Should Arteta assemble a coaching team of Arsenal legends?

It may not have been confirmed yet but it would appear that the Arsenal management are nearly certain to appoint Mikel Arteta as Arsene Wenger’s successor, and they also seem keen on gathering a coaching team of former Arsenal heroes.

Wenger already had Steve Bould in place as his assistant and Jens Lehmann came in to coach last year as well. Per Mertesacker is set to take over the youth squad training. There is also talk of Santi Cazorla staying on to help Arteta, and now Robert Pires is also keen to join the coaching team as well.

“If the next manager wants my help, I will say yes,” Pires said. “I want to help Arsenal and I want to help the new manager. I want to be on the staff. I think I can help. It is an option for me and I hope it is an option for Arsenal.

“Arsenal have recently had a new sporting director from [Borussia] Dortmund [Sven Mislintat], which for me is not a problem, I respect the decision.

“But I think that some ex-players can help Arsenal. We know the high level and we won some titles.

“If I can give some advice for the players, it would be good.”

I personally think it is a great idea to bring in a team of coaches that have been used to winning trophies with Arsenal to inspire our youngsters to emulate that success. Pires definitely fits that mold, and how about bringing in the unemployed Denis Bergkamp and maybe Thierry Henry as well?

Sam P

46 Comments

  1. More interesting than the manager is how much money is available. Who ever they decide to manage he better have funds
    Rumours that it’s 50m I appreciate its not good telling teams how much u have to spend however, if it does end up as 50m what’s happening to all the money coming in ?

    1. you are a prophet of doom and a cyber bully, leave those who are responsible to fix the club to their job.

      1. So you choose to reply to my comment , try and read it properly before you make yourself look foolish. I am a fan so I am allowed an opinion. Why not agree to disagree
        As for cyber bullying I was brought up in a era where men sorted out their differences very differently to today
        As I said if you wish to have a grown up debate go ahead with evidence
        If not end your petty name calling and act your age

        1. I guess this is a knee jerk reaction out of frustration. Now that Wenger is out we should just take everything thrown at us as this is what we truly wanted all along. Everything but just no Wenger. Hahah. Funny times ahead of us. Our fan base is truly nuts.

        2. Then why calling others who have opposite opinions names. I don’t mean to call you out John but you are one of those who called others who support the former coach and have different opinion as yours akb, delusional etc Now you suddenly realised as a fan you should have an opinion.

          1. @Mobella-you’ve not got this quite right.@John0711 has reacted more to the PERSON than the REPLY itself.So do most people when Counsel writes back.
            He just can’t help himself.Read @John0711 original post.It merely says that he feels the transfer bucket of £50m which is being reported is as bigger concern than who becomes manager.I get what he’s saying.Its a clear and relevant point.
            So why does Counsel come back with his (totally predictable) comments?Why?Because that’s what he does.Hes told everyone how educated he is.How he speaks 67 languages.How he is widely regarded as the greatest criminal lawyer of his lifetime.But honestly?The bloke just spouts out crap.He is irrelevant and childish.Hes a 5 year old.See how John0711 responded about sorting out differences.Proper bloke.counsel?A bit of a twat.

      2. Henry has expressed a clear and irrefutable public interest in being Wenger’s successor in the past, so it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to believe that he has the desire to rival Arteta for the role. The problem for the great striker, though, is that even if he did want the job, I am not sure that he is a better candidate than Arteta. And there is one clear reason: Pep Guardiola.
        Both Arteta and Henry are currently working as assistants or first-team coaches. But while Arteta is enjoying day-to-day input alongside arguably the greatest footballing mind in the history of the sport at Manchester City, Henry is working in a sparse and inconsistent international capacity with a manager who is not quite so renowned for his tactical brilliance.
        Now, that does not mean that Henry lacks the acumen to be able to translate what he has learned under Roberto Martinez with Belgium into success as Arsenal manager. He has obviously completed his coaching badges. He is a very intelligent and competitive individual. And he loves the club dearly.
        But the opportunity to coach under and learn from Guardiola is a special one. Moreover, not only has Arteta been coaching under Guardiola since his retirement over the past two years, but he is highly thought of by the City manager and has even been given the chance to manage the senior team in Premier League games.
        I have great respect for Henry. He is one of my favourite ever players. He is one of the key reasons why I became an Arsenal fan all those years ago. But I do not think that he would be a successful manager. He may think otherwise, and I would support him fully if he was appointed, but to turn up the chance to hire a former captain who has a Guardiola influence seems a little foolish to me.

