I've said all along that the club never planned on letting him go because they view him as a 'dynasty' manager and always have done. So the news came as no real shock to me. I expected this to happen. It's also clear that the club's objective this season was to get back into Europe and, so far, we've achieved that with 4 games to spare. Based on Arteta's press conference before the West Ham match, he'd insinuated that the club have got different plans/transfer targets already depending on if we get Europa League or if we get Champions League. So there are provisions ahead of schedule with his input included. For me personally, I would have preferred to see if we got Champions League football first before giving out an extension. I'm not sure what the rush was, as I highly doubt there were a queue of clubs gagging for Arteta's signature. But it is what it is, and I do understand why they've done this. I think he's done a decent job this season, and (in terms of league position) has us slightly higher than anticipated. But it would feel very anti-climactic if we now don't get top-4. Question marks about his managerial competence will rumble on. Even if we do get top-4, the jury is still out for me. I want to see how he balances multiple competitions, how he handles bigger personalities, how he manages the squad and whether he'll make more expensive mistakes (Willian, Cedric, Mari etc). It's done now, so I just have to hope it works out the way it's meant to.
It does sum up The Powers That Be in this country, though. Whole squad has food poisoning/virus? This is fine. One player has covid? Better delay the game for months.
@Citizen Kane., this sentence here by DH is the justification for the new deal. Despite opinions being divided on him on social media, it does seem like he's very popular internally; all the players like him, the non-playing staff get on with him too and he seems to have (allegedly) built a good culture throughout the club. I'm guessing the owners wouldn't want to restart all of that again, so they're choosing to prioritise Arteta's process over (short-term) results.
Inter and Empoli are currently drawing 2-2 at half-time. Empoli went 2-0 up with the opening goal being scored by an Inter player on loan to them. Inter's first goal was scored by a former Milan youth player called Romagnoli. Big half for Serie A coming up.
Lack of consistency is a standard feature of the game and the worse. If anything applies to one of their favourite charges (bringing the game into disrepute) inconsistency of officials takes the biscuit.
Absolutely, but what I mean is right now, even with players who aren’t playing regularly or who are frequently lambasted, they still seem to have a good relationship with him. The test will be when we get higher calibre players with big personalities and whether he’ll be able to manage them, particularly if they don’t play well. We saw what he did with Aubameyang (and they had a good relationship up until this season). And although he received plaudits for sticking to his principles, the reality is he can’t keep ripping up expensive contracts the moment players don’t conform. He’s a manager for a reason and he needs to show that he can manage difficult situations.
Martinez scores his 2nd goal of the match to put Inter 3-2 up against Empoli. Strips off about 3 layers in his celebration and is subbed off a couple of minutes later. Odd.
Pep doesn't understand tournament football is about moments and not philosophy. He thinks being the smartest kid in school means you get the best exam results. That said, you have to shoulder the blame for that defeat on the players, it's actually one of few I don't think Pep should be held accountable for.
Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell certainly isn't in a rush to take his goalkicks, I'll say that much. Jack Clarke and Alex Pritchard are surprised to see Sunderland promptly go 1-0 up
Pritchard is looking a stand out player in this game. Now he’s put his covid and injury issues behind him, he’s proving to be far too good for this league.
