Arsenal’s structure is set up to fail by Konstantin Mitov
Arsenal sit rock bottom of the premier league with a goal difference of -9. Football is a result-based business, but also how you play is important. We certainly don’t win, and there’s hardly anything positive about the way we play.
Last season we got beaten by a Sterling header from a cross. This season we again are dominated in the air by one of the shortest teams in the league. Gundogan beating Chambers to a header. If you can’t do the basics right, any sort of tactical game plan afterwards is doomed.
I feel sorry for the players who play up front, because we actually started lively and could’ve done something, but when inside 15 minutes you are 2-0 down with the first 2 chances City had, it’s difficult to find a motivation anymore.
A lot has been said about the how bad our squad is, and I agree City are a miles better team, but in football it’s not always only about the quality or even quantity. Chelsea played the second half at Anfield with 10 men, but they dug deep and saved a draw.
Our heads drop immediately if we concede. Our behavior on the pitch is a reflection of how the club is ran. Our defending is shocking, but then again who picked Kolasinac? A player whose contract we’ve been trying to terminate all season?
We had Pablo Mari available. He hasn’t been great lately, but he is a CB. An Edu – Arteta signing, not a Wenger leftover. Remember Mikel tried to blame what’s been happening in the past 10 years for our state, but 18 months after his arrival it’s gotten worse.
He picked Xhaka as captain. A player who wanted to leave all summer. It’s honestly inexplicable why this person plays for Arsenal. It’s like we forgot how he flipped the fans off. The way he repaid the manager’s and the owner’s faith for backing him with a new deal and picking him as captain is by leaving the team down to 10 men with a reckless and unnecessary challenge.
This decision though is very similar to how the owners back Arteta, even though he is pushing us hard towards relegation. This culture of rewarding failure is only going one way and it’s evident on the pitch.
In business as well as life there is a hierarchy for a reason. If the players don’t play well, it’s the manager’s job to fix it. If that doesn’t happen, the people above, which should be Edu and Vinai, need to make the decision.
But when the owner comes out to ask you to trust the process, I wonder are Edu and Vinai the ones who tell the owner to trust Arteta? Or are they just meaningless puppets put there to pretend we have a structure?
Back in the day, all the power was with Wenger. If he got it wrong, we were screwed. Then Ivan G tried to strip some of his power by introducing the triangle of him, Raul and Sven. That didn’t last long with Ivan leaving 6 months into his project, than Sanllehi pushing Diamond Eye out, and later he went out as well.
In the meantime we had Vinai promoted to CEO. He is a marketing person, and I agree we have a good looking kit, but our football is horrible. Why don’t we have a footballing person running the club, with ideas of how to make the football as good as the kit?
Then there’s Edu. I remember Wenger questioning what a director of football actually does, and with Edu I also don’t get it. The guy is posting on social media barbecue pictures with agents in a summer which our manager described as “unprecedented” for this football club.
I look at Chelsea and I don’t know who does the transfers there, but they needed a striker and got Lukaku in very quickly. That’s not Tuchel’s problem. He has to make sure they win games on the football pitch, and if he doesn’t do that he’ll be replaced.
The structure doesn’t depend on 1 man and it won’t break if he has to be replaced. Neither will Arsenal become worse than they are now if Arteta is gone, but then who comes in?
You think Conte will come to this mess? We will never meet his demands. We took Arteta, partly because he’s cheap. Now we’re paying over 130 million to repair the squad, but we changed a lot of players recently and I don’t see the improvement.
Even if we sign a good player, he is setup to fail, rather than push us in a forward direction. So if we want to make sure that the next guy has any chances of success, we need to move Edu out immediately, move Vinai back to marketing and hire a CEO who has a footballing background and a desire to succeed.
Remember that we tried to get Overmars? Why couldn’t we sell him the project? Edu was the last resort, cheap option. With that sort of “leadership” no player or manager will get us up and running. We lack ambition. Van Persie said it 10 years ago and it still stands today.
The situation around Arsenal is so negative. This is where a new manager can help a lot. The players need an idea to rally behind. Artetas constant changes in every department of the pitch make even players like Tierney look bad.
At this point I am so desperate for a new manager I’d take anything. I’d bite your had off for Sean Dyche even. But sacking Arteta and hiring a new boss isn’t just about the change. It would send a message that this kind of humiliation is unacceptable at Arsenal football club.
Sadly, we’re encouraging it and that’s why it keeps happening. Arteta knows he won’t be sacked so he just sulks in his chair when we lose. He should be fighting with all he has to manage Arsenal, but I see defeat in his face. He may be the nicest fella ever, but that’s not the quality you need to successfully manage a football club.
The international break was something I used to hate, but now I actually enjoy having a break from Arsenal and we desperately need this one. Sadly we’re just delaying the inevitable. We are 9 points off Tottenham, with 3 games played. I said Arteta would be sacked before Christmas, but I’d be amazed if he’s here when November starts.
I hate Arsenal losing, but I’m afraid that beating Norwich means trusting Arteta with 6 more months and the January transfer window. At some point the bleeding has to stop, before you die.
What scares me more is that when Arteta is finally out of his misery, we will appoint another ‘es man’ on the cheap and 2 years later, we’ll be here again. It took us a lot of time to hire Arteta. A rookie manager. If we opt to sack him, do you think we will have a replacement ready immediately? Do you trust Edu and Vinai to pick him?
Unless the Kroenkes rethink in general how they are running this football club we will repeat the exact same mistakes just like we do on the pitch.
Konstantin