Here’s the thing: I don’t think the decision is that crazy, even if it was, who cares, we need a moonshot to kick-start this 2.0 project. Safe is not a strategy that correlates with our situation. Safe is literally 14 years of Arsene Wenger and 18 months of Emery. Safe is code for meek, stagnant, unoriginal. It just pushes you further away from taking the drastic steps needed to make Arsenal competitive and relevant on a meagre budget.

Arsenal needs a coach, I think he can be that coach.

Sure, there are parts that he’s going to have to learn. Being the go-to for managing a squad of egos is going to be tough. He’ll be the lonely one in the dugout, but look, he’s not some nutter tactician that hasn’t managed groups of players before, he’s been a captain at two top-level football clubs. Commanding the respect of fellow professional isn’t going to be a steep learning curve.

The most valuable thing Arsenal can spend their money on is great ideas because we can’t afford to unload another £200m on players this summer. We have a great group of kids coming through, we will waste their talent if we give them to Carlo (I don’t think we’d go here, but in a fit of panic, he is basically Emery of 2019 after being freshly fired into a narrowed shortlist). We’ll need to reshape the squad in the summer, likely with young kids. They aren’t coming here for an average coach and boring football. We need something to offer them. With the names on offer at the moment, I don’t see anyone in the pack of managers that has a higher ceiling than Arteta.

This was the round two of canvassing for Arteta in 2019. Does the Carlo piece make me sound like an idiot? Yes. But think bigger picture people. I wrote quite a few extensive pieces; here is the gist of what I thought he could bring to Arsenal (second piece).

• Elite communication
• World-class coaching
• Extreme work ethic
• High performance culture
• CITY IP
• Sauce

It took some time to see it all unfold, but I think he’s delivered on all of the above elements.

Today, he deservedly signed a new 3 deal that runs to the end of the 2024/25 season.

There are some out there that wanted the season to finish before rewarding him, but Arteta confirmed he was offered one after the three losses.

Let’s be clear, the worst possible idea that has gained traction with Arsenal Twitter is that we should have waited until we were totally sure he was going to put us in the top 4. This doesn’t stand up to any sort of rigor, you don’t let elite talent run down a deal, just in case something goes wrong.

Arteta has spent £200m+ of the clubs money, you don’t let the architect leave. Sure, it might be a gamble, but how dim would it be to let the best young coach in Europe run down his deal? What does that say to him about our relationship with him? That it’s transactional. What does that say to the players? That he isn’t important.

The standards merchants want you to believe that they would look at the table if things went wrong, look at the body of work, and say… Mikel, you missed out on top 4 by a single point. You are fired. No rational person in sport would do something that stupid.

Offering him a new deal in a low moment is exceptional in its shrewdness. It shows that we’re thinking beyond pure points on the table and we’re respecting the circumstances and the job that he has done beyond just points (let’s be clear though, points per game this season has been good and we’ve been in top 4 form since December 2020).

Look at what he’s done:

• Brought a brand new philosophy to Arsenal that has been implemented up and down the roster of teams
• Ripped out all of our toxic players
• Massively reduced the wage bill
• De-aged the squad to an average age of 24, the youngest in the league
• Fixed our leaky defence, the first manager to do it in 15 or so years
• Brought through a number of young players that are edging into best in class territory
• Has us top 4 for points with 4 games to go
• Has us top 3 for shots on goal, has us 4th for shots on target
• Has the fans in the stadium ROCKING and united around our brilliant young squad

Like, honestly, how can anyone be sitting there saying he hasn’t achieved anything?

… because some fans still don’t understand what it takes to build a club back to the top in the richest/strongest league in the world. They live in the era where giving Jose or Conte £100m and half a season is all you needed to get back to the top.

• Conte is sitting behind us in the league, complaining about how hard the Premier League is
• Ralf Rangnick says it’ll take 6 years to fix United
• Carlo failed at Everton
• Jose failed at United and Spurs
• Thomas Tuchel, a total rockstar everyone said we should have hired, is 3 points behind us in the table after spending £100m+ on a CL winning squad

As I said in 2019, there is no better person for this Arsenal project.

We have someone that loves the club, who is excited by the longer-term nature of the project, whilst delivering on his promise.

Matt Kandela went to the West Ham game at the weekend, he called me after and said:

‘The Arteta out stuff is bollocks, everyone is totally behind him, there are no doubts’

This gives us stability. This will make it more likely the players are going to sign up again this summer. This means the dream of challenging for the league in two seasons is still very much on.

Right, see you in the comments.

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You thought I’d leave this post without slagging David Moyes? No chance.

The West Ham manager had to defeat an average Frankfurt team, they blew the home leg, it was clear that the most important thing for them to do was fix up for the return game and go there fresh.

What did he do? He played all his stars. There is no world in which this was a smart decision. It was dumb.

He put 32-year-old Aaron Cresswell into the Arsenal game. What happened? Due to deep, deep fatigue and the emotional stress attached to being bullied by Eddie for a long 90 at the weekend, he fumbled a simple long ball, then he gets sent off for the bungled challenge.

West Ham didn’t have a response. They weren’t fresh. They struggled to breakdown a very poor Frankfurt. They was NO answer. There should have been, even with 10 men. It was AWFUL.

David Moyes blew the second leg because he tried to play a cute game against Arsenal to kickstart his team. He failed, he blew West Ham’s easiest chance at Champions League EVER by being greedy and too clever by half.

Frankfurt literally rested their entire team against Leverkusen, even the goalkeeper, now they have to beat Rangers to get into the biggest competition in the world.

West Ham vs Rangers. What a dream that would have been. The Hammers fans, humming the CL theme tune, Moyesy a legend forever… now, the best he’ll get is Europa Conference.

What a SHOCKING fail. But he deserved it. I told him my support would not be there and look what happened. I LOVE IT.

Right, I’m really going now. x