via @t0wey (instagram)
The Arsenal joint leadership team dropped an impromptu exclusive with some of the hardest hitting journos in the game… I mean, kind of… I mean, they interviewed themselves.
The most choreographed tap dance since Michael Flatly swooned my mother with River Dance back in the day.
The piece drew applause from many people who were captivated by the vision.
Not me. Nor Matt from The AO.
The whole piece felt a bit wet.
TL;DR, the vision is ‘Making Arsenal fans proud’ and the execution is ‘the Arsenal way.’
A vision has to be measurable because ultimately, you have to be accountable for delivering results.
‘Proud of you’ is not measurable. It’s broad, extremely subjective, but it’s a crowd pleaser for fans that know no better. It’s a little bit like telling someone they do the dishes the best… a bit of flattery to cover-up a cop-out.
I am proud of Arsenal in the Community. They do incredible work across a broad range of categories. Unreal commitment. Is that mission complete? No way. I love the trimmings around the club and they remind me that I support a classy outfit, but ultimately, I’m in it for the football.
A vision needs to be more specific, and I’d have hoped for it to be more football oriented.
EXAMPLE
Vision: To be Premier League Champions inside 5 years
Strategy: Project Youth 3.0.
Details:
- Arsenal become the number 1 destination for world-class talent between the ages of 17-23
- We build our whole backroom team in service of identifying, training and elevating their talent.
- We attract them by offering them good contracts that are heavily incentivised, combined with an elite platform to showcase their skills.
- This is a 5 year plan. We’re going to be honest with the fans, but what we’ll promise in return is a footballing philosophy built around pace, power and explosive flair. Arsenal will be the most spectacular destination for attacking football in the world.
- We’ll do this by hiring an innovative coach that believes in the vision. We’ll surround them with hand picked specialists, built to an American sporting model. We’ll hire the best of the best in every position in the club.
What did we get?
We’re going to promote kids, have tough conversations about contracts, buy smarter, and do things the Arsenal way.
They both said they want to win trophies, but there’s no timeframe. They both reeled off the Ivan-esque prose that it’s hard to win trophies, which again, felt like excuse padding. Also a bit weird to pump Emery and call the Europa his comfort blanket. If we’d been more aggressive about the league we’d have made top 4… the comfort blanket now has us in a roulette moment with Chelsea.
They said the owners are down with winning too.
“They are really passionate about how we can move the club forward, but also realistic. They know we’re not going to go from where we are to deliver our ambition overnight & know there’s going to be a whole load of work along the way to get there”
… delay, delay, delay. Arsenal are obsessed with things taking a long time, being difficult, harder to achieve than buying a loaf of bread. When you are communicating a plan like that, it shows you don’t fully believe in it. You’re already complaining. It’s tiresome.
Elon Musk sells the future like a hero. He over promises and under delivers every quarter… but you know what, the outrageous ambition he has shown has him sending spaceships to space and returning to land on a pad the side of a golf green. Did he set out to investors and say, ‘listen we want to have spaceships landing on these pads, but ultimately, it’s pretty tough getting a space permit, then there’s the recruitment thing, total nightmare, then there’s the budget, which can I just inform you is 5% of what Nasa spend.’
Fuck no. He was shooting for the literal stars, and if he fell short, at least he achieved something.
Overall, I was a bit flat coming away from it. There was no real substance. My only hope is they have something magic up their sleeves, but it doesn’t seem that way. For a piece that was recorded internally, they did a pretty uninspiring job of rallying the troops. What do the staff and players think? Are they on a wild ride? Are we going somewhere? Is there a mars shot going on here? I must have missed it.
This is my big issue with Arsenal. Our special sauce isn’t special, it’s just Heinz ketchup. There is nothing unique about having a desire to play young kids. There’s nothing unique about being financially prudent. We’re not the richest, we’re not the smartest, we’re not the most artful… so once again, we bumble into the summer with a manager that hasn’t really moved the needle guiding the vision of the club for the next two seasons.
Kind of bland, but really, exactly what I expected.
Arsenal, stasis through harmony.
Arsenal have no room to maneuver where Baku is concerned, don’t tell me if Azerbaijan payed for the space on sleeve it wouldn’t be filled.
This making rounds on twitter, its a dirty old world the beautiful game.
https://members.tortoisemedia.com/2019/04/05/the-deal-with-rwanda/content.html?sig=mYBMCwjLkpaXZStjddFvUsz_MtOC5_O9l3rL7tH83U4&utm_source=Outreach&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=5April2019&utm_content=arsenals_dirty_game
@Valentin
Emery? I thought it was Jardim!
