Arsenal fans loading up #MindTheGap memes

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Today could mark the biggest week in the career of the mighty Unai Emery.

Spurs fans; fresh off petitioning the UK Government to make Top 4 an actual trophy so Pochettino can be reclassified as a proper coach, are nervously chewing their nails at the prospect of Arsenal fans gearing up their best #MINDTHEGAP memes.

They have to go away to Stamford Bridge to play a bruised and battered Chelsea. Spurs themselves are fresh off the back of a BREXIT beating from the LOCAL heroes of Burnley. They’ll likely be mentally fatigued and feeling symptoms of queasiness, fearing a giant bout of Spursy like behaviour is about the disrupt their GREATEST EVER SEASON.

I live for this. Remember back in the day when Arsenal would land in Februray, exactly this point in the season, bright eyed and bushy tailed because we were in three tournaments… only to get spanked by Monaco in the Champions League, lose to Blackburn in the FA Cup, then get slapped out of the league with three distressing defeats.

Could that be ‘plucky’ Spurs this evening?

Which Chelsea will show up? The team that rode Manchester City hard with a carefully crafted tactical plan that was both pragmatic and disciplined. Or will the players down tool, write their own team sheet and let the gods take care of the Sarri situation?

Who knows… but at the moment, I’m dreaming of a momentous collapse of the homeless ones.

Arsenal welcomes Bournemouth. They haven’t managed to build much consistency of late, but we know they can cause problems for us. They’ve scored 38 goals this season, which isn’t bad for a team that sits in 12th. However, their defence is shocking, especially on the road, so I’m hoping Emery stacks the team to break them early doors just like we’ve done in our last two games.

We really need fresh legs at the weekend. The quicker we can kill off the game and go into the energy conservation mode, the better… even more important because we know Spurs do not have that luxury.

In other news, Rob Holding is back in the training looking very pleased with himself on the Arsenal Twitter. Cannot wait for him to be back in the first team.

Leicester have binned Puel and brought back Brendy Rodgers! Great news for the Premier League. The exLiverpool manager deserves to be in mix over here and hopefully he’ll have a successful return. We need more nutters in the league and I live for his prezzers. Leicester really don’t fuck around, do they?

In blander news, Arsenal apparently fancied Atlanta’s Almiron this January, but the club couldn’t pull together £16m for him. Quite unbelievable. It’s always tough to know if someone will adapt from MLS, but that’s not the point, the point is we wante him, but could only muster a loan ask. Rapha Honigstein noted that the same thing happened with Nkunku, a player I watched score at the weekend, a player who definitely isn’t going to be available this summer. He really could have been handy for the run-in.

Think about this situation. The tightest club in the league, with Mike Ashley at the helm, had more money to spend than Arsenal this window. How can we be pleading poverty with £400m revenue? The only thing I’m thankful is that Emery didn’t lead us on. It would appear that going private with Stan is like giving £100 to the guy in the white van at a petrol garage and hoping he comes back with a flatscreen TV.

Except the flatscreen was Denis Suarez… and there’s water leaking from the remote. Bad times.

Right, BIG game tonight, let’s hope for an easy win, no injuries and a big fat spanking for Spurs.

COME ON YOU GOONERS! x

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Bankz

Bankz is here for the Tr4phy again

MrT

Hello

Banklz

Let’s do this!

Boomslang

4

Banklz

BOOOM

MrT

Arzzznalll !!

Guns of sf

5th

Danish Gooner

second

Danish Gooner

Boomslang the real winner,nicely secured sir !

Danish Gooner

How can Arsenal be so skint will someone please enlighten me ?

Danish Gooner

There is money coming out of Kroenkes butt hole and we generate more then 3,5 mil each home game,how can we not afford a 15 mil player ? Doesnt bode well for the summer.

Akkimaniac

Relegation

Boomslang

Cheers Danish

Josip Skoblar

Funny post.?Pedro’s on form! 🙂

Marc

For the first time in a long time it’s seems as if Pedro is genuinely excited by the run in. Let’s hope it goes to plan!

qna

Almiron is good enough. Glad we didn’t wast 16m on him. Just crossing my fingers we don’t make Suarez permanent.

