Unai Emery and his situation at Arsenal is the gold/blue dress meme. You can look at yesterday as a beastly flogging from Lady Luck, with Emery having to navigate a tough game with Sokratis busting his ankle, followed by Koscielny breaking his jaw (get well soon). Or you can look at the deeper patterns that have plagued our season. Poor setup, tactics unsuited to the talent we have, meshed in with sloppy in-game management.
It’s hard to absorb losing two defenders in an important game, but it’s an interesting spin to suggest that we’d have survived that game with any defensive combination when you consider the unsolved structural issues that have not been addressed in 8 months, even after a five player £70m injection of fresh blood. We were ripe for the picking yesterday. We played a high line against an electric group of forwards despite having a collection of very slow players in our backline. A recipe for failure that played right into the hands of a United that sat back and waited to sucker punch.
Sure, we had a lot of possession, but that was part of the Ole G game plan. We’re a toothless force moving forward and very predictable. Emery doesn’t like to play through the middle of the park, instead, he prefers to cycle the ball until he can attack from wide positions for a cutback. Sometimes it works, most of the time it’s bland on toast and fairly easy to control.
The game looked extremely Wenger-ish. Emery didn’t manage his tactics or his subs well and he failed to adapt as the game slipped away from him. After United scored their 3rd, we didn’t register a shot for 20 minutes.
Yes United has better players (gold), but weren’t we hiring in a coach who could help us punch above our weight? If the only issue he had was players, what was the point in spending £17m to ship Wenger on? Stupid question: The issue was coaching (blue), that’s where the low-hanging fruit was. We have £223m worth of talent in a squad packed with internationals. We beat Chelsea with ease a few days ago, we beat Spurs in December. We should be harder to topple.
Arsenal players are the kings of the individual error (gold). Petr Cech had a shoddy game, Xhaka is a bag of mistakes, and Mesut Ozil dropped another middle finger to a coach he clearly believes he can outlast. Our defence was utterly clueless, but again, my question is this: How can coaches of pony clubs with next to no budget set their defences up to be more watertight than ours?
The manager looks bereft of ideas on the touchline. I wince every time I see him pull that petrified look like the police have just pulled up on his drive after he bought a bag of something naughty from the dark web. It doesn’t inspire confidence. Body language is important. He looks lost out there.
However, I accept that this is a game of opinions. Some of you see patience as a virtue and believe in the norms of football that suggest we should give him more money and time. Others are taking a more pessimistic view, seeing the absolute lack of improvement all over the pitch and wondering how we walked right into another nightmare manager scenario.
Pep, Poch and Klopp all had time and all spent money. On paper, it would be fair to give Emery the same chance. Question is, do you honestly believe that would reap rewards? Do you see Emery with a ceiling as high as those three? Plenty believe so and that’s fine. You are gold, I am blue.
That’s the beauty of football my darlings.
Onwards we go… Europa and #Top4 is the target!
Here
For
4th
4
I miss it
That was utter shit last night. Always felt if united scored first we would lose. Defence is piss poor and made of glass. Ozil cant be bothered. All in all the club is embarrassing and it’s gonna take a while to sort this mess out
“The game looked extremely Wenger-ish”: this is simply not true, a falsification of reality; just take a little time to replay our home game against man u last year (or liverpool, or chelsea, or atletico, …), and keep writing there is no difference. emery is a mediocre sub-josé, who thinks you win football games by benching/humiliating your most talented players (mesut, aaron, laca, …). he has the worst record of “oil-money” psg era; the only thing he will be remembered for in france will be his ruining the career of ben arfa, and humiliating thiago silva for the games agaisnt… Read more »
Like i said last night, probably best we lost that game, we just don’t have the squad to navigate so many competitions like the other teams, we’ve seen Arsenal fans on here downgrade the FA cup so there really shouldn’t be so much noise really. Slight worry about the manager though but I’m reserving all judgements for now, the Europa league as I’ve maintained is our best bet at getting back into the champions league, that’s what I’ll judge him with, he at least has to get to the final of that like Wenger was close to with pretty much… Read more »
Pedro Xhaka was not to blame for any of the goals we conceeded.
