Apologies for the delayed posts, I’m on a shoot, at an airport… which is cool, because you are literally checked in so it’s easy to fly home.
Anyway, Arsenal?
BIG news is Auba has taken down his profile picture on Instagram. That’s news in this SICK world we live in. It’s clearly a purposeful thing because the guy has LOTS of great pictures of himself… so where is he going to go? It’d have to be somewhere with a desperate need of a striker and a lot of cash money. Unlikely to be Madrid after they just signed Jovic. So who?
Why don’t you make yourself useful and find out.
Yes, you.
Maybe it’s just a negotiating tactic… ‘PAY MORE OR I LEAVE MY PICTURE BLANK’
… chapter 4 in Art of the Deal if I remember correctly.
Legendary author Nick Hornby confirmed what I had heard about Aaron Ramsey, it was all on Emery, the player wanted to sign. By now, it’s an irrelevance, he’s gone, but you know… nothing like a little confirmation.
Kola is being chased down by Barca, those surging runs clearly attracting their interest. In a better setup, no doubt he’d have had far more assists this season. It seems the club are very keen to move him on. Hasn’t quite been the breakout hit we’d hoped for, but again, another confirmation that players we have in the squad aren’t utter shite.
News at the training ground has Freddie and Steve Bould switching jobs. Interesting the club aren’t firing our exlegendary centre back, not that I’d want that. Did Bould simply want more say on the team? Are the club being forceful about keeping Arsenal DNA in the ranks? It has certainly looked like Bouldy has the same passion for the manager as Ozil. Those blank stares he does when we drop another early goal are reminiscent of mine when I’m reading an Emery press conference on the .com.
I wonder what the swap out with Freddie is hoping to achieve? I’m not sure I buy the ‘he’ll help bring more young players through’… why would that be? If you’re saying Bould is bad with identifying youth player talent, would it be wise to send him to U23? This is weird, and again, if you have answers, share them.
Umtiti wants to see out his 4 years at Barca… which for me, sounds like good news. I really don’t want to be picking up players from Raul’s old club. That just wouldn’t be right. He’s likely very expensive, and he’s probably going to be a huge risk from an injury perspective moving forward… hence the reason they’re getting rid of a mid-twenties world-class defensive talent.
… and just to cap off a wonderfully positive post. BIG JEFF, the player we all thought would be an Arsenal god, binned by Emery for £4m last summer… is on the verge of a move to Monaco £22m. Notable that Lille, who are run by talent machine Luis Campos, are also in the running.
You literally couldn’t make up Arsenal summers.
See you in the comments. x
Mystic, if what I wrote came true, it was objective blogging. The fact that so much of what I wrote about eventually came into our hires, our structure and approach should mean you pay attention to what I write about Emery… because I’ll be right again.
TR7
“Letting go of Ramsey was a good decision by Emery”
Again very much doubt it was Emery’s decision.
But other than that how can it be seen as a good thing for Arsenal.
Ramsey was one of only three players at the club other big teams would be interested in signing up.
Ramsey made 28 league appearances last season, 14 as a substitute. Before than he made a couple of Europa league appearances where his performances were half hearted.
If that’s overplaying then juventus are in for a shock.
“The fact that so much of what I wrote about eventually came into our hires, our structure and approach should mean you pay attention to what I write about Emery… because I’ll be right again.”
Like you were right about Gazidis?
CG
Arsenal fans have the power to rid the club of Kroenke.
From what I know he has a head, two arms, two legs, two feet and, I think, a conscience(ok, questionable).
He is not, and never has been, a permanent fixture.
If Arsenal fans want him out then get him out.
It’s really that simple.
“Emery rather than hating on Ramsey from the off was probably disappointed that he walked into a club where one of the better players had already decided to leave or was well on his way.” Or maybe he had a plan for him as our number 10 and he was (nearly) atrocious there. For one reason or the other he didn’t fancy him in the double pivot (where I thought with more discipline was his best position) and so he tried other things. His contract situations didn’t help either. But I believe better than Emery might have been acting based… Read more »
Marko, I won’t argue facts.
Go to Reddit if you want to flat earth.