Julian Brandt and Nicolas Pepe are the two that we need to sign. Convince Rabiot to sign with us and that will be a great summer. Add a few more names that we’ve never heard of like Guendouzi while we are at it.

Words on a Blog

Off to the Emirates in a few hours…..I really, really, hope that we don’t mess things up and manage to keep some momentum going…….without wanting to sound too fashy, it’s time to be cruel to The Homeless

Marc

Pedro

I know what you mean. I miss watching them mouth off then fall flat on their faces, I miss cracking Spursday night football jokes and I miss St Totteringhams day.

COME ON ARSENAL!!!!

Marc

Pedro

But was he sober?

zaco

qna

“Almiron is good enough. Glad we didn’t wast 16m on him. Just crossing my fingers we don’t make Suarez permanent.”
============
Pedro

“QNA, probably could have been more effective than Suarez.”

what have Suarez done to deserve being written off? if you guys were the manager players like M”vila, Gourcuff, Imbula, Scheiderlin would have all signed for Arsenal few years ago. I remember when… allow the guy to settle in and them prove what a good/buy player

zaco

allow the guy to settle in and them prove what a good/bad player he is on the pitch before reaching conclusion*

Dissenter

Peds
I’m surprised you didn’t put this issue away because your POV got relentlessly battered in the last thread,.

PEOPLE AREN’T BORN ASSISTANT MANAGERS

There’s a posse of angry grovites waiting for ya every time you start this Arteta debate and you always come out worse.

Dissenter

Almiron was too expensive for a player coming from the MLS.
I would rather us give Saka a go before spending that much on a 25 yr old Paraguayan player with three national team caps and no European experience.

zaco

yes i know we didn’t buy him but if he prove his worth within the loan period should we not sign him? he has the 6 months loan period to convince the club to buy or not, my argument is that we all have to watch him play FIRST before saying the club should or should not sign him permanently.

Words on a Blog

– sadly, your point of view is way too reasonable

Words on a Blog

Why bother to wait to actually see the guy play for, oh I don’t know, 90 minutes or so, before screaming – HE IS SH-T!

zaco

Words on a Blog

i’m sure you would have canceled Fabinho’s contract after watching him give the ball away in his first few matches for Liverpool, that’s if you were Klopp

Marko

There’s no buzz around Henry, absolutely none…There’s lots of buzz about Arteta stemming from the idea he’s a bloody good managerial prospect.

All I’m hearing is buzz is enough to be considered Arsenal manager and that actual experience isn’t necessary. Which is remarkable to me. Quick question though can any of the people making a case for an assistant to become Arsenal manager outside of Tito Villanova cite any other example of an assistant going straight into a top job let alone being successful?

Please and thank you

Dissenter

I don’t really think Suarez is all that
You can tell a special player very quickly. He’s not worth 18 million, that’s for sure.

Left testicle

Pedro on his high horse again.

zaco

talking about Arteta, i know many would not agree with me but i would consider Ljumberg for the managerial job first before Arteta

Left testicle

I wouldn’t trust Rooney’s opinion on anything – especially women.

Marko

Marko on the other thread arguing the idea that assistants are groomed to become coaches is nonsense. Was that it? I was arguing that you shouldn’t be a manager at a top club without showing that you’re actually capable of being a manager first. That’s it moreso. Plenty of people go from being an assistant to being a manager and then if they’re good enough they manage at a top club. Almost never do you see an assistant walk into a top job without showing something. Take Poch for example he didn’t go from assistant of the ladies team at… Read more »

salparadisenyc

Mourinho would likely be the ‘biggest’ manager to go right from assistant to manager replacing Heynekes at Benfica.

Words on a Blog

Sputnik – Streets of London, haven’t heard that in years…genius!

HighburyLegend

“More modern examples from smaller clubs would be Nagelsmann, Marco Rose and Tuchel.”

