Well good ebening my wonderful darlings, and how are we today?
Glad to hear it. Let’s crack on.
John Cross leaked the news that the travel booker at Arsenal is running team motivation exercises before the games. I’d heard that Arsenal do some sort of cringe David Brent huddle preseason, but the news that the responsibility is being passed to a guy who is making sure there are no sharp objects in Mustafi’s hotel suite was quite the revelation.
Outside the big fat bag of cringe this whole thing is, I have some questions.
Firstly, who came up with that idea?
Was it Dave Priestly, team psychologist to the meek? Is it one of his brilliant ideas he imported in from Saracens?
If it is… what the fuck are we doing listening to this guy. He’s here to improve mental strength and we’ve just lost three games in a row by 9 goals for the first time since 1966 (true, according to @AngryofN5).
Raul needs to sit this guy down on a bruised banana patterned bean bag and ask, ‘what have you done for me lately’ (Eddie Murphy accent essential here)? Does the team look mentally stronger this year? No. I mean, like, it did for a bit. But right at the season’s money shot, when you hope all those motivational chats would settle in, we’ve flunked terribly. They literally had a collective nervous breakdown. So WHAT is he offering up here? We are in mental strength regression. The LG team has see the motivational posters on the wall at Colney, but WHAT are they doing for the players? Nowt it seems. Maybe the posters could say better things, like…
‘DON’T DIVE IN’
‘LOOK BEHIND YOU’
’VARDY IS FAST’
‘RESIST THE PUSH IF YOU ARE IN THE BOX NEXT TO THE REF’
‘DO NOT LICK THE PLUG’
IMPORTANT QUESTION: What Mystic Dave talking to Mesut about? Is he digging into that childhood past. Asking him if his dad bullied him about being greedy at party buffets. Probing if his mum made him wear hi-tec Velcro’s BEFORE they were hipster cool. THOSE ARE TRIGGERS!
RAUL, the line of questioning he is using is psychological kryptonite.
‘When you see a long ball over the top, do you see your first childhood pet grinding under the wheels of daddy’s new Ford Focus?’
We need less players sitting with him. More help on the posters. Ultimately, maybe we need to bring back Arsene ringing the ‘MENTAL STRENGTH’ bell around Colney like that scary bitch in GoT.
Secondly, if this magical idea came from Emery, answer me this… why is he outsourcing it?
That seems a bit of an odd thing to do. It’s like he’s struggling to motivate these players, and he’s passing the buck. If you are going to make people do a David Brent, I can at worst understand letting the captain do it, but the guy charged with telling the players to NOT urinate in empty Lucozade bottles on the bus? Fucking mental. That’s like me getting my Uber driver to write me a pitch deck. Or my dad asking me to hold the steering wheel on the M25 when I was six because he dropped a Wine Gum under the seat.
I feel like this sort of carry-on shows you how little leadership is going on at the club. How is an operations guy getting charged for fighting in the tunnel at Palace? Who is nipping that in the bud? Who is paying attention to admin staff running the players motivational excercises? Who has a pulse on the training ground to stop bad leaks happening? Because the above reads like it was leaked to JC for a reason, maybe by the players who think this info needs to be out.
Also worth remembering, shared leadership ends in death or a lack of accountability. Where do you think Arsenal are?
EVEN MORE interesting that The Times say the players are frustrated by the tactics of Emery, and that the manager is more concerned with nullifying the other teams strengths than capitalising on what he has at his disposal. He was accused of this at PSG. Again, why do multiple journos have this? Looks like a choreographed leak by agents of players.
Also adds fuel to the thought I posed at the start of the season that he looks at Arsenal more like a small club like Sevilla than a big one. The big man needs to step out of that mindset, because firstly, he’s not doing a very good job of nullifying strengths of mid-table teams, secondly, WE ARE ARSENAL. Gung-ho or go home… pretty sure that’s what the Latin under our old badge meant.
We have Valencia coming up on Thursday, if there’s one pattern in Emery’s career that’s working in our favour, it’s the Europa League.
Valencia aren’t that bad. They went 2-0 up against Barca away and they beat Zidane’s Madrid. They’re also mathematically out of the running for Champions League spots. That makes them dangerous. What also makes them dangerous is we’ve been utter shite of late. Still, we have more quality than them and Emery comes alive in the Europa (kind of).
The manager has to save his season. I think people will struggle to defend him if we finish outside the top 4 and don’t make the final of the Europa. If he makes the final and loses, he’ll save enough to face give people comfort.
