Mikel Arteta, success or failure? - Merged thread.

[StuartL]

I just feel our current position and performances are not an accident. But rather the result of some long-term planning. We are not first by accident, but rather as a cumulation of work done by Arteta and Edu.

Another thing with Arteta, is unlike Wenger he seems like he is in a hurry. Wenger was way too passive. Letting transfer windows go by without replacing Almunia, Bendtner, Ebooue ect. But with Arteta I get the feeling players like Lokonga and Tavares will not be allowed to fester at the club when it becomes apparent they are not a fit. I can already see us going for Danilo in January and apparently we haven't given up on Teilimans. If we could add two midfielders, it shows Arteta isnt fucking around. Not willing to waste the potential in our squad and not willing to keep giving chances to Lokonga.

Firstly you're presuming about January signings but look how desperate we were last January and signed no one. When you talk about planning, did that involve offering a contract to a clearly average player like Nketiah or keeping clear deadweight like Elneny or Holding? When the World Cup is over our starting line up could be mid table at best. We are doing well at the moment but I feel like this always has to be attached in some way to the genius of Arteta when in reality he has made numerous mistakes. Il judge him in May

Not sure about the genius of Arteta i think you are right he has made mistakes....BUT you have to give the guy credit....we are top of both Premier and Europa leagues....
Managers get the shit when they loose....so have to give credit when they win.....
Hes doing great at present....IMO

I think that's fair. And the majority of posters on here would agree. It only seems to be the rose tinted variety that can't bring themselves to admit when he's fucked it up though.

After we lost against Everton in December 2020, I for one couldn't argue with the club if they fired him there and then. I am a half-glass full type of person.

But since then, there has been a gradual progression. The young talent has come through the ranks at the same time something we haven't really seen since the mid-80s, and they have been complimented with talent from places like Brazil. Yeah, we fucked up at the back end of last season but despite the disappointment, there was progression year on year. Essentially we were back to the situation when Wenger left, but not going downhill this time.

And this season, no Gooner could have expected this start, but the recruitment was spot on and if we actually get out fingers out in January and make a few signings like Danilo and Mudryk, we could do some serious damage in the league. I am not saying we will necessarily win the fucker, but for the first time in years the big boys will take us seriously. And to get to that level in 3 years, Arteta and Edu will take a lot of credit for.

Spot on nut flush …. Arteta may be fortunate that the likes of Martinelli, Saka, Smith-Rowe (remember him ?) were already here, but this is his team, he has created, recruited well and jettisoned those who didn’t want to be part of it.
Let’s not forget George inherited Adams, Rocky, Merse and moulded the team around them with some class additions Seaman, Smith, Limpar etc.
Arsene too inherited the back 5, so Arteta is no different in that he had some quality players to build up from , but he has changed the dynamics, around the whole club - the fans are so positive, loud, supportive, and the players clearly feel loved and appreciated - I can remember days when they trudged off win, lose or draw without so much as a clap to the fans.

We had a couple of posters stating that Martinelli would be gone in a season due to not getting game time - looks like he is incredibly happy to me, he defends as well as attacks.
Even those getting relatively little game time, look happy to be part of the set up and due to the demands of the season, their time will come when they are needed, so keeping them happy is vital.



This is what we have wanted for years, moaned about when we were miles away from competing at the top, we may yet not win a trophy this season, but we are clearly on the right path and the trophies will come, if we carry on like this and potentially add to the squad where we are light.

[the playing mantis]

One of those martinelli posters is worryingly absent...hope there ok!

My concern also is ESR there's clearly fitness issues at player but he is a proper game changer and a huge asset(as good as all the England medoa wankathins foden, mount, grealish etc) when fit. Hope he gets fit and is integrated back in. A fit ESR a decent partey cover and a decent goalscorer and we hVe a massive chance.

[DB10GOONER]

I just feel our current position and performances are not an accident. But rather the result of some long-term planning. We are not first by accident, but rather as a cumulation of work done by Arteta and Edu.

Another thing with Arteta, is unlike Wenger he seems like he is in a hurry. Wenger was way too passive. Letting transfer windows go by without replacing Almunia, Bendtner, Ebooue ect. But with Arteta I get the feeling players like Lokonga and Tavares will not be allowed to fester at the club when it becomes apparent they are not a fit. I can already see us going for Danilo in January and apparently we haven't given up on Teilimans. If we could add two midfielders, it shows Arteta isnt fucking around. Not willing to waste the potential in our squad and not willing to keep giving chances to Lokonga.