Erm… there’s a name missing.

Dissenter

Pedro
“Marko on the other thread arguing the idea that assistants are groomed to become coaches is nonsense.”

That was not the argument though.
The argument was that do we ascribe special sauce on that individual just for being in mentoring, grooming or apprenticeship?
The loud rebuttal you’re getting is that we wait until they actually do something with their training and become established managers before we place them on a pedestal coated with pizzaz,

Nelson

I find that the arrangement of a loan with option to buy in a six month period is not fair to a player. Every time he steps on the pitch, he is feeling a lot of pressure. His every move is being judged. He also has to adapt to a new club and a new country. I hope Emery will give him sufficient time to show what he can do.

azed

Pedro

We can go through the list of the top managers in the last 15 years and find out how many of their assistants went on to become top managers.

Dissenter

Nelson
It’s different with Suarez though.
The English game is not that foreign for him because he was in the City academy till the age of 19 years. He’s playing with a manager at Arsenal who knows him already.
More over these players understand pressure because they’ve lived with it from the academy stages.
He’ll get a fair shake in these 6 months. He knows there’s a reason why Arsenal didn’t want an obligatory purchase attached to the loan. There are good clubs that will have him and play him so he will be okay regardless.

zaco

Pedro
“But really, Zidane, Pep and Mourinho are the standouts for what happens when you take a chance of unknown talents”

That is the reason I would rather the club give the job to Freddy Ljumberg (who has actually managed a team) than Arteta.

HighburyLegend

Pedro nose best, period.
Give it a rest, guys!!

Luteo Guenreira

“I find that the arrangement of a loan with option to buy in a six month period is not fair to a player.”

You probably won’t feel the same way once we buy Suarez for £20m in the summer and pay him £100k per week.

Nelson

Personally, I find a loan for a year is better for a player .

Marko

Your original point was assistants, or backroom staff don’t make good managers. An insinuation that you can’t learn management, you are just born with it. Not at all what I said or insinuated. Totally false But really, Zidane, Pep and Mourinho are the standouts for what happens when you take a chance of unknown talents. Yeah but they had experience prior to taking on the top jobs. ZZ and Pep had two years at the B teams managing. Jose is a weird one but even he had spells at Benfica and Uniao de Leiria before Porto and even only got… Read more »

Marko

More modern examples from smaller clubs would be Nagelsmann, Marco Rose and Tuchel. Are you for real? Tuchel managed Augsburg and spent 5 years at Mainz before taking the Dortmund job. Not like he went from coach at Stuttgart to PSG. Marco Rose and Nagelsmann are strange choices to bring up since they’re doing exactly what it is that I think Arteta needs to be doing before he’s considered for a top job as in gaining experience and proving themselves before taking on a big job. There’s a reason Nagelsmann is taking on Leipzig after Hoffenheim and not just jumping… Read more »

Elmo

Danish The club considers itself skint because it declared a huge operational loss of £47.2m, which only turned into a profit before tax (what the papers will report) due to £120m of player sales. With those player sales not being replicated, and investment in the squad increasing amortisation and wage expenses, that operational loss will mean we are reporting big annual losses until we get the wage bill under control and get back in the CL (the 2019/20 Emirates / Adidas deals won’t even cover our current operational losses). The media narrative will shift from Arsenal being a financially well-run… Read more »

Champagne charlie

“We can go through the list of the top managers in the last 15 years and find out how many of their assistants went on to become top managers.“ This makes no sense, intention is missing and that’s a huge variable. Why don’t you make your best 10 managers in world football and draw a line back to where they started or how they started? The overriding point of the Arteta talk was that it would be welcome for Arsenal to seek to pluck a guy right at the start of an apparent upward curve. Same process with players, yea… Read more »

Luteo Guenreira

I think the Arteta ship has sailed, fellas.

Marko

Zaco, wider point right there… why aren’t we growing our own managers like Red Bull?