So basically, it’s a big game on Thursday.
Right, I’m done, heading to the work roof deck to practice my Arsenal David Brent special.
WE ARE ARSENAL
WE ARE ARSENAL
WE ARE ARSENAL
Damn, I could KILL A BISON RIGHT NOW.
Talking of killing things. Someone told me bears don’t kill deer… I was like, ‘bitch, stfu, they eat deer’… and she was like, ‘no way, bears are pescatarian’… I said, ‘check Youtube, bears do not have dietary requirements’… and oh my. Ruined my weekend and my dreams forever. DON’T LOOK (OR LISTEN).
P.S. Denis Suarez injured himself preening his beautiful hair. Gonna be sad to see him go. Nearly as many goals as Iwobi this season. Good luck. One of the most obvious terrible loan signings in years, and we have had MANY.
P.P.S HUSS MY MAN, you know this guy, get him in!
Pedro “ ‘We’re just shit’ seems to be the narrative when things go badly for Emery.” Nah, I’d say it’s more like, “sans Ramsey, Bellerin, Holding, Welbeck and Monreal,” we’re not a very strong side, especially away. Which is true. We’re not. Most of the successes you lot are pointing to were in home matches and or in matches when Emery has better options available to him. As for Napoli away, which called an “Emery masterclass,” I pointed out that we were completely dominated in that match and that it didn’t bode well for the future, especially as we were… Read more »
Still waiting for Mr fact check himself to show me the undeniable evidence that Emery has never had anything to do with the recruitment process…
Who’s this in reference to? It doesn’t matter it’s common sense it’s the same kind of process adopted at most clubs in world football for better or worse. It’s why technical director and director of football are the talk of the town these days. Any say Emery has in transfers is minimal which is important to remember when you’re trying blame him for Lichtsteiner for example or when you’re trying congratulate him for Torreira
The Liverpool situation is different though. there two owners were indebted and could not pay the Royal Bank of Scotland 237 million that was owned for their leveraged buy-outs.
There’s no indication that Kroenke cannot pay his debts.
You can moan and yell as loud as you want. It wont change a damn thing.
Maybe if you had a 1.3 billion, you may be able to buy out Kroenke
,,,oh wait, a certain billionaire already tried that.
WE – Bellerin was always overrated as a talent, but underrated in terms of consistency and mentality. He was very good up until the injury. There were no space cadet moments like we see from AMN, and remember the game after his injury Lichsteiner making a cock-up when we were 1-0 up and in control against Brighton.
Yeah let’s get rid of emery and replace him with who?
Oh and by the way here’s 45-50 million to replace seven positions and everyone is a year older.
Don’t worry you can have any money from player sales.
You can have the Ramsay fee, ooops!
And I’m sure if you sold ozil you’ll get ooops!
Well, cech, wellbeck & monreal will bring something ooops!
Whose looking after contracts this days?
Where’s that Sven fella Ivan?
Ivan, Ivan has anybody seen Ivan?
Their views that was published later was that he was technically poor and that his lack of mobility and dynanysm meant that he would be a poor fit in Ligue 1 and for PSG. Imagine replacing Veratti with Krikowiak.
Yeah this goes out the window when you realize that they signed Motta who lacks mobility and dynamism
Spurs missing Son. Might have to revise my prediction.
* Emery had better options
** which Pedro called an “Emery masterclass”
“I wonder who at PSG was responsible for Eric Maxim-Moting.”
Valentin would have you believe Emery made this signing before he was sacked.
Who was the idiot that decided to freeze out Adrien Rabiot when they didn’t have replacements?
That too wasn’t Emery who handled the Ramsey situation properly. He gave the player time to clear his head and reintroduced him back into the squad.
The DoF left the press conference slamming the door to make everybody understand that he was against the move.
I’m sure you have proof. Cause I got proof that he was still highly rated “Zidane did give a strong indication that Real may include a buy-back clause in Jese’s contract, just as the club did when Morata joined Juvetus two years ago.
“I hope that everything goes well for him and that he returns to Real Madrid, which is his home,” Zidane said.
“Perhaps it will be a year and he then comes back.”
I also love how Liverpool ownership is now brilliant, whereas our owners don’t know what they’re doing. Yeah, the Liverpool guys, who hired a totally past-it Kenny Dalglish and a Brendan Rodgers who many here have nothing but contempt for. How many managers did they hire before hitting on Klopp?
