Four things I’ve been thinking about intensely for a whole day.
The Squad is toilet commentary:
Sven Mislintat gave Emery 5 players last summer at a cost of £70m. He focused on mainly defensive players, with one player hired in for his FIRE mentality.
Bernd Leno: A massive improvement on Cech, can play with his feet, makes good saves. HIT
Lucas Torriera: Ferocious defensive midfielder that has a super instinct for the game. He’s a good tackler, he can pass and he’s comfortable sitting at the base of midfield. MASSIVE HIT
Matteo G: If you don’t love this guy, you’re dead inside. A bit rough around the edges, but he’s been very good considering his age. HIT
Sokratis: Beast at the back. A fighter, solid on the ball, good in the air and a proper leader. Should be our captain. Guy is so aggressive he told his ankle off for being injured. HIT
Lichtsteiner: 34 years old, was never going to be able to do it on the pitch, but he’s not shite, he’s just off the pace.
We have improved the squad. It is difficult to argue anything else. These are good players.
So why haven’t we seen an improvement to our defence?
- Wolves
- Leicester
- Brighton
- Palace
- Newcastle
Five teams that either share the same goals conceded, or have conceded less than us. Seriously man, Newcastle United.
Add to that the fact that we have two 25 goal a season strikers (£116m) that even the most miserable Arsenal fan can’t be unhappy with. Do we love Lacazette? Yes. Do we love Auba? Damn right we do, even if you don’t, he’s joint second in the Premier League for goals with Kane and 2 behind Salah He also has a banging haircut and a nice smile. He also has 7 more than Lukaku, who everyone is now pivoting towards being better than Auba. Bitch please.
Lacazette has 1o in all competitions and we love him as well. Chelsea would die for our frontline.
Emery has a world class player in Ozil he can’t motivate and he’s chosen to leave a player like Ramsey on the bench all year. I know Mesut is a being a little bitch, but come on, buy him a Balenciaga snood and make up already. Seriously, this has gone too far.
So in short, this idea that our squad is Stoke levels is more dramatic than the output of a mild Ospina collision.
United Tactics:
I thought the tactics against United were subpar, but as I am somewhat dyslexic when it comes to writing about them, I stole a piece from Valentin in the comments:
The most depressing of Friday’s defeat is that the manner of the defeat was predicted. Everybody knew the tactics that ManUtd were 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.
Arsenal left side via long balls over the top from Pogba or Matic. Emery did nothing against that. In fact his tactics 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 defending.
We needed a deep line with a compact midfield in front. Instead we played a high line with regularly our midfield and Kolasinac ahead of the ball which means that when they counter-attack they had one more attacker than defenders. 3v2 as for the second goal or 4v3.
We needed somebody to man mark Pogba and as far as I could see neither Ramsey nor Torreira were tasked to do that. The closest to regularly block Pogba was Lacazette !
Newcastle employed those tactics and it nearly paid off for them. With luck and better players (which we have compared to Newcastle) they could have won it.The worst thing is that on the sideline everybody could see that clearly Emery had no idea how to turn the tide.
Ole G, Mike P and Carrick just rolled out the same strategy Alex Ferguson used against us for years.
Emery apparently does more video analysis than a 14-year old who’s just discovered incognito mode.
What happened here? Did he miss the Spurs game?
Power:
Emery has helped see off Sven by basically blacklisting ‘hot youth talent’ e-mail suggestions, instead, favouring journeymen stars from Champ Man circa 2014, preferably with an agent Raul knows… what does that mean for our F5 Newsnow refresh trigger finger?
ARSENAL LINKED WITH IVAN PERISIC.
Holy mother of Mary. What a boner killer. Like ‘accidentally’ opening a really bad tab in incognito mode.
A 29-year-old who is 30 in a month. A player working in a much slower league, in physical decline, with a goals and assists record this season WORSE than Iwobi’s. 25 games (72mins a game), 3 goals and 5 assists. Did we learn nothing from the Mikhi disaster? Pepe over at Lille has 13 goals and 10 assists in 23 games. Wait for him! Save those loan pennies.
