Busy morning for the Arsenal. Of course there’s a match today which is somewhat important: Arsenal need to get back to winning football games and with City looming large just before the international break a good ole fashioned cup win seems our best chance at the moment.
But the match itself is secondary to a fairly large expose of what some folks inside the club think about Mikel Arteta. I’ll link the article in a second but before I get into the meat of the article, I feel like I need to explain something because I’m already getting some odd comments after I retweeted it. If this feels like I’m overexplaining journalism, I apologize. Feel free to skip a couple paragraphs.
First, this article is an expose, not an editorial. The difference is that in an editorial, the writer tells you what he thinks (like this blog!) rather than presents findings of his research or investigation. There’s an editorial out there today by the inimitable Philippe Auclair, writing for Eurosport France, about how there’s a feeling of depression about Arsenal*. Those are Philippe’s thoughts, which we should listen to because he’s connected to the club, a good writer, and he’s intuitive. He says that eight months ago he asked “What is most sorely lacking, however, is something that looks like a project, a strategy, not just for the team, but for the whole club, because what the Kroenkes have for ambition, singular and plural, remains a mystery “ and that we still don’t know is the main problem with Arsenal. I agree with this thought. He does include a quote in the article but it’s from a friend rather than from someone in the club. That’s an editorial.
But the expose is by Miguel Delaney, the Chief Football Writer for the Independent. I know that us football fans love to call every story we don’t like “fake news”. And there are a lot of sources out there which I straight up don’t trust. But the Independent isn’t the Daily Mail or the Sun. And Miguel Delaney in particular isn’t someone out there stirring the cauldron like John Cross. And again, this isn’t an editorial, this is a news story which takes quotes from people inside the club to build a narrative. That’s a much different beast. When you see direct quotes from people inside the club, of course those people can (often do) have an agenda (which we will get into in a moment) but, I think they should be lent a bit more credence than “this is what Tim thinks about Arsenal.” This is an article about what people inside the club think about Mikel Arteta. And it’s not all love and rockets.
The article outlines that some folks on the board are starting to think of the end for Mikel Arteta. As in, what, exactly, will it take for this board to let him go and look for another manager. It also strongly suggests that other managers may have even been sounded out and that they (Conte) aren’t interested in the Arsenal project because Arsenal are such a massive mess.
And behind the scenes, folks are starting to question Arteta and his methods. As I’ve said here many times, it’s always the case that a guy can come into the club all “billy big bollocks” and talk about how he has “non-negotiables”, ostracize people, and act like a dictator only for so long. If he’s winning, that period of time will get a little longer but it will always have an end. And if he’s not winning, then the revolution will be swift and probably televised.
For me, this was always how Arteta’s tenure at Arsenal was going to end. I never understood people saying that they “like him personally” because he’s never seemed like a personable person to me. In fact the opposite. Quotes from Delaney’s article amplify my perception with people inside the club saying he’s “arrogant” and acts like “a know it all”. Again, that personality can work (see Jose Mourinho) but it quickly falls apart when the results on the pitch don’t match the arrogance (see Jose Mourinho). The reality for these kind of arrogant and dictatorial coaches is that they come in like Billy Big Bollocks and leave as Billy No Mates.
But there’s another layer to this story which I am assuming from the text: that the board (Josh Kroenke) is the one doing some of the leaking here and that this is a tactical leak so that when (not if) they do fire Arteta, the mess of the last five years can be placed on him. Just like it was Unai’s mess and Arsene’s mess before him. Or it was Sanllehi’s mess. Never the owner, always the people he hires to shield him from the criticism.
And the criticism of the owner is simple: he doesn’t understand football and doesn’t seem to understand the specific way that European sports teams work. They understand American sports franchises. Where the money never stops flowing in because of the monopoly system (plus salary caps, tax breaks from cities, and revenue sharing), the teams always get bigger and more valuable, and the customers almost never stop buying no matter what slop they serve. But in an ironic twist, American sports are basically socialism for the wealthy while European sports tend to be much more openly competitive. If you finish bottom of the League in the NFL, your team still makes a ton of money. If you finish bottom of the Premier League, your club is in deep financial trouble, especially a club like Arsenal.