Azed, I was wrong about Gazidis for sure.
He fucked his chance at a restructure and here we are now in a total mess with average at the wheel.
CG
You should work for the Samaritans!
“You want to jump? That’s fine. Where were you looking at? The Shard’s a good location”
Ishola
Ramsey on a free was of interest to Juventus. If he had signed a new contract on 200K/wages, I am not sure any club bigger than us would have been interested in him. So, I don’t agree with you on his ‘sellability’. Honestly barring Leno, Laca and probably Auba, I think all the other players are expendable.
Pedro I can start saying now that Klopp won’t win the PL till he leaves England. I could find a way to load why Can left and why Coutinho left and why Salah couldn’t score in their winless run last season as signs of his incompetence. I could also use anything that happens next season to slate him, the campaign could age and come through. That doesn’t mean I was right. Cos he could probably win the league next year or Emery could win the league next 2 years. There are so many factors at play that you are choosing… Read more »
We have a sell-on clause on Reine-Adelaide so all the best to him.
Pedro
So you are blaming the guys fixing Gazidis and Wenger’s mess?
Raul, Vinai and Emery have nothing to do with the wage bill mess but its up to them to fix it.
The question is do you want a short term fix or a long term one?
It is not hindsight, Everybody could see that the Reine-Adelaïde had talent. The only question was whether his body could support the demand of the EPL.
He left just as Arsenal re-organised their own medical team. After a year of being followed by proper medical team, he has now demonstrated that he can play a full season without injury.
Maybe if he had been given an opportunity, we would be in a better situation: no Suarez, no injury to Ramsey and potentially Champion’s League.
Graham Re.Kroenke The real threat lies – when he does decide to Sell. ( we dont want him to sell- we want him to show competence and leadership) Everything is on hold. There will be no buyers at the KSE price. Off course there will be interested parties Sunderland, Villa – USA owners- both decided to sell up. Both relegated Look at the quagmire Newcastle have been in- whilst Ashley is trying to find a buyer at his PRICE. we are on brink of relegation in 24 months – if we persist with Emery. What we are seeing a year… Read more »
Ramsey left because he was going to be able to get more money from Juventus than he was from Arsenal, not because Emery didn’t rate him highly, and he was only going to get so much from Arsenal because of our wage bill situation, not, again, because Emery didn’t rate him highly. Both Emery and the club have said as much in their public remarks. Back in December, Emery said about the situation, ‘I too was once a player and I know that one can only play so long and one must think about one’s family,’ clearly implying that Ramsey… Read more »
There are a lot of genuine reasons to criticise Emery but Ramsey contract saga is not one of them.
Valentin
It’s is easy for anyone to say they rated this young player or another after an impressive showing in the Emirates Cup.
It was said Adelaide had a great showing in the 2015 edition. So why was he not afforded more opportunities prior to this season just gone?
I don’t recall anyone speaking of him at all this season on here. Now that he is apparently moving on for a large fee it is another opportunity to have a bash at Emery.
Gazidis was an opportunist who knew nothing of football and was in awe of Wenger instead of being his boss.
When he realised that he was in charge, he decided on a new structure but named the wrong people. He did not have the courage or his conviction. Wanted Arteta,but did not wanted to be the one responsible if things went pear-shaped so instead of showing leadership and sticking to his choice he followed the choices of his underlying.
TR7
Juventus sign very good standard players on freebies.
I disagree that other bigger clubs wouldn’t have been interested as well in Ramsey’s contract situation. We have seen it all before with the better Arsenal players in the past. The same scenario.
Ramsey put in a home performance nearer to the end of the season that was head and shoulders above any other Arsenal player this season. Granted it was against modest EPL opposition but he was the best player on the pitch by miles. Absolutely ran the show.
So Angers have a proper medical team while Arsenal don’t… Nice
Adelaide’s three ligue 1 goals translates into what in the EPl exactly? Would he have been fighting for a spot with Ramsey?
So many things wrong with your last post Valentin as usual
Gazidis was one of the most lacklustre wastes of space to have ever ‘worked’ for the club. The very definition of a charlatan.