If this is the future, why does it smell so much like Everton?
What makes things even more worrying is we’re hiring in Spaniards at a rate of knots. Emery has been adding to his backroom staff over the course of the season and he’s even picking his mate as the Technical Director this summer, and look, I think Monchi could be a great candidate (5th with Roma, which is fitting), but it’s quite clear Ivory Towers are being built which could be problematic, and even worse, tough to break up should the worst happen.
Also, is there no search and select process for this? You know, even just to pinch ideas from the other candidates.
As Matt noted on the podcast, this is all happening because there’s no defacto leader at the club. We need a Bepe Moratta like figure, or a Michael Zorc. Someone who purposefully decentralizes power, sets the vision and makes people work smart to deliver a great footballing experience to the fans. Most CEOs wouldn’t want to create management cliques. That’s why you’d limit the power of the manager, take ownership of the staffing around him, and be very careful about hiring in friends. In football, an industry known for bullshitters, you really need to have your wits about you.
We just shipped out Wenger’s regime and now seem to be allowing a new one to form. This is all the more worrying because the raid is being executed by people who have little affinity for the club, which wouldn’t be a problem if we had a CEO and a strong board with business and footballing acumen (preferably people that have Arsenal DNA (Brian Marwood)). Just look at Ivan Gazidis giving himself a massive payrise in his final year at Arsenal despite achieving nothing on or off the pitch. That’s scandalous corporate greed. But who was there to overrule it? No one. That’s who. I mean, no one isn’t really a who, but you get what I mean.
Change:
The season should be judged on expectations.
My expectations, ok?
- Do we have a defined style of football?
- Are we better defensively?
- Are we better going forward?
- Are we technically a better outfit?
- Are the fans excited?
A very basic list. If nothing has improved and we’re still 6th, we should think about a different path.
Bruce Rioch picked up the pieces of George Graham era, was told to land European football, and he was sacked two weeks after he achieved his goals. Why? Because David Dein recognised he could do better.
Nigel Adkins took Southampton up from League One, he was doing well in the Premier League, and he was fired because they were able to bring in Pochettino (remember the reaction in the press to that!).
If there is no improvement this season then good leadership should course correct and make a change.
Can anyone disagree with that notion? No they can’t. They absolutely can’t.
Right, that’s me OUT. See you tomorrow when I promise it’ll be sparkles and rainbows.
Luuuuurve u x
Red Exactly. It’s going to take longer than 6 months to fix the squad that finished 6th last season. We will be in a better place in the summer when you consider some of the players that will, or will likely, leave and their wages coming off the budget. As someone said, replacing the vast majority of the first 11 is not only unlikely but likely to cause more problems. We have Leno, Torreira and Guendouzi for the long term and Sokratis for the short/mid term. I believe those signings to have been successful overall so far. Continue the process… Read more »
Un Na “Then the club should have sold ozil and Mustafi in the summer. They hampered themselves. Emery claimed he wanted to build the side around ozil and Ramsey when he arrived the proceeded to drop them both within three games.” Actually, he was said to have said that Ramsey and Aubameyang were key to his plans, not Ramsey and Ozil. And he didn’t drop Ramsey after three games. I’d have to look back at the details, but I believe it took quite a bit longer than that, and his eventual dropping of Ramsey clearly had something to do with… Read more »
Bob n16 “Bullshit Thomas, do you have no pride? We are in the doldrums but we are always relevant!” well said. We will always matter. All of us have – different views, But old timers like us- will never stop believing – our best Arsenal days are still to be had. We will come again. Bigger,Better ,Brighter and Boulder than before. We just need a new regime. The Spanish one -are already on their last legs, They do not get The Arsenal. They never will. We aint Seville- lite! The Persic signing will be the one- that illustrates their inadequacies… Read more »
We have no thinking/clever players at arsenal now. The closest thing we have to a footballing brain is lacazette, and xakha. The rest are too one dimensional.