Dissenter – I heard Emery made a lot of sneaky trips to Stoke to spy on Moting and urged the PSG transfer team to move quickly.
Ryan Fraser has only one more year on his contract.
These are the type of deals that we should have wrapped up by now.
This one is a no-brainer.
The lad has been as assist machine, playing for a smaller team.
Get this one done quickly and announce it on the last day of season to help with season ticket renewals.
“Said this earlier FL, we’d already conceded 32 PL goals by the time Hector was crocked and 20 in 15 matches by the time Holding was, couldn’t keep a clean sheet to save our lives.” You’re just proving my point WE, our defence is terrible, because our defenders are terrible. Bellerin and Holding are not great but it has resulted in us having to play the Licht and Mustafi way more than the 0 games they should be getting for us. I’m just saying the marginal gains we made in signing Sok and Leno are negated by the injuries and… Read more »
Tuchel has been very publicly critical of the board and what happened with Rabiot and them not signing up a CM in January. His lack of options in midfield. This suggests that he has fuck all say in the ins and outs
Who is in charge of transfers right now at Arsenal?
What’s the Chain of Command/ hierarchy on that front?
These are the type of deals that we should have wrapped up by now.
I would argue that Brandt and his 25 million release clause for this summer is more important. Or trying to get Ndombele or Neres before other teams get a sniff. Or Thorgan Hazard who also is going into his final year. The problem at Arsenal though is they don’t have a DOF and they don’t know their budget for the season yet or what competition they’re going to be in next season
Wow Le Grove buzzing today, comment section in to the 4th page on a non-match day. Haven’t trawled through the comments but what is this shit about calling Emery defenders as ‘balanced posters’ even if some of them are busy making the most ridiculous excuses defending the man.
Marko
Tuchel has been very publicly critical of the board and what happened with Rabiot and them not signing up a CM in January. His lack of options in midfield.
What is this nonsense? Why doesn’t he just shower his existing players in his special sauce or throw in a youth player? I’m sure he has a lot better options there than we have.
I feel betrayed.
@Valentin It shouldn’t be lost on you that Emery is a man on a mission. And that mission is to get us into top 4, any which way. The squad is disjointed to say the least. And that little unbeaten run, lucky or not, surely didn’t fool anyone but it’s the reason why we’re even within touching distance of the top 4. “Style of play” doesn’t win you matches, results do. Winning breeds confidence in the team and fear in the hearts of opposition teams. I dare say we would be languishing in 8-10th if the emphasis was on establishing… Read more »
Damn you know the team is circling the drain when Le Grove is this active. Pedro the squad is shit and by shit not good enough to get us to the next level. You yourself and Gambon said during our 22 unbeaten run was because of crazy XG stats… in other words we were getting lucky not because we were good. Our squad is lucky enough to have a couple of Strikers that can pull a worldy once in awhile .. Also Our defense is still shit. … but is that not what Bould is here for ? and if… Read more »
Jesse was highly rated when he was at Madrid.
It seemed to be a major coup when he was signed by PSG. If Emery was part of the draw to Madrid then that good for him.
Sometimes young players going to new countries don’t work out.
Iago Aspas looked like a bad Liverpool signing who went back to his regular scoring ways in La Liga.
All the misery mongers here are boring, you chicken littles were expecting far too much from this season if you expected any manager to completely transform squad from what they were.
Emery has done satisfactory job given the situation he was in – long term manager with eccentric ideas on how to build squad was fired and there was also power vacuum in management because Gazidis was in charge but negotiating to get new job in Milan.
The Arsenal need to win a big trophy to instill belief in the Club.
The Europa league dwarfs the FA Cup for importance.
I’m not suggesting we go all English with our signings but why do we not buy premier league proven players more? We have a 25 man squad six of whom have played in England before.
Bare in mind Ramsay is going, if jenkinson and wellbeck leaves and cech retires that leaves holding and miki with experience of playing in the premier league before coming to us.
Why are we not looking at players in the team’s outside the top six to improve us.
I can’t believe outside the top six the players are all worse than ours?
Marko
“Tuchel has been very publicly critical of the board and what happened with Rabiot and them not signing up a CM in January. His lack of options in midfield. This suggests that he has fuck all say in the ins and outs”
I’m pretty sure it was the same with Emery
The last time PSG gave a manager carte blanche was Anchelotti when he brought key players from AC Milan.
