Mikel Arteta: Top Drawer

[Red London]

This Jan makes you slightly wonder how much of the blame was on him in the summer.

It was never 100% to Edu/the club and 0% to Arteta (or visa versa) like some of the debates I’ve seen here, but I was still attributing a good chunk of blame to Arteta I suppose.

Bringing in another box crasher duel monster like Merino is all on him, but I am now pretty convinced the Arsenal board let him down in the summer. At the end of the day he picks who he wants to sign but he is not doing any negotiating or planning in that regard.

Our ownership and board are ambition-less.

And I have said many a time, the grass is not always greener. Let’s see in the summer about the ambition of the club because at this stage Arteta has made it pretty ****ing clear he is not happy with their movements in the transfer window.

If ambition is the issue then there’s a strong chance we fall back to mediocrity after Arteta leaves.

 

[Goonger]

To echo pure profit above, whilst mistakes were made in squad building but Arteta does deserve support. He’s been let down have to admit it.

Hopefully the next DoF has significant input as I do think Arteta is a hell of a coach. Needs guidance with squad building though.

Honestly, we all know we need a couple of additions in attack, but I think the squad is in a very good place especially compared to our peers.

The core of the defence is all young or in their prime, Gabriel, Saliba, Timber, White, Calafiori, Lewis Skelly a fantastic set back there. We'll see a natural churn with Zinchenko and Tierney leaving, and decisions will be made over Tomiyasu and Kiwior.

We have 2 aging players in midfielders Jorginho and Partey, and it looks as if we have identified a player in Zubimendi who is in his prime. alongside Rice, Merino and Ødegaard, again all in their prime. We might need 1 more addition.

In attack again, Saka, Martinelli, Havertz, Nwaneri, all in their prime. Jesus injury unfortunate and a decision needs made over Trossard, but get the 2 forwards we need in the summer, and that's a squad with any aging players replaced well and has years left on them.

Id say there's defo more question marks and therefore more jeopardy in the City and Liverpool squad.

Liverpool's 4 best players are either aging or have contract issues or both. They are also at the top of the tree in their respective positions so replacing any of them will be difficult.

City likewise have to replace Ederson, Walker, Stones, Bernardo, Gundogan, De Bruyne...Akanji, Kovacic, Ake will be 30+ this year as well. They've dropped near £200M this window and I'm not sure yet how much that's improved them. They'll drop the same in the summer but they'd need more players ready for the now than some of the ones they've bought already.

We need to turn the screw this summer, no excuses, as last summer was such a missed opportunity, as I still think we are best placed in terms balance and age profile going forward out the 3 of us if we just address those glaring weaknesses. The good thing about our build is we are looking to increase our quality of a couple of positions where we all accept are weak. The other 2 teams need to replace legends, with no guarantee replacements will be as good or get to the level that of the players they are replacing.

 

[MikelHadADream]

This Jan makes you slightly wonder how much of the blame was on him in the summer.

It was never 100% to Edu/the club and 0% to Arteta (or visa versa) like some of the debates I’ve seen here, but I was still attributing a good chunk of blame to Arteta I suppose.

Bringing in another box crasher duel monster like Merino is all on him, but I am now pretty convinced the Arsenal board let him down in the summer. At the end of the day he picks who he wants to sign but he is not doing any negotiating or planning in that regard.

Our ownership and board are ambition-less.

And I have said many a time, the grass is not always greener. Let’s see in the summer about the ambition of the club because at this stage Arteta has made it pretty ****ing clear he is not happy with their movements in the transfer window.

If ambition is the issue then there’s a strong chance we fall back to mediocrity after Arteta leaves.

The common theme is blaming Edu and the Kroenkes, but Arteta is just as responsible. He wanted to spend £25m on that Spanish keeper, which would have meant we spent more on goalkeepers than forwards under him.

That is completely ridiculous.

 

[Macho]

The common theme is blaming Edu and the Kroenkes, but Arteta is just as responsible. He wanted to spend £25m on that Spanish keeper, which would have meant we spent more on goalkeepers than forwards under him.

That is completely ridiculous.

He’s clearly very picky as well, basically admitted the club couldn’t get what he wanted so “didn’t want another body”.

This almost mirrors Wenger’s time where there is a mixture of the higher ups not pulling out all the stops for named players and the manager himself being picky which leads to Cech windows.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

Honestly it does feel like there is a ceiling as to how far our owner is willing to back us.

It feels like it's been a consistent theme over the past 20 odd years, Wenger or Arteta, it's seen as good enough to be competitive. We never pull that financial trigger to really push us to the top. We're always just short.

Don't get me wrong, Arteta has had stronger financial backing than Arsène so he can't complain too much but it almost feels like the financial injection was to get us comfortable top 4 / title challengers. Then the taps get turned off.

Maybe we'll be throwing money around in the summer and I'll be proved wrong but seeing Man City spending £200m in this window like it's nothing is annoying.

I don't expect us to be throwing that amount of money around of course but it shows you the financial gulf between us / Liverpool and what Man City can do. Can't wait for them to get demoted ( hopefully!)

Like take Havertz, maybe he's not good enough but we kind of have to make him a success here because of the wages he's on, he can't just be a rotation player which would be the ideal role for him. Yet you've got someone like Grealish who cost £100m and on I assume comparable wages to Havertz stinking the joint up at City and he can just be a bench player, no questions asked.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

People just want to buy players for the sake of it, this is what’s annoying about transfer season. People get more excited about transfers than the actual football.

You guys want to spend 80m on ‘Marmoush’ just for the transfer dopamine even though he’s probably not even that good and expensive. Most players aren’t worth the price they’re going for.

