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.
James honestly I wouldn’t worry. If anyone could get decent money for Mustafi and Xhaka and the likes it’s Monchi. I definitely don’t see us being forced into selling our more obvious talents and being forced to keep others less wanted.
Pedro, I already do something for an unrelated newspaper once a month for my work, and its not that great! Lol.
But I’m sure there must be a wealth of stories to be written down for us all to pick apart!
Benny, I think I remember the Kenny Samson guest post?
Very good if memory serves me correctly.
Stories about ex players, experiences of going to arsenal for the first time, that sort of thing. Maybe where Pedro gets his inside knowledge from?????
Up 4 grabs now, I always feel for people. When you write, you expose a bit of your soul, so when someone comes on and says, ‘WHO THE FUCK IS THIS CUNT BAD WORDS FUCK OFF’, it can be disheartening.
Up 4 grabs now, send one over in the interlull, would be happy to publish.
I think the general rule of thumb when writing here is to come with an opinion.
No one wants to read a balanced take of why a player is good, bad but maybe just ok.
I really don’t think in this team bar q couple players that there’s such a thing as unpopular sales honestly. Especially if it ends up helping us improve the squad
Fornals would be a good signing. Very tidy player. Good energy
Playing devil’s advocate here a bit but assuming (hoping more so) that some of the links are correct which would you prefer Pepe and Fornals or Sarr and Havertz? Obviously Pepe and Havertz would be a dream but I imagine it’ll have to be one significant and one less so signing in those areas instead of two significant ones. I’d be somewhat torn if I’m honest
Lol Pedro, I don’t think you’ll want to hear about my scandalous career in the catering industry, or my recipe of the month.
But I’m sure there’s must be a few people who can submit something for your perusal.
If the readers don’t like it, I’m sure they can scroll down and ignore it whilst carrying on insulting each other!
At least it will give Dm & Bankz another shot at the top four each day. Boom! Lol
Marko 16.14
Must agree the squad does not have one World Class player.
And yes all our best players over the years have been sold to cheaply
So to sell any of these players for good money and buy better players hopefully for sensible money would be a bonus.
As long -as you say we move forward
Marko
Do you follow Arsenal on instagram? Was a picture today of Ozil with the hashtag wevegotOzil with hundreds of comments praising him and proclaiming their undying love for the biggest reason we can’t move forward as a club. Then you have the “special” people that thinks Xhaka is this world class midfielder etc etc
Pretty much any sale we do is going to be unpopular by some, that shouldn’t stop us though.
As much I like Havertz and think he has great potential I much prefer Pepe over Sarr, so would have to go with Pepe + Fornals.
Think you’re right, will be max 1 big buy, but that can be enough if we’re smart about it.
Sarr + Haverz are both younger and have a lot of potential so wouldn’t mind either way:) anything would be an upgrade to what we have now.
PedroFebruary 23, 2019 16:05:46
Benny, they were great write-ups!
>>>>>
Thanks Pedro, very kind of you.
I’ve got an idea for a few guest posts as it happens. I’ll try and get one over at some point and you can choose whether to use it or not, and I’ll keep it concise!
Freddie a couple guys on a blog or a few hundred comments on the official Instagram doesn’t mean much honestly I think the vast majority of fans want to see the back of those players mentioned. And I’m sure they’ll get over losing Ozil for example if it meant bringing in Havertz or a Pepe
Hoping England stuff the Sheep Shaggers
Thing for me is that while Sarr has huge potential I think Pepe is fulfilling his potential now so that’s why I would prefer him. But the flip side of that is Havertz who is about as good as it gets for his age. You could probably build a team easier around him than say some of the others
With you there Hillwood!
Seems like Josh Kroenke is obsessed with hiring high profile back room staff with fancy designations. Somebody needs to tell him backroom staff are not going to make Arsenal great again. We need a good manager and some money to buy a few good players. Monchis and Rauls of the world are not going to change things much. All these hirings are going to lead to further ballooning up of our wage expenses.
TR7
Neither Josh kroenke nor his father are sugar daddies for Arsenal
You keep saying that “some money”
The club has money …just has to spend it properly. That’s the whole essence of beefing up the backroom.
So if Monchi joins he’ll be taking up the role Sven wanted yes? So he’ll be in charge if spotting the talent or in charge of the scouts?
