If you only wrote this paragraph and it wasn’t obvious to everyone your name is “Brunel Gunner”, a lot would think you were talking about us. We’ve pretty much had the exact same issues as you and the only real reason we’ve somewhat kept afloat was down to the quality of Kane and Son. Paratici’s been hired to hopefully fix a lot of this and whilst we’ll have to wait a year or two to see if his signings have been hits, I’ve been impressed by what he’s done so far, both with ins and outs, albeit a lot still needs to happen between now and Tuesday night.
He was a breathtakingly stupid appointment. Neither he, Vinai Vinkatesham, Edu or Kronke have any clue as to how to do their jobs properly. At which point, he may stay in the short term (he shouldn't) but if you haven't picked up by the international break, I think that he'll be jettisoned then.
The big question is who replaces him at that stage? You've spent more than any other PL team to seemingly stand still, you've awarded underperforming players with new contracts, your best players are ageing and the core of your squad is extremely young and inexperienced. Any new manager will have all of that to contend with and the high possibility of very little budget to contend it with in January. Loads of Gooners I know seem to think Conte is a shoo-in. While I don't think it's impossible, it certainly isn't likely he'd want to risk his entire reputation taking on a project as risky as yours. Truthfully the right time to go for him was as soon as he left Inter. Sack Arteta, promise Conte that £130m, and he may well have joined. The decision makers at your club badly misjudged the situation in that regard and missed a golden opportunity. It wouldn't surprise me if the hierarchy is waiting patiently to see if Vieira can hack it as a PL manager, then will go for him next summer. It's a decision that will unite the fans and with the greatest respect you aren't going to do much better than someone of his level.
Although I can get along with most of what you're saying, this is where I totally disagree. I don't think an elite manager would come to us; if we wanted a manager like Conte, I think that ship has sailed. And even someone the bracket below that i.e. Rodgers would most likely be out of reach. However, the idea that our only other option after Arteta would be a fairly unproven Patrick Vieira isn't something I cannot see eye to eye with you on. I think if we tried to get someone like Graham Potter, who has done a very good job at Brighton, I think he'd jump ship without question. I think Kovac has done a good job at Monaco, despite a tough patch he's gone through recently. He's within the realms of possibility. If we tried for Hassenhuttl at Southampton, who also has done a great job under very testing circumstances at Southampton, he would enjoy the opportunity to come to us. I also think we could take Christophe Galtier from Nice, if we tried. The point I'm making is there are absolutely better options than Vieira out there who are still within our grasp, even if they're not in the upper echelons of managers. The other thing to note is that a lot of the players we've bought are very young so there is still a higher ceiling for them to improve and show what they're capable of. We're still lacking in some areas (RB, CB, CM), but a new manager would look to develop them to a significantly higher level than we're seeing now. Make no mistake. Things are very, very bad right now. The worst I've ever seen an Arsenal side in my life. However, I don't think prospective managers or players view things as cynically as fans do. Whether that's right or not is immaterial.
He's been there about a week! Wouldn't look great for him to jump ship so quickly, but I guess he might not give a ****.
