By Tony Attwood
One of the things we can see from comments on this site, and indeed on other blogs and of course within the media (which loves and runs the story) is that the recent slippages in results at Arsenal is all due to Arteta and his tactics, or lack of them. If we had a proper manager, they argue, we’d be able to avoid this.
So they call for a change of manager… just as Tottenham changes its manager. Just as over half of the Premier League has changed their manager this season.
And let’s not be afraid to examine this. Tottenham have had eight managers since 2021, and the reason why they have had eight is fourfold.
First, because it takes a while to convince a new manager to come to a club where the alleged supporters and their pals in the media claim everything is broken. Yes, those people who are writing saying Arsenal need a new manager are in fact, making it harder for Arsenal to get a new manager because they are suggesting everything is broken. Who wants to work for a company where everything is broken?
Second, if the manager that the club wants is any good, he’ll already be happily working in another club. Why come to Arsenal, where so many fans hate the manager and where everything is broken, and several members of the squad are apparently useless?
Third, because he will be reading all the comments from journalists and alleged supporters suggesting that the club is in a terrible state and it is probably not resuscitable because of the depth of the problem which they say has been growing over recent years.
Fourth, because of the speed and anger with which the media and those supporters who follow the media’s lead turn on the existing manager. They’ve done it before, so you can be sure they’ll turn against the next man, whoever it is.
Beyond this, you have to remember that Arsenal have come runners-up three times running. And of course I am aware that the old saying used against Wenger that “Fourth is not a trophy” is now transmuted into “Second is not a trophy”. But that anger, although encouraged by the media, is indeed real, and there are some people who are thoroughly pissed off at Arsenal coming second. It is as if they feel we have a right to come first. Would you go and manage a team where you would be pilloried for coming second?
In fact, Arteta has taken Arsenal nearer to winning the League we have been in the past 20 years. Indeed, if it were not for the financial chicanery of Manchester City, I am certain we would have won the league several times in the last 20 years.
However, the league seems determined to do nothing about ManC, either because the rest of the League have been bought off by ManC or because ManC has repeated its willingness to bring the Premier League to its knees financially, by suing it until the money runs out.
Now that the situation is hardly Arteta’s fault. Indeed, despite playing against a club with more money than the rest of the Premier League put together, Arsenal have indeed come second three times running. Had there been no state-funded club in the league, Arsenal would have won the league. But there is a state-funded club in the league, and sacking the Arsenal manager is most certainly not going to change that situation.
Matters are of course, made much worse by the attitude of the media, who know how easily and readily some Arsenal supporters can be manipulated and persuaded that, despite all the managerial changes that we have seen elsewhere this season, a change of manager for Arsenal will in fact, make things better. For goodness sake, just look at Tottenham, where they change their manager three times a year. Does that suggest managerial changes work?
There are 20 clubs in the Premier League, and there have been 11 managerial changes during the course of this season. And guess what. The club that is chasing Arsenal’s tail at the moment is a club that has NOT changed its manager this season, and is the one club that HAS got infinite amounts of money to spend on anything it likes. So much money, in fact, that the rest of the league dare not finish off their legal case against them.
I would also say that the argument that ManC have pulled back on the spending because of the Premier League’s assault on them, remains very much unproven. Just wait until the current man leaves and see what the club does then. Or indeed ask yourself why the ManC case has still not been resolved after a couple of years of argument. They have their “we’ll sue you out of existence” threat ready to roll if it is ever needed.
Basically, as long as ManC exist in its present form, the Premier League is not the open playing field that was envisaged when it was set up.
So if you really want to argue about sacking Arteta, just think, what would a new manager do about ManC and its money and its pending 115 court cases? The answer is nothing, because like Arteta, he can do nothing. And yet that is the biggest issue football in England faces.
The miracle is that Arteta has got Arsenal to the top of a league that ManC plays in. And just imagine what that club will do next season if it doesn’t walk off with the league this season. Assuming that Arsenal wins the league, and the 115 charges against ManC are not resolved, can you imagine just how much ManC will spend on new players and their salaries in the coming summer months? Then think what a new manager, replacing Arteta, would do. Rebuild the side while Manc sail ahead, winning match after match buying any player it wants.
Being above ManC at the moment in the league is a miracle. I doubt there are many other miracle workers around.