This obviously excludes ozil and Ramsey as they aren’t really part of arsenal any more.
If we sign Perisic for anything more than a 6 month loan spell I am back to being anti. Anti Sanhelhi, anti Emery, anti both.
I’ve given the benefit of the doubt to the new regime for the recent spate of signing 29 year olds until they are 33+. Its fucking ridiculous. Right now I give them some benefit of the doubt. But there would simply be no excuse for signing a player like Perisic for a 3+ year deal. I’ll be saying fuck the lot of them if this goes through.
Bamford
He’s not my boy for starters. But what would you have him do? Sell xakha Ramsey ozil Mustafi chambers Wilshere cazorla elneny and only bring in two central midfielders to replace all of that? Who would you bring in alongside guendouzi and Torriera?
Is it wise to completely overhaul our midfield in one summer?
Who would you have to replace Xakha right now. Realistically though. Not kante or anyone silly. Someone that would come to arsenal.
Just a wild guess….maybe just maybe….removing Bould from his duties could improve our defence.
Bamford Well you have been wrong on Kroenke all along . 1. Your go to argument has always been that our board has adopted self sustaining model and Stan is somehow dutybound to abide by the model. Well, to start with board of director of AFC and for that matter for any enterprise is merely an advisory committee. For a privately owned enterprise like AFC, the importance of board of directors is purely symbolic. It has no veto power and it can not dictate terms to Stan Kroenke. Nothing bars Stan from investing his own money in to AFC. He… Read more »
bamford
Sokratis is the best signing of that sorry lot.
A magnificent competitor. And very able on the ball. Reads it well…
BUT – we need to sign 24 year old Sokratis’s -not when he is 30 year old- who will naturally be on the wane.
Be interested to see – if he pursues a coaching career!!
If he does- I would like him coaching our academy defenders!
We need his warrior spirit.
this lad don’t wear gloves! or need hair gel!
“We will come again. Bigger,Better ,Brighter and Boulder than before.”
Not with the current owner. Not a chance.
Un Na
Well, that’s two broad of a question, but we need better than Xhaka, Ozil and Mustafi.
And as I’ve said a million times, Wilshere was crocked a long time ago.
Sokratis has been an excellent signing indeed. And a proper shit house. As has been said, we have missed that.
Un Na,
You can have my 90 year old dead gran to replace xhaka, just as effective.
At least you know she wouldn’t give the ball away or commit a stupid foul in the box for a pen! Lol.
Charlie
No way man. Torreira and guendouzi hands down. Donators is too slow for a a high line. He’s a chelsea defender. He’s built for a deep lying, counter attacking side. Not arsena. Not under emery. Not with a high line.
Agree bunga, Bould’s continued presence as a defensive coach is mystifying.
Regarding Perisic, is this another wild Twitter rumour or is there genuine reason to believe it will happen?
Until it does then little point stressing about it. Perhaps it is a 6 month loan in view to getting us over the line for top four and nothing more.
May as well have brought a 32 year old Cesc back on a free from Chelsea.
Chris
Don’t be daft don’t you know that every link to good player must be instantly dismissed whilst if its a poor player you have to completely lose your shit for days until the next bullshit link?
Bamford It’s not to broad of a question Who takes your fancy? You seem to think you possess a comprehensive footballing knowledge. So come on. Who would you have over xakha?? You’re telling me that in the world of football there isn’t one midfielder you’ve identified that could take his place in the arsenal midfield who could do a better job?? Considering you think so little of him I’d have said it was an easy task. Maybe you are bullshitting again and you don’t really have a scooby who’s out there and who could replace him. Maybe you’re over compensating… Read more »
Bob N16January 27, 2019 14:00:58
Bullshit Thomas, do you have no pride? We are in the doldrums but we are always relevant!