The biggest mistake made yesteday was taking off Iwobi for Ozil.
From that moment onwards it was out of our hands,
Knew the game would run from us the minute I saw Sok pull up with an injury.
No way these jokers can win Europa League. Not a chance.
Irrespective of the result, the injuries and our predictable game plan, can anyone please explain to me why, with 20+ minutes to go, so many supporters (I have to question this) left the stadium? We must have the piss poorest fanbase in world Football. Never, in my near 50 years of following the club, have I ever left the stadium before the final whistle. So what if the congestion is bad and you need to get the kids home. Part of the experience of being a supporter is stepping out of your comfort zone and regular routine and accepting inconvenience.… Read more »
“What is the plan at Arsenal football club?”
That Batistuta is the RIGHT question we all need to ask.
Senseless changing managers willy nilly with the same lack of financial firepwoer from the board
I really hope Emery leaves since Pedro and his horde of arsonists have decided that a managerial change will solve our problems. They keep yammering that we stretched a masssive £70 million across FIVE players last summer. It’s like fixing a leaking boat with superglue. It’s been used to justify the ulteriorly motivated arguments that 6 months is enough to make a definitive conclusion about the manager. He’s not even afforded this window to make meaningful squad changes because we don’t have money. We lost to a better team who are in excellent form at the moment. Deal worth it.… Read more »
It was too late for me to watch. Shame about the score. Shame about the injuries but also disappointing to hear the performance wasn’t up to much
I won’t say much until I’ve seen a more diverse set of opinions on here tho
Let Emery leave and I hope the club appoints a manager to fix the touch line aesthetics. We need a managers with good body language, shiny white teeth and lots of pizzaz.
Experience is not even a requisite, all we need is a new coach.
Dolomite
That has to be the most important question we need to be asking. I’m not utterly impressed by Emery neither am i blaming him for how bad the squad really is but if we say he’s the problem then fine but the question remains, won’t they struggle with the same issues Emery is facing without significant investment and no i don’t mean a 70 quid outlay in such a poor poor squad bar 2 maybe 3 players
Dissenter
If i were Emery, that’s exactly what I’d do to be honest, sit down with the management, explain to them just how horrible the squad he has actually is and let them know in no uncertain terms he would not be sticking around if he’s not given significant funds to fix the squad and if they don’t he can be on his jolly way. Don’t think Emery would be hard pressed for jobs once he leaves Arsenal
The game was lost not because of Ozil coming onto the pitch, but because we had by the time of his arrival two centre backs injured and a defence shot to pieces. Let’s be clear there are two departments of the team, which are not fit for purpose at the top level of the game in EPL and Europe. Our defence needs a complete revamp and some serious investment. How you achieve that quickly can only happen if the club injects some serious money on players of genuine CLASS, discipline and intelligence. Cech and Koscielny proved yesterday that they can… Read more »
The only citation I can find anywhere on the internet to support the claim that Arsenal paid Wenger £17m to ‘ship him on’ is in yesterday’s comments from gambon. Someone suggested Pete would use that in his next piece, which turned out to the be case.
For the record, his final season’s pay was his severance package. It was, therefore, not £17m. Closer to £9m. A little fact-checking wouldn’t go amiss.
to be* the case
The most depressing of Friday’s defeat is that the manner of the defeat was predicted. Everybody tactic that ManUtd was going to employ except our coach. Soak up pressure and let Arsenal have the ball wide but intercept any cut back and counter attack at pace on Arsenal left side via long balls over the top from Pogba or Matic. Emery did nothing against that. In fact his tactic and players selection played into their hand. We needed a quick and decisive left back and instead of Monreal he played Kolasinac who is not the quickest nor the best at… Read more »
@Jamie,
The cost of effectively sacking Wenger was less than 9 million. However we also sacked his staff and that ballooned to 17 millions according to financial statements at the time.
