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Joe Montemurro breathed life into a stagnating side when he joined Arsenal as manager three years ago. An Arsenal fan, the Australian’s induction into the hearts of the supporters was rapid, helped by winning a League Cup after four months, a first league title in seven years the following season in 2018-19 and some scintillating football.
Now, a trophy-less year coupled with poor results and mixed performances against the other teams in the top four has helped fade the glow around the man who returned Arsenal to the top.
Criticism has increased and #JoeOut has been adopted as the new mantra by a very vocal and very small minority, but is it fair?
Arsenal have picked up one point from a possible nine against top-four rivals and lost to Manchester City and Chelsea in the FA Cup and League Cup respectively. They sit four points off the leaders, Manchester United, going into Sunday’s game at home to Everton and have not beaten a title rival since October 2019.
Strip away the top four and they have been incredibly consistent, unbeaten since a 3-0 defeat by Birmingham in April 2018. Expectations, though, are high. Arsenal are used to winning. They have a record 15 league titles, a record 14 FA Cups and are the only English side to have won the Champions League.
Increasingly, Montemurro’s squad does not look strong enough to compete with Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United, who have raised the financial bar higher than Arsenal’s budget will stretch. Underpinning the growing gap on the pitch is a growing gap off of it.
It has seen them miss out on players. Montemurro made five signings last summer but there are also a number of what-ifs. He has said “unfortunately we just weren’t in a position at the time” to sign the England forward Alessia Russo, who ended up at United.
He tried to bring in the Japan forward Mana Iwabuchi last January but was blocked by the Japansese FA, which wanted her to stay in Japan until after the now-postponed Olympics. Iwabuchi is reportedly set to join Aston Villa. Lotte Wubben-Moy arrived on deadline day after an on-off transfer saga, following an injury to the centre-back Jen Beattie.
If the gap is not closed quickly enough Arsenal will struggle to match the ambitions of their biggest players, including Vivianne Miedema, and run the risk of losing them. The signs have been there in comments from Montemurro and the WSL’s record goalscorer.
In November Miedema, whose contract is believed to expire in the summer of 2022, told the Guardian “the ideal picture would be for Arsenal to keep developing and doing the right things and I’m pretty sure that once we start talking about a new contract I’ll ask them what their plans are and we’ll see from there”.
After she broke the record she said that although she had “really enjoyed being at the club so far” she hoped “the club really keeps developing in the next couple of years”.
On the eve of the season Montemurro brushed off his rivals’ big-spending summers and talked of being “comfortable in where we’re heading and what we can do within our means”.
On 5 November he said United’s arrival and investment had “woken” the rest and “we now have to look at ourselves and how we can now start building to be the best and better. I love being involved in something that is evolving. It’s just amazing to have incredible brands investing, making things more difficult for us.”
Questioned this month about whether the purse strings were tight he said his role was to “stick to the budget we’re given”.
Arsenal, asked whether they were failing to keep pace with other clubs’ investment, partly illustrated by a failure to get desired signings, and whether they risked losing leading players as a result, said: “Arsenal Women are central to what we stand for as a club. The team was born out of our community and our long-standing commitment to diversity and inclusion and has become the most decorated team in English football. The history and philosophy of the team epitomise what it means to be Arsenal.
“It’s an exciting time for the women’s game which is growing rapidly and we intend to continue being a leading contender in an increasingly competitive league.”
Montemurro has made mistakes. But all managers do and the wider context suggests the difficulties the team face go far beyond the pitch.
If Arsenal do not keep pace with the changes across the league the gap will grow larger and they risk not only losing the players capable of closing it but a manager who has proved he can win on a budget tighter than his rivals’ but not a stifling one.
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