Burnwinter wrote:
Can't say much wrong with that. The issue for me is not so much whether Arteta's approach is fair, or whether a player's getting embarrassed … it's more that it seems to be ineffective in cases, creating enemies and outcasts and wantaways but without improving general morale or performance.
Actually thought that's what would happen when Arteta penalised Aubameyang and ultimately shut him out, but it didn't. Was surprised by that.
Given how intolerant Arteta does appear to be, I've been surprised by how much joy and commitment there has been in recent weeks. I'd be very curious to know what the mood was and what took place behind the scenes between the City match and the Forest match.
Yeah, me too. To his credit, Arteta does seem to be good at raising morale when the team's at their lowest, fuck knows how he does it. He's also seemingly on very good terms with Saka and ESR and the team in general does seem to believe in him. So maybe I'm just soft. But even without considering the human side of it all, I agree that it's just ineffective at times, he's tanked Guendouzi's, Pépé's, AMN's and Auba's values, he's left us with one recognised striker that's not leaving in the summer and who knows if Saliba will ever play a game for us. And all of that seemed very much avoidable, if Arteta was just a bit more diplomatic and ready to compromise on his "non-negotiables". So my patience is wearing thin, I expect good football and I expect it to continue, otherwise I will start calling for his head again. Crashing out of the only proper competition we had a chance of winning this year didn't help on that front.
After ranting about a former captain of ours, I do want to mention that I actually reckon our current one in Lacazette has a lot to do with morale in the squad being high and us playing a lot better, I love Auba, but he's not a good captain. Laca is, and he's a good influence on our young squad both off and on the pitch.
