{"id":13767,"date":"2026-07-18T05:55:43","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T04:55:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=13767"},"modified":"2026-07-21T19:54:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T18:54:51","slug":"o-manager-my-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=13767","title":{"rendered":"O Manager, My Manager!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color:#fff;display:inline-block;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;color:#a7a7a7;font-size:11px;width:100%;max-width:594px;\"><div style=\"padding:0;margin:0;text-align:left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1787795331\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" rel=\"noopener\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div><div style=\"overflow:hidden;position:relative;height:0;padding:66.66667% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1787795331?et=wKN1a_deRAt0-LplI2kh1A&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=fBDjt0-AswFoY4vTr_q6lcFpQWwlHiT7v7qfoWGlPl0=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" style=\"display:inline-block;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>I started writing this when I had a bit of free time. I wasn\u2019t really sure what wanted to say. Nearly four hours later I had written this. It\u2019s longer than I planned, and nothing if not sincere. I\u2019m not normally one for spoilers, but if you haven\u2019t got time for a long read then the short version is that I like Mikel Arteta. Otherwise, make yourself a cuppa, or pour your tipple of choice, and settle in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>No-One Likes Me. I Don\u2019t Care<\/strong><br>In the wake of last season&#8217;s title triumph, there was a slew of articles about Mikel Arteta. Revisionism was the order of the day (although many a snide remark made it through) but, to the surprise of no-one, as soon as he won something big it was time to reevaluate his unusual methods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mikel Arteta is not particularly popular outside of Arsenal football club. Hell, since he came through the doors there have been plenty of Gooners who have derided him and wanted him fired. I had the deep misfortune to watch last season\u2019s home game against Brighton sitting next to one. He spent half the match shouting about how Arteta would never win anything and should be sacked. We won the match, 2-1, on the way to winning the league. But at the time, this chap was not to know we were going to win the league. Still, we had a manager who had taken us from a position of being a million miles away from Liverpool and City to three consecutive second place finishes and clearly being one of the best teams in Europe. Under most circumstances, you might assume that such a miracle worker would be revered and loved in his home stadium. Or, at least, would not be openly heckled. No such luck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mikel Arteta gets a bad press. Pundits, journos and morons on Twitter have led a strange campaign to denigrate his work and laugh at his methods. The All Or Nothing documentary saw him employ some unusual tactics to motivate a group of twenty-something millionaires. The hard of thinking were unable to grasp that these efforts were specifically tailored for the actual people he was leading and so labelled them \u2018cringe\u2019 because they would be laughed at if your boss at the office tried them on Monday morning. Or, just possibly, they realised that he was gonna turn Arsenal into a winning force again and wanted to caricature and ridicule him before he got the chance. As usual, he simply ignored the lot of it for the irrelevancy it was and got on with his own business. Remind me, how\u2019s that going so far?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He is also characterised as being emotionally cold. I find this so weird. I would guess that he talks about \u2018love\u2019 more than any other manager. The scenes around the world where people came together to celebrate our league win were everything he has spent years going on about: <em>bringing all our people together and feeling the energy and love.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He values family and community above almost all things, and one of his definitions of community is \u2018everyone who supports Arsenal Football Club\u2019. He makes no more distinction than that, and much like the club, he welcomes anyone and everyone who wants to jump on the boat (please see BtM if you need to purchase some wellies).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sure, he can straight-bat pressers when he judges it in the club\u2019s best interest, but when the time is right, he is thoughtful, passionate, kind and, dare I say it, actually quite funny!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He has huge emotional intelligence, and our entire squad clearly feel understood and know they can talk to him, and that he appreciates them and values them as human beings. Contrary to the false portrayal of him in the media, literally no-one who actually knows the man describes him as cold at all. It is just that he knows when it is the time for joking and when it is the time to work hard. And when it is time for hard work\u2026 he focuses on working hard. Joking goes out the window. No-one at the elite end of anything is unable to flick that switch, so why he gets hung out to dry for it is beyond me. He can be incredibly engaging and charismatic when he wants to be. Although, weirdly, you may have heard it here first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Would You Risk It For A Biscuit?<\/strong><br>There is that old phrase that says, \u201cI\u2019d run through a wall for him\u201d. (Or her, of course!) It is usually said about a leader, to show how committed his charges are. It is a level of devotion that few leaders truly inspire. In a football context, it requires having a vision of something greater than just kicking a ball well. And it requires being able to communicate that vision in such a way that others take it into their hearts. It is about identity. Can you be the type of person who gives everything they have to the cause? The capacity to do this comes from understanding that doing so will both change you, turning you into someone capable of more than you believed possible, but will also contribute to a shared body of work that will elevate all involved to more than the sum of their parts; will create something that matters; something meaningful. No-one runs through a brick wall unless it is <em>important<\/em> that they do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Great leaders inspire this way. There are plenty of military examples, both wartime political leaders and generals, but also further down the chain. In the life of, let\u2019s say, a special forces unit, the possibility of death means that no-one gives their devotion frivolously, but there are countless soldiers who would follow their first-in-command into any danger without a