Ineptitude of the Wenger-era exposed

by .

What the bloody hell is cracking friends?

Arsenal’s game in Vorskla looking extremely precarious. The home team were at one point saying they might not be able to attend. It appears they relented in the end and accepted a kind of neutral venue. It’s going to be a lot better for the Arsenal players. A nicer hotel, a nicer pitch and less aggressive Ukrainians shouting at them. It’ll probably look a bit like a closed doors game. Emery had this to say.

“First, we need to respect Uefa’s decision because I think it’s not easy for Vorskla.

“Yesterday we were preparing for the first trip to Poltava and waiting in the evening for the last decision.

“It doesn’t change a lot to play here. In 90 minutes it is not a very big change. It is clear they are playing in Ukraine, not in their town, but they can also move their supporters to Kiev.

“In 90 minutes we want to do our work here.”

We have a very fresh looking squad playing. Tyreece John-Jules, Joe Willock, Charlie Gilmour and Jordi Osei-Tutu join veterans Eddie Nketiah and Emile Smith Rowe. John-Jules sounds like the name of some top geezer who is gonna smash your face in because he heard you sent his bird a Snapchat you shouldn’t have. Regardless of his scary name, let’s hope he gets a run out with the others. We’re as good as qualified if we don’t fuck this up, but that doesn’t make me feel any sort of pragmatism for this game. Let’s go wild. Let’s make this a Carling Cup 2008 extravaganza.

Poor old Aaron Ramsey though… I don’t care how pro you are, knowing this is your life for the next 7 months must be super depressing. Emery definitely pushing him to take the L and get himself sold up in January. Go join Wenger at Bayern.

Superb to see Liverpool lose to PSG. My man Tuchel has PSG players working hard, let’s see how long he can keep up the pretense he’s totally normal. I love his football, it’s so beautiful and thoughtful. But he’s a lunatic.

Last bit of football news. Remember I told you about how poor Gerry Peyton was waaaay back when… and people doubted the veracity. And I probs said, when Wenger goes, you’ll find out how shite things were. Check out this interview from our two exPolish keepers. The full transcript is here.

Szczesny Let me give you an example of a thing when you laugh at first, but then you’re like I’m playing for Arsenal, is this for real? Before the match with Chelsea I hear: Watch out. When Hazard takes his penalties, he will shoot at the opposite side of where you will dive.

Szczesny And that’s funny, but then you’re like did he really just said that?

Fabianski Mentioning penalty analysis he used to said (Garry): listen, he shoots that side or that side, but best go with your feeling.

So, he shoots here and there, but do whatever you want more or less(Fabianski comment on the matter).

Szczesny One time we had a GK debriefing out of nowhere

Fabianski And it was a video debriefing, we have never done video before

Szczesny Not knowing what it will be about we’re going right? And it’s a 4-5 min video of goals that I let past me, but could have done better.

Fabianski It’s only Szczesny goals though

Fab&Szcz They were only Szczesny’s, but there was us and Vito(Vito Mannone) and Emi(Emiliano Martinez), maybe?

Szczesny So, were watching, but we don’t know wtf is going on. It’s just showing errors, he Garry Peyton) is not explaining anything. So the video ends and Garry says: See, you’re not perfect. And that was it. We’re all looking at each other like welp

I can tell you, if you think that’s bad, you wait until you hear about the stories of players Steve Rowley passed on for not being ‘Arsenal quality’, or the horrors of the Tony Colbert fitness regime, or the weird little witch doctor that used to go to the club and advise Wenger about hair pills contributing to the injuries. It was an asylum towards the end. I cannot believe that Bayern is considering him.

BIG UPDATE: I only went and fixed the comment section. You’ll notice I have a privacy policy explaining that I’ll be doing exactly fuck all with your data. Not because I’m a good human, more because your fake e-mails and proxy server IPs are worth fuck all to me.

INSTRUCTIONS: Clear your cache, then you should see a checkbox that says you agree to the terms of the site. Then that checkbox will remain ticked and your comments will autofill with your sassy names, like EmeryLegsAFC139382. Big thanks to Stacey over at Codeable.

Additionally, Le Grove is going advert free. It’s shit for the experience and I just fucking love you so much, I want you to have all the nice things. That said, there’s a £50 a month paywall going up next week, so get your hit of prime content now, because you’ll be dropping me cash money soon.

Talking of content, check out the latest podcast between myself and the excellent Aash. We talk about selling £60m stats good Xhaka. We talk players worth keeping. We shoot the shit about super league, FIFA, football rights and we have a mini love in over some of things we’re enjoying about the Emery ride so far. It’s a good listen. No, it’s a great listen.

