We are a HUGE club!
Also the reporter specifically mentioned that Arteta was not the only manager ro make mention of the ball…
And he said we needed to adapt and that it was different, not there was a problem with the ball.
Story out of nothing
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“You have to adapt to that”
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He was mentioning things we needed to improve on and the way we reacted to the ball needed to be different. Reporter asked him to talk about the ball because he wasnt the only manager to mention the ball.
He explained the flight was different to the PL ball and the feel/stickiness to the boot felt different but explicitly said it was an us problem…
It was not an excuse, he also specifically said all teams played with the same ball in this comptetition, just people including fans looking for a reason to jump on Arteta
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Ahh yups I just read that. That MOTD tweet made it sound like he was complaining about the ball as a reason for our loss. I fell for it.
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There is no doubt in my mind about Mikel being the one to take us forward, even if this season might peter out and leave us trophyless again.
However, he has to freshen up this squad, his ideas and tactics, and demand more backing from the Kroenkes. The squad needs trimming in some areas, and reinforcements in some areas. There are also players that need to be moved on. Hope we are already working on these thing behind the scenes, even with Edu gone.
In my mind, this season is done. If we do achieve something other than top 4, I would be pleasantly surprised.
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Regarding the ball. He was asked a question, he answered it, media sensationalism making it something it’s not.
Exactly lol the players probably said to him, “oh the ball felt different” or something like that and then he gets asked about it and relays that in his answer. I guess he should be wary of media nonsense but it’s honestly not a big deal or a reflection of some underlying loser culture.
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Tbf, I’d love to defend him but having watched the presser he was the one that actually brought it up, it was a short throwaway comment after he was asked about our finishing a couple times.
Then someone reporter told him he wasn’t the first one who mentioned the ball(I do wonder who else did) so he asked Arteta to elaborate on it. That’s the part that got shared around.
I think anyone’s who’s tried using different match balls knows he’s probably not lying.
But it’s like that comment Klopp made about the wind, to people within football these are genuine factors of games but to normal people it comes off as excuses.
He should know better but frankly, I don’t think Arteta cares much about people from the outset clowning him for it.
When Arteta says: ““Compared to what other clubs have done in terms of spending, we are really out of touch,” what does he mean?
He’s spent more than 700m, how many other clubs have had a net spend of more than that?
I don’t know but that’s not Artetas net spend either.
One thing I am sick of is people using that £700m figure against him.
First of all, it’s been about £670m and it’s spread out over 5 years which averages out at roughly £134m for each of those years.
He arrived at one of the most bloated, overpaid and shit heap squads in the division which hadn’t qualified for CL football in a few seasons. He managed to turn us back into one of the league’s top teams and in that time Chelsea, Spurs and United ALL have a higher net spend than we do whilst all have comparatively better squads when Arteta took over at Arsenal.
Klopp spent nearly £900m at Liverpool. Pep has spent over £1bn.
It’s the cost of competing if you want to build a good squad you need to spend money and we’ve hardly been spending sums that blow out competitors out of the water.
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It’s refreshing to see Mikel “complain” and make a strong statement about the squad depth and the need for reinforcements. He has usually been very protective of the players, the board, and the sporting director. However, it’s clear he now feels we’ve hit a wall, and there’s not much more improvisation that can be done with the current group.
It’s still a lot of money and his squad
If any of those can have it used against them then he’s fair game as well tbh
Here’s our expenditure since 20/21, you can also sort it by net spend.
We’re 5th in expenditure and 4th in net spend.
Some things to take into account, this doesn’t take into what clubs have spent in wages at the time.
Another thing to take into account is that he took over a pretty rotten lot.
To quote Mourinho, for the majority of the players that left since, see where they play, if they play.
The people that have done the most in since leaving us are Xhaka and Kolasinac. And with the former, he was practically gone before Arteta blocked his exit.
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Spending £670m to build an entirely new squad with nearly 0 players from the previous one is not that much money.
Saka is the only surviving member of the squad he inherited. Unless I’m forgetting an obvious name but yeah…
It’s not an outrageous sum of money when assembling a competitive PL squad. Certainly not one I’d be using to beat the manager with at every opportunity.
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Saka, Martinelli, Saliba and Tierney.
If money is so tight, don’t buy Raya
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Tierney isn’t even a factor let’s be honest but yes accept the others.