LA Rams electric success and the power of a guiding philosophy (long read)

by .

The pent up desire of some American’s to lambast an Englishman for daring to speak of NFL is one of the most amusing things I’ve seen online all year. It’s like 15 years of being called shit fans by Brexit Twitter has had an impact on them. I can’t tolerate the steady stream of nonsense from people telling me the LA Rams and Arsenal aren’t comparable. If you’re saying that, you aren’t paying attention to a sport you’re trying to claim a knowledge advantage on, so now I am about to school you in with a touchgoal of a post.

My central argument is that the LA Rams has embarked on an innovative strategy to capture the imagination of a city that has plenty of elite pass times. This from the WaPo:

Anywhere else in America, an undefeated NFL team beating teams by 15 points on average would be a dominant civic force. Here, it is different. The Dodgers are in the World Series, LeBron James is on the Lakers, and the box office totals come out every week. All the Rams do is win. But are they winning over Los Angeles?

The output of the strategy is to dazzle. The anxiety driving that approach is that no one will buy a shitty product in LA. Stan has to entertain to make his investment work. Money is on the line.

The Rams were shite in St. Louis. I have worked extensively in that city, listened to cab drivers bemoan his drab leadership, and actually worked with business people who tried to keep the franchise in the city.

When Stan moved them to LA, betraying his hometown, his team went on the record stating they needed an excellent product, because LA folk wouldn’t tolerate substandard sport. Stan had this to say:

Our goal always has been to create an exciting and long-term solution for the NFL, our 31 partners and Los Angeles football fans.

The LA Rams guiding philosophy comes from the very top and drips down into management team, I believe they call it trickle down guiding philosophy, and it works. This is their VP of Operations, Kevin Demoff.

This is actually getting to how you build a fan base brick-by-brick, fan-by-fan, and get people to understand what the Rams are

It is a very crowded landscape we once had a lofty perch in. It’s going to take time to get back to that lofty perch. The way you do it, you play exciting football. You have players who people not only recognize but they like and understand. You have a coach who brings an exciting style of play.

This sort of approach is what I called for in the summer. It’s a business winning idea, especially if like Stan, you consider sport a content game. It’s why Madrid and Barcelona invest so much on the pitch, because the rewards that come back from commercial deals rocket if you’re appealing to a global audience. The below piece in Forbes by Dr. Rishe of the Washington Business school drills into what he calls the hearts and mind strategy the new franchise is adopting.

Well, when the on-field product is abysmally boring and unimaginative, who among us as consumers of sport want to “belong” to a losing brand?  Nor do we want to “identify” with a losing brand.  Nor do we feel enriched from supporting a losing product.

Thus, the transformation of the Rams organization on the field since Sean McVay’s arrival as head coach plays a crucial role in transforming consumer perceptions of the brand.  Now, when we think of Rams football, we think of an electrifying and innovative approach which is both hip and efficient.  And these characteristics not only resonate with just about any consumer, but especially the cherished millennial and Gen Z consumers which most companies covet (due to their higher potential lifetime customer value to the company).

In short, winning the hearts and imaginations of fans helps to reinvent a brand, change consumer perceptions, inspire greater brand loyalty, which ultimately leads to a more premium-priced and profitable product.

Chasing Gen Z and Millenials is all I hear about at work, but in Premier League football’s case, it’s especially pertinent as we have an age issue in the stands with the average age of season ticket holders sitting at around 43! Clubs need to fill the pipelines back up, otherwise, there’s going to be an issue further down the line. Playing incredible football feels like a business necessity heading into an era of sport that will be be more global, mobile, easier to access, and more competitive than ever before.

Creating an incredible experience at Arsenal should have been the goal. The club had 6 months to think about who they wanted to be after the Wenger reboot, but they clearly didn’t have a plan (or it was a bit shit). Nothing screams that the club is united around a vision, or has an idea of how they’re going to make it happen. We don’t even have a CEO, opting for a Houllier/Evans power share.

Our objective is a return to the Champions League, we’ve tried to achieve that by blowing money on experience that’s not good enough. Our strategy was a tactic, with a average vision of how to achieve it. We should have been thinking about the bigger picture, clearly defining how to become exceptional within realistic contraints. Riches should have been the byproduct of succeeding with the said vision.

