Processed with VSCO with p5 preset
TWO DAYS WITH NO POST.
Sorry, I was crushed by advertising challenges. If you don’t plug those leaks, eventually there will be a flood my friends. Let that be a potent lesson to those sleeping in wet tents.
Right, what have we today?
John Cross and Sami Mokbel both reckon AFC has £45m to spend this summer.
David Ornstein told Arsecast there’s £100m to spend.
A CLASH OF THE MIGHTY ITK.
To be absolutely straight with you, I had heard the lower number from the same places that I hear good things from.
As Gambon from the comments pointed out, it’s way too fucking early to talking budgets.
We could finish 4th and earn an extra £40m next season… or we could finish 8th and not make Europe at all.
5- Arsenals revenue for next season will be c£450m without CL football, £470m with CL football. In 2016/17 Arsenal had revenues of £420m, and had a net spend of £92m. Arsenal can afford to repeat their spending of 2016/17 with a £450m predicted revenue.
— Gambon (@TheMightyGambon) February 5, 2019
So here’s where the whole thing gets a bit blurred… yes, we should be able to spend a lot of money, but Sami Mokbel is very well connected, and say what you want about John Cross, the man knows all the tea ladies behind the scenes. What I’m saying here is the club is briefing a low number and they are doing it on purpose.
Why?
Well, they could be greasing the wheels to sell a major player that won’t be popular. Lacazette, our super-saucy-swag-machine of a striker could be on the way out because let’s be real, he’s the most saleable asset we have going into the summer.
Stan K could be keen to rein in our expenditure now he’s taken us private. Remember the e-mail for money saving that went to all the staff? That could point to tighter days.
It could be that absolute Arsenal classic: ‘Why would you tell people you are rich?’
The strategy is unclear and the leak feels very odd after Josh K literally told Jonathan Wilson he wanted to win the Champions League a few days ago.
Anyway, if the money is £45m, it’s going to be a tough summer.
Interesting that Ornstein also said there were disagreements about Suarez, and that the club really fancied Perisic.
The good times are certainly not going to land if that’s the future of our deals.
I’m even a little worried about the Monchi hire. The jury is out on the Roma tenure despite a great run the Champions League. I’d argue that he oversold after his first season, now his team are languishing a bit. Everything looks a little bit like we’re loading the club up with Europa League talent, which doesn’t leave me feeling even slightly aroused.
Still, one thing is for sure, it does seem like the reason for not purchasing was related to value more than cash flow. We could easily have dropped a madness last month. We didn’t, which shows we learnt a lesson.
Right, I have to go back to my world of hell and cry into a branded hoodie.
Big love to you all, thanks for standing by me during times of pain. x
P.S. I thought this infographic was amazing for how misleading it is.
Klopp didn’t spend £70m and took over Oct 15, spending £5.1m in his first transfer window.
That number for Poch is from his Southampton days.
Koeman dropped 45 in his first 24 for Southampton and didn’t make the list.
Conte smashed the list and was available last summer. What? I’m just saying? Damn, you are so touchy…
Given the stage of the season we are at surely the FA can impose that Spurs play all their remaining games at Wembley. I know we struggled the first few games at the Emirates but I think Spurs’ situation is different. They could well be within touching distance of the league leaders (stop laughing at the back) and their fans will be in a frenzy to get into the new ground after all the delays. It’s not out of the question to say it could give them an extra edge. I’m sure Klopp and Guardiola would have something to say… Read more »
Qna
You’re right. If Stan had offered a little cash injection for 2/3/4 top top players it would have paid dividends.
Luis Suarez would have been a game changer. Oblak and Hazard
Talking of falling revenue.
Expect our TV revenue to fall in the next year or 2 if we continue to serve up the style of football we have seen recently .
Surrendering meekly to Southampton, West Ham , City ,Liverpool, United and Tottenham plus the bore draw with Brighton will have the fans switching off so the TV companies will reduce the amount of games Arsenal are on the box.
