Well, my plans to cover a wide range of potential Technical Directors in my profile series appears to have come to an end. All of the hot journalists in the Arsenal sphere are running strong with the story that Raul has offered Monchi the Technical Director role at the club with a view to him joining at the end of June.
This is huge news. Monchi represents more than just an administrative hire, he is the poster child of the new era of Raul Sanllehi. This is the exBarca man’s big bet for the next 5 years. This is the make or break move as he tries to acquire more power and authority at Arsenal football club. This is his attempt at an LA Rams roll of the dice.
Folks, this is Hollywood glamour and it’s making me frisky.
No one really knows what the role entails at the minute, but one would expect all of the major footballing functions within the club will report into him. He’ll be in charge of the grand vision for how The Arsenal will play, and he’ll build an operating model around that. The Academy, scouting, medical services, data, tech, and analysis will likely all fall under his remit. The role is important. It’s essential. It’s the future of Arsenal football club. The success of Monchi, if he is signed, will dictate whether we fulfill the ‘sleeping giant’ potential we boast, or we become an utter irrelevance in European football, which is path we’ve been following aggressively for 10 years now.
Technical Director: Monchi
Let’s get one thing straight, if this man were heading anywhere else in Europe, we’d all be jealous. If Chelsea or Liverpool pulled him into their exec fold, we’d be crying into our Alex Hleb 2006 red currant collectible shirt. The man has more sauce than a freshly loaded truck of Cholula. The guy has gravitas, he looks like Netflix crime boss, and he has a record to purr over. Make no mistake, this is the sexiest signing we could have made in the world of technical directors.
As fits go, again, it’s hard to imagine a better candidate to take the club forward. He’s been rocking low net spends and ‘sustainable models’ for longer than Wenger has been talking about handbrakes. This is him on being announced at Roma.
“My goal is to build a sustainable economic model. On the sports side, my job is to bring Roma as close as possible to their top level. These are my main goals”
The good news is his ambitions go a little beyond simply balancing of the books and he’s acutely aware he should be held accountable to more prestigious objectives than flashy spreadsheets, namely: big moments, big trophies. This comment from his Sevilla days.
“No one takes a ‘what great economic results’ banner to the stadium,”
Damn right they don’t.
What I like about the man is he seems to have guiding principles when it comes to how he operates, there are very specific patterns in the way he does things.
Firstly, it’s worth noting that he’s a culture vulture. He has to believe in the city he’s in to operate there. He could sell Sevilla as a place, because it’s ace. He moved to Roma, because he knew he could sell the city to young players. He moved to London to learn the language and ‘work it out’, but there’s no doubt the real reason he learned the language was because he saw his big payday here.
This is him talking about the folly of English clubs when he was at Sevilla.
“England’s a good client,”
“There are loads of off-field things in which they beat us easily,”
“And on the football side, I saw very good work being done. But there’s a disconnect between that work and the advantage they glean from it. I know English clubs that are very professional, scouts everywhere, but the information they gather isn’t always applied. Why? Because they have money. That enables them to take fewer risks: ‘I’m not going to discover Keita at Lens; let Sevilla do that and then buy Keita from Sevilla.’”
There is no club in the world better at wasting money than Arsenal. But at the same time, there aren’t many clubs capable of recovering their finances and making a real go of it like us. Monchi at Arsenal would have access to a brand bigger than anything he’s ever worked for in his life, he’ll have better tech, a better City to sell with more resource than ever. Arsenal really should be his dream ticket. We have the finances to always win in the markets he wants to raid, and we have the financial security to hold onto players if they blow-up.
He’s not coming to Arsenal to perpetuate the self-sustaining model, he’s coming to build an empire. Sometimes taking the model of a small venture doesn’t translate into a bigger one. I’m hoping that’s not the same for football. We’re in the talent game. We need someone who can fast track us access to raw talent we can convert into worldclass.
He has an approach to how he tracks players. Here is how he described his operation in Spain.