        1. Dear KenyanFan, I just read this exact piece in ‘Paininthearsenal’. Aren’t there laws against plagiarism? Jeez, dude!!!!

      3. A bully? For merely expressing a widely held view? I suggest you study the TRUE meaning of English words before wrongly using them. Perhaps it would have been better to fully state your own view and leave it at that.. You are actually behaving rather more like a bully. And so am I, but in my case intentionally, to stand up for someone so wrongly accused.

    2. What about Sven, Gazidis and now Raul?

      Wenger spent what in Jan?
      The money spent was done by people who are not the manager.

      Next manager getting £50 million, for me, it sounds like the next manager will be aloud to pick a player he wants. A decent player can be gotten for around that much, maybe a bit more which could be generated from a player sale… This is kind of like a wild card for the manager to play with, I bet the next manager/head coach will be involved with discussions but most of AFC transfer business will most likely be done by the board.

  2. Only a person like Arteta can be turned into a goat in the end if things go to wrong. Our former legends should be left alone and mind their business and not risk their reputation with not well thought experiments. Wenger was just a part of the problem. The main problem is still the board with Stan being the main one. Arsenal are simple dead as we have sold our soul to an american who can not name our starting line up, let alone name 3 of our former legends.

    1. Yet UTD are doing better than us and they was bought by people who used UTDs own money to buy the club.

      Silent Stan hasn’t done that to us.

      I do not wish to sound like I am defending him, I wish to point at who I feel is more of an issue, Gazidis.

      Compare Gazidis to Ed Woodward from UTD, how Woodward more than doubled UTDs income and progressed up to the point where he is in control of the spending and they spend!

      Gazidis has… Well, if you look at the volume of sponsors AFC have had over the years then it appears to decline, contracts run out. Pattern which crept into player contracts which people blamed Wenger for… Our shirt deal compared to UTDs is a joke, UTD got their deal done without UCL football and it still earnt them more than what we got with UCL football.

      A top CEO will drag a club back up, Woodward has done it with UTD. Gazidis has failed at Arsenal.

      Any surprise that AFC have been dropping away year after year since Gazidis arrived?

      Please do not ignore this joke of a man. I give him credit for hiring Raul and Sven but apart from that he has only ever been a negative for AFC, AFC are a big club and Gazidis is failing to exploit that… We was a top team, one of the UKs biggest two teams in the EPL for many years, not hard to sell… Yet Gazidis has failed to do so year after year with a mid tier mindset.

      1. That’s very harsh on Gazidis to be honest, having met the man on over a dozen occasions during fans forum meetings I can only speak from my own experiences and say that he does a huge amount for the club that don’t appear to make headlines as press only want to publish bad news stories to sell their papers. To compare us to united is crazy in terms of sponsorship, united are a global brand of the very highest level and are a different level to nearly every other club, hence why they are the richest club in the world …they are an easy sell. Kronke does have other sporting teams in the us so ok we might not be his biggest priority but Gazidis certainly takes more slack than he deserves, most people always blamed Wenger and now looks like moving on to the next target. I just hope next season we all Support our new manager whoever that is and get behind the team, we have been a laughing stock for other teams fams by our in fighting so hopefully that changes now.

        1. Well, I love you mature controled tone@CK in reply to Midkem Ma. Constructive criticism is adorable. A valuable point about Gazidis.