Firstly you're presuming about January signings but look how desperate we were last January and signed no one. When you talk about planning, did that involve offering a contract to a clearly average player like Nketiah or keeping clear deadweight like Elneny or Holding? When the World Cup is over our starting line up could be mid table at best. We are doing well at the moment but I feel like this always has to be attached in some way to the genius of Arteta when in reality he has made numerous mistakes. Il judge him in May

Not sure about the genius of Arteta i think you are right he has made mistakes....BUT you have to give the guy credit....we are top of both Premier and Europa leagues....
Managers get the shit when they loose....so have to give credit when they win.....
Hes doing great at present....IMO

I think that's fair. And the majority of posters on here would agree. It only seems to be the rose tinted variety that can't bring themselves to admit when he's fucked it up though.

After we lost against Everton in December 2020, I for one couldn't argue with the club if they fired him there and then. I am a half-glass full type of person.

But since then, there has been a gradual progression. The young talent has come through the ranks at the same time something we haven't really seen since the mid-80s, and they have been complimented with talent from places like Brazil. Yeah, we fucked up at the back end of last season but despite the disappointment, there was progression year on year. Essentially we were back to the situation when Wenger left, but not going downhill this time.

And this season, no Gooner could have expected this start, but the recruitment was spot on and if we actually get out fingers out in January and make a few signings like Danilo and Mudryk, we could do some serious damage in the league. I am not saying we will necessarily win the fucker, but for the first time in years the big boys will take us seriously. And to get to that level in 3 years, Arteta and Edu will take a lot of credit for.

Very good description of the current situation Nutty.

Personally I cannot shake the feeling that at some point Martinez-Lite's inexperience at the top end is going to cost us dearly. Apart from the end of last season though it hasn't yet. He made terrible mistakes in the manure game and we lost but even the top top managers will make those mistakes in a game from time to time. Apart from that game he's got it mostly right, apart from the few games where we've lagged terribly in the second half. But that can be worked on in training.

I didn't want him but I'm hoping he delivers and so far his trajectory is on the up.

[LeftfootlegendGooner]

You either don't understand what I wrote or you are deliberately just twisting the words. We both know which it is. There is no point to this anymore and I was going to leave it there but there are a few home truths you need to read, especially as you have accused me of threatening you.

There was no threat. Just a warning about your conduct. In my role as mod. Don't confuse the two. If you had compared another poster to being a scum fan during a disagreement you'd be getting the same warning regarding troll / wum behaviour.

Personally, I couldn't give a shit what you think of me as a mod or in any other capacity. You are an Internet soccer fan in India. You've never spent the decades attending actual matches like the majority of us on here have done, so forgive me if your opinion matters not a tad to me. You do not understand football culture or much of the game itself. Internet soccer blogs cannot teach that. It has to be experienced.

We make this forum welcoming to everyone but I certainly won't accept an Internet soccer fan comparing me to a scum fan as you did - and you know you did.

Oh, as for your question, no I don't go back and check people's contributions but I do have a really good memory - I remember the interesting posters and I remember the boring ones that copy half their content from soccer blogs and I especially remember the posters that were virulent AKBs living in India and stating that their most hated team was manure rather than the scum. That just says Internet soccer fan to me. I tend to remember them. I also remember posters that go missing for years on end because their beloved cult leader Arsene Wenger was getting slaughtered on here....

And, no this is not about race, before you whine about that. I have no idea what race you are and have no interest in that. But to me if you haven't put in the miles and the hours to go to games you are not a proper Gooner, just a soccer fan.

I won't ban you unless you keep up the wum / troll posting to provoke a reaction. Otherwise feel free to post away.

As a sadly missed poster once said "ooh, look at the gays fightin"

Ironically, do you know what he got the permanent ban for? Not the dwarf porn or the dog porn he and the sadly mourned Wayno famously posted one Friday night, not the often unsavoury and borderline jokes, nope, it was for insulting a mod (not me btw ). The mod in question pointed the post out to the owners and they whacked a permanent on him.

He was a funny bloke and great company. Met him in the Gunners before a scum game in 08 (I think) and had quite a piss up.

Also had a good piss up with him after that match we played against the Sunderland fans.

It's a shame, they were both funny, do you feel like you need to name the mod in question

It was g88ner.... nah only kidding!

The mod in question resigned and left the forum after that incident. He said "I didn't volunteer to mod and take insults off people".

I was like "you've had one ffs. I get 5 a day!"

