{"id":3644,"date":"2021-06-26T13:13:11","date_gmt":"2021-06-26T12:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=3644"},"modified":"2021-07-03T09:55:46","modified_gmt":"2021-07-03T08:55:46","slug":"a-tale-of-two-half-seasons-mikel-arteta-stick-or-twist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=3644","title":{"rendered":"A Tale of Two Half Seasons -Mikel Arteta, Stick or Twist?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<a id=\"JHILJcXbRqtVKHQe7O1m7w\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1319643278\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" rel=\"noopener\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'JHILJcXbRqtVKHQe7O1m7w',sig:'nJn39ncFYDT3pC_ixqJfqKfIipeb8MwZNF911HA8c7c=',w:'594px',h:'464px',items:'1319643278',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src=\"\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" async=\"\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the highlights of my business career was spending a few weeks at Harvard Business School in the mid-90s (to pinpoint the date, while I was there we signed Dennis Bergkamp!). The final part of our course was a two- day case study on Nike, not a company I knew well. We dutifully dissected quarterly performance, key personnel changes and marketing strategies when one of our group suggested, &#8220;We could just say they signed an unknown basketball player who became the greatest sporting icon in the world and sold a shitload of sports shoes. Maybe they just got lucky!&#8221; We decided eventually it came down to a bit more than that but Serendipity undoubtedly played its part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His remarks came back to me incongruously a few days ago when I considered Mikel Arteta\u2019s tenure at Arsenal. Arteta\u2019s detractors (and there are many) claim that he happened by accident upon a different style simply because he was forced to use Emile Smith-Rowe because of injuries in the game against Chelsea on Boxing Day. That 3-1 win bought an under-fire manager time and we saw a very different Arsenal in the second half of the season&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arsenal collected 44 points in the last 23 games of the season, the second highest points total by any club in 2021. Those mathematically inclined amongst you will deduce that in the first 15 games we garnered only 17 points, a total that threatened to lead to Arteta\u2019s dismissal. That included 8 defeats which is an over 50% loss ratio. That is relegation form writ large. The stumbling home form, exacerbated by dull and toothless football which ruined so many late Sunday evenings last winter, put great pressure on the Spaniard\u2019s position and even his strongest supporters, of which there are many on Goonerholics Forever, were pessimistic that he could survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The actual numerical extent of the improvement in the second half of the season came as something of a surprise to a number of Gooners (including me) when the figures were published towards the end of the campaign. Flaccid performances at home against Liverpool, Olympiakos, Slavia Prague, Everton, Palace and Fulham later in the season were not indicative of strong improvement but the season did also see some fine football from us, including wins at Leicester, Chelsea, Southampton, Newcastle, at home against Spurs and Leeds, and in Europe against Olympiakos and Slavia Prague where our first half performance was scintillating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the capitulation to a very ordinary but well-organised Villareal team was to some the final straw. After the outcry against Unai Emery whose defensive (dis)organisation was ultimately as bad as anything I have seen in over sixty years of watching Arsenal, it was ironic and galling in the extreme to see his team comfortably repel us in a hugely frustrating semi-final of the Europa League.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But if you were expecting a balanced and dispassionate analysis of Arteta\u2019s record this article is not really for you. I need to state a declared position. I was in favour of Arteta\u2019s appointment, I remained supportive of him through the frustrations of Autumn and Winter and as we approach a new season I believe we should give him our backing and I genuinely believe he can still be a real success at Arsenal. My faith, admittedly, faltered at times but flip-flopping from manager to manager has never been the Arsenal way and we are seeing our neighbours from the wrong end of the Seven Sisters Road pay the penalty for doing just that, to our delight and amusement. I am starting to believe that Arsenal really are pressing the reset button which sits in the KSE office and the sort of investment that we haven\u2019t envisaged before may be being contemplated. Trusting Arteta to oversee the implementation of the talent purchased is a very big call. I\u2019m conscious that, as managers can find, in a social media dominated world, Arteta has a lot of detractors. But I believe that persisting with him is a logical, right and intelligent thing to do.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What are my reasons for coming to a conclusion with which I know many Arsenal supporters will radically disagree?