My fellow thinking Gooners, having long considered the mountain of posts about Arteta (MA) ranging from strong support to highly critical and not having him at all, I have long wanted to add my own thoughts on what any top level Arsenal manager in our modern 21st century era needs, in order to be successful.
Firstly, modern managers need far different people skills and personal qualities than the old school types such as Clough, Revie, even Fergie, whose old school style of managership was fast losing its appeal to modern era players, and Fergie got out of that job IMO in the nick of time to avoid tarnishing his legendary reputation.
Another Fergie or Clough would not have a hope in hell of success in today’s totally different society, which of course includes footballers.
Our very own legendary Arsene Wenger was IMO, definitely the first Prem club manager who was way ahead of the curve when he arrived; his new methods and way of treating players as human beings was at first not understood, then teased by old school players such as Ray Parlour, likeable but never the brain of Britain as a man.
A drinking buddy of Adams who did little to try to dissuade Adams from the alcoholic fate that befell him, although which ultimately became the seed that made the admirable Adams into the mature modern man he is today.
AW was legendary not ONLY for his glorious first decade but for his new way of managing the existing old school type British players. By brilliantly mixing modern-thinking athletes such as Bergkamp, already here, but simply sublime for a decade after AW and the likes of Henry, Pires, Vieira and many others from foreign climes who regarded the British drinking mentality as quaint, unthinking and harmful to any true would-be athlete.
Wenger’s great skill was in using the new players to persuade the old school (mainly British ones), of the foolishness of such as the Tuesday drinking club.
In October 1996, Arsenal Football Club stepped way into the future and for a while, were pretty well there alone among Prem clubs, thanks to AW and his extraordinary man management.
Significantly AW was just turning 47 when he took over. He was in managerial terms still young, though not young in football experience, nor as a manager, unknown though he was when he came to us!
Naturally, we were not alone in that future for long. Other top managers came, almost entirely from abroad and changed forever the face of English footballers and how they behaved away from the pitch.
Players who drink heavily are now rare and are doomed to an early finish to their career in this age of supremely fit athletes.
Sports science boomed and exploded into clubs, and now all clubs have dieticians and all sorts of people who monitor how players live, sleep, feed, train and rest. The standard today is light years ahead of even the mid 1990’s.
Today’s top manager MUST be fully aware of the physical importance of sleep, proper rest and time to get fully over injuries No more injections into ankles to get through a game, though that does still go on but not, except in exceptional circumstances with GREAT MANAGERS, who know better.
He MUST have the interpersonal skills to make all his coachs, physios, masseurs and sports scientists feel an integral part of the whole club, as well as ALL his players, even the lesser ones.
An ‘all for one, one for all’ club dressing room spirit is beyond vital, and managing players widely varying individual needs, mental as well as physical, including personal and home life problems, is a key part of a manager’s job.
Obviously, he MUST be a supreme tactical coach and be able to instill confidence in all individuals, while carefully keeping those who are benched or don’t even make the bench a key part of the whole family feel. He must also be himself physically fit, old enough to manage but still young enough, ideally to take part in training drills.
He must have an enormous work aptitude, exude total confidence and belief in his own players and he must be a great judge of talent, knowing who to buy, who to let go, who is best in each match while still keeping a mostly settled team with not too many unforced changes.
He needs to be honest with his players but guarded, though approachably pleasant to the media and not make foolish public statements that can come back and trip him up later.
Above all he needs to win silverware, to keep the fans happy, and have an excellent personal rapport with the club’s owner and his own director of football.
My friends, I have deliberately refrained from giving my opinion on whether our own MA has all or any of those qualities. I very much hope you will tell us all what you think about that and about anything else about our club, and what would constitute the perfect Arsenal manager.
COYG
Jon Fox