All the talk this week has been about Mikel Arteta as a potential replacement for Arsene Wenger.
It’s a situation that has ups and downs, so James from @gunnerblog has taken a look at the pros and cons.
Check out the video below – and for some extra reading, this was covered in detail on yesterday’s Arseblog.
This Mikel Arteta situation. Hmmmm. You know something? I think this is actually a win/win scenario for Arsenal fans. To a man, we all want certain members of the Board, including that cartoon of a Chief Executive and the absent toupée -wearing Majority Shareholder, ‘Silent’ Stan Kroenke, who likes everyone to think of him as ‘The Owner’, out and as far away from Arsenal Football Club as possible. Right? You know, a one-way ticket down to Cape Canaveral, into the first rocket and – see-ya! – fire them into orbit – oh wouldn’t it be luverly. That toupee and it’s… Read more »
The owner is pulling the wool over your eyes and you don’t even realise it.
The ‘Owner’ (he’s actually a majority shareholder, not an outright owner) may well be pulling the wool over his own eyes – and you don’t even realise it. If Arteta fails, he and the board will be accountable. Not only to the wrath of Arsenal fans but the ridicule of the rest of the football world. These people are not the untouchables. With enough pressure, they can be forced to resign. If they sign Arteta, it will be a bed that they will have to lie in, for better or for worse. NOW do you get it? I doubt it… Read more »
Qwaliteee- I honestly doubt that you can be a real fan with this sort of comment. If Mikel does well, Arsenal do well. If he doesn’t then Arsenal are in a bad please. THAT’S NOT GOOD NEWS. No matter what you think of the people above the manager, surely you cant have that mindset?
Mate, I’ve already explained the positives of both outcomes – if you can’t see that the Board could well be shooting themselves in the foot by making this appointment, then that’s not my problem, just your lack of understanding of how accountable Kroenke and the board are for their actions. I also don’t get involved in childish ‘Real Fan’ arguments either; I don’t have to explain or justify my support for this club for the last 50 odd years to you or anyone else.
Firstly, I’m not your mate. Secondly, don’t question my lack of understanding. I can just separate the boards doings from the well being of the players, team as a whole, and how, above all else, I desperately want the club to succeed, rather than pulling a bonner over the board potentially making a mistake so you can claim that will give you the ammunition to get them out of the club. Get real pal.
How on earth can you separate the actions of the board from the impact they will have on the ‘well-being of the players’ the ‘team as a whole’ and the aspirations of the fans – including your ‘desperation’…..? You can’t. If anyone needs to get real, you do. And I’m not your pal.
Ok. I’ll stop there. Hopefully it might stop you checking back on the site every few mins to see how many thumbs up your getting for your original comment and the others? You must of been drunk. Sorry mate.
Get well soon
… as well,
I think arteta will be a great manager
I wasn’t keen, but the idea is growing on me and he’ll probably be an excellent manager.
And your reason is what? He is an ex player therefore he will be great?
No way can Arteta manage Arsenal!!!!
Give reasons for your thinking.
Good video. Sums it up nicely. It’s clearly a gamble, but an exciting one, and if it pays off it’ll be a masterstroke. If it doesn’t were in a whole world of shit. Arteta isn’t a “club legend” in the Gerrard mould, but I’m fully expecting them to recruit at least one more assistant manager, and my hope is that they bring in DB10 as an attacking coach. Dennis back in the club would properly galvanise the fan base (or should at least) and if he and the other assistant managers are more obvious on the bench, you can hear… Read more »
I really cannot think of appointing Arteta as remotely exciting.
Fair enough. I think the complete change of tact is the exciting part of all this.
Whether Arteta will succeed as part of it I don’t know, and yeah it could be a disaster, but with responsibility spread around it’s easier to remove different people if it doesn’t work.
And frankly, you or I don’t get a say in it all, so I’d rather look at it from a positive point of view.
Too many variables.
Risk of failure is higher than success.
Plus signing Arteta to hold on to Ramsey is the most ridiculous reason.
You sign a manager who can attract the best regardless of us being out of CL right now and a manager who has experience to sort us out tactically but also to carry wieght against Msilintat/Gazidis/Sanheli.
For a club in the position Arsenal is (not already the most expensive and star laden team in the league or one with with endless resources) The risk of failure is ALWAYS higher than success no matter who is appointed.
