Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?

[RacingPhoton]

There is something fundamentally wrong with the club. I don't think changing managers or even getting new players is going to change it.
When I watch an Arsenal match, I hardly see any energy in our players. I don't see a fire or want in them to somehow win the match. I don't think the players are giving everything. They are doing this like a par time job. I guess most players go in to the ground just thinking "let's just get it done with". In all matches, I see a massive difference between attitude of other players and Arsenal players.
Intensity of players start deteriorating, the moment they walk into the club. Like Guendouzi in his first few matches looked like he meant business. Within few matches, he was just going through the motions.

Bottom line is players do not consider the club or the games seriously. And I don't know what's the root cause for that.

 

[GoonerJeeves]

Arsène voted with his feet.

Oh do **** off!

 

[Hunta]

Oh do **** off!

I got an alert for this.

 

[14Henry]

Theres not one player here who is playing for the shirt. Not 1.

I look at Chelsea. Azpi is playing for the shirt. Rudiger looks like he is. Mount too. I dont particularly think many are but theres a few.

United you can tell Maguire is playing for the shirt. Wan Bisakka is. Mctomitay. Rashford is. Theres a core of players who will be happy to spend the rest of their days at united as long as one or two trophies come along.

We dont have any. I honestly believe if say Liverpool said to all our players join us I dont see anyone staying loyal and saying. I love Arsenal. I'll stay.

Another thing I would say is. Other teams nobody players frequently come out and criticise our club. Disrespecting it. We are the soft touch in the league that hasnt the size, statue of balls to stand up and say what are you talking about.

Deeney made fools of us with his comments. However there wasnt one footballer who could come out and say. What are you talking about we won leagues and titles a few years ago.

Maupey I dont even know what he was doing before brighton. Painting and decorating or whatever and hes calling Arsenal out like little boys. Hes playing for Brighton. And winning. And Arteta hasnt the balls to say anything apart from. Oh we weren't good enough.

You put some of those players in other teams they thrive. But at Arsenal everythings wrong. And until we experience some success it will be hard to sort out. We need success to get positivity and positivity to get success but we dont have either.

 

[El Duderino]

Cant see Arteta being the next sacking. If he really blows rest of season either Raul / the other guy will be gone or the club brings in a CEO above them all to sort the **** out.

However you feel about Stan this is being run very badly below him. You **** up three transfer windows & then appoint a manger with zero experience that struggles... thats on your head.

Raul is one slimy operator. Edu's head will be on the line before anything else.

 

[krengon]

You call it a waste, but Xhaka and Mustafi are our best players in their positions. And that says something about the dross we have bought under Raul

Simple logic people don't want to acknowledge.

 

[El Duderino]

Listen, I'm a Wenger stan, but he needed to go. Let's not have THAT conversation.

Now, if we're talking about him having a non-executive, oversight role.... I'd be down for that.

Shame that Kroenke hates the idea of accountability.

 

[The White Pelè]

Emery 2.0. Only at Arsenal.

 

[Hexagon9]

Yep, there is a fundamental acceptance of mediocrity within the club. Not only has Arsenal become a sort of residential nursing home for has-beens/never-weres/excuse-makers but we also seem unable to generate any true fighting spirit within the squad.

There are a few notable individual exceptions, but I can’t really think of a time when we’ve had more than 3 or 4 players in the squad that could be described as both physically and mentally strong in the last 20 years.

We’re not going to fare too well in the EPL without those attributes.

 

[hydrofluoric acid]

Culture is the people! To change the culture we need to change the players!

Arteta needs to be ruthless with the seniors here, they have been a total letdown. Not only for him but Emery and Wenger also.

 

[Lidl_Reed]

At least we have 40 points already

 

[Fewtch]

Some thought getting rid of this beautiful man would make us a serious side suddenly

Back when the new guy only had to fix our away form. Good times.

 

[Rex Stone]

I think so many people had unrealistic expectations from Arteta.

He was a first time manager and realistically how many of these players are capable of playing the style he wants or even being part of a winning team?

The squad has been rotten for years, needs to be turned over to a massive extent. I hoped results would improve but he’s learning on the job to a degree and it wasn’t going to be an overnight success.

