against taking risk with a rookie per se, some of them turn out to be great too.
Seems like his players found him out months ago. Seems they were right when saying Arteta is quick to blame the players rather than himself. Fucking embarrassing manager
Diet peps shortcomings are more than just being a rookie,