New regime ( Emery and Raul) Signing lichsteiner Extending Elenenys contract Extending Iwobi contract Extending Xhaka contract Looaning out Chambers Not extending Ramsey s contract. Keeping Bould as defensive coach. Not naming a proper captain Losing their chief scout Spending 70 mill on 5 players -yet we are older and slower and more injury prone than Wengers last few years . By doing all this above have shown the New Regime ( Raul and Emery) are not capable to replace Old Regime ( Wenger and Gazidas).And that’s ineptitude on the highest scale. Because old regime was hopeless too. We certainly… Read more »
Valentin –
Thanks for clarifying. While we’re adding up all the associated costs of cleaning up the Wenger mess, we should be adding the cost of shifting on 90% of the playing staff he brought into the club too then.
Kroenke could at least have the decency to put £17 million back into the club after his disasterous and costly decision to extend Wenger and his whole supporting cast, not that that would go very far, but it is indicative of his neglect.
I have wondered if emery might walk to salvage his rep if things go really wrong, but he certainly won’t be sacked as the club turn to Spain.
Emery needs to change his training and conditioning methods though.
There’s no way our players should be getting jaw injuries in January.
We need to have proper massetter [jaw muscle] conditioning by having them feast on iron filings regularly.
Pedro peddling his usual BS,
This is from someone who was advocating playing Ozil regularly because he his one of our most “talented” players !
In case you have been living in a cave, £70m on 5 players is peanuts, teams at the bottom on the PL are spending more than £14m on one player.
When we have cleared out ALL of Wenger’s buys, then you can judge.
Ozil has probably cost Arsenal more than £100m in wages and buying him by the time his current contract will expire.
Arsenal have shipped in more goals at this stage of the season- since the 1960s. We were promised- this side of the game would improve- players would be learning by video – how to rectify their mistakes. We were promised – our injury curse – was just that a curse – and our modern coach and his entourage would prevent these hideous ACL occurring, etc (Brighton and Palace have equal defensive records than us , for example. ) To me Emery is one of those coaches- who thinks football is chess -and the players are his pieces. He thinks his… Read more »
Have we sacked the manager yet?
Pedro You have rightly stated what’s needed now; time and patience. Let’s also hope the club goes through on the promise to appoint a Technical Director. My simple believe remains that no matter the formation or tactics adopted, this squad is incapable of executing it. To start with, I recommend that this squad’s mental fitness be assessed. Like for the third goal, 5 players were escorting Pogba, looking at him without paying attention to Martial running in from behind them. Do you need a manager to teach you that? Never. To juxtapose, Ashley Young made some impressive last moments blocks… Read more »
The dude inherited a horror show of a defense. We don’t even have a reserve goalie at the moment because Cech is already mentally retired.
Contrast this with the defense Wenger inherited.
We need wholesale defense changes in the summer, it’s not even debatable at the moment.
The fact that people keep talking up Mavros with his extensive history of games played shows how low we’ve come.
Plus la change. A lot of our approach play was quite good although all night we were commiting too many of our misfielders to the attack which left us horribly exposed at times and if your defence is not even cobbled together then the result is inevitable. The biggest disappointment I would have is in habits of the past tring to pass the ball into the net. We would load up always on the left side and inevitably take two or three passes too much. The amount of times we got into good crossing positions but wouldn’t do so. We… Read more »
1. Why Ozil for Iwobi. Iwobi was doing well??? 2. Why oh! why no Mavropanos – again. Of what I saw of him last year by a street and a country mile the best centre half that we have and yet Lichtsteiner was in the panel ahead of him. From a management point of view this is just onforgivable. 3. The scouting area is gone past a joke. The man that unearthed a couple of diamonds for us has been shoved out the door. 4. We are in a for a long and hard couple of years methinks. If you… Read more »
Fans should focus on what new regime are doing. Not what the old one has done.
The past is the past !
We want to see tangible improvements. Even slight ones.
There is nothing…
Not been on here in months, just thought id pop on to say we are shite. In the summer we have 5 players leaving on a free, Cech monreal lichtsteiner ramsey welbeck. Not to mention people like jenkinson elneny stinking up the place.
