Managers do get washed up. It’s the very reason why Mourinho has gone from coaching peak Chelsea and Madrid to coaching Spurs and Roma, who sacked him two months ago.
If he’s not washed up, he’ll be in demand by top clubs even as a “stop gap solution”, as you say. But we all know no top club will pursue him.
If we had Mourinho at Arsenal, he would destroyed us within by his toxic hard handed approach and left us with an even bigger mess than the one left by Wenger.
Along with Pepe, Zinchenko, this has to be classed another gem of yours.
Managers don’t get washed up, your brain and knowledge of football and tactics are always there with you. It all depends on what environment you are working in.
Top clubs are staying away from Mourinho not because he is not viewed as good enough but because he has a reputation of creating rifts in the dressing room and he ends up at loggerheads with the owners.
But Arsenal operates differently than other clubs. They give the manager time and control. They prefer stability over short-term results.
The only exception was Emery who was sacked after a year because the club realized that he didn’t have the chops to manage a big club and they were right in his assessment.
Mourinho would have enjoyed working at Arsenal, at least much more than he enjoyed working at United and Spurs.
You said your preference was Ancelotti, but you need to understand that Ancelotti is a cup manager. He is a glorified Rafa Benitez.
He has managed elite clubs in Europe for 20+ years and has just 5 league titles to show for.
He knows how to win knockout games but he is very average at winning leagues and sustaining consistent performances over the course of a season.
Arsenal might have picked up an FA Cup or a Europa League with him but he wouldn’t have frigging clue about how to revive Arsenal in the league from the situation that they were in in December 2019.
There is no absolutely no doubt that Arsenal would not have mounted the title challenges in the last two seasons if Ancelotti was appointed instead of Arteta.
Ancelotti and Arsenal were a terrible fit because he is not the guy who can take on a struggling side and do a rebuild job.
Moreover, as far as Zinchenko is concerned, you need to understand the signings of Zinchenko and Jesus leveled Arsenal up from a top four contender to a title contender.
Arsenal would have not challenged for the title last season with Tierney at LB. Zinchenko’s passing range and his ability to invert helped Arsenal build from the back and took their attacking formations to a new level.
Can he be sold this summer for a fair price? Yes because Arsenal signed Timber who is younger and has similar attacking characteristics and ability to invert but he is a better defender.
You always have to keep looking for better players than what you have currently to keep getting better. SAF replaced RVN with Saha when RVN was still in his prime but he realized that Ronaldo and Rooney had better chemistry with Saha.
Just because Zinchenko can be sold this summer doesn’t mean he is not a good player and doesn’t mean he was not a good signing. He was a really effective signing and helped Arsenal level up.
As far as Pepe is concerned, he was clearly one of the hottest properties in Europe at the time and he was a very good signing.
Just because it didn’t work out for him and his career fell off doesn’t me a that he wasn’t a good signing at the time and doesn’t mean that his career wouldn’t have taken off had he joined a different club.
Sometimes, a player is not the right fit for a club or the club is not the right fit for the player or it is just bad timing. There are so many variables that influence the success and failure of a signing.
But this what zero ball knowledge fans like yourself don’t understand. This is why the likes of you ran your mouths against Havertz and didn’t give him a chance before he proved you wrong and showed that he is still a very good player and Arsenal were right to sign him.
Arsenal signed not for the propels that he had at Chelsea but for the player he can become at Arsenal and he is now repaying the faith.
Pepe hadd 23 goals and 11 assists in 18/19 and Arsenal needed a quality winger. He was the right option to invest in but Emery couldn’t utilize him and find a system that worked for him and by the time Arteta replaced Emery, Pepe’s confidence was shattered and also, Saka had emerged and everyone at the club knew that he had higher potential than Pepe.
If it wasn’t for the rise of Saka, there is a good chance that a brilliant manager like Arteta would have made things work for Pepe just like he has made things work for Havertz.
One bad move can make or break the careers of a player and build a narrative around that player. It is the brutal nature of football.
If you roll back the clock and go back to summer of 2019 and have Pepe sign for some other club and he might still be one of the hottest properties in football.
There are so many examples in football of top players ruining their careeers with one bad move. Let me give you a lesson in football by naming a few off the top of my head:
1. Coutinho: one of the best attacking midfielders in the PL entering the prime years of his career signed for Barcelona and his career never recovered. Today, in his prime years, he is plying his trade in the Qatari league.
2. James Rodriguez: Took the world by storm at the 2014 World Cup, a player of great potential killed his career off by signing for Madrid when they didn’t need a player like him and today in his prime years, he is playing in Brazil.
3. Mateja Kezman: a phenomenal talent who could have been a legendary striker signed for Mourinho’s Chelsea in 2004 and him and Mourinho were a terrible fit for each other. His career never recovered.
Things could have been so different for him had SAF or Wenger got their hands on him in 2004 instead of Mourinho, but football is full of these ifs and buts and harsh realities.
It doesn’t mean that those signings should not have been made at the time and clubs were wrong to invest them. As I said, so many things can influence a transfer. Wrong club, wrong manager, wrong time, wrong environment etc.
.
calling Arteta great, he's tactical disaster class has just gift wrapped City the title.
