via @t0wey (instagram)
Allegri has counted himself out of the running.
Now all of a sudden, the search for the next manager of Arsenal feels a little unsexy and a little bit too much like it’s only Enrique in the race.
Rumours of the Spaniard have been picking up pace, big newspapers are stating we’re deep in negotiations on money, and some places have gone far enough to say he’s bringing his old band back together, tapping into old coaches and scouts he wants to bring along.
I’m still a touch flat lined by this hire. I know he’s a great coach, I know he’s won a lot of things, I just don’t really know enough about him to get excited.
Some say he did a solid job at Roma, his Celta Vigo job was pretty good, and he did a great job with the B team. Maybe the hesitancy comes from him basically being good, but not Pep Guardiola?
There’s a problem with that kind of thinking in the sense that no one is as good as Pep, but then again, we’ve never seen them in the same league together, although we have seen Enrique win out in the Champions League over his exteam mate.
It’ll be a solid hire regardless. He’ll come in, inject new ways to train, he’ll build out some sort of vision of how we’d like to play, and he’ll shake up a club that’s lacking morale a bit depressed.
I would still love it if the club sprung a surprise, like Jardim or Nagelsmann. The man from Monaco because he has so much experience working under tough conditions and he’s very adaptable to the tools he has at his disposal. Nagelsmann because of all the influences on his game, that he could be the next big thing, and he has a lot of experience under his belt already.
Here’s how I’d imagine the order is panning out.
1. Enrique
2. Arteta
3. Jardim
4. Nagelsmann
5. Rangnick
All better than Wenger, who is now telling the press he could have gone to United in 2002. Also, total shocker, he’s being linked to China in a mega-money deal. No pressure, total control, all the cash. Perfect.
We still have some things to take care of in the league. We have a nasty away trip to United to deal with tomorrow. We’ve been absolutely pony on our away trips this year and I can’t help but think playing Atletico on a Thursday night is going to impact our energy levels and our focus… because all the minds will be on the return leg game and making sure no unfortunate injuries occur.
Jose is in full on regret mode about calling Wenger a pervert and a failure.
“There are little things where it would be obviously better without them,” he said. “Some gestures, some words would be better without it.
“I feel better now without it, no doubts about it but again when I arrive in England, 2004, Arsenal was the champion and the famous Invincibles, and I arrive.
“For the next couple of years was with them, [Dennis] Bergkamp, Thierry [Henry], [Sol] Campbell, amazing team. So again thank you very much for that, they pushed us to the limits.
“The two matches we played not at the Emirates but at amazing old stadium [Highbury], unforgettable. We had big matches, big fights, so thank you so much for that.
“Regret? Little negative episodes, yes I do,”
“And probably he also does.”
I’d love for the fairytale to end on Wenger at least beating Mourinho in a game Mourinho wants to win, but if the ‘see ya later’ tour has told us anything, it’s that sport doesn’t really give two fucks about reputation or what a nice way to exit would be.
So far, all that’s happened since we knew Wenger was leaving, is a doubling down of all the reasons he needed to go. Uncommitted performances, shoddy decisions and the inability to see out important games. Even the fans are uninterested. That’s the lesson, right? Learn to leave with dignity. Don’t overstay your welcome. Wenger has seriously damaged his reputation with fans over the years and that’s a real shame.
Before I go, there’s real disease going around Twitter, it’s called ‘insights without context.’ He’s completed 470 of 527 passes, recovered the ball 40 times, made 12 tackles, 15 clearances and created 9 chances. They sound great, but where is the context? How many of the passes were to the right players, how was his positional play, how often did his balls speed up play? How many mistakes did he make?
Xhaka’s numbers looked good against Atelti because they had 10 men and couldn’t pressure him. His numbers look great for him last 5 games because we’ve played no one of note. The guy is a car crash. I’m not sure a new manager can save him. But we’ll see.
I’d imagine it’ll be a bunch of kids and squad players lining up tomorrow. Hopefully, we’ll get to see Nelson, Willock or Eddie make the jump into this side at some point. Here’s the kicker… I really hope we don’t get humiliated.
Right, see you in the comments.
These ratings are cracking me up from Redtruth.
But the unfortunate thing is they are not that far off.
Wenger thought Xhaka was a box-box signing
Nuff said
Wenger thought stepanovs was a defender
@Bob
I would like to see Allegri, Sarri or Simeone.
J.oey
Nah, same one that said we were trying to get Griezmann way back when.
Funny that you’d accidentally get it twisted. Unlike you and all.
Sorry I occasionally pass on whispers about Arsenal, on an Arsenal blog, could always dish out the latest Vindaloo recipe like you I suppose? Eh Delia? 🙂
Marko
Throw in as many “I’m sorry” or “it’s funny” as you like, I rate his qualities and think a better manager gets more from him. I’m not looking for a war of words on it, you think different. Cool, not that bothered.