Heck, even finishing outside of the top 6 is a massive financial hit for Arsenal. And a cultural hit as well. Look at the fact that Antonio Conte doesn’t want to join Arsenal because he doesn’t think he can have success here. Four years ago we were interviewing Allegri for the Arsenal job. Reports then said he demanded too much in transfer money so we turned to Unai Emery instead but now we have Conte preemptively saying he wouldn’t go to Arsenal. That’s how quickly things change in football.
And you can look at the Arsenal recruitment these last few years and see that we might start having trouble getting in the kind of players who will get Arsenal back into the top 6. On the football daily podcast (BBC) one of the presenters compared us to Man City when they were first starting their project out. Recruitment of top players wasn’t just difficult, it was extremely costly, and they had to turn to players that they might not have really wanted (such as Robinho) and paid extra to get those players. But even that was a slow project and City had to keep buying players every year to keep raising the level of the team. The presenter suggested that Arsenal are going to have to buy 10 players this year, 10 players next year, and probably 10 players the year after that if they want to get back into the top 4. That seems like a crazy number and there is some hyperbole there but we bought five this season (so far), 7 last season (including the loan for Odegaard), 8 the season before, and 6 in Unai’s first season. Is it really that crazy to say that Arsenal need to buy 8 players next season too? I mean we have a need for a RB right now! And next season we could easily chase upgrades in a number of positions where guys are either retiring or just not good enough for a top four team. Again, this is what happens when you let a product like Arsenal sit on the shelf and expire. Unlike Americans sports where you get to just draft in good players (in fact, the worse you do, the better your draft pick), English football is cutthroat. The worse your team does, the more costly it is to get out. Look at Everton.
And so I read Delaney’s article, where people inside the club are quoted saying that Arteta is a “mini-Wenger” and that he’s responsible for “strong-arming the board” into making certain signings, that his training sessions are too rigid “like Subbuteo”, and I see the handiwork of the owners. They have set this up now to be all Arteta’s fault.
But for me, the fish rots from the head. Arteta didn’t strong-arm the board into hiring him. And if he’s taken control of a lot of the functions at the club to become a “mini-wenger”** let’s not forget that THEY GAVE HIM THAT JOB LAST YEAR AFTER THEY FIRED SANLLEHI. And why did they have to fire Sanllehi? Hmm.. huge mystery that one.
But what’s really fascinating about this whole sordid affair is that what they are saying about Arteta is what a lot of us have been saying for a while. The football is rigid. He talks about wanting to be a high pressing team that makes a lot of slick passes but when we take the field our press is so ugly and disorganized it looks like something an amateur coach would draw up. And Arteta is arrogant! So, yeah, a lot of folks don’t want Arteta at the club anymore. Even last year he had just 53% of fan support. And this year I’d bet that number is a lot lower. And if we return from the international break and lose to Norwich and Burnley, I think there will be quite a riot.
But that’s just me telling you that there can be multiple causes for the problems at Arsenal. Arteta can have flaws, can make mistakes, can even not be ready for the job, and also the problems are much much bigger than Arteta. The problems at Arsenal go all the way to the top. It’s Enos and Josh Kroenke, folks. And I’m actually worried for the first time that the spending we’ve seen over the last three years might just shackles us to mid-table for a long time. I was one who thought that spending would be good and they have spent the money (which they borrowed, so we – the fans – have actually ponied up that money) but the spending seems to be riddled with massive flaws. So, don’t lose sight of the real problem. Firing Arteta can be the right thing to do and also probably won’t solve the bigger problems.
*It’s in French but I found that Google translate did a great job and recommend it as part of today’s readings.
**This is such a derisive phrase both about him and Arsene Wenger that it actually pisses me off, as if Arsene Wenger wasn’t a cash cow for those fucks. Didn’t keep the club running for 20 years. Didn’t turn Arsenal into a superclub. It shows how little they care for and understand the history of the club.
