There is a lot of talk, rightfully about Jonas' future but I have real concerns about the people above him. On the men's side, we know what Edu and Richard Garlick do and we see Josh K around too. But for AWFC, we know Clare Wheatley does a lot of stuff but the club have never really made clear exactly what her pervue is and also, we literally never hear from her (as opposed to Edu on the men's side who does interviews for the fans 2 to 3 times a season). The fan's opinions of Clare seems really low, there are even rumours she is currently away on holiday and that is causing the delay in Jonas being sacked (these may be false but the fact people actually think she would disappear mid season speaks volumes to how people view her!)
So I guess my questions are:
1) Why do you think we never hear from Clare directly? Do you think we ever will start to hear updates from her and her vision of AWFCs future?
2) Do you think the people above her check in regulary with her and will be concerned we look so far off winning the big trophies, or do you think as long as attendances are strong and we are raking in merchandise revenues, they will be happy to let her get on with things?
How worried should we be about the team being tired at this point in the season? I keep hearing people talking about tired players and the need to rotate them, but with the exception of maybe the USA and Spain players didn't most players get a long summer break this year? And while Arsenal has played more games than other teams in the WSL it is still early in the season.
Am anticipating the theme of the questions. I've been an appreciator (if not an admirer), of much of Jonas' approach to football. However the flaws are now evident.
Reflecting on the ability to (often) do well with peer-level teams, yet his inability to beat teams set up to defend. Does that make him better suited to say a rising mid level team (a Tottenham or Villa), rather than the elite requirement at Arsenal?
The question is, might he be the Emery* version of the women's team?
*Hoping the version of Arteta is somewhere out there!
In theory, would our Arteta be Casey Stoney? Former senior player; has a straight-talking reputation; still relatively early in her coaching career; was previously in the dugout at a Manchester club. To be clear, I'm half-joking here (but only half).
In all honesty I think Arteta's a complete one off, given he had no previous experience and yet has not just transformed the playing staff, but revolutionised the playing system at the same time!
I don't know much about Casey Stoney either but I've seen comments to suggest that her teams aren't particularly free scoring either.
I would agree on Arteta. Don't think we should be trying to find an equivalent for the women's team. I'm general quite positive about Stoney. I'm not really bothered about entertaining football as long as it's winning football. She's not a perfect manager by any means. She's just the obvious choice as a replacement because she's free right now.
Has the Bayern defeat started to show that the players are losing faith in Jonas too now? Big games have never really been a problem or resulted in embarrassing results until now. Additionally, will the global nature of this result push Arsenal's hand even quicker?
Do you trust that those making the decisions for the strategy of the womens team (outside of marketing, which above expectations) is at the level that is needed to be successful? Several WSL teams have recruited strongly in managerial and coaching bringing up the level of opposition. It’s been a theme for years that our targets go to other teams and/or our coaches kept too long after it’s clear the system doesn’t work. My concern is that a 5yr plan with back up options doesn’t exist so we are always playing catch up when things go wrong, and often that has to escalate to an extreme before action is taken.
I believe we haven’t conceded 5+ goals in seven years, and prior to that, it was 2008. We parted ways with Pedro shortly after that 2017 result (with a bad start to the season as a whole). Do you think it’s curtains on Jonas’ time as a manager this side of the winter break? Or do you feel that Arsenal will ride the (very unenjoyable) wave and hold out until the end of the season to find a replacement?
Working with managers you might not like or agree with on their tactics (or lack thereof) is part of the game, and players should be prepared for that, but this current situation feels so far removed from the winning legacy of Arsenal Women as we know it, and I can’t help but feel that even the players don’t seem to enjoy playing for the badge anymore under this management.
Hi Tim, i asked at the start of the season if Jonas was the right man for this job as I don't think he is. I wonder if we will make a decision sooner rather than later as it feels the title is already gone and such good signings make this frustrating. If he leaves who do you fancy for the role? Some say Casey Stoney she wasn't in tbe best position in US when sacked. Mark
If we get a new manager do you think the players will be able to come together? At the moment it feels like they aren’t playing for the manager or each other and it feels like a drastic change is needed to shift their mindsets back to a winning for the team mentality.
Hopefully this ages poorly, but one thing that stuck out in the Leicester, Everton & Bayern games was the relatively feeble press. That seems to be the foundation of Jonas's football - think all our best results involved us pressing really well. But it seems mostly absent recently. Is that the first thing that needs to improve? And it's not a good sign if the players are ostensibly tired, we've only played a handful of games.
