Mikel Arteta is either a ‘wilful and vindictive child’ or a genius | OneFootball

Nobody splits football fans quite like Mikel Arteta. Is he a David Brent or the best rookie manager the Premier League has ever seen?

Mikel Arteta is like a wilful and vindictive child

As a cockney Red in a family of Gooners, I used to have a soft spot for Arsenal, grudgingly admiring some of their brilliant teams, especially during the Wenger years. But crikey, they have become one of the most odious team since the Leeds United of the seventies! Such is their preference for the “dark arts” they make Stoke City seem like Barcelona in their hey day.

They say “attitude reflects leadership” and for me it comes down to their Manager. It may seem trivial but for me, it can be epitomized by his willful refusal to stay in his technical area, like a wilful and vindictive child. Only ever one step away but it is constant and done for one purpose only – to intimidate. What comes out of his Ventriloquist dummy’s mouth is either deluded (The ball? The grass?) or so off point he makes David Brent seem insightful.

Of the Gooners I do know, they seem to be holding their noses and tolerating him but, if they win nothing this season, I suspect he is most definitely toast! Adidasmufc (I can’t believe I am hoping City win the EPL!)

And what about the fans?

I suspect that the intensity of my antipathy towards Arteta/Arsenal this season is comparable to what all those supposed patriots felt on the morning of January 6th, 2021 as they marched on the Capitol (not in my wildest dreams did I think that I’d ever get to tap into MAGA level arousal [I know what I am]).

Never before have I devoted so much mindspace and cared so deeply about a team “not” winning. I’ve known some obnoxious fans in my time but for a bunch that last won the league when I was still making mix tapes with the hopes of getting some over the shirt action – these guys take the cake. Please let it happen. Uddhav Bharany – I’m a Father Now, CFC, Shanti Niketan

Actually, Arteta is a cheat club away from being a three-time Premier League winner

Possibly one of the strangest few mailboxes I’ve read this week. Fans have been truly brainwashed. So for an Arsenal response to right a few untruths….

Not one mail from a Man City fan gloating about an important win…and we’re meant to believe this team is so well supported worldwide that they post commercial figures to better Real Madrid. Let’s be clear, commercial deals directly follow size of supporter base except for a select few financially doped/cheating teams.

Back to net spend….stay with me it’s really not complicated. You show the five-year net spend table which shows Arsenal with about a £275m more spent than City. Quite how people still invest their entire stock in net spend alone when wages are the far higher yearly spend and more consistent spend is beyond me. So to correct a few things.

Over the last 5 years City have spent on average over £150m more than Arsenal on wages every season. Dwarfing Arsenal’s £275m greater net spend on transfers by a whopping £750m, and well over £1b since Arteta took over.

City’s yearly wage bill is about £450m, that is double their net spend on transfer fees in the same period. So why do people still ignore the higher figure and base all conversation on lower transfer spend figure to see who is doing well or not, better players earn more money, players will go where they are paid more. City’s bigger spend on wages is the equivalent to 15 extra players on £200k per week.

City balance the books well by having the best academy and making money from home grown players, surely people can see the reason they have the best academy is the invest an absolute fortune more than anyone else can in to it. Hoover up the best young players, pay them millions more than anyone else can etc.

Now let’s consider that in the last 5 years Arsenal have had to build a squad from scratch to go from 8th place to 1st whilst City already had one of the best squads and were champions so could just cherry pick the icing on the cake each year (still not easy, granted) and had the benefit of spending £675m more on transfers and wages than Arsenal who were trying to catch them. Paints quite a different picture. And that’s only if we trust those City financials, which considering they have charges for paying staff off the books is quite hard to do.

Can F365 do a 5 year wages spend for each Premier League club, the figures are easy to find.

People blaming Arsenal for not signing Semenyo and Guehi in January. First of all we can do hindsight with every single transfer. If only if only. But those signings were City flexing their dubious financial muscle over the rest of the league, on top of the £80m odd in transfer fees City shell out nearly half a million per week on that pair’s wages. No one else can live with that. £300k a week for Guehi is staggering. It was the same last January, City having a stinker, worried they have cocked up the season and might not make CL so drop £200m in January to fix it.

We marvel at City signing Semenyo but they had 4 goes at it in short succession, Grealish, Savinho, Marmoush now Semenyo, £260m odd Bound to get it right eventually right? A quarter of Artetas spend in 7 years on his entire squad just to get one position right!