Arsenal do not look like they know how to be exceptional, and rumblings of Denis Suarez and Ever Banega don’t convince me that’s changing anytime soon.

Below are the actions the Rams took to get themselves into the position they’re in right now.

Key personnel decisions have completely transformed the vibe of the entire organization, including:

  • The hiring of the innovative and energetic Sean McVay;
  • The patience to allow McVay to develop Jared Goff into a successful NFL quarterback;
  • The wisdom of extending standouts Todd Gurley and Aaron Donald to long-term deals;
  • The aggressiveness during the 2018 off-season to add considerable skill and depth on both sides of the ball (specifically on defense)…not to mention the recent acquisition of Dante Fowler Jr. (though his outbursts in the Seattle game almost cost the team severely).  While the defense needs serious refinements and some of the additions have underperformed (Marcus Peters) or not performed due to injury (Aqib Talib), there is still hope that the skill, depth and experience of these veterans will pay dividends in the playoffs.

Collectively, these decisions were strategically shrewd because (1) you could afford to be aggressive financially in the short-term while QB Goff is still under his rookie contract, and (2) you want to create excitement and positive energy about the brand in the build up towards the team’s eventual relocation to the palatial new stadium in Inglewood in 2020.

In short, the Rams rebrand has been accelerated by a series of strategic personnel decisions.  Largely because of the play on the field, the Rams brand is now perceived to be hip, innovative, creative, and explosive.  These winning traits certainly play anywhere, but especially the case in a market like Los Angeles accustomed to supporting dynamic winners.

There’s a guiding principle at the Rams, and because the goal is set at the top, you can build everything around achieving that with the resources you have at your disposal. They have built buzz from top to bottom, they know the sort of coach they needed to hire, they know the type of players, young and old they need to recruit. They know the expectations of how the game needs to be played. They have built something from nothing and there’s a huge buzz around the place.

Arsenal should be replicating this approach. It’s perfect for us. We can’t win with lavish investments. We can win by having an ambitious goal of being the most exciting young football team in Europe, building our entire club around that idea.

Key learnings from the LA Rams:

  • They have a north star: Play scintillating football that captures the hearts and minds of the locals
  • They hire the best thinkers in the game
  • They have been creative with their approach to player trading

The exact same person that runs Arsenal dismally is pulling up trees in LA, doing ALL the things you’d want him to be doing at Arsenal.

Now, in their 3rd season in Los Angeles and 2nd season under Coach McVay’s leadership, the organization is now perceived as an innovative and electrifying team whose executive leadership isn’t afraid to make big moves both on and off the field.

That concluding point is what you want people to be writing of Arsenal. If the perception of your club reads like that, you become an exciting opportunity for young players who want to grow their careers and develop their talent with coaches that can help them. You win new fans because people want to watch you play. You grow commercials because big brands want to be associated with the most exhilarating team on the planet. You attract the best minds in the game who want to express their ideas at a club like London. You open yourselves up to new uses of technology, cutting edge fitness approaches and even science of the mind. Everything gets better because there is a guiding philosophy of excitement that drives the club.

So why can’t we have that?

You. That’s why. This is Stan on London fans.

Obviously London is a comparable stage to Los Angeles, and Arsenal has one of the most passionate and vocal fan bases in sports. So I don’t see that really impacting us.

We’re noisy, he hears us, but he doesn’t care. Why? Because a shitty Arsenal product doesn’t impact him at all.

Adidas still want to give us £60m a year. Rwanda still wants to advertise on our shirts. You still give over £1500+ for your season ticket without question. You will still attend every week, even if you find it boring. Why? Because there is no correlation between your love for Arsenal and how good they are on the pitch. This is a uniquely Premier League thing. Stan cannot lose with Arsenal unless things go really bad, which they won’t under semi-competent leadership. Premier League football is by default a success machine. The money never stops going up. You can disguise average leadership, because all the charts point upwards.

Stan works in the world of real estate. He’ll buy up property in areas where new Walmarts are going to open up, sit back, and play the long game. Same with Arsenal, he doesn’t need to invest any of his own money and the thing hikes in value like nobodies business.

He is succeeding in the NFL because he knew he had to bring new fans through the doors and he had to get people to tune into the matches. He had to do something radical, he had to entertain, and he had to invest in an idea.

