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
It’s a squad that was improved by £70m, and had a new coach and 5 of his hires added in. It’s not that shit. It should be better. A good coach would have us improving.
It’s not that shit yet we struggle to move them on..gotcha
Unai Emery is a bad coach…conclusion reached after six months and belittling all he has achieved in the game, great commentary
Un, one more reference to someone’s nationality and you’ll go in the sin bin
“The pent up desire of some Americans to lambast an Englishman for daring to speak of the NFL is one of the most amusing things I’ve seen on line all year” -This must be that famous English banter the English admonish the Americans with when the English arrogantly tell American fans of Arsenal to “stick with netball, stickball, etc.” …..”you yanks and that yank cunt Kroenke can fuck right off and stay away from “our” Arsenal…. -That you are “amused” by some imaginary on line “lambasting” is the height of English hubris: the English shriek that English football is tribal… Read more »
What foreign coach has done better on a budget than Chris Hughton, Eddie Howe .They deserve a chance.
Yes the achieved much, they kept teams in the league ..we are not facing relegation although the mass hysteria can be confusing
Big Sam is also available
Benny
I’ve been called far worse. By joe and plenty others and never once have I called for a ban on anyone.
Joe can dish it and he can take the stick too like a man and doesn’t need a white knight riding in feigning outrage.
So stop acting like a whiney little pussy over an exchange that had literally nothing to do with you.
To be fair Joe is probably the biggest idiot this site has ever seen, and theres been some whoppers.
Spends all day posting, then accuses everyone of being 10 year olds living in their mums basement.
Pedro
I didn’t reference his nationality as a negative.
It’s a fact. He’s from Canada is he not?
” I stated from the start that he’s a bland coach. He’s proving so at the minute.”
Bland is better than nothing. Arteta is a nothing coach and he would remain so until he manages a team.
Steve McClaren and Carlos Queiroz were highly touted managers of Fegie and they both bombed big time as manager. There’s a big difference between being an Assistant coach and a coach and until Arteta can be called a manager, he’s not fit to lace the boot of Unai.
Great post at 11:46:39, gambon. Pretty much says everything.
What does somebody’s nationality or sexual identification have anything to do with your argument, you ignorant bigoted Trump neanderthal cunt
You call my comment disgraceful then spew this??
Dear dear. What an outburst!!
70m in todays market is nothing, less than what many of our rivals pay for 1 player. Of the 5 players only 3 should be starting, Guendozi was bought for the future but considering how poor we are he has been getting way more playing time than he should. Licht was the only bad signing and he was brought in on a free as backup because apparently we don’t have any money. Leno doesn’t really improve our play, he could if our back r was better on the ball but they’re not. So it’s just Torreira and Sokratis as outfield… Read more »
Azed
Bland is better than nothing
The new arsenal post wenger mantra
Bland is better than nothing
There’s your new brand identity Pedro.
Victoria Concordia Crescit to bland is better than nothing.
Un Naa Nai
Take a break, you are embarrassing yourself
Frddie
70m in todays market is nothing, less than what many of our rivals pay for 1 player.
Holding 3 mill
Dale Ali 5 mill
Fabianski 7 mill
Maguire 17 mill
Roberston 8 mill
Morrison 18 mill
Even say nasri ( free)
Zaha 15 mill
Can be done
Not easy.
Competence is needed
” A good coach would have us improving.”
We already have more away points half this season than last season. I’m pretty sure that is an improvement but why let facts get in the way of an agenda?
Competence is needed
British Competence to be exact
Pedro I have no issue with the acquisitions made this summer and costing £70 million. Leno and Torreira are both first team regulars and an upgrade on what the club had last season. Guendouzi at 19 is a promising youngster albeit he should not be starting as many games as he has done this season. He is realistically a squad player and that is reflected in price we paid for him. Sokratis is an experienced player and again the transfer fee we paid would be considered good value for squad player. The only mistake which was made was recruiting Lichsteiner.… Read more »
Receding
Which club With a foreign Dof and foreign coach has done well – without having artificial millions to spend in UK football?
azed, the underlying performance stats suggest there has been absolutely zero improvement. In fact slight regression.
Auba scored with every shot he took in November. Do you think that Emery worked his magic and improved Aubas scoring ratio to 1:1 or do you think luck was involved?
