Let me stress, I like Arteta and have always wanted him to succeed.
When we are talking about extending his contract though, especially rewarding him with a pay rise, you should take out your emotions and judge factually.
We certainly shouldn’t have our minds dictated to by Man City’s or Barcelona’s business.
Just because they rate him (and that could be his agent putting out false leaks), that shouldn’t alter our job appraisal of the Spaniard.
If you for three years had failed to meet your targets at work, you would be discussing action plans with your employer in how to do better, not using a job offer elsewhere as leverage.
Whether you believe our ex-captain is fulfilling his job criteria comes down to how much you believe in the ‘process’.
If you think it’s genuine, then for continuity you keep a young manager in charge of a youthful squad and see where they end up.
If like me, you don’t think any process exists, it’s all very transparent.
Hire a ‘yes man’ so grateful for a high-profile job he accepts the owners lack of ambition. Quietly slash the wage bill while telling your customers what they want to hear.
When you ultimately fail to reach the top 4, you remind Gooners about the exciting youngsters you have, and worse, some believe you.
We then repeat the same thing every year.
Those supporters don’t question why the club have chosen to build a team with almost zero experience or leadership.
It seems a contradiction to reward anyone associated with taking The Arsenal out of Europe for the first time in quarter of a century and out of both domestic cups by the end of January. Ozil and Aubameyang were not afforded the same luxury.
Let’s be clear, those in our fanbase who argue that 6th is progress, both our manager and Josh Kroenke have publicly declared that we should not be accepting that and should only be tolerating the very best.
Mr Wenger was forced out of the Emirates for finishing 6th, 5th wasn’t enough for Unai Emery, so how would a similar finish earn you a pay rise?
It could only be because you have manipulated your supporters into accepting how low the standards have dropped.
I know the very same people who verbally abused the greatest boss in our history for ‘only finishing 4th’, now accept the same or even lower positions in the table.
Man, United departed with the services of Solskjaer after finishing 2nd and struggling to make top 4, Nuno Santos was sacked when Spurs were level on points with us.
8th wasn’t enough to keep Lampard in a job after he had finished 4th.
In other words, we are the only one of the ‘big 6’ who would even be thinking about rewarding failure.
The biggest myth is that the 39-year-old inherited a mess.
We need to stop pretending that we are some unique club.
Any new manager inherits problems. If everything was perfect, you wouldn’t be hiring a new boss in the first place.
Lampard inherited Hazard leaving and a transfer ban, Ole had egos like Lukaku and Sanchez to offload, Nuno had to work with a Harry Kane wanting to be at Man City.
The difference between the first two is they dealt with those issues and finished in the top 4th.
They were icons for their clubs, yet they were not compensated to stay.
Two legends who scored in Champions League Finals sacked by clubs they love, for being in similar positions to the one we plan to reward Arteta for!
Does that make sense to anyone?
Arteta took over a team who finished 5th, took them to 8th, 8th and currently 6th.
Yet some gooners will tell you we are better now than we were before he arrived.
The facts dispute that.
I would question if our squad were any stronger then it was before he arrived.
I get fans want to believe the opposite, but it’s no good being positive for the sake of it while we are standing still.
That attitude has led to an Aubameyang being paid to sit at home while an Eddie Nketiah is our sole attacking option on the bench.
There is nothing wrong in saying that’s not okay.
That’s not to say Arteta should be sacked.
That’s not to say everything is his fault.
It’s to say, there should be zero rush to extend his contract.
To be a big club, you act like a big club. A big club wouldn’t care if Arteta is wanted elsewhere. They would be considering paying the taxi fare to Manchester or wherever else he thinks the grass is greener.
He should count himself lucky he works for an owner with so little ambition that allows him to stay in such a job with such a poor record.
To finish in our worst League position in 25 years and then worry about the manager’s future seems like a joke.
Simply wouldn’t happen at any other ‘big club’.
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Dan
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