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.
There was a poster on here Batistuta the other week who genuinely expressed fears of Spurs winning the champions league this season…
Unreal. Pressure bust pipes or makes diamonds, with Tottenham its usually the former.
Upstate Gooner,
Yeah mate; 14, 12, 5 and 2.
Trouble is my missus is nearly 10 years younger than me and at 33 is already hinting at wanting another one! 🤣
Haven’t got the space or money for that and at 42 I’m not far off being a granddad not a new dad all over again!
Poch has to get a long ban. That was excessive
Pedro. There is being able to type out a bad word and having the ability to actually cause offence. Lol. Poor Bamford.
As much as I can’t possibly imagine Bamford coming up with anything truly offensive I can’t help feel it’s a bit of Karma. Over the years he’s been calling for bans to be handed out left, right and centre. And now he’s banned hahahaha. It’s pretty funny. He takes this place pretty seriously.
Pedro bit rich going on about athletico and cash.
Spain is a almost a three horse race for the league/ champions league slots., whereas the premier has six teams so two always miss out.
They have stability with a great manager and very good side.
Emery inherited a shit show and has to compete, not just get given a champions league slot.
70 million stopped the fall any further, another 100 might have got us competing just.
Clubs a mess from top to bottom. It All takes time to sort out.
Also be interesting if people like Marko think he’ll start late June and not interact with the club between now and then… like Raul. No I bet he will. But I doubt he’d be able to override already powerful figures at the club from making a decision themselves. For example Raul wanted to come along and offer Xhaka a new 6 year contract on 400,000 a week. I’m sure he couldn’t stop that even if he wanted. Though I doubt the new team would do anything like that. I can’t remember who were we blaming on the Ozil contract again?… Read more »
So he never got shot.?
Thing of beauty that Poch meltdown.
Pedro,
Ok. But there’s been plenty of others.
I’m just going to draw a line under it, move on and never mention it again.
Have meant you no disrespect.
I can’t believe I switched off at the final whistle and missed the melt. Damn it.
Alex, if Atleti can make 2 Champions League finals and win a league against two mighty, mighty teams… I expect us to be able to attack City and Liverpool with whoever is the new Tech Director.
No excuses.
benny
Two was always the plan for us. 12 and 15. Looking back though, I wouldn’t mind another one but that boat has long sailed. I’m 46 and missus is 42. Cheers and good luck with the 5th one! ☺
The Poch meltdown is funny on so many levels. It’s not as if Burnley got a goal that was 15 yards offside. A corner decision went against the Spud’s – deal with it and clear the ball.
You’ve then got the Spud’s goal should have been called back and the throw in taken from the correct position.
Benny, I run this blog from my bedroom in New York. I wrote for 3 hours yesterday. I wake up and people are losing their minds about me not deleting posts I’ve not seen yet. If I see something salty, I delete it. Like the GoH post I pulled earlier. Additionally, this is a global blog. I banned someone years ago because people went nuts because he was called ‘Gooner Paki.’ Guy messaged back and said he was a Gooner from Pakistan and that was the name he wanted. Sometimes it’s more complicated to over police. You all root out… Read more »
On Monchi the way I see it he’s someone that every now and then with quite regularity really finds good players that enhance the squad and we haven’t had that for a long time really up until Torreira last summer. I mean like a proper obvious that’s a good signing. He’s done it with Sevilla and Roma why even recently Under, Zaniolo and Kluivert are really great signings for them cause they’re great prospects and players who can eventually leave for a huge profit . That’s what we need.
The link to Monchi is a welcomed one. My concern on how effective he, or any other technical director looking out of Europe for talent, is Home Office restrictions on eligibility of foreign players. Other European countries are less restrictive I think.
Spuds being spuds, good stuff.
Upstate l,
Cheers! 😟
We’ve both agreed no more but women have an overwhelming urge as they near their 40s to have 1 more.
A mate of mine at 46 just had another – his 6th – 10 years after his last one because his missus got broody when we had our 2 year old! 🤣😱
Marc
Come on, not one takes throwing at the halfway line on the exact point. Danny Rose’s throwing was a few feet away.
Much ado about nothing.
if Atleti can make 2 Champions League finals and win a league against two mighty, mighty teams… I expect us to be able to attack City and Liverpool with whoever is the new Tech Director.No excuses. That new person will need significant time though. One can’t expect anything like that from a new technical director at a mess of a club like this to perform miracles overnight. Berta has been at Atletico for 6 seasons but prior to that they were making shrewd moves in the transfer market particularly in South America and Portugal and they’ve always had a decent… Read more »
Radio, we might get access to South American markets now we’re global.