So is there still a head scout position that needs filling?
How many scouts do we have and what are their designations?
Do we have scouts scouring the Championship and lower leagues for example?
Anyone with an inside line on this?
Just as a real sport kicks off: Wales v England in the Rugby. It’s always interesting to see the enormous class cavern between football and rugby. Both the welsh and English upheld the anthems wonderfully without booing and both sets of players actually sang (and knew the words) to their respective anthems.
Football is so fucking backward.
Considering Monchi is going to be the one doing the buying and selling of players it is an important job. In fact it’s the first step to changing things. And as far as I’m aware he’s not on something ridiculous at Roma something along the lines of a million a year I think I read so not too much bloating really
Benny
Arsenal have loads of people watching scouts but they are under investigation by the fuzz. Inappropriate.
Football is so fucking backward.
There’s no anthems at the beginning of a football match.
Marko
Are you sure, son?
No anthems?
Really.
I know what you mean but it was probably 99% of the comments that were like that, talk about deluded. Doesn’t matter we need to move on from the Wenger era players asap.
Exactly my thoughts on Pepe vs Sarr.
Havertz vs Fornals is harder but even though Havertz is 4 years younger and has massive potential he’s also twice the price and Fornals is probably the better player as of right now. Depends on what our timeline is basically.
Benny he’ll be taking up the job Raul had that Sven wanted. He’ll basically be in charge of the buying and selling. As for scouts I imagine he has some of his own contacts mixed in with some we already have. We actually have some good scouts at the club apparently it’s just for years we had a guy who dithered on more obvious good deals and went for worse ones
There are at National level but not club level.
International rugby and football both have anthems.
Not that it’s that important really, a bit archaic if you ask me.
International games sure. Do Arsenal have an anthem?
Benny
It’s called pageantry.
Leo Messi makes all these managers look better than they really are
What a player, possibly the best footballer per pound ever seen.
Marko
Wales v England has to be, by default, international. You knew what I was referring to. Come on.
If arsenal had an anthem, it would be Itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini by Timmy Mallett.
Diss
We’ve had a good day but…maradona pisses all over Messi. There are many reasons, but the big one/two is and will always be, maradona did it on the biggest stage and at league level…with the very unflavoured, Napoli.
Messi has never tested himself outside his very comfortable zone. Even the repulsive fake Ronaldo is better.
Still friends?
Robbie William – Let me entertain was an anthem in the Highbury years.
‘You keep saying that “some money”
The club has money …just has to spend it properly. That’s the whole essence of beefing up the backroom’
We don’t have much money to spend. And how many backroom staff do we need ? We have a Director of football, a technical director and a contract expert. People were going gaga over Raul-Sven duo too, see how it turned out. Too many cooks spoil the broth.
That is one epic beard and ba’ heid combination
Nah it’d be tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree. The Dean Martin one
I don’t get people who say this why would we be hiring Monchi for a position that’s already filled? Because it’s not. Raul is Ivan now and that means we need to replace Raul which will be Monchi
Peter
Robbie Williams. Not Robbie William. He’s some dude based in Walsall.
Let me entertain you? What a load of arrogant claptrap.
Kagagoogoo would be more apt.
TR7
Between July 1st 2017 – August 31st 2018, I ‘m pretty sure that at least £250 million was traded in incoming and out coming transfers.
That’s a quarter of a billion, it;’s not a money issue. It’s an issue of how to spend it better. We have to set up systems to avoid making all the recent blunders that have us paying Jenks 45k weekly for five years and giving away Gnabry for 5 million.
Yes, the new staff cost money but not bring in good people has cost us more.
The point of the kitchen is you have specialist chefs so that all have specific R&Rs.
Sven wasn’t one of Raul’s and they had clashing philosophies.
Sven was the right hire, badly executed.
Guns, there’s no pleasing you. That was a tune to roll out to. Electric.
Peter
I am pleasing myself now as I type this!
I always liked when we blasted the Queen anthems. We will Rock you changed to we will fuck you. And obviously the well overdue, we are the champions.
I’ve no time for Blobby Williams.
Peter
Seeing as you’re a native now New Yorker…it may not be your scene but do you know if Trash of Vaudeville is still in NYC? It was a punk hang out way back when and my wife had gone there a few times. We saw it together in 2012 but I was wondering if you heard or knew if it was still about. I want to say it was 6th avenue???