We are two schools of thought, you would replace about 10 players whereas I think a new manager gets more put what we have and could do with adding 2/3 important figures. It’s all speculative, doesn’t need the exasperated rhetoric you’re so keen to give.
I sincerely hope we don’t go for Enrique if he is asking £15m a year tax free. Nobody but nobody is worth that much to manage a football team. And he’ll try to bring his entarage of 15-20 people. No, no, no. Football is not rocket science. Even the rocket scientist don’t get (wouldn’t even ask) that sort of money. In any case he is unproven in our type of league, particularly working with budgetary constraints. Walk away from this disastrous gamble. Yes, try Jardimif he is not asking disastrous wages, but why not go for Nagelsmann, a solid guy… Read more »
Sorry it should say “reasonable” not “reasonless” of course.
Any manager in the top 4 divisions would be better than Wenger.
Wenger
Tactics 0/10
Man Management Skills 2/10
Discipline 2/10
Coaching Acumen 1/10
Player Development 1/10
Player Recruitment 2/10
Mental Strength 1/10
Flexibility 0/10
Game Time Management 0/10
Human Being -4/10
Lets get behind the new manager whoever it is, be it Hodgson, Allegri or Pardew
What about a big shout for Warnock as Arsenal Manager.
A gritty Northerner who knows the English game…
Yeah pass on your info that’s complete bollocks
There was as much chance Griezmann was coming as there is in you getting laid in 2018.
And never made a vindaloo? You? Probably not as your mummy probably still
Does all your cooking for you
Anyway back to football.
CC won’t let xhaka go because he talked him up so much when we signed him that he actually thought we were going to
Compete for the league when him and mustafi signed haha
Finger on the pulse there CC. You know your football
Red
Funny this is Hodgson and pardew would probably do better than Wenger
We should get rid of Wilshere. Ramsey. Xhaka. Mustafi. Wellbeck.
We won’t miss a beat with them gone and replaced by the new manager who has a clue as to how to build a team.
Wenger inherited a disciplined backfour and Bergkamp.
The new manager will inherit a pile of shit.
We are two schools of thought, you would replace about 10 players whereas I think a new manager gets more put what we have and could do with adding 2/3 important figures.
Not 10 and definitely more than 2/3. This team needs more than say a midfielder, a defender and a goalkeeper which I assume is the 2/3 you’re referring to. Bare minimum 5 I’m afraid. Two starting midfielders, defenders and a keeper. Solve the issues we’re having. I’m afraid just lumping in someone next to Xhaka and someone next to Mustafi isn’t going to cut it. Imo
Marko
We need a proper winger, at least 1 CB maybe 2 as kos is losing it, 2 MFs at least, and of course GK.
Sell Ramsey and xhaka. Free up Wilshere wages and buy 2 CM. Ozil, mkhit, and 2 new CMs,
Jan buy another player or two
Hey mate, one positive about LE you’ve overlooked….he will want big money…..and he’ll want to be guaranteed more than £50 million to spend…..just an observation
Red truth , warnock, made me laugh , I needed a laugh this evening
Charlie what does it mean to be our best player over the last 2.5 month if he was one of our worst players over the previous 18? As they say, form is temporary, class is permanent. Maybe last year just wasn’t his year and there’s a player in there who our next manager can get more out of. But if it takes the guy almost 2 guys to find 2 months of reasonable form then that’s highly concerning Jamie vardy looked like a worldwide for a whole season. 2.5 months is nothing if we’re honest Considering how bad he was… Read more »
China Spot on Same fans scream and shout that we are gong to do great every time we went on a little win streak at the end of the season when we played teams already off the summer and game mean nothing “Wenger has it sorted “ they would say. Next year we will kill it! We’ve won #mx amount of games. Blah blah blah Clueleee bunch really Maybe a new manager can improve xhaka but no manager is football to make him faster. Can they manage our brain farts of making crucial mistakes leading to goals by the opposition… Read more »
“Maybe a new manager can improve xhaka but no manager is football to make him faster.”
So why have you been giving CC shit if you literally just agreed to what he was saying?
