The reasons for the poor choice of Arteta by Konstantin Mitov
So there it is. After a very long and difficult battle to finally convince this board we need to part with Arsene, the topic of his successor much reminded Arsenal fans of former transfer windows. All the big names linked, favourites rotating by the day and at the end it’s all a smoke screen and we get second best.
Welcome Mikel Arteta. It’s not certain, but it’s highly probable. There are obvious reasons for this. We reportedly contacted Enrique and he said he needs 200 million. Allegri supposedly also wants financial backings. Maybe if people who’ve won numerous trophies at the top level want this kind of budget, it’s kind of necessary to help them challenge.
Our squad needs massive repairs starting with a new GK, two CB, a RB and a DM. That’s only the defensive part. We don’t have a single winger, although we have like 5 number 10 wannabees. With a budget of 50 million we can at best buy 2 players and that still leaves at least 3 short of a competitive squad.
Top managers come with a price, because they know success. You can’t put the manager of a 10 man company to be a CEO of a 200 people one. The scale is different. This is why Moyes failed at United. This is why you have managers that are very good at fighting the drop like Allardyce ,who fail miserably when it comes to managing a bigger budget like he did at Everton.
There is of course the odd cases of where a former player becomes manager and achieves success, but please don’t give Zidane as an example. The squad he has at Madrid is unbelievable. With those players and the level of La Liga it’s impossible to drop out of the top 4 in Spain with almost anyone you employ.
But apart all that, we’re talking Zinedine Zidane. One of the best footballers of all time, who has achieved pretty much everything in world football and can command respect in the dressing room, and there are some major egos in Real Madrid. You can make a similar argument with Enrique, who had 3 of the best strikers in the world. Three of the top 5 is not even arguable when you speak of MSN. Just think how Suarez almost carried Liverpool to a title and then add Neymar and a little old Messi. At Arsenal such luxury is unthinkable.
Good examples of managers who come from lower ranking are the likes of Klopp, Tuchel and Simeone. Particularly the last one is the most successful of the lot, given the competition he faces and what he’s done. But all of the three didn’t start their careers at Dortmund or Atletico Madrid. They managed elsewhere and their ability to transform a team was recognised before they were appointed.
Now let’s talk Arteta. His strongest argument for taking the job is not being Wenger, which is worrying on its own. He’s highly regarded at City as the man who talks the instructions to the players. But there’s a catch. It’s Pep who’s giving them and he’s the one sitting on the touchline when the game starts. As good of a talker as Mikel is, he’s not the main man and he never has been.
After all he’ll be taking Arsenal football club, which will continue to be a joke if we appoint him. And here enters the Board. I was very impressed with the additions of Mislintat and Sanllehi. I really believe those two had a very positive influence and the signings of Mkhi and Auba gave me a bit of optimism. Than Ivan finally built a strong enough force to overthrow the Wenger empire and I really like the clearout of the entire backroom staff.
But this was the obvious part of the job. Now comes the unknown part of who comes in. If we appoint Arteta who does he bring in? The team at City is built around Pep and they won’t leave him. We’ll appoint Ljungberg probably and maybe some other former players, but where are the experienced people? Those who are never mentioned, but are a key part of successful squads? Arteta doesn’t have such people, he has to make them at Arsenal.
The reason this is such a big deal is that the fanbase is divided already. We all turned on the same page with Wenger leaving, but now if we don’t appoint a big name, there won’t be a lot of optimism for the future. The atmosphere at the Emirates has been far from great for the past 2 seasons and the moment Mikel Arteta doesn’t work out, it will turn sour again.
What exactly has Mikel Arteta done for Arsenal as captain? Won an FA cup. He doesn’t command respect as we have players like Cech who’ve achieved more than him, heck even Koscielny, Ramsey and Wilshere have GOT 3 FA cups to their names. And then there is Ozil, a man with more fanboys than Arteta will ever have at Arsenal. You think Mikel will have the power and authority to bench him when he doesn’t perform?
Arteta is top choice because there is nobody else. Low signed with Germany, top names want money, we’re somehow not interested in Jardim, who fits our model perfectly, we don’t dare ask Simeone, although a manager like him would help fix a lot of the problems we have and might bring in some trophies as he won the Europa League again. We can’t even take Nagelsmann who’s another one of those Germans who quite literally made something from nothing at Hoffenheim.
Mikel Arteta is not a bold choice, it’s a stupid one. It’s the worst option in a market full of promising ones. this is all down to the board and the owner. Until the Kroenke’s follow Wenger out of the door, any success we achieve is likely to be based on a miracle. And I would be less than surprised if by mid January we’re already too far behind in the top 4 race. I’d love to eat my words and I’ll be the first to admit to being wrong on this site if this happens to work out, but as Wenger learned the hardest way possible – nothing in football happens by Coincidence!
Konstantin