I do think this coming season will be Mikel's last if we fail to win anything. That said, we have to understand that winning something is not the norm - it's probably less than 50/50 for us next year. It's difficult to win anything and you need a bit of luck unless you are a truly dominant team in the league (as City have been for fraudulent reasons). In terms of the league - we will know pretty early whether we have a chance. Those first 6 games are a real challenge.
I think for most fans and .. this goes back to the Wenger days .... being close and just needing those one or two players to make the difference seems to be a broken record stuck on loop. In Wenger's latter years we cried out for some decent defenders and goal keeper. We never got one. In. these Arteta years its a decent striker - no offence to Havertz but I still want better. We never seem capable of having a strong keeper - Defence - Midfield and Attack, there is always an important piece missing. And you are right, Arteta's records in the cups WITH HIS OWN TEAMS is shockingly poor.
Do you mean shocking in terms of not winning ? I look at his actual record and I see loads of semi finals and quarter finals. That's not shocking at all.
This is what I mean about small margins. It’s true we’ve not won anything, but we are very much challenging Hopefully these additions will be the ingredients we need to turn almosts into actual trophies
There's been a bit of a mix - we have had some shockingly bad results getting knocked out where we simply didn't turn up. Newcastle last year in the semi finals is a good example - good run (so not terrible overall) but those games were pretty unacceptable. Newcastle wanted it more than we did and that was pretty obvious. I think the players - and manager - might be prioritising the league and champions league. To me that doesn't work - the intensity has to be there every game because bad cup results can impact form, which can be hard to get back.