Are we investing in a vision like that? What are our bold moves? What are the club doing to put on an incredible show to bring in new fans into the ‘franchise’? Doesn’t seem like a lot. We are making a lot of safe moves to catch up, but how are we using our resource to move ahead?

Arsenal can have everything the Rams have. But there needs to be a desire from the people installed at the club to push the owners for what they need. Or, it needs the people we hired to be fiercely ambitious and hugely competitive. Do we have disruptors in charge, or an easy life crowd? Outside of the excellent hiring of Sven Mislintat, where is the innovation coming from? Can you see who the club is shaping up to be over the next five years? Can you see a style developing on the pitch that you’d want to buy into if you were a young player?

I can’t.

The point of this post is it’s not all doom and gloom.

Stan has shown the world he can think like a proper owner. He’s shown that when he cares about something – because his money is on the line – he can make really exciting decisions and take risks that drive towards something.

Question is, how do we get some of that LA Rams magic to The Arsenal?

Podcast recording TODAY. Let’s all laugh at Spurs. Lololololol

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azed

“I would much rather loan them out at first to test if they have the ability, but we’re in a situation where we have to sell some players, use some kids and make smart purchases.”

This is the way to go. Send them to Germany. As for selling players, there’s Lacazette, Elneny, Kolasinac, and Mustafi that can be sold.

Heck I’ll add Xhaka to the list and hope Sven can get his old club to give us Weigl.

azed

Gambon

Emery has a two year contract with a team option for the 3rd. He’s almost halfway through the contract. I believe this coming summer would be for clearing a lot of the deadwood and bring in new players (Sven earning his money) which leaves Emery with one season to show what he’s made off.

We can’t be in a position were we can only get players on loan and then add paying off a coach to the list of our financial worries.

gambon

azed

We have a lot of money in the summer. We arent broke, we have just spent our budget for the season.

We cant just waste a season.

It feels thats exactly what we’ve done.

We are no further down the road than the day Emery joined. If anything we’re much worse off.

azed

“We have a lot of money in the summer. We arent broke, we have just spent our budget for the season.”

We still have wage problem which I think is the most important thing. We can’t have Mkhitaryan, Ozil and Lacazette on the bench.

bennydevito

Charlie GeorgeJanuary 14, 2019    20:30:20

No other club of stature- would persist with what we are witnessing.
Psg got shot off him- and he won 3/4 last year!

Why should we?

Because we’ve got more class and our board know the extent of the mess Emery has had to work with that not even a DNA engineered clone baby mix of Pep, Klopp, Poch, the 2nd coming of Christ and Father Christmas couldn’t fix within 6 months, that’swhy.

Guns of SF

Gambon
how much you reckon we have in summer?

Charlie George

Bd
Yes all true of yesteday year.

Gazidas choose Emery
Gazidas has gone.

The board did not choose him. If they did.
I would them to back their man.

We are in this uniquely absurd position:

Where the only person in the world who wanted Emery to be the Arsenal manager
Ivan Gazidas- left weeks after the appointment.

Thus this appointment is clearly unsustainable in any world class organisation.

My question is- who sacks Emery?

Cesc Appeal

Gambon I completely agree. You also have the chance to build a young and athletic team that the manager can mould because there are no bad habits and no egos. I just hope the new lot have the urgency to make these difficult moves. Just hit the reset. If Arsenal fans can see real change and movement everyone apart from the pro-Wenger fans will be behind it. Not to mention if you’ve got a team with Nelson, Smith Rowe and Saka doing well you start to get the media love and general good feeling from the EPL set up for… Read more »

bennydevito

Why are people saying we should sell Lacazette, I don’t get it? You need 2 top class strikers in any successful squad, us Aubameyang isn’t that good on his own, misses far too many chances and plays much better with Lacazette in the side.

Really odd thinking imo.

Welbeck, Kos, Monreal, Lich, Win any and Ozil need shot of but we should keep Lacazette for sure.

bennydevito

Fuck me I’m going to smash my phone up. Elneny ffs!

Charlie George

Bd
If Gazidas stayed. Then Emery deserves more time.
Now ,Gazidas has gone. He does not warrant a further day
The longer he stays- the more bad decisions will take place.
E.g. suaraz/banega types

bennydevito

Charlie George,

That’s a really good point regarding Emery’s appointment being down to Gazidas then he fucks off. Really good point.