We’d also more likely have kept rvp and Sanchez had we had owner investment and added top quality players
@Silverhawk
https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/arsenal-debut-innovative-new-replay-15791935
Bamford 10
Do you think that Kroenke wanted to show in this year’s accounts a huge profit
when Usmanov was offering to sell his shares?
Usmanov will have requested and been shown the accounts before the deal was struck.
On a secondary issue you have indicated that Terraloon suggests a massive £50-70 million loss this year. I am not clear how he arrives at this forecast, but
let’s wait and see.
If Kroenke had pumped money into the club over the last 2 years we’d have a wage bill of £300 Million not £230 Million, we’d have twice the net spend and likely be at the same sort of level.
It isn’t the level of spending it is the intelligence of the spending.
£50 000 a week to Torreria, good, £350 000 a week to Ozil, bad.
£12 Million for Sokratis good, £35 Million for Mustafi, bad.
£26 Million for Torreria good, £35 Million for Xhaka, bad.
£8 Million for Guendouzi good, £15 Million for Elneny, bad.
I dunno why some of you guys invest your time and energy in pouring over the financial statements and records etc You’ll either find we’re skint (bad news) Or you’ll find we’re not but we’re still shit which highlights how shoddily we have been/are being run (bad news) Or some combination of the above. The club is shockingly run so it doesn’t matter a great deal haggling over 10 or 20m innthe accounts. We are run ass backwards by a combination of negligent, self interested and incompetent people. Sadly, there’s nothing positive to be found in looking closely at our… Read more »
Makes for pretty tough reading CA doesn’t it?
You can add selling Szczesny for 12 million and Gnabry for 5 million to the list of awful decision making on players to come in and out of the club in recent years.
Bamford. No there weren’t. Not unless your going to cherry pick with hindsight. I listed specific players and click bait news prices for them. Who exactly were the cheap alternatives that people were suggesting that I derided that turned out wrong. I’m not claiming to be a super talent scout anyway. That job is for someone who is world class at that which we needed to get in 10 years ago. And fucking Ivan compared to Dein. Pfttt. My main argument was that if the other big clubs aren’t interested in these players then that is a fairly good sign… Read more »
WE It does indeed. Gnabry is a particular bad one given our complete lack of wide options. If someone wanted buy him from Munich now, how much would he cost? Eight times what we sold him for probably. Everyone would like Kroenke to put £100 Million of his own money in, but then if you have a net spend of £193 Million instead of £93 Million, if it’s still shit like Mustafi, Perez etc all you have is £193 Million worth of shit instead of £93 Million. We can and will do a lot better with our money, we’re already… Read more »
Good post Pedro, That was my infographic, it came up on my Twitter feed and was relevant to a debate being had in the comments. It came from the Sun’s official account so I didn’t stop to check the monies as that wasn’t the point of my argument, points on the board were what I was getting at. Very pertinent. I thought exactly the same thing though; why didn’t we go for Conte? Would have been a better option imo. >>>>>>> Champagne charlieFebruary 7, 2019 10:12:50 Pedro Found that list of managers stat to be such a contrived attempt to… Read more »
Özil and Mkhitaryan salaries are high.
Theyll come off in 12-24 months (one will move on)
Main issue is fees from selling
Alexis 60m
Ramsey 40m
Chambers 20m
Welbeck 20m
Szczesny 25m
——————
165m
If we did that we’d be on course for our annual CL spot
Cesc
Pedro does seem to be in a strange place at the moment. His dislike of Emery is obvious but he now seems to be in a “everyone’s rubbish” unless they’re already at City etc.
You can’t write off the performance of someone because they didn’t take a small club in Spain and turn them into something bigger than Barca and Madrid combined.