___
Haven’t won the league in 15 years
Failed to get past the last 16 in the CL for seven straight years
Haven’t qualified for the CL for the last two seasons
Yeah I’m pretty sure we’re irrelevant. We exist. That’s about it.
un
Genduzi for me. A gem of a footballer.
Notice how he reprimands his teammates -(rarely seen these days)
have huge doubts about Tor. (Be a great 5 a side player).
Think in the future -opposition coaches will just put their quickest player on the back of him and he will struggle,
Players and systems really matter and the right players in the wrong system would be a disaster. City and Liverpool play a 4-3-3 but you can’t interchange city’s players with Liverpool’s. Milner and Georgio Wijnaldum are both great in the Klopp system but they would horrible in Pep’s system. Players like Xhaka and Iwobi look like they’ve improved this season because they are players who function in a system as against the Wenger’s enjoy yourself method. Kolasinac is best as a wing back and terrible in a back 4. We have a collection of players that can really fit into… Read more »
Cardiff City H
Manchester City A
Huddersfield Town A
Southampton H
Bournemouth H
Tottenham Hotspur A
Manchester United H
Wolves A
Newcastle United H
Everton A
Watford A
Crystal Palace H
Leicester City A
Brighton and Hove Albion H
Burnley A
I reckon there’s 33 points there which would put us on 77 for the season. Probably losing at spurs and city and drawing with utd.
Only once has team finished on 75 points and finished fifth to not qualify.
Us two years ago.
There’s still along way to go before we write off the top four.
TR7 All of that work for nothing, because none of those are good points. One, I have never said that Stan could not break with the s-s model if he wanted o do so. Of course he could, but he’d need to discuss this with the board first, and he’d need to be told by the football men that this is what needed doing. Two, we didn’t miss out on Hazard because we were paying 20m in a year in debt payments. We missed out on Hazard because Wenger didn’t want to spend what Lille were asking, and he didn’t… Read more »
Up 4 Grabs
Potential banana skins in that lot with Wolves and Everton away, maybe Watford too.
But all to play for, I completely agree. With the way things are right now with the top 6 excluding Liverpool and Man City I think we could be seeing another one of those years with a mid to high seventy points total still falling short of top four.
Don’t we have a really good record against Everton?
Chris,
In those points I banked on, I thought a draw at wolves, but I don’t think Everton or Watford will be an issue?
A long way to go so you never know.
Now there’s six teams fighting for 4 spots I think 75 is now the minimum for champions league.
TR7
Excellent post regarding Kroenke.
Charlie George
What about kante? Scholes? Makalele? All short
All world class midfielders. Torriera will be alright
And to think we got 71 points when we finished runners up to Leicester.
All Wenger had to do was buy a defensive midfielder that season and the league was there for the taking. Instead of just Cech.
TR7
All of my points above stand, but I would like to retract my snarky tone. I was annoyed that you accused me of advancing a bogus line — I never have; Alexander always has — and most of your points either misrepresented by POV or missed the point, but this is no reason for me to be snarky about it. My bad, but I stand by what I’ve said.
Marc
Patchy up at Goodison over the last half decade I think. There has been a 5-2 win but also some disappointing losses.
They seem in transition themselves, their fans have high expectations these days.
Josip
‘Kroenke and the Board must be missing Wenger: they can’t hide behind him any more.’
Yep, I don’t think Stan realises how pissed off most fans are with arsenal.
‘No money’ in January?
They are taking the mickey.
Grabs
Very optimistic with your points projection.
Let’s not forget we have lost to Southampton and West Ham and drawn with Brighton recently and deservedly so.
5 defeats( all without Ozil starting) and a draw in the last 6 weeks is relegation form.
What happened at Monaco?
They’ve just sacked Mike Emenalo though it appears that he quit when the owner sacked HenRy against his advice to reappoint Jardim.
Strange stuff there.