I would say uncontrolled population growth is a bigger global problem than racism but what do I know
Pedro,
Fair enough and noted. I know you do your best and can’t monitor the blog 24/7 especially now being stateside with the time difference.
I’ve not meant to cause you any stress or infer any lacking on your part.
Like I’ve said; I want to draw a line under it. Will never mention it again.
Marko,it’s a 5 year hire… but I don’t think they need significant time to make an impact.
Just a real plan.
Be interesting to see if he brings in a head of recruitment.
Benny, please do mention it… otherwise I defo don’t see it and I want to make sure the blog is right for everyone.
Why is this mug Pocchettiino so overrated?
Pedro, That league win for athletico was five years ago they haven’t come close since. Do you honestly believe a new tech director means we can compete again? We are miles off city and the bindippers. If the spuds had a backbone they would be out of site as well. Chelsea are in a mess since Roman can’t get his way anymore and is looking to not invest. And utd have been a basket case since sir Alex left. Get the right manager and we will be miles back. Money gets you competing, and money wins the title. We are… Read more »
Radio, we might get access to South American markets now we’re global.
Is this a brexit reference? Between that and the idiots at the FA looking at raising the number of home grown players pretty soon none of this will matter because the premier league will be full of shit average English players who should be playing lower leagues.
Pedro I really think the post of technical director is best for a bright young one who’s ready to give 10-15 years to the club. It’s a job that has to be insulated from the everyday state of the club because it’s all about the future. Michael Zorc at BVB was appointed when he retired at the age of 36 Monchi was appointed at Sevilla when he was 31 years old. Is Monchi going to even give us 5 years?….I think not. He’s going to scuttle off somewhere else as soon as he gets bored…like Mislintat. That’s what Charlie George… Read more »
Up 4 grabs now, they finished 2nd last year.
They are a powerhouse team. No excuses. They do it on a net spend of 13m euros a season. Don’t tell me it’s impossible for Arsenal to compete. It’s not.
Doesn’t matter who we hire by the way, as long as there isn’t a large turnover of the playing squad, we’ll still be the sane Europa league team we are now
Dissenter, that’s just unfounded speculation.
He loves london. He has the chance to create something special. He’ll not be gone anytime soon unless he fails.
Pedro
“Be interesting to see if he brings in a head of recruitment.”
Irony calls…pick up you phone
I thought the club’s apparatus should do just fine.
Besides it will be Monchi’s job to recruit, unless he wants to split his wages in half and give it to yet another suit.
Marko,it’s a 5 year hire… but I don’t think they need significant time to make an impact.Just a real plan. 5 years sounds about right even though even then I wouldn’t expect us to ever really contend in the Champions League that’s going to take longer I think. As for Monchi he will need significant time because he won’t be working with warchests. If he was given 150-200 a couple summers then maybe but even then it’s going to take a couple transfer windows to address an imbalanced squad and turn it into a competitive one. I’m interested in seeing… Read more »
Rambo Ramsey,
Bill Gates and his vaccines are working on that.
Along with pesticides, deliberately manufactured high fat high sugar high salt foods, legal highly addictive and terminal drugs like cigarettes and alcohol, 5G and geoengineering.
Plus once China rolls out the social credit system world wide and we’re all chipped and AI is running the show, I’m sure child birth will be restricted to the rich and powerful.
Pedro, they compete playing cautious, overly pragmatic football.
You want style,you want substance and you want this all on a shoestring budget(compared to our PL rivals).
Good luck with that.
Pedro they were 14/15 points off from winning it in second spot. Last year.
When we came second to Leicester a few years back we were 9-10 points off and we wasn’t competing.
The original spanish waiter is on now; Newcastle vs Hudd
I mean no offense , I usually tip Spanish waitresses heavily
Pedro
Champions on a £13 million annual net spend?
I think Leicester spent more than that when they won it.
We shall see.
If it happens, it’ll be one hell of an achievement.
Oh my, you all love a ‘but, but, but…’
Liverpool made the Champions League final after how long?
Roma made the Champions League semi last year.