Pedro
Tell me, what did you see in Gazidis that made you think he was right for the job?
I’m intrigued.
“Tell me, what did you see in Gazidis that made you think he was right for the job?”
He had “sauce” just like Arteta.
Jeff RA, with a different medical team and a full season without injury in a less physically demanding league, he box-officed his way to a mammoth 3 goals in 35 appearances.
Yeah, everyone can see his injury-free talent at work. He’s the French Iwobi. Maybe Angers should bump him up to 70k a week in order to ‘protect their asset’. Then wait and see how many clubs are clamoring to pay 22m for his services.
I would be surprised if someone finds a way to blame Emery for Lupoli.
And if indeed Angers were the only team willing to pay a paltry 4m for Adelaide then the statement “everybody could see he had talent” isn’t true.
For instance no one had mentioned him here throughout the season until Pedro’s post and the rumored valuation from Monaco, a team who spent the whole of last year buying badly and fighting relegation.
I still find it extraordinary that someone would argue that someone else is to blame for a known injury prone player picking up yet another hamstring injury while being used sparingly for the whole season especially around the time of said injury. It’s honestly ridiculous. To put it into context Aaron Ramsey completed 90 minutes 9 times in total last season. In the month of February he played 87 mins in total over 4 games. In March we had 4 games only and he completed 90 minutes once. Either side of the Napoli tie he played 45 and 67 mins… Read more »
Graham, I met him in person, I liked the plan he laid out… I mean, he was picked up by Milan to do a rebuild operation by a group of people far more successful than you or I.
So, yes, I had him wrong, but I’m not exactly in bad company.
And when Mikki was demanding all that money p/w, what stopped our guys from saying £80,000 p/w or no deal and then sell Sanchez for £15m and come home. Not that anybody was desperate for Mikki.
Overpaid players everywhere doing nada for us.
That’s where I disagree that Kroenke is in it for the money, if you are in a business for the money, you wouldn’t sit there and let some hot-headed silly punks waste the money like that, would you?
Marko, you can be frozen out, then overplayed.
Valentin
“Gazidis … was in awe of Wenger instead of being his boss.”
Nonsense. It was Gazidis who said that the manager could not go on with a broken relationship with the fans forever, Gazidis who said that the manager would need to be a catalyst for change, and Gazidis who said we needed to move to a DoF and modern model.
Wenger did not like or agree with any of the above.
Receding I smiled as I read Valentin’s last post when he strted with “It is not hindsight, Everybody could see that the Reine-Adelaïde had talent. The only question was whether his body could support the demand of the EP” It was like …there you go again…at some pint we are going to make a harness for that nose. Reine-Adelaide was so good that only little Angers came for him. He was so good that he had only three goals in ligue un. Monaco can have him, we have the typical sell-on clause so they will have to share the proceeds… Read more »
I drank the Gazidis kool-aid too. He’s as culpable as anyone for not delivering. Glad he’s gone.
Will Jeff com back to haunt us…
Or will nelson an Saka be better players in the long run…
We definitely would have made champions league if the Jeff was playing no doubt. Other players who would have carried us to champions league qualification include Jordan Osei Tutu and Ameachi. Obviously. Duh
@Chris, Everybody who saw his performance during the Emirates Cup was impressed by the kid. He had vision, technique and was willing to get stuck in. That does not mean that he was physically ready to play week-in week-out in the premiership. He then spend more time nursing various niggling injuries than playing. However whenever he played in the reserve he was the outstanding performer. Like I said, the big question was whether physically he could ever be playing a full season. Our poor of a joke medical team did not help on that front. Most have since been let… Read more »
Not sure about Nelson, but Saka looks exciting.
Serious question
Whatever happened to lemar after out 50m bid…
Serious
Yaya Sanogo has as well impressed at the Emirates Cup. Just like to point that out
We all drank the Kool-Aid at one stage, some of us added whisky.
Pedro
You weren’t just wrong about Gazidis
You were majorly wrong, like 10/10 wrong. You swallowed his lies hook, line and sinker and got angry when challenged at the time.
