Mikel Arteta, success or failure? - Merged thread.

[augie]

Amazing that saka is in the england squad today when he cant even get one minute of league action with arteta

[Herd]

Its that Southgate fella ,first he had all the boys from North Londons other club now he starts with ours ,he's quite literally biting their nobs off, he gets that excited ,that deli ali'S cock now looks like a sausage that went bang in the frying pan after Southgate got his nashers on it .
Hes a manace to children I tell ya !

[falkirk goon]

Utter disgrace tonight utter utter disgrace xhaka he really is made of Teflon ffs were showing no signs of progress under this clown..xhaka fuck me Arteta out for me.

[Bob Bayliss]

Arteta is following in the footsteps of Wenger from 2010 onwards. Mediocre, inconsequential league form year after year, then just when he is coming seriously under the microscope the team put together an FA Cup run and create an illusion of progress.

[SteveO 35]

After doing so much good at the back end of last season, he has allowed us to go into this season with the most unbalanced midfield I've seen in 25 years of watching us. Whilst Wenger was all about the Hleb's and the Nasri's who were delicate little snowflakes but at least knew how to open defences, we've gone into robot mood with the biggest collection of plodders known to man. Come to the bowl, organise yourself well and watch us play from side to side at a pace of football last seen in the 1930s

My biggest fear about having Arteta as manager was that he'd try to get us playing Pep football with players who weren't up to it. Chance would be a fine thing! I'd rather watch us try that than stink the place out week after week

The FA Cup win and strong performances against the Mickeys, Citeh and Chavski had started to win me over, but in between those victories against the odds we're playing awful football. I know I probably defended Emery too much last season as I hated the way he was treated, but I tried to make this point last season that under Arteta we've seen a lot of really turgid football. Games last year against Bournemouth, Sheffield United, Villa, Brighton, Burnley, Olympiacos and Palace to name a few were amongst the most awful performances I've seen - slow, boring, sideways football where we made limited opposition look great. The warning signs were there and I'm afraid the transfer window has left us as unbalanced now as we were then. Ozil isn't suddenly the answer, but he certainly isn't any more of a problem than anyone else in our midfield right now

[DB10GOONER]

Every game he plays Xhakatard he is a failure in my eyes.

Pepe is shit. Pillock is shit. Maitland-Bendtner is shit. Elnumpty is shit. Laccofeffort is shit. Bellend is shit. Luiz is shit. Ceballos is shit. Mustafalaugh is shit. Willian is shit. But every single one of them looks like Bergkamp when compared to fucking Xhakatard.

[Nos89]

Why can't he see the pattern of losses when Mustafi is playing with Xhaka. Why can't any of our managers see this?

We are much tougher to beat but he made a mistake with mustafi, ozil's mate. If he's isolating Ozil, he should put mustafi and kolasinac as part of his bubble.

[SteveO 35]

Lets be absolutely clear about where we are with this manager

1. He has chosen to leave Ozil and Saliba out of all his squads - by definition that means he thinks the likes of Willock and Mustafi are better options
2. He chose to spend the majority of his transfer funds on another centre half (who admittedly has done a good job) when we already have several, and a defensive midfielder, again when we have several
3. He decided to fund that by selling arguably the better of our two keepers at half his market value
4. He decides to play Xhaka every game when the c.unt had one foot out of the door just over a year ago
5. He decides to play Auba on the wing and give Eddie or Lacazette down the middle
6. He chose to pack Torreira off on loan and retain Elneny and the other holding muppets
7. He chose to bring Ceballos back here on loan despite barely making an assist last season


There are things at the club he can't control, just like Emery couldn't - namely the fact that his boss is one of the biggest c.unts known to man.

However, those seven things above are all entirely of his own making and just like any other manager he will live or die by those decisions. Personally I think they are all completely mystifying and I don't see any of them working. He has left us with a completely unbalanced squad and unlike with Emery where I could at least see him actively trying to offload some of our trash here we are still with players clogging up squad places stealing a living - how many more games does he need to see that Xhaka and Mustafi are two of the biggest c.unts known to man?? Under the previous manager they were dead ducks, both halfway out the door. Ten months later they are here still, taking 300k per week out in wages and yesterday both appearing in our backline.......and yes there are other options (see 1 and 6 above)

The honeymoon period is now well and truly over. There was a massive love in on the back of the cup win - totally understandable - but the fact is that we have now lost 3 games already this season and playing a brand of football to make Burnley blush. Imagine if Dyche was in charge and serving up this sort of dross every week???

We are a midtable team and it isn't going to improve.

He can however win us the Europa League, and or the League Cup/FA Cup because he has proven that in a one off situation we can nobble one of the big guns through sheer discipline and some Auba magic. It's almost identical to the last couple of years of GG's reign. Beat Parma, but finish mid table playing sterile, mindnumbing football every week

[augie]

There are a few absolute no no's when it comes to playing or managing a club, and one of them is abusing your own fans - there is in my opinion absolutely no comeback from that, and especially when you are not man enough to even say the word "sorry" to those who pay your wages
I honestly dont care if emery was only freezing him out cos he was forced into doing so by the fans or club, because at the end of the day he was being squeezed out - next thing we roll el coneman in as the new sheriff and he thinks that he is the man to make everything beautiful again ? What utter fcuking arrogance Changing manager does not grant a player a fresh start with those fans that he disrespected, and that was mistake number 1 from arteta imo, and a poor way to start your reign. People were so desperate to defend arteta at every turn that they tried to argue that a lack of options meant he had to play xhaka, but most of us knew that wasnt the case - I'm not saying that he had a bountiful supply of midfield options in which to work with, but nobody expected to have an immediate fix and if he didnt rate xhaka he could have played someone else (maitland-niles or luiz for example), and I think fans would be more patient and understanding, but the reality is that he rated him and felt that under his managership everything would be great

As Steve O said, he is trying to play pep's style of football with players of mid table standard. He was brought in on the back of his coaching reputation, but how much coaching does the likes or aguero and de bruyne need ? He had zero managerial experience and has zero experiencing in developing young players. We had started a project of rebuilding around young players (mostly cos of financial reasons), and he has shown zero interest in going that path. He isnt the right man for a job like ours and my opposition to him was based on that belief and not a personality issue.

