Tag Archives: Mikel Arteta

Arteta v Ancelotti – Arsenal pick the right man

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Over the last 24 hours a lot has happened.

Firstly we had Arsenal’s senior negotiating team getting “caught” leaving Mikel Arteta’s house in the early hours, then we had the news that Carlo Ancelotti was Everton’s first choice to be new manager.

Arsenal have come in for a bit of criticism and mocking for being “caught” leaving Mikel Arteta’s house, but the situation is odd, almost stalkers.

It was 1am in the morning when the pictures were taking. Was a member of the paparazzi hiding in the bushes outside of Arteta’s house just in case someone showed up? And if so how long has he been hiding there? Or did he tail Huss Fahmy and Vinai Venkatesham from London? It all comes across as a little intrusive, a little desperate from the British media.

I guess ultimately the photographer got his picture, got his money, and will now have a good Christmas from the profits. Still, it’s odd that the British media criticise Arsenal when they promote stalker behaviour to get a story.

So Arsenal, and Everton, both had a choice.

In one corner you have Mikel Arteta. A man who has captained both clubs. Who has been involved in British football over 17 years.

Arteta became one of Pep Guardiola’s first back room staff when was appointed an assistant coach at Manchester City back in 2016.

At 37-years-old, he will be the youngest manager in the Premier League by over 4 years if appointed (Frank Lampard currently being the youngest). He will be the 5th youngest Premier League or English Football League manager.

Arteta has no managerial experience at any level, but is a trusted lieutenant for Guardiola.

Reports coming out of Manchester City are that Guardiola takes a step back on the training ground. More overseeing the session rather than running drills. Arteta has grown into the man in charge.

The importance of Arteta is detailed in Pep’s City: The Making of a Superteam. What comes through is that Arteta, is integral to the work undertaken on the training ground – and particularly with the likes of Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane – and that he has the complete trust of Guardiola.

Having grown up through the Barcelona youth system, Arteta shares the same basic philosophy as his fellow La Masia alumni.

In an interview with the Arsenal website back in 2015, Arteta outlined what type of manager he wanted to be:

‘My philosophy will be clear. I will have everyone 120 per cent committed, that’s the first thing. If not, you don’t play for me. When it’s time to work it’s time to work, and when it’s time to have fun then I’m the first one to do it, but that commitment is vital.

Then I want the football to be expressive, entertaining. I cannot have a concept of football where everything is based on the opposition.

We have to dictate the game, we have to be the ones taking the initiative, and we have to entertain the people coming to watch us. I’m 100 per cent convinced of those things, and I think I could do it.’

Commitment. Expressive, entertaining football. Taking the initiative in games. It is everything Arsenal fans demand. It would be what some claim was The Arsenal Way.

Arteta might be young, he might be inexperienced, but he clearly has the intelligence and confidence to get to the very top.

If Arteta is virgin manager, Carlo Ancelotti is anything but. He is a man who has been around a bit, done everything there is to do.

At 60-years-old, he has won almost everything there is to win in European football, including the Intertoto Cup.

He has led his teams to 19 trophies during his 24 years of management, including 4 league titles and 3 Champions Leagues.

He has managed Juventus, AC Milan, Chelsea, PSG, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Napoli.

Winning the league title in 3 different countries, he has shown tactical flexibility throughout his career – from the defensive style in Italy through to playing expansive football with Real Madrid. He has the experience, success and knowhow to make a difference wherever he goes.

But is he past it?

He was sacked by Napoli with them sitting 8th in the league table.

Ancelotti’s downfall began when he dropped Lorenzo Insigne for his team’s first game against Genk. Insigne to Napoli is what Francesco Totti was to Roma or Alesandro Del Perio was to Juventus. Their talisman. One of their own. Ancelotti was sending a message to his players.

There was mutiny within the ranks. He was unable to keep players in check and had clearly lost the dressing room.

Tactical mistakes were made. 21 goals conceded despite having a defence of Kalidou Koulibaly and Kostas Manolas. Critisicims that have followed Ancelotti throughout his career– that he does not push players hard enough in training – resurfaced. And he left.

It was a similar story at Bayern Munich.