The funniest mail this week had someone ask whether we truly believe City’s spending and 115 charges are the only reason they are where they are? What! Of course there’s lots of reasons but they all pyramid down from one simple – staring you in the face – reason for the last 15 years. The same mailboxer then states that if City were ‘really’ financial doping they’d be miles in front of Arsenal not just level….! Another saying it’s the same as Wolves moaning Arsenal have more money than them. Talk about missing the point spectacularly.

Yes Wolves can bemoan that Arsenal have more money so will highly likely be more successful but it’s all money within the rules of the sport which most teams have to obey and some are given loopholes around it. And I’m told I’m the problem because I ‘invited the fox in to the hen house’ I can assure you that no fan of any of the top teams who have to operate within the rules welcomed Man City or Chelsea’s unlawful spending. What a crazy thought.

We’re told to give up this ‘tired old trope’ of complaining about City’s cheating and told we just have to put up with it now!

Next we have blame at Arsenal for dropping silly points….Wolves from 2-0 up, away to Sunderland, Bournemouth etc, people saying Arsenal should have sewn the league up already. Not too much to argue yet….but do people realise you can say the same for City, they are basically level on points with Arsenal and themselves threw away a 2-0 lead at Spurs, losing at home to Spurs(!) a last minute equaliser at home to Chelsea, a draw at West Ham, draw at home to struggling Forest when leading twice, 5 points dropped to Brighton despite being in front in both games. If City had not dropped those points they too would have the league sewn up. In the 5 league games prior to the match on Sunday Arsenal had picked up more points than City.

I’ll leave you with this. If City were actually forced to play by the rules or were suitably punished for not doing so then Arteta is a 3 time Premier League champion and the greatest rookie manager in Premier League history. So you can see why it is a tad annoying to be consistently beaten by them and be told WE are the bad guys and WE are the cheats and that a win for City is a win for football. Rich, AFC

Nobody cares about Man City

Expanding upon Nilesh’s mail, this lack of scrutiny and pressure is, to me, a large part of why Pep has stayed at City for so long. A large factor in why he left Barca was the pressure that comes from managing the club (some of it from himself, tbf, as it’s his club). He also had issues at Bayern with all the outspoken ex pros chiming in about what was happening at Hollywood FC.

At City, he’s got the easiest job in elite football. All the trappings of a top club; the playing staff, the coaches, the facilities, the budget etc., but a fraction of the pressure that you get at Real, Man Utd, Liverpool, Juventus et al. There’s just not the same level of scrutiny.

A great example is the form of Haaland over the winter. By his standards, he had an absolutely terrible goalscoring run. If he was the number 9 at United, Liverpool or Arsenal there’d have been a slew of “what’s up with Erling?” articles. Instead, there was the odd passing comment. He didn’t have to come out to bat, repeatedly, for his star player.

So yes, you’re quite right, the players and manager to play under less pressure, because outside of Stockport, no one cares. Lewis, Busby Way

No pressure at Man City? Are you mental?

Weird timing that Liverpool fans have started dredging up the old City grievances again recently, particularly in a season when your team is embarrassing and irrelevant in equal measure. It was pitiful when your mob were simultaneously telling us Jurgen ‘one PL’ Klopp was the bestest manager of all time even as Pep consistently beat him to the league title, now it just sounds shrill.

Oh, and sure Nilesh, City players feel no pressure at all working for one of the ACTUAL best and most demanding managers of all time. I bet it’s super easy winning the PL four times on the spin too, no pressure at all, total cakewalk. That said, I suppose I should make allowances since you hail from that Scouse football heartland of Harrow. Just next to Aigburth isn’t it? RHT/TS x

(The irony of a Liverpool from Middlesex attempting to use the old ‘we’ve got more fans than you’ argument)

It’s a London thing

Roman’s financial doping, Sullivan’s porn kingdom, Simon Jordan, AFTV, JT worship, Hammers thinking Moyes beneath them, one-man Spurs thinking they were big…

Make English Football Great Again – kick them all into the Isthmian League

Was going to leave Fulham out of this, then I remembered Mohamed Al-Fayed… Mark, LFC, An Mhí

What happens in the dressing room…

Just on the subject of ‘Dressing room faux pas’ with Chelsea, I’d say I disagree that football is too precious about that space remaining closed to all but players and coaches.

