Well lovely Arsenal people, recently I’ve had to endure Liverpool fans feeling sorry for me. I’m not sure if this is an embarrassment worse then our league position. To make it worse Vinai came out with a message calling for unity and positivity.
Our board and owner very rarely send messages out, but when they do they are usually quite telling. Remember how the owner lauded signing Xhaka to a good deal as something positive? Our CEO coming out and asking for more support of Arteta after giving him 150 million pounds to spend shows fear to me. Vinai was part of the negotiations party that went to pick Arteta from Manchester City remember? This is partially his project. The owners, whether you like them or not, gave him money and the pressure is on to deliver results.
A lot of fans say Arteta must go if he doesn’t beat Norwich and I agree, but surely Vinai isn’t the man to pick our next manager seeing how his current appointment is going. Edu shouldn’t be ignored here as well. The guy drops barbecue pictures with super agent Kia, before he comes out criticising the club and the manager. To me that looks like trying to deflect the blame.
“What exactly does a director of football do”, Wenger famously asked and with Edu I also wonder. You look at Saliba dropping solid after solid performance and you wonder why we spent 50 million pounds on White and 20 more on Takehiro for a similar profile of player?
Surely we could’ve used those monies to improve on an attack that fired blanks in 3 games and scored only 55 goals last season. Add to that the fact we didn’t sell Eddie and we let Lacca enter the last year of his deal. Surely for about 20 millions we could’ve sold Lacazette and brought in a fresh face forward?
Then there is Guendouzi being called up to the national squad of France, probably the most talented national team for many generations. Those two players on loan at Marseille are prime example of Arteta not liking players and giving them the hardest of treatments, while we have the likes of Xhaka who can escape with anything. For gods sake, Kolasinac is still here, even starting games. No reasonable director of football would let this happen.
Arteta’s man management has been pathetic, yet no intervention from either Edu or Vinai has come. His coaching staff was entirely picked by him. He surrounded himself with yes man. Did anyone bother telling him “hey boss, maybe starting Kolasinac at all and only having Xhaka in midfield against City might be a mistake”?
This way of managing a football club is incredibly destructive. You see now when Arteta struggles we don’t know what to do. That’s exactly the same situation we had with Wenger at some point when he was de facto Arsenal. We have learned absolutely nothing, but I see why Vinai isn’t in a hurry to sack Arteta. It would cement the fact we made a huge mistake and put him at risk.
If we just replace Arteta with any manager, we’re setting him a trap which he can very easily fall into. We have a coaching staff of more than 50 people, yet we don’t have empowered people there who are experts specific areas like goalkeeping, or defending or even attacking who can coach the things Mikel apparently cannot do by himself.
Finally do you trust Edu and Vinai to appoint a proper manager after Mikel goes? They talk about Arteta improving players, but he managed to turn Auba from a 20+ goals a season striker to a liability in the squad. We replaced Mustafi, yet we cannot defend. I look at Chelsea and I see Rudiger, Alonso and Jorginho. Three players that Chelsea fans wanted gone under Lampard, now be part of the spine in the system under Tuchel. This is player improvement.
Remember Arteta tried to blame our situation on how the club was ran in the past 5-10 years, and while that is part of the blame, what have you done in 20 months? We’ve gone worse and you were hired to “fix” this situation. I’ll be amazed if Arteta survives until October. Even with players returning to full fitness, his man management has been really poor.
Ainsley is yet another example. The man said he doesn’t feel wanted, I wonder how sending him to the U23s and a “clear the air” talks will change that? He’s been here for some time, he’s arguably our best right back, and you see Cedric and Chambers being picked ahead of him. I feel sorry for him and I understand his desire to leave.
You can’t build a winning formula in a toxic environment. The fall of Arteta will be the crumble of a failed project that involved more than one person. If we want to start fresh, Vinai and Edu have to depart as well. Finally the owner must take a hold of his football club if he really wants it to succeed. The people he has trusted to run it simply won’t cut it.
Konstantin
Ignoring Odessone and Tammy was really not wise. If MA wanted to build a young squad both would have been better for future. Instead he opted to buy defenders and Odegaard sacrificing attack. Both were proven players. What improvement has Odegaard brought to Arsenal last season? How many assist? How many goals?
