Arteta - one more year and that’s it: Page 42 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Arteta - one more year and that’s it

Qwiss

awooga83 we had an 84 point season the year before, that's how many points Liverpool got last season. We dropped off badly last season but it looked more like the outlier. And its not like we haven't significantly upgraded the team this summer. No one is guaranteed a title but its looking like its going to be between us and Liverpool and they seem to have as many problems as we do so far and they've not had the injury issues we have. And they are adding Isak but we still haven't really added Eze to the mix and we have Hincapie coming in. They missed the defender they need. There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic, I don't understand how people can enjoy football if they abandon all hope so easily.

Qwiss

daredevil Matchups in a single campaign may not tell you a lot.... This season, they've already beaten us so it may very well be a sign that they're going to start pulling away.

Isn't this doing exactly what you are saying? If they'd out played us I'd get it but they got very lucky with a wonder strike. It happens. If your theory was true then we shouldn't be criticising Artetas selection because they were destined to win anyway. I don't believe that, I think Liverpool were there for the taking and if that's true then how can we also act like they are some incredible machine that can't be caught?

jones

USArsenal where did you say that?

There's always some excuse, we were incredibly lucky with injuries in the years before last and Artetas lack of rotating is a major reason for the injuries that struck in 24/25.

Again if we need a perfect squad to compete we don't need a manager. Arsenal were never a club that had top tier backups now it's a prerequisite to judge the guy in charge. He's spent a billion pounds ffs.

Qwiss

jones you do wonder where we'd be now if we'd given this sort of financial support to Wenger in his last 5 years.

jones

Qwiss back to back treble winners. Maybe not but we'd score at least 150 a season

daredevil

Qwiss

Wenger was backed in his last five years after Ozil came in. The problem was three fold - we narrowly missed out on some super players who would have changed our fortunes. Wenger started to lose control within the club and apparently others were starting to dictate transfer policy. Lastly, the thing that made Wenger the GOAT was having unrivalled access to top players in France, once that edge was lost, we were no longer finding top French talent, largely due to fucking Grimandi.

I don't think he was tactically strong enough to flourish using modern day tactics, but nonetheless I would have loved to have seen it. Also, the amount of money we spent between Ozil and Aubameyang was a lot. Adjusted for inflation, it's close to similar.

flobaba

JazzG Liverpool were set up to be compact and give us little to no room, what if we had been more attacking and then got picked off?

Then we'd have lost 3 points. Oh wait. 🤔

JazzG

flobaba Thanks for that captain obvious! 😉 My point is I can live with losing to a worldly of a freekick but not so much if our tactics allowed us to be picked off at will.

Sicario2

Talks a good game our Mikel does. This time no one is fooled. Actions speak louder than words and thankfully most are in agreement that we need something tangible this time round.

CPM

Sicario2 Yeah Arteta has been pulling the wool over our eyes while he's basically single-handedly taken us from 8th in the PL and fading fast to one of the premier clubs in England and Europe.

Burnwinter

Sicario2 Talks a good game our Mikel does. This time no one is fooled. Actions speak louder than words

Enigmatic issue, as it's certainly possible for a popular "thought leader" in a technical field to have poor technical ability behind closed doors.

Arteta's sort of the opposite of that, though. He's publicly unlikable but almost every football professional he deals with showers him with praise. Even our departing outcasts such as Lokonga can't talk highly enough.

Arteta's job is to talk to and convince football players, whether conveying ideas, methods, plans or decisions, in order to win. Given the responses we know about, it doesn't seem the problem is convincing the players, or anyone else.

Given we haven't won anything, the question is: is Arteta beguiling everyone at Arsenal from top to bottom of the club with brilliant bad ideas? We get the only answer to that riddle that's meaningful when Arsenal wins something big or he leaves. In the meantime, it can feel a bit like everyone on the payroll at Arsenal might be stuck on Circe's island getting turned from people into pigs one by one. As fans, we're still stuck hoping this guy is Odysseus and not Circe.

Sicario2

CPM yep whilst spending nothing and getting to zero finals. It’s such a great achievement.

SimplyThePest

Sicario2 Come on, Sic. You'd rather be where we're at than the likes of Man Utd or Tottenham, for example. Their trophy wins were akin to a terminally ill person having a good day in the midst of an ultimately dire and futile situation.

jones

SimplyThePest there are alternatives you know. Like winning trophies or at least playing attractive football

Sicario2

SimplyThePest only losers compare themselves to losers. I would rather look at the likes of Liverpool. Always aim up, not down.

Big Willie

SimplyThePest You'd rather be where we're at than the likes of Man Utd or Tottenham, for example

Of course. But then again before Spurs ended up where they are now, they were where we are now for a few years under Potchettino. We could easily end up like them unless, unlike them, we make our time in these positions count when we are in them.

You never know when we'll be in these sorts of positions again when this team ages out or gets picked off. And that's with or without trophies, just that trophies makes us more attractive to potential signing and gives us more money to sign them whilst also making it less likely they get picked off instead of us upgrading on them/moving them on.

QuincyAbeyie

SimplyThePest You'd rather be where we're at than the likes of Man Utd or Tottenham, for example

SimplyThePest

Sicario2 you were pretty cranky when Spurs won the Conference League, if I recall correctly... 😃

Look, in general, I agree with you. We have to compete and to jones' point, hopefully play some decent football along the way.

A question for you blokes: what is your minimum acceptable outcome for us this season, taking into account factors that we can and can't control?

Sicario2

SimplyThePest still be in the title race by May/Semi final of CL AND win the FA Cup. Absolute minimum. In reality it should be winning the league or CL but at least winning a trophy (fa cup) is something tangible.

If we finish 4th and win FA Cup that’s not good enough of course.

CPM

SimplyThePest It's more the intuitive sense you get from watching us play, and whether the club is on the right track and progressing. The PL and CL are too competitive for any club to demand that they win in a particular year, although if we backslide or stagnate in both competitions that presents a problem. The domestic cups will not move the needle at all and will be forgotten about two weeks after they're won.

Between recruitment and tactical changes, Arteta has clearly responded to the attacking troubles we had last year. Will it be enough? Are they the right moves? I don't know. But let's not crucify him for the crime of starting Mikel Merino at Anfield instead of an 18-year-old changing positions or a just-arrived Eze. Of course there are legitimate criticisms you can make, but right now it feels like there is a lot of frustration in the air that is looking for a scapegoat to blame for everything bad that happens to the club, and given all the good Arteta has done for us, that is totally irrational behavior.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

SimplyThePest being brave in attack and winning one of the big two.

Sicario2

CPM all that Arteta has done for us is wiped clean at this stage, he has no cash or goodwill left in the bank. Right now he’s at break even point for me, loses we go minus territory, wins then everything is good again and it’s calm. All or nothing.

Big Willie

Sicario2 All or nothing.

I ain't even watched that show man.

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