“Sixteen people cover a series of leagues. For the first five months we watch a lot of football but with no particular aim: we’re just accumulating data. Every month we produce an ideal XI for each league. Then in December we start watching players who appeared regularly in different contexts – home, away, international – to build the broadest possible profile.”
Monchi pulls out his phone and, carefully reducing the image so the names can’t be seen, says: “That gives us this.” A colour-coded spreadsheet shows players by position. Around 250 potential targets, in all positions. “The manager says: ‘I want a left-back who averages 11km a game, runs 800m at full speed, uses both feet.’ And from these, 10 will fit.”
And here’s what he did in Roma.
“We are a team of 15 scouts. Each of us works on a defined set of data that are inserted on a platform at a later moment. On the basis of this data, we decide which players must be followed not spending time on all the others. Not all of us are working in Rome. Now, we are building a network of 20-25 scouts that will report to the one in Rome”
He has a proactive view of transfer targets. If someone pops up who he doesn’t need but he can sense value, he’ll take a punt. It’s worked as well…
Fabiano, Adriano, Negredo, Baptista, Gameiro, Krychowiak, Medel, Kondogbia, Ever Banega, Fazio, Bacca, Vidal, Alves, Rakitic, Keita… the list goes on.
There are questions that hang over his head. I think some Roma fans think the jury is out, he’s not won anything there and he his first actions were to flog Rudiger, Salah and Paredes in his first season. Not exactly crowd-pleasing decisions, and again, certainly makes you wonder why Arsenal keep telling all their journos that there’s only £45m this summer.
‘It’s normal, the last ones who can be blamed are Roma fans because they’re right. I can not say anything more —- I’ve always had the feeling that they are close to me, but it’s true that we also have to give them something: they have not won anything in so many years so it’s normal. I did not come here to sell Salah, Ruediger and Paredes, but to do my job, and my job is to fix the numbers. Last year, slowly, slowly, we got the numbers in order and we made normal sales. I do not have a magic wand: what I did is what I’ve always done in the same form, working with young players and mixing in older ones. I believe that in the end, slowly, the fans and, you too, will begin to understand what my idea is. I know there’s hardly ever any time in football. But I am convinced because I know how I work and work with those around me, that we are right.’
I think the key point here is although he took a hammering from the Roma Ultras, he has a very fixed vision on what needs to be done. There is a philosophy behind what he’s doing.
My main concern with his hiring is I very much doubt Arsenal did an extensive search for a Sporting Director and I’m pretty sure this hire has been made on reputation alone. He’s Unai Emery’s mate, he’s Spanish, it’s all very cozy and it reeks of the Arsene Wenger model of entrenched power structures. It’s also fair to say that his success has been in wheeler-dealing with small clubs, versus taking bigger clubs to greater heights like Andrea Berta.
Additionally, it’s hard to establish his credentials beyond scouting. How is he with tech? What’s his view on running a great academy? How will he work with the medical team? What is his belief about style? Where does he see the future of value in players? How will he inspire the fans? The players? The backroom team?
Small critiques that we can overcome… but being able to make tough decisions on hiring and firings when you’re mega pals with the manager is awkward for even the most ruthless of operators.
That said, Andrea Berta was never going to take a job with Arsenal. We have to take a chance on someone who wants to make the next step in their career. I very much doubt there are many people in the world with the experience he has, mapped against the success, lined up against his outsized profile. This is a smart move. Worst case, he settles the mess that’s going on behind the scenes at Arsenal. He’ll resolve the unbalanced squad, he’ll straighten out the wage structure and he’ll set a template for a more exciting Arsenal.
I just really hope he’s a moderniser. Someone who keeps pushing forward. A man with an open mind. We really need that, the nightmare would be hiring someone who has dined off a formula that’s not developed. An absolute no-no in the Premier League where you have to keep evolving your approach to keep up with clubs who can vastly outspend you.
Anyway, can you really ask for more at this stage? I don’t think so. If this happens, I will doff my cap to Raul and buckle up for a summer of transfer madness.
A very exciting move… see you in the comments.