I was the one on Allegri/Jardim train.
I didnt want Jardim.
I never wanted Jardim.
Made a point of saying that he got lucky with his Monaco team.
Valentin
The Togo team case is different though. They were travelling in an active war zone
Azerbaijan is marketing itself as the Dubai of that region. They need this final to be flawless. Nothing would have happened to Mykhi.
Like Receding stated, he too is making a political statement.
All of the articles below make it clear that Ramsey is leaving because he could get more money from Juventus than he could from Arsenal, not because Emery didn’t rate him highly. Emery said glowing things about Ramsey from the moment he arrived and he never stopped saying glowing things about Ramsey. What he said in December, however, when Ramsey’s contract issues came to a head, is that ‘players can only play so long’ and ‘players need to think about what is best for them and their family’. His implication was obvious. Ramsey might have to go elsewhere to get… Read more »
I like Ancelloti and maybe he could have done more for us than the always on edge Emery, although he did not do as well as i thought he would with Napoli this season. Allegri was one of my personal favs but i am beginning to have doubts on how good a manager he really is. I never saw Emery coming in truth, liked him a lot before PSG, thought the PSG job wasn’t right for him and i was right, and i like the work he has done here now although the end to the league season felt like… Read more »
Never wanted Jardim, guy is a fraud as far as i am concerned
Jardim a fraud… coming from the man who militantly defends Emery. Couldn’t make it up
My opinion Pedro and i am entitled to it
I have no time for Leonardo Jardim, i have him on the same shelf i have the Marco Silva’s of this world
It seems Lampard is going to go to Chelsea this summer.
Sarri is headed to Juventus, if you believe the taloids in Italy.
Seems Aaron Ramsey has miscalculated very badly because Sarri won’t go anywhere without his Jorghino.
Ramsey certainty couldn’t have envisaged that Juventus would have so much transitions before he resumed duty. If he had an injury lay-off there, there may not be any role for him by the time he returns.
Emery made five different players captain because he wanted a broad base of leadership, because there was no one player who made absolute sense for the captaincy and because he had only begun to get to know these players on the most fundamental level. Not because he is indecisive. And he went with different set-ups this season because he didn’t have the players to go with any one set-up alone and because different opponents required different approaches. Not because he is a ditherer or because he is indecisive. That was our last manager. Emery may have his limitations, but dithering… Read more »
I think the Ramsey decision was taken above Emery’s head.
Emery could have fought it but decided not to waste political capital on a done decision.
That’s my take of the situation.
And i do not militantly defend anyone, what i don’t do also is twist reality to fit my narrative.
My fixation is on the squad, we need an overhaul and fast. Of course to you we have world cup winners and bundesliga players of the season what we are missing is Pep’s boss Arteta or one of those young chaps from Germany you are infatuated with.
gambon
“wasn’t able to improve performance even 1%”
Can you please explain how 7 points better, one place higher in the table and 11 points closer to fourth places is not improvement?
So, only underlying metrics matter now? This is a very interesting approach to football.
Stanley Kowalski played by Marlon Brando in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’. Great actor, great play, great movie.
RH, that’s because you have poor judgement.
From what I can tell Marco Silva has yet to break PSG’s grasp the on Ligue 1 title.
Of course he’s not a fraud.
Monaco bought him half a squad this winter, many talented new players, and still they struggling to stay in L1.
(lolZ)
A lot of people saying we just cant possibly afford to buy good players to improve this squad.
Any 2 of Ziyech, Sarr and Brandt would cost £50m.
In fact, all 3 for £75m would be an absolute steal and would certainly be an upgrade on what we have.
@Dissenter, Baku is officially not in a war zone, but anybody who pretend that this is a safe area is lying. Yes the government is trying to portrait itself as a haven, but the reality is that when you leave the government guarded zone it is a dangerous place. Corruption is rampant. Violence common. Opposants and their families bare harassed. Reporters are not welcome. There is a reason why Azerbaijan is ranked 166 in the 2019 World Press Freedom Index. A friend of mine has to go there for work. He and his team have encountered their fair share of… Read more »
“RH, that’s because you have poor judgement.”
Thanks
I sha saw Gazidis for the snake oil salesman he was. Many cannot say the same
“From what I can tell Marco Silva has yet to break PSG’s grasp the on Ligue 1 title.”