  3. If the worst happens, and Arteta is appointed, then first port of call would be removing all the players he played with only 2 years ago (especially the key players), otherwise he’ll have NO authority in the dressing room. It’s a huge problem, because the number one priority, is to instil discipline into the team. There was ZERO accountability for the players under Wenger, and that needs to change. Discipline aside, it’s actually a good idea to remove these players anyway, because anyone that was team mates with Arteta, need removing because they’re just not good enough.

    Then I think bringing in some legends would be a great idea! I would love to see the likes of Wright, and Pires back at the club. Maybe a role for Sol, although I think he wants a management position.

    1. Fun how you all forgetting be captained these very same players you speak.. Don’t know if you have ever played a game of football but you don’t begin captain without the respect of your peers, a captain has a huge role to play in the team, stop spouting nonsense fam

      1. You are right.
        Arsenal as a football team has a terrible fan base. Fans predicting and wishing doom before the team starts. I wish the team well and will support Arteta or whoever to succeed if appointed.

    2. where were you when per as a captain and a teammate almost slap Ozil for not greeting the fans after losing? it is all about been professional enough. neggelsmaan starts coaching at 28 am sure he coached his seniors.

  4. None of the Arsenal former players suggested has any experience in football management and that will be a horrible diaster if they are appointed to lead Arsenal for the coming seasons

  5. Wat is this a joke I can just about handle Arteta but a Compleat management of non experience ex players no thanks what next Dearby as a phisio? I canot belive Stan the businessmen would put up with this shi7

  6. The 50m is about managing expectations.
    In 2015 Gazidiz came out and
    said Arsenal’s spending power is on
    the same level as Bayern Munich.
    Lord Harris said Arsenal had 200 mill waiting to spend.
    Kroenke and Wenger were furious with the raised fan expectation
    and ruthlessly shut down such talk which has never been heard again.
    The 50m spend is managing fan expectation.
    So a 100m spend would be seen as double what we thought.

  7. Discussing names in public is totally
    against the Arsenal tradition.
    No one predicted Wenger would
    be the new manager.
    No one new Kroenke would become major share holder.
    No one new Gazidiz would be the new CEO.
    No one knew Sven and Raul wold be appointed.
    No one knew Ozil would be bought.
    Wenger said he had never heard of Cazorla right up till he was bought.
    Wenger said Walcott would be staying.
    Wenger said Sanchez would not leave.
    The club never reveal who their transfer targets are.
    So Wenger and Gazidiz publicly advocating Arteta and there for
    discriminating against other candidates
    is totally against the Arsenal way of doing things.
    Lord Acton said “power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.
    But surely maintaining the Kroenke Gazidiz Wenger regime
    is not worth going against Arsenal traditional values?
    Right?

    1. You see I’ve been telling them to stop taking the media too literally. They know the media hates us – if we appointed Pep Guardiola right now I bet the media would stop praising him and start bringing things up like his teams can’t defend and his spending record and calling him the bald fraud. Most of you Gooners who were born in the 80s like me if they remembered when Wenger was appointed they gave him such abuse the very first week. The media always hated Wenger because he handled himself with class so for two decades they have been gunning for his head. The British media has hated us since the Herbert Chapman era and possibly going even further than that. It’s either Luis Enrique or Sarri but they use the Mikel Arteta thing as a smokescreen so that they can do a candidate selection process in peace. The same thing with the budget – we will never announce it because then every club we do deals with will spike the prices dramatically so we might drop a 100m dollar deal towards the end of the window (don’t quote me here just giving an example). If we win the FA Cup – it’s just an FA Cup. If another team wins the FA Cup – best club in England.

      1. kllamch89,
        With reference to the FA cup, that is what certain sections of our own fanbase has been saying, so don’t just blame the media for double standards.

        1. The FA cup became a poisoned chalice when it was substituted for the premier league trophy and the underperforming manager kept on its basis. Gazidis even went to to claim we were overachieving because of winning the FA cup! So sorry man, but the FA cup lost its glory when it started coming with 2 year strings attached.