Fabianski lol.
I think we did reasonably well with the limited money we had to spend, the problem is we have no sellable assets so we can’t do what Liverpool and Chelsea are doing, the whole net spend argument is boring.
My point was that buying 2 outfield starters and dropping them into a sea of mediocrity was never going to be enough. Especially when you have a departing (rightly so) Ramsey and a declining Ozil in the squad, and your remaining creative player is Mikhi who turns up once in a blue moon.
As for this torreira- he is indeed a great technical player BUT has he got the dynamism to play in centre midfield against the better teams
E.g. firminio against him at Anfield.
I hope , I am wrong- think the prem demands will be too much for him ,ultimately in the big away games and he will wither.
As for this torreira- he is indeed a great technical player BUT has he got the dynamism to play in centre midfield against the better teamsE.g. firminio against him at Anfield.I hope , I am wrong- think the prem demands will be too much for him ,ultimately in the big away games and he will wither.
Replace him with a good English lad
Un nai, I didn’t criticise you for your nationality or sexual orientation though did I ? Call people names etc and lambast them all you like but leave out the unrelated bigoted insults is all I’m saying. Your comment was very much disgraceful whereas mine was not. Now who’s the whiny little pussy? Now you take that like a man and admit your Trump style insults have no place in a multicultural, multi sexual, multi gender diverse world we now live in. I haven’t seen the insults thrown your way but if any of them infered your gender/sexuality in a… Read more »
Replace him with a good English lad
No maybe someone like, pogba Vieira/Ali/firminio/Gilberto WHO ARE more mobile and physical
Would Billy Brenner / Jonny Giles be as effective today?
The English game is ferocious
– that’s why we keep getting tanked at Anfield
Need pace ,power , endurance and speed to reach the top.
He lacks all 4.
Charlie George
I have to disagree with your opinions on British Managers/Head Coaches.
There has been a very limited number who have been successful in recent years.
Bluntly the only manager in the system who might be possibly good enough to
manage a top team is Howe at Bournemouth.
Furthermore you cannot accuse either Pochettino or Klopp of being good managers because of the money spent on transfers. Both worked at clubs with
modest transfer budgets before they joined Spurs and Liverpool.
I think Emery needs a vacation. The pressure is getting to him. He is not thinking and talking logically. – He said that he is talking the players to West Ham because they deserve to be there. I saw Licht’s name in it. He was the one who assisted Brighton for their tiring goal. He was also the one who assisted the Pool for the first goal, opening up the flood gate.Emery thinks that he serves to be there. – We have a good midfield pair with Torr and Xhaka. Torr has been rested for over a week. He benched… Read more »
Charlie George was the first one to suggest that the length of Torriera’s egs are detrimental.
Charlie George wants a long-legged English player for that role.
Emirate stroller
Klopp is a brilliant coach( proved that at Dortmund)
So it Poch
That’s only 2
Which foreign coaches without artificial largesse has done well?
I wish people would stop immediately going to “Emery needs better players” Emery took over a lost dressing room, a manager that had comletely lost it, that didnt care about defence, a team that didnt know what to do off the ball. 30 games, 6 months later, £70m spent, there has been no improvement in performance. Ole Gunnar Solksjaer has immediately improved UTDs performance levels, without spending a penny and without a pre-season. No-one expected us to go and win the PL without investing. Its absolutely right to expect small and steady improvements in both defence and attack, which can… Read more »
***Torriera’s legs
“the underlying performance stats suggest there has been absolutely zero improvement. In fact slight regression.”
Gambon
The stats suggest UTD should have won the 2005 FA cup but they did not.
Everyone one who works with stats know that while the data doesn’t lie, it doesn’t always tell the truth.
Check out Liverpools defensive stats before and after VVD. Now take out VVD from Liverpools defence and replace with Koscienly and watch the defence crumble.
Would that automatically make Klopp a bad coach?
Azed, do you think what you see with your eyes counters the data?
Dissenter
Do u watch Liverpool score 4 goals in 28 mins at Anfield?
If not -I suggest you have another look
Torreira at fault for all 4..
Firminio was rinsing past him–AND HE WAS CARRYING THE BALL!
I do think Emery is losing the dressing room because he’s mishandled the Ozil situation.
