Have the board seen enough to back Arteta again this summer? (opinion)

Ray Parlour insists that the board have to back Mikel Arteta IF they believe he is the right man for the job, but will they still be so sure?

The Gunners haven’t enjoyed Champions League football since the 2016-17 campaign when they were eliminated by Bayern Munich, and only narrowly scraped into the Europa League thanks to winning the FA Cup last season, with their league position not proving strong enough to warrant one.

The board seemingly backed the manager in the summer, bringing in Thomas Partey for a substantial fee, an amount they appeared unwilling to meet until Deadline Day. They also moved swiftly to beat other clubs to Willian’s signature, who should have proved to be a big signing, as well as Gabriel Magalhaes arriving for a substantial fee also.

The above signings were a clear indication that Arteta was having his say on transfers, and showed a willingness to support the manager, when they could easily have forced the Spaniard to promote William Saliba into the first-team, a player who cost over £30 Million the summer before.

Our form has been highly inconsistent this season however, although the same can be said for a large number of clubs (possibly down to the congested fixture list thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic), but question marks definitely remain at present.

One former player in Ray Parlour is willing to back Arteta however, and claims that if the board have to support him in the transfer window if they are serious.

“He’s learned a little bit from Arsene Wenger, Pep Guardiola as well, but I would give him a chance,” the Arsenal ‘Invincible’ told talkSPORT.

“It might take a couple of transfer windows, look at Jurgen Klopp, he got an opportunity. He came into Liverpool and there was a plan.

“Arteta has got to show he’s got a plan going forward. It might take three years to try to challenge that top four or try to challenge for the league.

“But we know money does make it easier and that’s where the board come in.

“If they think they’ve got the right man, please give him a chance by giving him a little bit more money.”

There is more than enough reason to have your doubts about the Arteta plan, but there is also plenty to be excited about after he showed he was able to turn our dreadful form around from the end of 2020.

Do you still fully believe in the Arteta project? Will the board have any reservations?

Patrick

Tags Mikel Arteta Ray Parlour

37 Comments

  1. Tough call either way, will Arteta become a solid manager, or the next Emery? Arguments can be made from either opinion.

    However, I say I don’t have any faith in the board to begin with. They watched while players ran down contracts and we loaded up with mediocre talent.

    We should have brought in a top class manager after Wenger. They let Sven get ousted, brought in Raul & his sketchy dealings with agents, and have shown Bush league “leadership” for too long.

    I don’t trust them to put trash in the bin.

    1. I don’t understand why arsenal is left to be run by bunch of amartuars Arteta and Edu….
      Fans have come to accept that every player at arsenal is bad
      Morinho left a certain Chelsea squad 8 when he was sacked doesn’t stop cante coming and winning the league.
      The system at arsenal and the loser’s mentality is so unbearable…
      Arteta is becoming ozil replacement in dividing opinions. the number of pass he gets for doing so terrible is crazy. People Making excuses after excuses for him
      We weren’t even worse than Everton when Arteta and Anceloti took over

      1. Pepe, You are absolutely correct. We have developed a looser mentality to a point that some of our fans are now considering “not a sacking club” as a moral victory. We are talking as if this club is still a big club while not behaving like one. Liverpool sacked BR just a year after he got them one of the best season in over a decade and before the arrival JK. Do you think Liverpool will stick with JK if he they fall off top four for few seasons? I believe they will not, but here we have people who will want MA to stick around at least 3-4 years. It’s OK if we want to give him until the end of the season and evaluate his performance. The Arsene and fergie era are long gone and coaching now is a revolving door and the sooner the club and the fans stop this looser mentality the better.

  2. Yes, I agree. Arteta needs to be backed with more money.
    Every position should have 2 quality players, just like Man City.

    We not qualifying for Europe might be a blessing in disguise.

    This coming summer transfer, the board should make quality signings.

    We need a LB, GK, CM, AM, LW. At least 3 of this positions must be improved.