SPOTIFY | STITCHER | ITUNES | GOOGLE | POCKET CASTS

283 Comments
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Marko

Wenger never did this, called it being disrespectful to the competition or some such shit.

He’s been disrespecting European competition for years with some of his performances

azed

Jenkinson is actually working for his money after a long vacation period.

TheLegendaryDB10

Marko

He’s been disrespecting European competition for years with some of his performances

Just need to look at our games vs BM. Even after the first heavy defeat, he would, the following season, never change “his tactics” to avoid a similar outcome. 10-3. What a record!

Guns of SF

wish that went in goal off his face

Marc

SF

Why the anger towards Jenkinson?

PieAFC

Finally watching the youngsters come in a do a job, being excited about the team.

They should all be proud tonight. Fair play to the club, some will make it, some won’t. But a professional performance tonight.

Kudos to Unai.

Pierre

Bob
“Seriously impressed withh Eddie’s hold up play. Hope we get to see a couple of other teenagers to make their debut.”

Eddie looks the part ..willock is the other one who has impressed .

mysticleaves

Oh my. I actually totally forgot we had a game today. This hasn’t happened before…😐😐😐 will probably make do with highlights later

TheLegendaryDB10

mysticleaves

tut tut … how could you?

😉

Guns of SF

not jenks but willock i think it was

Marc

Good solid performance by the kids – well done.

Danny

Well done lads!
9 english players played.
18 without losing? Must be heading towards some record.

TheLegendaryDB10

Well done kids! And a clean sheet! Well done The Arsenal.

ESR particularly looks promising. Like Guen, they both still have a lot to learn.

Marc

SF

Sorry mate the stream I was watching on had a delay, your comment timed with the block by Jenkinson – couldn’t see what you meant. Couple minutes later I caught up.

Nelson

Medley has potential. He is quite good handling the ball. He deserves a start next cup game.

Marc

Danny

For fuck sake – do you really want to jinx our next match when it’s against the Spuds?

Pierre

Emery with his disciplined approach should be an asset for these kids coming through ….
Good mixture of players…medley looks a prospect at the back ..very comfortable on the ball ,hopefully he will get a start in the last group game.

TheLegendaryDB10

Marc

I am sure that Unai is fully aware that this is our derby. Really looking forward to it. Spoke to a Spud co-worker and he reckons it could be a draw. Not sure whether he was being honest on that one, though.

TheLegendaryDB10

I should add.. I seriously hope we beat these wankers.

Marc

DB10

Local derbies tend to even the odds. A win would be epic but if was a draw I wouldn’t be shocked.

Marc

DB10

To add – if we could get 4 points from out next 2 matches that would really be fantastic.

Paulinho

Medley was on song tonight.

TheLegendaryDB10

Marc

I know what you mean. As I told him, everything always seems to go out of the window in terms of football. It really is a strange game to watch if you know what I mean.

Danny S

Makes me sad to think how much ground we have lost in the last 10 years.
Imagine how we would have done with a Chelsea like transfer setup and actually making money on players we sell and not spy king huge wages on total averageness.

We could be at Liverpool levels of spending now or even better.

Pierre

Marko
“Nah I wouldn’t give him any credit for any of the players towards the end there. Obviously because he was fucking useless at improving any of them”

You already have given him credit which is also a credit to you for showing intelligence in realising that our former manager(who you often say ,ran the club from top to bottom) left the club with a bunch of talented kids who, with Emery’s hard work ,look like they may have the quality to succeed..

mysticleaves

Lol, no explanation. Great outing for the boys though. Willock scored I hear…how was his overall game? anyone?

Pierre

Willock was very good …his game has gone up a level since he played in this competition last season..

Nelson

All our young guys are good with the ball but sometimes tend to hang on to the ball a bit too long. I wonder how MC trains their academic players. Their players think about pass first.

Graham62

Very solid and disciplined performance.

Well done to all the youngsters.

Great to see, even towards the end of the game, all the players remaining focused.

Marko

that our former manager(who you often say ,ran the club from top to bottom) left the club with a bunch of talented kids who Not sure if you can give him any credit for any of the lads tonight. I would say he ran the club from top to bottom from the perspective of the first team I mean if he was reportedly doing a poor job of training the senior team it stands to reason he wouldn’t have the time to poorly train/teach the younger lads. Takes a real prick to try and give any sort of credit to… Read more »

Graham62

At least these kids stand a chance of progressing under Emery.