Bankz is here for the tr4phy again
2
1st
BOOOOM
4th
Nice try grooveydaddy….nice try
2 posts in 1 hour, madness.
Well done Pedro
Great Post Pedro. You’ve made a good argument to give Monchi and Raul a chance. My concern is that the list of players you listed off arent exactly world beaters. But hopefully, with the financial muscle that he will wield here at Arsenal (once we’ve sorted out our wage bill) will dwarf anything he has had to work with before. Not sure if you noticed the discussion from Graham and Valentin, but they raised a good point. After Brexit, Arsenal will not be able to easily sign players from Europe that don’t meet the visa requirements. Could seriously affect how… Read more »
I’ll be honest. I don’t care about this or any backroom hire. I will always maintain that the players and manager win games, however I will concede that the hiring of said manager and players is ultimately very important.
If this guy is the real deal, great. Let’s push on. But after the Sven debacle…and the Wenger debacle and the Özil/Sanchez/Ramsay etc debacle…not to mention the Gazidis farce…I don’t trust my club anymore.
This guy’s first job should be to get us a manager that isn’t so bloody boring.
Agree with your sentiments Guns, although the likliehood of removing Emery seems a little wishful as I assume they’ve worked successfully in the past.
Love to know how ‘open’ his ‘little black book’ is? In other words, the work he’s been doing with Roma towards this summer’s window, is it known to Roma? Can he pass that research onto us? I guess it’s about the negotiation with the player and agent and the ‘fit’ of the individual players.
Vision and drive…..
GOH
“The guys first job should be to get us a manager that isn’t so bloody boring”.
Do you mean a manager that has a boring personality or a manager that promotes boring Football?
Maybe both?
Bob
Monkey needs to get off to an absolute flying start in my opinion and if that means ditching old friendships, so be it. His black book better have some up to date phone numbers in it!
Graham
Currently our football is predictable and boring…and emery is no raconteur. We need someone to represent the club that can deliver our vision (whatever that will be). But they have to be a bit more animated.
For all of Wenger’s flaws, he had personality.
GOH
“For all of Wenger’s flaws, he had personality”.
You mean disrespectful, condescending, patronising and predictable?
Great personality traits.
Sorry, just couldn’t resist.
Monchi is certainly a big name. He is in the Guardiola/Klopp level of scouts. Im not optimistic of the level of players we’ll sign in the summer tho. With Emery getting his way, I think Lacazette, özil, Ramsey (even if he was under contract) will be moved on. Maybe Mkhi too. Players that can operate in his 4-2-3-1 will be signed. A cheaper backup to Auba, a player at #10 who is more of a #8, a wide player who can get up and down the wing with some creativity. It will be more of a workmanlike side which will… Read more »
Guns
“I’ll be honest. I don’t care about this or any backroom hire. I will always maintain that the players and manager win games”
I agree, it doesn’t matter who you have in the backroom , munchi, mislintitfortat or salmonella mean very little to me .
If we are winning games and producing football to get the fans excited again then they can have Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse in the backroom for all I care.
It’s amazing that some see our Football as ” predictable and boring”.
Absolutely amazing!!
Of course, losing predictably never became an issue under you know who.
Dream10
I don’t think Laca is being moved on.
Are you saying getting rid of Ozil, Ramsey and Mikhi is a bad thing? Weird. They’re some of the main stopping blocks for us moving forward. We have really strange fans.
Graham62
To be fair our football is pretty predictable and boring but that’s going to take a couple of transfer windows to fix, maybe just the one if we act like a big boy club in the summer. Not very likely I know.
Pedro,
This is a well written balanced piece
I knew you would knock on the links with Emer and the possibly of entrenching authority in all Spanish amigo system
That said, it would be a coup of unprecedented proportions if we pulled it of. It wold certainly justify ditching Mislintat
I still think it was the Emery draw that may lead to this recruitment. Emery can draw good tal3nt to Arsenal.
G62
Wenger was brilliant in his own mad as a fish way…great copy.
The hair pills quote is folklore.