Go look at the squad that was done with, they sold for 700m.
He now has a squad that should be battling for top 6 at worst but he is butting horns with Amiens, Caen and Dijon on who is gonna taste ligue 2.
Yea i know he isn’t to blame at all, it’s the evil man who sold his players while he wasn’t looking ,
Big rumour about Ljungberg, who could replace Steve Bould (at last!!) this summer…
RH, he put your god into a job position, worship him.
Dissenter
Good point re Ramsey he’s signed up to play under Allegri who’s now left. It will be interesting to see if the decision comes back to bite him on the arse.
Bamford Look, I know you arent overly smart. But to make it easy…..results that are not backed up by performance, are basically down to luck. Now if you think Emery is in some way capable of controlling luck, then great, lets all look forward to next season when he uses his luck control to win us the quadruple. Or just try an experiment. Flip a coin 38 times. Call every H a win, and every T a loss. Then do it 10 times, and call these groups of 38 coin flips “seasons” Every single season your performance metrics will be… Read more »
Pedro
Just because someone is willing to give Emery the benefit of the doubt and doesn’t hold Arteta as the next messiah does not mean they have positioned Emery as God.
You need to stop this narrative it’s giving the blog a bad vibe. This place is turning into an Arteta version of Untold.
“RH, he put your god into a job position, worship him.”
You can do much better than that Pedro, guess you are distracted
To change the subject from 1) The Wise But Untimately Vacuous Sayings of Our Executive Leadership, and 2) Why Emery is Responsible for the departure of Ramsey, our poor all-important Expected Goals Stats and 3) Everything That is Bad With the Arsenal, The Universe and everything When it is Controlled by the Spanish , I’m gonna go out on a limb and construct a Geopolitical Football Conspiracy Theory. Specifically, Ozil is leaving us this summer, and he’s going to a Turkish club. Here’s how the theory goes: 1. Ozil is filmed with Erdogan, prior to the World Cup, causing uproar… Read more »
Marc, I remember people saying the same thing when I was writing about Wenger.
gambon One, are you seriously claiming that “luck” is the only explanation for why we managed a certain number of points given certain underlying metrics? Are you claiming that there are no other possible explanations? Two, why have you not responded to my alternate explanation for why such metrics would be down? Probably because you can’t. All you can do is continue repeating yourself over and over, even though people have replied to your points several times and in several different ways. Three, if those metrics are still down next season, I will be the first person to say that… Read more »
Pedro
Except that with Wenger it made sense, as many people did in fact “worship” him. No one here even rates Emery all that highly — and this includes Receding — so your jibes just come across as petty.
“…guess you are distracted”
He’s not distracted, he’s Artetized.
Writing about Wenger destroying his legacy right before our very eyes is one thing, and congratulations on that.
Predicting the coaching ceiling of an untested manager based on discussions you have had with people (unless you actually time traveled which i doubt) is a totally different ball game
gambon The problem with your argument is your sample set is to small. You’re judging Emery on one season where not only the manager but 3 or 4 players were adapting to a new country and it takes time to get used to. What if with another summer things fall into place and we do see some improvement? My guess is you will move the argument against Emery to where ever you can score points against him. As it stands I’m not sure Emery will be given the option of a third season unless he turns it on next year… Read more »
Pedro is becoming part of his creation….
I thought you were a neutral soul lol a gentle listener.
Bamford, I would stick to your own lane.
Samesong, I’ve never been neutral.
@Gambon,
How are you judging our victory against Watford?
On the day, we got a lucky goal, lucky red card for the opposition main striker (I know it was deserved, but when was the last time you see that type of behvu resulting in a red card on the EPL? Never).
Our victory against a 10 men Watford was completely undeserved and if we were to replay that game, 9 times out of 10 we would not be winning it.
Valentin, they hit the woodwork as well and Leno had a blinder.
gambon would rather top the stat charts rather than the league table.
Pedro
There’s a world of difference and the fact you can’t see it says a lot about how myopic you’ve become.
You rallied relentlessly against Wenger but your argument was always about improvement and having a modern setup.
You never ever went down a road of elevating a technically unproven individual as being the cure for all of our ills.
Marc a 38 game sample set is fairly small, but I would have expected to see improvement, simple as that. I certainly would never have backed Emery getting the job if you told me we were going to concede another 51 goals. Our attack has basically stayed the same, our defence has not only gotten worse, it finished the season worse than it started, I wouldve expected us to end the season a notably better team than we started the season as. That is what coaching does, We havent. It seems the only expectation on Emery is to buy new… Read more »
Laca (as usual…) not on the list of DD – aka ze master in conservatism – with the French squad…
Perfect, he will be even more motivated to score in Baku.