moment\u2019s hesitation. It is not only because these people are brave. It is because they believe in something bigger than they are. It is because they trust the man in front implicitly (as well as the other members of their team) and they know that there is no-one more committed to the cause than he is. It is because they know that no matter how hard they work, or how much they give, they will still never put quite as much into it as he does (unless, one day, they take up his mantle \u2013 but that is another story). They want to impress their leader. They want him to be proud of them. But they also understand that he also wants what is best for <em>them<\/em>, rather than what is best for himself. Great leaders want their teams, and each and every player on them, to \u2018be the best they can be\u2019 (to borrow from SteveT a well-known phrase oft heard in Dave\u2019s bar!) They believe unshakably in the worthiness of what they are building. And they would never ask anyone to run through a wall that they would not run through themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Leaders like this are rare. Those with vision, who can explain the vision, who are willing to work relentlessly and single-mindedly towards its completion. Those whose words align perfectly with their actions. Those people who keep their word, whose integrity is beyond doubt. When you meet someone like this in your life, and they want you to be a part of their team, it is an almost intoxicating feeling. There is a sense that if you fail to follow this person, if you give up, or get off the ride too early in search of some other destiny, that you will always look back with regret and wonder what could have been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just ask the Arsenal squad. Saliba, Saka, Gabriel and Rice (to choose a few big names) were all part of Arteta\u2019s teams that came second three years in a row. They were all wanted by some of the biggest clubs in the world. Their commitment never wavered. One signed for us when we were far from the safe bet, the other three signed new contracts. If you hear any of them talk about their boss, all you hear is how brilliant he is. All our new signings say some version of, \u201cwhen I spoke to him face-to-face, I was convinced.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Martin \u00d8degaard\u2019s exact words: \u201cI challenge anyone to come away from a meeting with Arteta and not believe everything he tells you.&#8221; There are some pretty good liars in the world. There are a lot of people who believe their own hype but are unable to follow through. Our manager is not one of them. He delivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the players know it. I did enjoy this from Declan Rice as he celebrated our title triumph, \u201cThey pointed and they laughed, they ain&#8217;t laughing now. I love this club and I love this manager&#8221;. He did not say that he loves the club and the <em>team<\/em>. I am sure he does, but he knows the manager is the linchpin. Arteta is the most valuable person at the club, and our most valuable player knows it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Stand For Something, Or Fall For Anything<\/strong><br>Mikel Arteta is a man of character. Character has, unfortunately, gone out of fashion. Indeed, it is seen as an old-fashioned idea. The sort of thing they had in the 1950s before society became more liberal and embraced freedom of individual expression. As many new attitudes were adopted (lots of them good!) the idea of \u2018character\u2019 was seen more as constraint to the new possibilities life held than a personal compass that would help one to navigate its increasing complexity. It got mixed up with other ideas of its time and was foolishly let go along with many attitudes more appropriately discarded. We lost the baby with the bathwater, much to our detriment. How many twitter threads have you seen discussing the value of character, in any context whatsoever? It might be good if there were a few more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, perhaps there is an element of semantics to this. Many young people have a firm moral compass, even if they don\u2019t think about the way they hold their personal \u2018non-negotiables\u2019 in terms of character. But, at its simplest, perhaps that is all character is? Defining what stuff in your life is \u2018non-negotiable\u2019 and then <em>sticking to it<\/em>. So few people manage this. It sounds simple but it is incredibly hard. We either don\u2019t know what we stand for, and\/or we are flexible about what we stand for, depending on what we could gain from ignoring it, or the level of hassle and hardship it would cause us to die on that hill. Unfortunately, that does not work; you either have character, or you don\u2019t. You can\u2019t turn it on and off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For me, this has been a hard-won lesson, and an important one. When I was younger, I was quite wishy-washy about character. Especially about one aspect that Arteta spoke about in no uncertain terms even in his first presser: accountability. In my early twenties, I quite liked taking the credit for my good actions and finding excuses for my bad ones. As I got older, I realised that having my own creed and trying hard to stick to it was a personal necessity. I came to realise it was not the restriction I had imagined, but a path to a deeper freedom. For me, learning to take full accountability for my own actions has been a life-changing endeavour (and one which is still very much an on-going journey!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It must then be said that I am fairly attuned to people who have their own codes and treat them as non-negotiable. It stands out to me. I aspire to be a person like this and admire those who are. Even those whose codes are completely different to my own. I might not like the goal &#8211; I may have reservations about the wisdom or compassion of someone who works hard with commitment to achieve something that makes the world worse &#8211; but I can, and do, respect the process. Having the courage of your convictions is rarely easy, whatever those convictions may be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, when Arteta gave his first press conference, I was sold. Of course, I kept a careful eye on his actions afterwards, to make sure that he followed through on what he said he was going to do. But I was not really worried. He looked into the eyes of the journos, and all of us watching and he laid out a vision. I believed it. It was laced with character. It was all about behaving a certain way and using the foundations of how we live to achieve our goals. \u201cEvery day is important. Every <em>act<\/em> is important.