Marko I “looked inward” and i’m pretty comfortable with what I saw. The cards told me the club has gone from one Cup manager to another. Wenger’s zenith at the end was ability to navigate a one off domestic competition and get the performance needed to get thru to next round or rely on lucky draw. The consistency required for league a bridge too far in the second half of career. Emery’s zenith is his ability to navigate a double legged competition in Europes second tier comp and rely on home form to prevail. That said he wasn’t able to… Read more »
The steady decline in quality has resulted in Ramsey becoming one of our best players….joke club lol
Up 4 grabs
“Why are we not looking at players in the team’s outside the top six to improve us.”
Ryan Fraser – affordable because he has one year left on his contract.
He can cross or shoot with either foot and is a good tackler.
He has 7 goals, 13 assists and a cross accuracy of 27 %
PSG losing to Montpellier as we speak
We should probably hire the Montpellier coach too seeing as beating PSG qualifies you automatically for the arsenal job and ensures your future as coach higher than Emery
I don’t know any Ajax chants.. so GO AJAX!
Best I got.
Receding
“PSG losing to Montpellier as we speak”
Pretty sure its a dead rubber as they won the league 10 days ago.
UP THE AJAX!!
So Dissenter
Let me see if I’ve got this right…
Liverpool had great ‘sellable assets’ – but were sitting 10th in the PL….Why was that?
The only thing I can think of is they had a crap manager.
But you told us a few hours ago that Leicester are one of the world’s best teams that are soon to be in the top 4 now that Big Brendan is at the helm.
Which is it?
I would say Klopp did an incredible job of selling dead wood and transforming Liverpool.
Sal that one went right over your head didnt it? Not surprising
Seamus Coleman, Chillwell, Docoure and Maguire – 4 quality players plying their trade in clubs outside top 6. Each one of them will cost 40M + though.
Seamus Coleman is 31
Tr7 I made a comment about balanced posters because I was accused of defending Emery when in fact I have admitted that I don’t think Emery is the right man and should go in the summer. And none of us are Emery defenders TR7 we’re just being rational in acknowledging that Arsenal’s problems run a lot deeper than just Emery and have done for years. We’re arguing against the notion that unknown sauce coach is going to waltz in after Emery with £45m and make us title challengers in his first season, and we’re arguing against the notion that Emery… Read more »
Dissenter, Right there with you. Should be all over that. If he Doesn’t work out, can move him on for A profit like Chelsea And Liverpool do. Even the spuds get some mega premium for players when selling. Why were we not looking at vvd when he left Celtic for 10 million. Because the Scottish league isn’t great? if your fast tall and can defend it doesn’t matter if it’s a one team league. Why are we not looking at the championship for the one or two gems that are there. We can’t compete with the big clubs in Europe… Read more »
Maguire was touted as an 80m signing for united last summer
Benny I agree our woes go much deeper than the manager but we are not going to build a quality squad in one summer anyway. Given our financial constraints it will take at least 3 summers for us to even think of mounting a title challenge. But what some of the posters are missing is if we don’t have the right man at the helm we will never be able to make our way back to the top, not in 3 years, 5 years, 7 years..never. Look at United for example. They have spent billions on their squad but they… Read more »
Ajex scores
Nice… away Goal number 1! Sweet.
Ajax score. Let’s go boys. Here we might not be able to entice the likes of De Jong or De Ligt but can we get Van De Beek please
This Ajax is cute.
Hup Ajax!!
One is offside the other who received the pass, is not.
Told you dumb dumbs Ajax will knockout these fools
Ajax in the mood.
Come on Ajax, destroy these cunts.
Ajax to finish this tonight.
You heard it folks ..squad quality is irrelevant
Just get him someone he rates and spend 40m on 31 year old Coleman
We should pay for insight like this
I would say Klopp did an incredible job of selling dead wood and transforming Liverpool.
Very true. Given enough time that can happen
Some comically inconsistent views by some folk on here. Embarrassing the lengths a select few are going by doubling down on their view, which happens to clash with other views they’ve held 😂
Receding and Dissenter double act is cute, men in arms chatting shit across the web. A modern marvel
I think Poch’s special sauce is more like Heinz 57 then Habanero. But that’s just me.
So much space there for Ajax… we need MORE.
Come on, Ajax!
Now, score a second and a third goal against the Spuds!
This shouldn’t be a surprise honestly they’re playing some of the very best football in Europe. They look like they’re playing with 12 men honestly
Given enough time that can happen
——————-
75 million for a defender can help…….