Hmmm. I guess the DOF team or the new Chief executive will be the one sacking him in the summer if need be?

gambon

“Why are people saying we should sell Lacazette, I don’t get it? ” Benny Because he is the most expensive back up player in world football. It makes no sense. They cant play together, and in our position we cant have a £60m player on £170k pw sitting on the bench, when we need a £60m attacking midfielder in the first team. None of our rivals have such a high profile backup striker. I would rather have someone like Nicolas Pepe in the team. He can cover as a striker when Auba is rested or injured, but also contribute week… Read more »

azed

“Why are people saying we should sell Lacazette,”

He’s the only player people would actually pay good money for.

Charlie George

Bd.
Also annoited by the discredited Gazidas.

They all have to go.

Hence, imperative to get An experienced British football man at the tiller.

E.g.. 74 year Mr. DEIN.

Cesc Appeal

‘Welbeck, Kos, Monreal, Lich, Win any and Ozil need shot of but we should keep Lacazette for sure.’ Welbeck is going on a free, Kozz is going on a free, Lichtsteiner is going on a free, Monreal you won’t get anything for and Ozil we will have to give away to get rid of. Elneny might get you £10-15 Million. After that you’re making difficult choices. Now consider you need a CB or maybe 2, you need a RB to challenge Bellerin, you need a LB to improve on Kolasinac, you need to either hope Guendouzi comes on leaps in… Read more »

bennydevito

gambon,

When you put it like that I see what you’re saying. Makes sense then to shift him and Ozil on in the summer, along with the rest of the shit.

How much do you reckon we can recoup in transfer fees and wages if we get rid of who you think should go?

bennydevito

Cesc,

You’ve sold me. Lacazette goes.

Pierre

” For example selling Iwobi and Mykhitaryan, and replacing with Nelson and Saka would release maybe £40m to spend on other areas without reducing squad size. Selling Elneny and replacing with Willock would release £10-15m without reducing squad size.” I can see the reasoning in that… If we do drop out of contention for top 4 , it would be the perfect time to blood a few of the young ones, see what they are made of ….personally ,I think we have some real talent there , it remains to be seen how good . The fans would be much… Read more »

gambon

Guns of SF In terms of transfer budget, it really depends on how we handle the wage bill. Our wage bill is way way way too high for our revenue this season. For 15 years we have paid about 50-55% of our revenue, this season it will be about 65%, or £30m too much. Next season our revenues grown even without CL football to £440m or so, and £460-470m with CL football, so we can afford that wage bill, but its still being spent very badly. If we can get a grip on it, offload overpaid players, we could spend… Read more »

Cesc Appeal

The thing is even if you managed to sell Mkhitaryan for £10 Million and gave Ozil away you’d be up £9 Million a year on Mkhitaryan’s wages and £17 Million a year on Ozil’s.

So your suddenly missing £26 Million in costs that is now available money and you’d have got £10 Million from Mkhitaryan, you factor in selling Elneny for £10-15 Million and your basically at your Havertz type young CAM buy with a minimal spend having only raised £20 Million in actual player sales.

gambon

benny

I should say, I think Lacazette is our second best player. I just think he plays the same position as our best.

It would be like having Alisson and DeGea. Great position to be in, but common sense is to sell one.

Batistuta

You can see Pedro and his agenda towards Emery from a mile away.

There’s a reason why Arsenal fans are said to be the most deluded in the country and one only needs to see the comments from gunners online to see why.

If i were Emery, I’d pack my bags up on the 31st if no new signings(loans or whatever) came in to help out in the final stretch of the season

Charlie George

Bat

So 6 new signings equating to 70 mill aint enough for him, then?
Crikey- he is supposed to make the current crop greater than the sum of it’s parts.

