Burnwinter wrote:
Wenger's greatest flaw, too.
And Guardiola's perhaps—he just hasn't needed to.
I do think there's something in the idea that Arteta's triad of mentors in Moyes, Arsène and Pep don't really cover the full sweep of managerial skills.
It's absolutely Guardiola's biggest flaw, he's stubborn as fuck and convinced his way is the right way and will eventually work. It's not a coincidence that Liverpool and Chelsea won the CL before City, Guardiola's always been an underperformer in Europe, that Barca side should have done what Real under Zidane did.
Stubbornness is a hallmark of all great managers though, Ferguson's always lauded for adapting to the modern game, but he was just as stubborn as Wenger or Guardiola, it's just that his philosophy was winning at all costs and that's timeless. Cheating tends to work under most circumstances.
Finally I do think that Wenger absolutely did learn and change some things along the way, usually prompted by the players he had at his disposal. When Vieira, Henry and all of the Invincibles left, his best players were technical passing players like Fabregas, so he adapted his style to fit him and also because that's what the best teams in Europe were playing like. And nobody but Barca under Guardiola was better at posession football than us up until Fabregas went and left and that was with a vastly inferior squad. I'm sure he also learned a lot in Japan. Klopp learned a lot at Mainz, so did Tuchel, Ferguson at Aberdeen and that is what seperates Arteta from all of those guys, because those guys learned the job at smaller clubs and and their stubbornness was backed by the necessary man management tools to implement their philosophy, which they learned at those clubs. Arteta's mentor as far as management goes was Guardiola, the one guy who never did all that and only ever managed the best players in the world. He's also a psychopath, although you probably have to be to keep a dressing room with Messi, Xavi, Piqué, Alves and the like in check. I'm sure he's got his "non-negotiables" too, his getting rid of high profile players like Eto'o is not unlike Arteta, but he's earned the respect to be able to do that, because he won the treble in his first season.