Too many players are publicly lamenting the poor performance in the final third. That’s probably a code language for get Ozil back in.
azed
Klopp took over Liverpool in 10th…..at the end of his first full season they were 4th.
He improved the Liverpool team without any kind of transfer budget.
“Ole Gunnar Solksjaer has immediately improved UTDs performance levels, without spending a penny and without a pre-season.”
Are you trying to say this has nothing to do with the quality of players at Utd? Or if you gave Solksjaer Fulham’s team, they would be performing at the same level with this UTD team?
… and predictably the Arteta love in starts again. I just don’t understand what is so special about him.
We have PV4 managing in Nice and TH14 cutting their teeth at Monaco. Heck even Sol Campbell is managing real competitive team in Macclesfield.
I would give them a ring before Arteta any day of the week.
‘I wish people would stop immediately going to “Emery needs better players”’
Amen, the whole point of a new manager was that they’d eat up all the low-hanging fruit. Better training, more planning, better rotation, more modern approach.
Poch would have this team improving in every area. Even Klopp in his first season had Liverpool offering up glimpses into what they could be.
“The stats suggest UTD should have won the 2005 FA cup but they did not.”
azed
You dont seem to understand that this actually backs up my point, rather than refutes it.
Sometimes results will exceed performance for short periods.
Try flipping Heads on a coin. Long term you cant possibly beat 50/50, but when you go through periods of H H H H H you dont convince yourself youre the best coin flipper in the world…….or maybe you would, but you’d be wrong.
“Klopp took over Liverpool in 10th…..at the end of his first full season they were 4th.
He improved the Liverpool team without any kind of transfer budget.”
Are we going to discount the season he took over? If Klopp is so magical, while didn’t he finish 5th or 6th the season he took over?
Klopp took Liverpool from 10th to 4th Ranieri took Leicester from relegation fight to Champions.
Leeds, Pep and Poch both leaned into Arteta. There was no fight to have PV04 over in the UK. There was no rush for Sheikh Mansour to offer PV04 a crack at city after Pep leaves.
I don’t really care about hiring Arteta, but having a coach who could move the club forward would be nice
Dissenter
Not “odious” at all. Just a bit naive.
Of course I personally can’t do anything, but the supporters can.
It’s very easy.
Have a spiffing day.
gambon,
Great point regarding Ole G at utd, has to be said.
But then he knows Utd, was there before as a player and has been getting help from Fergie so I don’t really think the 2 are comparable in all honesty.
Charlie George
I think that there are plenty of other good foreign managers/head coaches in
EPL.
The monetary argument applies to all managers in the system. Do you seriously believe that Guardiola is only a good manager because of the resources made available to him at Barcelona, Bayern and Man City?
So far as I am concerned the only British Manager who has been a real success
since the EPL was formed is Ferguson. Most of the others turned out to be
grossly overrated or at the very least disappointing.
benny
So it wasnt a great point then.
Lol
United are better off keeping Ole G
There’s no certainty that a big name manager will do better.
For 22 years we were told to judge the manager in May. I think we could give Emery until May before we start throwing rotten fruit at him.
One thing is for sure, if Emery doesn’t land Arsenal into the Champion’s League via the league or through winning the Europa League he will be out.
Dissenter, I’d like them to hire Southgate. Would be an epic disaster
Emery- like the struggling claude puel will always gonna struggle because they are dour,technocrats .
They see problems that are not there
When in fact – they are the problem themselves
Leeds, Pep and Poch both leaned into Arteta. There was no fight to have PV04 over in the UK. There was no rush for Sheikh Mansour to offer PV04 a crack at city after Pep leaves.
Maybe because they both knew him before and were his friends, there is a preexisting relationship between Arteta and those two. My friends want to hire me isn’t really that big a thing.
No one has offered Arteta the Man City job after Pep, the fact you keep telling yourself they have doesn’t make it true
Dissenter
I solemnly believe pep would struggle at Fulham, for example yes
He is a driven man
So that’s a plus.
But ,I think he is another coach who overcomplicates the game.
Where’ as Klopp doesn’t
That’s why Klopp normally beats him
“Poch would have this team improving in every area”
Poch took team that finished 6th and to 5th while conceding more goals. With a team that already had Eriksen, Vertonghen, Danny Rose, Kylie Walker, Harry Kane and Eric Lamela.
