Mikel Arteta, success or failure? - Merged thread.

As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
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Will he ?

Have a statue erected after 30 glorious years service?
9
9%
Be a success, pick up a few trophies and put the club back on an even keel?
27
27%
Be a moderate success, before handing over to a more high profile successor?
20
20%
Be an utter fucking disaster?
44
44%
 
Total votes: 100

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GoonerMuzz
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Re: Mikel Arteta, success or failure? - Merged thread.

Post by GoonerMuzz »

I agree Emery got rid of a lot of average players however the fact remains he did not manage to get rid of some of the worst examples :rubchin:

Arteta was saddled with them and then singularly failed to offload them initially as well and then ended up with the pandemic causing some issues with transfers, that is not a defence of him as his transfer dealings have been poor, but the pandemic caused problems for many clubs

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Re: Mikel Arteta, success or failure? - Merged thread.

Post by arrgee »

wilson2.0 wrote:
Mon May 10, 2021 9:03 am
arrgee wrote:
Sat May 08, 2021 10:35 pm
wilson2.0 wrote:
Sat May 08, 2021 10:03 am
Outside of ESR, Tierney, Saka, Martinelli, Pepe, Partey, Gabriel every other players is far go to sell and replace....

I simply have no faith in this club. My expectation for the next three years is to hover between 6th-12th without ever threatening to push the top 4.
You should have stopped at Martinelli. :) Partey has been hopeless, Pepe has improved, but he is not a £70 million player and Gabriel has been poor since he got Covid.

I think 6th is pushing it. Dirty Leeds and Villa seem to be better teams, and Arsenal are more on a par with Palace and Newcastle. Wolves will probably be better. With Captain Black in charge, 10th - 15th is the realistic expectation.
Your wrong about Pepe. In Pepe we have a player who just needs to 'click' to turn into a top player. He really should be aiming for 15 league goals and 20 in all competitions as that is certainly in his abilities. He would improve with better players around him and a better manager.
I have watched Pepe stroll around for 2 seasons now, and he will never be a top player. Has the odd moment, normally against lesser opposition, but he will never score 15-20 league goals for Arsenal in a season. 11 goals in 58 league appearances in 2 seasons. Ignore the 8 in 19 in the Europa League as generally the opposition would struggle in the Championship.

The better players and better manager would have no time for him. Can’t see anyone offering much to buy him from Arsenal.

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Re: Mikel Arteta, success or failure? - Merged thread.

Post by SteveO 35 »

GoonerMuzz wrote:
Mon May 10, 2021 2:20 pm
I agree Emery got rid of a lot of average players however the fact remains he did not manage to get rid of some of the worst examples :rubchin:

Arteta was saddled with them and then singularly failed to offload them initially as well and then ended up with the pandemic causing some issues with transfers, that is not a defence of him as his transfer dealings have been poor, but the pandemic caused problems for many clubs
Wenger's over cluttering of the squad with players on huge wages who for one reason or another weren't playing was absolutely scandalous and Emery inherited that awful situation. In the window when he joined Cazorla, Mertesacker and Wilshere were 3 such players who between them must have been taking c. £300k out of the club.....two of whom hadn't kicked a ball in anger for fuck knows how long and the other clearly years past his best. In the same window another load of no marks on the fringes of the first team had to be moved on - Reine-Adelaide, Akpom, Lucas Perez, Joel Campbell, as well as loaning out Asano, Chambers, Bielik, Ospina, Nelson and Martinez. That's quite a lot of activity in one window and still left loads to be done because as we all know we're riddled with c.unts Wenger bought from top to bottom.

Roll forward to the next summer window - Cech, Ramsey, Welbeck, Koscielny, Jenkinson, Iwobi, Monreal were amongst the next ones that had to be moved on from Arsene's comfy retirement and no mark village, as well as loaning out Elneny, Mkhitaryan and Mavropanos.

Fuck knows how much in wages the old c.unt had tied up in that lot but look at the names and ask how much money we were spending compared to how much return we were getting from any of those c.unts.

As I've said many times before, that old bastard did more damage in his last 10 years than he did good in his first 12. The great economist who saddle bagged us with a wage bill what dwarfed Liverpool and Spurs but saw us leagues behind.