Juve, on a relatively small budget outperform City in the CL every year
Atleti has made two finals
Dortmund are leading the Bundesliga
Money is a bonus, but time and time again, it’s shown that there is so much more to football than just cash.
I might be wrong but after brexit, work permits will be easy as its government set?
No way will they be sending people away who pay fifty per cent tax!
Alex… Leicester were nearly relegated the season before. Good shout. What was their wage bill compared to Atleti?
Yeah, post brexit, you’d imagine we’ll be opening the doors to rich people. We have no bargaining power against countries bigger than ours.
Give them Brazilians…
Rambo Ramsey,I’m not seeking approval from anyone so whether you’re gasping in awe of my life or not I couldn’t give 2 fucks.I have 4 kids so actually my life is pretty amazing actually. The reason I’ve been screen shotting is because racist hate speech is now a crime.That’s all I’m going to say.
Benny
Stop acting like a fucking pansie. George hasn’t been racist at all. He’s just slated the Spanish contingent at the club. Hardly genocide
Is Monchi going to even give us 5 years?….I think not. He’s going to scuttle off somewhere else as soon as he gets bored…like Mislintat. He’s 50. He spent 17 years at Sevilla and a couple years at Roma. No history of scuttling off. Dissenter I really don’t know what the hell you keep on with regards to the Monchi hire. Is it because he’s a name? Because he might be good or competent at his job? Because you’d rather give it to a young no experience hire that might work? Aren’t you against Arteta which is quite similar. It’s… Read more »
‘Or is it you just don’t like to see people being excited’
Bingo.
He hates our happiness.
Bamford is an utter arse hole but I’d not want to see him banned. He is a character and makes for good fun and banter on Le Grove. He pushes his luck though
Money is a bonus, but time and time again, it’s shown that there is so much more to football than just cash.
Literally every club you just mentioned has been well run for years. We haven’t been and in order for us to catch up it’s going to take time and money. Especially if you want us to catch up and maintain
I have same worry as Dissenter, Monchi is fifty years old, I thought he was closer to sixty, and I wonder if he has stamina and desire to do job well.
Even if Monchi was best director of football in world eight years ago doesn’t mean he still top quality today because people regress to mean, even the geniuses.
If I had my druthers some young 38 year old with a bit of experience and is now looking to make his name with a big club would be hired by Arsenal.
Marko, Liverpool well run for years, are you kidding me?
Bepe Marotta is in his sixties and he’s been running the show in Italy.
He pushes his luck though
Don you’ve been banned and changed your name so many times it’s hard to keep count.
Pedro
But they won the PL the following season and spent approximately £28 million net.
Overall, I’m not sure your position and optimism make much sense.
You don’t rate Emerey, you’re highly suspicious of Raul, mislintat and gazidis gave jumped ship and surely you don’t rate the Kroenkes.
Despite all this, you somehow think arsenal will be competing for the PL on a budget of €13 million because athletico managed to do it in Spain.
It all sounds a bit far fetched and rather wishful to me.
Time will tell I suppose.
We made the Europa league semi last year with an easy run. It does happen. Doesn’t make us world class though. Bindippers were carried to the final last year off of salahs worldie season. They couldn’t even score against a piss poor bayern a few days back! Juventus have there league won by February usually so can rest players. City can’t do that. Dortmund leading the bundesliga, great but again it’s usually a one horse race league like Italy and bayern are having a mare this year. Big clubs who spend money always win the league unless they all have… Read more »
Un, no one is ever properly banned on here… some just take the sin bin for a bit.
Monchi wasted little time at Roma before he sold.
Salah .
I would be dissapointed if he had the same intentions
for Torreira-Guendouzi and Lacazette.?
Up4Grabs… but, but, but…
We are the 3rd highest net spender in the league.
We have outspent Madrid in net terms since 2010.
You have to move away from the ‘we are just so poor’ narrative, because it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.
Compared to us yes. They went through a good period under Benitez, an okay period under Rodgers and now a good period under Klopp. Fits and bursts I’d say while we’ve been one step forward three steps back for over a decade under you know who
Hopefully Liverpool wins the league. That would show up Wenger for being an even bigger fraud.
“We can’t compete with oil clubs”.
Pathetic.
Up for grabs. Presumably post brexit Eu players will be treated same as non-eu are currently treated. If your country is FIFA top 10, you have to play 30% of internationals over a 2 year period (1 if your u21).
