Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?

[A_G]

Spoiler: The Arsenal Way’: club conducting top-to-bottom cultural review

‘The Arsenal Way’: club conducting top-to-bottom cultural review

David Ornstein

It was a disappointing weekend for Arsenal as their chances of making next season’s Champions League hit another setback — the defeat at Southampton was their third consecutive loss.

The downturn has tempered expectations for the final weeks of the campaign and offered a reality check on how much progress is still required if they are to compete for the biggest trophies again.

Manager Mikel Arteta is charged with improving Arsenal’s fortunes on the pitch and there is also a rebuilding job occurring behind the scenes as the north London side try to reclaim former glories.

(Photo: Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images)
One of the main problems identified in recent times has been the culture and they are now trying to do something about it. The Athletic understands Arsenal have enlisted the help of consultancy firm People-Made to embark upon what sources call a “top-to-bottom cultural review of the club”.

The project — known internally as “The Arsenal Way” — has already begun and aims to hear from staff at all levels of the organisation, identify what has gone wrong and attempt to put things right.

There is an acceptance that many factors Arsenal feel set them apart started to dissipate towards the end of Arsène Wenger’s reign and during Unai Emery’s period at the helm.

Backed at ownership level, this is being led by director Lord Harris, chief executive Vinai Venkatesham and chief commercial officer Juliet Slot. Arteta, technical director Edu and academy boss Per Mertesacker are involved in what they hope will help bring a successful future.

The process kicked off with a “Be Together” forum at the Emirates Stadium and there are smaller sessions — some of which Arteta has attended — focus groups, individual meetings and a survey.

There are groups named after iconic figures, such as “Rocky”, with new images and messaging noticeable around club buildings designed to connect employees with Arsenal’s history and values.

People-Made’s research phase is happening until the summer, when the London-based company will report its findings and assist Arsenal in establishing a “cultural direction” for the years ahead.

Speechless.

The problem according to them is the culture instilled by Wenger, so the solution is to post pictures and quotes of Wenger all over the training ground. Nice.

 

[scytheavatar]

There are no cultural issues as far as I can see, it's just BS. All indicators suggest that discipline and team spirit have been addressed (some would say too aggressively but that's a different argument) and resolved.

Our problems are pretty clear, our squad isn't deep enough and our manager after nearly 2 1/2 years can't build a functional attacking side. I didn't need a fancy firm to lead me to those conclusions.

It's not a different argument cause our squad isn't deep enough due to our manager driving so many players out of the club. Also we can't build a functional attacking side cause our attacking players are too afraid to take risks in matches. Our "discipline and team spirit" is the main cause of the problems you have mentioned.

What that happened to Mourinho teams should have made it clear that when you squeeze players like lemons it's inevitable that they get squeezed dry and no longer give you anymore. So being able to squeeze your players more isn't necessarily a good thing.

 

[Jasard]

There are comments on Reddit that they have a high turn over of staff at the club as they cut numbers, wages and increased hours. Probably start by sorting that out.

 

[Rimaal]

What I don't get is the PR machine likes to paint everything as perfect when we're winning but once we lose a few games it's almost like they have to do a whole damage control operation. It just comes across as so fake.

It's not helping the players or Arteta himself either. I think they'd be better served to just keep quiet for a while and let the players/staff try and sort it out on the pitch.

It's worked for them so far. He lasted didn't he? And fans still sing his name in the stadium.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

The culture change has been successful tho, we had a culture of playing CL football ever year while playing good football, now we've got neither. So we've been incredibly successful at changing the culture.

 

[AberGooner]

It's worked for them so far. He lasted didn't he? And fans still sing his name in the stadium.

This is true. The only people who get called out in the media are the players. A few weeks ago Laca was the perfect player for the role and it was an inspired decision to remove Auba. Now Laca's next in line being blamed these same writers.

 

[field442]

So not when the players completely gave up under Emery one the going got tough?

It’s been an issue for years now.

