Month: May 2018

It’s been a week without Arsene. And the passing of time will only make it harder. In the interim it is full on speculation as to who’s the next manager. What criteria should be applied?

It would seem it’s an alphabetic search. Arteta or Allegri. Not very imaginative. No wonder Viera feels like his conversation was perfunctory. He should have changed his name to Aviera. Then he’d be a shoe-in.

After all these months (if not years) of planning, the great and powerful at AFC management have come to the conclusion that Arteta is the best available manager on the planet earth. Aside, that is, from the fact he’s not actually a manager (or coach).

I don’t want Allegri or Enrique. I’d like Nagelsmann or Jardim. But both seem to suffer from having real managerial experience and having names too far down the alphabet.

Not that Arteta can’t be successful. But it’s a very high risk strategy. I hope Arsene is staying close by. I just don’t understand AFCs thinking. They are placing an untried and untested assistant coach in one of the prime seats in Europe. There will be tremendous pressure from the first pre-season game. Arteta could exceed all expectations but is this the right risk to take?

There is no comparable I can think of. Zidane (not to compare us to RM) ran their B- Team (in league 2) for a year. Guardiola ran the Barca B team for a year. Pochatinho ran Espanyol and Southampton. Wenger had 12 years in management from AFC. If you’re going to select Arteta why not start with Ancelotti? He has right at the start of the alphabet and has the experience of the premier league. Have Arteta take a year to get acclimatized – have him run the U23 team. Have him prepare to be a coach.

I fear some of these moves are about the new structure at AFC wanting to control the management of the team. They don’t want to appointment a strong established manager. They don’t want someone who will expect to have control over transfers and player identification. They – Gazidis, Sven and the other one – want to be able to control the coach. Have the coach report in to them. Gazidis has had 10 years of being the puppy dog to Wenger. Now he wants to be the CEO – finally. He looks up the road at Daniel Levy and wants that type of power. He forgets though that until they found Pochettino they had been through 9 managers this century.

It’s not clear this pending appointment is in the best interests of Arsenal. It’s going to be in the best interests of Gazidis. And maybe Sven. And maybe it could work out. But if and when it does not we are fucked. We could become a cross between ManU post Fergie and Sp*rs pre Pochettino.

This decision is obviously critical. We have the basis of a competitive team. But we can’t afford to roll the dice with a new manager who’s completely untested. There has to be a more risk-averse choice out there.

Another thing about poor Arteta. If you appoint him you basically formally by-pass the entire Invincible generation. Why would Bould stay to report to someone ½ he’s age and 1/10^th of his experience. What happens to Overmars, Bergkamp, Viera, Bould, Dixon and Henry? They never get a look in. Because if and when Arteta fails then the club will go full on Simeone. That is just ½ a step short of being Darth Vader. We would swing from one extreme of the beautiful game to the other end of the functionary, dull but point accumulating approach of these dreary masters of the game.

The legacy AW left us was one to be cherished and improved upon. It was not to be frittered away on the off chance that a young, intelligent but unproven tactician could take the club to the next level. We needed a considered, incremental, experienced manager who could add that missing piece of steel – or, rather, return the steel that the early Wenger years possessed.

Again, it all makes we worry about the brain-trust at Arsenal. They have surely been planning their moves for the longest time. But here we are two weeks in and we still have no manager. The World Cup starts in 3 weeks – no signings will be made then – and not many even before then. This is valuable time that is being wasted. They should have already made the appointment by now so that the new manager has the maximum time to acclimatize. Unless, of course, that appointment is Arteta.

-LB7

 

 

The long goodbye is finally over. Now the real worrying can begin.

I’m grateful we picked up the three points and ended the tedious narrative of having no away points this calendar year. Just like many other irrelevant ones we’ve had to listen to from the media about Arsenal over the last 10 years (you remember, no trophy in 9 years; treating the top four like a trophy etc).

As I watched today’s game the only emotions I felt were sadness and anger. Sadness at the thought that this was the last time we’d be able to listen to such an intelligent and articulate manager of Arsenal Football club. Someone, who over two decades has shaped the way we are seen by the world. Saddened that it came to this – an way game at Huddersfield rather than a final of the NoHopa Cup in Lyon. Saddened that AW has not been able to correct the lack of direction in the club for the last few years. We will never, in anyone’s lifetime, experience the pride and admiration for any other club manager at Arsenal. But, nonetheless, this change needed to happen.

Anger because it was such a frustrating way to have to watch his last game. I swear the camera choices this season have gotten ever worse – if that’s possible. The instance on replaying minor incidents multiple time while the game is going on means that, so often, the action cuts back and we’ve completely lost the flow of the game. I can just about handle the morons commentating on the game because I can follow the game in my own eyes. But not today – between the cut-away to various shots of managers and fans along with relentless replays ruins the continuity of the game. There were so many cameras at these games it’s not the case that they are missing the angles or pictures. Nope, it’s the dork up in the studio who’s directing (or mis-directing) which camera shots to be part of the live feed. It’s been deteriorating for many years. In the last few months this love of showing off how many different ways the same action can be replayed from an array of different camera angles is disrupting the viewing of games. I despair of where this might lead. But today there were at least five occasions that when they reverted to the action the ball had somehow progressed to the other end of the pitch.

