Tag Archives: She Wore A Yellow Ribbon

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

Football should follow Mesut Ozil’s lead and stop supporting sportswashing

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Regardless of whether you like Mesut Ozil or not, whether you think he is a waste of space on the pitch and we should get rid, we should all be standing with him over his comments about China.

On Friday, Ozil posted a message on his criticises China’s treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang.

The treatment the Uighur Muslim minority in western China has been labelled as the ‘atrocity of the century’ with reports that up to 3 million people are being held in “modern day” concentration camps.

Leading Uighur activist Rushan Abbas described the situation back in 2018.

“[It is] not just the 3 million people in the concentration camps facing mental and physical torture, forced intense indoctrinations, forced medications, food and sleep deprivation, [but] even the people at large … living outside, are facing a complete surveillance police state.”

The United Nations and human rights groups estimate that between one million and two million people, mostly ethnic Uighur Muslims, have been detained in harsh conditions in Xinjiang as part of what Beijing calls an anti-terrorism campaign.

The first Uighur camp was built in 2014, and much of the world has turned a blind eye to what is happening. Most of the world are actually unaware of what is happening, with countries across the globe continuing to do business with China in the same way they were doing business with Germany in the late 1930s, despite the first Nazi concentration camp being built in 1933.

It has taken Ozil’s Instagram post to bring the plight of the Turkic ethnic group into the world domain.

Posting the words against the backdrop of the flag of the short-lived East Turkestan republic, an area that is now Chinese-controlled Xinjiang, he called Uighurs “warriors who resist persecution” and criticised both China’s crackdown and the silence of Muslims in response. “(In China) Qurans are burned, mosques were closed down, Islamic theological schools, madrasas were banned, religious scholars were killed one by one. Despite all this, Muslims stay quiet,”

In response to Ozil’s comments, China’s state broadcaster CCTV pulled the broadcast of Arsenal’s Premier League game against Manchester City.

Ozil has seen his China-based “M10” fan club shut down, his social media accounts blocked and almost all trace of his name removed from Chinese search engine results.

Several Chinese football fan sites have said they will stop posting news related to Ozil, according to the Shanghai-based publication The Paper. A Chinese football simulation game said it would no longer produce Özil player roles or cards.

Fans in China have labelled Ozil a “dirty ant” and posted videos of them burning his shirts.

In a comment that has since been deleted, the editor of the Global Times, Hu Xijin, accused the footballer of essentially calling for global jihad against China. Asking Özil to provide examples of his allegations, Hu wrote: “This man is full of nonsense. Does he just want to encourage global jihad, using Xinjiang as an excuse?”

Ozil has been brave standing up to what he clearly feels are human rights breaches that are currently being ignored by the global community.

China’s record on human rights is one of the worst in the world. Like many other countries with poor records, they have been attempting to use sport to improve its reputation in something that is known as sportswashing.

From the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing through to Qatar 2022, sportswashing is becoming more common as authorities and clubs put aside their morals and values to sell their sport to the highest bidder.

Last weekend saw the world title heavyweight clash between anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz take place in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia’s relatively sudden interest in sports can be construed as a soft power tactic to help distract from the kingdom’s ongoing human rights abuses and the Yemen crisis.

The kingdom has hosted the Race of Champions (ROC) motorsport event, secured a long-term deal with the WWE that includes multiple shows a year, hosted boxing events headlined by stars like Amir Khan, hosted a PGA European Tour golf event.

Azerbaijani is another nation using sport as a distraction from what is actually happening in their country.

Despite human rights infringements, a lack of press freedom, a clear threat of terrorism and Azerbaijan being labelled as “not free”; the likes of UEFA, the IAAF and the FIA have all awarded Azerbaijan major events in recent years, including the recent Europa League final.

Back to Ozil and China, clubs across Europe have turned a blind eye to human rights issues for a long time. They chase money agreeing to play friendlies in China, Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia.

Every club should now stand with Ozil over his comments. Stand with the Uighur Muslim’s, stand with those who have been detained, killed elsewhere across the globe for having a different religion, race or sexuality.

Amnesty International recently called for “clubs – the coaches, players, and backroom staff – to use their considerable influence to press for greater recognition of human rights.”

Ozil is in the right highlighting a human rights issue in China. Imagine how much more powerful the message would be if, following China’s boycott of Arsenal, the Premier League stood together as one and boycotted China.