Excuse some of us doubters for our resistance to jump on board the blame-Emery-for-everything bandwagon.
Good.
Like Saka
Could the move for Freddie up to first team duties be an inkling that Saka will get game time next season
I recall reading Saka said Freddie has brough5 him on leaps n bounds…
*at some point
Fucking hell, Valentin. The Emirates Cup a barometer?
We all saw Zelalem’s performances in the Emirates Cup too.
He was not an outstanding performer in the PL2 ever. 3 goals in 29 appearances over 3 years is trash at that level.
Diss
Ivan
Was like a twisted serial killer playing games with plod…
Ivan did the same with the media and the ast
Having q and a with the fans,… I’m not the bad guy shite….
Marko, you can be frozen out, then overplayed.
Can you prove that he was overplayed? 4 full games inside the first 4 months of the year isn’t being overplayed. 45 minutes before the first leg and 68 minutes before the second isn’t being overplayed.
Tfe history of football is filled with young footballers who were rejected academy levels and went on to become stars.
Reine-Adelaide isn’t even in that group yet. It’s a long way from Angers to the top.
For the usual characters to start rewriting history to suggest that he was some great talent that as missed…hmmm. Most people here batted an eyelid when he was sold, it was just like he never existed. There were no goodbyes or uproars.
“Everybody who saw his performance during the Emirates Cup was impressed by the kid. He had vision, technique and was willing to get stuck in.”
Gideon Zelalem was exciting when he played.
Fran Merida looked good in the beer cup.
Even Yaya Sanogo looked good in the Emirates tournament.
C’mon Pedro, you know better.
Ramsey could have signed a contract extension way before Emery became coach if he and his agent weren’t scheming a money grab. Their plans failed flat when that sucker Wenger was fired. They knew Wenger would have fallen for their scheme.
Ramsey is good riddance anyway in my opinion. Hope Ozil, Xhaka, Mustafi and Mikhi can follow suit.
@Bamford10, If you had read my post, you would have realised that it is exactly what I said. He did put the structure but way too late. Gazidis spend the first few years in awe of Wenger instead of being his boss. He woke up and put the structure in place. The problem is that he did that way too late and that he put the wrong people in charge. The medical team should have been sacked years before. The fact that we did not had a conditioning team was ridiculous. The fact that the scouting department players database was… Read more »
3 ligue 1 goals doesn’t equal poor judgement. You are just using this to advance your Osei-tutu point.
No one missed Adelaide through out the season yourself inclusive judging by the fact you didn’t mention him once.
The Emirates cup is a preseason competition, a list of players who have impressed in it and are now nothing footballers is quite long
Our medical team has also been doing quite a fine job of late, your attack on them is unwarranted. Angers don’t have a Better medical team than arsenal
Valentin Was Adelaide injured the whole time between 2015-18? If not again I ask why he was not given more opportunities in that time period when he was fit. If he was that outstanding in the reserves surely he would have featured more in the first team. Genuine question, I can’t really recall him other than the Emirates Cup after which he seemed to fall off the radar. And again, nobody has mentioned him here at all this year on her to my knowledge, lamenting us selling him or raving about his performances for Angers. Sorry to be cynical, but… Read more »
I genuinely think 50% of the aura of Jeff Reine Adelaide stems from Channing Tatum in 21 jump street. It was purely coincidental.
If Barca offer 20 m
For kola
Take.
If the tiddlywinks offer 70m for Auba take
If the Spanish offe4 70 m for laca take
160
Plies we can lob out mustafi xhara for 35m take
195 ish for rebuilding with the yoot coming through
Will Chelsea get 120 for hazard
Bearing in mind he can sign pre up in jan…
Why pay the money.
@Azed,
Zelalem never looked that good. Good passer, but never interested enough in the defensive side of the game. He is a waifer version of Xhaka. He couldn’t make it at Rangers in the Scottish championship!
Fran Merida always looked like an inferior version of Cesc Fabregas.
The only one whom I had big hope for and I am readily admit I was wrong was Joel Campbell.
Yaya Sanogo scored a hat trick in the Emirates cup and gave the fans a dance to behold.
