This has been a catastrophic season for Arsenal – there is no way anyone can mask this. To finish outside the top six and not win the Europa League is a massive failure. It is simply unacceptable for a club of our stature. Arteta is the manager and for that, he must be held accountable. However, this is not something new for the club. This is our fifth straight season without Champions League qualification. This tells you that there are fundamentally big issues at this football club, over and beyond just what we have recently witnessed.
Arsenal have seen a number of structural changes take place over the years. The club was at its peak when Arsène Wenger was the manager alongside David Dein who was vice-chairman. Many believe that things were not the same since Dein left the club in 2007.
By 2011, Stan Kroenke would go on to become the majority shareholder at the club. He promised fans that the club would compete for the biggest honors, which never happened. In fact, Arsenal have fallen behind hugely. We went from a club that consistently played Champions League football and few players away from a title challenge, to one that finishes mid-table and requires about half the squad to be overhauled.
Most of this instability started in 2016. For the next 5 seasons, the club would have different personnel in charge of the operations, including transfers which I’ve never seen happen elsewhere. The result? Terrible performances on the pitch.
The one constant in all of this has been the owner, Stan Kroenke who went on to take 100% ownership of Arsenal in 2018. If things weren’t bad enough whilst he was a majority shareholder, the last 3 years have been the most turbulent we’ve seen in ages. The Kroenkes don’t have a clue as to how to run a football club. And because of this, they put too much trust on those below them.
At Arsenal, the fundamental issue is that the owner doesn’t want to win. We are his asset and all he wants is to see is an appreciation in value. The European Super league essentially kills the essence of competition from sport. Does he care? Absolutely not. They were in it for the money and nothing else. Arsenal could’ve finished last in the ESL season in, season out and they wouldn’t care because the revenue stream is unaffected.
It is quite telling that Arsenal spent more money on transfers when we didn’t qualify for the Champions league than when we actually played in the competition. KSE were content with top 4. It was a regular revenue stream and they did nothing to enhance or help maintain it. Stagnation ensued. The quality of the league as a whole went up, with owners of teams like Leicester City, Aston Villa, and Everton among many others showing huge ambition. And we couldn’t keep up.
In Unai Emery’s first year (2018-2019) – Arsenal lost Santi Cazorla, Aaron Ramsey, Laurent Koscielny, Nacho Monreal, Jack Wilshere, Petr Cech, Danny Welbeck, Alex Iwobi, and Henrikh Mkhitaryan among others. It was totally okay to part ways with some of these players, but most of them were experienced or had been at Arsenal for a long time. One of Wenger’s big strengths and weakness was his desire to keep a core of players together. At some point, you had to move away from that set of players. But on the other hand, it brought a sense of stability.
On paper, Arsenal’s transfers in 2019 were not bad. But apart from David Luiz, no player had played in the Premier League before. William Saliba was a big talent, but he got loaned back. Nicolas Pepe had one phenomenal season with Lille, but wasn’t tested at this level. Dani Ceballos was a loan deal – again, another inexperienced player. Tierney is yet another player who was new to the league. Martinelli, the same.
As a result, we had a dip in the first half of the 19/20 season which saw Unai Emery get the sack. From Unai’s point of view, he will believe he was put in an unfortunate circumstance, but the fans didn’t like the way he set-up the team and his excessively pragmatic nature to change the system week in week out. Eventually, he lost the dressing room and was relieved of his duties.
One of the biggest signs of a major underlying problem within the squad was we didn’t get a manager bounce when Freddie Ljungberg took charge. We would go on to win just 1 game out of Ljungberg’s 5 league matches in charge. And when Arteta was appointed, we still took a couple of games before we won our first league game under him.
Poor squad planning got us where we are. Arsenal were at the end of a cycle in 2019, but the way the overhaul was done and the inexperience of the replacements meant that there was an inevitable dip. We simply threw in Reiss Nelson, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Emile Smith Rowe, and Joe Willock into league games. Now don’t get me wrong, they’re very talented. But there’s a big difference between being a talent and getting established at this level.
The appointment of Arteta looked very interesting – former captain, excellent communicator, highly regarded member of Pep’s team, and so on. In Mikel’s first half-season in-charge, he won the hearts of almost every Arsenal fan. The football on display wasn’t spectacular, but we were getting results. Arsenal were 5th in the league standings in the time period since Arteta took over and also won the FA Cup.
This season has been a total failure and Mikel Arteta has played a part in it – there’s absolutely no doubt. As someone who likes to look at things in detail, I love that Arteta does the same. But sometimes, you need to allow your players to play. Give them freedom, don’t restrict them. Villareal was the perfect example. I’ve spoken before about some of Arteta’s questionable decisions – the Willian signing, treatment of Saliba, positional play approach, his team selections, and in-game management.
Based on where he will finish in the league and elimination at the hands of Villarreal, Arteta deserves the sack. A big club would do that. But having said that, a big club would’ve also backed their manager in the transfer window. Manchester United backed Solksjaer with over £200m in his first 3 windows, Chelsea the same for Lampard. If after you’ve been backed and you don’t perform, you’re shown the door. Lampard didn’t progress Chelsea and was rightfully sacked. Solksjaer is doing well at United and he keeps his job.
Arteta, on the other hand, has had £75m to spend in his 3 seasons. And when you consider the extent of the overhaul that was required, it is simply not enough. Arsenal need a new goalkeeper, right back, centre back, defensive midfielder, attacking midfielder, wide forward and a substitute left-back. Whether Arteta is going to be the manager or not, this is the extent of the rebuild that is required. We need additions in about 7 positions.
People point to West Ham’s success under Moyes. Sure, they’re doing good this season. But it doesn’t seem sustainable for them at all. Sheffield United finished a couple of points below us last season, look where they are now. One or two extreme anomalies don’t change the reality – we need a huge overhaul.
The issue for Arsenal is this. They’ve promoted Arteta to manager from head coach which means a lot of technical decisions are going to come from him. I am largely unconvinced by Edu. What if Arteta is to get sacked midway through next season? Does the new manager come in and start over? This is something for the club to seriously consider.
Edu has been a disappointment so far. Ever since he’s come in, the club has dealt with Kia Joorabchian. We have to make a decision. Are we so sure about Edu’s technical expertise? Or do we change it up and bring in someone proven? Ralf Rangnick is out there who would be a fantastic option. The issue is that the owners haven’t got a clue and the executives that are under them are inexperienced.
The micro issues for Arsenal are the coach and the players. The macro issues are the owner and those executives running the club. If Arteta gets sacked, a new manager might come in and get a short-term bounce. After some time, there will be a drop-off in levels and this vicious cycle will keep repeating.
Every summer is huge, but this one is the most important ever. Arsenal cannot afford to mess around, cause if they do, we could be stuck in mid-table obscurity for years. All eyes on KSE.