Arteta cannot be the innocent party in all this!
Ever since Mikel Arteta has come in as manager, several players have left the club and comments have been made where it has been said that they deserved to go.
Under Arteta, players have been consistently left out for certain issues, especially in the likes of our ex-captain Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang, who was stripped of the captaincy and called out for disciplinary issues on a number of occasions, where more recently it was for visiting his sick mother. But that action is hardly worth treating him the way that Arteta has done.
Mesut Ozil, Sead Kolasinac, Shkodran Mustafi, Guendouzi and Aubameyang have all fallen foul of Arteta and have had their contracts ripped up, terminated, and have left the club, pretty much all on a free transfer.
All of these players seemed to be fine to an extent under Arsene Wenger, Freddie Ljungberg and even Unai Emery that we knew of, so the question here is, were the players really at fault when there were supposed discipline or background issues that we weren’t aware of, or does it seem like there is more to the story than meets the eye and the wrong parties were being accused?
I guess what I am trying to say especially in the cases of Auba and Ozil, is that not everything is always the player’s fault and there are always TWO sides to every story, which sometimes we only hear one!
Things were going swimmingly with Wenger in charge for these players, but since Arteta has come in their lives have been turned upside down. It is clear both players and I’m sure others who have left, just haven’t been satisfied with our current manager and the way he does things. That is clear with their lack of relationship and once you lose that it is hard to get back.
Auba has come out and said a “problem with Mikel” led him to leave the club and that there were no issues with the club in general, players or other members of staff.
So, it seems as though the real issue at the club is Arteta himself. Not the club and not the players who have left or are still there. And it definitely seems that if you get on the wrong side of Arteta even once, then your struck off from the team never to be considered again.
We know being a manager is not easy, but surely Wenger had issues at times with players, not everyone is, or was, perfect, yet we never heard about it and players very rarely left in the way that Ozil and Auba have done.
One player leaving is fair enough but when there is more than one, for similar “issues”, then questions begin to be raised where it is asked whether the finger should really be pointed at the manager rather than the players!
Gooners?
Shenel Osman
@sh3n3l_
So good job from Arteta.Thank you coach for getting rid of former players.
Wenger stayed too long.
Emery was sacked too soon.
Arteta was totally ill prepared to manage a PL side. These are mistakes the Board made.
Arteta did not get rid of Ozil Socritis or Mustafi. The players ran down their contracts and only left with 6 months to go and were paid to leave anyway. Same with Auba he was paid to leave late in his contract. Willian was paid to leave. Kolasinac + Chambers contracts ran out nothing to do with Arteta letting them go. Nketia Lacazette are running their contracts down same as Bellerin Torreira Mavropanos and Guendouzie. Nothing to do with Arteta.
Leno will be sold at a loss in the summer. Most are not Arteta signings to be fair. At least the new process is a step in the right direction and Arteta should be given the second season to complete the rebuild.
Ozil ran down his contract because he was frozen out of the team. He was not even registered as a player for the team the last season he was at Arsenal. That wwas, 100% a result of Mikel Arteta’s decision making.
Chambers, Kolasinac, Mustafi, and now Leno were all similarly frozen out of the team, then left on a free only after they were benched, in some cases for more than a whole season.
Guedouzi was frozen out with three years left on his deal. He’s been on loan ever since. Bellerin was Arsenal’s right back to almost a decade, Arteta came in and he was left out of the team in favor of Cedric?
Torreira left Arsenal on loan with three years left on his deal. Then he was loaned out again with two years left.
Sokratis was frozen out less than a year after he signed for 17 million.
Saliba was sent back on loan after not playing a single minute in 18 PL matches after he criticized his treatment by the manager. Now he is on loan again. He will return to the team with less than a year left on his contract.
These are all the manager’s decisions. The decision to offer a new deal or not rests with senior management, but playing or not playing individual players is the manager’s responsibility.
Arteta keeps saying how much he loves Nketiah, but he’s hardly kicked a ball. He will leave on a free; with the team having turned down bids rumored to be between 8-12 million.
Arteta’s failure to properly manage the team has cost Arsenal almost 200 million over the last two and a half seasons.
I agree that Wenger stayed too long; however, I disagree that Arteta was ill-prepared.
Inexperienced, yes, but not ill-prepared.
Emery was not properly supported.
Another strong post. Kudos, Pat.
My only addition that often we don’t hear even one reliable side of the story. Mikel is diplomatic enough not to complain about team players to journalist, so all that circulates are gossips from rumor mills or Arsenal “legends” that have little to none credibility, like Kevin Campbell.
