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By Tony Attwood
There are several ways you can see Arsenal’s achievements this season.
One is as an absolute failure: the club has run the eventual champions close for two seasons running and with ManC now in a bit of a mess, and those 115 or so charges still hanging over them, and the club playing its final card by running not just one but two major legal cases against the entire Premier League, this could have been the moment. But Arsenal have blown it, coming second again.
Just as people used to say in Wenger’s time, fourth is not a trophy, so nor is second. Artewta should go. He failed to buy a striker when everyone else knew we needed one, and that’s all the evidence you need.
In this view, it is quite clear that irrespective of what happens it is quite clear that the supporters and journalists who don’t work at the club and have never worked in football management understand far more in terms of what should be done than the current management, who are, despite their years of experience in professional football, lazy, inept and stupid. If they were not they would have done what the journalists and supporters say they should have done. Know in advance that the entire forward line could be injured and buy a centre forward.
Another view is that Arsenal have built a superb squad but this season the entire front line and the back-up players have all been injured. And so has Odegaard – very annoyingly on international “duty” which is of course no “duty” at all, but an option. No ordinary club (ie no club without the backing of a state’s finances) could challenge for the top spot in such a season, and the fact that Arsenal are still second shows how brilliant this management is.
However, there is a bit of a problem here because the view of many supporters in most clubs is that they need to get rid of their manager because he is not bringing in the results and achievements that the supporters feel their club merits.
And given that even coming second is now a failure, that means there is only one successful manager each year, suggesting all the others should be sacked. Which if followed through would mean 19 clubs looking for new managers.
(OK we might not expect promoted clubs to win the league, but for them, the definition of success should then be mid-table stability, which still means those managers should go).
Which makes me wonder why we don’t normally see as a headline how many managers were sacked in the Premier League season by season. Which is a shame because in fact, in 2022/23 the answer was 12, with one other moving on by mutual consent without being sacked.. So over half of the managers were kicked out.
The clubs that did the deed that it seems some Arsenal supporters think Arsenal should hav done were: Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Brighton, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Everton, Leeds United, Leicester City, Southampton, Tottenham Hots, and Nottingham Forest. And I am not sure that for all of those clubs things are really going well.
Compared to those figures, last season was almost peaceful
- Chelsea moved on Frank Lampard
- Tottenham Hots let Ryan Mason go
- Bournemouth sacked Gary O’Neill
- Wolverhampton Wands let Julen Lopetegui find work elsewhere
- Sheffield United sacked Paul Heckingbottom
- Nottingham Forest removed Steve Cooper
- Roy Hodgson resigned as Crystal Palace manager after getting a load of abuse.
In the current season, clubs, encouraged by journalists who want sackings because it gives them something to write about, have got even more excited with the notion of changing the manager. Those doing the deed so have been
- Brighton and Hove Albion
- Chelsea
- Everton
- Leicester City
- Liverpool
- Manchester United
- Southampton
- West Ham United
- Wolverhampton Wanderers
And indeed we should also note that some of these clubs have managed to get through two or even three managers (although that does include an interim manager or two appointed when no one could be found who would take the job).
And we might even add to the list Leicester City who departed the Premier League last season. Enzo Maresca left in June 2024, Steve Cooper departed in November 2024 and Ben Dawson departed in December 2024. They are currently 19th in the league.
So what do we notice with these clubs that have changed their managers? For Liverpool it has been a great success, but with them the manager was not sacked. He resigned and gave the club plenty of notice.
And at Brighton Fabian Hürzeler was appointed as head coach oin June 2024, replacing Roberto De Zerbi
Brighton are four places higher than where they were at the end of last season, but in most cases, replacing the manager is not leading to success. So why do these journalists and bloggers demand it? Could it be either that they want Arsenal to fail, or maybe they just don’t bother to look at what normally happens. Maybe they don’t remember Arteta’s first two seasons, with Arsenal coming eighth.
“However, there is a bit of a problem here because the view of many supporters in most clubs is that they need to get rid of their manager because he is not bringing in the results and achievements that the supporters feel their club merits.”
That’s a reasonable assumption but I’d go a little further. I don’t think it’s about what “the supporters feel their club merits”. I think it’s possibly about living in a time when success is almost instant. You can get food delivered to your door in a matter of moments; Amazon (amongst others) will deliver something to your door the same day; and even playing FIFA on your PC or Xbox, you can win the Champions League in a short space of time….and if you lose a life on any game, you just respawn, start again and win very soon thereafter. People have grown used to getting what they want almost instantly. Many of them expect the same from the team they choose to support.