Ancelotti, Allegri, Etc, none of those guarantees a club in this position anything. And where we are is probably why they’re all taking the proverbial step backward, not forward when being linked with us.
It’s not meant to be exciting. Hopefully his ability will make the team play exciting football and win.
i just dont understand the fascination with arteta. the guy has not managed a single team in his life, no first team , no reserves not even a kids team. i couldnt care less if hes smart . to lead an entire team is a different ballgame altogether and espicially a team like arsenal who have aspirations to be in champions league in one of the most competitive league in the world. in all honesty he could be a guy with potential to be next guardiola , but the thing is we have not seen any kind of indication as… Read more »
I will support him and wish him all the best but can’t help to think that this is quite underwhelming.
Massive gamble but i personally like a good risk/reward scenario. Just hope he does a good job and gets a good assistant (Buvac would be nice), if it must happen then I think he needs that kind of support system.
This could be heaven or this could be hell..
I do hope Arteta is the next Pep. I hope Arsenal will not go the same way like ManU did post there longest serving manager moving out of the hot seat. Also, I wonder what is the objective and ambition that the club is setting for the new manager. We are not R. Madrid, Barca or B. Munich. We are still a pretty big club, one of the richest, in arguably the best league. One would expect that there will be a clamour amongst the likes of Jardim, Nagelsmann to make the step-up in their managerial career, while tempting for… Read more »
You are dreaming.
Too much left to chance.
Pep shoed into a team with Messi and some of the best players in the world plus a club with deep pockets.
Arteta will inherit a team outside CL fast losing its allure and with a management team buying with no consideration to squad balance and an allergy to spend.
? Need defenders, linked with defenders. Need a mid, GK, linked to some of each. Lost a star attacking mid, got one in return with better contributions and stats than the one we let go. That’s not an eye to balance?
For the first time in a long time it seems to me we actually might have a balanced approach.
I’m convinced that Gazidis and the AFC board don’t have the minerals to hire an established manager like Enrique, Allegri, Simeone etc. Arteta is a safe appointment for them, someone who won’t make too many demands, someone they can control.
Obviously I wish him the best, but deep down I suspect this is another small time move by this Arsenal board. And sadly I’m not surprised.
They don’t want the manager to counter balance them. They want to call the shots on transfers. They are already looking to buy with little consult to new manager. January alone is warning enough as we bought to no consequence to performance and with no thought on squad balance. But most Arsenal fans these days are delusional. Throw them an ex player and they are happy. Never mind the potential is more likely we will have a learning curve for the inexperienced manager and we will go more than likely without CL and trophies for 3 seasons at least. They… Read more »
Give it a rest mate. What do you actually know? You’re writing like your opinion is fact and that’s just plain arrogance. You should stop commenting
Very balanced assessment. Enjoyed it. One other thing that worries me about MA8 is his ability (or lack of) to attract big names. I still think this sqaud needs a number of high calibre players. But given that we are not in the Champions League, even with huge wages, are we going to be able to attract them with MA8 as manager? I doubt, but I hope I am truly wrong.
if he is going to be our new manager, I will back him, but if things don’t go well for him, who are we going to turn to then, that’s a major worry
D’ya know what, Id be excited by this appointment if it weren’t for the fact that spending is an issue at Arsenal. It smacks of cutting costs to me. A bigger manager would be asking for a sizeable war chest along with the wage to go with the responsibility.
I think fans are gong to find out how much Wenger was used as the whipping boy for the boards reluctance to spend.
then they should continue to leave the Emirates empty.
or how much it’s cost the club in keeping Wenger so long!
BUT Wenger until last two seasons kept us in CL for 20 straight seasons.
This is not insignificant, it afforded us the ability to attract loans to build the stadium.
We had £150m cash reserves only a season or two ago
If this comes to pass, we will have the most handsome manager, sporting without a doubt the BEST hair of any manager in the Prem. So, there’s that ….
As to the rest, we’re all just guessing.
And be mid-table. Great.
Why so much doom and gloom?
It’s an appointment that can only be made with faith not sound judgement.
No one knows Arteta’s competence as a manager, if he can organise a defence, no one knows anything about him.
It would a small time, cheap appointment
Correct.
