Arsenal hired Arteta as a long-term project – Let’s support both…

Are you an Arsenal fan or Arteta fan?

“Then why hire him if he has zero experience. Are you supporting club or Arteta? From your comment Arteta’s success is more important than the club so the club needs to keep on giving him time and money so one day he will learn the trade. This isn’t a school; in real world no profession allows you to fail in your job completely for a year, then say let’s keep the dude to gain experience so one day he can deliver. They pay you for your skill set and if you cannot do the job or complete the tasks as put down in contract you are out.” (A comment from last week’s JustArsenal article “Why I don’t want Arsenal to sack Arteta” by Dan Smith

This was the statement a fellow fan made to me while trying to explain to me that I’m wrong in choosing to support Arteta. He chose to leave out the fact that also in the real world, no profession would see an employer not willing to invest time and funds with a new recruit or intern would employ that new recruit/intern to immediately take the very vacant high position at the job. Choosing to leave out certain facts, while going for facts that suits you the most mate?

I had to miss a whole lot of games and articles + comments as I was occupied at work, studio and some projects I had to conclude.

We’re out of the Europa league and still I am not budging when it comes to my support for Arteta or the team.

I was asked why I am doing that, and the response I gave that simply because he was a rookie and it’s only fair to give him time, was what got me the comment in that quote up there.

Quickly let’s discuss this okay. If you’re reading this, I want to believe we are adults and we’ve all had our different experiences in life. I like to be objective a whole lot in my doings, and I tend to make my decisions based on a mixture of logic and empathy. To survive and thrive the right way, you only need a balance of both. You don’t solve every one of life’s puzzles and dilemmas based on logic alone, or based on empathy alone. I’m a rational thinker.

Now I want you to go back a bit, read the statement at the beginning of this article and think about that statement like any rational, sane and logical person would do.

First of all, you don’t see companies or employers needing a ‘level A’ staff or skill set, then they employ a ‘level O’ staff or skill set to do the job of a ‘level A’.

I’ve worked in the finance Industry for a few years, I’ve been working in the entertainment industry for many more longer years. No business market, no company, no company owner or Employer would do that.

To be clearer and more practical, I’ve known Mr. Peter my neighbor for years now. Mr. Peter is a very good and experienced computer programmer who gets job offers abroad, while he’s told to work online and from anywhere. I’ve been learning how to code from Mr. Peter.

This is all true and real by the way.

Mr. Peter, in his advice to me when we have little chats about the opportunities one would get in the tech world is that: “Hoyte, the more you work and gain experience, with a very good portfolio of your past jobs, the stronger you’ll be when it comes to negotiating your salary with any company that wants to employ you.”

For now, there is no way on Earth I’ll be able to do half the things Mr. Peter does when it comes to coding. I simply don’t have half the knowledge and plethora of experience he has amassed all over the years.

Now, let’s say one of you on here, say Admin Pat, Dan, Phil, Sue, or Jon Fox owns a company and you’ve set up the target that you want to be a fortune 100 company within the next few years, and to do that you need a computer programmer to execute some mind-blowing projects, and to work for you to actually achieve this goal. None of you, I repeat not a single person out of you all (including myself) would decide to make this choice between Mr. Peter and Eddie Hoyte: “Mr. Peter, we don’t want you, we’re going with the rookie your student Eddie Hoyte as our choice, we expect him to deliver within the next two years and we’re sure he’ll do so.”

You must be very delusional or dreaming to think I would turn your company into a fortune 100 company within my first trials, or you must be very crazy and an insane gambler willing to take the risk to try it out with me and see how it goes.

There will be the occasional once in a while risky gamble that pays off. The rookie building you something that blows away the market, the rookie coach that wins the UCL in his first season, the rookie that wins the best staff in a company filled with better and experienced workers. There will be those moments of course, but it’s all a big risk. Now if you choose to take that risk and go with Eddie instead of Mr. Peter when you want the best results ASAP, then you’re mostly setting Eddie up to fail, based on your targets and expectations from him within the set time frame.

It’s as simple as that. There’s the saying that goes, you don’t send a boy to do a man’s job.

Arteta was always a gamble that the club chose, a gamble the club recognize would need patience to pay out in the end. A gamble the club knew would take the long approach instead of the more experienced and stable approach a Mr. Peter would’ve given you.

It’s so obvious, reported so many times, that the board as owners are behind Arteta and are ready to support him in his long-term project. Have you ever wondered why the report is always a long-term project with Arteta? Never a quick project or a short term one.

If the board and owners see it that way, then obviously they knew Arteta might either be a quick hit or a quick miss, either ways they’re prepared to give him time to get the results needed and build his experience, definitely which means time to win and lose.

