We have the best squad in The World – or do we?
It seems to me the fact, we “only” finished second have given new life to critics of Arteta on Just Arsenal.
Over the past month, I have noticed the following faults by or with Arteta:
- He is an unqualified rookie
- He is a cheap copy of Guardiola
- He is a cheque book manager
- He is a “yes” man
- He picks the team based on favouritism and not on which players will do the best job
- He uses one dimensional and stubborn tactics
- He can’t figure out how to rotate players
- He is poor at handling players (man management)
- He makes endless mistakes in the transfermarket along with Edu
- He has even been called “a fraud”
I probably haven’t managed to get it all included, but the picture is pretty clear. He is generally useless.
So I have spent a few weeks trying to figure out, how on earth we managed to have the best PL season since The Invincibles?. How we managed to be the only team challenging Europe´s best team in our own league, and how we managed to leave teams like Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs way back in our wake?
I can only see one logical explanation. We must have the absolutely best squad of all teams. I mean, not only have our players by themselves, and despite our manager´s lack of ability, played the most exciting football and won the points fair and square, they have done it without being able to play with the best team. What an unbelieveable achievement.
And it gets even better. Because, if we have left out players that could have done better jobs, it means not only our most played 12-13 players are the best in the league, we have also had players on the bench, who are even better.
In reality, it seems the full logical conclusion must be, we really don’t need to add new players in the transfer window. We really only need to get rid of the useless manager, who must have harmed our efforts to no end, and if we replace him with someone who doesn’t get in the way of our best squad in the World, we will soon need a much bigger trophy cabinet.
I have applied for the (soon to be vacant) manager position, and I have clearly underlined, I will not interfere with anything the players want in training, they can pick their own team, and I promise to sit quietly on the bench for the entire game in every match. I will actually do it for only around £ 2-3 m. a year, and I am ready to start anytime.
What do you think, will I get the job? Fancy a bet?
Unfortunately, I am not so confident.
I rather think the above picture is way off the mark.
The way I see it, Arteta, the management and Edu are all working very well according to their plan of how to build a team to compete with the clubs, that have much, much bigger pockets than we have.
When Man City and Chelsea around 20 years ago had an influx of money allowing them to buy 2-3 top players, for every 1 player, we could buy, it was inevitable that it would turn them into big clubs, that would challenge us and Man U, as we were dominating at the time.
In fact, we didn’t challenge for the PL title for the past 15 years, untill this season. I think, some contentment and complacency set in with the big achievemnet to make the top 4 every season for many years. After all, how could we expect to win the league, when others were outspending us year after year?.
For me that picture changed, when Liverpool managed to build a team that could challenge, and they did it despite spending less than we were at the time. Adding to the frustration was the fac, that Spurs also overtook us in the league, also while spending much less than us. We simply no longer were getting the best out of what was possible.
When Liverpool were able to spend less and still build a competitive team, they simply had a better plan.
I think it was pretty clear, Wenger no longer had a plan that could make us competitive and his time was up. Maybe it was before, he was let go, but that is another discussion. Maybe Emery had a good plan, but somehow it all derailed, an he also had to be sacked, when were lieing in 13-14’th halfway into his second season.
We are currently on a very good course thanks to our manager and the rest of the hierarchy. They have assmbled a young and very talented team, who are developing under Arteta¨s skillfull management. They are of course not a group of all the absolutely best players in the World, but they sure are improving step by step as a team, and they nearly went all the way already last season.
I am afraid that is the qualified conclusion the owners have made. Unfortunately, it is also a conclusion, which doesn’t quite go along well with some on JA, and I might have to forget about the managers job.
Anders Sørensen