Claudius wrote:
Qwiss! wrote:
We've said this before, if they come good then great, if they don't then at least you've boosted their value a bit. What benefit is there to playing Willian, Lacazette or Luiz at this stage?
Zero!
So this clearly shows bad leadership by the Kroenkes. They have no clue what they are doing. A manager is like a CEO. Both know that their expected lifespans are very short, so they will optimize for the short term and make a lot of bad decisions for the overall health of the organization. Bottom left quadrant players (Xhaka, Lacazette and co), those are the players whose responsibility it is for Edu to be aggressively phasing out because they have no value to our future. But Arteta is tempted to use them now because they help him achieve his very short term objectives of hitting top 4, boosting his resume, and getting buy-in with the group. We are not managing the tension between organization and manager well
Nah, for better or for worse, you need to back the manager. Otherwise sack the manager, but I'm not sure I want to live in a world where Kroenke dictates footballing decisions. Arteta's short termism may be what got us lumbered with Willian but it's also what got the Kroenke's to shell out for Partey and potentially more in January.
Also, I like how you mention top 4 as if it's a meaningless trophy you get for being employee of the month, rather than £50m a season (not counting lost potential commercial income that comes from competing at that level) and the ability to attract and retain the best. Every club that doesn't have sights on the league is going all in on a top four spot. Tottenham didn't loan Bale for £20m because they want to win the title in 4 years. It's essential, and in that sense I'm pretty sure Arteta and the board are aligned on that front.
The problem isn't that we've signed a 33yr old Willian or are holding on to guys like Xhaka and Laca, it's that they're all playing shit anyway.