telstar96
Full Member
- Joined
- May 27, 2021
- Messages
- 266
Do you believe with backing from the board and an overhauled squad, Arteta can turn a club that has been deteriorating over the past couple decades, into a top 4 contender?It hasn't, what's been posted has been posted over the last year or two. It's been fully predicted.
Difficult job, squad needs overhaul, will take time, backed this summer financially, now going into second full season, see how he does.
The problem was their net spend over 2010 to 2020 was half of the likes of City and United*. Combined with a lower wage bill, some really poorly thought out signings (Pepe for over 70m ) and generally bad squad building it resulted in the squad deteriorating to a really poor state. Emery (a good manager) did a brilliant job to get 5th, but by all the metrics they were a midtable side and this caught up with them, they finished the season in dreadful form, and then next season the club completely crashed.
When judging a manager the context needs to be accounted for and it's often ignored. People keep mentioning Arteta finishing 8th twice, but the first one was when he took over at the end of December and points wise set a top 6 rate. His first full season he could only bring in Partey and Gabriel and couldn't overhaul the squad, he finished 8th but 6 points off 4th and finished the season very strongly.
*I've used planetfootball and givemefootball, cba to crunch the numbers on transfermarket to get a rough idea. But there's still a clear gulf despite Arsenal throwing money away towards the end of the decade.
In their last 26 league games they've won 15, they've drawn 5 and lost 6. The reason people were calling for Arteta's head after the first three games is because they've been calling for his head non-stop ever since he joined (not the media, general football fans). Just look at the lineups in those three games, they're completely different to what they have now because players were missing and signings hadn't been finalised. But people don't look closely at the situation, they just see the name Arsenal and where they are in the league and that's enough for them to make up their mind.
I understand there are positives to take from the work he has done so far, but I just can't see someone who is still learning on the job being an overall success.