Mikel Arteta | Lego Pep watch

I think the importance of managerial experience is declining in modern football, it seems to be more about connecting with the dressing room and having them play their hearts out for you.

I don’t know about that, but something that goes unnoticed a lot is back room staff and the role they play.
 
I think the importance of managerial experience is declining in modern football, it seems to be more about connecting with the dressing room and having them play their hearts out for you.
I think the importance of managerial experience is the same it's always been, but people seem to overate their ability to judge it. It's a lot easier to judge players than managers or coaches.
 
Phelan has worked closely with Sir Alex, takes charge of training sessions, and is basically his right hand man. Working alongside someone is completely different than the actual hot seat imo, for one thing they don't have any of the pressure. We don't even know how the players would respond to him if he was the boss.

They knew their clubs inside out. Does Arteta really have a strong link with Arsenal? I actually find it amusing how the situations seem to be reversed. Arteta should have gone to Everton, I think he is a bigger legend for them and was a much better player as well. Getting them back up the table shouldn't be too hard with the squad that they have, and would have done wonders for not only his CV but actual experience with taking full control of a football club, in a top league.

I agree it is completely different which is why this appointment carries a big risk. I would say assistants are best suited to step up but it depends from person to person. Most assistants imo aren't destined to step up because the managerial role takes on a lot more responsibility so that will be the challenge for him. However I'd say in recent years there have been very good young managers coming through so times are changing. I'm more than happy to give him a chance, Arsene Wenger was once seen as a massive risk as well albeit he had much more experience at the highest level. I think he has all the tools to step up and become a manager, I strongly believed in getting some young and ambitious in so I'm fully in on this.

I think Arteta left a massive impression on the club and the club left a massive impression on him, I don't buy into him being at Everton longer meaning he should be their legend. I wouldn't even call him an Arsenal legend but definitely one of the stand out players on and off the pitch for us. He came to the club when we were going through a very rocky period, helped stabilise things and was very well respected. A lot were sad to see him go and wanted to retain him in some role like we did with Mertesacker. Off the pitch he was a massive influence behind the scenes, probably the best captain we've had since Vieira and he was known to go out of his way to help players. Which is why he was highly respected behind the scenes.
 
Weren’t we always in the age of ex players managing

I think he's referring particularly to Premier League clubs hiring recent former players.

99% of managers are ex players of some sort, but how many clubs have one of their own ex players in the dugout?
 
I think the importance of managerial experience is declining in modern football, it seems to be more about connecting with the dressing room and having them play their hearts out for you.

The value of the "average" manager is much, much lower than the squad of players they're managing. It's why clubs are increasingly taking the approach of getting someone in who they think will do well with the group they already have at the club, and then also a willingness to make a change when that isn't the case anymore.
 
  • He captained Arsenal and ended our trophy drought. He's shown that he can lead and he's not just a number 2 or someone who works behind the scenes.
  • He worked with Pep and surely picked up a few things from him.
  • He was Pep's trusted advisor. Pep doesn't mess about and he wouldn't put so much trust in someone inexperienced unless he has something about him.
  • He helped City win the league. He has seen what it takes for a manager to lead a team to a league title.
  • He worked with world class players and winners so he has experience in dealing with big personalities.
  • Arteta has always been spoken about as a potentially great manager and following his career path it's clear that he had his sights focused on a job as a manger. He's not someone who stumbled onto a job in management.
  • Highly experienced premier player and knows all about the league.
  • He was a very clever player and these type of players usually do well in management (e.g. Simeone, Guardiola, Zidane)

The alternatives are Allegri and Ancelloti

At Juventus Allegri lived off the team Conte built. He inherited a team that won the Seria A 3 years in arow.

At AC he won the league in the 1st year where there were no other challengers Rafa was too busy dismantling the team that Jose built at Inter and Juve were still recovering from the match fixing scandal. He didn't win anything in the following 3 years and ended up getting fired with AC sitting 11th in the league. Also, he has no experience in the premier league and apparently his English was so poor that he let his agent do the talking during the interview with Arsenal. For me he's just another Emery.

