imo the best reason for not sacking him is the lack of an obvious alternative. Which doesn't really bode well for him. I think as a compromise they should simply sack the set piece coach.
Was just about to say, the lack of any alternative is the only reason. Still, if you tell any Arsenal fan in August that they’d once again end trophyless AND finish potentially 15-20 points from the winners (who aren’t Man City), not sure how many of them would’ve still backed him.
I'm not saying only Liverpool. I'm saying that there can only be one winner of the big two trophies and when your competition is Liverpool, City, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, PSG etc then I don't think you can expect Arsenal to win them. That should be the target though and they should certainly be challenging for them but even next season, I wouldn't be sacking him if he got 90+ points but was just pipped by City or lost the Champions League final to Real Madrid. You've said it yourself, his spend has been higher than Liverpool so if that's what you're basing it on then there are other teams in both competitions that have outspent him. Given only one team can win it then he shouldn't be expected to beat City and PSG to those competitions then? I don't think he's getting a free ride to be honest. They've only been a serious force for two years where they'd be expected to challenge for the biggest trophies. In those years, Real Madrid and most likely PSG are going to win the Champions League and Man City and Liverpool have won the league. City and PSG have spent more and had better squads to start with. Real Madrid are Real Madrid and I've said this season is the killer for him as City have slipped and Arsenal weren't there. He's shown steady improvement until this season. It's too early for him to be sacked but there will rightly be a lot of pressure on him next season following his league campaign. Fully behind this. Out there in front of the cameras for every attacking free kick and corner but backing into the hedge like Homer Simpson when they concede from a set piece every week.
Arsenal have done really well and built and built. The question has to be whether he has reached as far as he is capable of or whether going and spending even more will change that team. If your manager is getting negative in his tactical approach and is displaying a certain level of narcissism and delusion then you'd wonder. Raya isn't great. Timber is decent Skelly is a cm playing lb. Saliba is brilliant. Gabriel is solid. Partey is a nasty person and a stain on thst club Rice is not really a 6 Odengaard is in bad form Martinelli is good but inconsistent Saka is brilliant. No striker. Is it really as simple as buying a top striker for top money or do arsenal.not need to also get back to what gets the best out of those players thst are there too.
City have had the 6th highest net spend over the last 5 years. Only Man United, Chelsea and Spurs have higher than Arsenal. It isn't just about the money it is a combination of spends and time other than Guardiola you would say Arteta has had the longest and he's the most settled out of managers who can win the title. Ok let's take PL/CL completely out of the equation and come to some middle ground are we both in agreement that Arteta winning absolutely nothing for 5 years after heavy backing is poor? When he rocked up and won The FA Cup while there was obviously plenty of work for him to do I still expected so much more from him. He's got to win something next season if he doesn't there can't be anymore excuses.
City have spent more than him since he's arrived and had a far stronger squad at the time too. Just because they sell their fringe players really well doesn't take away from that fact. I agree with you that he should be winning more, absolutely. His performances in the domestic cups have been a shambles. I also agree that next season there is a lot of pressure on him but I just don't think it all boils down to a trophy or not. If he wins the carabao cup but still has a league campaign like this season then that's a failure and he should go. However, if he doesn't win a trophy, loses the Champions League final to Madrid and gets 90+ points but gets pipped by City or Liverpool then he shouldn't get sacked. All I'm saying is that outside of the major powerhouses like Madrid, Bayern, Barcelona etc I think it's hard to be black and white about it and say that your job will be purely decided by whether you win the league or the Champions League. I think there should be context applied given the level of competition for those trophies and it depends on how you perform in those competitions. Another season like this season and he's gone. A 90+ point season regardless of whether they actually win it or not and he isn't.
That's all I really wanted. You've absolutely and categorically got to win trophies when managing one of the giants of English football that's the expectation and ultimately what a manager will be judged on. I still think if Arteta finishes his tenure without winning the league or CL one or the other it'll be seen as a failure and disappointment.
Arteta's side will also finish trophyless for a fifth straight year following their Champions League semi-final defeat by Paris St-Germain on Wednesday. However, the Spaniard stood by his claims after the second leg that Arsenal have been the best team in the competition this season "One hundred per cent," he added. "I'm watching it back, I'm watching all the statistics." I make no bones of the fact I think Arteta is a tit, but that is an extra level of stupidity even for him. He really doesn't help himself. On a serious note, now that Ancelotti is effectively confirmed as leaving Real, Arsenal should really consider him if they can persuade him not to retire. The guy is a proven winner, so basically the exact opposite of Arteta. The primary issue many have said about getting rid of Arteta is the lack of a credible alternative. Well, there he is.
It would be perfect if his football wasn't utter dogshit. Watching a Conte game can make you wish for Sean Dyche.
There's an element of better the devil you know to this. There isn't an obvious candidate that screams go get him. Amorim just shows what you can end up doing if you go radically different to the available players. Alonso is off to real. All the other managers who are not over the hill are in good jobs. All the others are young or at clubs here arsenal can't judge what they might do in Europe etc. Giving the paella pulis 250 mil to find someone to get on the end of long throws seems a bit of a risk.