Good to see PedRo back to his sizzling best. A very energetic piece- and I thank him for it. I am from the always perceptive GoH school – until this boring and useless non entity-Emery is removed- they can add layers and more tiers of management until the cows come home – we will remain in this mire of mediocrity…. I note this from PedRos sizzler: “”””My goal is to build a sustainable economic model. On the sports side, my job is to bring Roma as close as possible to their top level. These are my main goals””””” So why… Read more »
I’ve seen kids in the park doing kick and rush that puts shame on emery’s tactical ability.
Our play for the last 7/8 years has been turgid.
I’d say maybe 2009 was our last memorable year for half good football play.
Freddie
I like Ramsey and Özil. Two of my favourites. The problem isn’t moving them on, the problem is I don’t see us signing top class or young players with a high ceiling. I’m expecting the Perisic’s, Nkunku’s and Fernando Valero’s to be signed. Those are the players we were linked to for the last few months. I’m hoping we get more ambition.
strange fans indeed.
Guns of H
‘This guy’s first job should be to get us a manager that isn’t so bloody boring’
You do realize that this guy’s best successes were achieved with Emery. No one may be talking about Monchi without the impact Emery had at Sevilla.
It must be grating knowing very well that Emery is one of the reasons Monchi may join us.
Salah had one year left on his deal and was refusing to sign an extension. Roma’s hands were tied – he had to be sold.There was nothing Monchi could do about that.
They extracted the Salah fee from the Alissoj Becker deal,me thinks.
Dream “””I like Ramsey and Özil. Two of my favourites. The problem isn’t moving them on, the problem”” Same here. Huge players-with huge personalities. And proven winners for AFC Popular and likeable stalwarts too. Emery wants them out because of the above.. Page 1 , in the Art of basic management. Only buy players- who are better than what you already have …. Or you will go backwards. Emery doesn’t know or even apply these basics tenets. He just wants to survive as long as he possibly can.(€€€£€€) Hence the Suarez and Monchi arrivals. Both his Seville mates. Further entrenchment… Read more »
I have my doubts about Monchi
Some of his methods are dated as have been replicated by other clubs. There’s nothing that special about him unless he has a second act.
He’s also like Mislintat in some respect; He loves these old players that don’t bring value after 1-2 seasons.
GOH
” ’d say maybe 2009 was our last memorable year for half good football play. ”
Watch the villa cup final again and you will see football on a different planet to what we are watching now.
And before anyone pipes up with” it was only villa”…I have seen us lose to swindon,leeds, ipswich, West ham and Luton in cup finals at Wembley.
Everybody is a ‘gun for hire’
That’s why you have head hunters.
When you’re at the peak of your profession,you can pretty much choose your job
Dissenter
All of that might be true but Emery and Monkey may have been great in Spain all those years ago, but things change. The league is different, the players, the club…the climate!
Monkey man needs to put the past behind and evaluate Emery now! Not the emery from 6 years ago or whenever.
Otherwise, if we are looking at an older more succuessful version of emery and keeping the status quo based on that…we may as well have stuck with Arsène for those amazing first 10 years.
Everything changes but you.
Dream10
Perisic was because we didn’t have money and tried to get him on loan, Nkunku likewise but at least he’s young and has potential. Haven’t seen any links to Fernando Valero but since he died in 1914 I don’t think he’s likely.
I have seen plenty of links to a lot of exciting young players though, with Wenger out of the way we might actually sign a couple of them.
Boring and predictable Football and we somehow manage to get top 4, or pretty free flowing flicks and tricks but nothing at the end of it?
Your choice.
The current situation @ The Arsenal is not because of Emery, it’s obviously not because of Arsene Wenger either coz he’s gone & it’s got nothing to do with the wonderful Emirates Stadium, the common denominator is the Yank owner, who has been in place since the Club started the 2 steps forward, 3 steps back shuffle. It’s that simple. So Stan, or your boy, pull your fingers out of your arse, & start directing the much maligned directors to do their jobs properly.
George 9
The Emirates is a shit stadium.
Pierre
I can’t remember 5 mins ago, let alone 5 years.