Ancelloti is a great man manager who does well with great players. Not sure if he's up for a rebuilding job and his methods might be outdated. Wouldn't have minded him taking over till the end of the season to steady the club but I'm not sure he would go for that.

Sure, Arteta is a gamble given the lack of experience but at the moment he's the best option and could introduce fresh ideas. Guardiola and Zidane barely had any experience when they started management and they did well so it seems pretty premature to completely rule Arteta out.

so he’s Steve Mclaren MK 2 then
 
I think the importance of managerial experience is declining in modern football, it seems to be more about connecting with the dressing room and having them play their hearts out for you.

And actually being a good coach i.e. quickly implementing a style of play on the field, the output of productive training sessions.
 
I think the importance of managerial experience is the same it's always been, but people seem to overate their ability to judge it. It's a lot easier to judge players than managers or coaches.

In general with everything in modern day - information is everywhere whether it's football or not.

Footballers are not dumb. The managers can't be dumb, they need to be a higher level an able to cojoin an understanding of individuals to get a use of everyone and have them feeling important.

This is why Ex players are better at everything be it coaching or even talking about the match for sky sports - they ultimately know what they are talking about & like it or not more often than not - Jamie Callagher or Neville sound like they know what they talk about than Souness. It wouldn't surprise me if some modern day ex footballers manage their ex clubs better than random managers out of no where too.
 
Don't know anything about them, before my time. Arteta is modern guy in modern world, he knows his stuff.

Steve McClaren and Brian Kidd were as modern as they come, lauded by everyone as being so far ahead of the game. Modern guys in modern World's @Jacckk1985 and how the feck can a Manchester United fan born 1985 not know Brian Kidd, McClaren or fecking Queiroz?
 
  • He captained Arsenal and ended our trophy drought. He's shown that he can lead and he's not just a number 2 or someone who works behind the scenes.
  • He worked with Pep and surely picked up a few things from him.
  • He was Pep's trusted advisor. Pep doesn't mess about and he wouldn't put so much trust in someone inexperienced unless he has something about him.
  • He helped City win the league. He has seen what it takes for a manager to lead a team to a league title.
  • He worked with world class players and winners so he has experience in dealing with big personalities.
  • Arteta has always been spoken about as a potentially great manager and following his career path it's clear that he had his sights focused on a job as a manger. He's not someone who stumbled onto a job in management.
  • Highly experienced premier player and knows all about the league.
  • He was a very clever player and these type of players usually do well in management (e.g. Simeone, Guardiola, Zidane

That list is brilliant.

Bullet point 1. He captained the club, so did Henry and he played under Pep, let's look how his stint at an old club went @trims.

Bullet points 2-6: Should all be one fecking bullet point simply because he worked with Pep. Steve McClaren, Brian Kidd, Steve Clarke, Carlos Queiroz anyone?

Bullet point 7: Alan Shearer and a shit load of other much better and experienced Premier League players have flopped.

Bullet point 8: Define clever player because Simeone was more Roy Keane or Souness than bloody Zidane or Guardiola. And as for "clever players", much more intelligent footballers have failed: van Basten & Zola are two prime examples, there are dozens more.

In short, it's a list written in fairy tale land. Arteta is a massive risk for one of England's biggest clubs, just as all of Fergie's assistants were massive risks, I completely understand why lots of Arsenal fans are fuming about it.
 
The appointment/head hunting of Pep's assistant did make me think of SAF's assistants, Brian Kidd, McLaren, Queiroz, Meulensteen. There was a lot of hype for Kidd being the major reason for Fergie's success but soon found being the head man wasn't for him, Queiroz got the Madrid job but came back then went into International management.

Arteta could be one of the top future managers, all you can do is try. Of course Pep has proven himself at multiple clubs though I feel some of this is he's got the blueprints.
 
