AbouCuéllar
Author of A-M essays 📚
Yeah, it's really weird, tbh. He plays with the youngest team in the premier league, he names an extremely young captain, he's clearly very anxious to give youth products like Nelson and Nketiah every chance he can if they prove deserving (pretty reliable sources say that they always planned to keep Nelson this summer; obviously some of that might've been club mouthpieces, but I think it's clear the club saw a difference in him in terms of work ethic and dedication, from Arteta's comments, when he came back this summer and decided that if they were unable to find a winger they liked for the right price they would count on Nelson)..."Arteta doesn't play youth". Hahah, biggest joke there ever has been!
Arteta went into the season with Nelson & Marquinhos as squad players to depend on. He trusted them enough for it, rather than paying over the top (like over 50 million or even more for Mudryk). People here didn't trust own youth, but mostly complained about the lack of depth.
So it's bad when Arteta trusts own youth like this, but still somehow he doesn't trust or play youth in the view of many.
AM is a weird place, keeps you on your toes guessing what the heck is going on, and what's the next development. That's part of why we all love it!
I hope Nelson keeps trying things more bravely, but intelligently. He has contract until 2023, but looks like a true gunner, so no worries there. It's a nice situation for him to play for a contract, wherever that is. Even at Arsenal if he fires it up like he can.
He strikes me as an eminently fair manager, honestly, and I really don't care if that sounds controversial on this forum (I know it does), because it strikes me as totally true. If you are planned around and you are showing the level required in training he will give you a fair chance as long as he can without it affecting the team's success unduly, this has been true in every case, from Marí, to Özil at the beginning (even Torreira was given a chance at the beginning, as well as Mustafi), to Nelson at the beginning and now, to ESR, to Willian, to Cedric, to Tavares, to Lokonga, and of course to the one who he is perceived as having treated badly here, Pepe, who is really a perfect example of him being fair to a player, Pepe when he was performing was always in the team, we even started last season with him as a starter after his hot run at the end of 20-21, until it became clear that ESR and finally Martinelli were better options.
How many times have we thought a career of a player has been over here before he has brought him back to an important role in the team, after being impressed in training? This has happened to varying degrees with Nketiah (twice, first after coming back from Leeds), Elneny, Nelson, ESR (I said back in October of 2020 he was my secret hope for that season, but no one at that point really thought he had much of a future here), the list goes on...
He is exactly what I want in my manager in terms of squad usage; demanding in terms of the level required and the necessity to adhere to the team's tactical instructions and philosophy, demanding in terms of the commitment level, but incredibly fair and open-minded, and with a long-term vision always in mind.
It's so sad that such a shame that so many weird and frankly unfair and incorrect narratives like this sprung up out of the anger and in many case downright dislike for him during our period of struggle in the past couple seasons, they've been repeated so many times that a very big faction believes them without even really questioning their foundation.