[LeftfootlegendGooner]

Next

[g88ner]

There are a few absolute no no's when it comes to playing or managing a club, and one of them is abusing your own fans - there is in my opinion absolutely no comeback from that...

Ian Wright shouted abuse at fans from the Highbury dressing room back in 1997 after Blackburn had just beaten us. I remember being outside the stadium looking up at all the commotion

I can’t remember what wrighty said but you can bet it was as bad (or probably worse ) than Xakha’s “fuck off”.

Honestly, I had no issue with wrighty doing that. He’s a legend and always will be

Equally, I think fans are being really precious about what Xhaka did when he was clearly upset.

The only thing that bothers me about xakha is he’s shit.

[SteveO 35]

There are a few absolute no no's when it comes to playing or managing a club, and one of them is abusing your own fans - there is in my opinion absolutely no comeback from that...

Ian Wright shouted abuse at fans from the Highbury dressing room back in 1997 after Blackburn had just beaten us. I remember being outside the stadium looking up at all the commotion

I can’t remember what wrighty said but you can bet it was as bad (or probably worse ) than Xakha’s “fuck off”.

Honestly, I had no issue with wrighty doing that. He’s a legend and always will be

Equally, I think fans are being really precious about what Xhaka did when he was clearly upset.

The only thing that bothers me about xakha is he’s shit.

Yep, ultimately it comes down to how good you are really. Roy Keane infamously turned on what he dubbed the 'prawn sandwich brigade' at OT, and I'm sure the game is full of examples of players doing what he and Wrighty did. Xhaka is absolutely shite and that's why we'd never forgive him. If Auba flash a V sign at the fans, then went and scored a hat-trick and apologised I doubt it would barely register a mention again. The Swiss dollop has somehow managed 100+ games under 4 managers now and that's the bit that wrankles with us - there was a chance to use the incident as the reason to fuck him off, and it was inexplicably reversed by the current manager. I don't even mind a manager given a player a fresh start if he thinks he's a decent player but Arteta as a supposed student of the game, in an era where every minute of every match is available to analyse, seemed to think he was worthy of building a midfield around. Still startling that this plank features so heavily in the team. I'd hoped Partey would be the signing that would finally fuck him off, but it seems now we fancy him in the back three/five. Incredible

[SteveO 35]

A pretty straightforward question. Probably going to drop to 11th after tonight, but where will it end?

[Clash]

Lets be absolutely clear about where we are with this manager

1. He has chosen to leave Ozil and Saliba out of all his squads - by definition that means he thinks the likes of Willock and Mustafi are better options
2. He chose to spend the majority of his transfer funds on another centre half (who admittedly has done a good job) when we already have several, and a defensive midfielder, again when we have several
3. He decided to fund that by selling arguably the better of our two keepers at half his market value
4. He decides to play Xhaka every game when the c.unt had one foot out of the door just over a year ago
5. He decides to play Auba on the wing and give Eddie or Lacazette down the middle
6. He chose to pack Torreira off on loan and retain Elneny and the other holding muppets
7. He chose to bring Ceballos back here on loan despite barely making an assist last season


There are things at the club he can't control, just like Emery couldn't - namely the fact that his boss is one of the biggest c.unts known to man.

However, those seven things above are all entirely of his own making and just like any other manager he will live or die by those decisions. Personally I think they are all completely mystifying and I don't see any of them working. He has left us with a completely unbalanced squad and unlike with Emery where I could at least see him actively trying to offload some of our trash here we are still with players clogging up squad places stealing a living - how many more games does he need to see that Xhaka and Mustafi are two of the biggest c.unts known to man?? Under the previous manager they were dead ducks, both halfway out the door. Ten months later they are here still, taking 300k per week out in wages and yesterday both appearing in our backline.......and yes there are other options (see 1 and 6 above)

The honeymoon period is now well and truly over. There was a massive love in on the back of the cup win - totally understandable - but the fact is that we have now lost 3 games already this season and playing a brand of football to make Burnley blush. Imagine if Dyche was in charge and serving up this sort of dross every week???

We are a midtable team and it isn't going to improve.

He can however win us the Europa League, and or the League Cup/FA Cup because he has proven that in a one off situation we can nobble one of the big guns through sheer discipline and some Auba magic. It's almost identical to the last couple of years of GG's reign. Beat Parma, but finish mid table playing sterile, mindnumbing football every week

Great post Steve! Depressing but pretty much covers everything.

We did actually finish 4th in 1994 the year we beat Parma in the CWC but I take the point you're making. The football in the league was pretty sterile at times but with the 3 cup successes and another CWC final in '95 there were still enough moments over that 3 year period to keep the pulse racing.

This season has the feeling of being a real slog. The excitement and entertainment level is nil! I can accept sterile if we're challenging for the title because of it .... but these safety first tactics and filling the midfield with defensive players is as detrimental to our chances as Wenger filling the midfield with lightweight technicians (and Alex Song).

When was the last time we had a really well balance team? The Highbury years?

[Retro Gunner]

At the start of the season I said we’d finish between 6th and 8th, so I've gone for 7th / 8th in the poll. That’s beginning to look rather optimistic though.