Pires criticism of “lack of former players” in coaching positions at Arsenal is LAZY

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Morning all.

Bits and pieces of Arsenal news floating around this morning.

The headline grabbing news is that Robert Pires has apparently bemoaned over Arsenal not relying “on former players” and has said he volunteered for a job at Arsenal.

“Arsenal not employing ex-player” rears its head every few months.

From Thierry Henry to Patrick Vieria, Tony Adams to Dennis Bergkamp. It is an easy article to write and often ignores the truth.

Almost every senior position at Arsenal is currently taken by an ex-player.

On top of those currently employed, Arsenal have a rich history of ex-players coaching.

There are also lesser known players currently employed by the club. The likes of Adam Birchall and Greg Lincoln.

Maybe instead of complaining about not getting an opportunity at Arsenal, Pires should look within.

Instead of using Arsenal’s facilities as a free gym for the last 5 years, maybe he should have got himself down Hale End, took his coaching badges and started off coaching the youth teams. That is how Freddie Ljungberg did it.

When Mikel Arteta was still an Arsenal player, he was down Hale End running coaching sessions. Gaining experience.

In the recent past, we have had Henry turn down a post at Arsenal. He wanted to be U23 Manager on a part-time basis so that it did not interfere with his lucrative £2million a year Sky contract.

Tony Adams last managerial job was in La Liga, managing Granada back in 2017. He lost 7 out of 7 games, they were relegated and he was sacked.

Whilst Patrick Vieira was recently sacked by Nice.

I would love Henry, Vieira, Bergkamp and Adams to be involved at Arsenal. But they have to show:

1) That they want to commit to Arsenal

2) That they have the ability to coach at the highest level

They should not be given a job just because they are a former player regardless of their credentials or ability.

The other news is William Saliba played again for the U23s last night.

Reports are he had a good game before seeing red as Arsenal lost to Wimbledon.

The Frenchman is still just 19-years-old and has been written off by some fans.

He has had both physical and mental problems since returning from Saint-Étienne and we are right to be taking our time over his development.

Also playing in that game was Gabriel Martinelli.

Like Saliba, he is also just 19. We need to ensure we do not rush him back.

Martinelli is important for our future, and I can easily see a situation where he is our first choice striker next season. But to grow into the position the backroom staff need to ensure he is not rushed back into first team action and picks up another injury.

As it is early December, expect the ITKs to begin waking from their hibernation.

Keenos

Arsenal need stability; not more change

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It has been a rough few weeks for Arsenal fans as one Premier League defeat has quickly become four.

The rough few weeks is actually a rough few years.

Many of us saw the demise of the club coming many years ago.

The club made an error back in 2014 by offering Arsene Wenger his new deal. We had just won the FA Cup and we should have shaken hands with the great man, said thank you and goodbye.

He hung on to his job and in doing so we turned down opportunities to get Jurgen Klopp firstly, and then Pep Guardiola.

It is the Klopp one that is so frustrating.

The German joined Liverpool in 2015 and, whilst progress was slow at first, he rebuilt Liverpool from bottom up returning them back to their former greatness.

Since Arsene Wenger left, the turnover of senior staff members at the club has been huge.

Shortly after Wenger left, Ivan Gazidis announced he was taking a job at AC Milan.

Sven Mislintat, bought in to oversee recruitment, came and went in a blink of an eye following a power struggle with Raul Sanllehi. Both men were bought in by Gazidis to fill the black hole left by Arsene Wenger.

Unai Emery, the man bought in to replace Wenger, lasted 18 months.

Francis Cagigao, who was promoted to Head of Recruitment following Mislintat’s departure was part of the rCOVID19 redundancies, as was Sanllehi, having been promoted following Gazidis’ departure.

More recently it was announced Huss Fahmy, Arsenal’s Chief Negotiator would also be leaving his job.

Any business that has so much turnover of senior management will always struggle. Whether that is a football team, construction company, supermarket or bank. The most successful companies have stability of senior management.

Every time you change senior management, the new man coming in will want change. Will want to do it his way. This disrupts operations for months whilst change is implemented. And if he is out the door before the benefits of change are seen, the process begins again under a new man.

Arsenal need stability, not further change.

We need Edu, Mikel Arteta, Vinai Venkatesham and Per Mertesacker to be working as a cohesive unit to return the club to its former glories.

Manchester United have shown that chopping and changing a manager every year or two does not guarantee an improvement.

Liverpool’s success was built off the back of sticking with Jurgen Klopp after his slow start. He has now been at the club for 5 years.

Michael Edwards, who is credited for their excellent operating in the transfer market has been at the club for 9 years, whilst Chief Scout Barry Hunter has been at the club for 8 years.

Recently Peter Moore, who had been CEO for 3 years, stepped aside to be replaced by Billy Hogan who has been at Liverpool for 8 years.

Liverpool are the best run club in the country at the moment.

The owners have not bank rolled their success, instead they have put the right people in the positions and allowed the experts to run the club. They have shown you do not need an Oligarch or an oil baron to be a success.

Manchester City have also had stability in the back room staff under

Txiki Begiristain has been Director of Football and Ferran Soriano has been CEO since 2012, whilst Rodolfo Borrell was appointed Global Technical Director in 2014. Brian Marwood has been involved since 2009 in various different roles (currently Academy Director).

Under Roman Abramovich, Chelsea have got rid of managers almost every year since he bought the club. But his senior management team has remained

Bruce Buck became Chairman in 2003, whilst Marina Granovskaia has been CEO since 2014, having joined the club in 2003 alongside Abramovich.