If Theo scored…villa must have been sedated to allow that punk to get a goal.
Guns of H
I agree with that sentiment. We are reaching into the past when we need to be trying to create something different.
I’ve always thought the job of technical director was a promotion job for a bright 30-35 year old who’s ready to commit the next decade to the club, not a super-back room staffer who has a release clause of 1 million.
Dissenter
Hold the phone. You and I agree?
I think the earth has just stopped spinning.
CG
We haen’t bought Ramsey’replacement yet.
Calm down.
“””director was a promotion job for a bright 30-35 year old who’s ready to commit the next decade to the club, not a super-back room staffer who has a release clause of 1 million.”””””
Exactly. No more bloody transient, incongruous hires.
Make it up as you go along, cobblers..
Sack the Spanish spivs
Sack the Spanish coach.
Get Arsenal people ( with proper red and white blood coursing through their veins) and get this ship back on track..
Pires, Berkgamp, Adams, Keown, Arteta , Freddie , Lehmann. Vieira, Henry.
No more spivs.!
Guns’
You will discover that there’s no one who will shed a tear if Emery is fired in the summer for good cause.
All we’ve been arguing for is to give him enough time to prove himself.
We agree on a lot more than you may realize.
I’m also concerned about the salaries of all these high profile hires.
They cost a lot of money and unless they will be hitting home runs with every transaction, it may not end well
Freddie
Lol I got it wrong. Fernando Calero of Valladolid is who I meant
Disenter
You are having a rip snorting day.
Long may it continue..
You are right in your analysis.
Sometimes feel that I come from another planet when I read some of the stuff on here. Maybe it’s the beautiful sea air down here on the south coast that’s clouding my thought process.
Re: Ozil and Ramsey…….” Huge players with huge personalities”……..”Emery wants them out because of this”.
Can someone please pour me a stiff drink.
Dream10
Thought you meant him;)
To be fair that was also when we didn’t have any money and from what I’ve seen of him he would have been an upgrade on Mustafi and Kos and is much better with the ball at his feet than any of our CBs, and the rumoured price was 11m.
Now we’re being linked with Konate and De Ligt (yeah right) instead for CB.
“After Brexit, Arsenal will not be able to easily sign players from Europe that don’t meet the visa requirements.”
In the future, we should focus more on English talents. The data collected by Monchi may not be useful at all. Of course, Monchi can establish a new scouting network in England.
Graham62
It’s not the sea air, CG is just an idiot.
“It’s amazing that some see our Football as ” predictable and boring”. Absolutely amazing!! Of course, losing predictably never became an issue under you know who.”
Obviously you’re acutely unaware that Wenger lost his job under massive fan discontent, so how about we stop the spin that anyone is genuinely pining for a Wenger we witnessed decline.
We’re still predictable, and porous, and painstakingly boring to witness. If you can’t work out the vague comparisons being made you’re a bit off piste.
Dissenter
I know we do. We’re the Counts of Banterchristo.
By the way, I have zero issues with emery per se…I support Arsenal and couldn’t give a flying one if a blow up doll was in charge of arsenal as long as they played good football and made Arsenal competitive.
Freddie
I came to the conclusion long ago that many Arsenal fans see top players as those that have a brilliant game every 6-10 games.
Just became accustomed to mediocrity.
A top player doesn’t consistently underperform.
Nelson: In the future, we should focus more on English talents. The data collected by Monchi may not be useful at all. Of course, Monchi can establish a new scouting network in England. Respectfully, thinking English players are talented enough to take this approach is wishful thinking. The dream would be that one day this might be the case, but it’s not going to happen any time soon. But there is definitely a lot of money to be had by buying English players young, improving them to EPL standard and then flipping them to middle and lower table EPL teams.… Read more »
As much as Monchi looks good on paper, this appointment reeks of averageness. Well that’s as far as I can see. I would be happy to be proven wrong. My biggest fear is their attempt at propping up UE for longer than 2-3 years. This is where this summer’s TW is so crucial in showing us what ambition they actually have. I am intrigued at what kind of players will be targeted and to see how UE system will work with these players and whether it is suited to the rigors of the PL. And after that, will it kick… Read more »
CC
Thanks for your “predictable” feedback.