China
That’s the idea, Xhaka could improve under a new manager but if he doesn’t, he will still have resale value by next year, sell off.
lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ygdfiL61WU
A massive issue at arsenal is the short term vision Welbeck plays well for 4 games and suddenly he’s pretty good (let’s forget his entire career being shite) Tbh I believe the same would happen for our good players if their form dropped but if I’m bluntly honest I can’t think of any exceptionally good players in this squad so it’s hard to tell… (maybe auba but he’s still unproven for us) As you said, we finish the season well and wenger always earned a huge reputation boost leading into the summer Stats would get thrown around like we were… Read more »
Mystic my dear with xhaka is that considering we haven’t truly had an elite DM for absolutely ages and considering how integral this role is to our chances of success, trying to polish him seems a dangerous risk We’re so far away from having a good defensive unit it’s frightening and xhaka has been one of the primary culprits for this Maaaaybe the next guy turns him into a footballer. That would be ideal. But he’s been so far away from the level we need over the last 2 seasons that I’m worried this experiment will cost us dearly next… Read more »
Oh yeah, wenger sacked.
YIPEEE!!!
Shhh…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38_x2Ir-pQc
“At least 70 dead”…!!!
Shocking statement of…”fact”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HGMgZfqzHg
Ooops
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaZRZo9FGQI
Mystic He’s been shit for 2 years. A new manager Will know within weeks about xhaka I don’t agree with CC at all I said maybe a manager can make him better but he’s been shit for 2 years. Wenger has probably fucked him up too Much. He makes too many mistakes that cost us too many goals. I don’t know. I’d rather replace him Let the new manager for his own MF. This MF has been shit for a long time If an offer comes in for xhaka I’d take it and let the manager bring in his own… Read more »
I’m worried this experiment will cost us dearly next season if this turd remains unpolishable
Yep. Hopefully the new guy can make the assessment quickly and get rid of him if that’s the case.
“If an offer comes in for xhaka I’d take it and let the manager bring in his own DM, ” Absolutely, no one has shown that he is indispensable in this team for a serious manager to refuse any offer brought in for them. But if no offer comes, you would hope that instead of hawking him around and reducing his price in the process, that the new manager can do something with him to respectable level, if not, hawk and sell lol. Our TF team should absolutely be on top of teams In the top5 leagues about to be… Read more »
Lacazette already commented about lots of players scared leaving because Wenger is gone.
To put it in proper perspective it is lot of mollycoddled softened babies being kicked out of the pram with nanny gone.
Quite a few are not bad but had their sharp edge filled out by Wenger pushing square pegs in round holes.
Forget legacy, due to his greed for power, money and no accountability, but lots of political accumen Wenger earned a statue destined for all visiting Top Dogs to pee on.
Mystic
The best thing about a new manager is you know he won’t keep players around if they don’t deserve to be here like what Wenger has done for the last decade with so many years
The Wenger daycare days are over.
Personally o feel that 100% of our priority should lie with our defensive unit. It’s absolutely shit. Our keeper is balls. Mustafi and kos are dropping clangers every other week literally (I love kos but it’s true). Bellerin is more worried about fashion than football. Our dm is the worst we’ve had in our first 11 for 2 decades literally. Imo there’s no progress until this unit is vastly improved through both signings and coaching. Coaching can probably get a 20-30% improvement out of the defense. But we need another 30% from a great CB and a match winning keeper.… Read more »
If only we had signed Kante we could have written off the dm position for the next 5 years.
Hindsight and all that but what a difference that guy would’ve made for us
I’ll go out on a limb and say there is an 80+% chance that our CBs/keeper will collectively drop at least two more clangers before the end of the season
Other than the obvious Jenk, Apkom, Cazorla and the like, i’d get rid in batches of 5 or 6.
Next lot to clear, in priority,
Wilshere,
Welbeck,
Chambers,
Iwobi,
Cech,
Ospina.
Depending on who we’d get in, then rid of
Elneny,
Ramsey,
Kos,
Ozil,
Xhara
etc
Love to hear we’d rid of 15… feels great but that won’t work for our negotiation tactics if we have no fucking players in the first team squad!
Also thought we should go for 22 to 26 age bracket other than exceptional circumstances. Happy to take Ronaldo even @ 30 something! Lol.
Rumors today that Enrique is out of the running because of his wage demands etc. And Sarri is the new front runner, wouldn’t mind that at all, he can bring Koulibaly and Jorginho with him and fix 2 of our biggest weaknesses right away:)
Backups are Allegri and Ancelloti, helluva lot more exciting than Arteta so I hope it’s true.
Sarri now mentioned.
It would be interesting to see him try to implement his high intense man marking press and lots of running with some of these current Arsenal players.
If we can recoup the same amount paid for both Xakha and Mustafi, then we should take it and move on. Both are beyond repair and probably two of the worst purchases (capital investment) in our history. Mustafi rates right up their with the poorest defenders we have ever had and as for Xahka, there is a thought that he has been ruined by Wenger and a new manager could resurrect his career. I don’t buy that, the lad is slow, ponderous and as left-footed as they come, that no amount of training could improve. We need a player in… Read more »
No one is saying we have to buy a bunch of 17 year olds, it’s just smarter to invest our limited ( however much they are they’re not infinite) funds in the 22-26 bracket. Either we get 7-10 years out of the player or we move them on for a fee.