Top 11-20 => 45%
Top 21-30 => 60%
Top 31-50 => 75%
qnaFebruary 23, 2019 14:32:25 Lol. Poor Bamford.As much as I can’t possibly imagine Bamford coming up with anything truly offensive I can’t help feel it’s a bit of Karma. Over the years he’s been calling for bans to be handed out left, right and centre. And now he’s banned hahahaha. It’s pretty funny. He takes this place pretty seriously. ——– Hilarious indeed.Karma..Could not make it up.. Watching a re-run of the Arsenal vs Leicester game,where Laca made his debut around the 11/08/17.Oxlade was in the team,Walcott on the bench..Arsene managing the team. Weird how times flies..Scary in fact. Have a… Read more »
James Woods Roma are not a big club though. They signed him after his Fiorentina loan and then sold him as soon as he got good they were probably afraid of his value going down if he stayed in Rome longer. I don’t think that we would need to worry about that
Salah was sold because he had a year left on his contract and would not extend, which is what Arsenal should have been doing for the last 15 years. People will make a narrative out of anything. We don’t need Monchi to come before we do the right thing…He is not being recruited to sell players but to buy them
I see bd has taken the mantle of The Grove ‘s Resident Drama Queen…… If there is any xenophobia around…. It comes from The Slippery Spaniards Raul and Emery Their palpable dislike for anything related to British football and British footballers is striking. They don’t rate British coaches….. we have none ( Bould is a token gesture) They don’t want Welbeck, Ramsey and Chambers around… They don’t want to nurture ESR,Nelson,Eddie N et al…. they prefer THEIR OWN. ( Suaraz) They continually mis- use the talented AMN – because they have not the gumption to get a robust prem league… Read more »
I had no idea who Beppe Marotta was Pedro until I just looked him up on wiki. I don’t have problem with Monchi as long as he got vigor and dedicated to job and not act semi-retired like Wenger for past decade. Arsene has made me distrustful of old people at Arsenal, they are too philosophical and don’t have hunger to win all the trophies.
Pedro I’m not disputing the net spend over Madrid or we are top ten richest in the world. What I am saying is Wenger blew all the cash on average players and allowed players to leave cheap or on frees. We have a whole lot of average in the team/ squad. If pep was in charge we would be fifth. If saf was in charge we’d be fifth. With klopp Maureen or Brian bloody clough in charge we’d still be fifth and not contending! Now emery comes in and has a small amount to spend, no big assets to sell… Read more »
How people like Bamford and Marko gets banned and CG gets to spew his hateful nonsense all over the blog daily is beyond me. I’ve been pretty much a daily reader since the start of legrove but I’m not sure there has ever been someone so utterly clueless and obnoxious on here ever. Apart from maybe a few trolls here and there. Jag.uar Don etc
Up 4 grabs now, all those terrible things, yet we’re in prime position for top 4 with a coach who has us playing drab football / unable to build a solid defence despite paying out 70m to fix the leaks.
Reckon the squad might be a bit better than you think
Freddie, I’m not banning someone who believes that British is best.
That’s not hate, it’s just an opinion… one that Wenger explored at one point.
Marko 15.25 47.
I was thinking – was this a Transfer funding situation with Salah.?
Monchi might want to sell the few Jewels we have to do just that.
Different thoughts some of these Technical directors have and our
funding situation.
Just a thought.
Peds,
“Reckon the squad might be a bit better than you think”
…or maybe the manager is doing much better than you’re willing to give him credit for
Un nai nai, angel cake or whatever you call yourself, The fact that you can’t tell the difference between calling somebody a name as opposed to calling soneone a name in a negative and derogatory fashion as not being racist or xenophobic/nationalist says all we need to know, and many of your comments confirm your lack of understanding on this issue. We live in a modern global world nowadays where like it or not, political correctness rules. Having worked for the Ministry of Defence for a number of years where I’ve had to swallow numerous equality and diversity training courses… Read more »
G-nabs looking good
Pedro
You keep saying 70m (it’s actually 63m) like that is a lot nowadays, 6 or 7 teams in the PL spent more than us, Chelsea and Liverpool can spend the same amount on a goalkeeper. Liverpool spent 75 on 1 CB, we’re well behind the top teams in squad quality, no doubt about it.
Pedro,
I’m hoping we get fourth but don’t count your chickens yet.
Chelsea imploding has helped but manure are still in the race and I fancy they beat the bindippers tomorrow.