The volume of the public and media critiquing Jonas Eidevall is naturally greater than the volume about Pedro Losa and Joe Montemurro at similar times. Is that volume affecting the players differently now compared to the other eras and why is that the case?
I don't think I'll be the first to raise the question on Jonas's tenure.. how much of it is down to the manager and how much is down to the players? I have a lot of patience and don't profess to be a great tactical mind.. however, the lack of improvement against the low block and the overplaying and passing sideways and back is baffling me... Sarina says you're good footballers, go and play.... I'd love to think we could have this freedom at AW but I'm not confident on that and feel we're trying to be too tactical which is stemming the creativity.. what are your thoughts on our general approach... and do you think the board will be close to making a decision?
How much worse can it get before the club are forced to sack Jonas? We saw on the men's side with both Wenger and Emery that it was the mood transitioning from anger to apathy that forced their hand.
Where does the lack of passion we seem to witness lately come from? I don’t want to dwell on the Viv-leaving-topic, but could it have left behind kind of a sour taste with the players? In her goodbye letter Viv wrote about the 2018/2019 season: “… Our free-flowing football got rewarded with winning the Women’s Super League …” Do you think the other players are fed up with not being able to play the “free-flowing football” under Jonas?
McCabe and Fox look exhausted, understandably so, so why have we not tried to switch formation a bit more? I'm talking a back 3, or like we saw in the Everton game when Foord came on for Fox and we were essentially playing a back 3. It would allow one or even both of them rest in periods during games, and given it's so early in the season surely we should be experimenting with options seeing as players are already looking tired and out of sorts. Obviously Catley being out for games and now Laura, has had an impact, but it's no good losing our starters to injury just because we were scared to try something other than Plan A. (Also, McCabe was probably our best player against Bayern, so her substitution was frustrating despite the fact it was likely due to her 'being in the red' fitness wise, which again shows, in my opinion, how we have mismanaged this whole situation.)
Manu doesn't dive when she has no chance of saving it. Please discuss the pros and cons of the performative dive. 😄
Hi Tim!
There is a lot of talk, rightfully about Jonas' future but I have real concerns about the people above him. On the men's side, we know what Edu and Richard Garlick do and we see Josh K around too. But for AWFC, we know Clare Wheatley does a lot of stuff but the club have never really made clear exactly what her pervue is and also, we literally never hear from her (as opposed to Edu on the men's side who does interviews for the fans 2 to 3 times a season). The fan's opinions of Clare seems really low, there are even rumours she is currently away on holiday and that is causing the delay in Jonas being sacked (these may be false but the fact people actually think she would disappear mid season speaks volumes to how people view her!)
So I guess my questions are:
1) Why do you think we never hear from Clare directly? Do you think we ever will start to hear updates from her and her vision of AWFCs future?
2) Do you think the people above her check in regulary with her and will be concerned we look so far off winning the big trophies, or do you think as long as attendances are strong and we are raking in merchandise revenues, they will be happy to let her get on with things?
Very interesting question. Would love to hear Tim’s take on this.
You’re not THE Clare, are you?
Ahaha, lurking on a fan forum
My condolences to you on the timing of your monthly substack q&a meaning you're getting questions right after a 5-2 loss.
How worried should we be about the team being tired at this point in the season? I keep hearing people talking about tired players and the need to rotate them, but with the exception of maybe the USA and Spain players didn't most players get a long summer break this year? And while Arsenal has played more games than other teams in the WSL it is still early in the season.
Am anticipating the theme of the questions. I've been an appreciator (if not an admirer), of much of Jonas' approach to football. However the flaws are now evident.
Reflecting on the ability to (often) do well with peer-level teams, yet his inability to beat teams set up to defend. Does that make him better suited to say a rising mid level team (a Tottenham or Villa), rather than the elite requirement at Arsenal?
The question is, might he be the Emery* version of the women's team?
*Hoping the version of Arteta is somewhere out there!
In theory, would our Arteta be Casey Stoney? Former senior player; has a straight-talking reputation; still relatively early in her coaching career; was previously in the dugout at a Manchester club. To be clear, I'm half-joking here (but only half).
In all honesty I think Arteta's a complete one off, given he had no previous experience and yet has not just transformed the playing staff, but revolutionised the playing system at the same time!
