We should hold everyone accountable by Konstantin Mitov
Well lovely Arsenal people, I think it’s fair to say that at Arsenal a lot of people have had it easy. Too often one person had taken all the blame, while the truth is, we are where we are for many reasons.
We made a few critical mistakes this summer once again. Firstly we sold our better keeper, who was at the foundation of our solidity. For a team that doesn’t score a lot of goals this was suicidal.
Then we signed Willian at 32 and gave him a 200k/week contract for 3 seasons. We gave David Luiz another year, then we went and gave Auba 350k/week. We could’ve cashed in on Laca, and tried to improve our attack, instead we gave deals to Mari and Cedric who we don’t play, and we are stuck with Xhaka for some reason.
These deals don’t make sense and they showed the lack of preparation for the scenario which panned out. I think Edu has a few questions to ask here. We moved on Raul, because of his close relationships to agents using the club to feed their clients better deals, but Edu hasn’t shone himself in glory, by helping his fellow countrymen to good deals. Remember that we initially wanted Overmars to take his job, but we were turned down. I think Marc realised that the way things are at Arsenal, you are set up to fail.
Vinai shouldn’t get away with it either because he practically signed off those deals. It’s because we don’t have a proper footballing CEO that understands the industry, not just numbers.
And this was highlighted when we gave Arteta too much power, which he took and failed to manage properly. He left Ozil out of the side, which was a strategical mistake. It was a bold decision, but it put pressure on Arteta, and questions immediately arose when results started to plummet.
We lacked a plan for how we will play. We should’ve either set up a formation that works best with what we have, or recruit the players we need to play the system we want. We did neither and, in that case, at least we should’ve given ourselves all the options, and we didn’t.
Unfortunately winning the FA cup masked again the underlying problems. Players eventually got confused by the constant rotations and tactile micromanagement, so they downed tools like they’ve done before. A lot of those players managed to throw Arsene Wenger under the bus, so Mikel Arteta will be an easy bite for them.
Just think of how many players have been here for a more than two years and in the last months have gotten progressively worse. Xhaka, Bellerin, Kolasinac, Mustafi, Ozil, Lacazette, to name just a few, some of which have become unplayable. Then there are others who we signed recently to improve our squad, but instead they slumped to our level, like Pepe for example, who was one of the most exciting wingers in Europe. I fear for Partey because this faith could soon catch up to him.
Combined with the issue that in order to get players to stay we give them huge money deals, who they’re ready to stink out if they have to, we’re in a situation that won’t change overnight. We’re ‘backing’ Arteta for now, but even if we sign two players in January will they instantly make us better? I have my doubts.
We are either really believing in Mikel or we again have no clue how to get out of this mess, so we just pray it goes away, like it did in the Wenger days. I’m worried who will make the right decisions, so that one year later, we’re actually in a better place.
Despite the complete lack of confidence in the people who should take the tough decisions at the club, and the fact that not all is Arteta’s fault, I still think we should 100% change the manager as soon as possible.
It will give us a boost we desperately require, because relegation is a real thing, and it can happen to you no matter who you are. There’s just no measurable statistic that points in favour of Arteta, and our style of play is not only poor, but also depressing to watch.
I am certain that if we don’t cheap out on the manager, we can get a decent option and I think Rafa Benitez is a great candidate. He has the experience in the league, he’s won things and he’s managed in both ends of the table. At least on paper a proper candidate for the mess we are in.
Then there are others like Nagelsman and Allegri. Very different in style, but both names that would lift the spirits around. And I am sure with enough money, we can convince Pochettino. He’s waiting for the United job, but who knows how long that will take and if he can inject young blood to our squad like he did at ‘them lot’ and we back him, he’d love to take a dig at Levy for sacking him.
In the end there are options, and if there is one thing that’s actually positive right now, that is that something is definitely happening in January. Either player wise or with the manager, we’ll see in the very near future.
Konstantin