Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?

[Blood on the Tracks]

And we’re still doing it In this regime. Mari, Cedric, Runarsson, Auba, Willian . . . all crazy contracts. I know it’s a popular myth that Arteta‘s clearing up Wenger and Unai’s sh!t, but neither of those came 8th twice. He’s cleaning up his own sh!t currently.

You're desperate to make this a Wenger Defense League thing for whatever reason.

Just look at the amount of players we've let go for free in recent years that could be considered sub par or on silly wages. Kola, Chambers, Özil, Sokratis, Torreira, Mkhi, Welbeck, Jenko, Lichtsteiner, Mustafi etc.

Over the past few years we've let £194m of talent go for free, take out Auba and William who we'll blame on Arteta, that is still obscene.

Those players weren't allowed to leave on a free or paid off because Edu or whoever else was in charge at the time was a clown. They were paid off or let go because they were either bang average or so severely overpaid their wages were blocking us recruiting anyone else. No-one wanted to touch them and very few of them were busting a gut for game time, they'd quite happily sit around taking a pay cheque with their feet up till their contract ended.

You can afford to buy average players and you can afford to pay wages over the odds for players, what you can't do is both. Those players are immovable unless they have a real desire to play, which most didn't have. We had a glut of them.

I'm sure you'll say, well play them more, improve them etc. Well Arsène tried that with half that lot, messing around trying to teach Mustafi to have a brain or trying to get Özil to care and what happened? They dropped him out of top 4 and then lower the next season, cos they were poor or didn't particularly care.

And for counterweight, at least Cedric and Puffin fall in the same boat, poor signings on silly money under Arteta. I can say that critical thing of Arteta because I'm not a zealot for him, I can acknowledge that he's messed up as well with Auba and Willian. You won't be able to do that with any of Wenger's signings I'm sure

Let me just say, I know you're going to try and zone in on this being anti-Wenger and it's not. He bares a portion of responsibility for some of these guys, but he wasn't the only one helping to sign average players on inflated wages, plenty of others were involved, but when you're manager the buck stops with you, whether fairly or unfairly. It was the same with Emery ( he didn't have a lot of say) and Arteta ( who has more) That's not even getting started on some of the movers and shakers behind the scene like Gazidis, Law, Sven, Raul, Edu etc who all contributed to some of the squad issues to varying degrees.

 

[1970*Gooner]

This is the last one, he's had enough time to more or less replace the first XI and embed his tactics and principles. 4th or nothing this season.

I have more chance of humping the pope than Arteta has of finishing in the top 4, lets hope when he fecks up again this season he is sacked and we get a proper manager.

 

[Kav]

You're desperate to make this a Wenger Defense League thing for whatever reason.

Just look at the amount of players we've let go for free in recent years that could be considered sub par or on silly wages. Kola, Chambers, Özil, Sokratis, Torreira, Mkhi, Welbeck, Jenko, Lichtsteiner, Mustafi etc.

Over the past few years we've let £194m of talent go for free, take out Auba and William who we'll blame on Arteta, that is still obscene.

Those players weren't allowed to leave on a free or paid off because Edu or whoever else was in charge at the time was a clown. They were paid off or let go because they were either bang average or so severely overpaid their wages were blocking us recruiting anyone else. No-one wanted to touch them and very few of them were busting a gut for game time, they'd quite happily sit around taking a pay cheque with their feet up till their contract ended.

You can afford to buy average players and you can afford to pay wages over the odds for players, what you can't do is both. Those players are immovable unless they have a real desire to play, which most didn't have. We had a glut of them.

I'm sure you'll say, well play them more, improve them etc. Well Arsène tried that with half that lot, messing around trying to teach Mustafi to have a brain or trying to get Özil to care and what happened? They dropped him out of top 4 and then lower the next season, cos they were poor or didn't particularly care.

And for counterweight, at least Cedric and Puffin fall in the same boat, poor signings on silly money under Arteta. I can say that critical thing of Arteta because I'm not a zealot for him, I can acknowledge that he's messed up as well with Auba and Willian. You won't be able to do that with any of Wenger's signings I'm sure

Let me just say, I know you're going to try and zone in on this being anti-Wenger and it's not. He bares a portion of responsibility for some of these guys, but he wasn't the only one helping to sign average players on inflated wages, plenty of others were involved, but when you're manager the buck stops with you, whether fairly or unfairly. It was the same with Emery ( he didn't have a lot of say) and Arteta ( who has more) That's not even getting started on some of the movers and shakers behind the scene like Gazidis, Law, Sven, Raul, Edu etc who all contributed to some of the squad issues to varying degrees.

