A Portuguese outlet is claiming that we have contacted Benfica manager Jorge Jesus about taking over for Arteta.
Why would they now? I could understand early in the year when our form was awful but we are only points out of the top 4.
Clubs have succession plans based on contingencies. So they may make contact with all kinds of people - doesn't mean there is a vacancy or that the person is even available. We saw that with Utd over the last decade and it is one of the difficulties of trying to draw up any kind of coherent list. Same with transfers. An agent may shop a player around a dozen clubs. Contact means nothing. Wenger always used play up these stories about how he was talking to this player or that player despite never making any serious bid for them
I was going to put this in the Odegaard thread, but there isn't one? So then I thought maybe the Arteta thread, given that there's a lot of discussion about his man management skill and his choice of future captains, and perhaps this fits somewhat into one or both of those categories? https://www.arsenal.com/news/odegaard-close-perfect-professional p.s. Hopefully his assessment of Odegaard is correct! For the time he's with us anyway.
Official. Mikel Arteta signs new deal with Arsenal until June 2025. Jonas Eidevall have signed new contract with the club too. ⚪️🔴 #AFC“I’m happy, excited, grateful and really, really happy today,” Mikel said after signing the extension. pic.twitter.com/fDlK1WrPWz— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) May 6, 2022
Yeah, just saw that. There's a really long interview by Mikel on Arsenal.com which I haven't had time to read/watch yet. I was thinking they'd wait until the end of the season, but all things considered, including how we've already clinched European play AFAIK, and how they might see that sorting the boss's contract might be key to sorting some player contracts, then I can see why they did it "a few weeks early" Edit: I have now heard Arteta say that the club offered him the contract right after we lost 3 straight, so he said "Chapeau" and accepted. Wow! That really does say something about positive vibes at Arsenal these days. p.s. That's is one of the stiffest posed signing shots of him & Jonas that you'll ever see!!!
And here's a nice long (even if softball) interview by Mikel after the signing of his new contract. No surprise but he comes across as such an clear analytical thinker. And near the end he says that the thing he loves best about the job is the personal connection between him and others, especially the players. Long may it last... or live long and prosper. https://www.arsenal.com/news/arteta-where-i-want-be
I never understand these contracts. Why not wait till the end of the season? What is the reason to give 3 more years? Is he likely to be offered more elsewhere?
As far as timing goes, I think one reason is to stabilize the club for the players, especially the ones who might be debating their future elsewhere. Eddie comes to mind. Not sure about Saliba whether he sees this as a plus or a minus, given the slightly strange history of his last few years as an Arsenal property, but then again his contract isn't ending this summer like Eddie's is. I also figure that, as much as you & I were always thinking "wait until season's end to see where we really finish", Josh & Stan probably had another idea all along. And if qualifying for Europe was a pre-req to re-upping his contract, then he just achieved that. However, Arteta says (and I'll take his word) that they gave him the contract immediately after the 3 losses, at which point we were teetering on missing out on Europe. Edit: Subsequently I heard Elliot on the AV podcast say that from a PR (fan response) point of view, making it public now was a good choice... right after 3 big/unexpected wins, putting us back into 4th place with UCL desiny in our hands. If things turn sour again and we drift back to 6th place, that would be a worse time to announce it. As for the 3 years, maybe that's basically a vote of confidence about how his rebuild project is going?
Why on earth would arsenal do this with the most important games of the season ahead? Let those be the test of his mettle. This is dumb.
Realistically, with the youngest team in the league, the goal for this season was qualification for the Europa League, not Champions League. Arteta has met that goal. He still has to improve his man management skills, but at this point I see no problem with the renewal of his contract. If everything goes south for him over the next twelve to eighteen months the length of the contract wouldn’t be a barrier to replacing him. Most managers don’t see out their contracts.
Because they aren't going to fire him if we lose to Leeds/Spurs/Miss top 4. Might as well do it now, after we just beat Chelsea and Yanited, while everyone is happy, but it also sets the tone that the club is backing this manager. So confident in the Arteta "process" that the rest of the season won't impact his role. It also means, any players who are potentially free agents/transfers in a few weeks who might have been eyeing off/looking to avoid Arsenal now know where we sit.
I don't agree with it and to be honest theres only 2 good ways to announce this. Either between now and end of season when we have got top 4 locked up, or should we miss top 4 do it right before the start of next season.
I haven’t been very happy with Arteta throughout the season, but he has done enough to earn a new contract.
I'm good with it. If you don't have enough confidence in your manager to give him an extension, you should fire him. It would be foolish to let him run his deal down and walk away for nothing. He's the face of the club, it's clearly his project, if you have faith in the direction things are going, it's a no brainer.
I also think a manager with 3 years on his contract will make decisions for what is best over the next 3 years. Last summer was successful because it represented a change from the short term thinking of the past few years. Sign u23s, not Willians.
But what is the logic? So few EPL managers see out their contracts, and he was contracted until '23 I can vaguely see the point to add say 1 year, but is he really going to be stolen away by another EPL club or one of the big Spanish sides? To me these contracts just mean expensive payouts at sacking time.
Mikel has had a bad few weeks as our team implodes in several ways, and tonight's loss at St.James was a sour, rotten cherry on top. For years we've talked about Eddie Howe as a possible future Arsenal manager, and today he came up against Arteta the incumbent. And Eddie prevailed. Let's just say it hasn't stopped me from imagining him as our boss some day. OTOH I think we probably need someone even better than these 2 gents, if we're going to return to being true contenders.