As far as I am aware, Guendouzi is still under contract with Arsenal, but loaned out. Mustaphi was rightly deemed not good enough and allowed to leave. Not in any way “thrown out”. Kolasinac pretty much the same. Auba has committed a serious breach of discipline, and Özil?
A lot of non factual stuff here.
Nonsense.. I cat imagine I’d see the day someone will lay blame on the manager that finally got rid of Mustafi, Kolasinac, and Sokratis, and even to some extent, Ozil whoEmeet also gave up on.
I have an issue with the way things ended with Auba, I think that one could’ve gone better but I can’t believe anyone will try to question Arteta for finally getting rid of those players we were always screaming we needed to cut lose.
2-3 season ago, everyone wanted to see the back of Mustafi, Sokratis, and co.
Good riddance to very poor players. Other than Auba, I don’t see what your point is. The rest were poor players who we needed to get rid of, and it seems the current manager is the only one who had the balls to cut them lose without sentiments.
This summer we might be losing Xhaka, Laca and Nketiah will be leaving too.
I can’t wait to see the new squad we’ll have set up in the coming years
Auba issue is not solely on MA imo,the board just used MA to get rid of Auba and cut their losses
Mustafi was so bad, Arsenal paid 35 million for him and he walked for free.
Has Nuno Tavares really outperformed Kolasinac? Not by any emprical standard.
Mesut Ozil is and was better than anyone Arsenal has played in the #10 position since his signing. With the seaosn on the line, both Emery and Arteta brought him back into the team; then froze him out again when they thought they could get away with it.
Sokratis was signed for 17 million and a year later was frozen out of the team.
Aubameyang scored 7 goals across 15 appearances. That’s a a star-level of performance. It is the manager who refused to play him. If he’d played, he would have scoredl that’s what his history shows.
In addiiton to Aubameyang, and Ozil, Artyeta has publicly fallen out with both Mateo Guendouzi, currently starring for Champions’ League-bound Marseilles and Williiam Saliba, a 28 million signing who has yet to play a minute.
This is managerial negligence of the first degree.
I am not aware of MA issue with Kola and Mustaffi, correct me if am wrong, the players he had issues with are, Auba, Ozil,Guendozi and Saliba.
As the heading suggests, I agree MA can’t be faultless in all. However some of the fall out are not what it seems, imo, are financially imposed. All i can say is, the club is planning for overhaul, some underhanded methods might be employed, end justifies the means, I just hope it all pay off.
Let’s move past it, most of the players you mentioned are now past their use. Wenger fatherly approach is different from MA and somehow both approach has its strong and weak side, I prefer MA ruthless approach though
Arteta’s ruthless approach has yielded two 8th places finishes and a current 6th place. The team might finish anywhere from 4th to 8th.
Hardly success by any definition. Wenger at his worst was significantly better having been given far less support from the owner. Even Emry performed better.
Can you imagine being a star player negotiating a big contreact with Arsenal knowing, all it takes is one wrong word or one misstep and you’ll get the Auba treatment?
If you cannot wait to see the squad Arteta assembles, it might be a good idea to get used to Dusan Vlahovic moments. Face it, Bruno Guimares prefered Newcastle to Arsenal. What does that say about how inviting a place the red side of North London has become under a ruthless manager.
Mustafi, Kolasinac and Ozil were not performing at a high enough level and had to go
Tavares is much younger than Kolasinac and therefore there is potential for him to develop. This is his first season.
Wenger was supported. The support could have been better but he also contributed to the mismanagement of resources.
The assessment of Arteta has focused mainly on final league position. This is overly simplistic – other factors need to be considered.
There has been a significant drive to overhaul the squad. Unfortunately, Arteta was left with far too many underperforming players and a relatively weak spine. Rebuilding the team whilst remaining competitive was always going to be challenging – the more so when most of the new players are young and/or inexperienced.
@paul
“ Wenger at his worst was significantly better having been given far less support from the owner.”?
You must be hallucinating mate.
No manager has ever been given so much power, control and influence at Arsenal like Wenger was. The man was involved in choosing his own boss (Gazidis). Was involved in designing the stadium and training ground. He ran nearly everything player related.
My goodness you guys are funny. Wenger was giev far less support by the owners? What the heck? Wenger chose the comfort no pressure “4th is a trophy” excuse because he had become so incompetent and did not have the energy to mix it with the big boys anymore. So he created his own competition “4th place is like a trophy”. And using the “We are paying for the stadium” as an excuse for his lazy lowered ambition”. He had stagnated but instead of acknowledging this he instead tried to rationalise and justifying it to himself. Looking back I feel like this is what Wenger was doing.
He had so much power, control and influence and there is no way the club would not have backed him if he wanted certian big money signing. But I feel like he was always uncomfortable with big money superstar signings. I don’t think he was that confident about him dealing with such egos anymore. He preferred the young impressionable ones but the moment those young turned into superstars and their egos rocketed he couldn’t deal with them, hence why they all pushed for moves once they matured (Cesc, Ade, Nasri, RVP, etc..)
Wenger is the one who was always against big money transfers. He did not want to look like the likes of City, Chelsea or United. He was always so uncomfortable with buying expensive already established superstar players and paying the ridiculous wages.
Hence why in 2017 a Director Of Football was introduced to take over our transfers, all because wenger
finally others are starting to draw the same sort of conclusions that I’ve been preaching about for years now!!!
I think arteta is arsenal problem. More player will leave
Arteta has Done right by getting rid of all those players.
How you can stick up for Ozil god knows.
Bloke was a total walker.
Aubameyang has done wrong at Dortmund.
He thinks he can do what he wants. He can’t.
And as for visiting his mother.
That wasn’t the problem.
Problem was he didn’t come back when he should have.
Let’s stop beating around the bush and call it exactly as it is: Mikel “For Free” Arteta is not a real manager; He was simply brought in to slash wages, cut operating cost – to benefit the Kroenkes. I’m just calling a spade, a spade.
To see a real manager’s approach to a difficult job, pls Google Antonio Conte’s scathing assessment of his current employers transfer policy and mistakes. That is what real managers do; they hold their owners accountable. Arteta, instead, plays hanky-panky with our players.
Arteta is a real manager. He has been gradually overhauling the squad and is trying to create a young, dynamic and exciting team. It is evidently still a work in progress.
Conte’s approach is not the only way to build a team and not every manager feels the need to disparage owners or previous regimes in public.
You bloggers are insufferable. Wenger created a culture that allowed players to do whatever they wanted and get away with it without accountability. Ozil was already washed out and dross by the time he left. Aubameyang was lost and underperforming, yet wanted to be treated like a Rockstar! They both left Arteta no chance. Good riddance. And goos luck to them both.
Too much kanky-panky from you too, jon fox.
Artetas man management skills are very very poor and is costing this club money and more importantly POINTS.
Arteta, Arteta, Arteta. I wish he were a visitor on JA to respond to some of these comments. Is Arteta liked or loathed by arsenal fans? Opinions divided
Yes, I really wish Mr. All-the!-negative-record-breaker to visit this side and pack his bag before he completely destroy Arsenal. If he ever loved this club.
What a daft article. If Mustafi and Kolasinac were decent players why didn’t anybody want them?
That’s what clubs do, especially the bigger clubs – if players are useless they get rid of them.
Ozil had an attitude problem at Real Madrid (lazy and sulky – sound familiar?). How do you think we got him? He said publicly that he wanted to play, but he only really cared about the money.
And, ignoring the discipline issues and almost total lack of effort, if you think Auba was worth his £350k a week and that he will return to his former glory under a new manager, then you’re a bigger optimist than me.
Anyone who is always right over an issue with others should be properly examined. some fans here had opined that some of the players left on the basis of poor performances. The question is: why allowing others that are poor to stay? The difference here is an experienced matured coach on one hand and inexperienced immature coach in the other. Until the coach adjust his approach in handling issues with players, more will still go no matter who you brought.
@paul35mm
Well, do you know that Arsenal bid for Guimares? If he is happy to go to a club currently fighting relegation and a rebuild job further behind than ours, then it’s highly likely that the spondulicks on offer was his motivation. I also doubt it was the manager.
Jon, you can be a bullying tyrant at times, especially to a young Arsenal fan learning to write.
This post will also be removed shortly….
What an absolute load of rubbish! All these players tried to challenge Artetas authority. Any player that does that thinks they are bigger than the club, and that attitude is not good for the squad or club culture, which in turn effects performance. If it was Mouriniho or Pep in place of Arteta, people wouldn’t question the decisions to get rid of them. Instead you get people like the writer of this article trying to find fault where there is none. The fact is we are improving under Arteta, challenging for top 4 with the youngest squad in the league, a squad that is loyal to the club.