I would take Emenalo as technical director even though there’s talk that Chelsea are going to reappoint him in that capacity.
* my
I did not understand today’s post in the wider context of what has happened over the past 5 years at the club. We were systematically told that the club was 2 or 3 players away from fighting for the title and that the management/gaffer were not buying those players for whatever reason. Now we are told that we bought 5 players for a massive 70K and bench-marked against ourselves, this is progress. I fail to understand how a guy like Sokratis can help us fight for the title. Liverpool had a similar problem and they bought VVD. City have Laporte,… Read more »
‘but he’d need to discuss this with the board first, and he’d need to be told by the football men that this is what needed doing.’ A business owner needs to be told by football men on investment policy ? Permission from board of directors ? You don’t understand how business enterprises work, do you ? ‘Could the owner take the debt onto his own books somehow and relieve the club of the 20m annual debt payment? I guess so, but he’s certainly not obligated to do so’ It is not a question of obligation, it is a matter of… Read more »
“Only interested in loans in the January window” ≠ “we have no money”. More disingenuousness from a certain quarter.
Chris
We’ve lost 2 and drawn 2 in the last 10 seasons – that’s a pretty good record
TR7
Maybe there is money but Emery refuses to spend it on principle.
MGooner
Mate, our aim at the moment is not the title. It’s top four. One step at a time. Improve the XI. Get CL revenue again. Improve the XI again.
This is how Liverpool did it. They didn’t go from outside of the top four to contending for the title in one summer.
Four, that is a deliberate misreading of what Kroenke was saying there. His point was not that he has no interest in trophies but that trophies are very hard to come by and that one must pursue them in a balanced way. That’s why he said he is interested in success on “both” fronts.
Bamford
Jesus talk about spin
And you have the temerity to lecture others on their “bullshit”
Tr7
You have your own views and don’t piggy back others, plus you communicate them eloquently and with reason.
You’re a good read on here. Cheers to you
Dissenter
The removal of Emenalo is one of the conditions Jardim proposed if he was to be reappointed. They don’t get along.
Marc
Fair enough but I am mainly thinking of how things are this season. They have blown hot and cold but have the personnel to cause problems. Nearly always a tough place to go and get a win although like you say we have done well in general.
Palace at home might be tricky too considering the trouble they have caused big teams away from home this season.
Overall I do see is getting at least 70 points. Whether that’s enough is another question.
Pierre,
45 points on offer,
I think the 7 home games take care of themselves barring utd,
6 wins and a draw against utd?
Away I would think losses to the spuds and city, and draw away at wolves.
That leaves Burnley, Leicester, Everton, Watford,huddersfield. Not easy but winnable.
Maybe I am being optimistic? But at the moment it is possible.
At least we have the Europa to fall back on for a champions league spot as well?
Un Na
No, that’s not “spin”. That’s what he was saying.
Bamford, You still don’t address my earlier point that Kroenke is potentially stacking the deck to ensure that anybody who is employed at Arsenal must accept ss model or won’t be employed. His passivity was inadequate and has meant that sticking to a ss model will potentially mean a long, circuitous route to competitiveness. He is a clever business man, he bought Arsenal on the cheap and the ss model must have given him a hard on. He has overseen a malaise at the club which needs to be sorted. We can return to as ss model once we have… Read more »
“Sokratis is out till the end of February and Koscielny is being assessed on a daily basis, leaving Mustafi and Mavropanos as the only fit centre backs.” – @ltarsenal
More empty posturing from Bamford who isn’t half as smart as he likes to pretend.
Kronke is feeding off of arsenal and you refuse to accept it. I suspect it’s to do with your shared nationality.
In the coming years, as emery fails and is replaced by the next failure your views will be exposed Bamford. Wenger was never the main problem once kroenke greedily consumed our local London club. He isn’t now, he won’t be next year or the year after that. It’s kroenke. It always was and it will be until he’s gone.
