goon wrote:
Big Willie wrote:
- By the same token repeatedly asking whether people still want Arteta out us daft. Our performances this season is a shock to everyone who was Arteta out and I'm sure most of those who were Arteta in. Credit to him, he'd taken us from underperforming relative to the players we had available to hugely overperforming with what we've got. You'd have to be enormously blinded with hatred for the man if you still want him out at this stage. Won't change if you keep asking the question unless we somehow implode and drop out of top 4.
Agreed but I do find myself wondering how some of his bigger detractors feel about him now. If you've spent 2 years openly hating a guy, his decisions etc. it can't be easy turning that on it's head.
Genuinely curious how some of you guys feel about it. Do you still dislike him? Has our success this season made you review any of your previous assessments about his decisions? Do you think there's many other managers who'd have gotten us here just as quickly or quicker?
Can't imagine anyone wanting him fired at the moment. I said the same thing earlier that I'd never want to fire a manager while he's doing well. The decisions I've disagreed with are still decisions I disagree with, i.e. leaving Saliba with the reserves, getting rid of Auba before replacing him, getting rid of Pepe before replacing him, not signing Bennacer (or another midfielder that's good enough), choosing option number three in the question "sell or play AMN" etc. The big thing for me after the summer was that our squad was way too thin. But we've come away with it unscathed and the January window is right around the corner so the risk paid off if we can get the players we want. Last january, it didn't.
We are now title challengers, which is above what I expect us to be. City clearly have better players than us, so Arteta has us doing better than the sum of our parts. Last season I think we did worse than the sum. I think many managers would've gotten us fourth last season, but few would have us challenging this season.
If you look at RtC's post right above mine, I think that's a big difference between our mindsets. He thinks page 20 is hilarious, so I went back to check, but I think everything that's there is reasonable. For me, that we're challenging now doesn't retrospectively make what we did last season less awful.