In the modern world, pretty much everything else a player does is filmed/reported on (often by themselves), so the idea that a dressing room is a space where they can communicate completely freely does make sense. They can shout and scream as adults and accept it as just a venting of their emotions, whereas if they were to do this on the pitch or in training, it would be a week long news for the biggest clubs/players, when in reality it was nothing more than normal friction between players.

Now I accept the above is a very idealistic, if not a completely unrealistic view, on how it should work – dressing room leaks are common and so the point kind of falls down, as does the idea that some players would accept being called out in private in a positive manner, instead of just sulking. All I’m saying is that in theory, I can understand and support why a dressing room should only be open to a small group of people. Jack (Of course, if they win a trophy, get the cameras in – players drinking from the trophy will never not be funny) Manchester

…The ‘leak from ‘Cucurella’s barber’ was all over football news yesterday, so I think John Brewin was having a laugh at that, not breaking journalistic guidelines! Even I addressed Chelsea’s starting team with my son through that lens, as we’d both seen in independently. Now Cucurella’s former barber I expect… Michael, LFC, Hackney

What Chelsea need

Chelsea are are catastrophic shitshow right now and yet all they really need to do is bring in a world class manager, sign a decent keeper and a world class #9 and (I cant believe Im writing this) bring back Nicolas Jackson!! Ben Teacher

Followers does not include credibility

Maybe I am not (OK, I am definitely not) as attuned to social media as many of your readers, but can someone please explain to me why you quote the number of followers on X as some sort of measure we should use to gauge someones credibility or reliability?

In an article earlier headlined ‘Chelsea ‘call emergency meeting’ after Brighton loss as Rosenior ‘is getting sacked’ you quote ‘as insider on X with over 700k followers’. You have often referred to your beloved team of four (or is is five?, see below) anonymous reporters who you also mention as having about +427m followers and full-of-shit Fabrizio Romano who probably also has a fuck ton of followers (I don’t have Twitter, so I can’t check).

Given how often the nameless four and Romano get things wrong, why mention how many followers they have all the time? In my eyes this doesn’t increase their credibility.

Secondly, can you please explain how you are defining ‘insider’. A very quick dictionary definition tells me this is ‘a person within a group or organization, especially someone privy to information unavailable to others’.

In the aforementioned Chelsea article you link to a post from ‘@indikalia News’ and quick search tells me is a ‘Team of 5 elite reporters’ (possibly your beloveds I mentioned above) and the link opens a post in which these ‘elite reporters’ do not quote anyone or even say that they have heard it one the grapevine! How on earth can you call this account an ‘insider on X’?

I am sure you wont publish this mail, as whenever I question you for things like this the mails do not make the mailbox. Perhaps they are just too boring, but you are quite happy to call out such things every weekday in Mediawatch. A, LFC, Montreal

To the Max

I stopped reading when you mentioned Max Dowman as a potential trouble maker. Not an Arsenal fan (GGMU) but anyone with half a brain can see a well behaved young lad happy to hand in his GCSE homework the day after playing Champions League football. Stop with yer nonsense…. Muthama Gitonga, Nyeri (Mount Kenya)

(It literally says nothing of the sort – Ed)

There’s nothing for me on F365

I used to love reading your articles and website but these days it’s a bit meh for me.

This morning I logged in to see 8 of the top 10 stories about Chelsea. Other days it’s been all about Man Utd. 1 article to laugh at them is enough for me, not 8.

I know you have to get the ad clicks to pay the bills and there are more global fans of these clubs than others. When I first started reading F365, Mediawatch used to take the piss out of these sites that just cared about clicks and now you’ve become the thing you rebelled against.

Where’s the stories about the other 14? Lincoln City winning promotion to the Championship with 4 promotions in 9 years? Where’s news from Europe outside of Champions League coverage. We know PSG are winning the league in France but I’d love to understand what’s pushed Lens from 8th to 2nd this season?

Maybe I’m blinded through age and it was always like this on here. I’d love to see more diversity of information here though as there are clearly talented writers, but I just feel a flatness of enjoyment now when I only see big 6 coverage.

I nearly wrote in a week ago as it made my blood boil that as a Leeds fan, it’s disappointing that on an evening where we played our biggest rivals off their home pitch to win 2-1, we got a single paragraph of praise in the article and the rest of the article focusing on how poor Man Utd were.

I’d love to keep coming back but maybe I’m not the ideal customer any more. Still love the memories though, you’ve definitely got good feet for a big man. Martin