Emery and now Arteta are paying a serious price for that. All of this of course overseen by the wig wearing c.unt at the top and a load of faceless goons on the board

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Re: Mikel Arteta, success or failure? - Merged thread.

Post by GoonerMuzz »

I completely agree SteveO but unfortunately he couldn't off load Xhaka or Mustafi in any of his two summer and one winter window, and again to sound like a broken record kept playing the fuckers :banghead:

I'll be honest a few of those he did get rid of were ones I'd have kept over some of the useless *word censored* that he didn't.

Again Arteta is shit, there is no defence of him but the problem stems from higher up as has been repeated ad infinitum

I think some of us predicted 3 or 4 managers to truly get the Wengerness out the club and it appears we could be proved right but that will only happen IF the hierarchy changes as well which I think will only happen when things have gotten considerably worse :rubchin:

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Re: Mikel Arteta, success or failure? - Merged thread.

Post by SteveO 35 »

GoonerMuzz wrote:
Tue May 11, 2021 1:30 pm
I completely agree SteveO but unfortunately he couldn't off load Xhaka or Mustafi in any of his two summer and one winter window, and again to sound like a broken record kept playing the fuckers :banghead:

I'll be honest a few of those he did get rid of were ones I'd have kept over some of the useless *word censored* that he didn't.

Again Arteta is shit, there is no defence of him but the problem stems from higher up as has been repeated ad infinitum

I think some of us predicted 3 or 4 managers to truly get the Wengerness out the club and it appears we could be proved right but that will only happen IF the hierarchy changes as well which I think will only happen when things have gotten considerably worse :rubchin:
Yeah I know mate - whichever poor fucker or fuckers inherited that sack of shit squad from Wenger had to have the broadest of shoulders and the thickest of skins because put together my list with the other ones we know should have gone.....and you're talking about virtually the entire squad of first team players. You can chuck Bellerin on to that pile of consistently poor performing, overpaid shite too. For me that cowardly two bob c.unt is up there with Kolasinac, Mustafi and Xhaka as amongst the biggest c.unts to have turned out for the club in recent seasons.

Ozil and Mkhitaryan were two c.unts that took an age to get rid of because of their contracts (along with Mustafi) so El Brent goes and ties Willian to a 3 year fucking deal on c. £200k per week......so guess what, we've now got another no mark prick that will clutter up a squad place for the next 2 years

What we need above all else was a board and an owner with ambition - ambition to have kicked Wenger out in 2014, and put in place a manager like a Pep or Klopp who would have seen us out of sight compared to shitty fucking Leicester, the vermin and now chumps like West Ham and Everton. Roll the clock forward 7 years and whatever poor c.unt takes this job on has still got a bunch of c.unts on their hands with a mid-table mentality

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Re: Mikel Arteta, success or failure? - Merged thread.

Post by DB10GOONER »

Bald bastard Pep and Trampy Shipman would not have come to Arsenal. They need trillions to spend to have any success and they would not get that money here.

The real fuck up we made was not going flat out for Allegri or Simeone or Ancelotti or even Conte. No guarantee any of them would have succeeded of course but you'd have to think they would have done a better job than Dick or Martinez-Lite.


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Re: Mikel Arteta, success or failure? - Merged thread.

Post by mcdowell42 »

Arteta: "We have an incredible opportunity, I'm so excited because I know what we can do with the size & resources we are going to have & the quality of people we have at the club. I think the owners are going to be really involved. I think they will be really supportive" https://t.co/6HKHSE7BmF

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Re: Mikel Arteta, success or failure? - Merged thread.

Post by DB10GOONER »

mcdowell42 wrote:
Wed May 12, 2021 9:02 am
Arteta: "We have an incredible opportunity, I'm so excited because I know what we can do with the size & resources we are going to have & the quality of people we have at the club. I think the owners are going to be really involved. I think they will be really supportive" https://t.co/6HKHSE7BmF
I actually feel like throwing up reading that. :|

They could (but won't) give this walking axe wound a billion pounds and he could buy a fuck tonne of great players and we'd still lose a semi final or final because he either started the completely wrong line up, or he made the wrong substitutions in the 60th minute....

:suicide:

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Re: Mikel Arteta, success or failure? - Merged thread.

Post by augie »




Can you give a summation of the article please buddy for those of us too mean to subscribe ? :wink: :oops:

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Re: Mikel Arteta, success or failure? - Merged thread.