I’m not having that foolishness Blood, you’re high off some stuff if you post this nonsense.

Half the players you listed were let go under this regime.

You’re telling me we couldn’t have gotten more for Chambers than the paltry 2m we collected? Bullshit man.

Mustafi and Kola were let go for free. Regardless of what you may think of them as players those are assets we are losing without getting anything from them. The only thing with Kola is that we got him on a free so with him the losses were minimal.

We should have earned something from Özil but that’s an altogether different story.

Mkhi was let go by Arteta and the least we could have gotten was 5M for a talent like him. I see Liverpool and Chelsea selling players and still getting fees so that doesn’t excuse the **** show we have had in sales under this regime.

Torreira, AMN, Bellerin, are still with the club and by all accounts it seems Arteta/edu haven’t learned how to sell any players and we can hope this changes.

We have let go Guendouzi for 10m and Mavropanos was let go for 3m. Once again poor decisions by the club. That’s over 60m in talent let go for a fraction of their value.

The club needs to do better and i am speaking about the present regime as all of the players listed above have been released by them in case you have not realized. No excuse can suffice. People need to start being accountable for their decisions.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

I’m not having that foolishness Blood, you’re high off some stuff if you post this nonsense.

Half the players you listed were let go under this regime.

You’re telling me we couldn’t have gotten more for Chambers than the paltry 2m we collected? Bullshit man.

Mustafi and Kola were let go for free. Regardless of what you may think of them as players those are assets we are losing without getting anything from them. The only thing with Kola is that we got him on a free so with him the losses were minimal.

We should have earned something from Özil but that’s an altogether different story.

Mkhi was let go by Arteta and the least we could have gotten was 5M for a talent like him. I see Liverpool and Chelsea selling players and still getting fees so that doesn’t excuse the **** show we have had in sales under this regime.

Torreira, AMN, Bellerin, are still with the club and by all accounts it seems Arteta/edu haven’t learned how to sell any players and we can hope this changes.

We have let go Guendouzi for 10m and Mavropanos was let go for 3m. Once again poor decisions by the club. That’s over 60m in talent let go for a fraction of their value.

The club needs to do better and i am speaking about the present regime as all of the players listed above have been released by them in case you have not realized. No excuse can suffice. People need to start being accountable for their decisions.

That's my point though. None of these lot were brought in under Arteta's regime but they needed dealing with during his / Edu's spell.

Chambers is a bang average jack of all trades type. He left on a free, think he had 6 months left on his contract. He's only worth what someone was willing to pay. In this case nothing.

It's not like we didn't try to sell Kola at various stages. No-one was willing to pay for him. Probably because he was on a silly wage. £120k a week.

Özil was probably the most egregious example. We pretty much had to give him the kitchen silver to get him out the door. No-one in world football was going to pay a penny for Özil considering the state he was in and his wages. £350k a week.

Mkhi was average to poor here overall and on £180k a week, no-one would be paying a penny for him either.

Guendouzi wasn't wanted here by the manager and interest was minimal in him at the time of his loan. We wanted him gone and Marseille got what looks like a bargain.

Mavro was a very poor deal I agree.

A player is only worth as much as club is willing to pay. In most of these cases it was nothing, largely down to the inflated wages that most of these guys were on.

Very little of the outgoing deals are on Arteta anyway. He may decide who he feels in surplus to requirements but it's Edu's job to sort the rest out and to be honest, only Mavro and to an extent Guendouzi are the only ones I can really criticize him for getting poor deals on.

 

[Macho]

The way Arteta has ostracised certain players and made it clear they are surplus has bitten us in the butt more than once. So in a way, he kinda has some responsibility in the struggle to shift players.

He’s far from the most resourceful or level headed manager, he just beheads you in public then Edu has to clean it up somehow.

These circular debates are crap and I try to stay out of it but it’s frustrating seeing some absolve Arteta of blame at every opportunity.

 

[Entropics]

I guess we can start blaming him when we realize nobody wants the players he bought like Nuno, Runarsson, Mari and so on.

The guy is very smart keeping always some Wengerball scraps around to protect his job, even if he had to beg the likes of Xhaka, Elneny and Mustafi for extension which in the past would have been seen as blasphemy.

