Why a club making complaints about referees in public is probably not a good idea

 

The simple fact is that even with all these injuries Arsenal were still the third highest scoring team in the league last season, and last season’s total was still the third best in the  league – a drop down of one place.   So why would the club suddenly want to change its whole approach when basically the three men who contributed everything in 2022/23 and were joint top scorers, were all injured for part of last season?

Now the Henry commentary probably doesn’t reflect what he actually said, because newspaper commentaries rarely do, so the headline from the Independent that “Arsenal legend Thierry Henry questions Mikel Arteta’s failure to sign striker: ‘He had time’,” is probably inaccurate or out of context. 

But of course, Arsenal are not the only team to get this treatment.  The media boosted Unai Emery as a brilliant manager arguing that he achieves wonders wherever he goes, and who only failed at Arsenal because Arsenal is a rubbish club that never wins anything,

Yet the fact that his side only won one of the last 11 games in which he was Arsenal manager and that he left the club resting seven points above Southampton (that club sitting in its regular relegation position), and 27 points behind the leaders is ignored.

Arteta rescued Arsenal from that dire position and has since produced three second-place finishes in a row, the best run in the last 20 years.  And yet people who have not been successful managers want to tell the club and its manager how to do the job!

The implication has to be either that management is easy and everyone can see how to do it, or that Arsenal have a stupid inept manager.  Or both.

But let’s pause a moment longer and look at what Emery has done at Villa since he left Arsenal not only in ruins but also carrying Nicolas Pépé on whom Emery used up most of his transfer budget.   That was by any standard a “transfer gamble” which backfired.   And perhaps with this in mind we might look at the headline in the Independent which reads, “The hard decisions Aston Villa now face after transfer gamble backfires.”

There is of course no mention of the fact that Emery is known for inept transfer gambles that backfire and yet despite this he generally gets an excellent press.  His club’s goal difference last season was 28 worse than Arsenal – and yet that was Arsenal playing much of the season without most of its forward line!

As a result, Villa is not in the Champions League again and the Independent adds that “there is now an uncertain future for Morgan Rogers, Emi Martinez, Marcus Rashford, Marco Asensio and more.”

And this was the manager that Arsenal had before Arteta.  A manager who goes around spending a fortune on players who turn out to be not that good after all.   So Emery is a nearly man who might well keep his job.  Which in turn could well mean that Villa are one less club Arsenal have to worry about next season.

But let us go one little step further.   Why did Villa fail to get that extra point that would have given them Champions League football next season?   It seems it was because the referee, a Mr Thomas Bramall, was “a significant contributing factor to the club not qualifying for the Champions League.”   And that comment comes not from me but from Aston Villa who have put in a complaint to PGMOL.   And yet, that goal came in a 2-0 defeat.   Errrr……   

Now we might note a couple of things here.   One is that Emi Martinez got himself sent off in that game.   Another is that Arsenal can, as we have shown, quite rightly have a number of complaints about referees.    We mention them from time to time, but if Arsenal as a club are frustrated by them (and I believe that is the case) they most certainly don’t make the complaints in public.  They do it privately, to PGMO, and they talk with other clubs in private. 

Meanwhile we get articles such as Aston Villa file complaint over choice of referee for Man Utd clash following that match, while Arsenal seemingly just get on with it, doing their complaining in private, which given the fact that complaints against referees rarely has any impact at all, seems a better idea.