Graham62

That team tonight was an Emery team, not a Wenger team.

Disciplined, structured, compact, motivated, committed, composed and genuinely focused.

Everything that Wenger’s teams were not.

Jaffa

I really enjoyed watching the game tonight. The academy youngsters did really well and showed some good stuff. It’s nice to get a chance to watch them. COYG!!

Dissenter

Pierre can’t bring himself to admit that the club is now better run since the last manager left.
From top top bottom, we are beginning to resemble a proper football club.

Dissenter

I’ve just read that it was -10 degree Celsius [14 degree Fahrenheit] at kick off.

That was one hell of a professional performance.

Graham62

Really enjoyed today on le-grove.

All the Wenger talk, culminating in the positives of tonights performance.

Great stuff.

Graham62

Actually feel quite positive about Sunday.

Come on the Emirates, get ready to crank it up.

Pierre

Marko
“Takes a real prick to try and give any sort of credit to Wenger now ”

Don’t be so hard on yourself ..yes you did give him credit earlier(without realising it) but that doesn’t make you a prick.

Jamie

Great performance tonight.

Most of us have been desperate for as many under 23s as possible to get minutes together on the pitch to see what they can do against a senior side.

Loved every minute.

Danny

Marc
November 29, 2018 19:54:42
—————————–
Chill mate, I expect us to beat The Scum, no sweat.

Northbanker

Great the tech problem is solved – marks end of a great night

Northbanker

Actually think Willock would make a really good DM
What’s promising is how assured in touch all of our youngsters looked
Obviously they won’t get the time they had tonight in the typical EPL match but still a great sign
Emery must be drooling at these prospects for his future first team
The restricted budget might not be as problematic as some think

LeMassiveCoq

Kids great – ESR will be a 1st team player next season.

Love Guendouzi, so composed. One mistake late in the game which better opp might of punished but the little Sideshow Bob is still learning his trade.

Ramsey? loooolooolol. Found his level. Still not our best player either.

COYG for Sunday! We will need to bring the A game.

TT

Good result to night and what difference it makes when a team presses the opposition when it has the ball. Looking forward to Sunday, not because I think we win but because I haven’t a fucking clue how it will go. If the gazbag was still at the club I could have bet the house that we loose.

McBright is Wright

Weldone Un9 Emery…you’re indeed living up to your name: Emery-the shining material

David Smith

The kids are akright

David Smith

The latter day wenger would, with the aid of his backroom staff, ruin every single one of these kids
Lucky to have Unai

azed

This was our first win in Ukraine. We had drawn one and lost four there.

Guernsey gun

Test

TheLegendaryDB10

It feels so good to have the club back …. and this blog!

Pedro, you are the master of adverstising!

Marc

Danny

Well I hope you are right because a Spud win is a fate worse than a fate worse than death. A losing result squares against pi times by the angle of the dangle which basically means that I have to drink far more to drown the scum out.

I’ll be sending you the bill if we don’t’ win!

Pierre

Dissenter
“Pierre can’t bring himself to admit that the club is now better run since the last manager left.”

Of course the club is now better run ….

we now have specialised people doing specific jobs so that goes without saying….

pity kronke wasn’t strong enough to delegate the jobs previously and leave the manager to manage the team.

Pierre

Why the negativity for the spurs game…

They have beaten us only once in the last 24 games in all competitions at the Emirates and Highbury…

Leedsgunner

It’s only one game but hey I have to say I’m excited. I’ve been looking forward to our current intake of youngsters making the step up to the first team — and they’ve sone really well tonight. Congrats to Per, Freddie and the other youth coaches involved in bringing this bunch through. Up to now, ESR and Nketiah has been attracting attention but I’ve known for a while that Joe W.illock was a special talent too. Man of the Match huh? Not too shabby. It’s just a first step but if we cand evelop these kids alongside established professionals, we… Read more »

Leedsgunner

*can develop

Pierre

Correction 1 in 28 games

TheLegendaryDB10

I hope some first team players have watched the game tonight (which I am sure most would have, right?) and seen that their are some hungry kids out there ready to take their place.

Leedsgunner

Surely Elneny can be sold with youngsters like W.illock and AMN following on?

TheLegendaryDB10

Leeds

Surely? The guy is gone. He can kiss the logo goodbye.

Leedsgunner

LDB10

Last week there were rumours that Leicester was looking at him and willing to pay £15m… although after tonight they might be having second thoughts.