Cesc. Agree the problem has been who we buy. But also how much we are prepared to spend. Xhaka instead of Kante, Mustafi – why didn’t we go for VVD from his time at Celtic, all the way up until he finally went to Liverpool. The list is endless. But there was definitely a problem in our valuation of players. It cost us badly. I don’t think it’s a matter of owner investment. We have cash reserves that the club has generated that haven’t been spent. But I ageee, I lost my faith in the Ivan/Wenger duo to be able… Read more »
I would mention the following: 1. Although the company accounts for Arsenal Holdings Limited cover period ending 31st May 2018 a statement at end of accounts shows already that the company is now owned 100% by Kroenke’s company in Delaware despite acquisition taking place after end of financial year. 2. Arsenal Holdings Limited is now a private company registered in England and not in USA as some feared. 3. The company has an overdraft facility of £50 million, which is not used. This contrasts with many other Football Clubs who are often borrowed up to hilt. 4. The club’s cash… Read more »
qna
Wenger lost his touch in the last five years. He became a hoarder of players. Gazidis fuked us over with his input in player matters. A few of the players AW didn’t want. Ivan being too clever with statDNA.
What’s worrying going forward is that Emery will.have more input on players.
Don’t trust him if Denis types are coming in. Player recruitment is the #1 part of football. It will make it difficult to move them on when he leaves in a couple of years
Emery out now
You had to winder what was going on in the club in January of 2018. It’s like a Grinch broke in and stole away their collective sense of probity. We made the Sanchez situation worse by getting a 29 year failed Armenian and increased his wages to stupid levels, which unsettled the lies of Ramsey. We made the Ozil situation worse by picking the more poisonous of the two poor options- Bosman exit or crazy wage-extension. Then we got a 29 year old striker from Dortmund that no one was contesting with us for 55 million. Auba’s weekly wages aren’t… Read more »
ES: Good point. Although AFC is a UK registered business, the ultimate beneficiary owner of Arsenal FC is KSE Inc which is based in Delaware. We will only discover whether Kroenke is taking money out of Arsenal FC when the annual accounts (2018-19) for the UK registered business are deposited at Companies House, London in about nine months. Up to 2017-18 there was no evidnece of Kroenke plundering the accounts, aside from the small sums taken a couple of years back. The only proviso is that Kroenke could, if he so wishes, transfer the domicile of the UK company (AFC)… Read more »
“What’s worrying going forward is that Emery will.have more input on players.”
Nothing worrying about it, a coach should always have an input on the profile of the players he wants if you are going to come on here and cream “Emery out” when it doesn’t work out.
Not so much the names that are brought in but the profile of the player. He wants a winger the technical director gives him names, a defender ditto..but he should be allowed to specify in details the attributes he is after
Dream
So you don’t think any manager should have an input on players coming in and going out?
You think a manager just exists to move cones around the training pitch?
Dissenter
Gazidis really fucked us over last January. He took over the decision making power and made those calls. If the club re-signed both Özil and Alexis in 2016 for 200-250k, the club would still be in Ctrl. Instead we have Özil on a high salary. Arsenal were offering an even higher salary to Alexis (thank Lord he declined) who was in visible physical decline since Leicester won the title.. Mkhitaryan increased his weekly wages in a transfer from a rich club to a less rich one. What a shambles. What a club.
qna
I’ve always thought what worked in the early Wenger years was Wenger spotting talent and Dein doing the deals. Dein would be wise enough not to lose out on a potential talent over an million quid, Wenger seemed to go from not wanting to spend at all to spending too much on average players.
