Some gathered thoughts about the recent changes at Arsenal. Not sure why anyone cares what I think (likely nobody does) but here goes.
I favored Arteta, partly for the freshness of it all. It was attractive to think we had identified the next guy, and that he had a legacy at Arsenal. It was romantic. Add in that he is working for Guardiola and we’ve got some gilt-by-association, with seemingly limitless potential. But that’s dangerous thinking, it’s a container we size ourselves, and it likely leads to disappointment. It’s hugely unfair to the next hire, whomever it might be. Thinking that we might have missed out on the “next Pep” is hyperbole, inflating expectations to a point where there’s sure to be disappointment in any managerial hire, whether Arteta or not-Arteta. It sets too high a bar, one which is unrealistic to reach.
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I’m frustrated. Not with Arsenal. But with the atmosphere that causes people to instantly buy all the tales being floated by the media about how things went down, and those who use the tales to fit the narrative they want. The media can’t have zero credibility and then suddenly have total credibility. There’s a breathless drama played out as we devour these transfer rumors, stories about slide presentations, and crafted images of jilted lovers sitting by the phone in anticipation of their suitor calling. And there’s simultaneous dismissal of the print hacks who peddle any cut-rate rumor that comes into their messaging app from a tight “source”.
We can’t have it both ways. We can’t believe everything they say that we agree with and nothing they report that we don’t. We can’t be even less critical of their reporting than they are of themselves, based on how things typically play out. We know very little. The chaos of the reporting doesn’t necessarily reflect chaos within the team (though it may exist, we don’t know). But we get people proclaiming about the mess that Arsenal is, stated with authority as if it’s open and obvious that there’s drama and indecision and waffling and reversals of decisions behind the executive doors. And we have zero ability to prove this. There are way too many false, or at least highly speculative, conclusions being drawn.
And on to us. As I see it the Arsenal fan base is somewhat conventionally splintered – and has been – despite an asymmetrical volume that amplifies certain voices. Some wanted Arsene out. Loudly and rudely. Many wanted him out, respectfully. And a silent many were content for him to continue. Pretty typical if you ask me. For those who wanted him out respectfully (myself included) it fell to this kind of reasoning: the game has passed Arsene by, he doesn’t change his tactics quickly, if at all. He has too much control over everything. We need something new, different.
Then Arsenal hire a young-ish, obsessive researcher of a coach with tactical rigor. Perhaps not the former captain, the legacy guy, perhaps not the 30 year old wunderkind, the hipster German, perhaps not THE guy that even I wanted. Maybe they hired a guy who will fail (in fact, it’s likely that he will fail relative to the expectations we all have for our team). But he is most certainly a change, and a big one: Emery is a man of tactical attentiveness, a man of logistics and discipline, a man of a different generation, a man without consolidated power and a scouting machine behind (ahead of?) him. Almost everything that a lot of us asked for, at least in theory.
But we get a lot of this, in the reactive moment:
“Arsenal leadership is too boring, safe. Arsenal is without ambition, maybe even rudderless and chaotic. Arsenal was perhaps even duped by a slide show”.
There really seems to be very little room for reasoned response. Why not say “well, I preferred Jardim, but I can understand that they see very specific and similar qualities in Emery”? Or “the exciting enigma of Arteta, his growing intellect and educational pedigree under Pep, would have been my choice but I can understand that at this time there is too much unknown about him”? Or “it’s nice to want Nagelsmann, but he would have cost us money on top of his new contract, and while that’s where I would have spent the money I understand why the club did not”?
We react quickly, emotionally. Understandably. And often entertainingly (and thank goodness for that). But we might be better served to wait, to critique constructively, to analyze, to learn, and then wait again. To see what happens. And then to see what happens after that.
I, for one, am excited to wait, to see what happens. A bunch of times. Because it’s going to take waiting.