Poch was so good he improved Spuds defence by conceding more.
RH, yes they have.
In elite management, you hire people that make you better. Pep works so closely and raves about him because he thinks he’s an incredible talent.
Azed, Poch took over a team a million miles away from Arsenal with next to no budget… he really had to build from a point of nothing. Incredible that he’s even being compared to Emery really, that’s how good a job he’s done.
Arteta does not improve Pep Guardiola one bit..you might as well be the one sitting here and Man City will still be the force they are
The one game he left to Arteta at home in the champions league they lost at home to Lyon. elite management
Azed, Poch took over a team a million miles away from Arsenal with next to no budget… he really had to build from a point of nothing. Incredible that he’s even being compared to Emery really, that’s how good a job he’s done.
Harry Redknapp did a great job with Spurs before the England debacle, i wish you will stop rewriting history just to make your points
RH, militantly ill-informed, as always.
Biggles
I see what you’re saying but my response is this
If you aren’t entirely sure of ozil and Ramsey and you haven’t got lots of money to replace the players you’re letting go then why let them go?
They would be handy right now wouldn’t they?
If he was entirely sure about ozil and Ramsey then he’s made a massive error by misplacing his faith in them AND letting two other creative midfielders leave for free.
It smacks of poor planning to me.
Pep can buy any player he wants thanks to oil money. Buying the best players to the title… yeah managerial genius at work there.
Leeds, agree. It’s vulgar to watch.
However, the richest tend to hire the best. Pep is the best.
Biggles
Do you not think a one year extension to figure out his side would have been better?
He clearly didn’t know as much as he thought he did about ramsey and ozil as they were dropped almost immediately.
Therefore keeping reinforcements would have been the wise thing to do surely?
Charlie George
You’ve hit the nail on the head.
Emery is one of those ” dour technocrats”.
I like to call it “Paralysis by analysis”.
Someone compared Emery to AVB earlier
I don’t comment here much, work takes care of that, but I have a view nonetheless. I wanted Wenger out for the last 8 years. It was clear he had used up what he had. He didn’t adapt or innovate and embraced managed decline. It was painful and annoying to see. So I was delighted when he went. I had such hopes for Arsenal to reboot. I wanted Allegri. I would have put up with Jardim. Pedro’s talk up of Nagelsmann intrigued me and I would have taken a punt. I wasn’t sold on Arteta because he has no track… Read more »
RH, militantly ill-informed, as always.
Spurs qualified for the champions league under Redknapp and reached a quarter final ( Pochettino has not gone past the second round), Redknapp was named premier league manager of the year. He only missed out on a second qualification for the champions league because Chelsea won it
I don’t know what i am ill-informed on
Pedro
Why you keep referring to every rebuttal as “militant ‘?
You used that language for my earlier posts and now you’re labeling RH’s respectful debate the same.
I think at this point your Emery criticisms can be safely tagged with an ulterior motive.
RH
Agree
Redknapp did a great job at spurs
Massively under appreciated manager
He also took West Ham to 6th playing lovely football in the 90s
Took Portsmouth from the foot of the first division to the top 10 of the premiership and won them the FA cup, again Buidling a really good team and playing lovely football
” Poch took over a team a million miles away from Arsenal with next to no budget” Pedro this is a big FAT LIE, a lie so big Trump wouldn’t dare say it Poch took over a team that had Kylie Walker, Jan Vertonghen and Danny Rose in defence. Those 3 will walk into our starting 11 today. Poch took over a team that had Christian Eriksen, Erik Lamela and Mousa Dembele in midfield. Those 3 will walk into our starting line today. If we add Harry Kane and Hugu Lloris, it means Poch took over a team in which… Read more »
Someone compared Emery to AVB earlier
AVB has also been named European Coach of the year, he was once hot stuff. Chelsea handed him the keys then he tanked.
You would have lauded him back then if i could be bothered to check, like your glowing piece on the Schalke manager who is now finding the second season tough going.
You are only prepared to give Emery six months because he doesn’t excite you. You who once wrote a piece on how we should go all out for Ballotelli ..yet i am the militant
I remember Pedro calling me militant for my anti-Wenger stance a couple of years before he turned.
Don’t worry, he will come around.
IR,with you on your post.