Great article, even better title 🤘
Great blog today. Informative, if a bit depressing overall, i.e. Arteta and Arsenal. I will read both Auclair’s and Delaney’s pieces on your recommendation as well.
I wanted/want Arteta to succeed so badly, but if he’s not the right man, so be it. I have no sentimental tears to cry and I couldn’t care less if the door hits him in the arse on the way out.
Speaking of Auclair, he’s authored another important article well worth a read. Arseblog’s interview with him is also worth a listen. Football and gambling. What can possibly go wrong, right? Wrong!:
http://josimarfootball.com/the-trillion-dollar-gambling-game/
I feel depressed about the club because it is absolutely the ownership where we are screwed. I have no faith they can get us back to top 4 and I don’t think they give a crap if they do. I guess they might care because their key “franchise” loses value. But not enough to go as big as is required to get back there. Arteta may be flawed, and he is young and inexperienced. But the mess of the squad and the financial impact it has had and is having is an anchor pulling him down. I have 0 faith that they can get a better coach in who will do any better.
Personally, I am down for hanging with Arteta and hoping he continues to improve along with our young players and we can get somewhere or at least enjoy the ride and some special moments.
Beyond that, I am not sure any of it even matters. When they let nation states and oligarchs buy football clubs, what’s the point? Only people that can really spend are them or whoever they buy from. We’ve made a decent outlay for sure but it’s not $100M for Grealish and then maybe $130m for Kane. And whatever else they did. It makes a mockery of the sport. Oh well, I digress.
We are screwed with Kroenkes as owners. Let’s just hope we can have some fun with a young coach and young players hopefully growing up and improving together.
“Arteta may be flawed, and he is young and inexperienced. But the mess of the squad and the financial impact it has had and is having is an anchor pulling him down.”
He IS flawed. And he WAS young and inexperienced. He’s not anymore (young and inexperienced) yet he’s still flawed. No crying over spilt milk, I suppose, but he shouldn’t have been given the job to begin with. However, there is a solution to that problem. Sack him… the sooner the better.
“I have 0 faith that they can get a better coach in who will do any better.”
Based on what? IMHO, literally anyone will do a better job than Mikel. Heck, a cardboard cutout of Wenger will probably give him a run for his money.
“Personally, I am down for hanging with Arteta and hoping he continues to improve along with our young players and we can get somewhere or at least enjoy the ride and some special moments.”
Are we watching the same games? What ride and what special moments are we supposed to enjoy with MA in charge? Losing to a newly promoted team? Having not scored in any of our two (potentially three) opening games? Sitting in 19th place? Watching turgid football? Signing Willian? Extending Xhaka’s contract? Paying 50mil for a CB whose transfer value is probably not even half of that? I can go on and on… special moments my arse, pardon my French. The longer this bum stays in the job, the longer AND costlier it’ll be for a new manager to get us out of this rut that we’re in.
The same people that shouldn’t have given him the job are the ones to try to find his successor, so I am not exactly confident they will do much better.
I don’t know how much he is to blame for Willian, but there are many bad deals that have been done for years that have gotten us to this place before he got here or had any control. I’ll concede that I don’t understand the xhaka extension.
True, it’s been turgid. And that is a big worry.
I wouldn’t call him experienced at this point, though, with a season and a half during covid.
I think a bigger issue is Edu and other key positions. We can sack the manager, but we have to stop mismanaging our contracts and player acquisition. It isn’t going to get better if they don’t fix that. At least they bought some young players this time instead of below average players on their last contract with no sell on value or ability to rid of them if they don’t work out.
Brentford was a perfect storm and Chelsea are miles ahead after years of our mismanagement. Are you really looking at the table after the second game?
I’m not saying things don’t suck, but I believe sacking Arteta doesn’t really fix anything that is truly wrong.