      2. Most of these legends know within themselves that they can’t hack this job as easily as they can criticize the incumbent from the comfort of Sky Sports studios. They also know that they will step into a dark lonely place if they ever accept the top Job at Arsenal or any club! Notice Bould’s “Sergent Major Stance” in training Pictures with Wenger, its his way of saying “I appreciate your job is a difficult one”

        If Arteta inherits Wenger’s malfunctioning coat, then he is an incredibly brave man. Wenger came before twitter and blogs, when opinions were shared in pubs and workplaces, and Manager and players could recover from games in peace. Later on he endured the worst campaign of abuse ever devised against a single human being.

        And its only going to get worse! Whoever takes charge

        NOW!! everything is scrutinized… Wenger silent, Wenger shouting, Wenger pointing, Wenger kicking water bottle, Wenger tripping and falling at the train station, Cech smashing his car, Ozil looking at his boots, where players go after a game and why the go there.
        The body language of the coach will be thoroughly x-rayed for all kinds of signs.

        The Arsenal Job is ideally for a strong character with loads of experience at the highest level who can immediately restore top 4 at the minimum.

        Arteta could do it but at least he should have one full season with our full backing, even Guardiola was shell-shocked in his first City season

      3. It is ludicrous to claim that the British media has hated us since Herbert Chapman. I was born decades before you and was reading newspapers aged five, watched ny first game at five and supported regularly since age 8. I KNOW for a fact that your allegation is TOTAL NONSENSE. How can you think that way astonishes me, when the media have has a rightful impression of us as a top class and classy club for all that time(since I can read). Only since Kroenke took over can that impression be correct and even then the press and TV don’t share it.

  8. You clueless midkemma you annoy me with your comments about gazidis..gazidis is experienced,one of the best and far more respected than ed Woodward… you talk about sponsorship deals comparing united and arsenal and you forgot that in the last 15 years United has won more important trophies than us..every company wants to work with successful clubs… We aren’t that thanks to Wenger and gazidis knew that that’s why he wanted wenger gone… He’s trying to build arsenal reputation back, give gazidis time…and stop talking nonsense..you annoy me…i don’t love gazidis but i know he is doing his best.. Wenger’s damage is big.. We need God’s help and wisdom to get through this…#believe in gazidis

  9. Now with Arsene’s departured, we still live in another familiar lack of ambition days? Mikael Arteta not even manage a team (any team) of his own. This is like give a Harry Potter wizard stick to a muggle. I hope this just only rumors.

    1. To hell with Arsenal fans like you. Sick and tired of condemnations of every move of the club by the so called fans.

  10. I’m not against having an opinion and pointing out what is wrong but to what extent do we do that. Not to long ago, the common line here is how many of our players will get into top EPL clubs. Well our lamppost is keeping 70m pound morata out of Chelsea first team. I can’t believe how much stick these players get while they are and how much praise they are not. You can’t claim support a thing when yo constantly attack it and see no good in it. With the kind of love we have for our dear arsenal I have no doubt majority of will be single, divorcee, be in our tenth marriage, how we stay in love with this club eludes me.

  11. So I’m finally over the shock of Arteta looking likely to be our new manager… I will be behind him… I hope he proves most of us (the doubters, myself included) wrong…. I am looking forward to a successful season COYG Come on Arteta!!!

    1. I hope you’re right Sue but I have my doubts that he is strong enough or that he can gain the respect of the senior players, he was a team mate only two years ago. Arsene did have a level of respect but was too soft with them and was taken advantage of. If they have to go for a former player I would favour Viera who has at least got some management experience and would certainly command respect. Let’s hope that something good comes out of it and if it is Arteta, we have no choice but to give him a chance to prove himself. It’s a big gamble though!!!

      1. It is a huge gamble Andrew, I am disappointed… but if the powers that be appoint him, I’ll have to deal with it! I just hope we improve on this season, & dish out a few thrashings!!!

  12. No, get people who know stuff about football. His team should have actual experienced heads. Not just a bunch of fan favorites who in actuality would be waiting for Arteta to slip up so they could take over. Big reason why I don’t think Henry will be part of this staff.

  13. If reports are to be believed, even Arteta wants a veto over transfers. So who is willing to work under the new negotiating team then?

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