jones wrote:
I'm pretty sure everyone here is upbeat and optimistic about the squad we have. Most of us simply think a) the team would gain a big boost from having someone capable managing them and b) they dislike the current manager not for his ability but his behaviour and character. It's not that outlandish to think that someone who has proven himself elsewhere would be transformational for this team.
Pretty much. Though to be fair, most people in football are assholes, if I were convinced Arteta is a top class coach in the making, I'd probably be willing to look past b.
And I've said it before, but it's not the fact that Arteta got extended that has me upset, it's the way the club operates. If Arteta gets us Top 4, he has earned an extension. If he doesn't, it's debatable at least, but what isn't is that offering him an extension after three straight losses is not the way an ambitious club acts. Anzac mentioned it, we've got ourselves another AW situation, where the manager has a lot of power and there's really no checks and balances, because whenever we were fucking shit and breaking the wrong kinds of records, the club made sure to assure everyone his position isn't in question. Instead we banished players or hired PR firms. And even with Wenger, that model was outdated and a bad idea. And Arteta certainly is no AW.
It's okay that we're supporting the manager, although I wish we would have done the same with Emery, but it sure seems like it's based on nothing but stubborn conviction that he is the solution. And it should be based on results.
As far as the trajectory of the team goes, yeah I'm fucking excited for it, who the fuck isn't? But improvement in football isn't linear. We spent a fucking shitload of money this summer, and it has improved us massively. Another summer like that will probably improve us again. But that's less to do with the manager, and more with the fact that we are obscenely rich compared to the vast majority of clubs. Arteta has spent the money well and for a time it looked like he finally figured out a balanced formation that allows our best players to shine, but we were very inconsistent over the season. In my opinion, it's everything but outlandish to think there are better options out there and that Arteta is not the man to lead us forward. I honestly think that's not unfair on him if you take his entire tenure into consideration. I think he's a lot more competent than Ole, and he finished second last year. Man United fans thought adding Ronaldo and Sancho would allow them to take the next step, instead they might well be playing in the ECL next year. Chelsea are the reigning CL champions and added Lukaku, their fans thought they'd challenge for the title, instead we might yet catch them. So the "we're one striker away from being the third best team in the league" argument doesn't work in my opinion, because that's not how football works. I think it's far more likely we'll see another season full of inconsistencies, where depending on the quality we add in the summer and our rivals' performance, we'll finish somewhere between third and sixth. And I'm fine with that for now. But not past next season or the one after that.
