What my biggest fault with Arteta is, and at this point I’m a broken record I reckon, it happens to often that we break through our floor. That in my book is the feature, of a decent, not even a great, manager. To at least have the group of players available perform at their floor level. The floor level of these players is not as low as some think it is. A little bit like Emery did in his first season. The fact that we lost eleven times already says that he is not meeting even that requirement. It doesn’t speak in his favour at all. Obivously.
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There’s an assumption that he’ll get new, better players in during the summer and everything will be okay.
I’m with you on this. He’s not really proved enough for me to want to turn over the checkbook (yes, that’s how we spell it). I worry we’ll end up with more Willians and fewer Tierneys.
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We spent 50m on Partey and he’s getting worse because Arteta is a bad manager lol.
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Or is he just out of sorts due to lack of confidence in his body and getting next to no continuity this season ? Either way it’s disappointing.
After this season Arteta would have had 18 months at the helm, which is long enough to iron out teething problems and greenery as a manager. I’ll judge him way more harshly in 21/22.
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The problem is that 18 months is enough to have this club drift into almost total irrelevance. Out of Europe entirely next season, finances still a mess, no DoF and no real defined style of playing until he was forced to field a couple of teenagers against Chelsea in what looked like total cowardice throwing kids in the deep end.
Rebuilds take time, yes, but they also require a direction and a lot of money. I’m not really sure we know what Arteta’s actual preferred style is. We know what he’s stuck with at times, but not really sure that’s a fair reflection of what he wants. I think he’s inherently conservative and that just doesn’t wash when we’re so top heavy.
This is why we need a proper DoF, because managers can’t be trusted to make sensible signings for the long term when they know they won’t get the time to see them come good. Despite Willian obviously being the wrong signing for many reasons, on some level I get Arteta’s wish to have experience in the team and make a signing like that. If it was my job, I’d probably be looking for players who I think can do a job for the next two years rather than ones who will flourish four years down the road when I’m out the door.
I think the business we do needs to be taken out of his hands more but for some idiotic reason we basically gave him the keys to it all after that FA Cup win and abandoned our modern model after only a couple of seasons of trying to make it work.
Oh my God. We gave him the keys. We gave him the keys. No wonder he fucking loves Xhaka so much.
To be fair I don’t mind the business of Willian, Gabriel and Partey. Before the season our winger core seemed a bit too young with Saka, Martinelli and Pepe, Saka took his chance and ran with it. Partey to provide experience and a shield for a young centre back pairing in Saliba and Gabriel. Obviously he went another route by extending Luiz.
We might not be out of Europe entirely just yet, we still have a fighting chance of winning the Europa League and CL qualification at this point in time.
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If he crashes out this round or next and we limp to an eighth place finish, what’s the argument for keeping him? That we’re on an upward trajectory?
Well we are keeping him regardless but yeh the Arteta apologists would say look we were like top 4 since Christmas he needs another season. And I’m sure if the club had to come out and say something about it, that’s the spin they’d use. That and he’s building a culture and he’s a genius and we all love him blah blah.
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Atmosphere in the ground after picking up 2 from our first 9 next season will be treasonous. They really could fix a lot of this imo by appointing a DoF above him with the power to hire/fire.
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We got 5 points and a win in Greece and a poor defeat at home.
Spurs was the highlight. At some stage the excuses on decisions and dumb individual mistakes has to be honestly assessed. It’s not building at any real rate of pace is it.
We recharge again after the break and Europa is key but there has too be more substance for belief in this project.
We really should be producing a solid months growth on those last 5 outings. This is coming on top of losses to Villa, Wolves and saints the month before and scraping past Benfica.
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@BigWeng_4LYFE has pointed it out, the argument will be the table since Christmas.
Next season is a big one for Mikel as I’m expecting a big improvement in league finishing position, but he has my support for now.
I can see how In isolation another 8th or 9th placed finish means people want to see the back of him however.
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Yep yep 
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Looking at it in black and white fashion and saying we are mid-table, hence he should be sacked, would be ignoring the clear signs of progress in our performances since Christmas time. As long as I feel we’re on an upward trend, I’ll be behind Mikel 100%. Right now I would feel very confident of a sustained top 4 challenge/70-75 point season in 21/22 at minimum.
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He has not won the FA Cup yet. Can we also assume we are going to win the Europa league hence CL qualification?
I’ll wager with anyone we will finish above Leicester in the league in 21/22 btw
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Eh, you’re the one isolating to fit your view.
We have very different views on what constitutes progress. Being passably good compared to our worst start to a season in 60 years over the following half a season, not progress.
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Are we top 4 over the last 15 game sample size in the league ? I’m not 100% sure we’re but if we are and can manage to keep it up next season it’ll be progress for sure.
I think @AW49 and I just have faith Arteta can get us picking up points at the rate of the last 15 games throughout all of next season, hence we’re still supporting him.
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Honestly, I never even seen the AKBs be so shameless as to cling to a 15 game sample.
Top four since Christmas sounds like something a spurs fan would say.
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