You’re only highlighting the Emirates brigade “discontent”.
Not disputing your “still” perceptions.
Change though, can have that effect.
Monchi is a great signing and certainly we won’t keep fucking things up like in recent years. That said, there are concerns: 1- most of his big signings are not the level of players that will get us above Man City. Is he able to upscale his philosophy to find the next DeBruyne, Hazard, VanDijk etc? 2- His best work was at Seville, a team that at no point have been as good as Arsenal. Even in his best days we would’ve beaten them. 3- Is he yesterday’s man? Pretty sure that in 2029 when we look back on the… Read more »
Qna “””Monchi may not be useful at all. Of course, Monchi can establish a new scouting network in England.””” According to PedRo’s blog a few weeks ago. (another little exclusive – He tacitly shared) Monchi was in an attic ( I think he said CamdenTown) trying to learn pigeon English… clearly another one wanting to soon climb aboard the Premier League Gravy Train …(€€€££$$¥¥) He knows nowt – about lower league football in England. He does know about being disloyal.(,Roma) He knows there is no money – for his ilk – in Spanish football ( why he wants to be… Read more »
Monchi is scheduled to arrive at the end of June. This means no time to plan for this summers window. Should just pay up and get him now.
Damn
This Charlie George fella is one proper nutter.
The way he kisses Pedro’s bum on a daily basis though, one might be forgiven for thinking its an alter-ego we are dealing with here.
Leg db10
“””Secondly UE is on £6 million P.A. which is a lot of money. Do you think UE would want to give up on that much money so quickly? I don’t think so.””””
Off course, he will not.
His whole management strategy ( see Monchis arrival) is to protect, increase and extract as much money out of Arsenal FC as possible.( and same for his mates -alleged coaches)
Arsenal will always be secondary in his concerns…
Anyone- who doubts this- are incredibly naive or ignorant to this fact.
Nice piece Pedro and it’s good to have PP (positive Pedro) back.
On an even brighter note I’ve got an inside track that tells me that Monchi’s first action will be to replace the half time Bovril with Gazpacho. Charlie George will go fucking mental “fucking cold Spanish soup THE BASTARDS”.
He’ll probably have an aneurysm!
Marc
One can only hope
Freddie
On the Gazpacho or the aneurysm?
Cg
You absolute cucumber, do you think Emery is in there with a fucking Uzi making the club appoint his mates?
If Monchi comes in it’s on his own merits, not because he’s spanish or has a great beard.
His contract with Roma is up in the summer so how is he being disloyal? Imbecile
I’ve no opinion on the Gazpacho, fingers crossed for an aneurysm though.
Would be better than signing Mbappe.
None of these top execs will be on more than £1,5-2m tops. Thats basically a Jenks or 1/8th of an Ozil, Relax it wont break the bank. But I agree. I cant see what we need 4 execs basically doing the same job as Wenger used to do in addition to zipping his coat on the sidelines of each match. We should hire Levy, He does all those jobs at Spurs as well as being project manager for the stadium
Globalgunner
And what a wonderful job he’s doing on their stadium, just 1 year late and what is it now, 500 million over budget?
Charlie George and Valentin are like a breath of fresh air on Le Grove.
Marko has definitely has his nose put out by Valentin’s arrival …I would imagine him having steam coming out of his ears whenever he’s reading a comment by Valentin..he is trying his hardest to discredit him with very little success.
Marc Damn, you have destroyed my breakfast. LOL!
GOH
Re Brexit: Our imports will still be available of course, just at a higher cost due to duty and customs regulations.
Sorry to point out the obvious. Not trying to start a political debate.
Freddie my man. I trust you know I was being sarcastic
Netflix crime boss
😂🤣🤣🤣🤣
Okay…so instead of our shite players costing £60m…well pay £62m.
Two months Özil wages. Big whoop.
Anyone watching a real sport today? Wales v England.