We are in a rut because we have been mismanaged for years and people have just been sucking money out with no return to the club. What miracle coach is coming that is going to fix that?
Enjoyed this one a lot Tim, thanks.
Lots to unpack these days.
First, there is an element of “Arsenal in Crisis” to many articles these days. It does get eyeballs. At least based on the two matches this season, it’s not yet clear to me how bad the crisis is. Too many players out, and those were both going to be challenging matches even in the best case. One team playing in the top league for the first time in many years, in front of a stadium full of excited fans. The other was the CL winner newly strengthened with one of the top strikers in the game. Nor am I going to be too bothered if we’re beaten by City. OTOH, lose today, and lose even one of the Norwich and Burnley matches, and it will certainly be a crisis.
Regardless of how much money has been spent, I can’t see Arteta or Edu getting an endless rope. They will have to show some pretty good progress by Christmas, if not sooner. We have plenty of talent now on the attacking side to compete for 5th-6th. Arteta needs to show he can get it to work. If not, he should be replaced.
The Kroenkes have spent money. Quite a lot unwisely, and maybe you can blame them for that. But not like people think Roman A is a tactics genius. He has put trust in Marina G, and she’s mostly done a good job for quite a few years. But they have certainly had missteps too. Roman has just been far more ruthless relative to bad results.
What impressed/disgusted me about Chel$ki during the Cech, Drogba, Lampard, etc years is how consistent they were despite the revolving managerial door. Grant, Mourinho, Ancelotti, Di Matteo and on. It hardly mattered because they were winning one trophy or another while Drogba made us his plaything.
One of my fave Cult tracks. I saw them tour the same year. I’ll disassociate those pleasant memories from the current Arsenal malaise.
Me and the band are practicing “She Sells Sanctuary” right now. They don’t want LRM until I learn how to slide across the stage during the massive solo. I’m too old for that s-$t!
+1
The quality of the writing — Delaney, Auclair and Tim’s — is superb, and vivid. Shame that it is to relay tragedy. Surprising takeaway? Mikel’s power over the board. The decision to absolutely refuse to give a very good young footballer, Saliba, a sniff of a chance and to destroy value has no other explanation. As one of the leakers said, Arsene’ power without Arsene’s pedigree. That is surprising because the reason that Wenger was pushed out was to restructure the club away from having a Maximum Leader. It shows the weakness of the line management. Raul may have been a quiet disaster, but Vinai, Edu and even Josh are showing glaring deficiencies of management. Yes, they are preparing to throw him under the bus, but gooners must be as touggh and them and hold them similarly accountable. Arteta hasnt earned that power. He must’ve done one hell of a job interview.
No Conte? It is what it is. Time to discover an up and coming Klopp or Tuchel. Mine you, we thought that that was what Mikel was. Hard road back.
Starts with a must-win game today.
I’m taking it all with a hefty pinch of salt. I’d say there’s more UK press coverage today briefing against Edu. The knives are out between all parties. Wouldn’t surprise me if both the manager and TD don’t see the season out. Time to twist I say. Just get someone with experience this time. The owners are what they are. If ManU can’t shift the Glazers….
Two minutes in and WBA have read the memo. Frantic pressing/pressuring of the keeper and backline. They cant possibly keep up this intensity for the whole 90
I don’t know the point of these pieces and I think to go nuclear this early is typical Arsenal fans. We will be 0-3 after Saturday. OK. It’s not insurmountable to climb out of.
There is no way Arteta is getting fired mid-season unless the Kroenkes and Richard Garlick are way more in control than we think – you don’t splash out the spend we’ve made on young players – potential – and then expect instant results. If Arteta (and Edu) thought they were in danger it would have been more fliers on Willian type players. We would have seen a move for Coutinho, not Odegaard. We would have signed Ryan Bertrand on a free. There would have been more mortgaging of the future to get us closer to the top 4 pay-off.
