caesarroger

You may not believe it but Odegaardism is a bigger story and problem for this team than I am making it out here. The key, integral aspect of Odegaardism is the fact that Odegaard is almost always fit and available to play. Can’t say the same of our other interior options over the years. Remember the links to Paqueta before we went for Vieira? Arteta was not directing that switch in priorities. It was our constraints at the board level. Remember the links to Xavi Simmons sometime ago? Arteta did not prevent us from continuing that pursuit. Our constraints at the board level did. Odegaard was signed for 34M. If you compared it to what other top clubs paid for their creative midfielders, Arsenal have been lucky or have not actually invested enough. Szboszlai, KDB, Bernardo, Maddison, Fernandes have all costed more. The point is that Odegaardism is a board-level reflection of our thinking. Everyone remembers Arteta saying Odegaard was Edu’s choice. Relatively cheap investment that turned out good but subsequently prevented further improvement or investment. People underestimate how much Arteta’s hands are tied by the board’s choices. And, consequentially, how much the team is tied. The board cannot fully understand why a great player like Martin Odegaard could be holding the team back but it is precisely this lack of a detailed perspective into the squad’s dynamics that is hurting us and something a great sporting director is supposed to bridge between the board and coaching staff. To the board, we are doing well generally. Odegaard is performing well generally. His value has increased a lot. What could possibly be the problem? They don’t understand that Arteta and Saka are masking our problems—Arteta by making us super dominant up till the opposition third and Saka by killing teams settled in their own third. Without this double combo, Odegaard becomes exposed as an insufficient playmaker—a £35M player that couldn’t break through for Real Madrid. Arteta is often given either young players with high upside under 40M (Calafiori, Ramsdale, Vieira, Timber, Tomiyasu, Kiwior, Odegaard etc) or highly proven but relatively cheap players (Trossard, Jorginho, Sterling, etc). The only players that seem to fall outside of this category are Gabriel Jesus, Kai Havertz, and Declan Rice. The blame for Odegaardism lies not with Odegaard or Arteta but at the board level of Vinai Venkatesham and Richard Garlick.