Poch will call it stress
City would have eked past Ajax
Go and watch some past Newcastle games Charlie
How’s their style coming along?
For a man who didn’t expect much from the season besides pretty football you seem pretty upset
CC
Actually I respect your views[ no joking]
I just happen to disagree with them.
Lets keep it lively and civil.
Spurs looked cooked on Saturday. Ajax with that rest should try and end the game tonight. Don’t give Spuds a sniff in the 2nd leg with away goal.
Lovely start from Spurs
‘You heard it folks ..squad quality is irrelevant’
Very lame attempt at spinning Receding.
ohhh I thought that was going to be 2. Lloris accidently got in the way.
They’re such a joy to watch
Premier League doesn’t give their teams any help in this comp.
Good news imo.
I thought Spurs paid too much respect to Ajax in the first 25 mins or so, giving them a lot of possession and space to create chances. If Spurs play bravely, the game is on.
Dissenter
It is civil, don’t be precious at the presence of some needle/banter. You know fine well nobody sensible gets rattled by the internet.
Receding
Newcastle? That because I rate Rafa? Oooh burn, not like his CV shits on Emery’s.
What a joy – 2 Scum players injured at the same time!
Nice work Onana – that was beautiful
The two Spuds CB killed each other.
Nasty injury. Spurs look mince.
TO DARE IS TO DO
Spurs are doing neither at the moment…
Ha ha cutting from sky!
Marko
Given time?
Klopp improved Liverpool’s xG by 50% in his first 29 games without a preseason and without any transfers.
You are constantly telling everyone that managers are redundant and the only means of improvement is to buy new players.
Imagine a coach that actually does some coaching.
CC
You’ll be surprised that some people here don’t see it that way.
Anyways, we will get to Arteta in 2024.
Spurs need a good cut man.
Early days but Yids not looking too happy
Tagliafico looks a bit shit. Makes sense we’re after him…
Vertongen may not be able to continue
Vertonghen who chose the Scum instead of us, how’s that working out for him, won anything yet?
Season over for Vertonghen. Looked facked.
TR7, Yes, unfortunately I think persisting with Emery for another season, possibly 2 is just going to be futile especially if we really do have very limited funds to overhaul the squad. My remit once Wenger left was to bring in any manager who would improve our defence first and foremost because in Ozil, Ramsey, Aubameyang and Lacazette we already have match winners capable of mixing it with the best provided our defence was sound. I also argued that it wouldn’t necessarily require huge expenditure in the first season as with proper drilling and tactics big differences can be made.… Read more »
Dissenter
Oh I know some come here with their emotional baggage, it’s like any pub. Few mongs floating about the puggie is par for the course.
–
Daley Blind and Dusan Tadic, two decent (and no more) premier league players slotting in well into a system. Who’d have thought it…
surely he needed to cut across Davidson there!
Anyone watch Game of Thrones what an episode daaaam.
Now that Spurs put some pressure by playing with intensity, Ajax look vulnerable.
Samesong
Keep it zipped on GoT, not up to speed
Not saying nowt.
Spuds plays only long ball.
Someone desperately rooting for Spurs on here
A zealous Poch disciple
Samesong
Good lad. Slow burn I’ve heard thus far though? Perked up in the most recent though?
Blind is better then average . always rated him highly.. not his fault Man U haven’t a clue. Tadic I’ll give you, more of a system dude.
Yeah same
I’m waiting for it to end so I can blitz the lot in a weekend. Can’t be dealing with week long cliff hangers. Bit like asking the mrs for a bunk up 😉
Sometimes it is useful to have a tall striker like Llorente, He can hold up those long balls. Without Son and Kane, Spuds misses their goal scorer.
Quality goal from that van de Beek.
It was quality because he made a very nice move with the ball himself at the start of the move and made sure he was on the end of the move when netting.
He’s been a bit under the radar in comparison to some other Ajax players that keep being praised but he looks good himself.
You have ti say Spuds have Guardiola to thank for their semi-final qualifications.
Guardiola chose the wrong team in the first leg.
Liking this pundit version Wenger to be honest.
At least he can talk about something new/fresh instead of mental strength this handbrake on that.
GOTspoiler alert…. people end up looking like Vertonghen. 😀
Dissenter
You have to give spurs credit for their performance
Without Kane and Ali too
Them and Ajax are like a breath of fresh air in Europe this season
Hope Liverpool fuck Barca and Ajax do Liverpool though