Mustafi scored as many goals as super-talent mynameisJeff (nice one, Marko) did last season in a similar number of appearances. Mustafi! And they weren’t own-goals, just so we’re clear.
Val
Carlos vela…
Was the big arrribba who never was…
But Vela looked sexy in a whig… so i’ve heard.
Off topic but I really liked Wenger.and Mourinho joining together on Bein Sports for pre and post match analysis. Such a refreshing change from banal analysis of the so called pundits. Arsene still refers to Arsenal as ‘we’ whenever he talks about us.
@RH,
I am sorry, but the Arsenal medical team pre 2018 was terrible. We had the worst record of all the 5 major Leagues in term of player recovery and diagnostic.
There is a reason why Colin Lewin was sacked. We are now reaping the benefit. When they announced that a player is injured for 3 weeks that does not translate six weeks later in he’ll be missing for 6 months because we misdiagnosed him.
I still remember David Bentley scoring that lob against Middlesbrough in 2004 and thinking we had a top quality player for the next ten years on our hands.
I wonder the percentage of how often it is even young players of excellent potential actually go on to truly fulfil it. A lot of the time they have to move on to get the opportunity to grow and then just to end up in lower leagues.
@Chris,
David Bentley had the talent to make to the top, but not the mental to do it. He was a weak show pony. The good thing about him is the money we made from Blackburn selling him to Spurs.
Dissenter
“Excuse some of us doubters for our resistance to jump on board the blame-Emery-for-everything bandwagon.”
unless I’m mistaken , previously you and the rest of the mutual appreciation society were on the blame-wenger-for-everything-bandwagon.
Now you are on the blame-emery-for-nothing-bandwagon..
I’m afraid to say it’s true and very amusing to see.
Valentin,
You’re offbeat on Colin Lewin there and misdiagnosis.
Post Shad is when things started getting better for Arsenal.
Arsenal has a world-class medical team and that didn’t start 1 year ago.
Remarks about Adelaide not being big enough for the Premiership makes me laugh.
Players like the smallest Gerard Deuofeu Watford has been a revelation
in lots of games iv’e watched.
You could get that guy in your suitcase.
Comments about Adelaide who I’m sure would have bulked out not being good enough fall on deaf ears.
I’m sure the idea who are good players and who are rubbish is sadly missed by some pundits on here.
You want useless then look no further than Walcott .?
“And how long did we stand for the fraud.”
Dave Bentley… remember that chip he scored.
So slow…
Well glad Pedro doesn’t share the belief lowly Angers have a better medical team than Arsenal.
Was the big arrribba who never was…
Noice
Fran Merida was quite a talent
Really can’t figure out what happened there
Arsenal have a lot of very good people in their medical team.
We even fucked with that side of things bringing in Burgess. What could he do that Shad couldn’t? A very odd Wenger inspired hire imo.
@Pedro,
When Shad Forsythe was named head of performance, he did not change any of the personnel. Things improved, because he put some modern structure but overall the quality of the medical personnel did not change. We still had those ridiculous misdiagnosis.
On the other hand, Darren Burgess did a complete review of structure and personnel. He forced the medical team to re-apply for their own job so he could compare with what he could get on the market. Colin Lewin was sacked.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-5728993/Arsenal-axe-physio-Colin-Lewin-medical-team-asked-apply-jobs-ahead-shake-up.html
Carlos Vela should have been better for us… so exciting at the start, then found pizza.
50 bucks says Valentin is frantically searching the internet for an obscure piece supporting his comment about our medical department pre-2018. As for talent in the reserves, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas scored 10 goals and 6 assists in 9 appearances for the Arsenal reserves during the 10/11 season. Jeff is super talented though with his 3 goals and 6 assists across his entire under 23 career (29 appearances), it’s not hindsight. Standout performer. Chuba Akpom? 33 goals in 50 reserve appearances. He’s so hot he’s playing in Greece. Who knows what club without Googling? That’s right, no one. Jeff RA has found… Read more »
Shad is leaving for Milan reportedly
His wife had some funny Instagram activity involving her husband in the Milan training center recently
There it is.