Still in second division and cups. It's not the same as managing an under 23 team
It's wasn't the second division and it's just like managing a U23 team (which is what those teams are). The B side Pep coached was in 4th division and he did it for one season. Zidane coached Castilla in the 3rd division for a season and a half.
 
Steve McClaren and Brian Kidd were as modern as they come, lauded by everyone as being so far ahead of the game. Modern guys in modern World's @Jacckk1985 and how the feck can a Manchester United fan born 1985 not know Brian Kidd, McClaren or fecking Queiroz?
He probably grew up a Real Madrid fan and switched over later ;)

From some of the articles I’ve read on him, he sounds like a very serious, intense, tactical kind of coach. I’m sure he would’ve taken a measured risk in accepting this job. I’m curious to know what he’s been promised by the Arsenal board that would’ve convinced him to come because it is a big rebuilding job. Still not sure how this ones gonna go. He’s had Pep sing his praises but does he realise the strength of character of the current squad and will he be backed in the market?

Oh, for feck's sake, he's an assistant coach and suddenly he is offered manager's job at Arsenal (still a big 6 club, even if in decline) - who would say no? He's a human and vain, as a professional footballer he is naturally ambitious. There would be nothing measured about taking such opportunity if it is put in front of you.
 
Last edited:
Steve McClaren and Brian Kidd were as modern as they come, lauded by everyone as being so far ahead of the game. Modern guys in modern World's @Jacckk1985 and how the feck can a Manchester United fan born 1985 not know Brian Kidd, McClaren or fecking Queiroz?
Not born 1985 :P? In depth English football started around 2010 for me :)
 
That list is brilliant.

Bullet point 1. He captained the club, so did Henry and he played under Pep, let's look how his stint at an old club went @trims.

Bullet points 2-6: Should all be one fecking bullet point simply because he worked with Pep. Steve McClaren, Brian Kidd, Steve Clarke, Carlos Queiroz anyone?

Bullet point 7: Alan Shearer and a shit load of other much better and experienced Premier League players have flopped.

Bullet point 8: Define clever player because Simeone was more Roy Keane or Souness than bloody Zidane or Guardiola. And as for "clever players", much more intelligent footballers have failed: van Basten & Zola are two prime examples, there are dozens more.

In short, it's a list written in fairy tale land. Arteta is a massive risk for one of England's biggest clubs, just as all of Fergie's assistants were massive risks, I completely understand why lots of Arsenal fans are fuming about it.

First of all the list is meant to be taken as whole but you’re isolating each point and bringing up silly examples.

Bullet 1: If you knew anything about Thierry Henry or his time at Monaco, you wouldn’t have brought him up as an example. So, let me give you another list summarising why
  • Henry was never endorsed by so many world class managers as Arteta
  • Henry has an attitude problem which was apparent in his last season at Arsenal when he was undermining Wenger and acting bigger than the club
  • His immaturity and poor man management was noted at Monaco, berating young players publicly, negative attitude during games, poor professionalism during training sessions etc (you can read up on that).
  • His poor tactics were evident in his time at Monaco by not being able to decide on a formation and playing into the hands of the opposition.
  • This was so bad that the whole squad got together and held a meeting with board to complain about all of this and Henry was sacked.
However, it should be noted that the state of Monaco when Henry came in didn’t help.

Bullet points 2-6: Wasn’t Mourinho also an assistant coach to Bobby Robson? Weren’t AVB, Conte and Jupp Heyckes all assistant managers at the start?

Bullet points 7-8: Read what I wrote at the top, you’re taking each point individually rather the points as a whole. Again, not claiming that Arteta’s PL experience is going to help him but it’s his PL experience combined with the other points I listed.

Anyway, if you read or quoted the rest of my post you would’ve seen that I acknowledged Arteta is a gamble. The issue is with all the oracles here who are claiming that Arteta at Arsenal is a 100% guaranteed to end in failure. People here are adamant that we should've gone for Allegri instead because of his experience. But we did that in 2018 by going for Emery for the same reason and look at how that went.