\u201d Think about that. He was saying that every single act you take needs to be in-line with your goals. And when you live like that, even the goals themselves begin to shrink away. It is why I am not worried about us being mentally underprepared to defend our title. We have been trying to win a PL for four years. The way we have gone about that has gone far beyond the initial goal of winning a league &#8211; it has become <em>who we are<\/em>. You can\u2019t turn that off. One goal leads to another. The work is never done. It is not about <em>achieving<\/em> something, it is about <em>being<\/em> something. If you truly are what you are trying to be, the trophies will come as an inevitability. He said it all along, didn\u2019t he? Trust the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Empty Hands, Full Heart<\/strong><br>I have a framed photograph of Mikel Arteta in my house. It is the only framed photo in my home that is not of a family member. I got it about three years ago. It is just him, alone, walking across the Emirates pitch, dressed in black, nothing in his hands. When I bought it, I was absolutely sure that in years to come, there would be many, many images of him holding trophies. But I did not want one of them. I already knew the thing that inspired me was not an image of a man who had followed his own vision with integrity and determination and emerged victorious. Instead, what spoke to me was an image of a man who was brave enough to follow his vision with integrity and determination when there was <em>no guarantee of success<\/em>. When the odds were stacked against him. Because it highlights a beautiful paradox; he <em>chooses<\/em> to live that way, but in order to be true to himself, he does not really have a choice. He lives the way <em>he has to<\/em>. If he does that fully and completely, then he has already won. Maybe not on the pitch, but in the much bigger game of life. Who could do more?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is nothing fake about our manager. What you see is what you get. On a very fundamental level, Mikel Arteta is an embodiment of my vision of what it is to be a human being. Or, at least, to be a good one. Never mind his qualities as a football manager, I believe he is a good man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That, for me, is such an important point, because it is where I differ from many (presumably the vast majority of) Arsenal fans. The fact that Mikel Arteta is, in my opinion, one of the three best football managers in the world (Pep and Enrique, since you asked) is almost incidental to why I value him. It is also why I\u2019ve barely mentioned anything about his actual, and prodigious, skills as a manager. His understanding of football is above elite level. I do not believe you would need two hands to count the human beings on the planet who understand the beautiful game better than he does. I also believe he will win us more league titles and the Champions League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But that is not what is most important to me about Mikel Arteta. He is essentially the perfect Arsenal manager. He wins major trophies. It may not be what is most important to me personally, but it is certainly right up there with the requirement of being Arsenal manager! But more than that, every day he does what Ars\u00e8ne asked of all of us, of all the Arsenal lovers &#8211; he takes care of the values of this club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He knows what those values are. He lives by those values. He takes responsibility. That\u2019s a neat summation of pretty much everything I aspire to be as a person. Of course I love him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And he is one of us. He too, is an Arsenal lover. Of all the incredible and inspirational people in the world, this one shares my love of Arsenal. The thing that he pours himself into is the same thing that has been a fundamental part of my life since I was a little boy. All his hard work is to do something that makes me happy! We\u2019ve all felt how strongly we can connect to anyone in the world in those moments when passion for our club bursts through. But it is rare indeed to feel that shared passion with a genius football manager whose impeccable personal qualities resonate deeply with who I am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ars\u00e8ne came along when I was still a boy. I looked up to him, but I was not yet a man myself (at least not when he started!) and so I could not appreciate his qualities in the same way as an adult could. And for all his fine qualities, Ars\u00e8ne had his blind spots. So does Arteta, but Ars\u00e8ne lacked his prot\u00e9g\u00e9\u2019s fervent desire to correct his faults and learn from his mistakes. That stubborn streak only revealed itself over time and was not easy for me to grasp as young man with some good qualities of my own, but plenty of blind spots too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I can see Mikel a bit more clearly. He is truly special, and he won\u2019t be around forever. We will seriously miss him when he goes. How long until then? Well, who can say? He abruptly hung up his boots rather than play on, simply because he decided he had to be able to give everything at the highest level or it was not worth it. He will do the same thing when he leaves us. Whenever he does not have the energy for another season and he needs a break, he will just step away, regardless of how successful the previous season was. But we need to hang on to him until he is ready to call time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chapman, Wenger and Arteta are our three greatest managers. Time will tell who is the greatest, but I know who my money is on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, no matter how much he wins, to me personally, the man I admire most is not the multiple-trophy winning genius who scales new heights of glory at our club. It is the man with the empty hands and the twinkle in his eye who lives and breathes the values of this club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Done and Dusted<\/strong><br>So, yeah, that\u2019s my tuppence worth. Although I suspect you\u2019ve got quite good value from me for your modest outlay. Still, I think I\u2019ve said what I needed to say. Cheers for sticking with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Given who I am, and who he is to me, of course I\u2019ve always been on Mikel Arteta\u2019s side. No choice, really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m just glad he\u2019s never asked me to run through a wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Until next time, \u2018holics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images I started writing this when I had a bit of free time. I wasn\u2019t really sure what wanted to say. Nearly four hours later I had written this. It\u2019s longer than I planned, and nothing if not sincere. I\u2019m not normally one for spoilers, but if you haven\u2019t got time for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[28,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13767"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13767"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13787,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13767\/revisions\/13787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}