My guess is the move to younger players has been purely economics – they command lower salaries, hold their sell-on value and could potentially reap big windfalls. What Kroenke must be watching closely is whether Arteta can improve these young players and, in fact, increase their value on the market. That, in my opinion, will be what he gets measured by, but only at the end of the season. Did the young players make progress? Is Nuno Tavares worth more than when we bought him, or Sambi or Ben White even?
I dunno – we won with some pretty flowing football today and I saw a lot of smiling players…. I know, I know, it’s WBA and a group of youngsters. Still, it didn’t look stilted, the passing was much quicker, Odegaard has Ozil-esque qualities that sprung a few breaks through the back line and maybe Arteta just needs to embrace the 3-4-3 he played today to get things going.
There’s so much wrong with this,I don’t know where to start
Yeah, that’s a cop out.
The club, Arteta, needed a win to lift the grey clouds. They got that, and in style. This is a big morale boost, even if the manager and captain seemed comparatively subdued..
Leaving aside the quality of the competition (who gassed themselves out after an hour), the key, I thought, was playing Auba through the middle. I know that Laca gets a lot of love here, but he’s never been in Auba’s elite category and never will be.
Auba’s strength is running in behind, but that no look dummy for Saka’s goal showed that he can be a focal point without even touching the ball. Saka was outstanding.
First look at Ramsdale. Did ok, looks slight. Need to hit the weight room, it seems to me. I like Tavares. Energetic, two-footed, and very good player for the money.
City is a daunting test, but why support a team if you dont believe they can get positive results?
I dont believe in getting too reactive after losses, and I wont get too reactive after beating Albion.
Great stuff again Tim.
I agree completely with most of Jack Action’s comment 1:11PM. I like what the club has done this summer and I really think the club is finally made the decision to rebuild rather then try to patch up holes with short term bandages such as Willian or Luiz. Hopefully they accept the reality that adding a short term fix like Willian is not going to make us into a top 4 club and we are now looking at building a club over the next 2-3 years that will be able to compete for the top 4. That decision should have been made 3 years ago but I guess no one was willing to accept reality back then. Better late then never. Over the long term Arteta will be judged by results and IMO he has performed at about the level of the talent his team has, no better but not worse either.
Great game today. If Arteta’s tactics and game management are the cause in the games where we struggle then his tactics must also be the reason when we play well and he must have had an excellent game plan today. Realistically I don’t believe a manager can be clueless a couple days ago against Chelsea and then really smart today and then lose the plot again if don’t get a result against Man City. I suspect most of the bottom 15 teams in the league will look pretty much clueless when they play Chelsea and Man City this season. Last season we easily beat most teams like West Brom and rest of the bottom of the table and the Europa league opponents prior to Villarreal. If the team and its manger really dos not have a coherent tactical plan then its hard to see how we could have success in most of those games. The reason teams play defense is to prevent the opposition from executing its tactical plan and its still my belief the reason we struggle against teams who are better then we are is because we just don’t have the talent to execute an effective game plan against teams that play solid defense. Hopefully we are starting down the road to a coherent plan to rebuild a squad which can compete.
Did you miss the Brentford game, Bill?
The Brentford game keeps getting brought up – my personal opinion is that 15 out of the other 19 teams in the Premier League would have lost that game. A good, well coached team, just promoted after an 80 year absence, new stadium, start of a new season… I think even City and United might have been upset.
Great to see Auba with 3 and Pepe and Laca on the scoresheet with goals. Performances and production in league cup games has never been a good indication of what happens in league games in the past but hopefully this will spark all 3 into life. I think we need those 3 to combine for at least 45 league goals if we want to have any realistic chance of finishing in the top 6. Who else is going to score? Anything is possible but 45 goals from them seems like an unrealistic expectation.
No I did not miss the Brentford game. Bad games with unexpected bad results happen sometimes and they are mostly matched by occasional unexpected good results such as beating Chelsea twice last year. Either you or someone else said in a previous comment that you don’t over react to one game good or bad. Over a 38 game schedule water seeks its proper level and we finished in 8th place last year because we were able to win most of the games against the teams below us in the table and we made it to the Europa league semifinal because we were able to beat all of the teams we played prior to Villarreal. I suspect we will finish somewhere around 7-8th place again unless somehow Auba can beat father time and regain close to his best form and one of either Pepe or Laca has a big year scoring year.