No more selling TV rights to the country, no more holding money-spinning friendlies there. Not until they have sorted themselves out. Cleaned up their act. Stopped detaining millions for simply following another religion.

Standing together will not happen, however.

Take a look at Manchester City. Current Premier League champions.

The City Football Group, who own the club, Abu Dhabi United Group and a consortium of Chinese state-backed investment firms. Are they really going to take a stand against what is happening in nations across the globe when they are owned by those states committing the atrocities?

Until clubs and the authorities grow a pair and stop selling themselves to the highest bidder, it will be up to the likes of Mesut Ozil to bravely stand on his own and speak up for those who have no voice.

Ozil might polarise support on the pitch, but we should stand with him when it comes to speaking up against human right breaches.

I stand with Ozil.

Keenos

No Leadership, No Direction – The Biggest Problem at Arsenal

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And just when you thought we could not get any lower, we go and lose at home to Brighton.

Arsenal sit 10th, 10 points off of top 4. Now below Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham. 4 wins from the opening 15 games. On course to barely get 50 points.

Our last win was at home to Vitoria in the Europa League back in October; and that was through a last minute winner. Our last win in the league was on October 4th; a 1-0 victory over Bournemouth.

Defeat to Brighton made it 7 games with out a win. Let’s not try and fool ourselves. Arsenal are in full blown crisis mode. We are bad. Very, very bad.

Arsenal are without a manager, without a win in 2 months and without a plan to move forward.

The biggest problem at the club is lack of leadership from the top down.

With have Stan Kroenke, the owner.

“Silent Stan” as he is known. He is very much a hands-off owner. Employing experts to run the club. It is no different to how owners operate across the business world. The importance is getting in the right CEO or MD. Experts in their field and not interfering in the way they run the business.

The problem is when that CEO or MD is underperforming, the owner needs to act to remove and replace. An argument can be made that during the early 2010s, Kroenke was motivated more by the profit that the club was making rather than on-pitch performances. This allowed Ian Gazidis to remain in a job. Whilst commercial revenue rose, the team was on a downward curve.

Leadership below Kroenke also needs to be questioned.

Between Kroenke and Gazidis’s replacement (Raul Sanllehi), we have a Board of Directors whose job it is to hold those in charge of the day-to-day running of the club to account. To ensure things are running smoothly.

Chairman Sir Chips Keswick, Ken Friar, Lord Harris of Peckham and Josh Kroenke. What do they actually do?

Below them we have Raul Sanllehi, Edu and Vinai Venkatesham, all playing different senior roles at the club.

Venkatesham gets away with any criticism as he is focused on the commercial side of the club. As for Sanllehi and Edu, they need to be given the benefit of the doubt.

Both men have only recently been appointed into their positions at the club.

Sanllehi was appointed Head of Football following Gazidis’s departure in September, whilst Edu only joined in July.

Whilst they can be immune from criticism for a lot of what has happened at the club over the last decade, both now need to step up as leaders and move the club forward.

Arsenal are currently without a full time manager or head coach. Freddie Ljungberg has been appointed in the interim, but a week after Unai Emery’s departure we have yet to appoint a replacement.

The club literally do not have a leader on the training ground, on the touchline.

A huge problem at the club is the lack of leaders on the pitch.

We have gone from Adams, Seaman, Keown, Wright, Bergkamp to Vieira, Henry, Campbell, Cole and Lehmann to Ozil, Aubameyang, Xhaka, Lacazette and Bellerin.

I have never known an Arsenal team to lack leadership as much on the field as this current squad of players.

They lack brains, they lack tactical knowledge and they spend more time blaming each other than taking responsibility for their own performances.

A team with a weak manager can still be a success if there is leadership on the pitch. We saw this when Chelsea won the Champions League with Roberto Di Matteo as manager.

Di Matteo might have been the manager to take Chelsea to the top of Europe, but it was the leadership of John Terry, Frank Lampard, Petr Cech, Didier Drogba and Ashley Cole that ran the team. Strong characters.

In 2007 the England rugby team was in a similar situation.

Head Coach Brian Ashton was clearly out of his depth taking the side to the World Cup as reigning champions. Instead of hiding behind the coach, senior players like Lawrence Dallaglio, Jonny Wilkinson, Mike Catt, Phil Vickery and Martin Corry stood up and took control. They drove England to the final where they eventually lost to South Africa.

