Good old Arsenal, we’re proud to say that name,

While there’s no proper football,

Arteta’s contract announcement is the name of the game.

Alright, it doesn’t quite work, but it was the first thing that popped into my head as I started penning today’s musings. And it’s a big deal. Both literally and figuratively, because apparently Tricky Micky is getting a sizeable bump up on his already sizeable package. Nice work if you can get it.

And if you can do it. And last season proved he can, so this deal is entirely worth it, in my opinion. He is the most valuable asset from a playing/coaching point of view that we have at The Arsenal. A relentless pursuer of perfection, a constant innovator, a man with a steely determination to extract every possible marginal gain from his team. And last season was the culmination of ‘The Project’ or ‘The Process ‘, whichever way your tomatoes fall. He delivered unto us a Premier League title, our 14th in our history, and he is thoroughly deserving of this new deal.

It also adds an element of certainty – as much as you can in football – to the foreseeable future, and with players like Declan Rice and Martin Ødegaard currently in discussions over new deals, this kind of deal is important. It gives them peace of mind; continuity that if they sign a new deal, they’ll be ‘on the bus’ with the manager beyond the end of the season. These players have proved they can get over the line; they’ve looked very good all season aside from the recent Brighton blip, and this comes at a good time for all parties, I reckon.

It also underlines the noises we’ve heard about Arteta wanting to ‘build a dynasty’. I love that. Arteta wants to carve his name into Arsenal lore; he wants to be up there with Chapman, Graham and Wenger. He wants to Make Arsenal Great Again (One for the readers who have previously accused me of Trump Derangement Syndrome before there), and I am all in on it.

And I’m in on it because when I listen to him speak, when I see how he talks, walks, and thinks (sort of – we never really truly know that), I see a guy with a ruthless prioritisation for making Arsenal better. I kind of feel we’re starting to see it with the Big Vik stuff; we’ve certainly seen it with the Ramsdale/Raya stuff, and I think Arteta is a man who is constantly looking for improvement. He is Mr Kaizen.

I will confess that wasn’t always the case. After the Villarreal defeat, I phoned up my mate Johnny from the Arsenal Vision podcast, and we had a sobering chat about how we didn’t think he was ‘the guy’. Both of us said he would probably need to be moved on. We’d had a terrible run in the Premier League; we’d bumbled along a bit in mid-table, having been right down there over the Christmas period, and Unai had bloody gone and knocked us out of the Europa League too. It wasn’t great stuff; we had a stodgy midfield that included Danny Ceballos, Rob Holding and Pablo Mari were our centre-backs, and it felt like we were a bit listless. But to his credit, and KSE’s, they backed him; they kept him. That following summer, the overhaul began, and here we find ourselves as Champions of England. We know what we are. So yeah, I’m all in on him now.

I also think that this new deal won’t have the same effects as it has on some players. Think back to post-contract Walcott, Ozil, or Aubameyang. They got their money and then just rested on their laurels. I know they are players and this is the manager, so it’s slightly different, but I still feel like Arteta is not that type of guy. He is intense. He is focused. He will continue to look for ways to improve, and when you look back at interviews with ex-players who were his teammates, he’s always been like this.

I also acknowledge, however, that he isn’t perfect. He doesn’t get everything right. I’m not an emotionally blinded fanboy who thinks he can do no wrong. I think he got the approach wrong against Brighton, for example, but I do believe he is the right man for the job, and I do believe he is arguably the best manager in world football. Even if he does (good grief!) step outside of his technical area every once in a while.

So now, with that contract done and dusted in all but official announcement and name, attention needs to turn to the other key cogs in this Arsenal machine. Rice, Odegaard et al. need to get their Mont Blancs out and get those contracts signed. Then they need to go on and win those big prizes again. And we’ll hopefully all be there along for the ride.

That’s pretty much it from me for today. Bit of a short one, given it’s the international break, but I’ll be back tomorrow with some more thoughts. So I’ll catch you then. Have a good one, kids.