Or we can just buy 30 year olds and rebuild the whole squad every 3 years.
Plenty of players between 22-26 that are ready to win titles now…
Freddie
point here is that the conversation should start and finish with what players can we purchase that can make us competitive now, not in two or three seasons and whether they have resale value shouldn’t even be mentioned as it’s irrelevant. What we need is better identification of players that are epl ready.
Like you just said plenty of 24/26 year olds that are ready to win titles right now.
Sure, but a 24/26 year old has resale value, unless they have a career ending injury. They can also help us win titles now and in 5 years time, not many 30 year olds can.
I don’t want to see a complete rebuild every couple of seasons, I want us to reach the level where we only need to add 1 or 2 top players each season. That’s the only way we can eventually afford to buy players like Oblak without leaving glaring holes in our first XI, we’re so far from that now it’s not even funny.
Id much rather have a squad of 30something players that win the league every other year, than a squad of what if’ players that need to be replaced/ sold without winning or fulfilling their potential. Like I said winning the league or major titles brings exponential commercial growth that by far out weighs selling players to achieve the same commercial yeilds.
Ideally you would like a squad with an intermix of player ages to off set any negative leverage associated with not meeting kpi’s
Ozil, Mikhi, Auba, Kos, Monreal, Cech, are all near or over 30, all starting for us now, at least 4 of those are staying next season, probably 5. The players most wants sold are in the 25-27 bracket like Mustafi, Xhaka, Wellbeck, Ospina or younger like Chambers. Makes no sense whatsoever to me to replace them with older players at the end of their careers when we have plenty of players like that in the starting lineup already. We can’t keep buying 4-5 players every window going forward because we’re shit at planning and expect them to be top quality.… Read more »
A balance of ages has to be best as long as the younger players are actually good enough. Signing any player is a gamble but if you sign a 30 year old and it doesn’t work out you’ll get bigger all for him by the time you decide to sell. That’s an expensive mistake and we aren’t *that* rich. That being said, I’m all for supplementing a couple of mid 20s killers with a couple of reliable old heads, especially if they’re picked up on the cheap/out of contract I’m not a fan of Evans at all, for example, but… Read more »
I think the most important thing to remember here is that it doesn’t matter the age of the squad but the output they deliver, if they’re winning the league every other year then age is irrelevant. The value of the club and it’s prominence/Prestige will increase there of.
And we’ve only been shite at planing because Wenger, employ any half conscious manager and the consensus is that we’ll be challenging for the league at the very least.
The balance in midfield has been a problem since Cazorla was injured. His partnership with coquelin worked very well. During that time if Ramsey was fit he would play out wide due to the fact that the balance of the side was affected whenever Ramsey came into the middle and cazorla was asked to play the out wide. Since cazorla’s injury problems, coquelin never found the partner in midfield and his performance suffered. He needed someone next to him who he could play the simple ball so he could concentrate on the defensive side of his game. xhaka and Ramsey… Read more »
Cazorla is a myth, I don’t remember challenging for the league or getting to the later stages of the CL with Cazorla in the team. But I do remember him being rolled over by teams because of his athletic limitations.
In fact Evans is already better than Mustafi and worth a fraction of his on the transfer market. Selling Mustafi for him or an equivalent type would make a lot of sense. I still want an elite CB as well though.
Regardless we’d make a 20 odd mil profit and improve our defense immediately
Imo our 50 should be spent on an excellent CB and we use sales to fund a really good keeper and bargains for anything else we can do
Yeah, we’re not going to win the title every other season by buying a bunch of 30 year olds every window, unless we get every buy spot on.
No continuity just an endless rebuild job having to replace half the squad every 2 years or so. We better increase our commercials by a couple of 100m annually for that to work…
I feel the same about Evans, HG, slight improvement on what we have and frees up funds for a top CB. Hard pass if he’s the only one coming in though.
Jasongms “Cazorla is a myth, I don’t remember challenging for the league or getting to the later stages of the CL with Cazorla in the team. But I do remember him being rolled over by teams because of his athletic limitations.” Nice of you to be so complimentary about, what I regard as , a quality footballer. And before anyone jumps in and accuses me of double standards… My opinion of Ramsey is down to his discipline and positional sense which in part (maybe a large part) is due to lack of instruction from the manager. Ramsey has ability, without… Read more »
Wenger should just leave.. Wenger out…
Does it mean Wilshere would leave with Wenger? I remember when he, Wilshere, threatens to leave if Wenger leaves.