How is Tammy even better than Aubameyang and Laca
I never said he is better than Auba or Laca. Auba is still my hero. But I feel Tammy is better than Odegaard in attack. He would have helped more than Odegaard in attack. And he is too young and tall also. Was an ideal replacement for Auba in coming seasons.
Ørdegaard was a needed addition. He is an AM not a CF
If he is really a threat in attack what was his goal contributions last season? Was it better than those of Joe willock? We opted to sell Martinez. Now we are struggling to get a replacement…
I even prefer Madison to odegaard
Or the money we spent on white
We could have used it for bussioma and aoura and keep saliba
Watch out white will not perform well he will be like pepe
Let’s just sack arteta, edu and Vivian and replace him with a good coach like zidane, conte, veira, even Henry is also their.
Arteta out#
How many of the Arsenal midfielders are better than Ødegaard?
You guys like criticizing every situation.
Yes we should’ve gotten a younger striker, but is it a bad decision to bring in Odegaard who increases our creativity? No it’s not bad.
While criticizing the option not to bring in a striker, why not as well give credits for the Ødegaard deal?
Must it always be a negative state for you guys?
Your name says it all, SadGunner.
We all love this football club, we all dedicate our lives and time supporting it no matter what, but our lives are filled with much more better reasons to live freely as a bird.
Life shouldn’t revolve around football, how bad did you let it get to you that you see yourself as a sad football fan?
When we lose, I feel sad for a while then I Let it go as I can’t let the weight of the loss be a burden upon me.
How do some of you cope with constantly putting these weights on yourselves just because of football?
You know if you avoid certain Arsenal issues because of your mental health, it doesn’t make a fake fan right?
Yes I opted the name Sadgunner because I am really sad on seeing Arsenals current position. May be you are happy with mismanagement of Arteta and Co. I believe Tammy and Odesonne would have contributed in attack more than Odegaard. We already had Joe Willock. Should have kept Joe and bought Tammy.
Alright whatever you say mate
Eddie, the single most mature and life balanced , full of perspective , post on this thread and by some distance.
Some of our JA readers are very grateful for context and an attempt(A SUCCESSFUL attempt too) at balance.
Eddie, agree, let’s wait and see how Odegaard goes over a full, hopefully injury free season, before the knives come out.
I was not against the signing of Odegaard and Lokonga, but wanted additional upgrades with an ACM like Buendia, Pereira or Aouar (all available at the start of the window) and a DM like Yves Bissouma or Bruno Guimaraes. Xhaka and Elneny should have been let go as “surplus to requirement”.
This was achievable if made a priority under the £150 million allocation, over Ben White and Aaron Ramsdale. William Saliba should not have been loaned and Mat Ryan and Onana would have upgraded the goalkeeping for less money.
Also I would not have loaned Mavropanos with an option to buy. Arsenal gave up on him too soon.
I heard Arteta was disappointed after Arsenal failed to sign Abraham. I could understand Arsenal’s standpoint though, because we still can’t ship out any of our CFs
Dear GAI. Did we ship out any defenders before buying White?. As Wenger always said Attack is the best defence. Without the threat of attack the result would be alarming.. As you always say we needed tall strikers and tall and strong defenders…
We loaned out Saliba and Mavropanos
Abraham is showing Chelsea fans that they’re wrong about the “Bambi on ice” name-calling, but we simply can’t have three senior CFs vying for one starting spot
Maybe we can move some of them in January
Tammy is a young striker for future. Wasn’t it wise to let Nketiah go to Crystal place and snatch Odesonne?
It is still early days @ GAI. The serieA is also a bit slow pace compared to the EPL.
We should support our Strikers. Balogun and Martinelli are prospects that will come good in the future.
I wished we had signed Aouar and Bissouma. That is past now.
There is a possibility that Arsenal could bid for Bissouma in January.
I prefer Arteta use the 4141 and 352 formations this season.
For the 4141, my preferred players are below:
Tomiyasu White Gabriel Tierney
Lokonga/Partey
Pepe Odegaard ESR Saka
Aubameyang
For the 352 formation, my preferred players are below:
White Gabriel Tierney
AMN Lokonga Partey Tavares
Odegaard/ESR
Pepe/Martinelli Aubameyang
The 352 formation is an interesting. Pepe and Aubameyang up front.