A manager should have input for players coming in. But he shouldn’t be the end all be all in making choice. Especially Emery. He isn’t an elite manager
Anyone else thinks if Coutinho and Barca are really reaching a breaking point, that Arsenal should really be all over that? Makes sense for so many reasons: We need that type of player to transition midfield to attack.. Ozil, Ramsey, Mkhi for different reasons aren’t/can’t be that player for us going forward. The loan of Denis Suarez and Emery’s vision of how he may be used shows hes looking for that type (but is Suarez the quality we need?) There is a history or AFC and Barca doing business, plus Sanllehi’s connections and all that The club needs to lower… Read more »
Un
“We’d also more likely have kept rvp and Sanchez had we had owner investment and added top quality players”
Can add nasri,ade, maybe Cesc and a few more to that list
Dream. I agree with you on Emery. I think it takes a special skill to spot players before they become worth too much money. A skill that no full time manager would even have the time to make use of. I want a Sven type person. But I’m also not happy with the business he has done since he arrived. I don’t think buying Auba or swapping Sanchez for Mkhi is what we should be doing now. Sokratis has been a good buy, but at his age what is the point. We should have looked for a quality CB that… Read more »
A 60 mil bid should surely make Barca and the player at least listen.
If and when Coutinho wants to return to the premier league i expect United and Chelsea to outbid us. I don’t think 60 will do the business either.
He isn’t an elite manager
Managers all over the world are allowed to bring in their own players most times, players they fancy and will like to work with. Has nothing to do with being elite.
I am sure Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is an elite manager in your book so i won’t even bother to ask you what you mean by elite. Its your opinion and you are entitled to it
To let Gnabry leave at all , let alone for such a low fee was the height of stupidity…
“If and when Coutinho wants to return to the premier league i expect United and Chelsea to outbid us.”
And that’s exactly the problem we have had for the last 12 years and we will have for the next 12 years unless something changes at the club.
Anyone know who made the decision to bring in Saurez. ..A sackable offence in my opinion.
The same as it was a sackable offence whoever sanctioned the Ozil contract knowing our financial situation.
Pierre
That’s fine, but then you’d have had to change the mindset of a certain Mr Wenger.
A lack of investment was key but remember Wenger sanctioned everything.
These players left for several reasons, not just because of a lack of investment from the owner.
Kroenke was infact investing heavily on ott salaries.
“Anyone know who made the decision to bring in Saurez. ..A sackable offence in my opinion.”
Suarez is here on a SIX MONTHS LOAN DEAL with NO OBLIGATION TO BUY
Receding
You can’t wake up a person who’s pretending to be asleep. If Emery finishes fourth and wins Europa, certain posters would still find a reason for Emery to be sacked.
Yeah. Suarez for 6 months no brainer. A warm body. Would have preferred it be a defender that we managed to pull off, but Suarez can’t hurt.
But making it permanent would be a mistake imo. Unless he looks like he could be world class, we should put that 18m to better use.
Will take years to get over the damage Wenger, PHW and Ivan have done to this club in what I call THE LOST DECADE, All sense of Winning , Competing and doing right by Arsenal Football Club went out the window the day the clueless PHW sacked Dein, That is also the day Wenger started to believe in his own hype, The Senile old fool destroyed Arsenal Footballs Club.
@Azed
I can’t even get my head round it
Name me the elite manager that will be told he only has money for loan moves and still hang around. Last year when Pep needed defensive reinforcement in January he spent 57m pounds to bring in Laporte while Klopp spent 75m on VVD.
Before demanding for an elite manager you have to first be an elite club and NO being a London club with a 60k capacity stadium does not an elite club make.
Graham
Ten years ago we were not investing in players or salaries ..players left due to lack of ambition and low wages .
We then made the mistake of going the other way and paying average players too high a wage .
“We then made the mistake of going the other way and paying average players too high a wage .”
Average players like Ozil.