Val
Bentley created the bucket challenge ,,,
Valentin,
Shad helped mastermind a world cup win for the German’s in Brazil.
Making people reapply for their jobs is just for show… what has really happened at the club this year on the medical side that’s moved the needle?
More serious injuries: Check
More fatigue: Check
We’ve gone backwards.
We should have elevated Shad. Not hired in someone with a really good Twitter.
Jamie called it
Daily mail it is this time, beacon of truth that they are.
Where is lemar
Footballer not singe4 now days
Again, I can’t put all of the above on Burgess.
Reality is that Emery was allowed to bring in his own fitness guys, which is absolutely mental.
… but, what this all show is how bad the leadership has been at the club.
We hired in a head of performance to sit alongside Shad, sort of.
Then let the new manager bring in his own guy who was no doubt NOT vetted.
JET was good in the reserve because he was build like a tank. He was able to bully players half his size. Technically he was decent but nothing extraordinary. He was slow and he struggled against pacy technical players.
From a mental perspective, He was an idiot who with more dedication could have had a good career.
Some guy on twitter claiming that Xhaka’s brother has confirmed he is leaving the club.
If Raul can get Xhaka, Mustafi, Ozil and Mhkitaryan out of the club this summer, he deserves a statue.
@Pedro
I don’t think that Shad was allowed to implement the changes that he wanted. I think that Darren Burgess was.
Of course as soon as we start correcting past mistakes, we start making new ones. I don’t understand why we hired a guy to work with Emery on conditioning when we already have a team of specialists at his disposal. On top of that, the new guy has no idea how intense and relentless the EPL is compared to the other league and experience of the absence of winter break and the madness of Christmas/New year period.
Steve Sidwell was another one years back who I remember thinking had a great chance to become part of the first team, not necessarily in the 11 every week-but on the bench.
He ended up at Chelsea on a free transfer at some point I think. Another player who looked a very decent prospect but ended up having a solid career at a number of different clubs.
Adelaide will probably end up the same.
Meant to say solid career if not spectacular.
CG
“The Glue keeping everything together”
Lol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Valentin, a lot of things weren’t considered as Ivan left.
However, Shad implemented plenty, hence the rapid decline in soft tissue injuries.
We’ll see if Raul is any better. He has a whole summer to own it.
Xhaka leavingthe club due to a “gentleman’s agreement” of no CL football?
We aren’t in the CL due to your shittiness , excuse my language
At least the dude has some pride, how about chowing us some pride Mesu, eh?
Xhaka leaving because we can get a fee.
@Pedro,
I was comparing just in term of medical treatment. There is no doubt that in term of prevention and conditioning we were better because of Shad Forsythe. We even started to win games in November!
At least when a player was in the red zone, Wenger was told to drop him. He did not necessarily follow the advice but at least somebody was confronting him about it.
Like I said, I am not sure whether Shad Forsythe was allowed to change the personnel to get rid of that culture of complacency.
Yea three seasons in the Europa league will have any half decent footballer questioning himself. A fourth season might prove too much for Granit (forget the fact it looks his level).
Be interesting to see how much we get for Xhaka, no more than 15 mil if the experts on here are anything to go by.
More curious to see whom replaces Xhaka, that will be telling.
In a slow league, Xhaka would be great. Anything less than 35M for Xhaka means we sold too cheap.
Pedro
I saw him from afar at Victoria train station in 2012.
Listened to his verbal clap trap over the years, endorsing Wenger, along with the club values. A complete and utter load of tosh.
He looked the part, I give you that, and smelt the part( Armani I think) but to be sucked in by his deception and lies just beggars belief.
Never bought into his programmed rhetoric and I’m a 57 year old geriatric.
Sid Sidwell revealed in an interview that Wenger wanted to keep him but could not guarantee him first team game time. So for his career, it was best for him to move.
Sometimes luck, injury to a player in your position change career. Same thing with Isaac Hayden. Coquelin was on loan at Charlton when he was recalled, because as Harry Redknapp would say we were down to the bare bones.
Someone better place a psych hold on Ishola
The dude will be rocking if and when the Xhaka exit is confirmed.