From the Arsenal History Society
ByTony Attwood
Here’s a little bit of fun: we should be hoping that Tottenham will win the Europa League.
Now I know that sounds ludicrous, but just consider the dilemma it puts Tottenham in.
If they were to win the little European cup then that would make the choice of “to sack or not to sack the manager” more difficult. Can you really sack a manager who has just won a European trophy?
What makes it all the more amusing is the notion being touted in some of the media that “History tells us being the former Spurs manager can be preferable to actually being Spurs manager.”
When the media constantly go on and on knocking a club and its manager, along with some of its players it is always interesting to pause and ask, “how come these people who are working as journalists and are not working in football management, able to see what needs to be done to make a club successful, while those working in clubs can’t?”
Of course, the answer is generally they can’t see, and so they do vast amounts of harm persuading those ready to be persuaded that certain courses of action are likely to be helpful when in fact there is no evidence to support rheir claims.
But what about this one: Tottenham win the Europ pot, and afterwards the club sack the manager. Strange, but being Tottenham it is possible.
One of the points about Tottenham is that they often seem to have a sense of entitlement – that they are a big club and so automatically should be winning things. For years there was not too much evidence behind such a thought but now being in a final, there is that concept that Tottenham might indeed actually win something. This could be their first trophy since the League Cup 17 years ago. The first major trophy in 35 years.
So could they win the Europa? Yes of course they could. They are after all playing ManU who are pretty much in the same boat in terms of the league. Here’s an abbreviated table…
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 36 | 25 | 8 | 3 | 83 | 37 | 46 | 83 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 36 | 18 | 14 | 4 | 66 | 33 | 33 | 68 |
| 16 | Manchester United | 36 | 10 | 9 | 17 | 42 | 53 | -11 | 39 |
| 17 | Tottenham Hotspur | 36 | 11 | 5 | 20 | 63 | 59 | 4 | 38 |
| 18 | Ipswich Town | 36 | 4 | 10 | 22 | 35 | 77 | -42 | 22 |
.
What makes the situation in north London quite amusing is that in some quarters Arteta is portrayed as incompetent and has failed to allow Arsenal to progress because of the variety of errors he has made through the season. But the journalists can see how it should be done – although they never explain why they are not themselves club managers, especially when around half of the Premier League change managers each year.
So here’s a thought. Why don’t the journalists apply to be managers, as they are so obviously able to see things that managers can’t? Indeed, even if journalists don’t apply to be managers, why don’t the club owners simply get rid of their managers and bring in a journalist, since they so clearly can talk the talk?
This is the sort of question that it would be good to have Jonathan Wilson of the Guardian answer, given that he has just written the article “Arsenal’s statistical victories only hide some very obvious flaws.”
Now it is true that he may or may not have written the subsequent headline, “Mikel Arteta has explanations for his team’s shortcomings that may hold water, but ultimately the Gunners simply couldn’t get it done when needed.” But he is obviously happy to have this sort of headline written for him even if he didn’t produce it himself, which leads us to the obvious question: If Jonathan Wilson can see what is wrong at Arsenal, why can’t Arteta? And from there we get, “if everyone can see what is wrong at Tottenham Hots, why can’t someone put it right?”
Indeed if the issues and the answers to them are so obvious, why don’t the Arsenal board sack Arteta and offer the job to Wilson or some other journalist? Put another way, why doesn’t Wilson call Arsenal and offer himself as manager?
Now we have to be fair and admit that Wilson does ask some good questions, such as “it’s worth asking why Arsenal have failed to win 10 games this season in which they’ve taken the lead.” And his answer starts off by being reasonable, saying “Squad depth is probably an issue; they lack high-level options on the bench to transform the dynamic of games, while leading players are probably playing more than they ought to.”
But I think that tucked away in the data this season we can find another reason – a much more powerful reason why Arsenal have failed to win 10 games this season in which they have taken the lead. I’ll come to that in the next piece.
