How journalists try to destabilise clubs by their constant demand for change

 

• Football has just got incredibly weird – from the Arsenal game to the rest of the world
• Havertz signing is genius but how could Arsenal be so utterly stupid?

By Tony Attwood

Change in football is inevitable.  Players get older, players get injured, players lose their form.   But in the media the key story, the main story, and indeed much of the time the only story is “change the team through buying certain players” (as if whatever player Arsenal wants they can have, if only they try hard enough) and selling others (as if just putting a player up for sale means someone will buy him at the price Arsenal want).

And of course, if some Arsenal supporters had had their way Arsenal would have got rid of Mikel Arteta by now.  As Football London said  recently,”Mikel Arteta was under huge pressure at Arsenal in late 2020, with the Gunners hierarchy reportedly considering a move for Maurizio Sarri as his replacement.”

“Reportedly” yes that is always the word.   Someone makes the story up and then “reportedly” is used by everyone else carrying on repeating it.

Of course, although the media stimulate and feed this ceaseless demand for change they then also have fun criticising everyone else who has been doing it.  So we also get Football London saying, “Despite leading the Gunners to FA Cup glory just four months earlier and navigating the challenges posed by Covid on the Premier League…  rumours began to circulate that the Spaniard could be shown the door.”

Those rumours were of course created by and stoked up by the media.  And some of the stories were so bonkers it is hard to believe the writers weren’t falling over with laughter, as when Stadio Sport reported that Arsenal were going after Maurizio Sarri – who had managed Chelsea.

Just Arsenal News noted that “Paul Merson has claimed that Crystal Palace boss Patrick Vieira could well replace Mikel Arteta at Arsenal early into the 2022-23 season “

The opposite model of that of Arsenal is obviously Chelsea where since the latest takeover of the club in 2022, 40+ first-team players, and most of the rest of the staff, have been changed.  Including rather laughably, the communication team.

So that means the grounds staff, the medical staff, the academy staff, and the human resources team who have been in charge of sacking the grounds staff, the medical staff… etc etc.  .

Actually the Chelsea change list goes on – from five first-team managers to virtually everyone working with the youth teams.  According to Footblall.London they’ve also lost their own technical director and “president of business” – a fine title but not one that helps one keep a job.

Clearly Chelsea are wanting a return to the old days.   And let’s not forget that in 2021 they won the Champions League and have since been in three domestic cup finals and 4th, 4th, 3rd, 12th and 6th in the last five seasons – an average position of 5.8.  Arsenal have come 8th, 8th, 5th, 2nd, 2nd.   An average position of 5.0.

And indeed Chelsea have won the Champions League and been runners-up in five major cup finals.  Arsenal have won the FA Cup and been runners-up twice in the league.

So actually the results of the two clubs across five years have not been massively different – indeed Chelsea have been doing better in the cups than Arsenal – and yet I doubt there is anyone who would say that the Chelsea method is better than the Arsenal method.  Or who would tip Chelsea to come above Arsenal this season?

And yet journalists and some bloggers love the Chelsea method and spent much of last season calling for Havertz to be dropped and Areta to be sacked., suggesting Arsenal desperately needed a goalscorer, despite scoring more goals than in any season in the last 71 years. 

This summer Chelsea have already signed eight players costing between €6m and €60.00m each.  And they are still under investigation for their financial affairs under Abramovich.

The fact is changing managers, just like changing everyone else, does not guarantee success.  This decade Manchester United have had four managers, Tottenham six (including “acting” managers”) and look where they are.   indeed this constant debacle of change has an effect on players.   After all, would you sooner go to a club where it is not clear how long the manager who has signed you will be there, or a club where the manager has been in place for four or five seasons?

But of course, it is not just on the pitch that everything changes.  Of Chelsea, Football.London reports that “it would be right to say the medical department has changed beyond recognition, starting with the director Paco Biosca and including almost all the physiotherapists. Dissatisfaction with the state of the Stamford Bridge pitch resulted in the departure of the club’s long-serving head groundsman Jason Griffin after 34 years.”     Indeed at Chelsea whichever department you look at – including the department that recruits people – virtually everyone has changed.  Meanwhile, Football London reports that the squad is currently 53.  

And yet this is the sort of model that football journalists and some supporters want.  Of course they don’t say, “do a Chelsea” but they constantly advocate change.  Like buy a goalscorer, when goalscoring is clearly not a problem.

And in the midst of all this it is ever harder to sell players because of the new profit and sustainability rules.   As the Guardian says the “chances of [Chelsea] selling Raheem Sterling when the 29-year-old winger still has three years left on a contract worth £325,000 a week” are little, especially as he has just been dropped.  Besides, who wants to go to a club that has something like 50 players in its first-team squad, and which has banned those who are out of favour from using the first-team facilities?

The point is this – you can have constant change in a club as many bloggers and commentators demand the moment a club loses a game – but the disaster that brings can last for a decade.  Every decision has knock-on effects for years to come, until indeed, the club ends up like Chelsea.