Arsenal should have got Guardiola – Not his assistant

There is a very real animosity amongst a lot of Arsenal fans that the Board are making Mikel Arteta one of the favourites to fill the void left by Arsene Wenger’s departure, as they are of the belief that as one of the five richest clubs in the world, we should be targeting (ad getting) a proven, experienced trophy winner like Ancelotti, Allegri or countless other big name managers that we could have approached when they became available.

We are not the only ones, as the Guardian’s German football correspondent Raphael Honigstein completely agrees with us. “Well I think Pep Guardiola should have succeeded Arsene Wenger,” Honigstein said. “But they missed the boat on him, as well as on Jurgen Klopp and perhaps Thomas Tuchel.

“I think they find themselves in a very difficult market.

“The kind of coach that they want I think has big demands, both monetary and budget-wise for the new team, and is probably not really to their liking.

“So they might end up with somebody a little untried and untested.

“Everything at the moment points towards Mikel Arteta being at the very forefront of the contenders list.

“No experience, but of course an Arsenal background and highly-rated due to his personality, and of course a two-year stint under Pep Guardiola as his assistant at Man City.”

So could this be true? That the Arsenal Board have been reluctant to go for a tried-and-tested big-name manager for the simple reason that they would be demanding a massive transfer budget and probably wages to match?

If so, then Honigstein is absolutely right – Arteta must be the very hot favourite right now.

Darren N

24 Comments

  1. The 6th richest team in Europe, afraid of spending money. This is the story of Arsenal.

    Although not wanting to spend money is playing a big role in our predicament, I think another reason is that the Kroenkes want to play Moneyball.

    They have put together a team of executives, from Sven to Raul to data execs and they are trying to find a way to run this team differently.

    I do not disagree with the premise. What I disagree with is another major missed Arsenal opportunity.

    If we are building the future of Arsenal, let’s build it with Arsenal legends. Arteta is a mediocre player who played in a mediocre Arsenal team.

    Let’s get the Invincibles together. Viera as Head coach, Bergkamp and Henry as his assistants. Now that’s a management team every Arsenal supporter would get behind. They would have all the good will and all the patience in the world. They would get the players and the fans buzzing.

    Every player wants to be with proven winners. Viera, Henry, Bergkamp are proven winners, they will get the best out of this team and give us all something to cheer for.

    I am will fully support Arteta if he is our new manager, but he will not get the same type of good will, patience and hope that I would give to Viera.

    1. Fifth or sixth richest club in the world and a transfer budget of £50m? What a small minded bunch run Arsenal nowadays. If Kroenke did not think in terms of “spending” but rather of “investment”, as all successful commercial organisations do, he could become even richer. That’s the issue though isn’t it? Contrary to popular belief he is not interested only in money. He has plenty of that anyway (and his marriage thoroughly consolidated that). He is interesten in status, prestige, a seat at the top table. Very par venue!! Very topical!!

  2. Will Guardiola joins Arsenal with limited amount of spending and lacking of quality players in the team???

    Guardiola has always been teams that have several quality players and adequate financial support such as Barcelona, Real and currently City……

    Common sense

  3. If wenger can get player he want like lemar, martial, sterling or else, without worry about fee and salary, this season will be different.
    Y speking pep who dump 50m cb on stone to bench to buy another 40 m cb on laporte who also on the bench.
    City is brilian in this season, but the money they use to buy players is crazy, now we will see who another 50+m players that pep will buy next season…

    1. exactly…..50m stone on the bench….60m Laporte on the bench….luxury…..

      This season would have been different if we got lemar deal done
      With Ox and Sanchez sold prior the start of the season…….there will be less focus on contracts issues…….

      Things were starting to look brightly when we got Mikhi and Auba but we faced City at the wrong time……and things starts to collapse after the League cup final…..

      Missed those days when Dein will get the players…..pay the extra and convinced the board….

    1. well…Mislintat is in charged and he has the ears of Gazadis

      Gazadis has already mentioned focus more on the academy and development…..someone who is a coach and hence more hands on the pitch….

      With limited funds made available

      Thus….the candidates would be someone like Arteta, Zidane and etc……

      1. That is what worries me. What is this obsession with youth development and club values? If we have the money why can’t we just spend and be successful? Why did Kroenke turn down Usmanov’s $1 billion buy out if he had no intention of making this club competitive again? What does Kroenke want with Arsenal? The club is worth just $1.1 billion so Usmanov was unbelievably generous with his $1 billion offer for Kroenke’s 67% stake. Kroenke is another pest alongside Wenger and must soon be ejected as well.

        1. how are you going to eject Kroenke?

          hes the owner and spent millions to purchase the club

          People go to war over money…..

  4. @Admin
    I think we need an article on these notorious club values and principles Gazidis keeps intimidating us with so that we know exactly what he means when he says we must be brave and pick a new manager who must focus and continue on those. Is it the club values to occassionaly lose games by 5+ goals? Play deadwood like Iwobi and Mustafi? Not sign defensive midfielders or have only 1 right back? I need to understand!