    1. But ain’t this similar to what people used to say during the wenger era?
      “Finishing outside of the Top 4 could be a blessing in disguise”.
      We have now been outside the Top 4 for nearly 5 years. What difference has it made?
      😊

      1. Spot on, Goonster. Whatever we fall down to will become the new standard.

        Wouldn’t surprise me if the board has a long-term goal to turn us into a mid-table team so that they can start cutting players’ wages significantly and pocket even more money that way. Matchday and TV revenue won’t change much. Hell, even merch sales wouldn’t drop enough to worry the board.

    2. We are never going to be like Man city, we don’t have the financial resources. If Arteta’s only solution for our problems is money, perhaps he is not the right choice.

  3. the bigger question is have we seen enough from the board to trust them on any matter, including their choice of manager or any other administrative appointment…not convinced that Arteta is the man to lead this club forward, especially without having a Dein-like character to share the load, but I’m still trying to remain hopeful…to complicate matters even more, the League is getting exponentially more difficult to navigate as many of the best managers in the world are now plying their trades in the EPL, including the most recent hiring of Tuchel…tough times ahead if we don’t get things right in the coming window

  4. If we finish outside the top 6 with this squad he has failed miserably unless he can win the EL. He has made far more errors of judgement on players and selection than is acceptable and we are where we are at the moment through naivety. We were a mid table team when he took over, underachieving and we are still a mid table team but worse. The team is so inconsistent, we lose games we should have won and our results are very poor against lower and mid table teams especially. His first full season after so much promise so far has been nothing short of a disaster, making really poor errors of judgement. For me i would not be upset if he was fired because i hate the way we play and dont enjoy watching us often enough.

    1. I also think he would get the sack if we finish outside the top six, unless we win the EL

      I’d be disappointed if he is fired though, because he’s just starting to build his own team and instilling his system into the players. I don’t think the unemployed managers like Allegri, Jardim and Vieira can do better than Arteta at Arsenal

      1. Allegri wouldn’t work at Walmart FC, so forget about him. And he WOULD do a better job at Arsenal. This squad should make it into the top 6 easily.

        Jardim and Vieira probably wouldn’t do much better, I agree.

  5. When can they have seen worthy of backing?
    Football no better
    Position worse
    Player mismanagement
    .just what has improved??

  6. The board are backing the project, to get through this season, get rid of all the deadwood, believe in the plan. Like it or not, Arteta is here for at least until the end of next season.

  7. the one saving grace in the situation, should the board decide to move in another direction, is that based on the comments from players, like Willock, I’m not certain that he has a definitive long-term vision for the club, besides the obvious desire to get positive results, so if they were to make a move they must do so before any further recruitment happens…at least any new manager would have a relatively clean slate, as many members of the deadwood society would be out of the picture, and we have several players with a high ceiling to move forward with…just don’t want Arteta to ostracize anymore of our young prospects who might have a viable future with the club if he were to be relieved of his managerial duties

  8. Let’s see. When Arteta was appointed, Everton were in worse shape than we were. Everton appointed a seasoned manager in Ancellotti. Both teams needed a midfield presence: Ancellotti got a league proven player in Doucoure while Arteta went for Partey who has shown only glimpses of what was expected of him. Everton signed James while we signed Willian. Arteta chose not to play Ozil but had no back up plan. ESR happened more out of necessity than by design. While the defense is better our defense is still prone to costly brain farts. He seems to have favorites who will get chance after chance while some other players get cameos. His ego not to say his arrogance is hard to understand given that the performance on the pitch is uninspired. Our best player from the last two seasons is a shadow of himself probably due to our style or lack thereof. We languish in eleventh position while Everton have a shot at top four. I am not on the Arteta bandwagon and I personally think he’s out of his depth.

    1. Speaking of Everton, what a win last night! I wonder how many games it would take for us to score 5 goals!!!

      Great comment, btw, Ahmad..

      1. Thanks Sue. Back in the Wenger days even we were no longer contenders, we had panache. Now we have to deal with bagasse!

    2. Great comment except you
      You also forgot to mention the amount of money Arsenal lost by gifting so many players to other teams. What a waste of resources.