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Firstly, Arteta has had to cope with extraordinary circumstances. He is a rookie manager thrust into a club which has been very poorly governed for several years, with an unbalanced squad and which, when he assumed control, had seen its confidence shot to pieces. He took over a basket case of a team with several stars soon briefing against him. A handful of games into his new job when he immediately started to wreak a clear improvement, the season was suspended, ironically because Arteta himself tested positive for Covid. When football resumed he took a team behind closed doors to Wembley to beat Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool to earn us an FA Cup and Community Shield. That was a very significant achievement but possibly created an expectation that he was unable to maintain with the very mixed resources he had at his disposal.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My take is that he was able to turn the just-ended season around, a season in which the schism between owners and fanbase was never more evident and produced a team that while incredibly uneven in ability and styles has the nucleus of a very talented group indeed. If, and it is a massive if, we can add to that nucleus with four or five quality players, can cut out a huge amount of deadwood and salary cost (and there is plenty of both at Arsenal) and take advantage of a programme that will be less physically demanding with no European football, next season could be surprisingly good. The end of season poll in the Athletic, while not definitive, did suggest that the majority of Arsenal supporters believe we should stick with Arteta. That may be more reflective of the readership of the Athletic but I think it does genuinely indicate a lot of Gooners believe he has more to give and he will learn from the lessons of a very fragmented season.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But if we take a positive view of what might be, we must also accept that Arteta has been complicit in some poor decision-making. The signing of the hugely disappointing Willian, a deal that is almost biblical in its stupidity and wastefulness,&nbsp;the preference of Leno to Martinez (which I believe to be a major mistake),&nbsp;the funereal tempo of our play at home so often last season, the mundanity of our midfield work and the refusal to use players like Martinelli or even to retain Saliba within the group were all justifiable criticisms. His willingness to drop our most high-profile player, Aubameyang for turning up late for the Derby (if only he\u2019d consulted C100 about avoiding Muswell Hill Broadway on a match day!) shows both a ruthlessness and a set of principles that suggest he is a very tough character. Nevertheless, a repeat of the underperformance of last season under the scrutiny of extremely volatile and fickle fans, who represent a depressingly high proportion of the Arsenal fanbase would almost certainly see his departure. Yet he has hopefully learnt and been afforded the opportunity to learn because of a long-term view taken by KSE. This is possibly the most (only?) enlightened thing to happen during their tenure &#8230;.to date!&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Set against Arteta\u2019s faults there has been clear advancement in some areas.&nbsp;&nbsp;We have seen a better organised defence , a real improvement in yellow and red&nbsp;&nbsp;cards in the second half of the season, obvious development in younger players like Saka and ESR (and how good could they both become?), the emergence of P\u00e9p\u00e9 as a game-changer (when he was picked to start ahead of Willian) and away form that was nearly always effective and competitive. Like so many teams, we were much more fluid and threatening away from home. We took five more points away from home and scored seven more goals and our football looked generally more assured. That may be a function of the pandemic as several clubs saw similar improvements away from home but I think it reflects Arteta\u2019s tactical mindset. If fans return it will be important to create a feelgood factor at the Grove and that is a major challenge he must overcome and overcome early.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My reservations about next season are more that Arteta needs a better and more experienced Technical Director than Edu, as I have just outlined Arteta hasn\u2019t yet shown himself consistently capable of creating a very discernible style and intensity in our home matches (particularly in our opening salvoes &#8211; we tend to start games incredibly slowly) and that he seems to \u2018freeze out\u2018 players that incur his wrath. In some cases, like \u00d6zil and Mustafi, he was clearly establishing a sensible principle but some players like Soares seemed to disappear off the face of the earth and his treatment of Saliba, as already mentioned, is quite perplexing. He clearly has a fractious relationship with Guendouzi but it would appear that Guendouzi very much lacks maturity and there comes a point for every manager when you need to decide how far you go in accommodating temperamental players. I think we have to trust the manager to set his standards and enforce them within the club. It is worth noting how highly players (eg, Saka , Tierney, Balogun&nbsp;&nbsp;and last season\u2019s loanee \u00d8degaard) speak of his coaching and motivational qualities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we chose Arteta as our coach (promotion to manager might have been a step too far) it was an acknowledgement that this was a long-term project and that the upside potential might be very significant. That potential is still there. We were so keen to be rid of the hapless Emery (who has to his enormous credit rehabilitated himself extremely effectively at Villareal) many fans