Whoever designed the schedule for tomorrow’s premier league games ought to be flogged in the public square
Why play a cracker like United vs bin dippers at the same time as our game.
Why not start one at early lunch time?
Diss
We ain’t a draw anymore. Only big names get prime time.
Half time
3-10 England
Yes it is. It’s a shop right?
Peter
Yes a clothing shop. Good to hear.
Places like that seem to disappear.
@Gambon, This is my fear that he has the right approach, but that the appointment is coming too late. I also fear that he is yesterday man as people have replicated and enhanced his methodology. RB clubs, Dortmund and now Bayern with Sven will likely fight the same targets than us and may have an headstart: team already in place, champion’s league football. Regarding the market, I believe that he will want to cover the right ones: England, France, Germany and Belgium. Plenty of young players with the right characteristics for the EPL: hungry, technically proficient, capable to handle the… Read more »
“Do Arsenal have an anthem?”
out!
that’s our anthem
Valentin, it doesn’t matter what Bayern or the other clubs do, if we can give young players first team action, they’ll always pick us (mostly)
Young players are now on at least £100k a week. I don’t think a young player with aspirations will ever play for us or anyone who ain’t paying them dollar.
365 did a good piece on Anelka. Relevant to this line of posting.
‘One nil to Arsenal’ was club anthem when I first started supporting Arsenal but I don’t know what it is now.
I am betwixt and between about Monchi, perhaps he too old and doesn’t have stamina for job or maybe he exactly person Arsenal need right now and he will have easier time attracting fresh players to London rather than lesser known Seville.
Playing Guendouzi regularly ahead of dross like Elneny ought to help us to recruit the likes of Havertz
Surely we can ask Leno to have a word with Kai Havertz
Surely this Havertz guy will go for EUR 90m+ if he’s scoring 9 in 22 from midfield in a top league at age 19. He’s rated at EUR 65m on Transfermarkt, which usually means the player will sell for considerably more when big clubs come in for him.
Seeing as Bayern and Barca are sniffing around him, coupled with the huge fee, it seems very unlikely he’s going to end up with us.
@Pedro, Bayern will have to replace a lot of old timers in the next two or three transfer window. If you are Callum Hudson-Odoi, would you rather go to Europa League Arsenal where you will be in competition with Mhikitarian or go to Champion’s league and League serial winner Bayern if they guarantee you playing time. Plus the idea that we will play youngsters will trump whatever other club are offering may not be true. The Arsenal manager will have to show that same commitment. Arsène Wenger had that reputation. Emery or whoever is in charge will have to follow… Read more »
How the hell was that a try? Whole ball not anywhere near over the line or is it just a millimetre over counts?
‘Good Old Arsenal’ is the club’s Anthem.
Trash and Vaudeville is no longer with us sadly.
High rents have killed it. She is trying to find new outlet for her stock.
Quality place.
Benny
Just some of the ball needs to be over the line but ‘in control’ of the player. ie the ball cant be bouncing about…the player must be judged to be slamming it down in control.
Pretty much the same as American football.
Sal
Damn. My wife will be gutted. She loved that place. I heard it was a real Mecca for the punk scene in the 70’s.
Fucking rent. Kills business so fast.
That deserved to win the game. What a try. Well played Wales.
Pedro
“””Freddie, I’m not banning someone who believes that British is best.”””
Not only is it the best.
You have more chance of succeeding consistently ( see Man Utd under Fergie.)
(6 Brits +5 overseas stars suffice.)
Raul, Emery and now Monchi……
What on earth is going on here?
Why is Raul not striving to get us the best people in positions but getting in his Spanish chums?
Why is he not over- ruling his unambitious manager – when he requests D. Suarez in Jan.?
Rauls mighty contacts book must be in Spanish only.
Well done Wales
Indeed Guns,
Old NY is disappearing from high rents. Totally unsustainable.
CBGB closed about ten years ago because of argument about rents, Guns of Hackney, and that bothered me quite a lot.
I wonder if Pochettino will be banned for confronting Mike Dean at the end of the game.
JWL
Its a fucking John Varvatos store now…. ugg.