I would say we need to buy at least 7 players in the summer, minimum, for us to compete for champions league places next season.
That is a shit load of money needed to be spent and I have zero confidence the club will do what’s required to make us compete again. Zero.
Dissenter – well said, and when at it find runing/walking/jumping specialist to prevent Sokratis/Holding being injured.
Trying to remind myself that significant change requires time and patience. I feel that if, and this is a significant if, we can adequately replace 5/6 squad members in the summer window and promote top youngsters, this time next year we’ll be seeing a much more consistent set of results. Emery can be properly judged come next October/November after new signings have had a chance to bed in. On a side note, I thought AMN looked decent enough yesterday. If we’re playing 4 at the back let Montreal play LB unless we’re playing the formation we had against Chelsea, defensively… Read more »
Despite all the huff and puff we created very few goal scoring opportunities. The ball could have gone anywhere before Auba tapped in
It all looked very Wenger like up front with pointless short ball passes
Any crosses into the box were pretty aimless
Another disappointing performance
The most salient part of the post was the question. How bottom half teams can organise a defence on a quarter of Arsenal’ s budget and we can’t. It’s as if a virus exists at Colney. New manager, new players, same old Arsenal. The rate at which we lose players is also a joke. Maybe Koscielny broke his jaw. Maybe not. All I can remember is Messi having 3 teeth knocked out and still going on to destroy Real Madrid. If that was one of our players. He would require an air ambulance. This is not an Emery out rant.… Read more »
I hate to see us lose any match but the FA Cup is of no importance anymore so I don’t care, but if we don’t beat Cardiff on Tuesday then the shit will seriously hit the fan.
From here onwards till the end of the season – no more excuses (except in the bullshit Thursday night bollocks).
Good post Pedro, very fair. “The manager looks bereft of ideas on the touchline. I wince every time I see him pull that petrified look like the police have just pulled up on his drive after he bought a bag of something naughty from the dark web. It doesn’t inspire confidence. Body language is important. He looks lost out there.” 🤣🤣🤣 I did lol hard at this and then had to explain what I was laughing at to my missus, who once understood what I was laughing agreed entirely: “yes, he does do that, that face”. Ok, the £70m of fresh blood… Read more »
You are exactly right re Emery should be getting more out of this group and that his upside is less than Pep et al, no doubt. I don’t think that precludes him from being given extra time and a summer window to see whether he can inculcate and cement more ideas and consistency of execution. Will that work/be enough to get us UCL….time will tell….just not too much of it hopefully!
Bob
So our 25million midfield terrier is tired after his debut season then?
So – by reckoning he DOES have endurance and stamina issues.
(Not saying he is anything but a terrific footballer)
But he has no power.
Was patrick Vieira tired in Arsenal debut season or Petit?
Please don’t make excuses for multimillion pound players that they are tired after playing 20 league games.
Or maybe buy players that don’t get so tired??
When does Mykhi come back?
Poor performance last night, the defence was so shaky , even before the injuries, every time the ball went back to Cech I was wincing . We won’t get top four and I doubt we will win europa with our defence. I’m still willing to give emery the summer tw to make a judgement but I’m losing my initial optimism in him rapidly. In the summer the incomings will obviously be important but the outgoings will be just as important, certain players are obviously not good enough , that simple . Iwobi-a player who is ‘busy doing nothing’ a bit… Read more »
‘You can’t polish a turd but you can face it in a different direction’
LOL. Love it!