Marc, I’m rallying against Emery because I’ve seen a year of him. He was a bland hire, and we saw the fruits of it. Why continue with someone with no track record outside of Europea? The football director said the comp was his comfort blanket.
You are blind to it, but you’ll see.
gambon
I thought we’d see an improvement in our defending once Wenger left no matter who came in.
Wenger was so stuck in his ways that he wasn’t willing to try and change things or open to new ideas. I don’t expect to see a manager in his mid forties come in with the same issues which makes me wonder are there bigger issues in play?
Valentin
Is that the same Watford that got crushed 6-0 in the Cup Final..
Speaking yesterday, the club’s Managing Director Vinai Venkatesham made it clear the club were happy with Emery’s performance, despite the fact we didn’t manage to secure a top four position. “If you boiled it down to two objectives, they would be, one – to successfully integrate Unai and his coaching staff into Arsenal and the second, as challenging as we knew it would be, to qualify for the Champions League,” he said. “If you assess our season against those two objectives, with Unai the best way to assess that is: if we went back in time, would we make the… Read more »
Pedro
mate you’ve become the prime example of Churchill’s description of a fanatic.
@Pedro,
It is amusing how some people refuse to admit that some metrics are better indication of future results than past results.
A few jammy 1-0 victory and suddenly everything is rosy while in fact, metrics show that the team will hit the buffer.
Same thing with our defense, it got progressively worse while the influence of Emery first assistant grew. Unless something change, We could have a worse defense next season than this one. Yet people still blame Wenger.
Track record
Seriously Pedro? You really want to talk track records?
Oh i forgot Arteta just won the domestic treble..carry on
gambon
“If he keeps our xG where it is, but drops out xGA down below 1 goal per game then fine.”
Provided we sign a better starting LB, replace Mustafi with a good CB and get Bellerin back into the starting XI, there is no question our xGA will go down. Whether it goes below 1, I can’t say.
Further, as soon as he replaces Xhaka in the XI with someone more mobile and less error-prone, this number will also improve.
The above is all plainly obvious to anyone who watched Arsenal regularly this season.
Receding
So if we lose next week Vinai has to sack Emery then?
Doesnt seem great that the success of his first season comes down to one game where we’re underdogs.
Maybe shouldve done a bit better against Brighton and Palace.
Receding
There’s also a chance that the MD saying the guy who’s taking us into a match with over £50 million hanging on it shouldn’t have been hired might not be ideal preparation.
“So if we lose next week Vinai has to sack Emery then?”
Nah..you forgot this line
“and the second, as challenging as we knew it would be, to qualify for the Champions League,” he said.”
They already knew it would be “challenging” so no sack…just a carry on and do better next season now you have “settled in”
Bamford
Fine, but Emery spent £70m last summer, all one defensively biased players, and our xGA went up.
Not only that but our average xGA was worse by the end of the season than the start.
So, £70m of players, a full pre-season, 11 months of daily training sessions, and over 50 games, and we defend worse than we did when he took over.
Sorry that I dont have much faith in his ability to change this.
@Redtruth,
The fact that ManCity crushed Watford 6-0, while we were hanging for dire life against ten men says more about ManCity and Arsenal than Watford.
ManCity is a juggernaut whose wallet will crush any team.
Arsenal is a skint team with no proper captain at the helm.
gambon
“Maybe [he] should’ve done a bit better against Brighton and Palace.”
If we had better midfielders and defenders, he might have.
“There’s also a chance that the MD saying the guy who’s taking us into a match with over £50 million hanging on it shouldn’t have been hired might not be ideal preparation.”
Such a bland thing to say Marc
He should have blasted Emery for poor performance and bland football, ordered the immediate arrest of his assistant (who i noticed is now Valentin’s favorite whipping boy) and appointed Arteta for the final
“If we had better midfielders and defenders, he might have.”
Nah we should have wrapped up the Brighton game in the first half, criminal what happened there. We had enough to beat Brighton ten times out of ten. It was poor both from manager and players
Markus schubert, free agent and back up to leno next season. There isn’t any compilation video on YouTube. Don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
If the club really wants to show their ambition
They need to sign 2 attackers- which would send a strong message to Ozil and Mikki to have their agents to some work
Apparently Ozil denied PSG in Jan, from what I read…
He is the albatross around our financial necks…. Erdogan or his agent or the club need to start shopping his ass like about now…
If he is here next season, it will be more Ozil headlines, etc all that shit that we dont need to hear about anymore
My man Raul sounding like a two-pack-a-day habit.