And I specifically chose the words “the team they chose to support”. In my day, you supported your local team and stuck with them through thick and thin. Supporting Arsenal in north London in the 1960’s when the Spuds were all the rage wasn’t easy! Nowadays, when kids start getting interested in football they just support the team they see on the TV every week and who keep winning. Very few actually go to games and stand in the rain on a freezing February night watching their team lose and serve their “apprenticeship” and really appreciate winning. They grow up supporting success and their ego is conditioned to expect it.
Sadly, one of the distasteful bi-products of having a wonderful manager in Arsene Wenger, was that we gathered a large following of people who might otherwise have been Man U fans. Many went on to force him out of the club. Some subsequently went on to be Chelsea fans no doubt, but many stuck with the club but aren’t having their egos sufficiently massaged as they were when Arsene was winning trophies. Hence the era of “fourth is not a trophy” came along.
When I was a kid on the terraces, I dreamt of finishing fourth and winning a coveted place in the Fairs Cup. As you say, nowadays, “second is not a trophy”, and that is absolutely true. But second is an extremely fine achievement (particularly under the circumstances) which followers of 90 other professional clubs would love to have seen their club achieve. Yes we all want to win. But some of us have no expectations and don’t therefore have the same perverse interpretation of what constitutes failure…..but then some of us are old enough to be aware that the media are full of crap!
Rant over!!
Mikey
Nice post.
Just a couple of thoughts.
Do you know what. I have never been angry at the team, the manager or a player when we have lost I swear. NEVER.
I have been sad, that is my most common emotion if we don’t win or we lose, especially of course in the really big games. I have been frustrated or disappointed. Perhaps with the team. Perhaps with an individual. But they don’t lose deliberately, and I don’t believe it is ever for the want of trying. Sometimes it goes wrong, or you just aren’t good enough. As hurtful as that can be I can accept and live with that.
I never EXPECT to win ANYTHING, though I HOPE to win EVERYTHING.
I don’t support Arsenal, I LOVE Arsenal.
Like a child or a sibling or even a great friend, all I ever want for them is the best. If they don’t achieve it then so be it. I will still love them today as much as I did yesterday. Often even more so because that is what I am there for. To support them, unconditionally.
All very soppy I know. But that is how I feel about my beloved Arsenal. A massive, and wonderful part of my life.
I read a few Arsenal blogs , Untold , Arseblog and before he passed away The Armchair Gooner all very balanced views . Le Grove had extreme views with most of the readers all thinking they know better than the manager .
Most of these unseen keyboard warriors don’t even live in this country let alone serve an apprenticeship of watching Arsenal at Highbury or the Emirates , I was first taken to Arsenal in 1959 and lifted over the turnstile , just a side note George Eastham my hero what a player god rest his soul .
It is strange that coming 2nd or 3rd in the Premier League in football as being failure whereas representing England in the Olympic games and collecting a silver or bronze medal is regarded as an incredible achievement.
Just try telling any of those medallists that they are failures.
Tony,
I do love it when you have a go at the supposed journalists! They are one of the few constants in this world. A constant wrong. As you have appropriately pointed at, Arsenal holding 2nd with their entire attack out injured is incredible. Any other side would have journos singing their praises. So Arteta should be sacked? And the other 18 managers finishing behind Liverpool? What a bunch of morons. I see Newcastle, Brighton, Villa and Fulham being praised all season for their fight and ambition going for the Fourth Is Not A Trophy Trophy. Whereas, Arsenal, of course, have bottled it in 2nd! And there are editors reviewing and approving this tripe. Grateful for Untold, I don’t have to rely on the trash.
As the great Alfred E. Neuman says , ” Why me worry ?” . He is of course the face of MAD magizine , and he speaks only the truth , but tongue in cheek !
As I said before , if someone had told me at the beginning of the season , that in April , Arsenal would be in second place ; still with the possibility of winning a trophy or two !
Having lost only 3 games , and none to a top , top club , and be ten points above Man City , I would have signed up for that in a flash !
That injuries set us back a bit , was totally not imagined .
So as far as I am concerned , we are good , and let the games begin !
Up the Gunners !