 

[Blankety Blank]

Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea' Man U still have stronger squads than us. They will continue to spend & strive to improve, we are at a similar level to Sp**s at the moment squad wise but they are also spending big.
Toughest league in the world by miles & no doubt far harder to get top 4 than it used to be.
it's why top 6 now could/should be champs league teams. Real Madrid the current champions would likely get 4th in the prem at best.

 

[Riou]

Still feel we can get ahead of Chelsea next seaso , to get 4th.

Feel Tuchel is close to cracking, contrast that to Mikel, who is determined to make Arteta football club the best it can be...

Would prefer to win the Europa over anything, but we will have plenty to play for in the league

 

[Makingtrax]

Well its good we don't have a delusional fanbase if that's the case

We haven't been top 4 since we came 2nd in 15/16, got people think a magic man can come in and turn a garbage squad into title contenders spending the same amount as everyone else in 1-2 seasons completely unrealistic

Yeah Conte did it in one with a cheaper team. Magic man = good manager.

 

[Makingtrax]

You're desperate to make this a Wenger Defense League thing for whatever reason.

Just look at the amount of players we've let go for free in recent years that could be considered sub par or on silly wages. Kola, Chambers, Özil, Sokratis, Torreira, Mkhi, Welbeck, Jenko, Lichtsteiner, Mustafi etc.

Over the past few years we've let £194m of talent go for free, take out Auba and William who we'll blame on Arteta, that is still obscene.

Those players weren't allowed to leave on a free or paid off because Edu or whoever else was in charge at the time was a clown. They were paid off or let go because they were either bang average or so severely overpaid their wages were blocking us recruiting anyone else. No-one wanted to touch them and very few of them were busting a gut for game time, they'd quite happily sit around taking a pay cheque with their feet up till their contract ended.

You can afford to buy average players and you can afford to pay wages over the odds for players, what you can't do is both. Those players are immovable unless they have a real desire to play, which most didn't have. We had a glut of them.

I'm sure you'll say, well play them more, improve them etc. Well Arsène tried that with half that lot, messing around trying to teach Mustafi to have a brain or trying to get Özil to care and what happened? They dropped him out of top 4 and then lower the next season, cos they were poor or didn't particularly care.

And for counterweight, at least Cedric and Puffin fall in the same boat, poor signings on silly money under Arteta. I can say that critical thing of Arteta because I'm not a zealot for him, I can acknowledge that he's messed up as well with Auba and Willian. You won't be able to do that with any of Wenger's signings I'm sure

Let me just say, I know you're going to try and zone in on this being anti-Wenger and it's not. He bares a portion of responsibility for some of these guys, but he wasn't the only one helping to sign average players on inflated wages, plenty of others were involved, but when you're manager the buck stops with you, whether fairly or unfairly. It was the same with Emery ( he didn't have a lot of say) and Arteta ( who has more) That's not even getting started on some of the movers and shakers behind the scene like Gazidis, Law, Sven, Raul, Edu etc who all contributed to some of the squad issues to varying degrees.

Exactly what @Kav said.

 

[GDeep™]

just so we're clear on the bet - you're betting that Sp**s finish above Arsenal next season? If so, £100 is fine for me.

Yeah, I’m saying Sp**s finish above Arsenal. Let’s go.

 

[Makingtrax]

That's my point though. None of these lot were brought in under Arteta's regime but they needed dealing with during his / Edu's spell.

Chambers is a bang average jack of all trades type. He left on a free, think he had 6 months left on his contract. He's only worth what someone was willing to pay. In this case nothing.

It's not like we didn't try to sell Kola at various stages. No-one was willing to pay for him. Probably because he was on a silly wage. £120k a week.

Özil was probably the most egregious example. We pretty much had to give him the kitchen silver to get him out the door. No-one in world football was going to pay a penny for Özil considering the state he was in and his wages. £350k a week.

Mkhi was average to poor here overall and on £180k a week, no-one would be paying a penny for him either.

Guendouzi wasn't wanted here by the manager and interest was minimal in him at the time of his loan. We wanted him gone and Marseille got what looks like a bargain.

Mavro was a very poor deal I agree.

A player is only worth as much as club is willing to pay. In most of these cases it was nothing, largely down to the inflated wages that most of these guys were on.

Very little of the outgoing deals are on Arteta anyway. He may decide who he feels in surplus to requirements but it's Edu's job to sort the rest out and to be honest, only Mavro and to an extent Guendouzi are the only ones I can really criticize him for getting poor deals on.