Do we know that any of these links are genuine?
So far, we’ve been linked to:
Schubert
Neto
Djene
Hermoso
Saliba
Bailly
Rabiot
Brandt
Sarr
Ziyech
Maurice
Martinelli
I would bet that nearly every one of these is complete bollocks.
Martinelli I think will happen, too much smoke around that one.
Outside of that, we wont be doing business until after the EL final I would imagine. But I bet its none of the above.
Raul on 2x packs a day with his side kick Vinai fresh from selling a Prius.
gambon “Fine, but Emery spent £70m last summer, all one defensively biased players, and our xGA went up.” Well, except that Guendouzi is not a “defensive player,” nor is he a first XI player, so let’s subtract his £8m fee from that. So to be more accurate, we spent £62m on “defensive” players. Let’s look more carefully at that that £62m, though. One, Sokratis was signed not to bolster our defense but to cover for the injured Koscielny. This means that Emery had to continue to rely on Mustafi — the real problem in our defense — and this was… Read more »
“I would bet that nearly every one of these is complete bollocks.”
No safer bet has ever been made
Guns of SF
“Apparently Ozil denied PSG in Jan, from what I read…”
PSG.. really , I thought the consensus of opinion on Le Grove was that Ozil was so shit that no decent club would want him in their team .
Gambon
All links are speculation, unless it’s written on the official arsenal website. But then again it’s always fun to discuss players that won’t be coming in and also nice to increase our expectations just so we get a nice wake up call when it doesn’t go through.
Guns
“If he is here next season, it will be more Ozil headlines”
It’s worse than that we’ll have Pierre on here telling us how an abject performance was actually a world class one – we just don’t see it.
Pierre
he is shit, and this was a lifeline for OZil but he likes the bleed Arsenal Green.
so there is that…
He is not very bright either IMO
Bamford
So why did Emery agree to those signings?
Youve basically just thrown all our new signings under the bus in order to protect the manager.
Leno is our fist choice GK, Sokratis is now our best CB, Torreira is our best CM……and we have gotten worse defensively.
Worrying.
The international transfer window hasn’t opened yet either and the domestic seasons aren’t over yet in Italy with Spain and Germany’s cup finals still to take place.
At face value we’re not as yet behind the curve.
We need to replace
Ozil
Mikk
Rambo
3 mids right there and possibly a winger…
CM
LB
back up striker perhaps?
If we do not upgrade our midfield any injury to Laca or Auba will be a disaster. We need goals from all attackers
Pierre
There was a rumour (and I’m the first to admit rumours in football are about as worthless as something can get) that he turned down a loan to PSG in Jan.
PSG have the $$
Their players are in CL
They have Neymar, etc…. some good players
Its a less physical league
Suits Ozil style and his brand
and OZIL turned them down.
Like WTF!
gambon “You’ve basically just thrown all our new signings under the bus in order to protect the manager.” No, I haven’t. Sokratis was good. Torreira was good. Leno was good. They didn’t solve all of our defensive issues, however, for a variety of reasons. As for why Emery would agree to those signings, they were all reasonable signings. And we only had so much money to work with. And Emery wanted to see what he really had in this squad, as he wouldn’t know that until he worked with these players for a time, watched them in action in the… Read more »
Gambon
What are your thoughts on rakitic? Barca want to offload him, we need experience in attack if we manage to sell ozil and mhiki. I wouldn’t mind getting him if we get recruit young everywhere else. (Seeing that we are linked with only young players).
gambon it’s annoying but you’ve got to track which sources the rumours come from. If you go on r/gunners they generally delete rumours if the sourcing is too dodgy, and also have a rating system for how accurate sources are. (it’s just a community vote based on perception, but it’s something)
“Jardim a fraud… coming from the man who militantly defends Emery. Couldn’t make it up“
Jardim a fraud, but defends Emery losing the league that season to his Monaco side.
Figure that one out.