Injuries haven’t helped but that’s the point, energy with a low spend might fluke fourth?
But we need to compete.
Another 50 million spend in the summer won’t get us competing it might get us into the top three/four.
Everybody strengthens we have stood still the last few years.
La liga is really good viewing
How many games in the premiership are really fun to watch.
Sevilla beating Barca 1-0
Dissenter, indeed, it maybe my lying eyes.
Is Un na the same as Un battle angel?
* using nationality as an opening reference to the insult. That bit went missing in my post.
“Freddie, I’m not banning someone who believes that British is best.”
If that’s what you think you haven’t read any of CGs posts since he started posted, this is not just based on one instance either, it’s every single post, but hey, it’s your blog.
Besides all that we want Monchi to come in and sell some players we NEED a massive turnover in squad. Some players are simply not good enough and some have been letting us down for years now
I believe so Dissenter.
Pedro on a separate note blog is very good have read for the last 7-8 years but only commented the last 3 years on and off.
Why don’t you have some guest writers when the interlull happen. Or when you know your on a tight deadline.
I’m sure plenty of people could contribute even along the lines of arsenal experiences, memories off first games Etc.
Just an idea?
Un nas
How’re you doing my friend
How did you come about “battle angel”?
James I honestly wouldn’t have those same worries. Mostly because outside of Torreira, Guendouzi and maybe Leno and a couple youngsters everyone else is replaceable for me. Just thinking though it can’t be underestimated how good a job he done at Sevilla. He created Sevilla as you see it now. He took over when they were relegated and in financial crisis. They won 10 trophies after he took over prior to that 6 in their whole history.
Forgot that Monchi hired in Sampaoli for Sevilla… they played great football and rejuvenated Samir Nasri. Finished top 4 as well!
https://youtu.be/c35iIrKgX0g?t=29
Up 4 grabs now, thank you!
Everyone hates the guest writers!
I’m with Pedro on this. With great power comes great responsibility. With the right net spend blended with spotting the latest up-and-coming talent first and early, we can compete with the petro dollars and rubles of this world. Leicester have proved it. How much did Maguire and Chillwell cost and how much are they worth now? How much did Robertson cost? Joined Hull for £2m from Dundee then signed for Liverpool for £8m. How much is he worth now? We need to be getting in on that action. This is where I agree with Charlie George to a certain extent.… Read more »
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11645824/arsene-wenger-will-not-become-paris-saint-germain-sporting-director-says-clubs-president
Well I guess that rules out us signing Mbappe then
Pedro,
Gotta be better than no new content for a day or two.
Especially when an interlude happens and there’s no arsenal news!
Sevilla having a good start
Plus we’re all a bunch of moaners on here, we can just moan about the guest posters! Lol
Up 4 grabs nowFebruary 23, 2019 15:44:39 Pedro on a separate note blog is very good have read for the last 7-8 years but only commented the last 3 years on and off. Why don’t you have some guest writers when the interlull happen. Or when you know your on a tight deadline. I’m sure plenty of people could contribute even along the lines of arsenal experiences, memories off first games Etc. Just an idea? >>>>>> Funny you should mention this – I did a guest post back in 2015 after I spent the weekend at the Emirates cup. I… Read more »
That’s true, if you want to write one, I am always happy to post the (providing they hit a certain standard)
Marko 15.50.57
Monchi’s credentials are solid.
And as you say we have the obvious
stand out players who we can not let go.
And the obvious dross mixed in with a
few steady eddies.
However what we would get for them
will not give us enough for just one stand out midfielder.
He may do exactly as i said and sell our cream players
lets hope he has a good network for quality replacements.?
Considering he is not here yet.:):):)
Benny, they were great write-ups!
James:
Arsenal are leaking a low amount of money. I have been told the same as Cross and Mokbel. I think Orn is off.
We are leaking those stories in Jan
Why?
Must be unpopular sales:
Lacazette
Bellerin
Top of my list. No way we sell LT or MG.
We’re being linked with Fornals again, would be excellent use of our spanish connection, release clause of 25m euros so a lot more realistic than Havertz.
Also linked with Marcus Thuram again, can only see that if we decide to sell one of Laca or Auba.
Could you imagine that man being in charge of PSG’s transfer business. It was never on
Marko
Of course not, I think only CG was deluded enough to believe that one. Now he probably won’t shut up about him joining us as technical director ahead of Monchi, again…