Because we’re not a franchise and we plan on being a serious club again. No way would you get away with doing what RB Salzburg are doing in England. And Leipzig are a feeder club first and foremost. We did that we’d be a laughing stock.

Guns of SF

Arteta again???

can we move on from dead topics like this.

Dissenter

“Arteta is doing 90% of what Pep does day to day so this idea he’s sat on YouTube whilst Pep takes training is frankly laughable. ”

Nope
Arteta is doing whatever Pep chooses to assign to him.
He’s not doing 90% of what Pep does every day. He may have done bits and pieces over time that give him a full understanding of the job eventually.
It’s like washing a blue whale; Pep is the only one that has the full view of the project while his assistants are working on different parts of the whale.

Marko

Why don’t you make your best 10 managers in world football and draw a line back to where they started or how they started?

Exactly. Any of them go from assistant straight to a top job? Bar Tito Villanova. I’m still waiting for someone to show where an assistant has gone straight to a manager at a top club.

Dissenter

Pedro,
“Tuchel was a youth team coach for Stuttgart for 5 years, then he took his first managerial job”

…then he took his first managerial job ——————— which is the pont everyone bar CC is making to you.
From that first job as manager of the Ausburg reserve team in the German division 3, it took him 8 long years to manage a proper big team in BVB.

You wanted Arteta to match from city assistant manager to be manager of a rival of man city.
Don’t you see all the holes in the argument you’re trying to make.

Marko

The overriding point of the Arteta talk was that it would be welcome for Arsenal to seek to pluck a guy right at the start of an apparent upward curve. Same process with players, yea it’s dead great getting guys like Neymar, also great getting guys like Pepe, but even better getting guys like Sancho right when they leave the academy and before a pro football is kicked. Managers are football coaches, Arteta is doing 90% of what Pep does This is basically the argument for Arteta and it’s frankly hypothetical. But it’s interesting cause it’s kinda the point that… Read more »

Dissenter

Pedro
“Marko is arguing that learning the ropes in the back room doesn’t produce managers.”

That’s not what Marko or anyone else has been saying. That has NEVER been the argument here,
When did Marko ever suggest this?
We are saying that regardless of where you do your tutelage, pizzazz is not due until that apprentice has taken the plunge to do well in a chief’s coach’s job.

Marko

Pep > Barcelona Zidane > Real Jose > Benfica Tito > Barca Pep two years managing the B team Zidane two years managing the B team Jose fair enough. Tito great example. The only one who’s probably gone from assistant manager straight to a top job at a big club and that it’s worked out Tuchel was a youth team coach for Stuttgart for 5 years, then he took his first managerial job.Backroom to managerial job. Exactly. He took on Ausburg then 5 years at Mainz and then got the Dortmund job and then got the PSG job. It’s not… Read more »

jwl

Pedro – Marko and Dissenter have clearly stated their opinion on novice Arteta, it is you who is struggling to justify your opinion that a person with no managerial experience should take over one of top clubs in Europe because he sits beside Pep.

Marko

Dissenter I’m so glad that you’re able to tell what it is that I am trying to say as opposed to what I’m not saying.

For the record what I’m saying is that we shouldn’t appoint an assistant manager for the position of Arsenal manager especially one who hasn’t at least showed an ability to actually manage first.

Marko

I actually can’t believe that someone said that Arteta does 90% of what Pep does. I assume that was an attempt at humour

TheLegendaryDB10

Pedro @ 17:17:29

Would seem smart. All raised on the same philosophy, will all know the player, understand the club.

A great idea. Arsenal should have planned exactly like this for post Wenger to carry on the “playing football The Arsenal way” mantra we built under him.

Why this has not happened has a simple answer: total lack of footballing ambition at BoD and owner level. One just has to look at out BoD and realise that we do not have and never had some football minded people to help steer the Club in this direction.

