Wenger’s legacy is fundamental. Free flowing, attacking football by a club with integrity and class.

Losing Trust In Mikel Arteta

Ozil in the embrace of Arteta in the early days

Mikel Arteta sent out his 2nd XI last evening to face an equally diminished Leicester team in a 1st round Carabao Cup match and Mesut Ozil didn’t even make the squad. It was a dull, boring encounter reflecting the quality of players on display. But, having won by 2 goals to nil, according to the 1st team manager:

I am really happy with the performance. First of all with the attitude and the way we approached the game mentally. The senior players took the lead straight away and I could see that they came here to win the game, and afterwards with the young players and the way they are developing and the way they played again tonight.

Apparently some in the media in the post-match presser refused to accept this “happy” talk and insisted on asking questions as to why one of the most creative midfielders in the world, Mesut Ozil, was absent from the Arsenal line-up. Once again, for the umpteenth time since the COVID-19 resumption  last June, Mikel Arteta refused to answer directly any questions concerning his former team-mate whom he once spoke of in glowing terms.

on Mesut Ozil not being in the squad…

I am really happy with the performance of the players here, how difficult they are making things for the coaching staff to select the squad.

on what has changed with Ozil…

The team is evolving and you can see the level they are achieving, so this is where we are at at the moment. We want to evolve more, play better and compete better, so we need to keep maintaining that trend.

on whether he believes other players are better suited…

Well, we are picking the players that we believe are the best for each game and as you can see, we keep changing, so this is what we are trying to do.

Reading and listening to the above b.s., I cannot but express my growing disappointment in Mikel Arteta. His continued evasiveness and shiftiness when it comes to Ozil is self evident and shows a lack of respect for the public in general and Arsenal fans in particular. In fact his responses to Ozil questions are now coming close to the bizarre nonsense, cliches and platitudes that marked the waning days of Unai Emery. Who does Arteta think he is fooling? Does he think all Arsenal fans cannot see through this charade?

It was Arteta who said of Ozil prior to the Brighton game last June (which we lost by-the-way):

There’s a lot that’s happened to him in the last few weeks and I have to respect the time for every player. Sometimes they need a little bit of time. It’s been difficult preparation the last two months to get players ready and again, I’m the first one who wants Mesut at the best. I’m going to put him on the pitch when I think he can give his best.

Yet three months later, with Ozil training, as he must, according to his contract, we are to believe he is not ready to give his best in a Carabao Cup match. Give me a break. Either Mesut Ozil is unfit or Arteta is prevaricating about playing him.

As I highlighted in my recent blog titled Freezing Out Ozil, Arteta Is Playing With Fire, sooner or later this charade will have an unhappy end. A manager who loses the trust and confidence of fans loses goodwill which is necessary when the good times end. Six wins in six cup games can easily morph into that 22-game unbeaten run which ended so ignominiously for Unai Emery.

Worse of all is to lose the trust of your star player.

 

10 Comments

  1. Shotta, you vastly underestimate the extent to which the fanbase is being fooled by the clubs PR spin and the results which exceed the standard of play. Sadly ,it is history repeating itself

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    • As usual you are right George. Even the “positive” and “uncensored” fans are reluctant to acknowledge that the club is using Arteta as their primary tool to fool and confuse us.

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  2. The club’s spin on Mesut is so half-hearted as to be almost non-existent. One can’t help but feel this is indicative of his position at the club still being ‘in play’ – ie, the idea that they are still hoping to sell him to get his salary off the books, being the most obvious motive. The thing is, who will buy if he is not even in the shop window? Someone Tweeted this morning (@bootoomee I think) that this would never have happened under Wenger and it’s hard to disagree. Wenger’s ‘disasters’ (Cesc, RVP) were generally resolved quite quickly and were not allowed to drag on in the indefinite fashion the Ozil Saga has been permitted to.

    The big question is: if he isn’t sold in the next few days, what happens next? Surely the embarrassment won’t arc across the entire season?

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  3. Man can go into politics or table tennis the way he was deflecting those questions.

    While AW used to do it with charm and wit, MA answers like he is running for election.

    Politics, great!!

    I can see there being a divide in the dressing room due to players who feel that they are unfairly treated and deserve their chances over players who they may see as inferior or who are given chances over them.
    This probably happens at every team over the course of a season but the illusion of unity and working for the same goals usually keeps disruption to a minimum, the problem comes when results start to go against the team and these problems get highlighted more. And god forbid we have our usual injury crisis.

    We will see what happens but i have my reservations that all is well behind the scenes.

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  4. Ozil is very much a marmite player. You either love him or hate him.

    I fear that the latter group is much bigger than the former, fueled by nothing more than his salary. They are also more vociferous.

    I thought that anti-ozil thing was coming fro Raul and it seems it is not so simple.

    IT is dividing the fan-base and many are so fed up with it that they do not want to speak or think about it. See 7-o-click kick off, as an example.

    The Express quotes Arteta saying that he picks the players in the best condition.

    What does that mean?

    I think we are becoming a laughing stock and in the meantime, we managed 3 shots on target on Saturday and 4 last night.

    Is Arteta Emering?

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  5. Shotta it’s proceeding just as I have said I expected too here. And as I said I still am holding out that Ozil won’t be forced out before the end of the window and will reserve my judgement until the correct time to make it.