Global
“We should hire Levy, He does all those jobs at Spurs as well as being project manager for the stadium”
Yeah because the Spud’s stadium project been brilliantly run. No fuck ups there what so ever.
Global
I was hoping:) but as you can see there are a bunch of fuckwits running wild here so you can never be sure
If this Monch bloke comes to AFC
Will he last longer than Sven ?
“Fuck off you miserable old cunt.”
Nice to see the age of insightful, intelligent debate is alive and well on Le Grove.
Damn, Kane is back. The job is getting tougher.
The club should allready have a huge list of potential buys and sales done by now for next summer. Essentially sven leaving now and a replacement coming in next summer should be irrelevant because if sven has done his job last year the fruits of that work would exactly be next summers ins and out. After that the next guy whoever that is will have half a year to break in and prepare for the next springs negotiations… For what it is worth last summer looked like this ( after sven being in charge for a short while ): New… Read more »
GOH
Swing Lo
Emery on Matthew Le Tissier
“My memory of him is that he was a very, very special player,” he told arsenal.com
“He’s one player who I would watch when I was watching the Premier League in Spain,” said the head coach.
“He was one player I would watch a lot of movies of. He was very technical, a quality player with the ball and was amazing for the spectacle.”
I don’t believe him , I reckon he was looking at videos of Brian Talbot, John Jenson and David Hillier.
Marc
It’s not even worth trying to discredit you as you are doing a pretty good job yourself..
Pierre
What ever!
Marc
See you in the Tolly tomorrow …
Great post Pedro,
Fills me with huge positivity for our future. Let’s hope we actually land him.
The comment from the last post on Ramsey echoes my thoughts exactly There is no point in playing the high press to early agaisnt teams who are unwilling to come out of their own half. We have to intice them out. Show them some space. Let them think they are growing into the game and then BAM!!! This was a tactic we should have been employing agaisnt Chelsea over that last 10-15 years when they were a team bus side agaisn t us and just picked us off through drogba. Tika takka doesn’t work against such a philosophy and we… Read more »
Freddie L
“””If Monchi comes in it’s on his own merits, not because he’s spanish or has a great beard.”””
The beard I Agree with.
But Monchi- is defintley coming in because HE IS SPANISH- and he has no merit to be Arsenal tech director..
He is just Emerys mate….
Please dont be so naive.. ,Fred .
Pierre
Actually not sure I’ll make the Tolly before the match (yes I know that’s a deadly sin) the trains are screwed up but I’ll definitely be in there after. Bit of a pain actually was looking forward to a cold beer in the sunshine.
“The success of Monchi, if he is signed”
And that’s a fucking big “if”.
Charlie
Monchi could be a fantastic addition for us. I’m not a big emery advocate but Monchi has a decent background in uncovering talent. It’s not his job to win titles but it’s his job to supply players of quality and he does that well
Pellegrini and under at Roma are two big up and comers right now. They were from him.
CG
Do you like Gazpacho?
Bd
If someone said- Robert Mugabe was coming as a tech director. You could be swayed …. that there would be positives.. ( same as the naive young pup. ..fred l)
Un battle Angel
Very good tactics but to implement these tactics you need a manager with intelligence and I’m not sure Emery will ever instruct a team to sit deep and entice a team on.
“””Do you like Gazpacho?”””
We do not need Brazilian right backs, Marc!
CG
That was actually quite good from you!
Calimocho on the non terraces.
Well, there goes the dream of seeing Emery’s back in May. Raul, Unai, and now Monchi. Three Amigos. First summer signing – Ever Banega.
Sal
Mate you’ve no chance of getting booze anywhere near the pitch.
Pierre
We don’t even have to sit that deep. I’m just talking about drawing them far enough away from their area to create sufficient space to exploit. If You play high line and press then you’re not giving your self much space and we aren’t the most technical side at the moment either for working openings in tights spaces a la 07-11 so it could suit the current squad’s skill set quite well.
Arsenal seems to be the holiday destination of choice for the cast of “ Benidorm “