      1. 👍 lcw check how many overpaid, average footballers Arsenal pays £100,000 or more in wages compared to all other clubs. Champions League money for lower position mediocrity. That’s why Arsenal has had difficulty moving on players and have to give them away!

  9. Everybody slates Unai Emery, who was only appointed as “head coach”, had no say in the players he wanted and was expected to coach and produce results provided to him by others. Mikel Arteta has now been appointed “manager”, has had imput into player purchases over two windows, yet after the same number of EPL games Arsenal is 14 points worse off than under Emery. The big question will be how much credit in the bank does Arteta have for winning the FA Cup?

    1. As far as I am concerned none at all. He has in my opinion taken us further back than Emery. He is out of his depth, and only his arrogance seems to be blurring his vision.

  10. From my own interpretation on what I have noticed so far with Arteta is that, He seems to be very rigid in his approach. He seems to be more worried about keeping shape and players doing what he instructs them to do. He goes by the his own book “This and that player has to do this and that, can’t do more than this..”.
    It’s about following his instructions to the tee.
    Watching the way we play is like Arteta wrote the program, developed the software and installed it into the players. The players seem to be bound by that. Not too much leeway or freedom afforded to the players so that they can express themselves more.

    We seem to play overly Pre-Planned football. Robotic to some extent.

    It’s My personal opinion of course.

    1. Goonster.
      Spot on. Watching Arteta on the side he is like a frothing dog on the players backs all the time. He is a control freak, and when crossed he bins players. We know how many he has done that to. Yet he keeps playing players such as Willian, whom he signed, who is not good enough for a OAP side. Supporters are beginning to see through his veneer now. He’ a rookie who’s leading us over the cliff edge.

  11. Arteta OUT this Guy is out of his depth. I don’t blame him. I blame the stupid people hiring him. Edu was a terrible choice no experience he just goes on the by agents thoughts. Vinni the ex Carpet CEO is a terrible choice he knows or knew nothing about Football when hired, then you have owners whom have no idea of Football, and are relying on these 3 Clowns. Going back to Arteta is that it’s Funny as Arteta has been backed even more than Emery. I hated Emery’s way we did stuff but with Arteta it’s Even Worse. We are going in one direction and that’s Down to relegation battles not top 6. Our Tactics are Very poor, sideways or backwards, we don’t counter attack anymore we let them get there shape and try to break them down when we have no flair. Arteta has had 3 windows to buy players but he keeps buying players back up rather than to get in first team. Only 1 player in team from 3 windows (Partey). His team selection well that’s what annoys me the most. His substitutions are shocking and mind Boggling and then his match Analysis is an insult to all Arsenal Fans as I don’t see what he see’s. Please let’s get this Guy out before he wastes even more money on back up players when we need 3 first team starters. The table does not Lie we deserve to be where we are if not Lower. As we were very lucky getting points off West Ham and Sheffield Utd. We only had one convincing win which was first game of the season. I can write all I want but eventually he will Sack himself with his arrogance and favourites letting him down. We won’t make Top 8 this year out of Both cups Out of League from September, do you really think we will win Europa League? We should go for an experienced manager to steady this Sinking Ship, like Benitez, Rodgers or Allegri and trust him rather than a Rookie whom I have no trust in. The game I am watching is there to see. We are no better but definitely worse than when he came in. Get Edu and Vinni out too and Get in a proper structure in. Tell me your thoughts?

  12. I don’t understand how players like saka,auba,pepe,martineli,William,laca all struggling to put the ball into the net and hardly improving
    Arteta must be relegated to be our defensive coach while we can get a real coach going forward we look like bunch of confused footballers

  13. I’d give him until January 2022 if I were KSE.

    This season has been a catastrophe but some games have shown us that the squad can be great.

    If the club strengthens in key areas, there’s a great chance we’ll see Arsenal either in the top 4 or top 6.

    BUT, he has to hit the ground running in the first half of the next season.

    1. Some games???
      The only game I remembered us dominating and winning convincingly is our opening game against Fulham.
      I like to know he games you are referring to

  14. “The board” PATRICK? What real say do you suppose THEY have in these days of Kroenke holding the purse strings? They are just ineffectual puppets with no real power at all.

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