Towards the end of Ancelotti’s reign at the German giant, there were reports that senior players organised secret training sessions.

Kicker ran a story claiming that Arjen Robben, Franck Ribery, Mats Hummels, Jérôme Boateng and Thomas Müller were particularly unhappy with Ancelotti’s relaxed training sessions and had so organised ‘secret’ high-intensity sessions behind his back.

Robben reportedly complained that Ancelotti’s training methods were less strenuous than the ones his son had to do with his school team.

Whilst he may well have a trophy haul that puts him amongst the most successful in Europe, should it be more impressive?

17 years in charge of Juventus, AC Milan, Chelsea, PSG, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich saw him win just 4 league titles. Is this not a failure rather than a success?

He has managed the best teams in their league, with the biggest budgets. Coached some of the best players in the world. But has he ever achieved at any of his clubs? Has he ever improved players? Has he ever taken a club forward from where they were previously?

In 2014 Manchester United appointed Louis van Gaal as manager. A man who came with a similar reputation for success as Ancelotti.

Like Ancelotti, he was coming to the end of his career. His faults were well known. He did not revolutionise United and the nagging doubts over style of play became a bigger talking point than results.

Ancelotti’s faults are well known. How long until noises are being made at his next club that training sessions are not intense enough? How long until he loses the dressing room for the umpteenth time?

So Arsenal (and Everton) have a choice.

The experienced winner, who has not won as much as he perhaps should have, who has been sacked from his last 2 jobs in similar circumstances. Or the virgin former captain who is rated highly as a coach but comes with zero track record.

I think what swings it for me is the view of those who know a thing or two about management.

Arsene Wenger

‘He has all the qualities to do the job, yes and I think as well he is one of the favourites

‘He was a leader, and he has a good passion for the game and he knows the club well, he knows what is important at the club and he was captain of the club.’

Mauricio Pochettino

‘For me, he’s going to be one of the best coaches when he decides to be a coach. ‘He has the capacity to be one of the greatest coaches in football, for sure.

‘Yes of course, he’s going to be. ‘He’s top, a top personality, character. ‘I think he has the qualities to be one of the best.’

Pep Guardiola

‘He is an incredible human being and works a lot. I said after a few months together he would be a manager. He is already a manager – he behaves like a manager.’

The opinion of Wenger, Pochettino and Guardiola is more valuable than someone on Twitter.

Keenos

A Wife and Two Break-Ups

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Every relationship, whether hellish or hospitable, has a leading-on period.

Firstly your wild side wants to charge in, Theo Walcott-esque, with little idea for the end product. I imagine the train of thought goes something likes this, “Do it. Do it. Kick it. Run. Run faster. Fetched!” But when the time comes to commit to the final ball, the doubts can be consuming. “But how could she possibly control the cross with those prison toothbrush toenails?” The drawbacks defer you and, in Walcott’s case, a blind get-out punt into the away stand follows.

Two men fell victim to such romantic hesitations this week.

The first was the North Korean leader, whose courtship became all too high-maintenance in its nuclear lustings and the banquet of ‘hostesses’ at an unnamed Singaporean suite was cancelled in lieu of the Donald’s break-up.

The second was none other than our scorned Spaniard.

It is easy to sympathise with Mikel Arteta, who’d practically half-Odemwingied in his desire for the position as journalists touted it as ‘basically a done deal’. But like a cruelly guarded affair, Ivan Gazidis was wooing his mistress before breaking off the marriage.

Many were so infatuated by Arteta’s mystery that there was no other option and it meant enthusiasm towards Unai Emery’s appointment was initially rather muted. However, the truth is, for the board at least, Arteta was too fresh and too unpredictable. It was one of love’s old clichés – ‘the right person at the wrong time’.

However, I have no doubts the Club came to the correct decision. Not necessarily in choosing Emery, but in appointing him over Arteta.

Arsenal are in an unstable period. Our leader and, to an extent, our philosophy has irreversibly changed and it’s essential we’re guided by someone proven in handling such a situation. Even with a heavy heart, it was right to second-guess the Spaniard.

