Will Arteta leave Arsenal?
- The absolute proof that the media is anti-Arsenal
- Why Arsenal’s revolution worked, while Tottenham and Chelsea flopped
By Sir Hardly Anyone
These are difficult times for the football media in England. For years and years they have had a focus on what Arsenal are doing wrong, and now clearly Arsenal are doing most things right, they are struggling to find stories.
But it was only a matter of time before they hit on the notion that Arteta would soon pack up and leave Arsenal for pastures new. But where would he go?
Barcelona used to be the place that whisked away our players, but now, despite being top of the league, they are financially in no fit state to do that any more, and no manager with an ounce of sanity would go there, knowing that they have just spent all of the next 25 years’ TV income – and are still spending.
Juventus and Milan have also been in trouble with the authorities of late over such pesky matters as record keeping and taxation, so who else could steal Arsenal’s top men? PSG looks daily like a basket case that will implode either the moment the rest of the footballing world feels it has had enough of its shenanigans or the French tax office wakes up. So that leaves…. Real Madrid. Still seemingly solvent, although no longer ruling the roost in Spain. And that must be very galling for them.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barcelona | 27 | 23 | 2 | 2 | 53 | 9 | 44 | 71 |
| 2 | Real Madrid | 27 | 18 | 5 | 4 | 57 | 21 | 36 | 59 |
| 3 | Atletico Madrid | 27 | 16 | 6 | 5 | 43 | 19 | 24 | 54 |
| 4 | Real Sociedad | 27 | 14 | 6 | 7 | 35 | 26 | 9 | 48 |
Real Madrid is, as far as I can tell, a highly profitable club with a positive balance sheet, except for its stadium redevelopment project which is accounted for separately as it is financed through loans repaid over a large number of years (rather like a mortgage).
And particularly annoying for Real Madrid is that while Barcelona makes a loss in the best of times, Real Madrid made a profit all the way through the pandemic years.
Real Madrid managers generally only last a couple of years and it is thought by many that Carlo Ancelotti is coming to the end of his tenure. Which is a cue for headlines such as “Arsenal contingency plan emerges to replace Mikel Arteta amid Real Madrid links
This basically suggests that Real Madrid think Arteta could be a good fit for them, and that Arsenal are already searching for their next manager.
The view in the Mirror (geddit?) is that Arsenal think this scenario is so likely that they have already started making plans for their next manager, and see Roberto De Zerbi as the “potential successor” to Mikel Arteta. A similar story is appearing in Tuttosport.
However, on the positive side, Arteta will have a clear memory of just how Arsenal stood by him when the media and those hangers-on who take the football media as the purveyors of truth rather than a cesspit of lies when Arsenal sank to just four points above relegation almost one year to the day from his taking over in north London.
I’m running the whole table (below) from that moment because it not only shows just how far Arsenal sank in the year after Arteta was appointed, but also how quickly league tables can change. You will notice that this table for 24 December 2020 has Leicester in second place, Everton in fourth, Southampton in seventh, and Brighton in 17th. That is just 2.5 seasons ago.
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 14 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 36 | 19 | 17 | 31 |
| 2 | Leicester City | 14 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 26 | 17 | 9 | 27 |
| 3 | Manchester United | 13 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 28 | 21 | 7 | 26 |
| 4 | Everton | 14 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 25 | 19 | 6 | 26 |
| 5 | Chelsea | 14 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 29 | 14 | 15 | 25 |
| 6 | Tottenham Hotspur | 14 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 25 | 14 | 11 | 25 |
| 7 | Southampton | 14 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 25 | 19 | 6 | 24 |
| 8 | Manchester City | 13 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 19 | 12 | 7 | 23 |
| 9 | Aston Villa | 12 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 24 | 13 | 11 | 22 |
| 10 | West Ham United | 14 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 21 | 19 | 2 | 21 |
| 11 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 14 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 14 | 19 | -5 | 20 |
| 12 | Newcastle United | 13 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 17 | 22 | -5 | 18 |
| 13 | Crystal Palace | 14 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 19 | 25 | -6 | 18 |
| 14 | Leeds United | 14 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 24 | 30 | -6 | 17 |
| 15 | Arsenal | 14 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 12 | 18 | -6 | 14 |
| 16 | Burnley | 13 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 19 | -11 | 13 |
| 17 | Brighton and Hove Albion | 14 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 16 | 22 | -6 | 12 |
| 18 | Fulham | 14 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 13 | 23 | -10 | 10 |
| 19 | West Bromwich Albion | 14 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 10 | 29 | -19 | 7 |
| 20 | Sheffield United | 14 | 0 | 2 | 12 | 8 | 25 | -17 | 2 |
Now of course Leicester City, Everton, Leeds United, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Southampton are all looking nervously at relegation rather than at claiming a European place, while Fulham who were 18th are comfortably in 10th, and Arsenal have gone for 15th to 1st.
Thus success does not always breed success. Things can change quickly, and when a club has a successful manager it can be worth doing everything possible to keep hold of him.
This season, as we have noted before, 12 Premier League managers have been sacked. One might also note that the last manager Arsenal sacked, is now improving Aston Villa so much that across the last six games they are the third most successful club in the league. It’s a pesky business this managerial appointing game, and holding on to a good one now we have got one must be Arsenal’s priority.
Frank Lampard has picked up 9 defeats in his last 12 Premier League games. Frank Lampard has been appointed Chelsea manager.
Haha. IDK is it just me that was actually relieved that we went out of that competition, a tournament we simply would have been really stretching beyond our ability if we were to try and win it, and gave ourselves more room to go after the Scum?
A little bird told me that Frank will steady the ship till the next manager comes in. Then he will leave for his boyhood club , West Ham , where a vacancy is opening up pronto !
To me it is just that : interim. No other manager was going to take THAT job now, they are out of european competitions, they need someone to just make the players play 9 or 10 more games and then fold the team.
This summer comes the grand clearout sale, and they’ll be hoping to find the next great manager.