Pundit Craig Burley has recently talked about whether the Arsenal board should trust Mikel Arteta with the money or not in the transfer window.
Burley appeared as a guest on the latest video of the ESPN UK YouTube channel and Arsenal’s current form was the main topic of discussion. Burley discussed about whether the Gunners’ board will trust Arteta with some money in the transfer window or not and he believes that this is a ‘big problem’ for the club’s board.
Was Arteta properly backed in the summer transfer window?
Yes
No
The Gunners currently find themselves in the 15th position in the Premier League and they are only five points above relegation. Arteta’s men last won a Premier League game back in early November against Manchester United at Old Trafford. Since then, they have lost to Aston Villa, Wolves, Burnley, Tottenham and were held to a draw by Southampton (as per WhoScored).
Burley believes that because of Arsenal’s form, the club’s board could be confused about whether to give Arteta more money to spend or not.
He said: “He’s going to have to stop this slide, he’s going to have to stop this mediocrity. Otherwise, what you get in a scenario is you get the board – who are already tight with their money – saying, ‘Okay, we’ll maybe give him a little bit more time, but can we trust him with the money?’
“And that is the problem. That is the problem for him, and that is a problem for the club and that’s a big problem for the Arsenal supporters at the moment, as bad results breed poor confidence within the board, breed a lack of anybody being forced to spend money.”
TIF Thoughts on Burley’s comments regarding Arteta…
While things aren’t going right for Arsenal and Arteta even though they spent £77.4 million on transfers in the summer, it has been reported that the manager wanted Lyon’s Houssem Aouar over Thomas Partey in the summer. Sporting director Edu, though, was more keen on Partey and his choice had more weight.
This suggests that Arteta wasn’t backed properly with the players that he wanted and maybe, that has had an impact on things this season. So it would be better for the board to judge Arteta’s abilities when he gets the players he wants. That might be a better indicator of how much the board can trust the Spaniard with their money.