I cannot ignore the injuries if I'm giving an honest review of our season. I've been fair all season and accepted at times you have to deal with bumps in the road but ultimately, there is a point and a line where the injuries becomes too much to deal with. And that point was in February when Saka, Martinelli, Havertz and Jesus are all injured at the same time. It was too much. And we win 1 in 4 and go from a 7 point gap to a 15 point gap and the race is run. Two things can be right at the same time. There are games where we've let ourselves down but with the injuries we have suffered, I honestly don't think we could have gotten over 85 points anyway. As a fan, it really has been one of the more mentally draining seasons I can recall. Just the feeling of this shit never ending. I need to vent but: - we lose our captain for two months - we lose our best player for three months - we lose a right back/centre back option for three months - a utility defender who can play anywhere is out all season - we lose our back up striker for the rest of the season in Janaury - we lose our best left winger for a month two days after the window shuts in February - we lose our best forward for three months after the window closes in February - we lose one half of our world class cb pairing for teh rest of the season a week before Real Madrid - our midfield signing breaks his shoulder in his first training session - our defensive signing keeps bending his knee the wrong way I'm tired mate. I'm ****ing tired The risk aversion probably comes from the injuries again. I don't expect non Arsenal fans to understand the intricacies of what injuries impact us. You mention 18 months to 2 years ago but I would argue it's only this season where the stodginess has hit us hard going forward. And maybe some of that is to do with protecting players in the backline. So those intricacies I speak of, for example, Tomiyasu is out all season. He makes a sub appearance against Southampton in October and we've not seen him since. One right-back down. Ben White is carrying a knee issue which gets to the point that he has to have surgery. We lose him from November to February and he returns it basically no match fitness. In that whole time, we have one fit right back. Timber. Who is coming back from an ACL injury and slowly working his way back to peak physical fitness. There's been plenty of times where we've had to take him off after 70 minutes because his body can't hold out anymore. So that's one guy we have to play over and over and over again because we have no other option. Are steps taken in our approach on the pitch to protect him? To make sure he doesn't have to do the hard running that's required of a side that takes more risks? You can link those injuries to Saliba too. Tomiyasu, White and Timber are all options to play that right sided CB role. If two of them are injured and the other has to play right back, when does Saliba get to sit down? I appreciate the argument about taking risks. When you want to take more attacking risks, the defenders have to run harder and are also exposed to more danger. Maybe steps were taken to protect defenders who are knackered It was only last year we broke our club record for goals in a league season. While I have my gripes with how we attack sometimes, there is a track record of a damn good attack. I think it would have to be catastrophic failure in the Champions League for me to roast him for it. Like going out in the group stages and so on. I can't sit here and chastise a manager for being 0/2 in the CL. There's a lot of black/white analysis when it comes to Arteta, well using that same mindset, how can I hold a guy to such extreme standards when the following are: - 3/16 (Guardiola) 19% win rate - 1/10 (Klopp) 10% win rate - 0/6 (Conte) 0% win rate - 1/6 (Tuchel) 17% win rate - 2/19 (Ferguson) 11% win rate - 2/12 (Mourinho) 17% win rate 1 in 5 roughly. I can't critique him too much if we're working in the black or white world of win it or you're shit. He's only had two cracks so far. But I don't live in that black and white world. I know Guardiola has countless semis under his belt, Klopp has three additional finals to his name, Ferguson has a record of semis and finals, Mourinho has so many semi finals to his name too. Arteta has one semi already in just two attempts. His record so far in the CL is decent. The Champions League is a ****ing difficult competition to win. It's the peak of the sport. The World Cup is more prestigious but in terms of quality, today, the Champions League is it. So I choose to compartmentalise it. It's a seperate thing that exposes even the greatest of managers to failure more often than success. The art of having a conversation in the grey area has died a death. You have to pick a hill and die on it. I choose not wasting my time with these people. For me, as long as he wants to and there is no regression to the point where we are no longer fighting for the food at the top table, he's got the job. On a personal level, he has a significant amount of credit in the bank that is nowhere near being eaten up yet by our failures. Me, I will never find myself or put myself at a point where I demand/expect trophies. The most I will ever demand is that a manager makes us competitive. The love died for Wenger because we regressed and became uncompetitive at the top table. Arteta took that broken club on in his first job and has returned us to the top table and made us competitive. Nowhere near being asked to leave for me. That comes down the road if the same mistakes continue to be made and those two mistakes are continued blanks and not giving love to the attack in the market. The reality is our best front three still consists of an academy product, a player originally bought to play midfield and a £6m pickup from the fourth tier of Brazil. We're back at the top table of European football. Time to start shopping like it when it comes to attackers. Even Jesus was signed when we were a Europa League side. We've been back in the CL for four windows now and the only signing we've made for our forward line is Kai Havertz and he was originally signed to play midfield!!! Let's see what happens in the summer. All the options have standout cons apart from one and that one isn't available imo. I look forward to seeing who the club settle on.
Of course they are . They are one of the original top 4 before we got the top 6 only Liverpool and Man United have more league titles and I think Arsenal have a record number of FA Cups? They are huge. The only thing they lack to propel them to the next level imo is European successes they always fall short. Maybe psychological or some sort of mental block.
