SIMON JORDAN: Over-emotional? What nonsense! Mikel Arteta’s touchline energy and verve should be celebrated
- Mikel Arteta has previously come under fire for his touchline enthusiasm
- However, I believe that the Arsenal manager’s passion should be celebrated
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There is a school of thought that Arsenal are too emotional and it’s damaging their hopes of success.
Even Mikel Arteta recently claimed his side can be too emotional in home games but I don’t agree with the accusation that it is detrimental to Arsenal winning the league because they lack a supposed cold, clinical, dead-eyed attitude.
Pep Guardiola is an emotional man and it hasn’t served him too badly. Liverpool swept to the league title in 2020 on a wave of emotion. Sir Alex Ferguson was an emotional manager with an equally emotional captain at Manchester United in Roy Keane and they did OK.
The best teams, the most successful ones are, more often than not, a reflection of their manager’s strongest attributes. Enthusiastic, controlled, educated, emotional energy is a bloody good thing and, most of the time, Arteta embodies all those things so I really don’t see what the problem is and don’t understand the sentiment of deriding Arsenal for it.
This argument that somehow Arsenal have got to be less emotional to succeed I suspect all started around what many perceive to be their over-the-top celebrations. That probably engenders a feeling of resentment from the opposition and perhaps gives people an opportunity to say they’re over-emotional but they’ve got an emotional manager in Arteta and that’s his strength.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has often been scrutinized for his enthusiasm on the touchline
However, Pep Guardiola (L) and Sir Alex Ferguson (R) both found success by showing emotion
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Was Arteta over-emotional when he made the clinical decision that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was surplus to requirements? No – and it heralded the arrival of Arteta as a single-minded leader capable of making big, unemotional decisions for the well-being of the club. Yes, sometimes he over eggs the pudding when he gets into the love he has for his players – but so what?!
Some appear to not like the fact that Arteta is a jack in the box on the touchline but that’s a different issue. He’s challenging the orthodoxy and not intimidated by some of the Premier League’s big beasts which allows him to use emotion and turn it into emotional intelligence in his players.
Their stadium was often considered a library in recent times but under Arteta’s watch it has become a febrile, vibrant atmosphere and that’s down to him. This Arsenal team need that enthusiasm and energy, it gets the best out of them.
Football is all about controlled, directed emotion and if Arteta’s style of management is to heighten that feeling in his players so they understand that responsibility and respond accordingly then keep doing what you’re doing.
Of course, you’ve got to have the right kind of players to respond and thrive in that environment but if you have them, harness that positive energy.
If you’re creating an environment where there are euphoric outbursts and great celebration then you want more of that because it’s the best feeling in the world.
Arteta is an exuberant, effervescent character and if he feels that is the right way to get the best out of his players – which he clearly does – then do whatever works. His decisions don’t appear to be emotional when he’s making substitutions or when he picks teams because if he was, then there would be a problem.
I didn’t think it was necessary to give Kai Havertz the penalty against Bournemouth but that’s about the culture of a club being one for all and all for one. If his players believe a focused and confident Havertz will benefit then there’s no harm in giving him a penalty especially if you are 2-0 up and beating the opposition out of sight.
The Arsenal manager often paints an animated figure on the touchline for the Gunners
Kai Havertz (R) scored his first goal for Arsenal during their recent 4-0 win over Bournemouth
Aaron Ramsdale (L) and David Raya (R) have shared the first-team goalkeeper role this year
Some of the decisions he’s making over the goalkeeper situation are strange, as are some of the comments he’s made. You don’t want to see people breaking down in tears when they win or lose a game and perhaps an element of that needs to be curtailed but emotion is not going to determine whether Arsenal can challenge Manchester City for the title.
They didn’t miss out last season because of that, they lost out because of individual mistakes, the lack of a 25-goal striker – and because City are a juggernaut.
In a sport where so many players walk around with a look of impending doom on their faces, to see natural joy is something that should be celebrated.
Arteta is building an energy and vitality around Arsenal and while that may rub some people up the wrong way, isn’t that the whole bloody essence of football?
Wednesday owner has blown it with silly, immature statement
Sheffield Wednesday owner Dejphon Chansiri released a statement last week vowing not to put another penny into the club.
I think it was a silly letter to write but I can understand why he wrote it because it’s an exasperating situation to be involved in a football club – in his instance spending £160million and achieving virtually nothing – and getting vilified for it.
He wouldn’t be the first owner to do it and he won’t be the last. But you can’t release statements like that, there’s no point. Owning a football club is often a thankless task but this is the price on the ticket.
At Crystal Palace, I called fans’ forums, I fronted up. If people had an issue with my ownership I’d let them tell me to my face and see how much courage they had when confronting me rather than screaming into the ether.
I’m not denying I had difficulty with fans at times but they had a fundamental understanding of where my position was. They didn’t always agree with me but understood there was a significant desire on my part to make Palace successful – and I was going to do everything within my reach to make that happen.
So it was an immature, emotional thing to do by Chansiri. His statement lacked gravitas and revealed certain characteristics you shouldn’t show. You’re a leader, get on with it. It was silly, a case of: ‘it’s my ball and I’m taking it away’.
The problem he has is the fans don’t seem to trust him or have any faith in him. Certainly any goodwill they had towards him was wiped away when Darren Moore left the club after securing that dramatic promotion.
One of the downsides of overseas ownership is they often don’t relate to the mentality of English football fans. The golden rule for a football club owner is: you cannot tell fans how to think and behave.
Sheffield Wednesday chairman Dejphon Chansiri hit back at critical fans in a statement
The Thai businessman called supporters ‘selfish’ and insisted he is being treated unfairly
If it’s wrong, to hell with the protocol!
The Liverpool disallowed goal controversy should be seen as an opportunity for match officials. What needs to happen now is for referees to be braver and become authoritative leaders on the pitch.
The moment they realised they’d dropped a rick at Spurs, which was within seconds, it needed courage, someone to break protocol in this exceptional circumstance and fly in the face for what’s right for referees and do what’s right for the game itself.
Who did observing protocol benefit? No one. Someone needed to put their head above the parapet which I believe in part is the culture referees’ chief Howard Webb is trying to encourage.
Referees must feel emboldened to show leadership that would have been defendable because the correct decision would have been made. We need officials to have the mentality that when something is wrong, to hell with a flawed protocol.
But above all, VAR officials must be diligent and bloody competent!
The PGMOL released the full audio from the VAR hub during Liverpool ‘s controversial 2-1 defeat to Tottenham, that saw referee Simon Hooper incorrectly disallow the Reds a goal
VAR official Darren England (left) and VAR assistant Dan Cook (right) were dropped from their roles for upcoming fixtures after the high-profile error
Refs abroad
The main reason why English football has been so strong over the last 10 years is because we’ve had other cultures help improve standards.
The Premier League’s best players and managers are not English and most owners are not English so besides geography, there is little about our game at the top level that is English.
So, if we’re so worried about the standard of our match officials, why not import refs from abroad as well? If we believe there are better refs in other leagues, then we should go and get them like leagues in the Middle East do with our officials.
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