‘water seeks its proper level’
Where have I heard that before 🤔
Our record in the Europa league before Villarreal was 9-1-2 and we outscored the opposition 32-11. If the managers bad game plan is responsible almost every time you lose then he must have put together a lot of really good game plans for the first 12 games. How do have that sort of record if the manager who does not know how to build a game plan? A lot of people blamed Arteta’s game plan for the loss to Villarreal but they won the Europa league so you assume they are pretty good. It does not make any sense to me that Arteta could smart enough to dominate for the first 12 Europa league games and then completely lose the plot.
it’s called getting “out-coached”
Was good to get a big score yesterday. Auba hattrick, Laca’s finish was great. Saka’s goal was a thing of beauty with that pass from Odegaard, and Pepe got a great inventive assist from Auba too. Hopefully that reminds the team that they indeed are good enough to trouble defenses, even if this one was a weird sight of the ‘smaller’ team playing their youth while the bigger team went with its starters. But needs must, mission accomplished, onto the next.
On the larger front, I was for keeping Wenger till the end of his contract even though the noise around the club made it impossible. But I liked the plan we had to replace him. Hiring Emery was a mistake, and I think Gazidis was overruled on that and on other decisions. Once he left, the right thing to do would’ve been to bring in another CEO. KSE instead placed Raul there and that, aside from the character & history of the man, was a flawed decision because it made the contacts/business side higher than the football side in the structure of the organisation.
Even though we got rid of Raul, we didn’t fix that, promoting Vinai instead. Under whose watch in turn we’ve proceeded to go back to the Wenger led model, minus any experience, not just with those in charge, but getting rid of what we had at the club.
There’s some rumours of Qatar preparing a takeover bid. I would’ve opposed this tooth and nail if it were a few years ago. Now, we have no class or values to protect anyway, and I’m a lot more ambivalent on it. Maybe even keen on it. However, I think it unlikely to happen. I doubt the Kroenkes will sell. In which case, the best we can hope for is for some genius coach or even better, a genius manager. Many clubs have tried and repeatedly failed to get their version of Wenger. I doubt we’ll get lucky like that again.
once again, we agree in whole, my friend. i’d like to add the point i made the other day about how much of a perfect storm david dein made the club. he wasn’t just a sound business man but a proper football guy and an arsenal man. claude made a bad argument about dein selling his shares to usmanov. i say bad argument because, while most of us know why dein sold his shares, not everyone knows the story. it was poor to say that he did it with anything other than arsenal in mind.
for those who don’t know, dein sold his shares to a company called red and white holdings, owned by another share holder and russian/uzbek billionaire named alisher usmanov. dein’s selling his shares to usmanov was an effort to thwart a hostile take over from stan kroenke as dein didn’t trust kroenke’s direction. unfortunately, usmanov didn’t play the political game well and was frozen out, leading to the hostile take over happening anyway and usmanov had to sell his shares to kroenke.
neither dein nor usmanov sold their shares solely for the money.
Morning, Josh. Dein was superb for Arsenal in all of the ways you described. We agree totally on that. But amigo, he was not a football investor for altruistic purposes. The best way to prevent a takeover was to hold onto his shares. That’s common sense. Usmanov made him an above market offer, and he cash in. It doesn’t make Dein a bad person. In fact it makes him a rational person. You can bleed Arsenal red and recognise a good business opportunity. I dont hold it against him. But im not buying this altruism thing. Particularly if you’re going to argue that Usmanov of all people was his white knight. Every Arsenal investor, no matter how much they loved the club (which I dont doubt), was a business person first. Dean, Usmanov, Nina Bracewell-Smith.
