Morning all.
A little snippet from Arsene Wenger:
When you are a manager and you have a star in your team, for you, he is not the star, he is a player. But for the outside, he is a star. But he has a power in the team, in the dressing room. He influences other people. When you have the best player on your side, he makes you stronger. When he is against you, in the dressing room, you will lose the battle. You have to treat him a little bit specially. But without giving him too much power. He has to understand there is a level you are not ready to compromise anymore. And people are like that – when you are at the top level, they want the power. And, at some stage, you have to fight against that.
Sometimes I had, in some moments of my career, put my job on the line by leaving the best player out, because he was too strong and too demanding. And then you have to not compromise and put the interests of the club above that. It is a subtle game, but I would say that the basic is respect – because you need to respect your players – love and communication.
Honestly, I can’t remember Arsene Wenger leaving many so called “big names” out of his teams over the twenty odd years he was at Arsenal. Alexis Sanchez popped into my mind but that’s about it. Nicklas Bendtner was hardly a big name whilst at the club but perhaps his ego was the problem. Mesut Ozil was probably the biggest name Arsene signed during his second ten years at the club and it’s fair to say he had an ego too but there weren’t many occasions when he was dropped. But, I am relying on my memory which isn’t brilliant.
I understand what he’s saying though, there are footballers who get a bit too big for their boots. Players who live off of what they once did rather than what they’re doing at the time. A team sport needs team players and not individuals who think they’re better than the rest regardless of whether they are or not. Players who think they just have to turn up at training or on a match day and their job is done. Christiano Ronaldo is one of the biggest names in world football and I imagine his ego is bigger than my home, yet 99 times out of 100, he delivers on the pitch.
Mikel Arteta inherited a few who seemed to have big egos but weren’t performing on the pitch. Ozil and Aubameyang spring to mind as well as Mustafi and Kolasinac, who if their accounts were genuine at the time, voiced their opinion on Twitter. Certainly in relation to Ozil. Emi Martinez hasn’t exactly covered himself in glory when it comes to talking about his old club so it might just be that his boots had got just a little bit too big for him. But, he’d performed really well during Arteta’s first six months and was key to us winning the FA Cup.
Big egos isn’t just something we see in football though. Cricket has been full of sports men and women who have something about them and in order to become great, one needs that in my opinion. The late great Shane Warne, Ian Botham, Freddie Flintoff, Ben Stokes In tennis, John McEnroe, the Williams sisters, Martina Navratilova and Ilie Nastase, the list is endless. It was the ‘edge’ to them which separated them from the rest. I prefer to call them characters. Remember Megan Rapinoe and the rest of the USA womens football team. Egos galore but as a team, they were one of, if not the best.
If a club wants the best players, I think they have to accept there’s a good chance that at some time in their career, they’ll need to be ‘managed’ differently to the rest. Either that, or do what Fergie did with Beckham, Utd should have done with Pogba, Chelsea might have to with Lukaku, every club at some stage has with Mourinho and of course, Mikel Arteta has done at Arsenal with Aubameyang and Ozil. No player or manager is ever bigger than the club they work for.
Mikel Arteta has just two and a half seasons of football management on his CV. He says all the right things to the media and the fans but, how does he manage people, footballers who have won more in one season than he did in his entire career? Players who have played under some of the best managers in the game or even just managers who’ve forgotten more about the job than Mikel Arteta has had chance to learn? In the real world it must be like an apprentice on his first day out of university, telling you or I how to do a job we’ve doing successfully for the last ten years because someone thought it was a great idea to make him your/my boss. That isn’t a recipe for success is it?
That in my opinion, is why Arsenal as a club, has gone down the younger player route. It can’t be cost, because the club blew £50m on a player we could have survived without had William Saliba stayed at the club and whilst I know Odegaard, Lokonga, Tomiyasu, Ramsdale and Tavares didn’t exactly break the bank, they weren’t cheap either. Not what I would call cheap anyway. Lol
Also, if the club really are swimming in penny pinching waters, how could it afford to let players go when their contracts hadn’t expired? Why would younger players with potential be allowed to leave so freely? It doesn’t add up in my head. Why would it sell Emi Martinez for £20m only to then go and spend more on another keeper to replace the one which Martinez could, and probably should, have replaced in the first place? Why do the club have so many senior players on loan yet our squad was so small, it ultimately cost us a top four finish?
What’s going to happen with William Saliba this summer? Daniel Ballard, Flo Balogun, Charlie Patino, Omar Rekik, Reiss Nelson, Jordan McEneff, Omari Hutchinson, Zak Swanson etc etc? Sold, loaned out, given away? For what, yet another young player with ‘potential’ from overseas? Just because Vincent Kompany thinks one of his kids is good, or Thierry Henry for that matter, it doesn’t mean they are, or will be.
Surely we have enough younger players of our own to nurture?
Update – Mo Elneny has signed a new contract. He wants to end his career at Arsenal he says. Excellent news.
I’ve rambled on a bit, sorry, but I feel better for it….
Good morning Rico, good news that Elneny has signed a new contract, I think he is an important part of our squad.
No ESR in the England Squad, just Saka, White and Ramsdale. I’m afraid his chances of an England career are being jeopardised by his lack of minutes due to the competition for places with Odegaard. That could lead to him wanting to leave for a regular starting position.
Time for a swim, back later.
Morning Cicero, perhaps Arsenal have held ESR back because he’s not been the same since contracting Covid. It’s a shame White, Saka and Ramsdale have been called up.
