Just how good does Arteta have to be to satisfy Arsenal’s critics?

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By Tony Attwood

It looks like we are getting Arteta as the new manager – although at the moment I write this that is not confirmed.  But Arteta or someone else: just how well has our next manager got to do?

We know that our last two managers have been hammered by the media, and from what I recall (and this really is just from memory, as I don’t keep a scrap book) the press didn’t really care too much for Rioch, Graham, Neill, and Howe, or even Bertie Mee after his first few years.  (Actually nor did I, but that’s not really the point).

Anyway, I thought it might be interesting to put together a table of managers who got to 40 or more games in charge of Arsenal, in order of the percentage of wins, so that we can see what the new manager has to live up to.

We know that the crowd turned on the last couple of managers and eventually persuaded one to leave and the board to sack the other, so it is not that hard to how good the new man’s got to be.  He’s got to be better than Wenger and Emery.

Which is quite a demand, since the manager with the highest percentage of wins so far in the entire league history of Arsenal is…  Mr Wenger with 57.25%.    And indeed the manager with the second highest percentage of wins thus far is Unai Emery with 55.13%.  (And just to complete the point Mr Wenger’s record is all the more remarkable given that he also managed such a high number of games.)

So that’s nice and simple.   The new manager has got to be better than Wenger – and he was our best man ever at the job in terms of win percentages, and come to that trophies.

Looking at the tables and going back in time I was reminded just how Bertie Mee destroyed what could have been a solid legacy by ploughing on and on with his policy of reducing the club’s size, moving from being hailed as the great Double win, to the man who nearly got Arsenal relegated.  There’s one lesson to learn – know when it is time to go.

Now of course some would say Mr Wenger didn’t know that, but overall his record shows otherwise.  Here is the managerial chart in the order of percentage of wins, starting with the worst and ending with the best.  One other little interesting factor to note en route is that the manager who utterly re-wrote Arsenal’s history with a set of appalling false allegations about the club’s chairman of the day was also the worst of all these managers.

Manager	From	To	Games	W	D	L	F	A	% win	Trophies
Leslie Knighton	25 May 1919	16 May 1925	286	105	63	118	367	401	36.71
Billy Wright	1 May 1962	13 June 1966	182	70	43	69	336	330	38.46
George Swindin	21 June 1958	1 May 1962	186	76	43	67	336	330	40.86
Phil Kelso	1 May 1904	9 Feb 1908	152	63	31	58	225	229	41.45
Jack Crayston	24 Oct 1956	19 May 1958	81	34	17	30	148	151	41.98
Bertie Mee	20 June 1966	4 May 1976	539	241	148	150	739	542	44.71	1 League, 1 FAC, 1 Inter Cities Cup
Terry Neill	9 July 1976	16 Dec 1983	416	187	117	112	601	446	44.95	1 FAC
Don Howe	16 Dec 1983	22 March 1986	117	54	32	31	187	142	46.15
George Allison	28 May 1934	31 May 1947	279	129	74	76	534	327	46.24	2 League, 1 FAC
Bruce Rioch	15 June 1995	12 Aug 1996	47	22	15	10	67	37	46.81
Tom Whittaker	2 June 1947	24 Oct 1956	430	203	106	121	802	568	47.21	2 League 1 FAC
William Elcoat	11 April 1898	16 Feb 1899	44	21	6	17	86	67	47.73
George Graham	14 May 1986	21 Feb 1995	460	225	133	102	711	403	48.91	2 League, 1 FAC, 2 Lge Cup, 1 CWC
Herbert Chapman	11 June 1925	6 January 1934	411	204	97	110	879	616	49.64	2 League, 1 FAC
Harry Bradshaw	30 June 1899	30 April 1904	235	118	44	73	403	237	50.21	Promotion to Div 1
Thomas Mitchell	30 March 1897	10 March 1898	45	23	8	14	106	79	51.11
Unai Emery	23 May 2018	29 Nov 2019	78	43	16	19	152	100	55.13
Arsène Wenger	1 October 1996	13 May 2018	1,235	707	280	248	2,156	1,147	57.25	3 Lge, 7 FAC

So quite with the new manager, clearly we are looking for the highest win rate we have ever seen at the club: better than Wenger, Chapman, and Graham, our three greatest managers.  But we can also note that win percentage does not protect a manager from attack by journalists and bloggers.  Our two best managers in those terms were hounded from office by complaints from both.

But maybe that is unfair.  Maybe we don’t want our managers to be better in terms of win ratio, only in terms of trophies.   So let’s try that by looking at just the managers who won something and then see how many games their sides played in order to get a trophy.

Manager	From	To	Games	Trophies	Games per trophy
Bertie Mee	20 June 1966	4 May 1976	539	1 League, 1 FAC, 1 Inter Cities Cup	180
Terry Neill	9 July 1976	16 Dec 1983	416	1 FAC	416
George Allison	28 May 1934	31 May 1947	279	2 League, 1 FAC	93
Tom Whittaker	2 June 1947	24 Oct 1956	430	2 League 1 FAC	143
George Graham	14 May 1986	21 Feb 1995	460	2 League, 1 FAC, 2 Lge Cup, 1 CWC	77
Herbert Chapman	11 June 1925	6 January 1934	411	2 League, 1 FAC	137
Arsène Wenger	1 October 1996	13 May 2018	1,235	3 Lge, 7 FAC	123

So our most successful manager through this system of counting was George Graham with one trophy every 77 games.  Second best was George Allison.  Third Arsene Wenger.  Then Herbert Chapman, Tom Whittaker, Bertie Mee, Terry Neill.

But of course circumstances were not always straightforward.   Chapman for example had to take the club from never having won a trophy to winning its first FA Cup and League titles.   And Arsene Wenger had the job of managing the club through the austerity years when the new stadium was being paid for.

So yes, circumstances are always different.  But the target can be seen.  A win ratio of at least 55% and a trophy every 100 games or so.