In his exclusive column for CaughtOffside, former Liverpool striker Stan Collymore discusses some of football’s biggest talking points, including Mikel Arteta’s position at Arsenal, the Alexander Isak and Yoane Wissa transfer sagas, and more.
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When is Mikel Arteta going to start receiving criticism?
I find it quite startling that Mikel Arteta isn’t under pressure at Arsenal. Every season I’ve written this column, I always say at some time in the season: when will the criticism of Mikel Arteta happen? And the only reason I can think why he doesn’t criticise is because he has this uncanny ability to go into his next press conference with a big, beaming smile, as if he’s just put out a team that’s beaten Real Madrid 6-0.
It’s remarkable. Every press conference, he looks confident. And I think to myself, that’s quite bold for a manager that’s only won one major trophy. The reality is if he was a golfer, and we kept on talking about him as an elite golfer, but in the last five years he hadn’t won a major, would be saying, well, he’s not an elite golfer. And I think you could say the same about him as an elite manager.
It feels like there is a force-fed mythology that he had to turn around Arsenal that were finishing out at the top 10 all the time. They weren’t bottom half of the table, they were firmly 6th, 7th, 8th. And all they needed was somebody to come in and buy two or three players. It wasn’t major surgery that was needed where they were finished 16th or 17th, like a Man United or a Spurs
From my perspective, taking into account the performance against Liverpool, which was at best lukewarm and lacking in any belief, I am genuinely surprised that at this early stage of the season, we haven’t seen big-name managers being touted to take his position. And it’s almost as if it’s a given now, because he wasn’t sacked in the first couple of years, that he can now be the manager of Arsenal for the next 10 years and finish 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and that’ll be OK.
Looking at Pep Guardiola last season, it got to the point where people were legitimately asking if this the end for Pep? Ange Postecoglou won the Europa League and then got sacked. What makes Mikel Arteta’s work at Arsenal any more exceptional other than steadying the ship, and added a little bit of progression? So for me, it’s really simple. He should be under pressure from all quarters this season, especially after the Liverpool game. And if he doesn’t deliver at the end of this season, it’s time to go.
Changes need to be made to avoid repeat of Isak/Wissa cases
For the vast majority of the existence of professional football, clubs have had the advantage over players. They’ve been able to buy and sell, keep players to contracts, leave them out at will. So this isn’t about slagging players off, because I know all too well that clubs will treat players shoddily, given half a chance. It’s a ruthless business.
Forget that it’s Isak and Wissa for a minute. And forget that it’s a player at your club for a minute, if you’re reading this. Because once we start getting to individuals, people lose the point of the argument. The point should be is that if you want to leave a football club, there’s been a long-standing mechanism… it’s called the transfer request. Players won’t trigger it because if they trigger it, they don’t get paid their signing on bonuses, loyalty bonuses, extra salary payments.
If a player is just not turning up in a random time in June, July, because it’s obvious that he wants out, I would have it so that the club can then breach the contract. The player is free to go, but the player then foregoes those payments. And I think that if the PFA, FIFA, UEFA do that, players will stop messing clubs around, and everybody gets what they want.
But in the absence of players now using the transfer request. something needs to be done very, very quickly – otherwise we’re going to get to a situation where players don’t turn up for six weeks, and clubs still can’t do them for breach of contract because the area is so grey. It needs to be tidied up.
Gianluigi Donnarumma signing makes sense for Man City
I think their last couple of windows have been intriguing, pretty much since the Haaland signing. I thought that they would keep grinding away at the Premier League with these elite-level, world-class signings – and they have brought some good players in, like Omar Marmoush and Rayan Ait-Nouri.
It’s worth noting that Man City now mix things up a little bit more than they’ve ever done in the Pep era, in terms of longer balls, looking for Haaland earlier. Perhaps that is the thinking behind signing Donnarumma – he can kick out of his hands well, he can kick out off the floor well, so it may not to be a major issue that he’s not a great footballing goalkeeper.