No manager who comes into any club has a single player that he bought. He manages what he has in front of him. It’s only Arteta fans who keep bleating about players he’s had to put with, what’s not his fault, who he shouldn’t be blamed for. Never heard the like before.

 

[GDeep™]

The date and stakes are set:

@GDeep™ vs @grange $200
@GDeep™ vs @DJ_Markstar £100

Official heavyweight weigh-in on 27th May 2023

Eddie Hearn/Dana White level promoting from you.

 

[Makingtrax]

Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea' Man U still have stronger squads than us. They will continue to spend & strive to improve, we are at a similar level to Sp**s at the moment squad wise but they are also spending big.
Toughest league in the world by miles & no doubt far harder to get top 4 than it used to be.
it's why top 6 now could/should be champs league teams. Real Madrid the current champions would likely get 4th in the prem at best.

Lol. Like clockwork. Leagues getting tougher,, it’s not Arteta’s fault It he can’t get top 4. Real Madrid wouldn’t get 4th in this league, even though they best Chelsea, City and Liverpool this year and have won 5 the title 5 times in the last decade, whilst City haven’t won once.

The Arteta force is strong.

 

[Blankety Blank]

Yeah Conte did it in one with a cheaper team. Magic man = good manager.

Sp**s have been ahead of us for years.
Conte is a top manager but fact is he is mourinho v 2.0 incarnate who gains success through counter attacking football. Hardly thought he would appeal to a wenger purist like yourself?
Lets be honest their recent success has mainly down to Kane/Son
We never had a striker last year so it was not surprising they got above us.

They finished above us when we had peak Auba/Özil & Laca under Arsène.
That was more of a suprise tbh.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

No manager who comes into any club has a single player that he bought. He manages what he has in front of him. It’s only Arteta fans who keep bleating about players he’s had to put with, what’s not his fault, who he shouldn’t be blamed for. Never heard the like before.

Of course no-one inherits an optimal squad otherwise the previous manager wouldn't have been sacked. You deal with it the best you can.

It gets ludicrous though when Arteta gets blamed for not getting money for deadwood because A- It's not his job to sell players or negotiate fees ( or the lack of them)

And B- it's exceptionally hard to hold most of those free's / paying up contracts on Edu when no-one wanted to pay a penny for those guys due to them being average and / or on ridiculous wages for their abilities.

Either we took the bullet and paid a lot of those guys off or we had them hanging around for another 6-12 months contributing nothing and filling up an (already bloated) squad, with the additional pressure of FFP on our wage bill.

Accepting objective reality isn't being pro-Arteta. It's just telling the truth. If clubs felt there was value in paying a fee for Kola or Özil or Mkhi they would have done so, but they didn't.

Anyway Emery was hampered even more with this issue than Arteta. At least Arteta has had a fairly strong degree of control over who was bought in and who was deemed surplus to requirements.

This is what I've been saying about you guys, it's not enough for you to think he's a poor manager who shouldn't have the job. There's this witch hunt mentality when someone like me says something about one single facet of the club not being Arteta's fault, and you can't cope with it. What I've said in this post is clearly based in reality but it gets turned into 'Defending Arteta'

It's weird to be honest. I'm happy to have a go at him about personality management, tactics, and ultimately our league position, I'm just not going to blame him when it rains at The Emirates or for anything else that isn't within his remit.

 

[Blankety Blank]

Lol. Like clockwork. Leagues getting tougher,, it’s not Arteta’s fault It he can’t get top 4. Real Madrid wouldn’t get 4th in this league, even though they best Chelsea, City and Liverpool this year and have won 5 the title 5 times in the last decade, whilst City haven’t won once.

The Arteta force is strong.

You seriously think Real Madrid would compete in the prem week in week out with their ageing players. haha They were outplayed by all the 3 prem teams they wouldnt last the pace in the prem.
You were the one playing down premier league strength with Chelsea as Champions league winners last season & only being 3rd best team saying it has little relevance, yet now want to play up Real Madrids strengh like they would compete in the prem



The top 6 in the prem are now comfortably in the top 16 teams in europe.

Possibly even top 12?
That certainly never used to be the case.

lol Like clockwork you will never see the wood for the trees.

 

[1970*Gooner]

Yeah, I’m saying Sp**s finish above Arsenal. Let’s go.

Sadly they will as long as we have a cone stacker for a manager

 

[2Smokeyy]

Eddie Hearn/Dana White level promoting from you.

 

[GDeep™]

Based on this can we agree to Arteta having a successful season if he finished top 4?

Of course, this goes without saying.