This is not a hagiography of Mikel Arteta. I am not all-in on the Arsenal boss.
To begin with, who gets a dog to help the team binding and calls it 'victory'? It feels like something from a leadership manual David Brent. That poor chocolate Labrador, stuck with such a name for the rest of his life. It may need therapy.
I also do not like the attitude of Arteta towards referees, the Histrionics on the Touchline, the undermining of the authority of the officials, which changes players in martyrs because a decision has been made against them. Arteta is of course far from alone, but these things become self -fulfilling prophecies.
Take Declan Rice's against Brighton in the first month of this season to prevent a quick restart.
The law was applied inconsistently, but Arteta helped to make a cause, so it was hardly a surprise when Leandro Trossard was fired three weeks later for the same violation against Manchester City.
Those red cards cost Arsenal four points. When Teenage Full Back Myles Lewis-Skelly was sent in January for a cynical error on Wolves' Matt Doherty, Arteta said nothing about the attack. Again, it was no surprise that Lewis-Skelly would feel authorized by the indulgence of his manager. His disciplinary record since then – he was also sent away in the home defeat by West Ham last month – has become a reason for concern.
And that is before we start recruiting. Arteta has not bought a striker for almost three years. Why didn't he fill that gap last summer when everyone could see that it needed the most? Arteta splashed on a reserve left behind and a help central midfielder, a plan that Arsenal has left hopelessly in the front.
His only wink in the idea that the versatile Kai Havertz, who was subsequently lost by injury, nobody was a title -winning attacker, was to sign Raheem Sterling on loan from Chelsea. But Arteta is not willing to give confidence in Sterling, he plays a midfielder, Mikel Merino, instead instead.
When Arsenal tried to save the match against Manchester United on Sunday and Arteta turned to his bank, he brought Kieran Tierney, a full back, and left Sterling on his back.
Whether it concerns Arteta, the former sports director Edu of the club – who suddenly left earlier this season – or the Arsenal – ownership, the recruitment of the club in that respect has been miserable.
The result is that Arsenal is further away from winning the title this year than in one of the previous two seasons, when they were in second place to Manchester City. The expectation was that if the city stumbled, Arsenal would increase. Instead, it is Liverpool who will take the crown of the city.
Many Arsenal fans, predictable, now want Arteta out. They say he has taken the club as far as possible. Roy Keane, the former captain of Manchester United, is also an Arteta-Sceptic. When he was asked on Sunday if he thought Arsenal would win the title next season, he was contemptuous.
“No,” he said, “why should I? Why do you think the manager can do it? Do they have the right mentality? Does the manager have? '
I loved Keane as a player. The best player in English football in the last 30 years, as far as I'm concerned. I also love him as an expert. But this idea – partly fed by critics such as him, and embraced by some Arsenal fans – that the time of Arteta is not only hard. It is absurd.
When Arteta took over in Arsenal in December 2019, the club was in a not uneven position where Manchester United is now. Perhaps not so grim, but perhaps, but struggling to continue with the departure of a big manager, whine in central table and furious against life in the margin.
Arteta has gradually transformed Arsenal. This is his first management job, don't forget, and he has built the club back into a point where they are regularly title challenge. The last step is perhaps the most difficult, as Keane notes, but why would you tear everything up, when Arteta has the club so close.
I may have reservations about his recruitment and his attitude towards civil servants, but the job he did at Arsenal is incredibly impressive. In contrast to Keane, I think there is every reason to believe that their year can be next season.
Of course, other teams will also improve, but if the ownership of the Arteta club supports the transfer market and enables him to buy a top center of the top class and another creative midfielder as a supplement to Martin Odegaard, Arsenal will be the best -placed team of Dethrone Liverpool.
They have going so much for them that it would be madness to change horses now. Perhaps this sounds contraindic, after they have seen their title challenge collapse, but there is every reason to believe that things fall into place for next season.
Arteta has built a first -class platform. Bukayo Saka, the best player of the team, will soon return from the injury, perhaps even on time to dismiss a challenge for the Champions League this season.
Lewis-Skelly is a beautiful exciting prospect. He changed the whole mood of the game for Arsenal when he came to Old Trafford. He has been one of the best players in the top flight of England for a while.
Then there is Ethan Nwaneri, who had a quiet game against United, but will certainly be a regular for the first team next season. Odegaard is one of the best creative players in the competition and Havertz is better in a withdrawn role than as a frontman.
Arsenal must deliver ARSETA a striker of the caliber of Alexander Isak or Victor Osimhen, or a young attacker ready to deliver like Liam Delap from Ipswich. The only doubt about Arsenal is nothing to do with Arteta. It has to do with the ambition of Arsenal.
Arsenal has the right man for the manager's job. Now they just have to support him and support him great in the summer transfer window and the title will be within reach.
Arteta is not the problem at Arsenal. He is their most valuable property.
Keep the cheap chat away from the competition of the day
The new chairman of the BBC, Samir Shah, says that there should be less football on the match of the day, which is a bit like suggesting that there should be less news to ten years.
I understand that the way we all consume the current events has changed, but the last thing we need is another show full of prehistoric Lad -Scherts and football presenters who laugh at their own jokes.
Gary Lineker has been a brilliant presenter of Match of the Day, someone who can combine light touch and serious analysis.
Kelly Cates, Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman are great choices to replace it. Let them continue.
It will be a surprise for Mr Shah, but people still watch the game of the day before football, not so that they can tune into a poor version of a cheap chat show.
Why fans get tired of their owners
I walked to the start of the demonstration against the glazers organized by Manchester United fans before the match against Arsenal on Sunday.
There were thousands of supporters there outside the Tollgate pub in Stretford, young and old, wore black and marching to protest against the ownership of the club.
The demonstration can easily be rejected as a protest against the specific circumstances at United, but something is happening here.
The Premier League, with its rising ticket prices, his constant bickering over rules, his embrace of despotic nation states and his contempt for the rest of the English pyramid, is increasingly alienating from his supporter base.
The whole that laid the golden egg becomes vulnerable.
Comments