I think at this point your Emery criticisms can be safely tagged with an ulterior motive.
We passed that point the day he was appointed over Arteta…all the praise he gave him was building him up knowing a difficult period in the season will come when he would gleefully tear him down
In Poch’s first season, he signed
Ben Davies, Michel Vorm, Eric Dier, DeAndre Yedlin, Federico Fazio, Benjamin Stambouli , Dele Alli(Jan)
So the idea that Poch had no money is also a lie.
Graham 62
Every time I see a foto of Emery in training- he has a clipboard.?
As for his video analysis- what is he actually analyse?
Seriously. ? not got the foggiest
HE has lost the players
If we still have him in charge next year And
What with a the introduction of VAR – I will stop watching…
Joe
Zidane will essentially be remembered for winning the 1998 WC. 😉
sounds good on paper but would’nt fly sadly
one detrimental difference in our case :
…stans “money is not on the line” relatively speaking with new PL monies flowing
…and stan already sitting on 200%+ P/L
thus no burning need , again, from tan viewpoint , for an “excellent product”
last not least , Afc has a global (not local London) fan base, unlike Rams, that has been /is quite tolerant of substandard football , again , unlike the LAers.
but of course if some of the above change or trend differently, much is still possible !
Pedro argued for years for a proper club intrastucture with a strong back room team.
Now that we have a new DoF and chief scout, some of the best in the business, why don’t we give the system a chance to work. Emery will be assessed by his superiors and they will make a decision.
All these cheerleading to abruptly disrupt the nascent process is detrimental. The club was wise to only give a 2 year contract so there’s no loss for us. We just need to do keep signing good young players for the future.
Ahh Un Nai getting his hand slapped…. what else is new on here Anyway, Pedro, I read this post and still trying to wrap my head around it as it pertains to Arsenal. I cannot deduce anything your the Rams, that they have done aside from handling contracts better and getting a good coach. Arsenal have done the same. Contracts are being totally revamped and we have a new coach who inherited dirt. If Stan can put in 1.5 B, what is 100 Million to make us competitive again, as you state, he is all about profit- and bottom line.… Read more »
I hope that UTarse is on point with his theory that Stan is going to sell the club now that he is the sole owner. More $$ coming his way.
A dream- perhaps?
Ask all these gentlemen who defend Emery day and night one positive aspect of Emery’s coaching/management, they will all start scratching their heads.
Charlie George
If you don’t mind me asking, what’s your historical connection with Arsenal.
When did you start supporting the club?
There are some perfectly reasonable criticisms to lay at Emery’s door this season, without doubt. But I do take Pedro’s criticisms with a truckload of salt. I remember the weeks after Emery’s appointment he actually got called out on how tiresome it was reading his posts that sounded like a jilted lover because he had got so hipsterishly caught up in Arteta being this second coming hidden jewel with absolutely zero evidential basis. I remember that Gazidis was the best thing ever and that, like Arteta, based on things he had heard Gazidis was very well thought of and was… Read more »
Azed,
Agree with you all the way concerning poch.
Pedro spurs were never a million miles away from us.
It wasn’t like we’re winning the league and there Sat in 17th spot.
They were always around us, they just got better and we got worse over the years.
They still choke, 5-1 loss to ten man Newcastle that meant they finished below us and Leicester ring any bells.
Poch needs a trophy this season, and even the league cup wouldn’t exactly be a Sign off greatness.
1955
Ask all these gentlemen who defend Emery day and night one positive aspect of Emery’s coaching/management, they will all start scratching their heads.
Bet you weren’t head scratching when celebrating 22 game unbeaten runs and Trashing spurs at home in a very very good performance. Or that time some prematurely sang they had their Arsenal back
Success has many friends, failure is an orphan
There are some perfectly reasonable criticisms to lay at Emery’s door this season, without doubt. And that is the crux of the matter..not a single person has, besides Joe maybe, has suggested Emery is beyond criticism or that he is even doing the best he can. But to advocate a sacking after six months, a club you have wrote posts and posts on how have fallen behind, how poor our squad is with relation to the salaries paid and so on , to advocate sacking the manager six months in and then proceed to name calling, bland and indecisive, while… Read more »
If every hasn’t moved us on this time next year then start to call for his head. Ffs the guy has a major refurbishment to do on the squad. He got given 70 million and needed almost a full first eleven just to compete. He got 3 player upgrades, 1 prospect in guendouzi and a free right back as cover for bellerin. Unfortunately he’s had to play since our whole back four has been injured all season. People say he’s a Europa league manager, last time I checked with the other five teams around us, winning the Europa league looks… Read more »
CA
Spot on. Arteta is a fraud. A so so player with us, who for some reason, was supposed to be the next messiah? Pleaseeee
I respect our boys- PV4, TH for trying to cut their teeth elsewhere. DB10 etc.
