- How footballers so often find that belief in a treatment can create a wonder cure
- How are Arsenal doing compared with previous starts?
By Tony Attwood
I am not sure that many of even the most rabid football journalists could make much of a case for Mikel Arteta not signing a new long-term contract with the club. Just as I am not sure that whatever salary he gets from here on, but I know he deserves it.
Indeed if there was anything to worry about, it was the fact that the contract he signed in September 2024 was just for three years. What’s more, the fact that Arteta was allowed to be in charge of the contract deals this summer showed the world that both the club and the man himself had every intention of staying. He was after all the man who gave Arsenal their first championship since the Unbeaten Season of 2004.
But as I have pointed out before, the club allowed him to establish his own position, and get rid of the leftover players, with a run of finishes that went 8th, 8th, 5th, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 1st. And he also gave us only our second eve Champions League final (the other one was in 2006).
Plus let us not forget he has given Arsenal an expectation of winning. That doesn’t mean we are going to win another major trophy this season, although obviously I hope we will, but we most certainly are among the major contenders. Of course we can’t match the financial levels of Real Mad, and Bayern Munich (although I am having severe doubts as to where Barcelona are heading and what their finances are doing), but we are marching forwards, and that is what I always want to see.
But for me there is more than that – there is the way we bring players through. I don’t meant to claim that we have a squad built of our own youngsters, but rather than our young players know they will be given a chance. For this means that when a brilliant young player is coming up through the school levels, he will be considering Arsenal as a natural place that, if he is good enough, will give him a chance.
I have read that his contract takes Arteta through to 2030. He has already managed Arsenal for 360 games – and that contract will give him another 170 or more games, taking him up to the Bertie Mee level but not to the Wenger total.
So just in case you are interested, and because I don’t think we’ve ever published this before, the longest serving managers in terms of games are…
- Arsene Wenger: 1,235 games
- Bertie Mee: 539 games
- George Graham: 460 games
- Tom Whittaker: 430 games
- Terry Neill 416 games
- Herbert Chapman 411 games
- Mikel Arteta: 360 games.
But there are a couple of other things we might note. On 360 games, Arteta is the Premier League’s longest serving manager at this time which goes to show just how readily clubs get rid of their managers these days. I, for one, am so sure that Arsenal did not follow the calls for Arteta’s dismissal during the run of second place finishes.
And what all the commentaries written by people who know what goes on within the club, rather than just knowing how many trophies have or have not been won, have noted, is that the title last season was the result of a constant reworking and transformation of the club at all levels. And it is for that, that he has become one of the best paid managers in the world. Because it is that which gives the owners the confidence to consider borrowing more money to extend one end of the ground, and give even more people a chance to watch the games in person – while also spending money on the team.
And meanwhile of course, the club can now focus on extending the contract of Declan Rice, surely the player who more than any other, we really want to keep.
Of course none of these events will stop the media going on and on about the “failure” to sign another attacker as they saw it last season, ignoring once more the fact that Arsenal already had the second best goal scoring record in the League, built not on one super forward (who might be marked out of a game or indeed get injured) but on goals coming from all over the pitch.
Obviously it is still being written in the media that Arsenal “targeted” this or that player, ignoring the fact that most of these alleged moves were blinds by Arsenal whild the real work was going on elsewhere.
Still we must let these newspaper reporters get on with their fantasies because that is what they do, failing as ever to mention that 97% of the potential transfers they mention never actually happen. (Just imagine what would happen in any other line of work with a 97% failure rate!)
What the journalists can’t admit, and what they hate, is the fact that the bulk of the transfer rumours that circulate each window are deliberate falsehoods made up by clubs to ensure other clubs don’t know what Arsenal are up to (although to be fair, other clubs do this as well). It allows the journalists to write about how the club “lacks direction” but it is as ever a load of turnips.
But we do occasionally find a commentary that says “Arsenal kept their powder dry,” and that they always do, which is why it is better to watch the official announcements rather than the ramblings of those, not in the club, about who is going to be bought and who sold.
We did get Bruno Guimarães, Ezri Konsa, Piero Hincapié, and Christos Tzolis and most journalists have called that a failure. I think I shall, as ever, wait and see.
The league title and a Champions League final of last season means it is going to be hard to improve on that record, although many “experts” have already suggested that Arsenal could retain the title. But that of course is because they refuse to point out how ManC are still manipulating their finances, and how the League is refusing to deal with them.
That refusal could give ManC the title again, but we shal of course see in time, and I remain very hopeful for this season.
