Mikel Arteta: 36 More Months

[CaseUteinberger]

Careful mate, he'll go crying to the mods if you keep this up.

...not that there's any mods that actually still listen to anything he says.

In vino veritas. I’ll blame my truth saying on the claret! Hope the mods give me a break.

 

[CaseUteinberger]

I still think their articles on Arteta are biased. They're big on stats and Arteta's stats are poor even though he's riding his luck in the league table. I like the fact he's now decided to ditch the old guard like Willian, Luiz etc and go for youth. There are positive signs, but he needs to improve the way we play before I get on board his train.

I actually mainly like when they give background on players and their journey to where they are now. Think the piece they had on Sterling was excellent. About him and his family’s sacrifices to get him to where he is now. Made me see him in a different light.

 

[Blankety Blank]

Mourinho was at teams with big money in their leagues, Real, Chelsea, Milan even Porto was given £10m back in the day. Now him and Carlo and Rafa are at teams spending 6th and below like Sp**s, Newcastle Everton. They’re not going to challenge for the league title with those teams. It’s got nothing to do with the league getting harder.

Sure to an extent but Mourinho won the Champions league with Porto ffs. He didnt get the tag 'Special one' for nothing.

He was brought into Sp**s, a club who at the time had finished higher than us 4 years straight & were champs league final & top 4 very recently as a proven experienced winner.
Despite having a better squad than us he did about as well as rookie Arteta here.

Everton have spent very big over recent seasons, A guy on talksport said they had spent circa half a billion!!? I dont expect them to challenge for the title or even top 4 but when was the last time they got top 6-8 like they used to?
Top experienced managers are struggling to get them 10th.

The leagues crazy hard now , Imagine in 2004- 2016 being offered the
Madrid Job after finishing 10th here with Everton .

 

[farzad4daarse]

Sure to an extent but Mourinho won the Champions league with Porto ffs. He didnt get the tag 'Special one' for nothing.
He was brought into Sp**s (a club who at the time had finished higher than us for 4 years & were in the top 4 & champs league final very recently) as a proven winner & despite having a better squad did about as well as Arteta here)

Everton have spent very big over recent seasons, A guy on talksport said they had spent circa half a billion? I dont expect them to challenge for the title but when was the last time they even got top 6-8 like they used to? Top experienced managers are struggling to get them 10th.

The leagues crazy hard now , Imagine in 2004- 2016 being offered the
Madrid Job after finishing 10th here with Everton .

I actually think the biggest improvement in the league has come from the teams sitting 5-12th position. The Democratic way the money is split in premier league produces lots of teams that on their day can knock off the giants. It was much easier being top 15 years ago than now. The CL in that period was always the same teams. A club like Leicester is a perfect example, they didn’t just win the tolitke and collapse they have been a strong side now for years before falling off dramatically this year. The medium sized clubs like Everton and Leicester can and do spend big year after year now, that wasn’t the case 15 years ago or even 10 years ago

 

[Blankety Blank]

I actually think the biggest improvement in the league has come from the teams sitting 5-12th position.

Yes spot on
Why do you think when the European Super league was proposed last year 6 teams from the prem were offered it?
People may laugh when i say 'top 6' is the new top 4 but evidence suggests that is now the case simply due to the strength of the Prem now compared to other leagues.

If the Prem got 6 UCL places from a standard of football perspective It imho would not be out of turn.

Say that was the case & we finish 5th or 6th this year?
i would back us with a favourable draw to make last 16 in the Champions league.

This is exactly what we did for years when we finished 4th under Arsène.

I honestly dont think making the last 16 of the champs league is any harder.
However actually getting into the competition from the prem is now a lot tougher.

 

[Xln]

@farzad4daarse is HSG? Is it happening?

 

[farzad4daarse]

@farzad4daarse is HSG? Is it happening?

Who? I can assure you have never posted on this site under any other name other than my own. I even put my own photo in the avatar ? So who hell are you?

 

[Tir Na Nog]

I honestly believe that if Arteta has anything about him he'll get top 4 this season, if he's not capable of taking advantage of the current situation then we'll never finish top 4 under him as United are likely to come back stronger next season and in the coming seasons.

This idea of accepting 6th is astonishing to me, that's what we should've been doing last season. But regardless, this season there's no excuses. Maybe if United have a brilliant 2nd half of the season and we narrowly finish 5th that might be acceptable but I don't see how we could allow another side to finish above us unless we have a really poor 2nd half to the season.

 

[CaseUteinberger]

@farzad4daarse is HSG? Is it happening?

More Soviet style paranoia! Love it!

If @farzad4daarse is HairSprayGooners it would be epic. I miss good old HairSpray and the family he/she/they brought along! Just like Manberg 1 through 14!

 

[CaseUteinberger]

I honestly believe that if Arteta has anything about him he'll get top 4 this season, if he's not capable of taking advantage of the current situation then we'll never finish top 4 under him as United are likely to come back stronger next season and in the coming seasons.

This idea of accepting 6th is astonishing to me, that's what we should've been doing last season. But regardless, this season there's no excuses. Maybe if United have a brilliant 2nd half of the season and we narrowly finish 5th that might be acceptable but I don't see how we could allow another side to finish above us unless we have a really poor 2nd half to the season.