Wenger disrespcted their strong voices- his own ego interferring with what was best for the club.
Anyhow, I give Emery a chance. I do not envy his position at all.
I think Emery’s style was evident early on, a high tempo forward press and a high back line to squeeze the pitch. Spurs play a similar way. What happened though I think was the realisation that he didn’t have anywhere close to the squad to do it. My gripe with Emery mainly is that he has slowly abandoned a lot of his ideas to try to eek out results when he should be doing what Klopp did which is just stubbornly sticking to his way of doing things and making a point to the board. Get me players that can… Read more »
CG
So you must be close to seventy?
You make me feel young.
Cheers.
RH
I’m not advocating the sacking of emery. I just doubt his capabilities
What I would preferred to see is that he is properly backed so he is at least access to all of the tools at his disposal.
However as it stands he’s kicked off his reign with some really bad decisions and he’s made it a lot easier to cast doubt on him.
Yea, haven’t seen much given FOR Emery in defence of him. Just a lot of deflective rubbish about other unknown avenues (like Arteta) and casual fluff about the posters making critics remarks.
Would love to know what signs of encouragement people have to counter the pretty modest criticisms.
He’s not improved us by any metric when you sit and watch the side.
The notion that Kroenke’s recognition that LA is fickle with their teams (very true) is what catapulted the Rams to success is really a reach. Occam’s Razor – they made a good coaching hire and got lucky. Give them credit for making a hire outside the box, now other NFL teams are clamoring to hire young innovative head coaches. But really a big part of it was luck, there was no way to know what would happen. The amount of personnel that changed on a team that went from 4-12 to 11-5 was nearly zero. And a new coaching staff… Read more »
RH
I’m not advocating the sacking of emery. I just doubt his capabilities
What I would preferred to see is that he is properly backed so he at least has access to all of the possible tools at his disposal. However as it stands he’s kicked off his reign with some really bad decisions and he’s made it a lot easier to cast doubt on him.
CA The issue is also our off the ball movement. we just stand and watch mostly. Look at liverpool- almost all players are moving into space and strategic positions. We watch the person with the ball, offer help and keep watching. We are not good at moving, offering options in attack…. Its ball watching at its finest. IF we want to play Ozil again, he needs to learn how to defend, press, and offer us options in attack. Hell, use his lazy ass as a third forward… if thats what he can offer in addition to the shit he gives… Read more »
Arteta a fraud for going to work with the best in the business. Unreal carry-on. But, it’s all about deflection. Man in the hot seat isn’t good enough and the only defence we have is to give him more money. They said that about Wenger and look where that landed us. CA, you are right about Ivan G. I said that he’d been given an unfair rub under Wenger. Then he outfitted a modern infrastructure before he left. On paper, it looked pretty damn smart. Questions is: Will it deliver? Sven: Can’t argue about this hire Raul: Can he make… Read more »
‘Bet you weren’t head scratching when celebrating 22 game unbeaten runs and Trashing spurs at home in a very very good performance. Or that time some prematurely sang they had their Arsenal back’
We were average even during our unbeaten run, mediocre performances but great results thanks to our prolific strikers.
Sancho, ‘luck’ is a nonsense. They made a smart hire and had a defined vision of what they wanted to achieve on the pitch
I’m not interested in how we play if it’s pretty or not. Win the next ten 1-0 with all of them playing shite Wimbledon hoof it up the field football. Scoring off a penalty or deflection off iwobis arse, I don’t care. Unless some of you haven’t realised we don’t have a Dennis, a Thierry, paddy or Cesc playing for us anymore. Emery got the dregs of a side and got given pocket change to improve it, as Wenger blew our famous war chest on shite players. Win first by any means, If it means we get champions league football,… Read more »