“Inter Milan have parted company with manager Rafael Benitez just over six months after appointing the Spaniard. Benitez was named Inter manager a week after leaving Liverpool on 3 June and, although he had injuries to key players to contend with, the 50-year-old’s exploits did not help his cause. At the time of his exit, Inter were 13 points behind Serie A leaders and arch-rivals AC Milan and struggling for form, albeit with two games in hand. In defence of their Champions League crown, Inter could only finish as group runners-up behind Tottenham to leave them facing a difficult tie… Read more »
Okay, let’s assume that the season ends as I believe most of us expect: no trophies won, 5/6th in PL, out of next season’s CL. What then? What kind of future can we hope for? Arsenal is not, say, Leicester, who experienced something similar. The difference is fan expectation: AFC have an obligation to their fans to compete with the best. Not so Leicester, Thus while they can safely slip down into obscurity to recover, Arsenal cannot. We have seen how Man U and Chelsea try to deal with the situation: they spend big money to bring in top players.… Read more »
Qna
Saurez is not a no brainer.
He will add nothing to the team, if it had been someone like Perisic then I could understand the reasoning as he is different to anything we have in the squad but Saurez is no different to the players that Emery is disregarding now that are in the squad .
He’s not a winger but I will be more than happy to be proven wrong ….
QNA
” A warm body. Would have preferred it be a defender that we managed to pull off, but Suarez can’t hurt.”
I disagree, I think it can hurt( for Emery anyway) because if Saurez proves to be a failure then more questions will asked of Emery . He is putting his neck on the line, not financially, but with his judgement of what Arsenal football club needs at this present time plus leaving mavropanos out of the Europa league squad is another judgement that may come back to haunt him in a few months time .
Baffling decisions.
Pierre
“He’s not a winger but I will be more than happy to be proven wrong ”
Covering your back won’t save you from having egg on youe face.
Pierre. Warm body. Nothing more. If he is worse than the players we are already dishing up then leave him out.
You’re acting like Emery has gone to the board who were throwing money at him and begging him to spend their money and he was like – no I will only take Suarez on loan.
You’re acting like Emery has gone to the board who were throwing money at him and begging him to spend their money and he was like – no I will only take Suarez on loan.
Nicely put
Funny enough we approached Perisic and couldn’t offer Inter anything to make them interested, Ditto Carrasco with his Chinese club.
Why Pierre is ignoring the circumstances surrounding having Suarez here is not a mystery though, his agenda is plain to see.
There’s talk Wenger is about to jump back into the fray and is considering four offers to return to coaching.
Does it mean he will give up the remaining 5 month pay on his contract.
C’mon Wenger, show us you love the club. Leave the remaining 1-2 million left on the table and march triumphantly into a new job.
@ Receding and Pierre, good points…
Just saying if Chelsea and United are being linked to Coutinho as we speak, why isn’t Arsenal?
He would be the perfect solution to this massive problem we are having that involves Ozil, Ramsey, Suarez and all that’s being said above to find the long term solution to that important role.
Coutinho being unsettled represents a unique opportunity that won’t come around again too easily to at least try to get an elite, proven premier league player, of the perfect age ..that fits EXACTLY what we are looking for and struggling to figure out.
http://africa.espn.com/football/club/paris-saint-germain/160/blog/post/3768349/psg-must-put-january-blues-behind-them-before-manchester-united-clash
A Interesting read, you will understand the complexities of the manager sporting director relationship if you look closely at what’s happening at PSG. it’s a delicate balance.
Jani Coutinho will be a dream signing of that there is no doubt..we are just not there yet. We are not in a position to offer the 90-120m pounds needed to close that deal without putting our house in order first.
We are not making deals like that anytime soon if we are being honest with ourselves.
“Just saying if Chelsea and United are being linked to Coutinho as we speak, why isn’t Arsenal?”
OMG
Lets spend the transfer budget for the next two seasons on Coutinho?
Barca just spent about 125 million Euros, how much will they sell him for?
Qna “You’re acting like Emery has gone to the board who were throwing money at him and begging him to spend their money and he was like – no I will only take Suarez on loan.” Not at all …apparently we have brought him in to play on the wing …..in other words, a winger. Can you honestly see Saurez. flying down the wing , beating players , creating chances …I cant. He looks a neat and tidy player to me who is not physically strong and with limited pace .. I’m looking forward to seeing the team with a… Read more »
“Suarez is here on a SIX MONTHS LOAN DEAL with NO OBLIGATION TO BUY”
That’s obvious.