Liverpool aren’t making any transfers and they’re better, whilst Man Utd and Chelsea make loads of transfers that amount to f all. Maybe transfers aren’t the be all end all?

 

[Clrnc]

Who the **** cares whether they are worth every penny?

As long as they help us achieve our targets nobody cares what they cost.

You think a DM like Rice should cost 115m?

 

[grange]

The lack of a serious sporting director is coming back to haunt us and you guys are spinning this onto Arteta.

 

[Macho]

The lack of a serious sporting director is coming back to haunt us and you guys are spinning this onto Arteta.

There is no Edu to blame anymore

 

[grange]

There is no Edu to blame anymore

You think not being able to self sustain and begging the Kroenkes for money is a recent occurrence? Interesting.

 

[Rasmi]

The lack of a serious sporting director is coming back to haunt us and you guys are spinning this onto Arteta.

A serious sporting director is not gonna be dictated by his manager. The club gave Arteta the power to be co sporting director. He was even expected to be part of the interview process. Give Jason the job and let Arteta run free. Luckily psr is limiting the damage he can do

 

[Red London]

The common theme is blaming Edu and the Kroenkes, but Arteta is just as responsible. He wanted to spend £25m on that Spanish keeper, which would have meant we spent more on goalkeepers than forwards under him.

That is completely ridiculous.

He shouldn’t have so much of a say on how we allocate the budget though. There should be a strong DOF. Where is the ambition and sporting model from this club to bring in a top DOF?

Arteta is inexperienced and limited at looking at the bigger picture squad building wise clearly. He should be the head coach with a big say on who we need. But at a certain point the buck should stop. Was very hard to tell where the buck stopped when Edu was in charge because he doesn’t have gravitas.

We should have a DOF with gravitas coming in. Anything less and it’s clear the club doesn’t have big long term ideas.

 

[grange]

A serious sporting director is not gonna be dictated by his manager. The club gave Arteta the power to be co sporting director. He was even expected to be part of the interview process. Give Jason the job and let Arteta run free. Luckily psr is limiting the damage he can do

100% pure crap

 

[Rasmi]

100% pure crap

You can’t have it both ways. I want top class DoF and he should share the job with Arteta and Arteta should interview him. That’s the truth

 

[grange]

You can’t have it both ways. I want top class DoF and he should share the job with Arteta and Arteta should interview him. That’s the truth

You've managed to contradict yourself in less than an hour. I'm impressed, Rasmutin.

 

[RunTheTrap]

The common theme is blaming Edu and the Kroenkes, but Arteta is just as responsible. He wanted to spend £25m on that Spanish keeper, which would have meant we spent more on goalkeepers than forwards under him.

That is completely ridiculous.

I lay 25% of the blame on Edu. He was poor at selling players (except last summer) and didn't do anything to refresh our scouting department. To go from Nico Williams to end up with Sterling is poor recruitment.

25% goes to Arteta for hoarding players and then ruining their market value. He should also stay in his lane when it comes to player identification. Why was he allowed to bring Merino last summer for that fee? Also, why did he let the goalkeeping staff influence his decision-making? I have never heard of goalkeeping coaches having that much leeway in a transfer window before.

Ultimately, the majority of the blame goes to the Kroenkes. They are the ones overseeing everything, and they hold the cash. They did well to oust Raul before he stole any more money, but replacing football people with more lawyers led to inactivity this January. We lacked decisiveness and let a rookie in charge of one our most pivotal periods ever. I can't even get mad at Ayto, because wtf was he meant to do?

 

[Buhry]

I almost completely agree but Martinelli. Basically only Saliba and Saka could start in that XI. Gaby could as well next to Campbell. What a team the invencibles and beautiful football.

Raya would give Lehmann some tough competition. Outside of that season when he made cl season of the team and we got to the final I'm not sure he had any better seasons than what Raya is having.

 

[outlawz]

The common theme is blaming Edu and the Kroenkes, but Arteta is just as responsible. He wanted to spend £25m on that Spanish keeper, which would have meant we spent more on goalkeepers than forwards under him.

That is completely ridiculous.

I don't know why people are so intent on singling people out. The club failed, Arsenal FC failed in the window to strengthen the team, it's all encompassing and includes everyone Arteta, Ayto, Kroenke, Garlick. Gunnersaurus.

It annoys me when fans who are clueless about what's going on behind the scenes, apportion blame like they do. There are so many parties to a player transfer. We don't know who is responsible for what and who was at fault.

 

[OnlyOne]

The common theme is blaming Edu and the Kroenkes, but Arteta is just as responsible. He wanted to spend £25m on that Spanish keeper, which would have meant we spent more on goalkeepers than forwards under him.

That is completely ridiculous.

Why do people keep saying this? We bid like £16M for the keeper and refused to pay the RC

 

[dashsnow17]

People just want to buy players for the sake of it, this is what’s annoying about transfer season. People get more excited about transfers than the actual football.

You guys want to spend 80m on ‘Marmoush’ just for the transfer dopamine even though he’s probably not even that good and expensive. Most players aren’t worth the price they’re going for.

Liverpool aren’t making any transfers and they’re better, whilst Man Utd and Chelsea make loads of transfers that amount to f all. Maybe transfers aren’t the be all end all?

You’re sort of correct and incorrect. Clubs do spend a lot on transfers and fail. But also, Liverpool are winning because of successful transfers, Salah, VVD, Alisson. City won because of good transfers, KdB, Aguero, Rodri, Haaland etc.

Obviously some focus too much on transfers, but at the end of the day good recruitment is the key to winning trophies.