That was the only reason Gazidas appointed him for
Not to go on a shopping spree and wreck the gaffe!

gambon

benny In terms of potential sales (and guessing wages) GK Cech (£100k per week) Ospina £3m (no wages cos hes on loan) Martinez £3m (£40k per week) Macey £2m (no wages) DEF Lichsteiner (£80k per week) Koscielny £5m (£100k per week) Monreal £5m (£70k per week) Jenkinson £0 (£40k per week) Chambers £15m (no wages) MID Elneny £15m (£60k per week) Ramsey £0 (£100k per week) Ozil £10m (£350k per week) Mykhitaryan £15m (£200k per week) ST Lacazette £60m (£170k per wek) Welbeck £0 (£80k per week) None of these guys are really first XI players, which would allow us… Read more »

Cesc Appeal

That might be why there’s all those rumours we are scouting Moraes of Brugge. A young ST who will be happy to be Aubameyang’s back up for a season.

gambon

I do think that Mustafi will go also though.

He s down to 2 years left in the summer, and the club surely wont be keen to extend. Add £20m to the above, and another £100k pw off the wages.

So that could be £150m and £1.5m pw off the wage bill.

All that said, it may take Raul all summer just to deal with Ozil and Mykhitaryan, so im not hopeful about how well we will do with sales.

gambon

Even absolutely worst case scenario, we should lose the following: Cech £100k per week Lichsteiner £80k per week Jenkinson £40k per week Ramsey £100k per week Welbeck £80k per week So thats enough for 4 very good players to come into the first team. Its just a question of do we have the time, manpower and ruthlessness to really clear out the squad. Even with the significant changes I listed above, we would still have: Leno Bellerin Sokratis Holding Mavropanos Kolasinac Xhaka Torrieira Guendouzi Iwobi Aubameyang Plus young talents: Medley Willock SmithRowe Nelson Saka Amaechi Nketiah So thats 18 players… Read more »

Charlie George

Cesc..

Elneny might get you £10-15 Million.?

This rabble can’t even get a penny for samchez/Ramsey/ welbeck.

If any clubs pays hard cash for this player. We would have won the euro lottery.

He is utter garbage.

Raul is clueless.. we have seen enough of his dealings within a year .

His schooling is at Barcelona.
Different kettle of fish here.
He is getting exposed on a monthly basis here.

Dissenter

Charlie George ‘
What will it take for you to just slow down for enough time to think your posts through.
Raul just came into the club in February when all these mistakes were already set in stone. He couldn’t have had full authority to deal with the Ramsey deal until Gazidis left the building.
Give these people a chance. A few hours you were asking for David Dein to come back, a 75 year old man to come and rescue us.
The things you say will be laughable if it wasn’t so boring.

bennydevito

gambon,

Thanks for that. So with a bit of ruthless clearing out over the summer things could be quite good all in all.

Interesting.

Then it’s the question of whether or not we want Emery to be the man to take those resources forward. I think we’ll know in 3 pram league games time.

bennydevito

*prem not pram ffs!

Pierre

It’s quite sweet the way guns of sf, Cesc Appeal, Bennydevito and Azed hang on Gambon’s every word as though he is the Oracle and has this amazing knowledge of Arsenal’s transfer policy.

Upstate Gooner

A little late to the party but I want to add my 2 cents to the post/conversation. I live in US since 1991 and am a huge Buffalo Bills fan. So I’ve been following NFL and the Bills for 28 years now, whereas Arsenal only came into the picture in the summer of 1998. Personally, I think that comparing the 2 sports is a bit of stretch. In the NFL there’s no promotion, relegation, CL/EL money, huge sponsorships, etc… NFL also has something call DRAFTS. So if the team sucks, it’s not gonna get dropped into a lower competition next… Read more »

bennydevito

Pedro, In all honesty if I was Emery and I truly thought he was a passenger not up to the challenge I would play him in every game so the fans and board can see for themselves whether he’s good enough or not. If he tanks then the fans will let him know about it in the ground and on social media and he’ll want to go himself I should imagine. If he makes a good fist of it and becomes a pivotal member of the team then brilliant, we’ve got a WC midfielder saving us the need to buy… Read more »

Cesc Appeal

Pedro

He doesn’t care about playing. It’s going to be really tricky to get rid of him.

I’ve always thought it will end up with him at some shit club on loan with us paying half his wages.

It would still be a £8.5 Million a year expense for noting but that’s better than a £17 Million a year expense for nothing.

gambon

Upstate

I used to be a huge Bills fan.

Lost interest in NFL after the Kelly, Reed, Thomas team broke up.