So many times I’ve insisted, I’m behind the manager and his boys. During the Wenger days I was never an AKB or an AOB. I sat on the fence when I’d see so many fans fighting and arguing over Wenger leaving or staying. I knew in the end both fans only wanted what they felt is best for the club. I dreaded losing Wenger because I’d think of United struggling since Fergie left, and other days I’d say well ***k it, the next coac might just turn it around. In the end I was always ready to support whoever is in charge. Something I did very clearly until I lost faith in Emery and he lost the dressing room.

My expectations when it was Emery? Yes, perhaps they were too high, expecting him to just deliver the top 4 immediately might’ve been too harsh, but then I’ve grown to acept the fact that rebuilding this club wouldn’t happen within a year or two. The moment it got out that Arteta was the one getting the job. I made the decision already that; hey whatever happens, I am not treating this like I treated Emery. Plus I recognized the fact that unlike Emery, this one had zero experience, this is basically Eddie in the tech world.

When we won the FA cup, I recognized the fact that he did well, and I recognized the fact that it doesn’t change anything for me, I’m still prepared to give him time, and the general consensus back then was that he would need two to three years before we should start judging him.

I dare a reader on here to bring out a comment of me calling other fans Arteta’s haters. I’ve called others impatient, moaners and pessimists when I’ve seen them moan and complain basically about everything, but calling one a hater or saying they aren’t a fan isn’t something I’ve done.

This is a team sport, this isn’t about Arteta for me. If the next manager after Emery was Klopp, Allegri, Henry or Viera, I’d still be singing ‘give em time’ because I know rebuilding a messy team as ours doesn’t just happen within two years. Once again this isn’t about me or you, this is about the team.

I’ll always support this football club I fell in love with, whatever manager sits there and whatever players we have.

I recognize the fact that those who want Arteta out only do so because they basically want to see the team at the top. If Arteta leaves, and we get a new manager and we get back to the top, WILL IT STOP ME FROM BEING AN ARSENAL FAN?

I don’t know about you, but I’d be mad excited to see us at the top, while forgetting the past.

If Arteta stays and we get back to the top, WILL IT STOP YOU FROM BEING AN ARSENAL FAN?

I know it won’t, you’d only be elevated to see us back among the elites. This is what we all want as fans.

The board chose the rookie, and they keep saying this will be a long-term project. Look, I don’t know about you, but I perked up already and I accepted “shít, this is really happening, so all I got to do is support him” while hoping he delivers, and he learns quickly on the way.

I didn’t give him the job in the first place. I have no idea what agreement he has with the club but with the whole long-term talk, you got to know that okay it seems the board is willing to take a hit if it happens, willing to fall or see him struggle if it happens, as long as he picks up from there and presses further.

Now this is where my own expectations come in from next season. He’s failed, now he either learns from it and makes use of the experience to improve next year or I’ll reconsider having to wait for him to learn, because he wouldn’t be a rookie any more.

When Arteta came, we won the FA cup and community shield. We didn’t win it because Emery was shít, Pep was a fraud or Klopp was a fraud. We won those games because we worked hard to earn it as a team with plans. Players and the manager inclusive.

Moyes and West Ham aren’t where they are today because other football clubs and managers are failures or because the manager bears Moyes. West Ham are where they are right now because they’ve worked for it and earned it, manager inclusive.

Same goes for Leicester city…. Klopp isn’t struggling this season because he’s shít or because his players are. It’s simply because they’ve not worked hard enough to earn the positions they needed this season.

So this isn’t just about Arteta or feeling entitled to top four. We aren’t entitled to top four or UCL games. We aren’t entitled to winning games in the EPL simply because we are Arsenal.  We need to work hard for it and earn it like the other teams did.

All of this ‘we are Arsenal and they’re West Ham’ so we should be in their position is poor, delusional talk. You want it? Work hard for it, and this season we’ve been too poor, and we’ve not earned it, manager inclusive.

Next season, from game week 1 we get another chance to work hard and earn it. If Arteta’s here, I’ll be behind him. Only this time he won’t be a rookie no more, he’d be a manager with experience no matter how little it is, and expectations would differ from what they were at the beginning of this season. There won’t be defending his schoolboy errors as a coach anymore.

I am supporting this manager, and whoever comes in after he’s gone and the next one after that. I will support whoever it is strongly.

“There’s no time to accommodate mistakes or pay for the manager to learn on the job, or to fail on the way? This isn’t a school…?”

You’re right, if time wasn’t a luxury the club could afford for project UCL then the board should’ve hired a Mr. Peter instead of hiring an Eddie in the first place!!”

Take care of yourselves you lovely Arsenal people.

Eddie Hoyte