When you look at this squad of Arsenal players, who is standing up, holding their colleagues to account? Ensuring that they put in a shift? Making on field tactical changes? There is no one.

Over the summer Arsenal lost Laurent Koscielny & Aaron Ramsey.

Ramsey joined the club in 2008, Koscielny in 2010. Regardless of your opinion of eithers ability, both were good leaders on and off the pitch.

We also lost senior players in Nacho Monreal and Petr Cech. Again, both senior players and in Cech’s case, someone who has won everything domestically in football. When someone like Cech talks, you listen.

The 4 of them had amassed 1,112 appearances for Arsenal and played 2,186 for various clubs through England, Wales, Spain, France and Czech Republic. 33 senior trophies between them and 257 caps for country.

We also got rid of Stephan Lichtsteiner after one season.

Say what you like about his performances on the pitch, he was a no-nonsense character off it. 601 appearances for club, 105 appearances for country. 16 trophies.

To lose 4 long term players in Ramsey, Koscielny, Cech and Monreal plus the leadership of Lichtsteiner has created a massive issue at the team.

Those who were expected to step up in their place – Xhaka, Aubameyang, Lacazette, Bellerin and Ozil are let the club down in terms of leadership.

We have Xhaka having a go at the fans, swearing at them, throwing his shirt on the floor and refusing to apologise. His behaviour ended up seeing him stripped off the armband.

Lacazette and Ozil got into a blazing row against Brighton; blaming each other. Not the behaviour of leaders. Neither have performed this season, neither has shown leadership.

As for Aubameyang, he is clearly a much loved player by his team mates and fans. He was the natural choice to replace Xhaka, but he is not exactly a natural leader – he is more a Thierry Henry than a Patrick Vieira.

I will defend Hector Bellerin as he has been injured and in the game he was captain, he showed leadership.

But even beyond these players, the rest of the squad has failed to step up, failed to take responsibility.

David Luiz, Sokratis, Saed Kolasinac, Shkodran Mustafi. These are also senior players who should be stepping up, but they seem to be cowering away, letting others take responsibility and blame.

It is the lack of leaders on the pitch which is Arsenal’s biggest problem.

Not enough players want to stand up and be counted. Too many are unwilling to take responsibility.

For too long players hid behind Arsene Wenger (or he protected them?). They then let Emery take the brunt of the fans anger whilst they continued to put in sub-par performances. In the couple of games under Freddie Ljungberg, non have stepped out to help out the interim manager.

In Rob Holding, Kieran Tierney, Lucas Torreira, Matteo Guendouzi and Nicholas Pepe we have some good players around a similar age. But they need leadership and guidance from their more senior team mates. That is simply not happening at the moment.

The club is broken. The lack of leadership from Kroenke at the top, through the board, coaching and players is destroying everything that George Graham and Arsene Wenger built over the last 3 decades.

My fear is that even if we get a new manager in, it does not change the lack of leadership above and below. The new man will face the same problems as Emery.

The lack of leadership within the club has to be addressed, starting at the top with Kroenke who needs to show leadership by getting rid of those on the board who do not contribute and replacing them with younger, hungrier Arsenal men.

The board in turn needs to show leadership by applying pressure to Sanllehi and Edu to get the new manager in.

Over the next two transfer windows, Sanllehi and Edu need to show leadership. They need to show the door to the senior players who are failing to step up – the likes of Ozil, Xhaka, Sokratis and Mustafi. They should also look closely as to whether Lacazette and Aubameyang deserve new contracts and back the manager if he decides to remove both from the leadership team.

They then need to look at a players leadership capabilities when recruiting.

It would make more sense to sign Samuel Umtiti or Daniele Rugani ahead of Dayot Upamecano (although a case could be made for Upamecano and Rugani to come in replacing Sokratis, Luiz and Mustafi).

Likewise Dominik Szoboszlai might be a talented youngster, but he would not solve the lack of leadership in the centre of the park. A move for Ruben Neves who captains his Porto in the Champions League would be a sensible option.

As with the defence, there would be space for to buy both Szoboszlai and Neves if and when Xhaka leaves.

The new manager then needs to show leadership by implementing consistent tactics and formation and making it clear and obvious to every player what he expects.

Then we come down to the players. They either need to take responsibility for their performances or be sold.

Arsenal will continue to struggle until the leadership problem is sorted.

Keenos