No one is asking for Sokratis,Leno, Torriera or Guendouzi to be replaced so i don’t think anyone is throwing them under the bus
Nothing about Bamford’s post shows that either
He pointed the finger at Mustafi and Xhaka to an extent and also we did not get the influence we expected from Torriera although that might still come
And Guendouzi is a CM, he has very little defensive qualities to speak of, if anything he led to the increase in xGA by getting dispossessed in dangerous situations
Gonsterous
No thanks. Think we need to build around young & ready or nearly ready players.
We need to follow what Liverpool have done since Klopp joined.
Players like Brandt, Ziyech and Sarr are the type we should be looking at.
People talking about Nicolas Pepe going for £50-60m, well we should have been there in 2017 when he cost £10m.
We should have been there getting NDombele for £8m
Marc
Behinds scenes things are surely moving, many dead rubbers getting in way of holiday plans.
Very curious to see what plans are this summer, for all this chat that Emery’s been dealt a poor hand with players lets see if he agrees and remedy’s or continues with Xhaka in the mid, Kolasinac. Ramsay’s replacement will be a pretty good marker of direction were headed, critical signing for me.
His Monaco side, the side assembled by another man if Valentin is to be believed that was sold for 700m.
His current Monaco side assembled by another dude i am told is now battling relegation under same Jardim
Sounds fraudulent to you Charles??
“Not very difficult to predict which team Pedro will support in Baku…”
Yep, hes been blogging about Arsenal for 11 years because he wants us to lose games.
Cheerio H&L
Gambon you forgot Manolas, some sources claim we are already negotiating , your thoughts on him.
Personally i do not fancy him, overrated and rash
Sarri to Juve rumours hotting up
Coupe de la Ligue Final 2017
Monaco 1 PSG 4
Coupe de France Semi-Final 2017
PSG 5 Monaco 0
Jardim is a fraud.
I also will give Vinai and Raul a chance.. What choice do I have really..? But the burden of proof is on them to show us that they know what they are doing post Wenger. And I don’t have a whole lot of confidence based on The way they handled the January Transfer window, how they handled the Sven departure, (sure tell the guy he isn’t getting the job but at least have a replacement before you do.), and the way the DoF search has gone.. (We still don’t have one and Edu had not signed off on it yet… Read more »
Receding No, because I followed his project at Monaco when he started for nothing more than his Venezuelan heritage. He was clear in his vision, stated he didn’t have the players for expansive football, needed to play counter attack pragmatic football for now, was criticised for it, did well, then bought, then out came the expansive football that bagged a league and CL Semi. Then his team was torn in half. I’m guessing you feel he ought to redo what he’s done previously, but I personally have huge sympathy for any manager or club that sells half their squad. Ajax… Read more »
Good for a bit of CFC prep disruption.
Ian Wright’s dream summer is Ben Chilwell, Youri Tielemans and Nicolas Pepe
Christ above the deflection and defence of Emery is painful reading.
Leno good, Sokratis good, Torreira good (full season with Auba – didn’t mention this)… yet our defensive return was as bad as the worst it’s been in 20+ years, and we “didn’t have the players” to beat Brighton and Palace.
Wow.
Gambon
Didn’t we already fail with the, “get only young players” strategy? Won’t it be a good idea to have an experienced head helping us find ways to tackle tightly locked defense’s?
Maybe if not rakitic, someone else on the late 20s range??
Wouldn’t disagree much with Wrighty there, other than us needing a new CB and maybe opting for someone other than Tielemans who may have just dropped a good few months and little else.
Chilwell is excellent, Pepe is fireworks, but he’s offering names with no nod to a budget. We won’t be buying those sort
Am I the only one who thinks that the layover is too long….
feeling jittery despite the friendly on THurs
Pedro There is an assumption that it was Emery who pulled the plug on Ramsey, but I am not so sure that was the case. We know from earlier statements made by the club that the people making decisions on transfers and contracts were at the time the CEO [Gazidis],Director of Football [Sanhelli] and Senior Scout [Mislintat] + presumably the lawyer who now works on contracts. We have been told that the player and club came more or less to an agreement but that Arsenal then pulled out of deal. There are many reasons why that could have happened and… Read more »
Tielmans, Sarr, Pepe, Lozano, ZIyech Fraser-
all kinda doable….need 3
all under age 25 I believe
“but I personally have huge sympathy for any manager or club that sells half their squad”
That’s news to me considering you are very critical about Emery’s time at Valencia when the club was in serious financial trouble and sold key players every year. You felt three consecutive third place finishes was not up to your lofty standards
have a read
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/861591-5-reasons-why-valencias-unai-emery-is-one-of-the-worlds-best-managers#slide5