Arsenal have confirmed it: Mikel Arteta is our new manager. Welcome back, Mikel! 👋Head coach of The Arsenal 👔 pic.twitter.com/lhsAfQ7cfq— Arsenal (@Arsenal) December 20, 2019 He comes recommended highly by Pep, Poch, and Wenger, but he's never managed a team ever. He's by all accounts analytical, intellectual, and also a passionate perfectionist. He represents the clearest analogue and amalgam of the qualities of Pep and Wenger as managers, while still having little to show for that and no clear demonstration to the average punter of who he is as a manager. He's unlikely to be able to fully turn the tide with this squad of players, while simultaneously being an avatar of hope for Arsenal fans. He represents the possibility that we could fuse the style, values and class of the past with a future of dynamism, self-sustenance, and untold success. In other words, Mikel Arteta is a land of contrasts. He's both an exciting and terrifying gamble at a very vulnerable time for a now-crumbling institution. His appointment is high risk and high reward. I have to say that despite the many concerns, I'm very excited for his appointment, and I truly believe he'll bring us sustained success and trophies in the future. I hope he'll be able to bring some good backroom staff and somehow convince Freddie to stay on as a part of the org somehow, to maintain some level of continuity. Welcome home Mikel! Anyways, here is a clip of what our Captain Black is currently doing to every player in our backline and midfield:
Captain Black! That's brilliant. I'm one of the few of us on this board who can say he watched that show in it's first running. The likeness is perfect, right down to the charcoal face from constant, thick black razor stubble. Too bad that youtube clip won't play in USA. So I did some nostalgic searching (I used to have all those vehicles!) and came up with this one of Captain Black which hopefully isn't in any way prophetic...
Obviously wish him well, and I'm willing to give him time to adjust. Really won't hold him to serious questions until next season unless he starts doing some weird s*** with the lineups. Big thing for me is how he and the club will handle talent scouting and acquisition. If we're safe to assume he'll at least try to provide a more clear direction of how the team should look and operate on the pitch then what will be critical is who and how at Arsenal is looking around for talent to fill in the gaps. So what will be different to ensure they get fewer Mustafis and Xhakas and more Cazorlas?
Yes we can only pray that Arteta works well with Raul & Edu, who should head up our scouting/recruiting efforts. (Still lamenting the loss of Sven whose scouting prowess seemed a big asset, notwithstanding any interpersonal "issues" he might have had)
We sacked a fake vampire and now we have a real one hopefully his philosophy is decent and we buy/sell in jan
I just noticed Llama's new avatar. Love it! Keep it as long as MA8 does a good job for us? I've been watching the win % for us from Google: Everton vs Arsenal. And surprisingly it didn't really change since the announcement. We're still 33-34% chance of winning (they are 41%)
The swag is back That press conference, the hair, the way the polo fit on him. That is a big club manager.
Shoot, sorry I didn't check that first. This is the exact clip I linked to though. This is what he's currently doing to Luiz and Sokratis to turn them into Stones and Laporte
The way he walked into the video room and just said, "We got a lot of work to do, you know that right?" Chills.
This is a big club manager. He has presence. And he has a free pass for at least the rest of this season. The league has been warned.
New MD thread is up, just in the nick... https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/everton-vs-arsenal-epl-21-dec-2019.2107985/
It's kind of fascinating that Arsenal twitter is getting very excited about drone analysis and learned patterns yet this stuff has been around for years (Yes biggie - in Rugby this stuff is at least 5 years old) Of course the detail of how you use it and train it matters more than knowing about it, but it does make me wonder just how far in the dark ages Arsenal has been. For instance, in Rugby I've often marvelled with mates at how insane no look passes get thrown for miracle scores. But of course the player knows almost instinctively that his support runner will be trying to get in that channel, so he hits it with a pass even if he can't confirm that someone will be there. Sometimes it looks stupid - the classic pass to nobody - but other times it means you use space at such a speed the defence cannot cope. City do this with their cut back passes to players arriving late. When KDB scored against us, he has come from quite deep, but the winger knows to look for him there. In the heat of the zweikampf and beating his man, the winger can't necessarily see if someone is there. You trust it. Its the same in defence. You have to be able to trust your mates when you are pushing up in the press. So yeah - this is the right talk. But now for the detail.
It's fascinating how much work has gone into Arteta in recent years. Feels like a guy who has got comfortable walking the talk. The big jump for him now is not running the players - which he has been doing - but leading the whole thing without an inspirational yet ruthless guy like Pep Pep is somewhat of a freakish megalomaniac. Be interesting how Captain Black does on the pure leadership stuff.
I'm here to support the manager 100% just like I did Wenger until the day he left! Emery was a different case altogether. I love what Arteta said to the club before the match
Ugly scenes at Goodison Park inside and outside the stadium. Robbie from AFTV were confronted by 15-20 hooligans/thugs who tried to bully, intimidate and attack him and fellow members from the show. They were warded off eventually but it seems like the traditional media and the the club are getting mad at the success of AFTV and are blaming Robbie and the channel for our losing and toxic atmosphere this year. These thugs don't represent most fans imo. Interesting take here https://www.google.com/amp/s/tasteo...nnel-and-robbie-lyle-criticism-is-unfair/amp/
Just read this nice piece by Guillem Balague for BBC called "Mikel Arteta to Arsenal is a move 20 years in the making": https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/50827317 It's maybe not the most in depth piece but it's well considered and touches on key moments in his history as player and coach. And his develoment as a leader. And here's a very intriguing excerpt from near the end: