Amorim compared to Mikel Arteta. lol!

Morning all.

Ruben Amorim is having a tough time at Man Utd which obviously I couldn’t give two hoots about but it’s quite amusing to see Jim Ratcliffe use Arsenal and Mikel Arteta’s initial struggles to defend his manager and justify why he needs more time. A lot more time.

“Ruben needs to demonstrate he is a great coach over three years,” the Manchester United minority owner told The Business podcast. “Football is not overnight. It’s three years. You also look at Arteta. He had a miserable time over the first couple of years.”

One, possibly the only comparison between the two managers first season, is that they both reached a cup final. As the Sky Sports article goes on, “while Arteta guided Arsenal to FA Cup success, beating Chelsea in the final having overcome Manchester City in the last four, Amorim suffered Europa League disappointment against Spurs”.

Seriously though, the two managerial journeys are very very different. Amorim arrived at Utd with six years of managerial experience behind him him including four years at Sporting Lisbon while Mikel Arteta walked back I to Arsenal with zero managerial experience. Yes he’d coached players at City and he’d worked with Pep Guardiola but there’s a huge difference between that and managing your own staff and players.

Talk about lowering the bar to defend a manager who is clearly struggling to implement his style and tactics at his current club.

However, in some ways it’s refreshing for someone relevant at a club to come out in support of a struggling manager as far as “time” goes. Expecting a new manager to walk into a new club and immediately excel is foolish in my opinion. Any manager needs time and more importantly, he needs players. His players.

We have seen the change/improvement at Arsenal which has gone hand in hand with new players joining the club. Better players in some cases or in others, different kind of players. At the time, I didn’t think Mikel Arteta inherited a dreadful squad, not when one considers he had the likes of Tierney, Aubameyang, Lacazette, Ozil, Guendouzi, Leno, Pepe, Martinez and Torreira to name a few but they just weren’t who Arteta wanted or needed going forwards. For different reasons I’m sure, nearly all of the group of players he inherited have long gone and as harsh as it might sound, we’re better because of it. Personally, i couldn’t understand stand some of the decisions Arteta and the board made in relation to players who were sold/moved on but broadly speaking, they’ve proved to be right.

Similar could be said about players who have joined the club since December 2019 too, overall I mean. Yes, a few have come and soon gone but that’s something many clubs go through as not every transfer works out but I think the last two/three years have seen a number of quality players arrive at Arsenal. This summer was an excellent one in my opinion and we’re yet to really see just how good Piero Hincapie is.

Of course we all want jam today, but more often than not, it doesn’t arrive. Seldom does it arrive tomorrow either but as long as the recipe can be seen and the fruit is being picked, it will be made.

Perhaps that’s what Radcliffe is trying to say when he talks about Mikel Arteta. A rocky start he might have had but the Arsenal board/owners along with the manager knew time was needed. More time than me and other impatient fans expected I’m sure but I’m not sure there’s another manager out there who I’d prefer to see in the Arsenal dugout. Not unless we could go back in time to 1996.

Lastly, if you haven’t seen Bukayo Saka’s goal for England last night, check it out. Brilliant..

Catch up in the comments.