Post by gooner265 »

augie wrote:
Wed May 12, 2021 9:08 am



Can you give a summation of the article please buddy for those of us too mean to subscribe ? :wink: :oops:
Hopefully I'm allowed to put this here as the link is provided , the good news I was referring to was the senior players who want out , xhaka, willian , Leno ,Luiz and Bellerin

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Special report: Lack of experience in Arsenal’s positions of power causing cracks in rebuild

James McNicholas, Amy Lawrence and more 4h ago 66 

With a strained and flawed season almost over, it is no shock to find morale is low among the staff at Arsenal.

Quite apart from what’s happening on the pitch, off it the mood has been badly hit. The 55 redundancies that took place last summer were not the end of that particular story. The threat has been ongoing, and more jobs have been culled recently.

Meanwhile, Arsenal’s continuing restructuring sees a headhunting firm employed to recruit for a reshaped scouting team, which was decimated around the time of the first tranche of redundancies. The club seem to be saving money in some departments while spending heavily in others, which is perhaps the way it goes when there is no obvious solid plan to repair some of the damage from the past few years of changeable management.

A lack of expertise with any kind of track record of success behind them is costing Arsenal.

The latest in a series of remodelled executive structures has three men in charge of the main strands of the club operation day-to-day: manager Mikel Arteta looks after the first team and coaching staff; technical director Edu is in charge of recruitment; chief executive Vinai Venkatesham has the reins of the business side of the club. This untried trio have very senior responsibility. By the nature of their appointment — only Edu had any experience of the sharp end of football decision-making, though that was not in European football — their successes or mistakes would all be learned on the job.

That kind of risk might have paid the most sensational dividends. But right now it feels like they could all do with some help, some know-how to lean on, while the pressure mounts.

The alarm bell for many managers — including Arteta’s predecessor and recent Europa League conqueror, Unai Emery — is losing the support of the dressing room. It has not sounded yet: Arteta still retains support from the majority of the squad. Certain individuals have even sought assurances that the Spaniard would be kept on before entering into negotiations on a new contract.

To the surprise and occasional consternation of frustrated entourages and families, many players remain loyal to the manager and continue to hold him in high regard, despite results, including the deflating way they were knocked out of the Europa League semi-final against Emery’s Villarreal.

Some have described Arteta as being able to foster a “cult-like” devotion from certain sections of the squad.

His man-management, however, is beginning to show cracks. When it comes to some of the senior players, the situation is more complex, more delicate.

When Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang extended his contract last summer, his affinity with Arteta was one of the key factors in his decision to stay. Aubameyang was said to be under the new manager’s spell — Arteta was even pictured at the striker’s house to mark the contract’s signing. That spell appears to have has lost some of its potency, and this difficult season has seen that relationship tested to a far greater extent.

More broadly, Arteta’s approach to press conferences has occasionally ruffled feathers: there has been a clamour for more honesty, less hubris. “Too much of what Mikel says publicly is not true,” says one Arsenal insider. “We can all see what is happening on the pitch and he should have spoken the truth: we did not deserve to reach the final. That’s the reality.”

There are other rumblings of discontent. Staff are under the impression that at least five senior players — David Luiz, Willian, Bernd Leno, Granit Xhaka and Hector Bellerin — want to leave the club.

Given the nature of their performances this season, Arsenal fans won’t shed many tears over some of those names. Part of this is a natural, necessary churn — a need to rebuild around a new core of young players. Given the financial constraints the club are operating under, there’s also an economic imperative behind some of these potential exits. These players are among Arsenal’s top earners.

Change is necessary, but so is balance and experience. The departures of the likes of Xhaka, Leno and Bellerin and Luiz would mean the loss of some of the more prominent dressing-room voices. A squad already criticised for lacking in leaders might look even more callow after the summer.

Arteta and Edu view the “Hale End generation”, along with more experienced professionals such as Kieran Tierney, Rob Holding and Calum Chambers, as key elements of their future squad. Tierney is likely to be rewarded with a new contract soon to reflect that. There are other young players, however, who are likely to leave: Reiss Nelson seems primed for a departure and Eddie Nketiah’s contract situation is also no closer to being resolved, with the deal due to expire next year, meaning he may be sold.