I do agree with you though that when we lost Dein as the head honcho, we lost big. And we’ve never replaced him.
good morning, claude. you know, you’re probably right. i don’t know david dein. i know he was the primary force in arsenal signing “arsene who?”, he was on the club’s board the fa board, and uefa’s board for many years, he was a true football man, and he was vehemently opposed to stan kroenke taking over the club. i know his actions with usmanov got him sacked and usmanov did put him in charge of red and white holdings.
considering these things, i made some stuff up in my head. bottom line, i don’t now the truth… and you’re right, business is business. arsenal absolutely miss his negotiating prowess and connections.
Well good news. We finally disagree.
Dein brought in Kroenke first. The club rejected the attempt, with PHW saying we don’t need his money and don’t want his sort at the club. Dein was removed and joined up with Usmanov after that. He sold him his shares and then tried to engineer a hostile takeover. He might even have inadvertently caused the Kroenke takeover because without Usmanov in the picture Arsenal probably don’t invite Kroenke in.
I am less judgmental about this now than I was then. I believe Dein did love Arsenal and saw the trend once Abramovich made his presence felt. An Arsenal with Dein at the helm would likely have been more competitive.
He wanted us to play at Wembley instead of building the stadium and I don’t know. Maybe he was right maybe not so much. But Wenger said he considered quitting once Dein left and it was Dein who convinced him to continue.
(I don’t know what role if any David Dein played in his son gaining clients at the club and then pushing them to leave)
By the way, Usmanov’s 50% partner in R&W Holdings was Farhad Moshiri who now owns (just under half of) Everton.
If we are bought out be Qatar, I’m out. I cannot support a team owned by a nation with an appalling human rights record, that uses football teams to launder money and as a PR effort.
Is that any worse than countries that go to war abroad, lose and run away leaving their local allies to defend themselves? Might as well close football for all the good the US and Britain are currently doing.
Ahem….
grim read but thanks anyway. what’s cool is that much of what was written by auclair and especially delaney has already been said by folks on this forum with nothing more than life experience, a little football knowledge, some leadership ability, and deductive reasoning skills.
i have no doubt about arteta’s football knowledge but that doesn’t make you a good manager. it’s little about football and more about dealing with personalities. coincidentally, in the previous thread, i talked about arteta’s arrogance and here, you speak of people calling him a “know it all”. devlin also spoke of arteta’s lack of humility and an unwillingness to learn. he has so much to learn about being a coach. i just hope he wants to learn.
happy with the performance last night. while i know it was against the west brom reserve team, i was just happy to see aubameyang looking like aubameyang. likewise, good to see lacazette has recovered from covid. his very first touch was an amazing through ball that should have been an assist and his second touch was a goal. all of the talk about selling laca and dropping auba…please just stop it!
as for saturday, i’d like to see arsenal in a 3-5-2 with auba and pepe as a counter-attacking front 2. 3-5-2 also makes room for a smith rowe/odegaard type. speaking of man city, if they don’t sign a center forward, i think they’re going to be in big trouble. well, chelsea won the champions league without a center forward so we’ll see.
Good article, explaining a lot.
“Love Removal Machine “ was the caption and gave a gist.
However there was a 6-0 win against an almost fully West Brom substitutes team and the tenor went on a tangent since after the Carabao game
As a thirty-years fan of Arsenal from China, I can not agree more about the analysis of the main problem of post-Wenger time, it came from the board, the managment level.
There is another example, Abramovich, who took over Chelsea 2003. He spent lots, wasted lots, but he learnt how to run a club step by step after a few year. Even he fired so many coach, paid so much liquidated damages, but he finally became a smart boss.
Arsene adored the bunch of Kroenkes assholes so many years, that Kroenkes thought they knew how to run a superior club but actually they know shit.
BTW, as an engineer uses English and French frequently, I strongly suggest Deepl (deepl.com) a better translator 🙂
This community is amazing.
Shard, you’ve been supplanted as 7am’s earliest riser! 😀
Haha. Not much of an early riser anyway.
If you told me our next manager would be a ‘mini Wenger’ I’d be excited.