I wish Pepe to play closer to the opposition goal. a free role behind Aubameyang.
We hope we can win our next 6 games and find momentum.
@SadGunner , Fabrizio Romano said Patrick Vieira only wanted Odsonne Edouard, so I guess Palace weren’t really interested in Nketiah. I can understand them, because Edouard is a more proven CF and taller than Nketiah
@Skills1000 , I don’t think we’ll ever get a chance to Abraham anyway, because he has a buy-back clause for Chelsea. I also doubt Balogun and Martinelli can be our main CFs, based on their current hold-up plays
GAI, just maybe Arsenal should have further upgraded the midfield with an ACM to provide a goal scoring threat and better service to a forward line composed from Aubameyang, Lacazette, Pele, Martinelli or Balogun?
A pretty fair assessment.
For me the squad is crying out for an older father-like manager who will inspire and cajole them. Someone who they will play for with passion; I am sorry to say it but someone like Benitez or the Wenger of 20 years ago. . The players look frightened and so too does the manager. They need to be given the courage and self-belief to express themselves. At times they look confused not because of a lack of coaching but because of too much coaching and instruction.
The players are undoubtedly top 6 quality.
I’d have to take a better look at player stats but I fear that we only have 4 players that can compete with their rivals from Leicester, West Ham, and spuds. Who other than Saka, Tierney, Auba (on credit), White, and Partey actually can outshine a rival player in the same position?
This squad has enough quality to finish seventh with some luck and that’s the best we can hope for, especially under Arteta.
As long as Arsenal are safe from relegation threat, I guess Kroenke will keep Edu, Vinai and him till the end of the season
Because firing them will be less costly and hiring Erik ten Hag/ Overmars will be more affordable at that time
But if we don’t get at least fifteen points before we go to Anfield in November, I bet Arteta will be sacked first and the rest would likely get the boot next year
I dont believe Arsenal will be relegated this season which means we will have to watch this below par performance throughout this season…
Anything can happen in football, but Arsenal surely have a failsafe mechanism to prevent that
If we can manage injury to senior players. And the coach can work on the players attitude and physicality, Arsenal will win games. As much as Arteta needs to humbly improve on his tactical awareness he is still better than some coaches in EPL in terms of technicality of the game
It starts with #19 Norwich City next match!
I think we need a structure that allows Josh Kroenke to work closely with the manager. Accountability is key.
Going forward, we should offer 2 year contracts to managers. In that way, the club can easily sack them if performance is not good enough. It is a result oriented business.
If you dont deliver, you are out.
Arteta does not have the experience to take us to the next step. He may go on to be a top manager in the future, but for now, we need a change.
That’s an excellent idea. With such a short contract, no manager would get room for complacency.
Whatever anyone says, everyones job is looking dodgy at this moment. We are run badly and heads will roll if we dont get results to go with the expenditure.
They said no player will enter the last year of his contract and yet there’s Laca. Double standards. Saliba and Guendouzi are living proof of just how horrible manager Arteta really is. They would improve our squad massively yet they’re not given the chance. Torreira, another Emery signing was sidelined as soon as Mikel arived. The only Emery signing he plays from time to time is Pepe and he is more Sanlehi’s choice.
And being that I take Arteta for a massive egomaniac, these bad results will bring out the worst in him and he’ll keep on making erratic decisions time and time again just to prove the world wrong, destroying his relationship with more of the squad.
I really hope he’s on one unexpected bad result from getting the sack, I fear the worst under him.
Gouendouzi called up to French senior team, they obviously don’t have the intelligence of Arteta Once Great.
Also Mavropanos should not have been loaned, or if so certainly not with an option to buy.
Add to that talking Xhaka into re-signing.
absolutely they should be – these two along with Arteta are a package.
Putting aside , for the moment , the fact that Konstantins regular articles calling for MA to be sacked virtually never contain any semblance of balance or true perspective – and do remember that all good writers will use Devils Advocate tactics, if they cannot honestly ever see the opposing view,
– the case and detail he makes for the exit of MA, Vinai and Edu is rather good.
I can agree with most of what he says, though I really wish that he had at least tried to put the opposing case, so that I could have also agreed with some of the things he chose to omit.