failed to really take on board what engaging a \u2018rookie\u2019 manager entails. You pay with results and frustration as he acquires experience on the job but if your selection is astute, and if you are prepared to allow him to serve an apprenticeship at your expense, you can acquire a manager who can be transformative in the way that few other current candidates could be. I can still remember the disappointment among some fans when Arsene Wenger was appointed because he was not Johann Cruyff. Wenger was nearer the finished article in experience terms than Arteta is but his appointment was still a highly speculative one. Arteta knows the Premier League and has negotiated a steep learning curve that should stand him in much better stead going forward. If I have a concern about Arteta it is that he can \u2018overthink\u2019 tactically as he did in the Europa League Semi-Final. That is a criticism sometimes levelled at Guardiola his mentor and his record is none too shabby, and although Arteta made a tactical Horlicks of the first leg of the semi particularly, it is not a criticism I would consistently level at him.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the things that disillusions me about modern Arsenal fans is that many \u2018supporters\u2019 seem to derive their greatest satisfaction from watching people who weren\u2019t their own choices fail &#8211; \u2018I told you so on steroids\u2019. Arsenal, through years of mismanagement and a failure to appreciate the key inflection points in tactical and personnel development, are now in a position akin to Liverpool before they appointed Klopp. I\u2019m not comparing Arteta to Klopp but the job he faces is of the same magnitude and complexity as faced the German on arriving at Anfield. Klopp succeeded not just because he was a brilliant manager, although that undoubtedly helped, but because the owners supplied him with an off-field blueprint that enabled them to sell (ridiculously) high and bring in world-class additions. Arsenal don\u2019t sell anybody high nowadays. In fact, they struggle to get fees for most players. In a depressed market that isn\u2019t surprising, but if KSE make finance available it must be leveraged to maximum effect and we must improve our negotiation skills and focus profoundly. It is not entirely clear to me or many observers I know, what the plan for our scouting is going forward. Extraordinarily perceptive scouting is going to be what helps to give us a seat back at the top table of football but we acquired some very poor players in our lower ranks last season who should be nowhere near Arsenal.&nbsp;I\u2019m sensing Tim Lewis is playing a pivotal role in advising KSE and his assessment is that dispensing with Arteta would be throwing the baby out with the bath water. Time will tell, but I\u2018m&nbsp;&nbsp;starting to feel that we may be about to witness a seismic shift at Arsenal Football Club as the owners finally realise the nature and scale of the challenges facing them .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maybe the addition of Richard Garlick working with Tim Lewis will help that process. Even Wenger at the very peak of his powers, with his intuition cranked up to full bore, had to lean heavily on David Dein to implement his plans. I\u2019m sure the chaos at Arsenal has added to the already sizeable job Arteta has. To lose one senior member of management, to quote Oscar Wilde, may be&nbsp;misfortune, but to lose Wenger, Gazidis, Mislintat, Emery, Fahmy and Sanllehi after years of stability which ultimately morphed into stasis can\u2019t be part of any coherent plan and goes beyond carelessness into mismanagement on a serious scale . Arteta needs backing behind the scenes not just in terms of fine words but from a well co-ordinated and effective plan that provides him with the wherewithal to put a high-quality Arsenal team on the field.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If Mikel Arteta can fulfil his potential as the manager of our team he can restore us to be a power in English and ultimately European football. Many consider that a long shot, some an impossibility, but I consider that it is really possible that the Spaniard can revive our club. Let\u2019s all try to be positive and hope that he can drive the team forward next season. I think a return to the Champions League is possible and would represent the satisfactory progress we should look for, especially if there is substantial investment into the team this summer. Some suggest he has until Christmas to show that he can do the job. If he starts well and his team respond he can make such talk redundant but we need a positive mindset around the club, something that has not been the case for several years. May 2021\/22 see the end of the \u2019Wilderness Years\u2019 and the beginning of a new era that restores the fortunes of our great club. Naive optimist that I am &#8211; I believe!&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images One of the highlights of my business career was spending a few weeks at Harvard Business School in the mid-90s (to pinpoint the date, while I was there we signed Dennis Bergkamp!). The final part of our course was a two- day case study on Nike, not a company I knew [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3644"}],"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\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3644"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3665,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3644\/revisions\/3665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}