You’re right Rico, Wenger hardly dropped any of his stars. If he did there was usually a sham story associated with it. Like when Ozil didn’t fancy playing on a cold night up north he had a knee injury.
It was pretty clear Arsenal had a real problem with Ozil. Then Aubameyang. I still think the poison won’t be fully extracted until Lacazette and Xhaka are packed off.
Players can never be bigger than the team. That’s why Ten Hag will have a tough time wrestling control away from Ronaldo at United.
Hi Pete, have to agree. Whilst Xhaka was right in what he said, why give the media more negativity to print.
Agree re Utd too, another young manager with one heck of a job on his hands.
Morning Rico and all
Well written again Rico, They only other thing I would say / add is How much more the players manager has to say today, any player that is pretty good will have there manager in there ear telling them he can get them a better deal and more game time if the leave so why would they want to stay or return to a club that keeps loaning them out.
what’s those old sayings – Talk is cheap / action speaks more than words
Good news about Mo he deserves it,
Morning Geoff. Agree re Elneny, it’s a good deal for him and the club.
Morning All, I’m pretty sure that Arsenal finishing 5th had more to do with the impact of our younger players than our more senior staff so why not more youth – if they’re good enough?
If 22 year old Eddie Nketiah had started 2 or 3 more games instead of 29 year old Alex Lacazette then maybe Arsenal would have finished 4th, 3rd even?
Morning Kev, the problem we had imo is the personnel. The hangers on from Arsene’s days. Barring Mo of course. 😂
I agree Rico, it’s taken a couple of years to get them out the door but this summer should be I reckon ‘job done’.
That’ll be 6 transfer windows to sort it out and now we can enjoy watching Man Utd try to do the same and stay competitive.
Don’t forget Bellerin is due back as well, not sure when his contract runs out but I hope we can move him on quickly.
I can’t believe Lacazette is only 30. He runs* around like a 60 year old.
Bellerin got distracted by the tattoos, fashion and lifestyle. His football suffered. There was a hilarious piece on F1 coverage where the commentator is walking through the pit lane and Bellerin is sitting in a garage. The guy looks at him and refers to him as a hipster.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3KFZgbNTss
*He doesn’t run
Pete the way we play this short passes game Laca does not to run. LOL
Tbh Pete, I think that Hector was overplayed by Unai Emery and then when his knee exploded in January 2019 it took him 9 months to recover and he was never the same, I blame the management of the squad at the time and the fact that he was the only right back in it, although I’m sure that Maitland Niles was around.
As far as the his situation at Betis is concerned surely Betis knew last summer that they couldn’t afford to sign him when he joined them so it’s a bit rich pleading poverty now especially on the back of them qualifying for europe, I suspect that they’re trying to take advantage of the fact that Hector wants to stay in Spain, but maybe other Spanish clubs can get involved and Arsenal will get a fair price?
🤞 Kev.
The problem with loaning established players , once they get used to regular playing their resale value goes down because their moving is a kind of fait acomplis.
The one we’ve missed out on getting good money for imo is Guendouzi.
I think you’re right Rico
Watching Guendouzi a few seasons back I thought he had potential to be a world class player. He is clearly a handful and that will be an issue for his whole career, but he is talented.
He was one of Sven’s purchases. We bought for £7m and got £10m, so made a small profit on him, but it does feel like we’ve been short changed.
I was disappointed when he left. He didn’t do great at Berlin, but it sounds like he had a decent season at Marseille.
It looks like we inadvertently assisted Marseille into the Champions League. Another broke team trying to pick up our players on the cheap.
I get what you’re saying Kev. That knee injury Bellerin picked up was a biggy. The problem I had with Hector was he wasn’t really interested in defending. He spent most of his time on the right wing. Was caught out if position a lot. A bit like Cedric.
Ditto re Guendouzi Pete although his constant going to ground and handling the ball got on my wick. He has issues I’m convinced but price wise, he’s a bargain for Marseille as long as they can keep him in check.
Probably because Bellerin is a winger turned right back I think. Defending didn’t come naturally to him perhaps. A bit like Tavares. 😂
All the NN headlines suggest Eddie is set to sign a new five year contract…
Yes, I get that about Bellerin and defending, maybe he was more a wing back than a full back?
I loved Guendouzi when he first arrived but was sick to death of him when he left, yes I get what you say about his value but give it a year or two and he’ll have a big falling out in Marseilles, I think he’s got issues and most of them are between his ears.
Conference final is on YouTube in case anyone is interested…
Kev, we agree on Eddie’s additional minutes – on the expense of Lacazette and even Aubameyang – could have provided us the 3 points we missed by the end of the campaign, and also that physio and fitness department made some serious mistakes a few years back leading to frequent and lengthy injuries. I’m not convinced though that these days are completely behind us, as Saka played 80% of every possible minutes; and while the actual figure of 3360 minutes are closer to the ‘too much’ than the ‘OMG, definitely unhealthy’ the 80% for an outfield player is scary. And he didn’t play that well in the end of the campaign – especially in the games we lost – which makes me wonder which is the cause and which is the effect.
Elsewhere Bayern Munich bought Ryan Gravenberch for a ridiculous 17M. The young Dutchman is already among the top 10 CMs in the world, so buying him that cheap could be the best deal of the entire summer, yet as he was represented by Raiola’s agency, I’m not 100% sure I envy them.
Pbarany, I think Kev playing more minutes than Aubameyang and Lacazette would have given us more goals. 😆
Morning all
New post up now