The comeback is still one of my greatest sporting memories.

gambon

Pedro

Emirates new deal is £12m extra

800 new club level seats are c£4m

New TV deal incoming.

bennydevito

Pierre, Lol! I don’t hang on gambon’s every word, I just know him from the beginning of LeGrove as we’ve been around since the start and you’d know that at the beginning we didn’t actually like each other and had some hefty debates. gambon’s toned it down immeasurably since then and 9 times out of 10 is bang on with what he’s talking about and has always been pretty clued up with the financials especially. I just knew it would be easier and quicker for me and other readers to ask him to do some quick figures with what we… Read more »

englandsbest

upstate gooner

Your post was late but well worth waiting for. Anybody who believes Kroenke is going to shell-out or sell out is dumb as they come.

Equally dumb is anyone (like me) who thinks that fans will do what’s necessary to get rid of him.

Our best hope is that he gets into such a money mess with LA Rams that he forced to sell the Club (I mean Arsenal not the Rams)

Pierre

Bennydevito
He is very good at coming up with figures but this transfer lark I find a bit tedious….I do get that fans like discussing all the financial aspects but there is only so much that can be said before it just becomes monotonous, especially as you could be discussing the stupidity of Emery’s stance regarding Mesut Ozil …

Barking Arsene

Need to hawk Özil around to clubs in Turkey – only 15% tax on footballers earnings so covering his salary wouldn’t be such an issue. Plus he might be tempted by an Istanbul based club (there are a few to choose from now).

Either that or we just offer him a lifetimes supply of V Bucks for Fortnite and send him on his way…….

Charlie George

Ozil aint going nowhere
(He is a better bet than Iwobi.)
Play him,perhaps! Involve him- invite him off the bench ,perhaps.!
Don’t alienate- assimilate, perhaps.!
Keep it simple.

(But, then again We have Emery)

Charlie George

Disenter
Raul had his hands all over last Jan transfer dealings . Regardless of his official starting date of Feb.

If u don’t believe that. You are showing your naivety..

Redtruth

Wenger’s left Emery with a lot of baggage .
First and foremost are shit players

rollen1

Good work Pedro.

Only way to make Stan invest is for fans to demand better but it will be hard task as football fans support the teams through thick and thin.
He will make money on Arsenal even if we are bottom half of the PL.

Sancho Monzorla

Arsenal picked the wrong German Turk. Should have been Gundogan. For fucks sake we keep choosing the wrong foreigner. Elneny/Salah. Park/Son. Honda and Kagawa/Miyaichi and Asano. I think the last Brazilian we had was Andres Santos, correct me if I’m wrong while I choke with disbelief.

Guns of SF

Whats up with El Neny? Posted some cryptic farewell type message today… is he gone? hmmm

grooveydaddy

Sancho M

Gabriel* (last Brazilian)

grooveydaddy

Pedro, and everyone else

Wouldn’t we make up the biggest chunk of that lost CL money by going deep in the EL?

I think we made more money as Europa semifinalists than United did getting to the CL knockouts.

Even if United’s cut was a bit lower as a result of qualifying via Europa league rather than league placing, our take from Europa league was only like £10 million less what Tottenham took home from the CL.

Freddie Ljungberg

Saw that too Guns, very promising, hopefully we can shift him and get 10-15m.

We really have to start shifting peripheral players now to free up the wage bill. And yes, Ozil is included in that.

Guns of SF

I think what most of us on here agree upon- low and behold is Correcting these over inflated contracts and wages! Gambon said more than half our revenue goes to player wages. With some shitty ones to boot. We clear out players and their wages and we start with a clean slate. Its already in the works. Look at last summer. For those crying that Emery this and that… the team is going backwards etc- I think we are moving forward Anyhow, good luck to El Neny… a nice guy like Rambo who just never made the cut. Nothing bad… Read more »

Guns of SF

Groovedadddy
I do recall that as well being written. I think its a good thing we are in the knock out phases of the EL…. im sure we can go fairly deep if we can avoid the inters and napolis etc.

Charlie George

Sf
How about cutting the flabby admin/decision making departments ( that seem to be growing by the month?- Edu coming too?)

I go to watch the players on the pitch.
And I do not really care what they earn

Stan is a billionaire.. send him the invoice.