Honestly you need a thick skin to mod this place, Lefty. You've no idea the amount of shit I deal with by pm, not just the crap on the forum threads.

I can imagine, Augie must be pee-emming (I don't think that's a real word btw) you everyday because he's not on the match threads these days

If you want to share the burden you can send me some of these pm's and I will put on my best agony uncle head and reply to them in a helpful and positive manner

[SteveO 35]

Lets hope that he is on the brink of proving so many of us to be wrong - certainly none of us expected the team to be 5 points clear at the top of the league at any stage of the season. They are also playing football that is so exciting to watch and another of my many criticisms in earlier seasons was that we looked over coached and slow in our style - it really looks like the team have shaken that off and are able to play from the first whistle now

We failed at the end of last season owing to limited squad numbers in key positions and a lack of leadership, and in the back of my head those two things still exist. Whilst I never thought we'd be in this position, I did always say that we would have good winning runs with this team, because confidence in young teams always brings that out. The reaction to defeats like Man U and Brighton (the only ones!) have been much more pleasing this season, so I'm hoping they really are much better for that. The body language certainly looks much stronger when we concede a goal now - last season (especially away) the team would just curl up and surrender.

Hopefully nobody comes back crocked from Qatar and we can have Arteta really prove us all wrong and go on and achieve something special. I still don't think we can win the league, albeit 5 points clear at Christmas gives us a far better chance than anyone could have imagined. I think the Europa League is on, and if he can achieve a top 3 finish and win that trophy, then he has really overachieved and would have proved many of us wrong. It has taken a lot of money, and the patience of the board at times has been overwhelming when you consider how some clubs sack managers for far less. Lets hope that faith and investment will all be worth it - I certainly hope that all the negative things I said are used as a stick to beat me with when we end up winning something special !

[goonersid]

Lets hope that he is on the brink of proving so many of us to be wrong - certainly none of us expected the team to be 5 points clear at the top of the league at any stage of the season. They are also playing football that is so exciting to watch and another of my many criticisms in earlier seasons was that we looked over coached and slow in our style - it really looks like the team have shaken that off and are able to play from the first whistle now

We failed at the end of last season owing to limited squad numbers in key positions and a lack of leadership, and in the back of my head those two things still exist. Whilst I never thought we'd be in this position, I did always say that we would have good winning runs with this team, because confidence in young teams always brings that out. The reaction to defeats like Man U and Brighton (the only ones!) have been much more pleasing this season, so I'm hoping they really are much better for that. The body language certainly looks much stronger when we concede a goal now - last season (especially away) the team would just curl up and surrender.

Hopefully nobody comes back crocked from Qatar and we can have Arteta really prove us all wrong and go on and achieve something special. I still don't think we can win the league, albeit 5 points clear at Christmas gives us a far better chance than anyone could have imagined. I think the Europa League is on, and if he can achieve a top 3 finish and win that trophy, then he has really overachieved and would have proved many of us wrong. It has taken a lot of money, and the patience of the board at times has been overwhelming when you consider how some clubs sack managers for far less. Lets hope that faith and investment will all be worth it - I certainly hope that all the negative things I said are used as a stick to beat me with when we end up winning something special !

Spot on stevo!
Lets enjoy it and we're the best in plge at minute.
I would happily dump the europa lge, we will get clge next season from top4 finish!
We can win plge this season FFS leicester did it!
And Derry City , cup winners today

[beck]

As i say im far from blinkered and can see how easily it could fall apart, but am getting more optimistic, have a couple of our more 'realistic' posters been seen of late? think one has but as the other?!! although i do appreicate when things are going well, traffic on forums is less as folk dont need to vent or let of steam to like minded souls. when things are rosy there little to debate or need to vent so traffic is lighter.

To be honest I wondered that as well. But you do make a good point about the traffic on here.

This forum only really took off in popularity as it became more clear that Wenger was getting worse as a manager.

But the intention with this forum was always to be like a pub, where you could go for a moan with your mates. These newer Internet soccer fans that didn't grow up with that match / pub culture don't understand it. They see all of these online blogs and forums that perpetuate the myth of the PL and then can't comprehend when they read something realistic on here.

Typical of the snowflake generation though, they whine on about equality and inclusion but lose their shit if you disagree with them or have a different viewpoint!

The other thing with this forum is, like the fanzine that fathered it, it was never intended as a mouth piece for the club. It was here to call the club out when it needed calling out. Its always been a bit like the bastard son of the club!