On the technical side, some of Arteta’s decisions have prompted surprise, such as using Emile Smith Rowe as a “false nine” in the first leg against Villarreal and not substituting Dani Ceballos after he was booked in the same game, only for the Spaniard to be sent off shortly after. When it came to last week’s European exit in the second leg, the dependency on Xhaka in the left-back role was concerning. What’s more, if he was so important, why was he not rested in the preceding game against Newcastle? Xhaka was the only player to play 90 minutes away to both Villarreal and Newcastle. Citing his absence as the crucial factor in Arsenal’s Europa League exit felt like another example of Arteta muddying the waters in front of the media.

Questions are also being asked of Arteta’s coaching appointments.

The credibility of his goalkeeping coach, Inaki Cana, was damaged by his recommendation of the little-used, so far unimpressive Alex Runarsson. With Leno’s form also now dipping, there is concern among the playing staff about Cana’s suitability for the role.

Two other popular goalkeeping coaches, Sal Bibbo and Andy Woodman, have been moved on, seemingly to grant Cana license to remodel the department. Given the concerns over Runarsson and other aspects, affording a coach that degree of autonomy has raised alarm.

Last summer, Arteta was provided resources to bring in two additional first-team coaches. While fans hoped he might add more experience to his backroom team, he opted for two junior coaches in Carlos Cuesta and Miguel Molina. It was effectively a vote of confidence from Arteta in his original staff; a statement that ensured the hierarchy remained unchallenged. It was perhaps an opportunity missed.

Perhaps Arteta’s decision to appoint younger coaches was informed by his desire to consolidate power. Having worked under Arsene Wenger, and then alongside Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, he is said to have an intuitive understanding of what is required to grow authority in a football club. Arteta knows that having a wide set of responsibilities is what enables a coach to wield influence. Ultimately, that’s why the promotion from head coach to manager appealed — Arteta did not want to be managed, he wanted to manage.

Even at the time, fresh off the back of last season’s FA Cup final win, the decision to change Arteta’s job title was met with some internal opposition. While some regarded it as a mere formality, others saw it as a regressive step. After Wenger’s 2018 departure, Arsenal had tried to move away from a model which was overly dependent on any one individual. That is partly why, under head of football Raul Sanllehi, they adopted a continental-style structure with a technical director and head coach. Sanllehi and Edu were both big advocates of this progressive hierarchy, and Arteta’s job title would not have been changed if Sanllehi had remained at the helm.

Defeat to Villarreal put the lid on a dismal, trophyless season for Arsenal (Photo: John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images)

It’s difficult to know how much, if at all, Arteta’s de facto promotion may have inadvertently impacted the team. It’s unlikely to have had a direct effect on results, even if the “head coach” role is designed to allow the team’s trainer to focus predominantly on the short-term — matches and results.

Perhaps the biggest issue is where it leaves the club.

The post-Wenger organisational structure was designed partly to make coaches more expendable — to ensure continuity and long-term planning survived managerial change. The more power Arteta consolidates, the more daunting a task the board may consider replacing him to be.

When it comes to managerial influence, the club are in danger of going full circle. Arsenal may well end up back where they started.

Fixing Arsenal is likely to be expensive.

If the club are to spend in the upcoming summer transfer window, the likelihood is they will require the support of the owners. While it’s hoped Arsenal can raise funds through player trading, it is expected to be a difficult market. After a year of devastating financial losses due to the pandemic, and in the wake of irate fan protests, it is perhaps more imperative than ever that the Kroenkes invest.

The issue, then, is whether it’s right to entrust whatever funds can be made available to the manager and technical director. Thus far, Edu’s squad-building strategy has yet to convince.

Last summer’s was a difficult window. Arsenal suffered the financial impact of COVID-19, as well as a bout of instability at executive level. There were, however, conspicuous failures: for much of the season, the three-year contract awarded to a 32-year-old Willian has felt about three years too long. The failure to organise young defender William Saliba’s loan back to France created an unnecessary issue between club and player. Their €50 million marquee signing Thomas Partey has impressed in spells, but niggling injuries have prevented the club from extracting full value.

January offered more hope: the sensible addition of Mat Ryan cancelled out the signing of Runarsson. The acquisition of Martin Odegaard on loan was a considerable coup. Edu worked tirelessly behind the scenes to move players on, agreeing departures for Mesut Ozil, Sead Kolasinac and Shkodran Mustafi. A similar task awaits the Brazilian in the forthcoming window.