UN na,
Wenger was a big issue. Not a 100% his fault, as kronke and Ivan have to take a chunk of blame as well.
Kronke as an owner isn’t great, but the last few seasons he sanctioned Wenger to spend big. The problem was the poor buys for the most part.
You would think with a new manager, now would be the time to back the new manager not cut the purse strings?
Mgooner To be fair, the remit for this season was to get back into the top four. I will be shocked if we achieve that. There is the Europa league–possible but a long shot. . The most likely outcome is 5th or 6th for me. The thing is, I wouldn’t mind a static season that much. Also, for Emery, a first go at it where he consolidated our position wouldn’t be a disaster and it would be unwise to sack him. What makes me pessimistic for the future is that we are stuck with an owner who is not committed… Read more »
@ Bamford10 And they do it be having a long term plan but giving the gaffer a 2 year deal. Awesome. As for top 4, you are dreaming. Get used to the EX-Spursday football. We were always in the top 4 with project youth except when 1. we started buying players like Sanchez/Ozil 2. fans started turning negative following consistent negative posts online going mainstream creating a toxic atmosphere 3. and pricks like Sanchez/Ozil/AOC showed their greed. They held the club to ransom Seems we have to show some love to Ozil. Remind me how much love we give him… Read more »
Un na a naj
Totally agree. It’s what I’ve been saying on here for six years.
Bob Actually, I think I did answer that. For the moment they are sticking with the s-s model, and yes, that means we might not be looking at managers who would demand more spending upfront than the s-s model would allow. Might this prove to be a mistake? Maybe. Might we need to break with the s-s model in order to dig ourselves out of the hole Wenger dug for us? Maybe. It’s a little too early to say, I think. Let me ask you a question, though: is that how Liverpool got themselves back into the top four? No,… Read more »
Koscielny likely to be out for a while
Sokratis out for a month
We’re definitely signing Gary Cahill this week.
Charlie
Glad you like my posts. Needless to say you are a top poster yourself. Besides, your casutic sarcasm is absolutely top notch, you liven things up on here.
Alex
Bamford never waivers from his stand, so expect him to continue to absolve Stan from all blame no matter how bad things get at AFC.
@ Alexanderhenry
Agree with your points. But then why did we not entertain the Usmanov bid? He is 10 times richer than Abramovich and said he would make his money available to buy top players so we could win the PL and CL.
The fans were fiercely against this at the time.
We have to live with it as this is what we wanted. I do not understand the dissatisfaction. Stan never said he would use his own money to buy us star players. So why the expectation now. He even bought his shares in AFC on EMI.
Grabs
We could get in Europe through the back door…Chelsea , Spurs and United could suffer fixture congestion if they continue in the cup competitions.
Arsenal will get enough rest during FA CUP week and the Europa only gets serious from the quarters onwards so we should have a fit squad for the run in, maybe 70 points will be enough.
Mgooner
True. Ozil wouldn’t get away with this shite at a top club.
If the club are offering Perisic 135k Euros a week, then it makes sense that Aaron Ramsey joins Juventus by the end of the week. The salaries matchup.
Mgooner
The fans were agaisnt this at the time??
I don’t recall anyone being anyntumg but excited that we could compete again after Chelsea took over with their oil money
Ozil wouldn’t be in this shite in top club to begin with.
Un, Stan isn’t a great owner, but he’s not a bad one either.
He gives money, takes out little and allows the club to be run.
If he put a proper CEO in charge of the club, we’d be in great shape.
He made a mistake with Gazidis, and he needs to pivot sharply with the leadership structure he has now.
Tbf, Ivan made good progress on paper… but then bailed.
MGooner, exactly.
Spurs spend fuck all and they are in the CL.
M gooner
I was always as Usmanov fan.
We’d be in a much stronger position now if he’d been running the club.
Instead Stan now owns all of it.
Not good.
Pedro
We will never ever compete with Stan at the club.