    1. if the board does not support and finance new players

      Jan window opened and the board could only afford Evans but backed out at the end…..

      As a manager, will you continue to play the experience players like Iwobi or Mustafic till end of season or play someone from the Acacdemy???

  5. Seems like its Arteta.

    Someone said well about him:

    “This clown as a captain couldn’t rally his team mates. How will he do it as a manager?”

    Have to agree. Arteta is quite gutless.

    Uncertain times for us. We might finish champions or finish lower mid-table. With Wenger we KNEW we wouldn’t win the title but wouldn’t finish outside European football places either.

  6. Guys we been hammering Wenger all these years but what if his been covering up 4 Stan all these years regarding stans ambition and intentions 4 the club! If we was really going 4 a top manager we wud have got Enrique it all boils down to afc board cutting cost! Arteta is silly enough not to see the club is good at covering cracks with paper! When the stadium seats get empty again fingers are going to get pointed again! The board is silly to compare our afc to and NFL team! I feel the young coach appointment is to try n get back in2 the top 4 and not get back in2 the top 4! Liv’pool realised they had to pay 75m 4 a defender and it paid off they are in a final I’m not saying it’s coz of him but they did something which was unthinkable regardless they got big money 4 coutinho! Ivan was never interested in viera that’s why his upset he knows the truth! Arteta ticks Josh n Ivans boxers raul and sven didn’t fancy arteta! I might get hammered 4 this but realistically things might get worse 4 us the way it’s looking! The board is looking 4 new ways to con the season ticket I’m a south african I beg my British goobers not to fall 4 their garbage!!!

  7. Read somewhere that arteta wants cazorla as his assistant… Huh cant get enough of the joke arsenal is turning out to be…..
    I am the first to say #arteta_out but probably not the first to say #kroenke_out

  8. Lol if you don’t need to care about whether or not the discussed party wanna join arsenal or not.
    you could almost fill in the bank and change the title to anything

    Arsenal should have got …..- not …… .

    Endless possibilities.

  9. The AOBs should have been worried before their campaign to hound Arsene. With Ivan still incharge, expected this cheap manager.Alegiri and tuchel ain’t fools to turn down the offer.Arteta over Vieira, someone’s on dope at AFC. Dont even compare arteta to Zidane, he was a great footballer and commends respect and has a world class sqaud and is still struggling this year inla liga.with arteta best we can is a top 10, maybe a league cup maximum.

  10. Worse than Moyes for Utd. At least Viera and Henri are winners. How can the Arsenal board take this club further down. They are like unfit parents. Someone should pen the ‘Demise of Arsenal’ song. We should have high ambitions but the board want a cheap manager. Arteta will be the Sanogo of managers. What a mess! One loss and no one will go to watch them.

  11. If all the “Arteta noise” turns out to be true………
    One can appreciate the collective …w.t.#. over such a pick to coach a big club
    Considering the available big managers out there.
    Considering the fate of many experienced ” brainy” sidekicks that tried to go big (no names)

    However, Its difficult to see a big manager who would want to go against ……
    A) Mourinho, Klopp, Guardiola, Pochettino, Conte??
    B) Plus a host of fantasy continental managers trying to make it big
    C) Plus the odd British manager that could unhinge your team,
    d) Plus the experienced repair men who get called in when the fantasy continental managers fail

    …….. to go against these guys without a significant war chest for a comfortable head start? Its just too scary! (Any Credit to Wenger?).

    Can a young inexperienced coach handle the spotlight?
    -The English Press
    -The Big Arsenal Players
    -The fans
    -Arsenal Fan TV
    -JustArsenal
    -Big Games

    What about the… WHAT IFs?
    -What if we have a string of poor results or handed a thrashing or two? mid-table by Dec?
    -What if he wilts when he comes up against his former master? what if he doesn’t?
    -What if he gets 34 points from his first 15 games, 30 goals & concedes just 12 (Not title winning…but that’s top three form surely.)

    Well….Nobody knows!!

  12. Of course it is all about money and ambition by the club. Or, to put it correctly, LACK of money and ambition. They still think we fans are mugs. Well some are but most are not and the empty sets will be left empty by those who are not mugs. I had fully intended re-starting attending and regularly too , once Wenger was gone but not under a novice as manager. No way! I will support him but not with my own hard earned money. You can easily make out a case that ALL football fans are mugs and in ONE sense we all are. All of us throughout football history I truly mean, as in the greater scheme of things how important is football and the time and angst we go through while supporting teams! But I suppose you could equally well make the same case for opera, pottery, model railways and virtually any other human social activity. So, since we are all crazy and likely to remain so(Thank God – how boring it must be to be quite sane!) it is really degrees of insanity we are talking about. My personal insanity level does not allow me to spend my own money attending a club run by a novice manager, nor to put up with rapaciously self ambitious CEO who has been engineering this for years past, with the hindsight we now have.My instincts were always against Gazidis; he was always far too oily and insincere and most of us now see him in all his “reptilian” splendour and chameleon true colours.

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