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