Guns of SF

CG
We need to care about salaries as it hampers our ability to get our squad set with good players- not overpriced ones that are too hard to sell- ex Ozil

Charlie George

Sf
Why do we want to sell em?
We want play them. We want them to help us to win football matches.
Buy, sell, buy ,sell…..

This MODERN obsession of always assuming new players are always going to be better than the ones already establish led is very strange.

Emery should earn his crust and coach and motivate the players at his disposal.
And If he is unable. He should be replaced – by someone who is able.

Guns of SF

CG,
We dont sell for the sake of selling- if we are winning, we keep but have to always be ready to add to the team and rid of player who are not making the cut… there is always going to be turnover. We just dont want to sell for a loss like we have constantly.

Dark Hei

Guns of SF Is Elneny really of no value as a squad player? He seems to fit Emery. Hardworking and willing to take instructions. Decent technique and probably able to press the opposition all day all night. He is still far better than Joe Willock and Emil Smith Rowe. His wages are also not an issue. He is already adjusted to the English league and would be better than any filler CM we can get as a replacement. With only 3 first team CMs (lets be real, Ramsey is played as a winger and Ozil is played as a twitter… Read more »

Charlie George

Page1 in football management

Only buy players or (coaches)- who are better than the ones you have already got.

This mob do not adhere to this basic premise.
And that is why we are in such a mess.

U get rid of ramsey/Ozil/ welbeck-that’s fine BUT u better replace them with some one better- or u will go backwards.

I would not trust these Spanish cowboys to replace my window wipers.!

China1

I’d give emery a B- for his first half of the season

-Some improvements from a handful of players
-The unbeaten run was enjoyable and impressive
-He has shown a willingness to make changes and try to adapt rather than be set in his ways

-Not as impressive as we’d like
-Room for more progress with existing players
– some dubious decision making at times
– hasn’t managed to motivate Mr unmotivated

Meanwhile, it’s a little hard to nudge 100% because it’s only January and he has a shit squad with no money. Above is my preliminary feelings tho

gonsterous

I don’t really see what we can gain by sacking emery right now. If the objective was top 4 this season, he’s still very much on course to achieve it. We still need reinforcements though. Get suarez or yussof ait benassor and carasco and push on in the second half of the season. what I do want to see is, the youngsters get a lot more playing time in the first team than they have been getting. ESR and saka and nketiah should feature a lot more. Hopefully they can inject some directness in the squad when the senior players… Read more »

Tony

A lot of good posts from people yesterday/last night pretty much has summed up what I was thinking of posting this morning {Thai time}. Gambon & CA If we can get rid of the players mentioned, we should have a reasonable transfer fund available. It’s good to read your figure and player projections. I would also sell Laca in our current financial predicament. Problem is who will buy our dross at the inflated wages they are on, and will the dross accept moving from their comfortable positions? Recently I’ve been advocating Emery using youth because recycling the likes of Ozil,… Read more »

Receding Hairline

Actually surprised Emery hasn’t found better ways to use Elneny, he is not a bad footballer by any stretch, some on here talk about him like he is a fraud but his give and go football would have suited Emery in my opinion, he is very good at keeping things ticking and always makes himself available for the next pass

Some players have had more go’s at it than others and that’s part of the problem i guess

Pierre

Tony
You You should stick to doing your very good impression of Judith Chalmers on “wish you were here ” as you make much more sense talking about holiday vacations than you ever will talking about football.

Pierre

Gonsterous
“I don’t really see what we can gain by sacking emery right now”

They were saying exactly the same thing in Manchester about Jose a few weeks back and now look at them .

Freddie Ljungberg

Don’t understand why we’re not moving Ramsey on this window, we’re apparently asking for 18-20m from Juve to let him go in January, stop fucking about and get 10m in so we can put that towards someone that can actually contribute, doubt Ramsey is going to break a sweat if he stays.

Add Elneny to that and we have enough to at least bring 1 player in on top of a loan or 2.

Pierre

RH
Very true regarding Elneny…a very reliable but limited player who could also have done a decent job at the back recently instead of playing xhaka in defence.

Graham62

Good morning Tony

You are 100% correct.

Our transition is pathetic. Auba and Lacazette thrive on a faster tempo, anyone can see that. It’s not fudging rocket science!

Emery’s stubbornness will go against him if he continues to pursue this “slow tempo” approach.