For now, much of the recruitment happening at Arsenal is taking place behind the scenes.

After the dissolution of the previous scouting regime, Edu is beginning to flesh out his own team. While members of the previous set-up, such as Francis Cagigao, Peter Clark and Brian McDermott, were hired based on reputation or personal connection within football circles, Arsenal have instructed recruitment firm Nolan Partners to help them identify a new generation of scouts.

The intention is to have people on the ground in strategic locations to build contacts and identify talent before it would otherwise be picked by data. Jobs Arsenal are seeking to fill include a UK scout, and European youth scouting roles. Intriguingly, the first stage of the recruitment process saw prospective scouts asked to prepare analysis of Joe Willock’s current successful loan spell at Newcastle, as well as relegated Sheffield United’s Norwegian midfielder Sander Berge.

Any new scouts will come too late to have an impact in the forthcoming transfer window. The summer plans are already in place — and after such a disappointing campaign, Edu finds himself under inevitable scrutiny.

In recent seasons, Arsenal’s squad-building has seen them attempt to offset youthful promise against experience. For every Luiz, there has been a Tierney. For every Willian, a Martinelli. The intention has been to strike a necessary balance — to cover long-term aspirations and short-term priorities. Ultimately, this strategy has proved incoherent. Arsenal have operated like a club hedging their bets, failing to commit properly to the requisite rebuild.

However, the club insist they are working through the remoulding systematically. An Arsenal spokesperson said: “Obviously we’re all disappointed at the way the season has panned out and on missing out on European football for the first time in 25 years. However, when Mikel joined us we knew it would take time to build the squad and get to the levels we all want. We have been working this through methodically and have been clear that this will continue during the summer transfer window. Our ambition and that of our owners is clear — to put Arsenal back at the top of the game.”

This summer, the club intend to predominantly target players in the lower age range. Hamstrung by expensive commitments to the likes of Willian and Aubameyang, that’s partly an act of necessity.

Elsewhere, Edu retains responsibility for overseeing and appointing backroom staff. The addition of Nick Court as a first-team physio, from Bournemouth, has been short-lived — he departed within a matter of months.

Edu’s decision to add Bruno Mazziotti to the performance team has already proved somewhat divisive.

Mazziotti was hired on a short-term, but well-paid contract in late 2020. His addition was designed in part to provide a Latin presence among the medical staff after the departure of Paulo Barreira. His methods and uncompromising manner, however, have not always won favour with existing staff at London Colney. His contract expires at the end of the season, and for now his future is uncertain. Mazziotti would doubtless contend he’s trying to implement cultural change in an environment becoming notable for endemic underperformance.

There is a tension at play between the old Arsenal, and the new.

Edu will soon be able to call upon the support of Richard Garlick, the club’s incoming director of football operations. Garlick, who previously held a similar role at West Bromwich Albion, will provide Edu with support on contractual matters, replacing Huss Fahmy, who left the club late last year. Garlick was actually one of the candidates interviewed for the position when Fahmy joined Arsenal in 2017.

In a club where so many staff have been stripped out in the name of efficiency, Garlick’s addition could be significant. It may be a healthy thing for Arsenal if Edu steps away from the negotiating table — if the club separates the technical decisions from the financial and legal ones.

A word of caution, however: part of the reason Fahmy left was his influence within the club being diminished by Edu’s expanding role. The former Arsenal midfielder is insistent all recruitment conversations flow directly through him. He has placed himself above the parapet.

Edu is the man responsible for reshaping this squad — but must also bear some responsibility for the shape it is currently in.

The morning after the night before, Arsenal’s hierarchy sought to reassure and boost the men in the firing — or more accurately, miles away from the firing — line.

Arteta and Edu both attended meetings intended to lift them in their hour of need. However crushed they might have felt by the Villarreal semi-final defeat the previous evening, the powers that be wanted them to feel wanted and very much central to future plans.

Outside the football club bubble, it is reasonable to wonder about the general sense of accountability at Arsenal and who takes the lead on that. These are not issues that crop up when a team are performing well. But when there is underperformance, it’s necessary to scrutinise. Otherwise, the buck doesn’t stop anywhere and a culture of mediocrity is allowed to aimlessly drift.