Entire Bowery is dusted as is most of downtown.
Mars Bar, Dukes, St Dymphna’s all gone.
Milano’s last man standing on Houston from that era, can still get a PBR and well shot for $3.00
Jwl
The birthplace of punk. Disgusting ain’t it.
Remember the I’ll feted second coming of studio 54? Blurhghhhh.
The birthplace of punk will always be alive sos long as Iggy is still with us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRuN2ayttsY
salparadisenyc – I was born/raised in Toronto, Canada and I’ve been to ny, ny five times to hang out on/in Bowery. Not been back to NY since CBGB closed.
I don’t know much about the fella but If he has made Pedro get he mojos Again could be good….
Does this mean we have more money .?
Now maybe the club should sell interactive season tickets for home games for the punter at home…
500 a season.
That xenophobic enough for you Pedro?
Told you. Post after post after post, for months, exactly the same bile in different forms.
I good tune
Sal …
Iggy and the who?
Good god I forget how old some of you guys are?
Do any of you still owe Noah a fiver?
🤣
GoB
Hey, I’m not that old and I saw Iggy live in 2000 I think it was, started for the chili peppers in Copenhagen, he was old af already back then though.
Gun
Music was more diverse years ago in my view…
Loved Kathy Kirby.x
Freddie,
Arsene Wenger build a project called ‘Project British Core’ and it focused around the things CG is talking about.
Was Wenger xenophobic?
If he were saying he hated the Spanish, I could roll with you. He’s just pointing out he loves managerial superstars like Roy Hodgson, who I must admit, would be happy to see at Arsenal playing his ripping style of Pep-lite football.
You also have clubs that are built around players coming from certain areas, look at Bilbao.
You also have the FA gunning for stricter homegrown rules.
Being a hardcore patriot isn’t xenophobic.
It’s a bit odd, but that’s what makes the blog comments fun.
Ignore him if you don’t believe in a Tony Pulis future.
freddie, Pedro will never answer you on that about Charlie George. xenophobe is now wildly accepted now.
so Pedro, he has to write that he hate Spanish or any other nation before you see the tone in its writing?
Why is he not over- ruling his unambitious manager – when he requests D. Suarez in Jan.?
Rauls mighty contacts book must be in Spanish only.
if this comments are not xenophobic then I don’t know what is
Ok, so that’s why you removed his clearly xenophobic post then, gotcha. What was it, Oily, greasy spiv? Something like that, guess he just forgot his usual “spanish” in front to make it super obvious. He can be in favour of english players as much as he wants, I wouldn’t mind more at the club if they’re good enough either, but that’s clearly not all he’s doing. Maybe you put a blind eye to it because he’s one of the few here fully onboard your Emery out agenda or maybe it’s because of his daily fawning over you but it’s… Read more »
Pedro Frankly I don’t understand what the club are trying to achieve with all their management and coaching appointments. What the club needs to focus on at the moment is how to rebuild the team/squad which is woefully short of real quality and for that matter numbers. The club needs to offload at least 12-13 players next summer i.e.: Cech announced retirement Ospina Martinez Mustafi Koscielny Chambers Lichsteiner Jenkinson Monreal Elneny Ramsey [already going to Juventus for free] Mkhitaryan Welbeck [end of contract] I have omitted Ozil from list, because at the moment I don’t see any club willing to… Read more »
Kristoman, if his comments were xenophobic, I’d delete them. If he has a weird fascination with buying British and hero worshiping average managers, that’s just an oddity you’re going to have to deal with. Freddie, there is certainly a risk that Raul could stock the club with all his mates and cement his power. Wenger did that. The whole point of the restructure was to never let that happen again, it’s a real fear. If I was all about supporting my agenda, I wouldn’t allow you to comment on here. There wouldn’t be so many people gunning for me on… Read more »
Emirates, Monchi is going to roll in if he is hired and do a few things: > Spend time assessing the culture at the club and get to know the traditions > Make some shitty decisions to free up cash > Make a decision on Ozil, whether to do a deal to move him on, or save him > Push out the shit players > Bring in some young fresh blood to plug the gaps > Start his scouting process and make plans Football really isn’t that complicated. If you hire in someone with good taste, you’re going to improve.… Read more »
Some of you are embarrassing, “xenophobic” because he’s highlighting how Spanish Arsenal are going at management level. Seriously? It’s a fair point, there’s absolutely no obligation to have a diverse management team but hiring “your own ilk” isn’t a foreign concept (puns for days. Either: 1. They’re a good fit and communicate well both in language and football 2. They’re favouring one another because of similarities that are born in their roots. Time will tell, but to pick up on what can easily be argued as a heavy Spanish leaning (player recruitment too) isn’t xenophobic. It’s basic observation. My two… Read more »
“Freddie, there is certainly a risk that Raul could stock the club with all his mates and cement his power. Wenger did that. The whole point of the restructure was to never let that happen again, it’s a real fear.” I never mentioned anything about this and if that’s what people fear then fair enough, no need for the constant slurs from the usual suspect though. Maybe it just annoys me that bit extra because he’s both xenophobic and incredibly clueless, both that usually goes hand in hand I guess. Don’t hold your breath for CG to change it’s not… Read more »
CC
Oily greasy spiv isn’t xenophobic? When you spend all your time talking about nationality and every post contains at least one spanish this or that. Ok then. Shocker that you would take that stance.
