Mikel Arteta congratulates Everton on their new stadium

We went down the Carlo road which was all well and good glitterball-wise but he was always just a short stay man once Madrid inevitably came calling again.

I think Arteta would have been more eager back then and, having learned his trade of skills under Pep and the hardship under Moyes 2005-11, he would have made a wise choice.

If you recall, we played Arsenal and both clubs had their new managers sitting in the stands that day: Ancelotti and Arteta.

Do you really think after leaving us in the lurch to join Arsenal on transfer deadline, then having played there for years and won trophies, that Arteta would have snubbed Arsenal for Everton? I doubt it...

But, as Tony says, even if he had, would he have survived? Lampard is getting all these plaudits suddenly at Coventry, Silva seems to be linked with every big job that opens up... and neither of them handled Everton's mess. Even Dyche got fed up and he'd managed for years on a shoestring budget at Burnley!

Agreed that years ago we should have got Arteta and Arsenal should have got Ancelotti… but would any of us really give him time and “trusted the process”?? Or would we have hounded him out after a rough season or two?

Probably a couple of losses from the sack at the time.

Maybe not, we will see!

I was being polite in my response but you hit a cord. The season before Arteta Arsenal reached two finals. Five months into the job he won the FA Cup with the team he inherited from Emery... but what has he done since?

On commentary yesterday, they said Moyes was the master and Arteta his apprentice. Well the apprentice has learnt well if it means accepting a glass ceiling and never winning a trophy.

Under Wenger, Arsenal were hamstrung financially due to the stadium costs which was ironic because they built the stadium to boost revenue. But under “Teta” and Emery, who was bizarrely forced out cause he had a funny accent, they've spent plenty and won nothing.

So imagine what he would have done at Everton when the budget was based upon spending a portion of the money received from selling your best players, Digne, Gordon etc.

Plus style-wise, the longer Arteta is in role, the more he sends out dull defence-oriented teams... like his “mentor” David Moyes.

Of course we will all fall out and have a pop at each other once comments get past post #10, but for now, it is uplifting.

Whenever I think of Moyes, it ultimately goes back to what Philip Neville said when he was discussing some of the things that they spoke about during the half-time team talk against Liverpool on that fateful day at Wembley

We just simply never had the bollocks to go and repay the fans for so many heartbreaking games against our neighbours, and this imo came from our manager.

Arteta has got a lot of things right, nobody really talks about how good Arsenal are defensively, but has he got the balls, to just take the bull by the horns (what a great analogy for a Spaniard) and win?

He will never be anything but a safety-first manager, he seems unable to attract big-name players unless they're at the end of their career or unwanted by other clubs, and the modern game has passed him by.

I have never bought into this Moyesiah rhetoric, he's a safe pair of hands but that wins you nothing in today's modern game.

He very rarely gives youth a chance, preferring to play "average but steady players". I personally can't wait to see the back of him.

The manager, whoever he is, can't do it without the top players. It's no use dogging Moyes; he, like any other manager, can't be truly judged unless you give them the right tools.

I give you Ancelotti.

Most fans of every club would agree with every word of that article.

Football — on the field and off it — is going down the pan with each passing day!

Things change... people not so much.

"Do you really think after leaving us in the lurch to join Arsenal on transfer deadline."

Yeah, right, he was so desperate to go that, despite interest from Arsenal all during the transfer window, he left it to the last minute to request a transfer just to leave us in the lurch? Coprolite.

At the time, we were well overdrawn at the bank and they wanted some money back, hence Chairman Bill engineering a last-minute sale so it couldn't be spent.

Don't you recall the "Where's the Arteta money" calls on here? And Moyes's reply that "Everyone knows the Arteta money went to the bank"?

It was Chairman Bill that left us in the lurch, not Arteta.