CG
Actually Torreira has played 35 games including international games this season, more than any other Arsenal player. Don’t let the facts get in the way as usual…
It’s concerning how many fans think we have some top quality squad that is ‘underperforming’ due to the manager. If Raul and Vinay think the same we better better get used to years and years of tedium, as it will confirm they are both clueless tits. One of the main criticisms of Wenger – along with tactics etc – was his woeful squad building, and these fans said it would take years to weed out the crap he signed and relay foundations with better players suited to the new manager’s style. So this narrative spun sneakily by some after Wenger’s… Read more »
I also agree that emery needs to get more out of this squad. As shoddy as it is. But regarding crap teams defending better than us. That is true and emery has some culpability in it. But as well don’t forget those crap teams which defend better generally defend in huge numbers, especially against opposition with any attacking quality Even Sam allardyce mastered the ‘dump almost the whole team behind the ball and foul the opponents most dangerous players’ trick. It works and it’s not rocket science – but it’s also not what we should be learning from Real, genuinely… Read more »
He’s also by far the player that puts in the most effort game after game, they’re not machines you know. Put some better players around him so he doesn’t have to work that hard and he wouldn’t get so tired. Simple
Benny – i seriously doubt that any amount of coaching will make Mustafi better, or Ozil start giving a fuck for anything bar putting a good pass. His strolling behind Pogba for third was so sad to see. It is a game defining moment when he just didnt give a dime about it beacuse he is pass master??? This drivel about lower teams defences is so out of place. There is a reason they are lower teams. How come that those teams didnt brake in to top four on account of their defence in recent history? This Wengeresque losses are… Read more »
Getting a bit annoyed at those dismissing the 70 mil by comparing it to others as if that quantifies a spend or not.
We have a new number 1, arguably our best CB, and our best CM brought in. That’s the point, 3 players that improved us irrespective of the fees or quality inherited.
If you buy three better players it’s pretty sensible to think you’ll see an improvement. But no, Liverpool or City spent 70 mil on one player so that changes matters apparently?
The most salient part of the post was the question. How bottom half teams can organise a defence on a quarter of Arsenal’ s budget and we can’t.
Globalgunner and Pedro
They sit back and rarely attack. From 7th to the bottom of the table, the only team with a positive goal difference is Everton (1).
It’s a pick your poison situation when you don’t have the players.
Yes they are our best GK, CB and CM
At the same tjme Kos is one year older and crappier, same with Monreal who was our best defender last couple of seasons. Holding out, Bellerin out a lot and now for the season. Mustafi still as shit as always.
It’s not all black and white
Charlie – you took it out of context. Everyone spend. Everton spent evem more and they are still behind us. Point is, we didnt have good team and spent 70 mil to improve it. We have team that needs a really good player or two on every part of pitch. Players age and allready old team regress as seasons goes by. If we had 27 yrs old Monreal , Kos and Chech those 70 mil would be improvement in squad. But this way it was investment to try to stay as you were, but hardly any progression. Second problem is… Read more »
Charlie
Leno can’t do jack with Mustafi and Kolasinac in front of him
Torrira basically has made more tackles than Xhaka has in almost 3 yrs at Arsenal
Guendozi already looks miles better than said Xhaka
Look at it this way, the players brought in by Emery have been the best performers for us this season
Fred L “”Actually Torreira has played 35 games including international games this season, more than any other Arsenal player. Don’t let the facts get in the way as usual…”” go back to my oft repeatedly original point – the folly of continually buying unsuitable overseas players. from such far flung places. Montevideo is a 32 hour return flight into London (if no delays) If he playing for Uruguay as often as you say- this tiredness is going to be a recurring theme in his Arsenal career, surely? We MUST focus on the UK/French market for our players. (the World Champions… Read more »
Again, I’m all for changing the manager this summer as I’ve not been particularly impressed with Emery lately but what happens next? Allegri, Jardim, Arteta, Viera? Exactly what manager would want to come over here when they’d have to make do with the crap squad they inherit and no funds to spend
We have a new number 1, arguably our best CB, and our best CM brought in. That’s the point, 3 players that improved us irrespective of the fees or quality inherited.
The fact that the 3 players that improved us will not get start in any of the other six clubs shows the lack of quality in our team.
Also players like Koscielny, Monreal and Cech have regressed.
Man UTD brought on Martial and Rashford while we brought on Ozil and Guendozi.
‘We have a new number 1, arguably our best CB, and our best CM brought in. That’s the point, 3 players that improved us irrespective of the fees or quality inherited.’