It might get a lot worse before it gets better.

 

[A_G]

The squad has been rotten for years, needs to be turned over to a massive extent

There's been quite a bit of turnover in the last 3 years, a process actually started by Wenger when he shipped out Ox/Theo/Coq/Gabriel etc. The opportunity to really build a strong squad was there but I fear Raul has squandered it by saddling the team with stop-gaps all over the place. Sorkatis was was fine, but adding David Luiz and Mari was overkill. If they'd signed a proper first-choice CB last summer that player could've partnered Saliba going into next season, with Mustafi/Holding as back-ups. Then Mustafi could've been replaced when his deal expires next summer. Instead, there's a logjam at CB and I'm not sure how they can fix it especially now that Mari is joining permanently.

 

[Matt started too late]

I'm reserving judgment at this point. As a team at Arsenals stature, I'd expect to have a decent number of choices, so if Arteta doesn't work out, then it's fully on management. They failed with Emery, so this is their second chance. There were safer choices I'm sure.. Arteta couldn't have been the most experienced and accomplished manager to get. I still believe in him, but i'm getting more to thinking he learned how to say the right things in press conferences rather than learned how to win. We'll see

 

[Manberg]

The reports that came out which said Emery wanted Zaha and not Pepe but board members decided to buy Pepe because he's younger worried me. The board need to back the manager 100% and I don't feel that our board does this. We need to build a team in the mold that the manager wants (and we need to stick with the manager and give him time). We shouldn't be looking to buy a bunch of individuals. Unfortunately, that's what happened and we have a bunch of primadonnas. Due to contracts and unsellable assets, it will still be a couple more years until we recover to where we want. It feels like our rivals got their acts together in terms of squad stability but we're far behind, due to constantly getting things wrong.

 

[dka1]

^Yeah I suppose the fact that the board weren't willing to back their manager is worrying.

The decision itself, well it wasn't wrong imo, Zaha has 3g/3a and Pepe has 5g/6a in his first season and I personally think has more upside.

 

[MutableEarth]

^Yeah I suppose the fact that the board weren't willing to back their manager is worrying.

The decision itself, well it wasn't wrong imo, Zaha has 3g/3a and Pepe has 5g/6a in his first season and I personally think has more upside.

Yeah - all this talk about Zaha but he doesn't have the numbers at all. And he didn't really have the numbers before this season either. And he's a player I like but Pepe was the right decision.

 

[Garrincha]

Intrigued in both cases why we were targeting such expensive options & who made the decision. Just seems odd as the January window before & after the likes of Orny say we are restricted to only loan deals.

We have seen wide attackers like Gucci, Felipe, Lozano, Bergwijn etc move at a fraction of the price... was that not a more sensible level for us? Use the other 40m /50m on the midfield or defence.

 

[gamechannel]

I think so many people had unrealistic expectations from Arteta.

He was a first time manager and realistically how many of these players are capable of playing the style he wants or even being part of a winning team?

The squad has been rotten for years, needs to be turned over to a massive extent. I hoped results would improve but he’s learning on the job to a degree and it wasn’t going to be an overnight success.

It might get a lot worse before it gets better.

Squad has gone through a turnover already. Post-Wenger, this management team has brought in:

- Leno
- Sokratis
- Luiz
- Mari
- Cedric Suarez
- Tierney
- Lichsteiner
- Torreira
- D Suarez
- Guendouzi
- Pepe
- Cebellos
- Martinelli
- Saliba to join next year.

Thats quite a lot of players to have been brought in less than 2 years. So I dont buy the "overhaul needed after years of disfunction" argument. If you look at it, most of our (relatively) better performers the past 2 years have been players from the Wenger Era e.g. Auba, Laca (Last year), Saka, Xhaka (this year), Mustafi (This year).

And it's not like the club hasn't spent money since Wengers departure. They have. But they have spent it in poorly and have failed to upgrade the squad. I'd say they have even depleted it even thought having spent quite a bit of money by Arsenal standards.

The entire squad doesn't need an overhaul. Remarkably and ironically, its mostly the players this new regime has brought in require to be upgraded upon.