That Almiron had a great game for Newcastle today.
Oh, and have I said I really rate Lascelles? I’ve said it lots. We should make a bid for him, he’s a great defender.
Pedro I understand the philosophy, but the reality is that Arsenal need to undertake a complete overhaul of our squad if the club is going to achieve its primary objective and qualify for Champions League. We are not talking about recruiting 2-3 new players next season. My list of offloads is in my view the “minimum” and does not include Ozil. Let’s be honest the club is not likely to buy next summer more than one Guendouzi costing £9 million. More likely than not we are going to have to spend nearer £20-30 million to acquire players of the calibre… Read more »
Freddie, and I appreciated you giving me shit. It’s what makes the blog interesting.
So… will emery bring Ramsey or Ozil into the fold?
Benny, my CEO is an Atlanta fan, loves the player. Didn’t expect him to look as quick here, he looked very good today!
ES, can’t agree with you.
We are in the race for 4th with United and CFC looking favourites.
That’s not a bad squad. That’s a squad that needs another round of surgery, but we have a lot of good players.
Two 20+ goal a seasons strikers, one of the best young right backs in Europe, we have Rob Holding coming back, a capped German keeper, Matteo G and Torreira at the base and some great kids coming through.
Move on Xhaka, Laca and Ozil to free some funds and go on a £150m spending spree.
So Raul’s in charge of Monchi, who’s in charge of Emery or do they both report to Raul?
Who does Raul report to?
I can see the potential problem with 3 of the same nationalities working together but it also makes sense in terms of language and understanding no?
Would certain people see it a problem if it were 3 English people instead? Surely the same problem just different nationalities?
The way I see it until Monchi is actually confirmed there’s little point getting too worked up about it at this point.
I mean it’s a home game against lower placed opposition so maybe Ozil can manage. Since Ramsey is leaving anyway I wouldn’t use him more than absolutely necessary.
I don’t rate either of them very highly but until summer we don’t have very many other choices.
Would like to see more of Suarez because the little we’ve seen so far hasn’t been very impressive, small sample size though and he looked a bit better against Bate.
Pedro
Arsenal need to register next season at least 23 players in its first team squad to satisfy its requirements in four competitions.
Frankly with our injury record we need at least 25 players, but we are going to
struggle to achieve that number the way that we are offloading home grown players.
The probability is that we will lose Martinez, Jenkinson, Chambers, Ramsey and Welbeck. That leaves us with only 4 home grown players on books in
Bellerin, Holding, Maitland-Niles and Iwobi.
I’d like to see us buy Bournemouth’s Ake too. I know he’s not British but he’s a great defender as well.
Him and Brooks for sure.
Chillwell from Leicester too, I think Maguire is out of our price range.
Lascelles, Ake, Chillwell, Holding, Bellerin, Mavro, bring chambers back, Kolasinac, Sokratis, get rid of Mustafi, Kos and Lichsteiner.
Sorted.
Why move Laca on when we can sell Mustafi, Chambers and Elneny for about the same money, they need replacing anyway, if we sell Laca that’s just one more player we need to bring in. Add Mikhi to Ozil and Xhaka so we can reset the first XI and start competing again.