Respect to Arteta for the cultural changes at Arsenal by Jonbo
In a results based industry such as football, a manager’s performance will be assessed mainly on results, and sometimes performances as well. E.g. Mourinho has been the most successful Man Utd manager since Sir Alex, but his style of play was hated by the majority of Utd fans.
Especially at big clubs like Arsenal, a manager will need to start delivering pretty quickly… with some exceptions. At the time of Arteta’s arrival, Arsenal was one of these exceptions.
Our club had been completely mismanaged by Wenger/Gazidis under our absent owner Kroenke for years upon years. The club was a complete mess when Emery came in, and for others like Raul at board level. Mistakes were still made by some, although I feel Emery overachieved in his first season given the mess he inherited and the injuries.
I actually liked Emery, but I feel things imploded for him because he didn’t go after the cultural issues at Arsenal. As a new manager, he gave the place a temporary lift, before the same old problems started kicking in again.
For me, since Arteta’s arrival, and in working with the likes of Edu amongst others, I have loved the fact they decided to tackle the deep rooted problems first. Arteta has, and still does divide opinion because of the results and performances, but surely there must be agreement on the remarkably positive changes to the culture and squad at Arsenal?
There will be signings this summer, and probably a few more outgoings, which will mean in just 2.5 years since Arteta’s arrival, almost a completely new starting XI, and squad. That is some achievement in such a short space of time, and it was needed.
Another area that needed improving was discipline both on and off the pitch. We work much harder now, and actually perform as a team, rather than relying on individuals. I think it’s fair to question if Arteta is too harsh in regards to discipline off the pitch, Auba being the latest example, but again, we needed this. And maybe the discipline seems harsher than it actually is, when we’ve been so used to the soft approach, and giving players all the power.
I would rather have a tough disciplinarian, than go back to how it was before.
So while it’s fair to question the results and performances under Arteta, one has to respect that he has put the club’s best interests ahead of his own. He knew that going for a complete rebuild, and ostracising some players, would actually make life harder for him in the short-term, but that it was actually needed to yield long-term results. Which we’re seeing.
And it’s easy to see why respect is needed. If Arteta were to leave tomorrow, he would have left the club in a far better state than what he inherited. He could have done what Emery did, and just worked with what he had without making any major changes, but he knew that to truly change things, he had to get to the root causes of our problems, and that meant ripping everything apart and starting afresh. If a new manager comes in tomorrow, he has a far better squad to work with, that has so much potential. The attitude is better, as is the work rate and discipline.
Arteta has come in for a lot of criticism from some Arsenal fans, but I feel a lot of it was very short-sighted. “Trust the process” has been mocked constantly, and even I was questioning this “process” at times, but I think we can all now see it starting to bloom. It did need time.
I am still not 100% convinced Arteta is the right man to realise the potential of our squad, and I would have liked better results, but I have huge respect for Arteta making the changes that were needed.
I don’t think some will ever be convinced of Arteta because of the results, and performances, but for those fans, can you at least acknowledge the good work done in regards to rebuilding the club’s foundations, and putting together a whole new squad with lots of potential? And we can actually defend these days as well!
Jonbo