At the very top, of course, is owner Stan Kroenke, and his son Josh.

Their approach has always been to put people in place to run the club, and offer the backing and support reasonably expected of them. Most owners nowadays are not significantly more hands-on than that. So it then falls to the senior executives to perform. But where are the checks? Who is vetting big decisions? Is there enough high-calibre know-how to judge the calls being made by Arteta and Edu in terms of team management and recruitment, and Venkatesham in overseeing overall club matters?

That trio all lack a major track record in their own roles, but the structure at the club is designed to take it on trust that they are calling things right. While it is understood that there is a lot more rebuilding to do on the squad and finances are drastically affected by the pandemic, the sporting baseline — the position of the team right now — suggests there should be an inquest.

While it is in a way admirable for Arsenal to provide backing immediately after the season’s ambitions collapsed during a poorly-executed Europa League semi-final, who at the club has the expert football knowledge to properly analyse what went wrong in this campaign, why it did, and how to engineer improvement? Who can assess the reasons, listen to the explanations and plans from Arteta and Edu, and decide the best way to go?

Arsenal haven’t won the title since 2004 (Photo: Sean Dempsey – PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)

CEO Venkatesham does not have the credentials. Nor does Tim Lewis, recently appointed to the board and now the major go-between linking all matters Arsenal to their owners in the US.

It is almost a year since Lewis was brought onto the board. A long-time fan of the club, partner with the law firm Clifford Chance, and trusted representative of Stan Kroenke’s interests in London, Lewis has taken to the role with gusto. His first notable act was to assess the role of Sanllehi as part of a broader examination of recruitment and use of resources. Sanllehi was gone within weeks.

Lewis’s input felt refreshing — instilling a bit of ruthlessness and sending the message that senior figures who were too comfortable in their roles would be unwise to feel so — but the make-up of the current board, allied to the group of inexperienced heads in top positions, still lacks the depth and variety of expertise that Arsenal need to re-spark the club’s operation.

The current, recently compressed, board comprises Kroenke senior and junior, their new appointment Lewis, and Phil Harris, who is the sole link to the old custodian board that predates the Kroenkes’ involvement with the club.

Harris was behind the proposal to bring David O’Leary onto the board not long ago. His wish was to introduce some footballing oversight to have a say and keep an eye on recruitment and O’Leary, who is well connected and brings the football nous and Arsenal heart he accrued while becoming the club’s record appearance holder during 722 games then managing Leeds United and Aston Villa, remains his solid choice, to both support and challenge the men steering the ship.

When O’Leary was first proposed, the idea was knocked back by personnel who were reluctant to have their work scrutinised and preferred more autonomy in terms of decision making. Whether that sentiment prevails now is an interesting point. It is definitely an idea worth revisiting and Harris remains as keen as ever for more football oversight at a time when Arsenal need to be busy — but also very shrewd — in the market. They cannot afford more wastage on expensive fees and salaries for players who struggle to make a consistent impact in the manner of recent years.

This idea has been thrown back into focus by the proposed takeover bid from Spotify mogul Daniel Ek, who has formed an alliance with three Invincibles, with Thierry Henry the most vocal thus far. The longer the club goes on searching for answers, the more momentum the idea of “Arsenal DNA” being part of the running of the club gains. The Kroenkes, meanwhile, are going nowhere: as recently as Monday, Arsenal employees were assured in an all-staff call the owners have no intention of selling. More fan protests are anticipated at the final home game of the season, with staff and families urged not to attempt to drive into the stadium on the day and plans being formulated to ensure their safe exit after the match.

For all the issues around Sanllehi that led to his departure, there is a vacuum now in terms of seniority and know-how around recruitment.

Lewis’s role is an interesting and important one. He has taken over from Sanllehi as the main conduit between Arsenal and the Kroenkes. Matters that need their attention are generally transferred across the Atlantic via him.

For anyone with a business background who suddenly finds themselves at the heart of negotiations on football matters, getting involved and having an opinion can be irresistible, even for those who don’t necessarily have the credentials.

It is worth remembering the iconic chapter in footballer turned journalist Len Shackleton’s autobiography, entitled The Average Director’s Knowledge of Football.

