Martin Keown is fed up with Mikel Arteta falling out with his players and has urged the Spaniard to break the habit.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is the latest player to fall out with the former midfielder.
The striker has now left Arsenal for Barcelona after being left out in the cold at the Emirates.
Mesut Ozil and Matteo Guendouzi are two other players he has fallen out with since he became the club’s manager.
Keown claims the former midfielder has fallen out with more players than any other manager since he became Arsenal’s boss and wants that to stop.
He tells TalkSport: ‘I don’t know of another high profile manager who has fallen out with quite so many players. Maybe it was easy to fall out with Ozil. Guendouzi has since gone on and done well, got into the national team. That’s one or two fallouts.
‘He may feel he’s eradicating a culture that was allowed to grow under Arsene Wenger. I understand that but at the same time all football players are very different so what you need to do is find a way to get the best out of everybody.
‘You can’t keep falling out with people.’
Just Arsenal Opinion
The manager is in charge of the group, and he knows what is best for the team.
No player is bigger than the club and there is no one better placed to implement that rule than the manager.
Although we hate to see players fall out with our the manager and leave the club, if someone will not play by the rules of engagement, he is simply bad for the squad.
He’s trying to develop a winning culture. Don’t know if he’ll succeed, but he’s trying. It’s true that any manager needs to have a level of flexibility, but he also needs standards – it’s difficult to get that balance right and it’s hard to say from here whether arteta has been right or wrong in each of these examples.
I think next season will finally be sink or swim for arteta – we must get a new striker or two, and that choice will be definitive I think. (we also need to move on and replace Xhaka – not holding my breath on that one though!)
Oh dear Martin. GG fell out with Williams, Williams sold. Same with Robson. Then there was Marwood. Davis ostracised for 16 months after their fallout. Never picked or spoke to Merson for 3 months after Merson laughed when George told him to sprint in training.
That’s 5 off the top of my head.
Arteta is the manager, and it should be his decision who fits in the team, and who threatens the dynamic.
I don’t have a problem with the decision making, (he is privy to things we are not), but I would take issue with the manner in which it is done.
For example, to freeze out the player, or comment publicly about them being not wanted at the club only drives down any transfer fee the club could receive.
Lately there always seems to be a stick man at the club, a boogey man who becomes a target of ire for fans. In addition there seems to be different standards for different players.
For instance, Xhaka’s latest comments about “not changing the way he plays” seems in direct contrast to the discipline Arteta is trying to instill in the club.
1. Doesn’t this “my way” attitude and public comment set a bad example for the younger players?
2. Guendouzi was shipped off in part for his “my way” attitude, yet Xhaka will walk back into the starting 11 when he is available.
From the outside it looks like different application for different players.
How many warning did Auba get before the hammer dropped? Despite his poor form he continued to get selected. Pepe did not seem to get the same allowances as Auba.
Pepe doesn’t always track back, but did Auba?
Just appears that there is a short leash and longer leash with players, and arbitrary decisions rather than standards.
But isn’t that the kind of honesty that people have been demanding from Arteta?
Fans keep asking for the truth about why such and such player is being loaned, frozen out or gotten rid of. But when he says the honest truth publicly he is still attacked.
And it’s weird, when Arteta comes out publicly and states the reason why he dropped, loaned or exiled a player the fans will still turn around and say things like “No one believes what the rubbish he is saying”.
If they don’t like the answers he gives they will then say Arteta is lying or talking nonsense. It seems like many want him to give them the answers they want to hear.
Can’t win no matter what, isn’t?
😊
No, Arteta doesn’t have to explain, only say he moved player to the bench for tactical reasons, or drop of form, or giving opportunity to youth, etc…
None of which is false, as we have seen since December. None of the reasons above are a lie, and none would tank the players transfer value in the way we have seen.
Hence my saying I don’t disagree with Arteta’s decision over Auba or Guendouzi, just disagree over the poor poor way it was managed.
Look no further than the pennies we will get for Guendouzi, and the fee we paid plus wage subsidies for Auba to move to Barca.
Poor management, not just Arteta, but Edu, board, and ownership are all the blame.
What reasons did Arteta give when he froze ozil out?
What reasons did Arteta give when he froze Auba out?
What reasons did Arteta give when he loaned out Saliba?
What reasons did he give for exiling Guendouzi?
How many managers ever come out and tell the whole story publicly? They will try to be as diplomatic but at the same time will give you bits and pieces of their side of the story.
And since when did clubs start allowing managers to listen to fans demands and tantrums?
“The manager and the club have to tell us the truth about what’s going on”.
Clubs and managers have never bow to such fans requests.
🤦♂️
if we were winning trophies then I would find no fault with MA, but continuously falling out with players and finish 8th is a major concern. He must be the problem.
I totally agree.
No use fielding a team of angels who finish 8th (when we crucified AW for fourth!) every season. The manager surely can’t continue picking fights with our best players and shipping them out.
He needs to mature a bit more.
I listened intently to this heated exchange between KEOWN and SIMON JORDAN, ex Palace owner who is a co host on weekdays and speaks so much welcome straight to the point sense on so many football subjects.
His intellect is way above most others on TalkSport-not a difficult task I would admit – but also way above Keowns, who on this matter is badly out of touch with all reality!
MA is quite rightly and after many years of drift and trying, in vain , to please everyone by being soft as rancid buttter under Wenger, instilling vitally needed direction and discipline without which no team has a hope in hell of being at the very top.
Just ask Pep and Klopp who would never stand for thr nonsense that AW stood for. MA is a welcome and vitally needed breath of fresh air.
Moreover , for the first time in many years our team and its players now know they cannot ponce off this club without giving their all and behaving as profesional ALL should. Eh Guendouzi??
I say this, even though we still have the dreadful Xhaka, but at least he never coasts half heartedly through games like Walcott, Ozil, Auba and others, now thankfully GONE FOR BLISSFUL EVER!
How many times did Klopp finish 8th with Liverpool? That’s the problem with being an Arteta tool. Lol
Kopp finished 8th in his first season at Liverpool. Then 4th twice before challenging for the title
“The manager is in charge of the group, and he knows what is best for the team.”
It seems Tuchel knows more than Lampard. If Lampard was still in charge, they would never win their 2nd CL trophy last season.
Wonder why the manager(at that time before a new manager came) DOES NOT KNOW what is best for the team?