I’ll put a £100 bet now that we won’t win a title or champions league until he’s gone.
@ Un na naai
You are wrong. Go back and read the posts of the time again. Usmanov was criticised for his past.
We chose Stan, He chose us. Lets live happily now and that means lowered expectations. Forget top four and all that competition stuff.
Pierre
Think we’ll need ~75 points for a top 4 spot.
Can you see us winning 10 of our last 15 matches? Our fitness advantage has worn off, injuries are piling up. Tall task for us.
He is the problem
He is in control
He allowed the club to deteriorate. He kept Wenger and gazidis at the club when we had options in the shape of klopp and pep
He’s taken no initiative whatsoever because he doesn’t need to. We are easy money to him.
Great for him. Shit for arsenal fans.
MGooner
Yep.
Also, expect more guff about the merits self sustainability, project youth 2.0 and arsenal’s ‘values’.
I’m not sure it will wash with the fans this time though.
@ Pedro
Why use only the Spurs example.
Lets do the stats of all clubs which are in the top 4 and look at their spending.
Spurs is the exception, not the rule.
Why go on a difficult path when we apparently need only 2/3 top platers to be competing.
Blame is the name of the game on here ever since Ivan chose Unai instead of Mikel. As a matter of fact, I wanted Arteta too, despite his lack of experience, but surely there can be no doubt that Emery was the wiser choice. Whether it was peevishness or habit or the need to target someone, poor old Emery has received remorseless undeserved attack. Did anybody sincerely expect better from Arteta -or from anybody, for that matter? It may be that Emery throws in the towel, the way that Sven has. Then what? Does anybody expect the next manager to… Read more »
Un, he’s not going anywhere, and don’t underestimate what the Super Bowl could do for us. All of his sports businesses are improving.
He made good decisions this summer, but he lost the CEO and didn’t install a new one.
When that stadium is half empty again and we’re nowhere near CL, he’ll have to pivot.
He said recently that sport is a content game and it’s becoming more global… he can’t avoid Arsenal forever.
@Dissenter, Monaco are in full headless chicken panic mode due to the owner divorce. Two years ago, Monaco owner’s wife decided to divorce and request half of his fortune. He suddenly needed a quick way to raise funds without losing some of his asset. He did not want to lose Monaco FC as it give him a right for a permanent residency in Monaco and in Europe. So he decided to change business model. No more self sufficient, it has to fund 100 millions pounds quickly. They sacked their previous great director of football because they wanted to copy Chelsea… Read more »
Pierre,
Hopefully mate.
Chelsea signing the hig doesn’t make me think it will click into place for them.
Utd have had a good run but against easy team’s. They still have to play us, city, Chelsea and the bindippers.
And the spuds still have to play the same.
A lot of potentially dropped points for all of us, so should be interesting.
englandsbest, why are you talking about Arteta?
Why not talk about what we have in front of us, a bland manager not driving the club forward.
Arteta is an irrelevance now.
Bamford, Liverpool identified a top manager. In addition they identified top value, quality improvements: Mane, Firmino, Salah, Coutinho. They sold Coutinho for fantastic money which then subsidised top quality additions in thetwo areas that they were clearly deficient. I don’t know about their salary negotiations but I believe they’ve announced a tremendous profit so they’ve got that right too. Their owners have had a clear plan and made great appointments to implement that plan. Let’s do a Liverpool I hear you say. Great, identify a top manager, do some scouting and get your negotiations sorted and off we trot! Is… Read more »
Sokratis out for a while.kos expected to miss a few weeks also
Knowing our luck,expect mustafi to pull something in the our next match
We’re definitely going to be abused by City,scaring stuff
Pedro you didn’t answer my question earlier who was the club bidding 50 million for Ramsay in the summer that arsenal turned down?
Sokratis out until the end of Feb… that’s quite the ankle twist. We are in trouble against City!
United, Up 4 Grabs. Via JC
1-0 palace go on you eagles.
