Super Mik Arteta

Josh McDaniels with the Broncos fits pretty well too - hotshot young assistant known for his tactics/playcalling who has no idea about all the other aspects of the job but thinks he knows everything, alienates a bunch of talented players, ends up staking his job on drafting Tim Tebow/signing Cedric/Mari/Willian.

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September sacking is a possibility but the next series of fixtures is easier and he’ll probably scrape by to mid table. I never want anything other than Arsenal to win regardless. Oct/Nov for his sacking is most realistic. Not getting an EL spot, minimum, this season would be unacceptable, based on spend and a lighter fixture list this season for us.

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Serious question: is Arteta the first manager who had his first ever managerial job in a big club(or any club in top flight, for that matter) ?
Just crossed my mind, as I can’t think of any right now.

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Pirlo, but he got sacked because he was shit.

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Guardiola, Zidane… I guess…

Yeah Pep trained Barca B before… Can’t remember Zizou did anything before Real…

True. Should’ve made it more clear though. I meant in the English top flight.

So, it’ll be 2 for 2

Think Zidane was at the Castilla too before he took the first team

He’s the only one I can think of to be hired.

Guardiola, Zidane etc. were already involved at their clubs and got a trial run at being the manager. Ljungberg would be our manager now if his interim time went well. They also all managed some form of team.

Arteta though was a real hire, from another club, who’d done zero management of any type and who we had to pay a fee for. I can’t think of any others like that.

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Di Matteo at Chelsea springs to mind, albeit a caretaker role…Sherwood at Spuds also…But in reality no other half decent club would employ a feckin novice, like we have, ffs…

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I don’t believe Ljungberg was actually ever considered nor should he have been and I love the guy. He was caretaker 100%.

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I don’t think caretaker counts - you are often forced to just pluck one of the underlings to keep things going until you get your perma-hire.

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Di Matteo had around 130 games as manager before managing Chelsea. Sherwood was a rookie and surprisingly(and sadly) he got sacked after being shit.

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All caretakers are caretakers, but half end up getting the job anyway when they bring some of the magic back. If he’d won 8 out of 8 we wouldn’t have been bringing in Arteta to replace him.

Yeah we’ll never know, but my sense is that he never was truly considered and yeah, if he was 8/8 it would have taken pressure off and maybe we would have done the smart thing (what I recommended) and stuck with him until end of season giving ourselves time and the largest possible pool of talent to draw from for next manager.

One can hypothesize about super extremes of success, but let’s be realistic - any scenario that would have ACTUALLY played out would not have been sufficient imho to retain Ljungberg long-term - honestly I’m not even sure Freddie wants that gig.

We paid City for this forehead? Lmaooooooo :joy::joy::joy::joy::clown_face::clown_face::clown_face::clown_face:

Yep - reminds me of the old Saturday night live skit:

Dalglish at Liverpool as player manager. Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan all had success.
Cruyff at Ajax.

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Yeah things can be two things but I wonder how a more tactful coach would have handled each of these situations. Probably better.

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Gary Neville at Valencia?

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