What about the other center backs [except for Holding]? What about the other midfielders not called Torreira.
You’re making the point for us.
We were so defensively shit that even those new players were doing to be enough. It’s like using superglue to repair a ship hill damage. It’s comes eventually.
** repair a ship hull damage
Batistuta
Stop with your rational agenda. That’s not necessary
Pedro, CC and their ilk believe we are a new manager away from turning. Mustafi into a beast and giving Monreal a new set of legs.
We just need a new manager with white teeth, excellent language skills,pizzaz and body language.
Cardiff were 80-1 last season and got promoted to the Prem.
Huddersfield were 150 -1 and got in to the Prem
Leicester were 5000-1 to win the league
Croatia were 66-1 to win the World Cup ( i know they did not win)
Arsenal were 1000-1 to go the season unbeaten
With the squad Emery he inherited plus 5 signings- Emery could have emulated similar achievements,
(rather than rucking with Ozil and alienating Ramsey. And thinking his goalkeepers are there to play it out the back.)
he sees a problem every corner- when there aint one!
If anyone here thinks emery with £500m could do better than he is…you’re wrong. This guy walked a weak league with a billion pound team. Great. Peter Reid or Mark Hughes would have done the same.
Arsenal are a broken club in a very hard league. No places to hide.
I don’t blame emery. I blame the board for hiring the guy who sold them a tale.
Negation
I’m with you pal. So many ‘fans’ need to either wake up and smell the coffee regarding our realistic position right now, or find something else to do with their time.
Emery didn’t manage his subs well? Two thirds of his substitutes weren’t tactical discretionary decisions and in fact instead of defender for defender he did try to add a bit more control and creation after Kozz went off injured.
Some of your comments are valid but sometimes in your eagerness to boot Emery you make stupid points which undermines everything else.
Look lets check with reality here, we are over achievers at the moment. We should be nowhere near the top 4 and we still are and the probably favourite for the Europa league. The best thing Mourinho did for UTD a couple of seasons ago was ignore every other competition to get UTD back in the champions league by winning the Europa. This should be Emery’s primary aim this season with this squad. This squad is still the same failing squad of last season. We need a new playing staff throughout and 120m is a excellent business and a small… Read more »
I disagree with the rumblings from a minority that Emery can’t deal with our current situation being grossly unfair. Guendouzzi when he came on was screaming at Xhaka for again being out of position despite that yet again injuries forced our hand and I am sure a number of the squad are getting fed up with some of their team mates I still see Wengerball too much and without naming them there are far to many players who just aren’t of the standard required for us to really get competitive. Injuries to Bellerin,Sokratis and now Kos doesn’t help having an… Read more »
The EPL is the only major European football league without a winter break. If you do double session like you would in la Liga, you seriously increase the risk of muscle injury. Also because players are tired the risk of ACL and other twist related injuries more than double. The so called red zone exists for that specific reason. Players are supposed to rest to be reinvigorated when they return. Double sessions on players who went to the world and did not have a proper pre-season is equivalent of flogging them to breaking point. That is why Spurs are falling… Read more »
How did Claudio Ranieri win the league by 10 points- with 4 defenders over 30 years of age?
He did it by inspiring, cajoling, motivating , little tweaking and a calm dignity- all qualities that are plainly lacking in Emerys personal arsenal!
Dissenter
I get where those who say Emery isn’t up to the task are coming from but it still doesn’t take away the fact that without any sort of immediate significant injection of funds into such a poor poor squad, it’s going to take time to get us competing again. Arsenal fans are so caught up in their agendas they fail to see that it goes beyond changing the manager
Wenger destroyed the squad,
Kroneke is destroying the club,
Emery has no chance here, We are a shambles, But one major mistake he made was keeping Bould, A complete clown.
