AC Milan's top goalscorer for the decade is Ibrahimovic. He was there for two seasons and scored 42 goals. How the mighty have fallen. By comparison, Kane is ours and he's scored 134, so far. Son, Alli and Eriksen all exceed Milan's total.
So, 'that lot' have appointed Arteta. I think that the theory is sound. They're now a project with the club needing reinventing. He'll commit the time and work to attempt to do that. I'd liken their situation to Liverpool after we'd nicked 'their' CL place in 2010. Like today's Arsenal, the club had owners who had no ****ing idea and the club completely lost direction and made a whole series of poor decisions, only qualifying for one CL campaign between 2010 and 2017. Arsenal are now heading firmly in that direction with even more clubs between them and the CL spots. Now is not the time to be bringing in a manager who is expecting to turn things around really quickly. It won't work and a lot of time and money will be wasted. An awful lot of the current squad aren't good enough or don't have it in them to apply the right level of graft. It's going to take some time to move some of them on because they're being paid way above their true level and whatever money they had, has been spent without great effect. Will he succeed? Who knows? Seeing the problems is one thing....putting them right is something altogether more difficult. I wish him no luck at all and hope to be seeing the AFTV mob getting on his case very soon..
One thing about how they're greeting Arteta's appointment bothers me: several fans have said that, as he worked under Guardiola, that means he'll be great ...errrm, why do they believe that? For the most obvious example of why that's a fallacy, just look at Roy Keane: he played under both Brian Clough and Alex Ferguson, yet is so out of his depth in management that his most significant achievement is to have the likes of Jack Grealish and Declan Rice look for any English grandparents just so they can avoid having to put up with him a few days a year Similarly, history is filled with numerous examples of a great AssMan who shuffled up the bench to become...not very good as a manager, with people such as Brian Kidd, Peter Taylor, Steve McClaren, Sammy Lee, Carlos Queiroz, Paul Clement and Glenn Roeder all being examples of how effective management is about more than where you sit on the bench
There's no guarantee that any managerial appointment will work. It's probably a bit more likely to go tits up if it's the manager's first gig and the club's seriously under-performing with divisions between the supporters and owners. I see the logic of going for him but it's a massive gamble. AVB went into Chelsea having worked for Mourinho and was a very similar appointment to Arteta, other than he'd actually done the job successfully at Porto. On paper, it would have worked beautifully... Well, we all know how badly that went and he then replicated it with us. You can have all the theory and have served an excellent apprenticeship to a master craftsman but footballing history is littered with excellent bag men who just didn't cut it. He's either got the chops or he hasn't. Lots of Sir Ferguson's former players and coaches have gone into management. None of them have achieved anything to hold up to their mentor...
Only time will tell if Arteta becomes a success managing Woolwich, I will be delighted if he doesn`t.
I absolutely agree that this is a massive risk and could end up backfiring horribly, given the precarious situation we are in. However, all the potential names thrown in the hat had some serious downsides too. There is a dearth of quality managers available at the moment - who we can realistically get. And we're certainly not going to pay £14m-£15m to prize away the likes of Rodgers from Leicester, who would command an outrageous compensation fee. Ancelotti: proven winner and likeable character, but never had to rebuild an entire squad from scratch. Won't give the players a rocket up the arse if they even contemplated downing tools. Allegri: didn't want to return to management until the Summer, but he'd been living a very cosy life at Juventus with minimal competition and a plethora of resources. Again, no evidence of him rebuilding a squad from scratch. He improves existing teams that already have the quality available. Similar to Ancelotti in that respect. Pochettino: was never going to happen. Rodgers: too expensive and frankly, he would be silly to leave Leicester, considering how well they've been doing. Nuno: Football isn't aesthetically-pleasing and is quite 'defensive-minded'. As you can imagine, I want to be optimistic about this appointment. However, I'm not naive enough to believe we've unearthed a gem or that Arteta will be as influential as 1996-2006 Arsene Wenger. These are the reasons why I'm (quietly) hopeful: 1. He is an excellent communicator. That became obvious in his press conferences. He can also speak multiple languages fluently (English, French, Spanish...) which is very handy. 2. He has captained Everton and Arsenal, so he knows what it means to be a leader of traditionally big clubs. He understands the club. He also won trophies as captain and was crucial in securing Champions League football. 3. The likes of Pochettino, Pep and Wenger have praised him for his work ethic, tactical insight and his ability to learn quickly. The fact Pep and Man City (by all accounts) were desperate to keep him should emphasise his value to what they've achieved. 4. He has a clear identity of how he wants to play and has a clear idea of what he wants from the players. Being second fiddle to Pep won't have been harmful in regards to footballing philosophy. 5. He does a lot of one-on-one work with players. The likes of Sterling, de Bruyne and Jesus has publicly commended him for accelerating their improvement as individuals. He also took charge of training sessions in his latter years at Arsenal. 6. He has asserted his authority already - something Emery never did. He's already said that, for the Everton match when he's in the stands, he will be observing the players' body language, how they react to losing the ball and what they do with the ball at feet. This will let him know who's grafting and who isn't. There's also a thread from a Man City fan about why they believe he'll be a success as a head coach/manager: He has a clear vision of how he wants things to be. The current group of players aren't the type to rely on when the chips are down. So I am not expecting a 'new manager bounce'. What I do hope for is that he'll be afforded the right time, patience and resources to thrive. It's a long-term project. Of course it could all horribly backfire. But, if it works out, the Arsenal board will look like geniuses. Let's see.
I'd agree with that. Possibly the most important thing is that the fans dig in for the bloke and realise that they can be a force for good. Going to Spurs was possibly more fun when we were ****....honestly. . When Emery made a good start the "We've got our Arsenal back" was overwhelming but as a few cracks started to appear that dried up pretty soon and soon after, the torches and pitch forks were out. I'm not sure that a large enough percentage of your fan base has accepted that there's a long hard road back to the top table and they can lead the way. Having spent 2 decades watching us knock around in Dante's version of hell complete with the legend "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.", I recommend just supporting the team and the worse they get, the more you need to get behind them. It may not do any good but in my estimation, the AFTV stuff is harmful. If you hate the owners then stop buying the merch and spending money at the concessions but the banners are harmful. I hope to see lots of fans losing their **** for some time to come...
So Lacazette earns 60k a touch (2) and Ozil earns 350k for not even making the bench. Arteta has a lot of work to do there
Penalty to Liverpool in Kloppage time, anyone surprised? Edit: foreign VAR does understand the rules.
The good news for David De Gea is he doesn't play for Saltypool, as his family would already be receiving death threats for that howler...
Well that was fun. Exactly what Spurs need to do this afternoon, controlled aggression. Lets hope Sir Eric of Engerland is up for it.