Finishing 4th or 5th must be in the cards right now. Don't think anyone can catch the top 3, but we should be able to get to 4th with the signings we had in the summer and the way they are panning out, but not sure Arteta is good enough to get a tune out of us to get us there.

 

[Makingtrax]

Traxy, why you are not the proud owner of a "Trusted" badge? You are super consistent in your postings and never really rude or anything. I have been rude to you, but cannot recall you being it back. Honest question and with +20,000 posts I cannot see why not. I hope you been offered it, but declined it out of love for @Jury!

PS. Have had a couple of glasses of good claret after work, so I might change my view tomorrow, but for now it stands.

Thanks bro. I try never to be personal with my posting unless it’s just a joke, it’s not in my nature.

 

[blrgooner]

Finishing 4th or 5th must be in the cards right now. Don't think anyone can catch the top 3, but we should be able to get to 4th with the signings we had in the summer and the way they are panning out, but not sure Arteta is good enough to get a tune out of us to get us there.

Well that is true. But what I don`t understand is why Sp**s who finished above us last few years, have similar level of investment in the past 3 years as us and a bonafide world class manager now should not finish above us. If we don`t expect that to happen, surely we shouldn`t expect a change in management to suddenly make us a top 4 team either?
I mean this is not exactly my opinion but most people seem to think that the only issue we have is management and changing the manager would immediately fix us. Same logic should apply for Sp**s and they should finish above us. If that doesn`t happen, surely people should correct their prior assumption that change in management will suddenly fix us?

 

[Makingtrax]

Sure to an extent but Mourinho won the Champions league with Porto ffs. He didnt get the tag 'Special one' for nothing.

He was brought into Sp**s, a club who at the time had finished higher than us 4 years straight & were champs league final & top 4 very recently as a proven experienced winner.
Despite having a better squad than us he did about as well as rookie Arteta here.

Everton have spent very big over recent seasons, A guy on talksport said they had spent circa half a billion!!? I dont expect them to challenge for the title or even top 4 but when was the last time they got top 6-8 like they used to?
Top experienced managers are struggling to get them 10th.

The leagues crazy hard now , Imagine in 2004- 2016 being offered the
Madrid Job after finishing 10th here with Everton .

Squads are built over several years, so a spurt in spending over one or two years still doesn’t get you quality in all areas of the team, or depth for injury problems. Everton have never gone beyond 7th for squad investment. You’re not going to win the league with that squad. And Mourinho has very little experience of a club spending 6th in the Prem, where he can’t buy players he wants. It’s a difficult job. Wenger was exceptional getting continuous top 4 with a team spending so little but fans never understood and mocked him with Mourinho.

I see no evidence that the league is any harder than it was. It’s a myth.

 

[Trilly]

if he's not capable of taking advantage of the current situation then we'll never finish top 4 under him as United are likely to come back stronger next season and in the coming seasons.

This, this and this again. One game a week, United Leicester and Leicester all dropping off big time and every single one of our rivals dealing with European football.

Does any Arteta fan actually disagree with this? If you do, are you sure you actually rate him?

 

[2Smokeyy]

This, this and this again. One game a week, United Leicester and Leicester all dropping off big time and every single one of our rivals dealing with European football.

Does any Arteta fan actually disagree with this? If you do, are you sure you actually rate him?

I’m actually curious to know whether there are any ride or die Arteta “supporters” still on the forum? It looks like those on here are “fans” and are on the fence.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

This, this and this again. One game a week, United Leicester and Leicester all dropping off big time and every single one of our rivals dealing with European football.

Does any Arteta fan actually disagree with this? If you do, are you sure you actually rate him?

This is the thing, if you've got any faith in Arteta then surely you must back him to achieve this this season, I honestly believe any decent manager at least pushes for top 4 until the end.

I assume most Arteta fans believe in him to at least achieve this, otherwise do they actually rate him at all? And if they don't believe it's possible how much more and how much longer will it take? Because I don't think we get a better opportunity than this again unless we go out and sign genuine world class players next summer.

 

[GoonerJeeves]

Hopefully our defending will be good enough to earn us a draw here, if we have to rely on our attacking prowess we're ****ed.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

At this stage I think we've got to be looking at 4rh.

Let's be fair though. Look at the poll above. Finishing top 6 was the most voted for category for Arteta to keep his job and I'd imagine most of those votes came early on this season.

Expectations have changed largely. A few of our rivals have struggled a bit. We've made some good signings and had some pretty decent results over the past few months.

Let's put some pressure on Arteta to get 4th whilst also acknowledging our expectations for the season have grown, at least in part because we're doing better, results wise.
Heightened expectations are a good think.

 

[OnlyOne]

This, this and this again. One game a week, United Leicester and Leicester all dropping off big time and every single one of our rivals dealing with European football.

Does any Arteta fan actually disagree with this? If you do, are you sure you actually rate him?

I disagree with this. You can’t predict football so teams could be worse next year and we could get better?

Yes the odds are slimmer but who thought Leicester and United would drop off this year? No one, so it can happen again.

 

[OnlyOne]

Maybe next year Arteta has an attack he’s built, he’s maybe also got another midfielder in, we also have a younger team with a full season under their belt so the team is more gelled. 5th/6th this year is disappointing but it’s not going to be the end of the world.