One blank page told the reader everything from the point of view of an England international.

In all seriousness, though, it is foolish of Arsenal to press on without addressing the vacuum of football clout to assess and assist those running the show day-to-day. Whether it is at board level or some other form of director of football to sit above a manager, coach or technical director, that absence is a worry.

Arsenal have every right to stick to the conclusion they have total faith in Arteta, Edu et al, but if they reach that decision it must be very thoroughly made.

Since the Wenger-Ivan Gazidis days, Arsenal do seem to be on a trend of appointing sequentially less experienced people.

It was Gazidis who brought in Sanllehi, then promoted him, with Venkatesham (even though neither had previously been in such a high position before) to replace him as chief executive. Gazidis oversaw the committee that appointed Emery but also was a big supporter of Arteta. Gazidis also during his tenure grew a lot of bloated departments which the club have tried to streamline of late with the redundancies.

He was the man first trusted by the Kroenkes to run the club but a lot of that damage is still being felt. There have been so many variants as Arsenal have restructured again and again at executive level since Gazidis first prepared for the post-Wenger age.

It seems they have still not found the balance they need to be successful. The missing ingredient appears to be elite football experience, with perhaps a sprinkling of understanding of what once made Arsenal great. There are those within the club that are hopeful that message is finally getting through.

(Additional contributor: David Ornstein)

(

James McNicholas has covered Arsenal extensively for more than a decade. He has written for ESPN, Bleacher Report and FourFourTwo Magazine, and is the co-host of the Arsecast Extra Podcast. Follow James on Twitter @gunnerblog.

Since football fandom kicked in in the 1970s, the path to football writing started as a teenager scribbling for a fanzine. After many years with the Guardian and the Observer, covering the game from grassroots to World Cup finals, Amy Lawrence joined The Athletic in 2019.

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GoonerMuzz
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Re: Mikel Arteta, success or failure? - Merged thread.

Post by GoonerMuzz »

Interesting article and it does answer a few questions about accountability and poor decision making in transfers. Whether they, the club, can change or improve things is questionable where two or three high level appointments seem to not want interference from more experienced individuals. It smacks of fear that someone might tell them they are getting things wrong and therefore sticking their heads in the sand :rubchin:

If that really is the attitude then there is no way hell things will improve if those individuals are kept in post without being brought to heel and their feet held over the fire. The three of them need to be told in no uncertain terms change or go :box:

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DB10GOONER
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Re: Mikel Arteta, success or failure? - Merged thread.

Post by DB10GOONER »

gooner265 wrote:
Wed May 12, 2021 11:58 am
augie wrote:
Wed May 12, 2021 9:08 am



Can you give a summation of the article please buddy for those of us too mean to subscribe ? :wink: :oops:
Hopefully I'm allowed to put this here as the link is provided , the good news I was referring to was the senior players who want out , xhaka, willian , Leno ,Luiz and Bellerin
Yep once you provide a link or credit the writer then it's fine mate. 8)

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Re: Mikel Arteta, success or failure? - Merged thread.

Post by GoonerMuzz »

DB stop grooming the posters, you're only nice about people posting links when you want some 'special time'.

Nice go see Arteta publicly throw players under the bus at his press conference, yes you muppet you're right many players have massively underperformed this season but you are the one who kept picking them you arse. Honestly this guy has no hope or understanding of how to man manage. Publicly airing your dirty laundry is something Mourinho does, if he was losing the dressing room before he will have lost it completely now :banghead:

The man is a complete *word censored* and has no introspective qualities whatsoever to understand he is as responsible as his players :cussing:

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Re: Mikel Arteta, success or failure? - Merged thread.

Post by BobbyPires7 »

GoonerMuzz wrote:
Wed May 12, 2021 4:24 pm
DB stop grooming the posters, you're only nice about people posting links when you want some 'special time'.

Nice go see Arteta publicly throw players under the bus at his press conference, yes you muppet you're right many players have massively underperformed this season but you are the one who kept picking them you arse. Honestly this guy has no hope or understanding of how to man manage. Publicly airing your dirty laundry is something Mourinho does, if he was losing the dressing room before he will have lost it completely now :banghead:

The man is a complete *word censored* and has no introspective qualities whatsoever to understand he is as responsible as his players :cussing:
“DB10Groomer” :gayflag:

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