    Safe to say I think we can all safely conclude now that it was the Kronke’s most trusted gimp Vinai who spent years denying AW a penny whilst forcing him to sell his best players: before signing off on Pepe! You couldn’t make it up.

    If AW had no power against these charlatans then would it be unreasonable to expect more from rookie Arteta?
    Do you want him to quit and walk out the door?

    I think that things will get a lot worse once Arteta has had enough, which could be sooner rather then later. so I intend to enjoy him whilst he is here.

    And anyone thinking Arteta has finished with Ozil is not reading what he is saying: “I cannot comment on internal issues” as in he is obviously like Torreira not playing for non-football reasons. He’s made that clear. No ambiguity for me. It is not the same as Emery.

    This is an interesting time.

    Let’s not jump the gun Gunners. Only a few weeks to wait before we know a lot more about the topography at the Arsenal post Raul under Kia.

    I can wait a few weeks.

    I am curious what kind of ammo if any Arteta has been storing up his sleeve.

    For someone who’d been an inside forward I always found arteta conservative as a CM but that never lessened my appreciation of his game. As a coach I never expected him to be as attacking as his main guru, but a hybrid between Guru Wenger and Guru Pep (who themselves spent a decade or more copying each other). Let’s see.

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    • Damn. I wish I was as sanguine and optimistic as you my friend Fins. We have been together in the trenches for a long time and, for that reason I will hold back on my mostly incendiary conclusions until after October 5th. But so far this is not a good look on Arteta.

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  6. 110% truth

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  7. Shotta my friend,

    The black scarf wankers spent years attacking the best football coach any of them will ever see for the decisions made by the Kronke’s.

    These Arsenal holes, by their silence now, we can conclude that they have no shame. As they previously only succeeded to
    enable those they were critical of. Either they really are that stupid, or…the Kronke’s love a bit of PR in their favour. Are there any other examples of such PR that we can recall? Blaming the fans of the club this time last year for Emery’s horror show comes to mind. Etc.

    In addition in recent years the pattern and the strong consistency in the war between the super agents and the agents of world class footballers who are not in the super agents stable at the Arsenal Football Club is clear, there is no doubt what has been going on at the club. The arsehole blaggers ignored the story but Sven did spell it out for everyone. Categorically.

    The media attack on Ozil has been non stop through the friends of the super agents and is a part of this pattern. Including the current attacks.

    yet at every turn the Good Doctor has not only pre-emoted their PR but embarrassed the club and these super agents. See Kia’s recent bleatings hehehe. Did he not like Ozil’s late August interview? Apparently not! Hehe.

    So ignoring Arteta:

    let’s not give up on the Good Doctor just yet. He ate up the fat cat Raul Sanlehii and then shay him out for breakfast. And that end of August where Ozil clearly implies others party from the coach at the club, which is significant, that interview caused Kia to set up a meeting with his PR gurus.

    So the reason I’m waiting for the end of the window is only partially related to Arteta: we know what the club want hence their predictable conduct, but the Good Doctor has earned the respect of all non-sociopathic people that love the football. He’s not lost this fight yet, I’m curious to see what the Good Doctor has advised his client to do here.

    In addition: if the club has got rid of all scouts, then who will be scouting the Saka’s, Niles Nketiah’s etc? The future the Kronke’s have planned for this club is clearly horrific. Given that last consideration: Might as well enjoy Mikel before he gets the Arsene treatment and or heads off to a bigger club.

    COYG.

    Shotts
    Do you see the misapplication of the handball rule as a continuation of the conflict between the pgmob and UEFA? They still seem
    to want to undermine VAR, is this is just another way to do so after being forced to use the pitch side monitors?

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  8. Fins: After years of self-denial, in recent weeks it is becoming clearer to me the Kroenkes are simply another bunch of corporate raiders who have used the tried and tested tool of a Leverage Buy Out to get their greedy hands on the club. The assets of the club are now being used to bolster the already extreme wealth of Stan and the family.

    Like any LBO, first thing they did was take the company, Arsenal Holdings, private and like any corporate raider they are now stripping the club of any asset that will add to their bottomline. Now the sacking of the 55 scouts and other key employees begins to make sense. Who needs scouts when you are in it for the short term plus these people come with long term liabilities such as pensions and health benefits. Ornstein recently confirmed that the sackings had nothing to do with COVID.

    Concurrently they are trying to unilaterally renege on Ozil’s contract when he, quite rightly, refused to take a pay cut which would have benefited only the Kroenkes, not the employees who were fired anyway. Now we get retreads from Chelsea as short-term signings to get back in the top-4. Poor Arteta is just like you and me, an employee trying to survive and do his best among a nest of sharks and vipers. Valiant but he is being compromised in the process

    Going forward we can expect no investment into the club from these shysters. In fact we can anticipate the cream of the youths being sold to pay for Kia’s mercenaries and retreads. This transfer window will tell the tale.

    It is fitting we play Liverpool tomorrow which is a reminder that the Scousers also had a bunch of corporate raiders in the form of Hicks and Gillette who did an LBO to own the club and almost ran it into the ground until the Scousers chased them back to the States. Look how far they have come since then.

    I am now unreservedly anti-Kroenke.

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