Admittedly, Emery did somewhat lose his allure in France and the recent revelation that it was Neymar who was the boss in Paris is a slight cause for concern. However, his achievements at Sevilla indisputably showed that he’s a serial winner.

Emery’s approach is meticulous, hands-on, and he’ll work within the Club’s temperamental new structure. It may not quite be the new wife we supporters hoped for but it’s still the drastic change we desired.

It’s inevitable that after these years of repeated heartbreak, we’ll enter any new relationship with trepidation. But now the leading-on period is over and we’ve committed so there’s nothing to do but blindly charge in à la Theo.

Tom

Ivan Gazidis opts for plastic surgery for return to red light district

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If you haven’t seen The Deuce, I highly recommend it. The American drama, set in 1970s New York, focuses on prostitution and the eventual legalisation of porn in the city – and although James Franco is in it, thankfully he doesn’t play one of his familiar frat boy roles. I liken our beloved Arsenal to its rather exotic heroine, Candy.

Candy’s looks – once bodacious; now ill-favoured – have seen her confined to working the Premier League’s darker alleys, yearning for a sniff of the continental luxury she once took for granted. Slowly fading into the city’s orifices, she’s come to a juncture in her life.

Does she undergo a light makeover and ply the backstreets in the same old manner, or does she transform herself, via copious plastic surgery, into something new, vibrant, and, dare I say it, sexy. It’s worth a ponder as she pricks at a sweaty-palmed Ivan Gazidis voodoo doll in a grubby New York motel room.

At first, it seemed we were littered with lower-risk light makeover options and so we pursued these familiar souteneurs with a proven ability to rule. Was it the familiar curls of Ancelotti and Allegri, or lack thereof in the case of Monaco’s Jardim, we craved? It seemed when Arsene’s departure was announced, we shook our money-maker at the roadside but were distressed to find we weren’t quite so irresistible as we once were. Enrique, Simeone, Jardim, they all hesitated. Allegri’s flirtation – our first choice – proved to be more extortion than seduction.

Then emerged a ghoulish banshee with eyeshadow like the rock band Kiss. A figure of unparalleled disinterest and infinitely less seduction. Brendan Rodgers. Fans are rightly calling to unite behind the next manager regardless of the selection but even a toadstool oozing hallucinogenic spores couldn’t awaken the faintest of stirs in 42nd street’s most deplorable with that name. Luckily, the menacing threat of Brendan 2.0 drifts day by day –  7/1, 12/1, now 16 – and a breath of optimism can be taken once more.

Cue the influx of the more mysterious procurers as the Club became more open in its search – Željko Buvač and Rui Faria, the long-term servants of Klopp and Mourinho, both leaving their posts. They were too fresh. Tuchel, the king of the younger bunch, went to Paris despite admitting being attracted by our mating call – another one missed.

But emerge from the ashes, our former-captain and Spanish stallion Mikel Arteta. Mikel Arteta who’s never managed a football team but has learnt and received compliments from the very best. In truth, it’s not a choice many wholeheartedly called for when ‘Arsene’s decision’ was announced. However, as developments unfold, the more obvious a selection he becomes.

Is there a danger Arteta could become another hussy of Gazidis’ desire – a manager who will fit into his profitable system rather than take the reigns hostage and revitalise in the manner that Mourinho, Guardiola, Klopp, and Conte all have at individual moments? The past week’s rumours reassure that Arteta may be rather more bolshie than first thought.

It’s clear the Club are pursuing plastic surgery rather than an airbrushing, and rightfully so. That’s been evidenced by the widespread clear out of senior staff who are now plodding their way to the next deuce – Las Vegas for the lucky or Atlanta and Detroit for the rather less so.

We need a young and fiery manager to reanimate not just the team, but the atmosphere that surrounds the Club. The likes of an Henry or Vieira was always fanciful and impractical. Arteta on the other hand, despite being younger than both, seems groomed and suited for the trade. Is it conceivable that he can still meet our uncompromising expectations despite it being his first role in charge? Something tells that Arteta won’t be stripped of his innocence quite so readily in the way that Gary Neville was.

With cautious optimism, we shall unite and see. Whatever happens, at least it won’t be the street’s plainest urchin, Brendan Rodgers.

Tom Kershaw