How many of them are still at the club? Anyway it’s all bollocks. Chelsea players have been downing tools for managers for years and then win European cups and domestic titles once they’ve gone. This is just a way of finding somewhere to pin the blame when the real reason is staring everyone in the face.

 

[2Smokeyy]

The thing I can’t stand is the disrespect he’s shown towards Arsène Wenger recently, it’s absolutely ridiculous.

First the Saint Mary’s record and now this culture stuff. It’s clear the sheep that keep on defending him are only doing it as they fancy him.

 

[RacingPhoton]

vs

Discuss.

Vinai: Why are we struggling to score goals and losing against weaker teams?
Mikel: My enemies are after me. I need 200M next window.

 

[Lady_Gooner]

The PR machine working at full force.
Everytime we go through a bad spell, they serve us this culture crap.

I have never seen any other manager getting away with his mediocre job with the culture crap. It's simply amazing.

I actually don’t get what this means… what will their jobs be?? Like I’m genuinely curious
Have the board thought the reason the culture is bad is because arteta puts us on dreadful losing runs every 3 months ??

 

[OnlyOne]

How many of them are still at the club? Anyway it’s all bollocks. Chelsea players have been downing tools for managers for years and then win European cups and domestic titles once they’ve gone. This is just a way of finding somewhere to pin the blame when the real reason is staring everyone in the face.

Personally, culture within a squad holds a ton of weight an merit, absolutely everyone professional in the game speaks about.

That being said, this culture consultancy is a joke, and quite frankly bizarre.

 

[Riou]

The reason we dropped a bit from Highbury to the Emirates, was because of money and not culture.

Our culture after the stadium move, was to always finish in the Champions League places...so we had pressure on his, but we finished where we needed to be for like a decade.

There was never a culture problem at Arsenal, think that's disrespectful to the staff and players that came before the recent ones.

Not being able to financially compete for the league anymore, isn't something horrible...we have still achieved quite a lot, since 2006.

 

[Lady_Gooner]

I’d love a job as a culture consultant. What a piss easy job lol

 

[field442]

Personally, culture within a squad holds a ton of weight an merit, absolutely everyone professional in the game speaks about.

That being said, this culture consultancy is a joke, and quite frankly bizarre.

Yeah and he has shipped out and signed so many players that his way of doing things should now be flowing throughout his squad of obedient man-children. So why are we still talking about culture?

 

[Tir Na Nog]

The thing I can’t stand is the disrespect he’s shown towards Arsène Wenger recently, it’s absolutely ridiculous.

First the Saint Mary’s record and now this culture stuff. It’s clear the sheep that keep on defending him are only doing it as they fancy him.

And it's absolute horseshit too. Wengers last 3 games at Saint Mary's was a draw and two wins. Scoring 8 goals and conceding 1 over those three games and this was Wenger at his worst.

 

[OnlyOne]

Yeah and he has shipped out and signed so many players that his way of doing things should now be flowing throughout his squad of obedient man-children. So why are we still talking about culture?

Yeah don’t worry I’m not defending this. I’m just saying the culture of a squad is vital and Mikel has been outspoken about that since he joined which I don’t mind.

But you have to question why the culture is still coming up.

 

[OnlyOne]

Talking about pissing money up wall though.

I thought Mikel sorted the culture by personally painting a portrait of Arsène that he forces everyone to high five before training and making sure there’s African food in the canteen occasionally?

 

[MartiSaka]

Yeah don’t worry I’m not defending this. I’m just saying the culture of a squad is vital and Mikel has been outspoken about that since he joined which I don’t mind.

But you have to question why the culture is still coming up.

It's those lunch ladies, pa and kit men that are driving this cultural disconnect across the club.

 

[Sapient Hawk]

Another narrative reshaping effort to stem the fan discontent. You have to admire it, in a way. If only they would put that much thought into actual football.

Working for a living whilst also taking accountability for your shortcomings?

At Arsenal Football Club?

Now I've really heard everything

 

[Riou]

Our owners really have no ****ing clue, ffs