Head of international scouting Scott McLachlan joined Chelsea in 2011 whilst Head of youth development Neil Bath has been at the club since 1993.

The proof is in the pudding, as they say. If you want success, you need stability at the top with a long term plan.

Over the last 3 years, Arsenal had had too much turnover in senior positions, with at least 7 senior management leaving the club.

The club will not move forward until we have stability in the senior management team.

By constantly changing who is running the club or a department, you end up in a constant period of flux. You do not give one man a chance for his plan to develop before you move on to the next mans plan.

Arsenal need stability, not more change.

Keenos

Match Report: Tottenham 2 – 0 Arsenal

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Tottenham Hotspur (2) 2 Arsenal (0) 0

Premier League

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, 782 High Road, Tottenham, London N17 0BX

Sunday, 6th December 2020. Kick-off time: 4.30pm

(4-2-3-1) Bernd Leno; Hector Bellerin, Rob Holding, Gabriel Magalhães, Kieran Tierney; Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka; Bukayo Saka, Willian Borges da Silva, Alexandre Lacazette; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Substitutes: Dani Ceballos, Alex Rúnarsson, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Shkodran Mustafi, Mohamed Elneny, Joe Willock, Eddie Nketiah.

Yellow Cards: Granit Xhaka, Alexandre Lacazette

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 69%

Referee: Martin Atkinson

Assistant Referees: Adam Nunn, Constantine Hatzidakis

Fourth Official: Andre Marriner

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Kevin Friend; AVAR Mark Scholes

Attendance: A maximum of 2,000 attendees due to UK government coronavirus restrictions

Let’s make no bones about it, the facts are fairly stark. We have gone 566 minutes without scoring from open play in the Premier League, and have lost five of our past eight league games, as many as in our first twenty-two top-flight fixtures under Mikel Arteta. On top of that, Arsenal’s tally of thirteen points is our lowest after ten matches since the 1981-82 season. And we are currently fifteenth in the Premier League. On the positive side, Thomas Partey is back in action today, and Shkodran Mustafi is on the substitutes’ bench as well. Quite naturally, it goes without saying of course, that today’s match against our North London rivals is one that we just have to emerge victorious, no other result will do. Let’s go!

The scene was set quite early on when firm tackles and fouls set the pattern for this electric match between the North London giants, with both teams squandering clear-cut chances to score. We started very much in the ascendancy, with constant pressure on the Spurs goal. But we did not pay attention. As early as the thirteenth minute, Spurs caught us on a typical counter-attack movement; Son Heung-min collected a pass from Harry Kane, ran sixty yards and his unstoppable shot flew past Bernd Leno to give the home side the lead. We responded quickly with attacks on the Spurs’ goal, but we kept getting caught cold with quick counter-attacking play from the home side. The match had more or less became one of containment from our point of view, as we found it difficult to create chances for ourselves, but when we did, the chances came to nothing. However, just after the half hour mark, Bukayo Saka got away from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg on the right-hand side, passed the ball quickly to Kieran Tierney before getting into the Spurs penalty area but his low cross was neutralised, sadly. A free-kick saw a great chance for us to score, go to waste, despite some sterling work by Kieran Tierney cutting in to the Spurs’ penalty area from the left-hand side. Three minutes before the break, an Alexandre Lacazette free-kick from twenty yards out, bounced off the defensive wall and away for a corner, which again, led to a wasted effort. Then the unimaginable happened. Right on the stroke of half-time, Spurs counter-attacked again, and a simple pass from Son Heung-min to Harry Kane in our penalty area led to the home side scoring a second goal, courtesy of their captain, which Bernd Leno was unable to stop. Thomas Partey simply just walked off the pitch just before the goal, and was duly was substituted for Dani Ceballos due to injury, but the whistle went for the half-time break as this change happened, with Arsenal disappointingly two goals down.

Just after the restart, a Bukayo Saka free-kick from the right-hand side went through the Spurs defence and was unlucky not to score; a couple of minutes later, a Kieran Tierney cross found Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, whose subsequent header went over the bar from eight yards. We certainly had the better run of play in the immediate period after the break, and we started to make a decent account of ourselves. Time and time again, we were knocking on the door of the Tottenham goal, but their organisational gameplan got the better of us, sadly. We were causing problems for them in their own half consistently, and we had our best chance of the game so far when Alexandre Lacazette met a cross from the right and flicked a magnificent header towards goal that Hugo Lloris did well to push to the other side of the post. Eddie Nketiah replaced Hector Bellerin after seventy-four minutes, and after the formation juggled around a bit to accomodate the substitution, we continued trying to find a way to prize open the Spurs defence. We dominated possession, and we attacked as a unit, and defended as one too. By rights, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang should have scored with six minutes remaining on the clock, but sadly Toby Alderweireld robbed him at the last minute. But still we kept coming forward, testing and probing the Spurs defence, with Alexandre Lacazette being desperately unfortunate not to score when his snap shot went just inches wide of the goal. Right up until the final whistle, we constistently and constantly tried to score a valuable goal, but it was not to be, sadly.

What is to be done? Our possession in both halves far outweighed the opposition’s, and the stats were mostly in our favour. And yet, after all that, we fired blanks yet again. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was on the missing list for large parts of the match, and Willian looked off the pace and sluggish at times, but Dani Ceballos, Gabriel, Bukayo Saka and Kieran Tierney were superb tonight. We are light years away from challenging for the Premiership, and it is bcoming obvious to everyone that it is going to be a long, hard road back to a consistent, match-winning team. It’s going to be a tough season.

Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Dundalk at Oriel Park on Thursday, 10th December at 5.55pm (Europa League). Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.