Cheap appointment is the word.
They are again cutting corners hoping (correctly it would appear) that fan sentiment will carry the day on an appointment that makes no logical sense.
We are already out of CL and allergic to spending.
We bring in a green manager with no gravitas anywhere-else outside of Arsenal (arguably even within)
We won’t be spending on top quality players. Instead Mslintat will scour his books for all his has been contacts, do them a favour.
We won’t be going up anytime soon.
How are the board allergic to spending when they broke their transfer record twice in one season?
The fact he’s been assisting Pep is good enough for me for now. Assumptions about cost are just that.
Why aren’t we linked to Brian Kidd then? He’s as much as an Arsenal legend as Arteta is and is also assisting Pep
He’s played under Luis Fernandez, Alex McGleish, David Moyes, Arsene Wenger, coached with Pep, Whatever you think of some of those managers each has a very unique style and most have been relatively successful. Perhaps if he can blend some of those styles he could be really good. Who knows? Let’s just hope he’s more Pep than Moyes.
That doesn’t mean he can be a good manager automatically. There is a learning curve. Neville played under title winning Fergie and look what happened in Spain when he tried to put word to practise? Arteta will have a learning curve. It strikes me as demented that Arsenal fans who have no patience for Wenger will want a manager who may take another 4 or 5 seasons to accomplish any thing of significance. Be careful for what you wish for. I am gravely concern for the branding of this club. If we have a worse season coming up (likely), this… Read more »
Also if Arsenal are, as reported, also talking to Henry could we see an Arteta, with Henry as a number 2?
This is a stupid idea. Ex players doesn’t mean effective manager. Particularly with little to no experience. You have to seperate sentiment from logical thought. The board Mslintat/Gazidis/Sanheli are playing with you. Throw a couple of decent strikers and the fan base is satisfied. But a look at the team and you can see it is short on technical talent even against Leicester these days. We are competing not even against Athletico anymore. Its Sevilla and RB Leipzig. We have no longer any players that truly excite. See world Cup, I can say anyone would be looking at an Arsenal… Read more »
This is a bad idea. 1) He does not carry the weight to attract players of true quality. We will get decent players still but they will always be not the top end stuff and mixed in with a green manager, it is a recipe for miss more than hit in coming seasons. 2) He also does not have the gravitas to hold against Msilintat/Gazidis/Sanheli. This is another problem as they evidently want to dictate transfer proceedings. Its cart before the horse. Signings in January have already been made at expense of squad balance and strategic needs in exchange for… Read more »
James that was a very good overview of the situation. I have to admit that I admire your positive thinking. However I have to disagree. I cannot believe that so many years of preperation to change will lead us to appoint an inexperienced unproven young guy like Arteta. Don’t compare him with Zidane. Zidane was groomed for many years at Real and he was a very unique talent and could see eye to eye with Ronaldo Ramos etc. I cannot see Arteta stepping into the organization and manage Ozil Auba and the old scholl staff members. I just can’t imagine… Read more »
my reservation over Arteta is that he deleted every Arsenal related on instagram when he joined Man city coaching staff. I like him but not like I liked him earlier because of that. I hope he succeed because of my LOVE FOR THE ARSENAL. COYG
My only choice has been Allegri for some time but, after reading about Arteta’s past and reading quotes from him over many years, I’m now excited to have him as the manager.
I am all for teams building through scouting, youth academy and shrewd recruitment, if it helps cut on the obscene amount of money being spent on player transfer these days. What i also believe is that for a team to suceed, it is the manager who is the most important, undoubtedly. So, he ought to be amongst the very best. When Arsenal were having talks with Luis Enrique I was really glad. “He is gonna be a great glue for the team, bringing out the best of the players we know have immense potential.” I dont feel the same about… Read more »
Arsenal is toooooooooooooooooooooooo big for Arteta. Alegri, Enrique, Hoffeinham coach were all approached and all declined, so that makes Arteta the fourth choice, which means Arteta’s coming is not borne out of a philosophical romanticism, but borne out of the fact that big coaches rejected us. Call it by its name, Arteta’s appointment would mark the greediest and the most fraudulent appointment in all of football’s history. If you disagree with me, list out his qualities and experience and tell me why he should trump a Viera and a Henry or a petit or those young coaches already coaching in… Read more »