He wouldn’t be at Arsenal if there was the obligation to buy him lol
Pierre
“He looks a neat and tidy player to me who is not physically strong and with limited pace ..”
Sounds like Ozil
This talk of Coutinho is simply ludicrous. Don’t you know, Arsenal have no money. We’ve been told by the CEO, the sports director and the manager.
Oh, I get it. A straight swap for Ozil.
““Just saying if Chelsea and United are being linked to Coutinho as we speak, why isn’t Arsenal?””
Is the idiot who wrote this is aware that this could be the same with any other top player ??
“A straight swap for Ozil.”
Where do I sign ??
In respect of the accounts I summarise the £56m profit we made in 2018 below: Turnover from Football – £388m Property development profits – £5m Profit on player sales – £122m Wages – (£240m) – includes £17m for Wenger & staff payoff Transfer and signing on fees amortisation – (£92m) Other Operating Costs – (£104m) Interest – (£9m) Tax – (£14m) ——————————– Profit £56m Without the profit on player sales we would have made a £52m loss (as there would have been no tax). If you look for 2019 Wages – The cost after removing the compensation paid to Wenger… Read more »
CA/WengerEagle “You can add selling Szczesny for 12 million and Gnabry for 5 million to the list of awful decision making on players to come in and out of the club in recent years.” That’s what happens when you allow too much power to be invested in one person. Before 2018, it was Wenger. Bad decisions get approved because of the decision maker and not because it is a good decision on its merits. In 2019, especially with the sacking of Mislintat, will we make the same mistake with Raul Sanhelli? Why are we giving him so much control? A… Read more »
Pierre. I didn’t know anything about him really. I didn’t like what I saw from his debut. But I fail to see how this is on Emery? We needed to strengthen in January. The club gave us no money. It wasn’t Emery’s job to negotiate with clubs around Europe to get us players on loan. That was Raul’s job. Raul managed to get only one player on loan. I am saying it’s hopefully better than none. The bar isn’t very high when it comes to the wingers that we have. I think every last one of them needs to be… Read more »
Go away Skinnywill. You talk too much sense for this blog. 🙂
“The bar isn’t very high when it comes to the wingers that we have. ”
We don’t have any actual wingers actually
Receding. True. I mean the ones that we are currently using there.
Ruth
I actually do think he is a very similar player to Ozil.
“I actually do think he is a very similar player to Ozil.”
The cat’s out the bag then. Your animosity towards him is due to the fact Emery now has someone else who can do the “touches” and that may mean you won’t get to see Ozil on the pitch
Explains the weird fixation you have with a player on a six month loan deal
RH
I said from day one that he reminds me of Ozil so there is no cat and no bag to talk about.
Why bring someone in who is a similar player to what you already have who holds the record for the fastest to 50 assists in the league and for whatever reason won’t play him even though the team continues to play poorly and continue to lose games without him.
And besides Ozil, we have Ramsey and Mhkitaryan, is Saurez any better than those 2, the stats show he is not even close.
Big clubs don’t sell their stars, claims Arsène Wenger David Hytner in Kuala Lumpur @DaveHytner Tue 12 Jul 2011 00.06 BST Arsène Wenger insists Samir Nasri will stay but admits uncertainty regarding Cesc Fábregas Arsène Wenger has categorically ruled out the prospect of Samir Nasri leaving this summer, going so far as to suggest that Arsenal could not be considered a “big club” if they lost both the France midfielder and Cesc Fábregas. Wenger has chosen to hold on to Nasri even though it could cost the club upwards of £20m in lost transfer fees, and the manager said he… Read more »
There is only one cat and it’s Ozil.
A real pussy he is.