It is hilarious the whole £70 Million spend thing, Klopp spent £10 Million more than our summer spend on one defender. We had to buy a GK, CB, CDM, CM with £10 Million less such was the state of our squad and finances. You can keep harping on about net spend if you like but if we had a Coutinho we sold for £120 Million and then Emery spent £184 Million over the summer and January and this was the product, fine, but he hasn’t got a Coutinho to sell and he didn’t spend that much. I actually felt last… Read more »
Charlie George you are comedy central mate 😂 Lets throw reason and common sense out of the window and hope for sporting miracle to happen. Ffs try to see some context to your arguments. Croatia was filled with quality players all over the pitch, being beaten only by strongest France team in recent history (and they won a lot in recent history). Arsenal invincibles – best team that played in PL when there were 2-3 good teams and test of league scrapping. Leicester won their league in season everything went for them (we beat them tvice that season). Theres no… Read more »
Five players for 70 million. You say that as if it’s big expenditure and the poor return is an indictment of Emery. On the contrary, that’s west ham money. Everton spend more than that on five players. City or United spend 250 million on five players. Spurs spend less but they have been building a squad properly for 5-6 years now. Arsenal have had one year.
Give it a rest.
To answer your questions, Pedro: No, I don’t believe that Emery will ‘reap the rewards’ if by that you mean win titles and return Arsenal to the elite. And no, I don’t believe that he will reach the ceiling of Poch, Pep and Klopp. But I also believe that neither would they, had they been managing Arsenal. In fact, I doubt that any of the three would have done any better than him, and perhaps not even as well. The difference is that he is managing a badly-run Club, with an ill-assorted squad lacking saleability, and an uncommitted owner who… Read more »
Jamie The £17 million being quoted as the cost of getting rid of AW is actually slightly less than it cost Here’s what is said in the accounts The exceptional costs incurred of £17.2 million were attributable to the changes in the first-team management, coaching and support personnel. For those that don’t know Arsenal actually made a gross profit in tthe trading year ending 31/5/2018 of £70.2 million after tax the prof was actually £56.5 million but and a big but there was only a profit at all because profit from player sales was £120 million. The cash reserves ,… Read more »
Ornstein : Arsenal have made an approach to sign Inter Milan winger Ivan Perisic. #AFC want loan with £35m option to buy. 29yo open to #Inter exit. Fits plan of versatile midfielder e.g. Suarez (still possible) / Nkunku + winger. Unclear if injuries mean defender wanted but Sokratis not bad
@Valentin Reading through the posts, you are the only one seeing the same game as mine. Any opposing manager seeing our lineup would know that we try to bomb through the left with Iwobi and to use Kols’s cutback. Kola is so slow to get back. It left a big gap in our left defense. West Ham did the same thing to us. Once we lose a game, everybody blames our players. How come the same group of players can defeat Chelsea and Spuds so convincingly. Of course, losing our two CB’s doesn’t help. Kos’s injury was accidental. But Papasok’s… Read more »
Ahhh ok now I get it, all of our players are declining which I assume is an Arsenal phenomenon whilst everyone else’s squads get better. Lacazette and Auba are miles better this season than last, so I’m well aware there’s discrepancies across the side. The fact is we have a better manager and players that are consider better than those from last season yet we’re getting the same slop served up. Marvellous “Pedro, CC and their ilk believe we are a new manager away from turning. Mustafi into a beast and giving Monreal a new set of legs.” Yes that’s… Read more »
You wonder why we’ve left it so late to do anything. What happened to the urgency of the Summer?
That Perisic rumor is absolutely ridiculous
Another 29-30 year old on big wages?
Ornstein is bonkers
Can we give them Ozil for Perisic?
Perisic would have been a good move a few years ago, going to be 30 in a week though.
Fits the mould of being a really hard working player, whenever I’ve seen him he’s a threat and we do badly need a winger.
£35 Million is steep though. Be great if we could use Ozil.
Let’s buy even more late 20’s or 30 year olds…that’ll really see us come undone. Not one person at arsenal knows or cares what’s happening. We need to accept that Arsenal fc will probably, if we continue on the current decent, be relegated within five years. Our players are old. Our squad is wagecity. Our squad is talentless, bar one or two players. Our fanbase is passive. Our owner doesn’t care. I think if everyone was looking at another club and not arsenal, you’d all be thinking “holy shit, that club is fuuuuucked”. Perhaps we press the reset button on… Read more »
Any potential deal for another player at the wrong side of 29 isn’t great for us. Its a gamble to fire us into the champions league. Quite worrying we aren’t also being linked with more defensive players.