I would pay a fine sum indeed to find out the title/role of the person that makes these decisions. Then I could start my campaign to reclaim the game from these morons. For all other programs on TV there are a list of credits at the end of the game but not for the EPL. Obviously, NBC takes a direct feed from the UK along with the commentaries. But I can’t believe there is no broad uproar about the poor quality of the directing of these cameras.

Anyway, back to the game. My sadness of seeing AW as manager for the last time for us is ever so minutely offset by the thought that this is the last time I’ll have to withstand the sight of Iwobi in an Arsenal jersey. It’s inconceivable that any other manager would pick him. Please, sign him to an extended contract and then sell him for a fine penny. And, at the same time, please divest us of Mustafi. Neither will offset the loss of AW but, in truth, time is up for all three.

Unfortunately, today MickeyTarrian decide to emulate Ob1 rather than Ozil. Every pass from him was short of his man. And he barely tracked back to protect our defense. It’s a miracle they did not score on us. It’s kind of ironic that in AW’s last game we kept a clean sheet. Not that we deserved it. We should have won 3-1 if Welbeck and Cigarette had taken their chances.

I don’t get why Wilshire and Cech weren’t playing. I fear for Jack and the world cup. If he can’t play in this game I doubt he’ll be selected. And missing Cech was worrying for this game. Ospina is not at the same level and his distribution is way too slow – you could see his players calling for him to release the ball much quicker – and his directional kicking is poor.

I also don’t get why we did not play Maitland-Niles from the start. And, why, when we made changes would you bring on Welbeck and Monreal? It’s the last game of the season. Bring on the youngsters. I wanted to see Neilson and Eddie. Was AW really trying to ensure he got three points and controlled the narrative? Either way, that was a wasted opportunity. Depending on which way the club goes these kids might never get any playing time.

Contrary to what our nearly-departed manager believes, I fear this team needs some significant surgery. Compared to the top four teams, we are a fair distance away form competing with these teams. The center of our defense is a mess, we need a goalkeeper and a defensive midfielder or two. Our attack looks reasonable. But it’s not a case of just adding one or two players.

Let’s monitor the timing for the new appointment as well. My fear has always been about the lack of football intelligence within the management of AFC. They’ve known for a nice long time that AW was going to leave. They have had ample time for succession planning. They can no longer hide behind AW. So, let’s see how long it takes them to hire the replacement. If they had done their jobs they’d be able to make that announcement on Monday – obviously that won’t be happening. But even waiting until before the world cup is far too much time. They should know what they want. And they should make the announcement asap. We can’t afford delays.

As I said when AW’s departure was announced, the benefit was that to timing. All the players could watch and see who we appointed before they signed for other teams. If we take too long then we’ll miss that opportunity. Players won’t sign the day before the world cup starts. We need the manager in now in order to plan our future signings. But, I’m not feeling all warm and fuzzy over this.

I hear Allergi name among other boring names. I don’t want to support an Italian team. I don’t want a version of Chelski. I want a version of Arsenal. As much as I love Viera and Arteta, appointing either of them would make us more Sp*rs like than Sp*rs. We can’t afford to take that chance. Rather I’d like us to grab the Monaco manager or Nagelsmann from Hoffenheim. In fact, I can see this team going German. A slight move really given that AW came from the Alsace region which has switched from France to Germany and back a few times. We have the BFG as the Academy director, Ozil on the pitch, Mustafi being traded away (wishful thinking) and Sven pulling the strings, that might not be a bad thing. Maybe we should consider Wagner from Huddersfield – that team certainly has a defense.

Funny how the two “young” coaches are both tied up at Manchester City? Why is that? Why do we not have anyone in training at AFC? Why do we have to take a chance on someone who happened to play for us but has no coaching experience within our club? To ManCitys credit they have been building for a future whereas we’ve been coasting on the coattails of AW. With the addition of Sven and the Spanish-bloke my guess is that we won’t bring in a big name manager. Those types – like AW – like to run the whole show. That is not how Arsenal are now set up. Rather they are looking, I think, for a coach. Someone else will do the recruiting. Someone else will do the contract negotiations. The coach will be left to coach the players he’s given (or have taken away – Ob1 I’m thinking of you here). Whether this will work is the question of the day. In all probability we are likely to go through a tough time. Imagine, whoever the manager is, but especially if it’s a Arteta/Viera or Nagelsmann, the pressure that will develop if we lose our first few games. The media focus and drama will be immense. Whoever the manager will be they have to be brought in now. Given them time to settle in before the pressure builds.

My money is on Nagelsmann. But I’ve been wring many times on this front.

Anyway, clearly, no real comments on todays game. As correct as it is that Wenger has had to leave it’s still a sad day when you see it happen. I love this man. He’s is a total class act. We will never see his like again. This man is an intellectual, an academic and also, a world class football coach who truly loves the game an, in particular, Arsenal Football Club. Whether he’s leaving it in safe hands remains to be seen. Lets hope those running the club are sensible enough to at least erect the statue AW deserves and then to rename one of the stands in his honour. My preference though would be to just name the entire stadium after him. The Wenger Stadium at Ashburton Grove. That has the right ring to it.

– LB7