For decades, Sir Alex Ferguson has been English football's poster boy for patience, building a dynasty after a slow start at Manchester United, but Arsenal's Mikel Arteta is emerging as a modern example of the benefits of sticking with a manager.
Every coach is deserving of time, but the limit for clubs and supporters has appeared to decrease with every passing year, ushering in an era of impatience.
Today, it is unlikely that Ferguson would have been given five years at Old Trafford to build a title-winning side and there are precious few other examples, at least at leading clubs, where persevering with a struggling manager has paid off.
Over the course of his two-and-a-half years at Arsenal, Arteta has come under intense pressure and the enduring question – discussed in the media, by supporters and even at the club – is how much time is enough for the Spaniard to prove himself.
Now, as Arteta's Arsenal continue to improve and impress, the club's faith in him increasingly appears justified, which is a refreshing outcome for not only the club but also the game.
It is genuinely hard to think of another Premier League boss who has ridden out such rough spells and come so close to the brink, and not only kept his job but appeared to come good.
Tottenham, by way of comparison, stuck with Mauricio Pochettino after a mixed start but the Argentine turned it around within a few months.
Ralph Hasenhüttl has come under pressure at Southampton but his bad spells were more in the form of catastrophic blips rather than the sustained downturns endured by Arteta's Arsenal, while Burnley have also been rewarded for their faith in Sean Dyche, even when it appeared a change was needed. And neither Saints nor Burnley are as big as Arsenal, where the pressure is intense and every bad result is a crisis.
It is easy to wonder if Arsenal's owners, the Kroenkes, would have been able to withstand the pressure with supporters allowed in grounds last season, particularly during the dreadful run in November and December 2020, before the turning point of the 3-1 win over Chelsea on Boxing Day.
Arteta, it should be said, always had credit in the bank after winning the FA Cup in his first season, so it was not just faith sustaining the Arsenal board, but their patience has been unusual and praiseworthy.
It is striking to compare Arsenal's approach with their immediate rivals for fourth place this season. At the other end of the Seven Sisters Road, Spurs have tried to accelerate their own rebuild by appointing one of the best coaches in the world but there is a danger that Antonio Conte, for all his genius, is not the best fit for the job. If their rebuild proves as tough as Arsenal's, Conte may not be around for as long as Arteta.
United, meanwhile, also showed patience of their own but with the wrong man, sticking with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer long after it became abundantly clear that he was not up to the job and missing out on a succession of more qualified candidates, including Conte and Pochettino.
Arteta has proven nothing yet but there are growing indications that Arsenal's decision to "trust the process" will pay off. If so, it might help persuade more clubs that patience does have a place in the modern game after all.