We will not under any circumstance get fourth.
We won’t win the europa.
Next.
CC churns out these rotten egg ideas and is angered because they make fouls smelling omelettes .
Arsenal spending this massive £70 million on 5 players should change the defensive outcome, never mind that that theWenger acquired limpet mines are still clogging the shipping lanes as we speak.
We lost to a team on form and are in the middle of a defensive injury crises.
Deal with and stop all the bull sh*t agenda driven stuff
You would think his “Arteta-type” manager would be doing better.
Left side
“You wonder why we’ve left it so late to do anything. What happened to the urgency of the Summer”
No money. Emery was clear about this.
I like Perisic as a player. Yes his age is an issue but the question is will we get any other winger at 35 M price for 2 and half year of quality wing play ? Unlikely.
Valentin should probably write the blog. He articulates my thoughts better than I do.
Emery put on a tactically poor show yesterday and we can’t keep detaching injuries from Emery. He went out of his way to brag about double sessions. You can’t make aggressive conculsions, but Holding, Bellerin and Sokratis all picked up issues that could be linked to fatigue.
Jaime, I used AST data for my Wenger pay off. If people thought i’d Use that figure, it’s because they are reliable.
“Arsenal spending this massive £70 million on 5 players should change the defensive outcome“ Why bother spending any money if change/improvement isn’t the result? “We lost to a team on form and are in the middle of a defensive injury crises.” Yesterday was nothing new to what we’ve seen since Chelsea in the second game of the season. You choosing to omit that as being the issue some fans have is exactly that, your agenda (which you love to talk about). “You would think his “Arteta-type” manager would be doing better.” Please talk more about agendas you fucking moron. Nothing… Read more »
TR7
‘I like Perisic as a player. Yes his age is an issue but the question is will we get any other winger at 35 M price for 2 and half year of quality wing play ? Unlikely’
…and what happens after 2.5 years of quality wing play?
That’s the short-termism that’s gottten is to where we are at now.
New regime and Old regime do have one thing in common- they both have failed to address the searing lack of pace power and penetration in the team. With the only player who had all three (Bellerin) now out for a year ( until full recovery)- we are surely all in agreement -new regime- have to rectify . And rectify urgently, if they think Prem is la Liga- or a version of Seville – they really are more clueless- than even i have summarised. (rumours of this crusty 29 Italian is off no surprise – with this lot in charge-… Read more »
Dissenter, not sure what you’re not getting here.
LT: great signing
Leno: everyone happy with
Sokratis: MAN HERO
MG: super player
Licht: bit past it
Are you saying that these additions, plus a coach who said he’d fix the defence, were not expected to improve the team?
“Why bother spending any money if change/improvement isn’t the result?” Maybe from stopping us falling further down the table as a start. 7 teams spent more than us last summer but we are the only ones expected to improve? All the teams above us and Man U already had much better squads too. Pedro Wasn’t the double sessions in preseason? He’s giving days off after games now to rest players. But yeah, we really should invest in unobtanium cheek guards for the players to prevent those frequently occuring jawbreaks, that’s all on Emery. None of the injuries have been due… Read more »
Emery’s disciple
Am only assume your nonsense is aimed at me as per?
If you think there’s any anger or venom in calling someone a fucking moron or a wasteman then you’ve never walked a street in the UK.
Are you saying that these additions, plus a coach who said he’d fix the defence, were not expected to improve the team?
Yep..100% expected to improve the team
But the individual errors have been mostly down to the old guard, maybe they are the ones allergic to improvement ..same way Pep realized the players he chased off could not be improved
Valentin,
I don’t think the issue is with the Arsenal core medical team. Emery brought over his own S&C coach, which was a mad thing to allow. I wrote about the potential of that decision and it seems to have played out.