I don't know much about Casey Stoney either but I've seen comments to suggest that her teams aren't particularly free scoring either.
I would agree on Arteta. Don't think we should be trying to find an equivalent for the women's team. I'm general quite positive about Stoney. I'm not really bothered about entertaining football as long as it's winning football. She's not a perfect manager by any means. She's just the obvious choice as a replacement because she's free right now.
Has the Bayern defeat started to show that the players are losing faith in Jonas too now? Big games have never really been a problem or resulted in embarrassing results until now. Additionally, will the global nature of this result push Arsenal's hand even quicker?
Do you trust that those making the decisions for the strategy of the womens team (outside of marketing, which above expectations) is at the level that is needed to be successful? Several WSL teams have recruited strongly in managerial and coaching bringing up the level of opposition. It’s been a theme for years that our targets go to other teams and/or our coaches kept too long after it’s clear the system doesn’t work. My concern is that a 5yr plan with back up options doesn’t exist so we are always playing catch up when things go wrong, and often that has to escalate to an extreme before action is taken.
I believe we haven’t conceded 5+ goals in seven years, and prior to that, it was 2008. We parted ways with Pedro shortly after that 2017 result (with a bad start to the season as a whole). Do you think it’s curtains on Jonas’ time as a manager this side of the winter break? Or do you feel that Arsenal will ride the (very unenjoyable) wave and hold out until the end of the season to find a replacement?
Working with managers you might not like or agree with on their tactics (or lack thereof) is part of the game, and players should be prepared for that, but this current situation feels so far removed from the winning legacy of Arsenal Women as we know it, and I can’t help but feel that even the players don’t seem to enjoy playing for the badge anymore under this management.
Hi Tim, i asked at the start of the season if Jonas was the right man for this job as I don't think he is. I wonder if we will make a decision sooner rather than later as it feels the title is already gone and such good signings make this frustrating. If he leaves who do you fancy for the role? Some say Casey Stoney she wasn't in tbe best position in US when sacked. Mark
If we get a new manager do you think the players will be able to come together? At the moment it feels like they aren’t playing for the manager or each other and it feels like a drastic change is needed to shift their mindsets back to a winning for the team mentality.
Hopefully this ages poorly, but one thing that stuck out in the Leicester, Everton & Bayern games was the relatively feeble press. That seems to be the foundation of Jonas's football - think all our best results involved us pressing really well. But it seems mostly absent recently. Is that the first thing that needs to improve? And it's not a good sign if the players are ostensibly tired, we've only played a handful of games.
Hi Tim,
The volume of the public and media critiquing Jonas Eidevall is naturally greater than the volume about Pedro Losa and Joe Montemurro at similar times. Is that volume affecting the players differently now compared to the other eras and why is that the case?
I don't think I'll be the first to raise the question on Jonas's tenure.. how much of it is down to the manager and how much is down to the players? I have a lot of patience and don't profess to be a great tactical mind.. however, the lack of improvement against the low block and the overplaying and passing sideways and back is baffling me... Sarina says you're good footballers, go and play.... I'd love to think we could have this freedom at AW but I'm not confident on that and feel we're trying to be too tactical which is stemming the creativity.. what are your thoughts on our general approach... and do you think the board will be close to making a decision?
How much worse can it get before the club are forced to sack Jonas? We saw on the men's side with both Wenger and Emery that it was the mood transitioning from anger to apathy that forced their hand.
Where does the lack of passion we seem to witness lately come from? I don’t want to dwell on the Viv-leaving-topic, but could it have left behind kind of a sour taste with the players? In her goodbye letter Viv wrote about the 2018/2019 season: “… Our free-flowing football got rewarded with winning the Women’s Super League …” Do you think the other players are fed up with not being able to play the “free-flowing football” under Jonas?
McCabe and Fox look exhausted, understandably so, so why have we not tried to switch formation a bit more? I'm talking a back 3, or like we saw in the Everton game when Foord came on for Fox and we were essentially playing a back 3. It would allow one or even both of them rest in periods during games, and given it's so early in the season surely we should be experimenting with options seeing as players are already looking tired and out of sorts. Obviously Catley being out for games and now Laura, has had an impact, but it's no good losing our starters to injury just because we were scared to try something other than Plan A. (Also, McCabe was probably our best player against Bayern, so her substitution was frustrating despite the fact it was likely due to her 'being in the red' fitness wise, which again shows, in my opinion, how we have mismanaged this whole situation.)