Similar to yourself, I have many doubts about Emery’s methods and philosophies and have found myself shaking my head in disbelief in recent weeks at his inability to solve even the most basic of problems.

Onwards, upwards, sideways and backwards.

Pierre

Charlie George
“Emery should earn his crust and coach and motivate the players at his disposal.
And If he is unable. He should be replaced – by someone who is able.”

Spot on .

Pierre

Graham
Don’t encourage Tony..

He has never had an original thought in his head regarding football tactics and formations but ask him about holiday destinations and he’s an absolute f***ing know all.

Freddie Ljungberg

Graham62

How is he going to change the slow tempo approach when our only fast player is Auba and the point is getting him the ball? Bellerin is quick too but has been injured. Our only other fast players are untested youths like Saka.

You can’t coach abilities into players that they don’t have, you’re not going to teach a 28 yo player how to dribble or make him faster, what you can do is improve what they have, not sure even that is possible with our pathetic squad.

Redtruth

Charlie George
“Emery should earn his crust and coach and motivate the players at his disposal.
And If he is unable. He should be replaced – by someone who is able.”

He’s a coach not a magician.

Pierre

Graham
I see your (and mine ) favourite Lacazette is being touted as the next to go ….I did actually say well before Christmas that the writing may be on the wall for him , let’s hope he stays.

Graham62

Pierre

Ignorant and disrespectful.

Freddie Ljungberg

Not only are they slow but none of them can dribble effectively or are decisive in their passing, the only decent final ball deliverers we have are Mikhi andOzil and they’re so inconsistent it’s not even funny even when they manage to play.

Redtruth

Emery probably doesn’t like Lacazette’s attitude.
We know Ozil has attitude.
It’s good Emery is clearing out the trouble makers.

Frost

Hope we shift Elneny before this week runs out.. Waste of space, that one.

Pierre

Graham
Ignorant and disrespectful……do me a favour

Obviously you choose to ignore tony’s sly little digs at me in nearly every comment that he posts…….water off a ducks back to me .

Leedsgunner

All the positives that we saw in our 22 match unbeaten run seems to have been thrown out in panic. Where’s the press, the urgency to eke out a result and willingness to play for each other?

Leaving out Özil for a game or two to stamp your authority is fair enough but the fact that he is not being played and a saga is developing is worrisome. It makes it appear that he doesn’t know what to do with Özil and how to get the best out of him.

Leedsgunner

If Emery was clear in his mind that he didn’t want Özil he should have gotten him out as soon as this window opened and had a replacement ready targeted. Raul is one of the most well connected football men in the world, with his contacts there’s should have been a concerted effort to move him on. I personally would have hoped that our new head coach would’ve been able to turn around Özil and get the best out of him rather than just throw a white flag up but I’m disappointed that we seem to be REACTING to events… Read more »

Tony

Graham62
Good afternoon

No idea what Emery is thinking but he has to improve his current plan and stick to it.

I thought the full Valentin post yesterday was interesting regarding Emery.

Apparantly you’re right it’s not rocket science, according to Pierre all we have to do is beat Man City and Chelsea to solve the problem.

I assume Pierre will post his tactical playing blue print to achive that target and how to make Ozil effective in every game.

Can’t wait to see his team selections.

Receding Hairline

They were saying exactly the same thing in Manchester about Jose a few weeks back and now look at them .

Yea..we are in an identical situation as Manchester United

We have spent 300m bringing in the players the manager specifically asked for including a world record transfer for a midfielder he specifically asked for and then refused to use.

Our manager has been here for two and a half seasons and we are getting worse

The scenario is so identical it’s spooky

Leftsidesanch

new post

bennydevito

Well said Receding hairline, Well said. Pierre really is a special kind of stupid. So clearly obvious he’s still butt hurt by Wenger’s sacking.

Charlie George

Firstly ,I like to thank the author ( pedro) for his contribution and his diligence with the blog. Terrific effort. I Find it so strange- that the German scout- who obviously has a reputation for finding young players has somehow landed himself such a lofty position at Arsenal? How comes? What actual credentials has he got? Since he has been here – 3 ex Dortmnd players have arrived. All of them 30 years old. We have lost money on them already.! Is he Dortmund Eye or Diamond Eye? HE has already proved- that He should just stick to the scouting.… Read more »

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