Marko

So your requisite for the backroom staff moving to managers is they have to have managed a B team? No no they just have to prove that they can actually manage first. Pep and Zidane actually managed their respective B teams for two seasons before taking on the top job. That’s actually managing by the way their B teams take part in games and actually buy and sell players specifically to their squads. Is it so absurd to ask that Arteta show that he’s actually capable of managing a football club before he takes on a good job and tough… Read more »

Marko

Pretty good case right there that you are wrong on this one. Your position was it doesn’t work.Despite there being spectacular evidence to the contrary, even with the ridiculously tight variables you put on the argument. What’s the spectacular evidence? I seem to have missed that one. Jose at Benfica? Maybe not the greatest example he lasted 9 league games and then went to Uniao de Leiria before the Porto job. Villanova is the only proper example but that’s Barcelona. I could manage them around that time. Just so we’re clear everytime you bring up Pep or Zidane you’re bringing… Read more »

Un Battle Angel

Post a comment warning others about a sicko trying to harm children and some thick post man insinuates I’m some sort of paedo??? I bet you got battered a lot throughout your life marko

TheLegendaryDB10

Pedro But also a lack of foresight from Wenger, because I presume he never intended to retire. Well as you know, AW could have never left and indeed didn’t really leave on his own volition. He was too power crazed to have even thought of this in the first place. If he really had Arsenal at heart he would have helped such a scheme happen. His reaction to even having a DoF said it all really. If he had allowed even this, then who knows we could have had a driver for such a scheme. The club has missed a… Read more »

jwl

Pedro – I am not wedded to my opinion, I have open mind, so please give me three examples of coaches with sweet fa experience as manager being appointed as manager to one of elite clubs in Europe and making success of it.

Other than Tito V at Barca who inherited some of best players of their generation, I would like some examples of world class managers who were appointed to elite job with no experience. All proper managers start their career at lesser clubs to gain experience and then move up the ladder after they prove their abilities.

Marko

You think B team coaching is more valuable than being an assistant. In Spain at Barcelona and Madrid it is yes. Because they take part in league games. There’s actual management involved. Making substitutions and tactics and all that. Things Mikel would do that he wouldn’t being an assistant. Your opinion is that Areta would flop. If he went straight into managing Arsenal without showing that he could manage? I would say so but I don’t know. Ultimately that’s what it’s about not knowing if can actually manage and then asking him to manage Arsenal football club. Just don’t be… Read more »

Marko

Post a comment warning others about a sicko trying to harm children and some thick post man insinuates I’m some sort of paedo??? I bet you got battered a lot throughout your life marko

Didn’t insinuate anything you idiot. Grow up you halfwit if it’s not something stupid it’s something political always looking to stir the pot.

Marko

Jose Mourinho, one of the greatest managers of all time, was an assistant

He had to prove himself as a manager though. I daresay no one at the time was saying that he was doing 90% of the work Bobby Robson was doing or at the time he was being linked with Barcelona cause he was that good of an assistant. He had to prove himself first. What has Arteta proven to be in with a chance of getting the Arsenal job? It’s a ridiculous discussion at the end of the day.

Marko

Same with Pep G, he wasn’t being judged on what he did with the B team, they were always going to give a darling of the club a chance to make some magic happen.

Why weren’t they offered the jobs straight away then? Why did they insist on a stint actually managing first? Could it be cause that’s smart? Because even just a small bit of managerial experience is better than zero managerial experience. Even Enrique spent 3 years at Barca B then stints at Roma and Celta Vigo before the Barcelona job

Nelson

Reminder: we have a game today.

Arsenal: Leno, Jenkinson, Sokratis, Koscielny, Monreal, Kolasinac, Guendouzi, Torreira, Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang.

Subs: Cech, Elneny, Mustafi, Ramsey, Iwobi, Lacazette, Suarez

Nelson

There is another list:

Arsenal: Leno, Jenkinson, Sokratis, Koscielny, Monreal, Kolasinac, Guendouzi, Torreira, Mkhitaryan, Ozil, Aubameyang

Subs: Cech, Mustafi, Elneny, Iwobi, Suarez, Ramsey, Lacazette

Jim Lahey

@Nelson –

Starting with 10.. its a bold move, but I like it!

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