Thanks Red, sweet memories…
Pierre
“And besides Ozil, we have Ramsey and Mhkitaryan, is Saurez any better than those 2, the stats show he is not even close.”
Don’t fret because Suarez will be gone at the end of May.
We need an extra warm body replace the lifeless effigy of Ozil.
Evening all, Did I miss the bit where Ornstein and all the other media hacks sit in on our board meetings and set the budget for the year? This season’s not even finished yet but they know what we’re spending on players next season. We might finish 4th? We might finish 5th or 6th? That depends how much money there is for transfers. Is it champion’s league or Europa? FFP comes into it but we’re shifting on 500k a week in salaries just on players retiring or going on bosmans on June the 1st. If they can shift ozil, Xhaka,… Read more »
Redtruth
Do you know exactly when Samir Nasri decided he wanted to leave AFC? I do.
It was the second the final whistle blew after the 2011 Carling Cup Final defeat to Birmingham.
Another tactical balls-up from Wenger.
He’d had enough.
Nothing to do with a lack of investment.
Red. That was always the problem. It’s why I was fooled by him for so long. Wenger always said things that I agreed with them and agree with today. It’s why for the longest time I was prepared to believe that it was not his decisions. That his hands were somehow tied. I really can’t understand how he destroyed his legacy so badly. If he just walked the walk and added quality players I think it would have been enough to paper over the cracks of his tactical deficiencies. Don’t think he ever wins a champions league, but maybe he… Read more »
Red,
If Wenger had any honour, he would have resigned when Nasri went.
He can’t make a speech like that about not Being a big club if both were sold, and then stay on.
As soon as they left, that set the wheels in motion for RVP to go.
And to sell him to Ferguson and announce he’s handed the title to utd was just as bad.
Should have quit there and then.
qna
How come you were “fooled” by Wenger for so long.
You were actually listening to and believing in all his garbage?
Wenger’s hands were never tied. A myth.
Then again you weren’t the only one sucked in by his sob stories.
Just a pity that after we moved to the new stadium, so many supporters bought into all his crap.
Always making excuses and looking for sympathy.
Ah, shame.
Up for grabs. It was set in motion when we started selling players to City. I can’t remember who went first. Clichy maybe? As soon as we started doing that, we systematically went about replacing a good squad of players with mediocre ones. The final straw for me was buying Arteta. We did add a couple of good players after that initial sell off stated, including Nasri. I liked the intent of Arhavin even if it didn’t quite go as well as I had expected. But majority of our buys after that were mediocre compared to what the other big… Read more »
Remember folks this blog was basically established because people were fed up with Wenger and his boring and predictable methods.
Correct me if I’m wrong.
Graham. Yep. I still don’t understand what happened. My arrogance maybe, but I can’t believe he had me fooled. Was nothing real between us Arsene….. (shakes fist at the skies). The way I figure it, Arsene was one of the best of his time… at first. The set up worked and Dein had control of certain aspects and Wenger others. When Dein left, Pedro’s man Ivan should have kept that balance going. But being completely out of his depth he handed over that aspect to Wenger. He must have thought all he has to do is collect his cheque’s and… Read more »
Qna
Toure, adebayor, clichy, then nasri and then sagna.
(Yes I did Google it)
The worst decision though was letting them get Vieira for the last 18 months of his career.
Seeing him play while we were saddled with denilson and song.
He could have come in and settled the younger players down then started coaching here.
Another Wenger screw up!
qna
Please, don’t feel sorry for Wenger.
You should be feeling sorry for AFC.
As for Gazidis, a complete and utter waste of space.
The consequences of which are there for all to see.
“I’ve been working with him for eight months. My relationship with him is good.
“When I arrived here young players came, they decided because of him. He has a very good scouting responsibility for his past and his present.
“I worked well with him and after it’s between the club and him. I don’t know everything but I respect him and the club.
“I wish good luck for him in his future.”
Emery taking the about his relationship with Sven and also confirming that he had nothing or very little to do with the 70M spent.