In life, as in football, things are rarely ALL good or ALL bad.
Most matters are subjective and nuanced thinking and comments are worthwhile.
IMO, Konstantin, though clearly certainly a talented wordsmith, will only ever be a truly worthwhile writer when his articles attempt some truth, via perspective and balance.
The other problem he has is a tendency to constantly repeat essentially the same article, albeit slightly differently phrased.
Ok, in previous post I have said Arsenal signed average duds. Why?
1. Ben white: Really? What did he do last season?
2. Tavares: Do u think a club like Benefica would let go a decent defender for 8 mil? Even for an avg prospect player, Benefica would demand 1 trillion dollars. Really they were getting rid of dead wood.
3. Lokonga: Again, what’s so special about him?
4. Ramsdale: bought as back up to leno. Not to replace him
5. Odegard: Real Madrid let him go. Because he is avg. He played for Arsenal last season. What did he do? A player like Santi can make fans go up their feet with in 10 sec. How many times you got up ur feet watching him?
6. Tomiyasu: Dont know him
Listen, there is a difference between a project youth with players like haaland, dani olmo, sancho. Then there is project losers with buying avg players to fill the slot. Waiting for a bunch of avg players to grow into league winners is like waiting for Talibans to nominate a female president. THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN BUDDY!
EDU and VINAY scammed us. They pocketed millions for these deals where they bought avg duds for higher price.
If I was Jon Fox most of my post would be in capital letters
I eventually began to speed read the article as there was not a positive comment to be had. Not a sausage!! I’m sick of the abject negativity of it all. I’ve been watching my home nation tonight and then have to contend with another Arsenal bashing and it’s the pits
By all means have another go when we get destroyed next time around but until that happens please spare me. If it’s not Arteta.. it’s Edu and now our CEO.
What Lola says SueP is definitely negative but unfortunately it’s also the truth. Someone at Arsenal is setting mediocre standards. As Ozzie Gunner pointed out there were better options and more immediate positions to fill. Some idiot at the club has decided that incoming players should be chosen after close screening based on how they can fit into Arteta’s so called style. Loser stuff. We are all hurting because our club has squandered a defining transfer window. It should have put us back in with the top teams but instead left us hoping that for the time being we can at least beat Norwich and Burnley
Joe.S
I have just looked and realised I posted under her name. My mistake as I wrote ‘article’ as it was really meant for the writer
Regardless, I’m worn out reading negativity. No hiding the start, but I’m trying to look forward. I’ll join the chorus of disapproval soon enough if by late October/November there isn’t something tangibly better
Great job Konstantin, explaining how Arteta’s incompetence as manager is hitting the bank account of the club and the Kroenkes.
It’s the same thing over and over again: players are not coached properly or played out of positions. And when they fail to perform, they are classified as deadwood and banished to the bench – unless, of course, their name is Xhaka or Willian.
Tuchel’s transformation of Jorginho, Rudiger and Alonso from Lampard’s “deadwood” to star performer is a powerful example of how smart managers get the best out of players – in order to save unnecessary spending or avoid wasting money.
To your list of examples, I would add Arteta’s waste of 30M on Ramsdale to replace Leno, (before first fixing our midfield), without recognizing that most of our goal-keeping errors result from our weak defensive posture.
Arteta is not capable of diagnosing the real source of problems either on the pitch or in the dressing room. Period. It’s now wonder we see they same s###show week in, week out.
I also agree that Vinai and Edu should share the blame for this; they should not be allowed to bury their head in the sand. All three should be held to account for this astounding waste of money.
Getting straight to the point: are three should be fired. Now.
Arsenal Board and management had a serial winner in Unai Emery, but failed to support him in the transfer market and discipline of under forming players, resulting in sacking him after 18 months. Emery had won more trophies in the previous 3 seasons than any other manager in Europe. At PSG he had a better record than Ancellotti, Tuchel and Ponchettino.
They then were able to appoint their annointed one with a highly deficient CV to learn on the job.
After a longer period in control, with plenty of financial and position support (manager not head coach) have resulted in two eighth place finishes and a current position #20, 3 straight losses, no goals for, no goals against, zero points and a goal difference of – 9. There have been mitigating circumstances this season with disruptions to players available for selection, but it is all to play for now.