TheLegendaryDB10

Are you surprised? 🙂

Ddkingz

What a great game…..
#UnaiEmeryEffect..

Would have list this game, had it been wenger in the dugout coaching today’s match…

Ddkingz

Lost

Dissenter

Pedro
You’re admiring your work , eh?

Emiratesstroller

Impressive result today by our youngsters albeit against a very poor team. All the six players from our U23 squad despite their lack of experience played exceptionally well. I would highlight in particular the performances of Willock and Smith-Rowe. I would have no qualms in playing either of these two players in the first team, although I think that it would be best for them to come off bench for 20-30 minutes rather than play 90 minutes. What I saw tonight is that Arsenal have on their books a number of youngsters good enough to play in the lesser Cup… Read more »

TonyD

Good to read about our youth potential. Let’s hope they continue to develop and be the answer to our sustainability model.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-6444453/Arsenal-young-guns-centre-stage-Europa-League-victory-Vorskla-they.html

TonyD

Hope Sol Campbell does well at Macclesfield, loved him as a player .

At least Sol is happy to try to earn his stripes at a lower level club in trouble unlike Arteta even though Sol achieved more in the game than Arteta could ever have dream ed of doing.

Tough ask, though.

Dark Hei

TonyD

Errr no.

Arteta has achieved more in management than Sol Campbell.

Not as if Sol Campbell didn’t try. He just tanked.

Dark Hei

Pierre

It might be Stan’s fault. But I don’t blame him.

Why put time and money in an investment where you don’t get 100% of the profits.

Now that Usmanov is gone, we have suddenly a new way of doing things.

In hindsight, I think Stan deliberately allowed Wenger to crash.

TonyD

Dark Hei
Arteta being a manager?

To my recollection Arteta has just been one of Peps many assistants.

Actually I was referring to Campbell’s footballing and international achievements, you might have been to young to know about.

How many times did Arteta play for Spain? Club trophy winning medals?

Cheers

Dissenter

Testing

Countryboy

Test

Samesong

Sol I hope he does well but his opening speech about he was one the best players in the world bla bla bla, won’t cut when it comes to management.

Graham62

Pierre

The ultimate wind-up-merchant.

“pity Kroenke wasn’t strong enough to delegate the jobs previously and leave the manager to manage the team”

Omg!!!!………lol!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry mate, but can’t take you seriously.

You’re only embarrassing yourself.

Alone + Easy Target

Haven’t watch the match yet but it’s good that we can ease in our youths with no pressure knowing that we are shoo in qualified already.

The first XI will be up and ready for the derby and there are no complaints about hectic schedule or something like that when you can look ahead and manage it properly.

I guess I’ll go and watch the highlights now so that I can go through minute by minute with my abyss-like in-depth analysis of the match.

Pierre

Will be interesting to see which of the young players(if any ) go on to become regular fixtures in the Arsenal team. Iwobi..22 AMN…21 Willock..20 Guendouzi..19 Nketiah…19 Smith-rowe…18 Nelson…18 Medley…18 Mavropanos…20 That’s quite a large group of talented players that could save Arsenal a fortune . 3 of the most successful periods of Arsenal’s history pre wenger, during my lifetime ,the Promotion of youth players to the first team have proved beneficial to the club . In the late 60’s early 70’see had Charlie George, Ray Kennedy ,Pat Rice, Eddie Kelly In the late 70’s we had…Liam Brady, Graham Rix,… Read more »

Pierre

Graham

Not wishing to go down that boring road again ……let’s try and keep to the present shall we…

Little Mozart

Testing

HighburyLegend

Well done Young Gunners!!

lol Ramsey not so useless after all.

Jamie

Pierre calls Highbury Legend ‘Led End’, Pochettino ‘Potlesstino’ (or something similar), thinks chances created stats are the only metrics by which an attacking mid should be judged, all the while wanting us to think he was watching footie in the 60s.

Absolute plonker.

HighburyLegend

I’ve stop counting the number of times he has used it…
But if he find it’s funny, he should persevere.

Dissenter

Pierre shouldn’t be taken seriously. I saw the answer he game to my remark yesterday. ” “pity Kroenke wasn’t strong enough to delegate the jobs previously and leave the manager to manage the team” Guess who was insisting in having near absolute control? Wenger: “No, director of football, I don’t know what it means,” …. “Is it someone who stands on the road and directs the players left and right?.. I never understand what it means, director of footballI’m manager of Arsenal and as long as I am manager, I will decide what happens on the technical front,” he added.… Read more »