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Pep Guardiola was a rookie, like Mikel Arteta, and had to weather his own crisis of confidence in his ability as a coach.
Of course, given the golden life Guardiola has led, his idea of what a dire streak represents is on a different scale than what Arteta has endured at Arsenal.
Arteta’s purgatory lasted from late September until Christmas, during which time Arsenal played 12 Premier League games, won two and lost eight. Under normal circumstances, that would have merited dismissal. Only with the Boxing Day 3-0 win against Chelsea, the so-called P45 derby with Frank Lampard, did the poor form subside.
When Guardiola was appointed Barcelona’s manager in 2008, his elevation was similar to Arteta’s at Arsenal. On the surface, it seemed sensible. Here was an eloquent and brilliant young coach with a considerable playing record.
Guardiola’s own period of doom when he was young and untested lasted two games: a shocking 1-0 loss to the little-considered Numancia and a 1-1 draw with Racing Santander at the Camp Nou.
However, as those two games were interrupted by an international hiatus, the period of recriminations in the media and doubts about his coach took a good three weeks to unfold.
That week, Andrés Iniesta walked past Guardiola’s office and seeing the young manager deep in thought, contemplating the fact that his credibility as a coach was at stake, the midfielder knocked on the door.
“Don’t worry, sir,” Iniesta said, using the English word the Spaniards use to address soccer coaches. You should know that we are with you until death.
We are so used to thinking of Guardiola as the invincible super coach that it is hard to imagine him vulnerable. As it was, Barça would win the next 11 games, the season would culminate with the team winning the La Liga, Copa del Rey and Champions League treble and the Guardiola dynasty was born.
Without Guardiola’s success in Barcelona, it is doubtful that Arsenal would have had the appetite to give Arteta the Arsenal job just over a year ago at the age of 37. Like Guardiola, he was formed by Barcelona’s youth system. , Having grown up in La Masia, the dormitory on the farm that used to house Barça hopefuls.
When offered the opportunity to take on a coaching role when his playing career at Arsenal came to an end in 2016, he chose Guardiola’s Manchester City instead of staying with Arsene Wenger. He wanted to immerse himself in the ways of the most successful coach of the 21st century. There is no doubt that Arsenal hoped that some of Guardiola’s stardust had been sprinkled on Arteta.
But the Arsenal manager will have to wait a little longer to experience a success of the magnitude that Guardiola has had.
‘You can’t compare your situation [at Barca] to the situation right now with us, ‘Arteta said last week. They are very, very different. You can share some values, some ideas and the way we were raised and educated in football is very similar because we had the same training.
“The fact that we worked together brought us together a lot, to make that chemistry and those ideas work. How do you make it work and what do you need to make it work … you need some time, sometimes you need a lot of investment, sometimes there is a group of players that can already provide that.
“You have to keep evolving and finding a way because there is no formula that works.”
Arteta was effectively saying that he cannot be seen as Pep Mark II. And even if the scale of Guardiola’s achievements at Barca is underestimated at some point, because he inherited Messi, Xavi and Iniesta, Arteta’s job at Arsenal is much more complicated in comparison.
Winning the FA Cup, which included a famous semi-final against Guardiola, and the Community Shield was an extraordinarily impressive start. But this season has been a wake-up call for those who thought Arsenal would challenge the top four again any time soon.
Arteta speaks of ‘a lot of investment’ to restart the club but that will not be an option for Arsenal in the summer. They had to use an emergency loan of £ 120 million from the Bank of England to get through a season without fans. The Arsenal Supporters’ Trust expects the club to lose 158 million pounds this season.
Furthermore, the club’s unbroken proud streak of qualifying for European football, dating back 25 years, could well come to an end this season, leading to further unpleasant financial consequences. Or they can bear the indignity of finishing in the Europa Conference League, a third notch below the Europa League.
Director Josh Kroenke described the club with a ‘Champions League salary bill on a Europa League budget’ in 2019. Not much has changed, except that they could soon be running a Champions League salary bill on a budget. of the Europa Conference League.
Arteta may have resembled Pep Mark II, but his path to potential glory is going to be tough. And the Arsenal board will have to adjust for the tougher times ahead if they want to back their man in the long run.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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