• The Arsenal

  • Official: Mikel Arteta is the new Arsenal manager.

Saka would "entertain" in a Wenger team as much as Pires did if not more. I will go as far as saying that he would be impossible to contain. He is supreme. He'll have the freedom he doesn't enjoy right now but then Arteta's job is to win Arsenal trophies, not necessarily help Saka elevate individually.

The invincibles would be unbelievable if assembled in today's strength and conditioning focused era. So much has changed. I think more than anything, their collective football IQ was on another level, the telepathy they had. I don't think this team is in the same plane in that regard. We might be selling the invincibles a bit short.

For example, Rice and Partey don't come close to Vieira. It's a joke. They look great in 3 man midfield where everyone falls back and works hard. Vieira was a monster. It's a shame Wenger being from the continent didn't move to a 3 man midfield in Europe earlier than he did. He did so to protect Cesc when Vieira was gone. We would have won a CL.

    Are you not entertained?

    Rohit The invincibles would be unbelievable if assembled in today's strength and conditioning focused era. So much has changed. I think more than anything, their collective football IQ was on another level, the telepathy they had. I don't think this team is in the same plane in that regard. We might be selling the invincibles a bit short.

    Maybe so but the game has evolved too and I think Lehmann, Campbell and Gilberto in particular would struggle with playing out through modern presses. I can't see Arteta fancying Lehmann at all, nor Campbell as a right footed LCB, and Gilberto was more of an old school shielding DM, rather than a modern pivot. Modern teams would force them to go long which wasn't really Bergkamp and Henry's strength despite their size.

      They would have been a transition team like Liverpool under Klopp, whose midfield didn't even seem to matter - think about James Milner playing there for so long. Agree with you on Lehmann though - that would have been the weak spot. I'd argue so would Lauren. I think Cole would have been quite at home even in a modern pressing system.

      18 days later

      Quite interesting that he basically does intermittent fasting and works 12 hour days!

      10 days later

      Ornstein reckons Arteta may have too much power at the club and is not challenged enough

      I don't think he's saying he has too much power but clearly he does wield significant influence at the club. He's taken us from languishing in 8th, with a rotten squad and going nowhere to challenging Man City two years in a row so that influence and power has been earned not just given out.

      It is important though that Edu has been there all that time so he'll have influence as well. Important for them to support each other but also challenge him.

      We saw what happened when Arsene became essentially a one-man show. It was deserved, and to a certain extent Mikel has also proved overall a good manager for the club and what he has done, but then it does give rise to the risk that he is seen as not being able to do wrong. You need some healthy tension and disagreements at times. I'm not saying it's not there, but you can definitely get a sense. Again, that being said, we don't know what Edu, Josh etc. actually say and do behind the scenes, as they don't really speak much in public about it, which is actually right and quite smart. So it could just be a perception, but the point is it's a risk that has to be identifieid and then accounted for.

        I think when they announced giving Arteta more control after the first positive season I thought that was a mistake for a new manager who has yet to actually win something and went against the ethos the club had projected post Arsenal. You need to have him held more accountable because you don't yet know if he's cut out to make the step to win the big honours.

        Burnwinter Ornstein has always been a proxy for whoever is briefing him. He also seems to have less and less insider info as Artetas power grows so it could be personal too.

          FEBravo We saw what happened when Arsene became essentially a one-man show. It was deserved, and to a certain extent Mikel has also proved overall a good manager for the club and what he has done, but then it does give rise to the risk that he is seen as not being able to do wrong. You need some healthy tension and disagreements at times. I'm not saying it's not there, but you can definitely get a sense. Again, that being said, we don't know what Edu, Josh etc. actually say and do behind the scenes, as they don't really speak much in public about it, which is actually right and quite smart. So it could just be a perception, but the point is it's a risk that has to be identifieid and then accounted for.

          Now that it has come out that Edu is leaving it is essential for the club not to follow down that path of becoming a one man show. To be fair at that time there was a lot of turmoil within the club and a power struggle within which isn't case right now.

            It is clear Arteta has a lot of power at this club, I would say more power then Edu. I can post a lot of transfer stories where Edu wanted one player and Arteta wanted another and they did what Arteta wanted. Every summer since Arteta has been here we got at least 1 such story. And to be fair, in a lot of them he was right(Tomyiasu over Emerson, Ramsdale over Neto? maybe etc). Califiori is the last one, the club did not want to spend 50 mil on another defender but Arteta pushed for him, and we have to be fair again to Arteta, he looks like a great player, but the truth is, we did not need another injury prone left back, we needed someone in attack. And that is all I want, a director who can push back when it needs to be done. No need to go the other way, have the director of football make all the calls, I feel it is normal and healthy for the club to be a back and forth.
            But as others have said, we gave power to Wenger before and it did not work out good, so many seasons I can point to and say, if we had a director of football that went out and got 3-4 players we would have won so much more...but we didn't. It was not ok to give that much power to a manager like Wenger, or to any world class manger out there, so why do it for one that is not world class, like Arteta?

            And someone else pointed our in the other thread, I feel it can be a good thing for us, getting a new director in, with different connections....maybe we will have access to different markets and so on. I mean Edu got us nothing from the Brazilian league, bar Martinelli. His connections started and stopped with that con man little shit Kia.

            Gurgen yep. Wenger with Dein was a different animal vs Wenger alone

              Don Pacifico Agreed, only thing plausible is Ornstein had a little advance warning Edu was on his way and wanted to deniably insinuate Arteta was somehow at fault.

              You have to assume Arteta notices these little jibes. Personally I'd rather hear a decent Arsenal manager than a slimeball journalist any day.

                dein had the advantage of being wenger's boss and the only reason he got the job in the first place.

                the only boss arteta has at arsenal is the kroenke's and edu knew it and his replacement will as well.

                The key is getting someone in that Arteta respects, or even admires. I wouldn't take shit from a moron hired above me, and neither should Mikel.