The most important thing that Pep Guardiola is going to want to see is clean sheets, and marshalling of the back four. So I think that Donnarumma ticks some boxes, and he will also bring some leadership, which is needed given that Gundogan’s just gone, De Bruyne too.
So it’ll be fascinating to see. The headline is that he’s not a footballing goalkeeper. But if he demands the kind of levels and he plays at the kind of levels that he did, at PSG and gets the best out of a back four and keeps clean sheets. I think that people will forgive him.
Man United have not solved their problems this summer
I’m surprised that Man United didn’t throw their hat in the ring for Donnarumma. A winner, an excellent shot stopper, a good marshaller of a defence. In terms of Lammens, who knows? With goalkeepers that haven’t been tested at elite level – and the Belgian league isn’t elite level – it is that it’s a toss of a coin.
In terms of the Emi Martinez scenario… do I think he would have been a good goalkeeper for them? Yes I do I also think Donnarumma would have been a very good goalkeeper for Man United, considering this type of goalkeeper that they’ve brought in.
However, there’s nothing that suggested that I was wrong in this column several weeks ago by saying just because they’ve brought in Cunha and Mbeumo and Sesko, that’s all their problems solved. There is a defensive problem there. There is a creative problem there. The three attacking players… You buy at the end of the project of buying defenders, a goalkeeper and a midfield, not putting the cart before the horse.
I’m sure Manchester United will be entertaining. But I think the notion that the defence and a rookie goalkeeper is going to perform better than last season is far from guaranteed.
Aston Villa were reactive – not proactive – during the summer
I’m looking at Aston Villa, and I’ve looked at the performances and I’m thinking something’s not right in the dressing room. Comments from Tyrone Mings, comments from John McGinn, players leaving like Jacob Ramsey that we understand didn’t really want to go.
The suggestion in the rumour that Emi Martinez and one or two other senior players were told sometime last season that they may have to be sold, and that’s how you end up with this situation. Martinez had waved goodbye at the end of last season, but he’s still here in September.
As for signings, let’s just look at some facts. Anybody reading this that tells me that Jadon Sancho and Harvey Elliott were both long-term progressive recruitment players for a top six club, I’m telling you that you’re wrong.
Sancho: his statistics at Chelsea, I think 15 goals involvements in 41 games. Not bad. Not great. Not bad. But if a recruitment department is looking at Jadon Sancho in isolation and saying he’s exactly the type of player and character we need at a progressive Aston Villa, I’m saying that they’re lying. There’s a reason why none of the other top six or seven clubs wanted him.
Harvey Elliott, yes. If he’s available in this window, clubs are going to have a nibble. Young, creative, won everything there is. You know, he’s won plenty, still only 22, 23. He’s had injuries, so that marks against him, but I think it was a punt worth taking. But neither Elliott nor Sancho would have been in the recruitment phase prospectus package conversation for a top six club, in my opinion.
My signings of the 2025 summer transfer window
I like Ekitike. I think he does a lot of things very well. He holds the ball up well. He can run in behind. He’s got really good feet. He’s a physical presence. And I know that all of the lights have been shined on Isak and also Wirtz. But I think that Ekitike that might be the one that is the solid 8/10 over his Liverpool career.
I’m looking at Cunha at Man United, but looking through one finger at times because I think that he has the propensity to explode. And depending on how Man United’s season goes, he’s a volatile character. But I think that in terms of carrying the ball from the halfway line towards the opponent’s 18-yard box, I think that he’s already showed that he can do that – he’s just got to have the players around him and behind him to be able to get the best out of him.
Forrest’s Dan Ndoye is probably third. He has a real attacking intent. A player that’s only going to go on and develop. Rapid pace, can create and fills the void left by Elanga, whom he is more well-rounded than. He has lots of pace to be able to go outside of players, come inside, create chances for the likes of Chris Wood.
As always, great article Stan. 👍