Skinnywill Think you have one bit wrong: “Wages – The cost after removing the compensation paid to Wenger and his team was £223m in 2018, I would estimate that this has increased by say £20m to take into account the new signings and a full year for the new contracts to Ozil et al and the Jan 2018 signings. So this is a £3m increase in cost from 2018.” For a number of reasons: Sure, the Ozil raise, and wages for Auba, Mykhitaryan and Mavropanos need to be annualised. But so do the savings from the outgoing of Walcott (£140k),… Read more »
Spuds were afraid to make the NLD their first home game at their new stadium .
Very telling.
When exactly did Arsenal stop being an elite club?
I personally think it was after our Carling Cup Final to defeat to BC. The same season we were thumped 8-2 at OT.
That’s right. 8 years ago!
London and a nice salary thereafter became the only appeal.
Winning and competing was suddenly off the agenda.
Were we honestly ever an elite club? As good as things got under Wenger we never won back to back titles and never contended in Europe bar one season. Always seemed like we were just below elite.
Moaning away….
Saw Barca and Real Madrid at the Camp Nou yesterday, fulfilling my long cherished dream of watching the Classico. After a weak start, Malcolm was really convincing. If it is true that we tried to get him on loan, we have ended up with the wrong player in Suarez.
One could argue that you’re not proper elite until you win the European Cup but it depends on your definition really. We can back to being a serious club again though
@Graham62
It was actually the season after when we got destroyed by Man Utd. The specialist in failure should’ve been sacked there and then.
The fact that he wasn’t showed that Arsenal had no real ambition and was more than happy to just make up the numbers. Pathetic.
Alex we certainly did. Could be back in for him in the summer. I don’t see Suarez staying on
Alex
I thought Malcom looked great last night as well. Super cool that you were in stadium.
PierreFebruary 7, 2019 09:06:52
“….If Saurez starts ahead of Mhkitaryan and Ozil as the CAM it will tell us all we need to know as to why Saurez was brought in .”
What will it tell us? You left us hanging.
QNA
I never said there were less expensive players that you derided. But there were in fact less expensive players that could have improved / transformed us. The notion that the only way forward for Arsenal was to sign three 75m players was nonsense.
I would concur that never having won the top level European prize, never having a Balon d’or or world player of the year every now and again and never even retaining the league since the 30s, that we’ve never been elite level.
Sad, but true.
We can float figures all day but the real problem with buying is the fact is we only seem to eye players Emery has worked with in the past. Perhaps that’s just a product of the January window, but it’s not exactly encouraging. Obviously Sven wasn’t very happy with how much pull he had. And Orn even said Emery moved strongly into the power vacuum left by Wenger, as Sanllehí prefers to stay out of his oily hair. More and more it feels like we need Monchi to come give us a stronger direction fast.
I suspect that Wenger wouldn’t have stayed had we won the 2006 CL.
That loss is one of the unforgettable moments of my life. I really wish Wenger [and Arsenal]. That would have crowned the excellent first decade he had at Arsenal.
Why do we really need a mega star technical director?
People keep chanting Mochi- Mochi like broken records like he’s the only competent head in world football.
When the dust settles, it will become clear that not was the big name Sven Mislintat who was loading the club with 29 year-olds. It’s no wonder the board refused to promote him because he was just transferring wealth from Dortmund to Arsenal. It was Sven who recommended Perisic – let that sink in.
Nothing upset me more than the sale of RVP. Selling him to Man U rubbed salt in the wound. It handed the title to Fergie. That ended any respect I might have had left for Wenger. Poor Robin came in for an awful lot of stick, worse even than Ashley. If it were me I’d replace the statue of the Frenchman with one of the best striker I ever saw in an Arsenal shirt. The guy was magic, poetic, balletic, a sight to behold. If I close my eyes, I can relive the thrill of his aerial strikes. It pleases… Read more »