I always say to new members this place might not be for you. Its not going to change to accommodate one or two people. People either adapt to the way it is or they'd be better off posting on other forums. Why waste their time on something they don't like?

Maybe we should just ban them?




*Cue some whiney cùnt complaining now.....

59 years old
Saw my first game
Opening home game of 70/71 season
Arsenal 4 Man Utd 0 Radford hat trick
The internet and a ray of sunshine will never get mistaken for each other
No desire to enjoy football only for the 5 mins after we have won something

[beck]

As i say im far from blinkered and can see how easily it could fall apart, but am getting more optimistic, have a couple of our more 'realistic' posters been seen of late? think one has but as the other?!! although i do appreicate when things are going well, traffic on forums is less as folk dont need to vent or let of steam to like minded souls. when things are rosy there little to debate or need to vent so traffic is lighter.

To be honest I wondered that as well. But you do make a good point about the traffic on here.

This forum only really took off in popularity as it became more clear that Wenger was getting worse as a manager.

But the intention with this forum was always to be like a pub, where you could go for a moan with your mates. These newer Internet soccer fans that didn't grow up with that match / pub culture don't understand it. They see all of these online blogs and forums that perpetuate the myth of the PL and then can't comprehend when they read something realistic on here.

Typical of the snowflake generation though, they whine on about equality and inclusion but lose their shit if you disagree with them or have a different viewpoint!

The other thing with this forum is, like the fanzine that fathered it, it was never intended as a mouth piece for the club. It was here to call the club out when it needed calling out. Its always been a bit like the bastard son of the club!

I always say to new members this place might not be for you. Its not going to change to accommodate one or two people. People either adapt to the way it is or they'd be better off posting on other forums. Why waste their time on something they don't like?

Maybe we should just ban them?




*Cue some whiney cùnt complaining now.....

59 years old
Saw my first game
Opening home game of 70/71 season
Arsenal 4 Man Utd 0 Radford hat trick
The internet and a ray of sunshine will never get mistaken for each other
No desire to enjoy football only for the 5 mins after we have won something

Oh and also
I was born in the royal free Liverpool road
Went to Highbury grove school and lived in Islington for the 35 years of my life
My kids were born in the Whittington
I totally understand the rivalry between us and spurs but I think about them twice a year when we play them
I don’t need to stand up coz I hate Tottenham it’s in the blood
But if you ask me who I dislike the most then it’s Man Utd all day long
And twice at Xmas
Hoovering up other teams players years before the money came into the game
Picking up casual fans because of success
A gunner isa gunner weather they were born on the north bank or fall for us on the other side of the world
I think it may have been chapman lite who first said that way back when it may have been mildly amusing once

[A11M11]

59 , Absolute youngster.

[OneBardGooner]

This is a very good interview with Arteta, it is very revealing and in some places surprising... (the only downside is the interviewer is Spit The Scouse)


But definitely worth a Watch / Listen:

***!:<)%! Apologies wrong Link!


Here is the one I thought I had posted:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpWBUWfVa2Q


Worth watching the whole thing! 20 minutes.

[Midz]

Thanks for that, OBG. I watched the quick fire questions after it too and found the whole thing very interesting.

[OneBardGooner]

Yes, the Interview and the Quick Fire Questions together explain a great deal of what went on behind the scenes and how he arrived as our manager and the truth behind aubamacunto.

Also there are 5 stages to The Process we are at stage 3 (?).... But Ahead of schedule.

[Stuart L (2)]

Yes, the Interview and the Quick Fire Questions together explain a great deal of what went on behind the scenes and how he arrived as our manager and the truth behind aubamacunto.

Also there are 5 stages to The Process we are at stage 3 (?).... But Ahead of schedule.

As long as stage 5 is world domination

I’m on board

[OneBardGooner]

[wilson2.0]

If there was a 40 year old manager in another league who turned around a famous football club and got them competing at the top end when no one expected it, & after years of drifting, this is a manager we would say, lets hire.

I think he is one of the best young managers in the world and the massive gamble we took to give him the job and even persist with him despite a pretty horrid start is beginning to pay off massive dividends.

United fans want ETH to 'do and Arteta'. Chelsea fans want Potter to 'do an Arteta'. Tottenham fans which they had an Arteta. Liverpool fans are seeing similarities with their rise under Klopp and ours under Arteta. City fans probably view him as a worthy replacement for Pep.

Wenger was a great manager in his first 10 years, a man you knew was ahead of the curve. I have the same feeling with Arteta - he is ahead of the curve.