Pedro
Sorry I’m being dim. Jc?
Pedro, how can you defend Gazidis who oversaw appalling transfer business and salary negotiations and enabled Wenger to stay for years passed his sell by date? Our commercials were going to improve because frankly they had to from the position they were in. Gazidis took his fat pay check for years, overseeing a manager who was well past his sell by date and appears to have been spineless in discussions with Kroenke. Kroenke and Stan rode the gravy train as an aged manager steered us into the rocks.
Arsenal’s perisic loan offer rejected
Great, inter want to sell,duck them
John Cross.
Bob, Wenger was in charge of transfers.
He was fired.
Ivan put in a good plan on paper.
We have signed pretty good players since.
Auba
LT
MG
Papa
Leno
Mav
Only duffers have been Licht / Mikhi
We made a terrible mistake with Ozil and Rambo, for sure.
But the plan, on paper, looked good.
Now it’s unravelled, obvs it doesn’t look so good.
A bland manager who has us 3 pts away from what our actual target for the season is.
Welbeck Holding Belerin Mikhi Monreal Socratis Kocielny That Greek kid defender All out injured and people expecting style and results from Emery? FFS we didn’t have stable back four for more than 3 games.. Never mentioned how bad AMN and Kola at defending. Ozil sulking Auba’s Walcott show Petr Cech ..say no more Ramsey ..average at his best..wish him all the best though.. Iowbe can have his genius moment ..shit most of the time Xhaka.. If you bring back Alex Ferguson at his peak he would struggle Emery is no messiah, has made mistakes, however any top manager would struggle… Read more »
When that stadium is half empty again and we’re nowhere near CL, he’ll have to pivot. He said recently that sport is a content game and it’s becoming more global… he can’t avoid Arsenal forever. Pedro Not if we are stuck in limbo. Not if the stadium doesn’t empty and just enough money purs in to satisfy him. Not if we are hip hopping between champions league places and Europa with the odd 3rd league position The other half of the fans are now willing to give emery 3 more years or more to eradicate Wenger’s memory. Now that’s great… Read more »
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11670/11619560/arsenals-ivan-perisic-loan-offer-rejected-by-inter-milan
That’s Good news.
Almost like you just need an excuse to be the first to say ” I told you so”.
Bad news with Koscienly and Sokratis out for a while. We’re left now with the 35 quid wasted Mustafi. Wonder why we’re after Perisic when we’re short of any real defenders. Those running this club are actual clowns
Un, we need to approach the future like Liverpool did.
Take smart risks on young players with high ceilings, play great football, break in CL, sell one for a shit ton, then grow from there.
Gentle reminder for those who forgot or did not know. Stan bought Usmanov’s shares for 600. His own contribution was 45M. The balance was financed via a loan from Deutsche Bank. The security is provided through KSE, the holding company of AFC. So essentially this is an LBO. He has to service that loan and the money has to come from somewhere. Do not talk to him about injecting cash for players. It would be interesting to analyse where the money for Aubameyang and Laca came from? Was it from our player sales and accumulated reserves? Gazidis was smart. He… Read more »
We just aren’t competitive any more at the top end of the game
It’s time to accept that and it won’t change until kroenke goes or starts giving a damn about the club.
Also, don’t doubt the fans ability to now show… the ground was soulless on Friday and there were empties everywhere.
Man U on a Friday and we can’t fill. Unreal
We need a young fresh hungry coach yes. But we aren’t topping any tables until we get a serious injection of cash. I’m talking £300-£500m
Un na naii
The first part of your comment about needing a fresh hungry coach is all easy to write down but in reality, are Arsenal fans going to be patient enough with any new manager who doesn’t play swashbuckling free flowing attacking football while conceding less goals with Tom and Jerry in defence?
Un, until it starts costing Stan money… or he sees that he’ll be shunted out of Super League talks.
Batistuta, if the football is unreal, you get time.