Morning all.
Regardless of whether Jonas Eidevall resigned or was gently shoved out the door, Arsenal need a new manager for the women’s team. It seems the hefty loss to Bayern Munich followed by a home defeat to Chelsea was enough.
In my opinion though, things started to go wrong last season when losses to Totts and West Ham came as a shock. A draw against Man Utd along with a 1-0 defeat to Liverpool at The Emirates wasn’t expected either. Yet the team/squad was still in the race for the WSL title in April. However, conceding an 94 minute goal against Everton after Alessia Russo had given Arsenal the lead, the race was all but over for Eidevall’s team. A victory over Man City did little but help Chelsea to pip them to yet another WSL trophy.
Then in the summer, Vivienne Miedema left the club on a free transfer and joined Man City. I doubt there is one Arsenal fan who was happy about it. Nor I imagine were her teammates.
This Arsenal squad is full of talent though and really should be playing a lot better than they have been. To concede five goals against Bayern is something Arsenal just don’t do. Usually. The first half against Chelsea last weekend was awful. To draw against Everton at home the week before was dismal.
Yesterday, interim manager Renee Slegers has held her first pre-match press conference ahead of our Champions League fixture against Valerenga which takes place this evening. Alongside her was Captain Kim Little:
The strength of what Jonas has left is that there are the foundations here. This incredible club has got everything in place for us to succeed, so we move forward with that and refocus and bring the group together leading into our second Champions League group game tomorrow, which is a really important one. We’ve gone through the taxing stuff today and we look forward to that, just bringing everyone together and refocusing. Ultimately, our job is to get out there and play as players and that’s what we need to focus on.
Being a home Champions League game tonight, I’m sure The Emirates will be packed and right behind the players as the women’s side of the club enter into new era. Perhaps better times are to come, who knows right now but as the mens side of club have shown, new blood in the dugout can bring better times. Whether that’s under Slegers or someone new I’ve no idea but as Wavy pointed out yesterday, Casey Stoney was at The Emirates this weekend and she knows all about coaching in the women’s game. She knows a lot about Arsenal too having played for the club a few years ago. Mind you, so does current assistant coach Kelly Smith….
On the men’s side of the game, England’s new manager is Tomas Tuchel. An extremely experienced and successful manager at club level who I hope will ignore ageing players who the media seem to think deserve to hang on in there at international level. I’m pretty sure it won’t be long before Ben White is called up by the German and my hunch is he’ll say yes. Do I think the appointment of Tuchel is a good one? No, not at all because I’m of the belief an Englishman should always manage his country.
Lastly, Spain and Brazil have now played their final international fixtures for the month. David Raya played the entire match and Mikel Merino played for just over an hour. Gabriel Martinelli was on the bench for Brazil but Gabriel played the full match.
Now we can only wait to hear from Mikel Arteta on Friday when hopefully he’ll give us positive news about the squads fitness.
Catch up in the comments.
Morning Rico
I read the Spanish players and FA have lodged a complaint about FIFA overplaying footballers. They’ve got a point. It’s all about the money, Gianni.
Not that I give a flying fox about England, but your assertion that an ‘Englishman should always manage his country’ sounds a bit Churchillian. Which outstanding English candidate would you have chosen?
Ummmm. Gareth Southgate?
Anybody???
Morning Pete, Wavy.
You’re right Pete it is a bit old fashioned but it’s a sad state of affairs really because it shows how average English manager/coaches are. I thought Potter might be offered the job.
I don’t think there is one that I would trust to do the job Pete but then I am not too engaged with the England team and rather like many people think that there is too much football eating itself which eventually will lead to the product’s value going down .
Infantino is following the Blatter pattern believing the International game to be all important and more lucrative for personal kick backs and their fiefdom making money , whereas supporters are more engaged in the club game where the media get the majority of the spoils.
As for Arsenal’s ladies shipping 5 goals to Bayern it might well be considered a club tradition as it’s not the first time.
I thought Potter might be offered the job.
Could do with the money Rico but not sure that I would be acceptable as I would not pick any of our players and I would play all of our opponents players to death.
Ha ha Potter, I think you’d do a great job.
Engerlund keeping Tuchel out of the clutches of Manure can’t be a bad thing.Hopefully now Southgate gets the job & another 3/4 years of stagnation.Rinse & repeat.
Afternoon Rico and all.
Looking at the list of managers, england could go with Darren Ferguson and that way you would get his dad for free and there is a good chance he would not pick too many of our players.
That sounds like a good plan Positive Pete.
If ten Hag can’t ruin them, Southgate almost certainly will..
Morning Geoff, absolutely no thank you…
To me it’s a bit sad that there are so few English coaches,Tuchel is a good coach and has as good a chance of success as anyone.
I have to agree with Harry Redknapp when he said being England manager isn’t about being a great coach,the players should already be the best,and he only gets to work with them for a short time anyway. It’s more about being a good man manager,getting the best out of the players. Perhaps it’s like Richie Benaud used to say about cricket captaincy, it’s 90% luck and 10% skill – but don’t try it without the 10 %
At least we have an English assistant coach as Anthony Barry will be Tuchel’s number two. They worked together at Bayern and Chelsea.
I think Tuchel will not be afraid to upset the England players. He won’t try to be mates with them. He has a great set of player to work with, which must have been attractive. Will he win something? Unlikely, but he has better chance than some of the mediocre English managers that were in the running for the job.
If Southgate could get this group of players to the Euros final, I’m sure Tuchel could get them to win it. Either that or this current England squad isn’t as good as we think it is. Or the media thinks it is..
Well we’ve had an Australian coach our rugby team and a Kiwi coaching our cricket team so I guess it follows that a German coaches our football team…
If Tuchel coaches England, then I wonder if he groom Anthony Barry to replace him when he leaves, I reckon it would make sence.