The suggestion that he wasn’t put through a rigorous hiring process and that he was only hired ahead of Allegri, who doesn’t speak a word of English and never managed outside of Italy, simply because he was the cheap option is also laughable given that Arteta’s is paid the same as Ancelotti at Napoli and Allegri at Juve.
 
so he’s Steve Mclaren MK 2 then

Or Mourinho to Bobby Robson :drool:


From some of the articles I’ve read on him, he sounds like a very serious, intense, tactical kind of coach. I’m sure he would’ve taken a measured risk in accepting this job. I’m curious to know what he’s been promised by the Arsenal board that would’ve convinced him to come because it is a big rebuilding job. Still not sure how this ones gonna go. He’s had Pep sing his praises but does he realise the strength of character of the current squad and will he be backed in the market?

Watch his press conference on Friday. I was honestly surprised by how well he answered the question and got his message across. The man is very clear about what he wants to to do and how he wants do it. implementation is another matter though and I hope he can succeed in that. My main concern is that given his relatively young age he'll have to work hard to win over the senior players.


Good post, and I'd also be optimistic at this appointment if I was a gooner. Of course there's a chance he may not turn out well, but I don't see how he could be any worse than Emery. Do you see the owners spending big for him or are they going to do it cheaply and hope he develops players?

I think you hit the nail on the head there. He can't do any worse than Emery or Ljungberg.

I don't think he would've taken a risk coming here for his first job which could define him as a coach if didn't get guarantees from the board that they will spend in the transfer market. Don't think they will spend big money but he will get some investment. I think with the current squad, a good manager should be able to get top 4. We have so many players underperfoming, the team is all over the place tactically and the players don't seem to have clear instructions about what to do. I'm interested to see which players he'll keep and which ones he'll see as surplus to requirements.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Penna
Well he likes to chuck pizza around when things aren’t going well

I thought that was Fabregas? And it was long before Arteta came to Arsenal which was in 2011 and the pizzagate incident was 2004.

if that’s what your referring to?
 
You only have to look at Pep and Arteta together at the bench to see how much Pep values his advice. Arteta is the nearest we'll get to a good coach without actually having managed a team. And seeing as even pedigreed coaches struggle at times, it's easy to understand why the board went with Arteta.
 
Arteta: 'We are the biggest football club in England, and we have to play a little bit with that arrogance, that belief. This stadium has to create fear again.'

Oh my!
 
New managers and players often talk bollocks to try and get the fans onside but Arsenal being the "biggest football club in England" is a statement that almost warrants him being sectioned.
 
New managers and players often talk bollocks to try and get the fans onside but Arsenal being the "biggest football club in England" is a statement that almost warrants him being sectioned.
Arsenal and being delusional run side by side. So not one bit surprised with this statement.
 
Arteta: 'We are the biggest football club in England, and we have to play a little bit with that arrogance, that belief. This stadium has to create fear again.'

Oh my!
He said that?
 
You've got to credit the Gooners for their optimism but they're trying to convince themselves that Arteta is the man and that he will bring them success. He may well do, who knows. But the way they were talking after the Bournemouth game, I fear they may be getting a little blinkered. But fair play to them for getting behind their man. We'll see what they say after the Chelsea and United games.

Nothing would give me more pleasure than to see them lose both by the way.
 
He said that?

12:45
Arteta: Arsenal are biggest club in England
New Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta believes he’s taken over “the biggest football club in England” in a statement that will shock Manchester United supporters.
That moniker has traditionally been applied to either United or Liverpool in English football, but Arteta made the claim ahead of his first home match in charge of the Gunners, speaking to Sky Sports:
“We are the biggest football club in England, and we have to play a little bit with that arrogance, that belief.
“This stadium has to create fear again. I used to hate coming here as an opponent, and we need to use that power. The opponent must be uncomfortable playing here. We need to recover here.
“It was incredible to play here as an Arsenal player. It’s one of the most beautiful, exciting stadiums in the world. When this crowd gets going, and you feel them right behind the team, it’s an incredible place.”