Puppet Master Behind Mesut Ozil Strategy

by .

courtesy @allthatchas

I thought I’d wait to see what the BIG DOG DAVE ORNSTEIN penned on The Athletic this morning before dropping a post on the aftermath of Xhaka-gate yesterday.

Predictably, the piece points towards a familiar story… a lack of leadership at Arsenal.

I’m not calling time on anyone yet, but my deep fear is fancy players aside, the direction of Arsenal is somewhat off-track again, or, more to the point, has never been on track. Rumblings I hear from the club around leadership have been far from positive, and the fact that there was a motion to offer Unai Emery a new deal last summer tells you that the expertise levels in some parts of the boardroom are well off.

The big talking point today was the list of managers that were under consideration in 2018. The shortlist was pretty much where we expected it to be. I was surprised Enrique / Jardim weren’t on the list. I was surprised Lopetigui was on there. Outside that, the shortlist had all the obvious candidates.

Arteta was the frontrunner, the point that is missing for me is that Unai Emery most certainly wasn’t on the original shortlist. From what I understand, he was a last-minute sub when Ivan lost his nerve on Mikael Arteta. I don’t think it’s hard to piece that together from the timeline of events, and I think even the staunchest Emery fan would be hard pushed to convince anyone that Unai was a better candidate than most of the names on the list. I know that his English was raised as a concern by people at interview stage, namely, that he couldn’t speak a word of it. I know from doing my own personal numbers and research he was a bad candidate, so I can’t imagine our number crunchers gave him a thumbs-up, most likely because no analysis was done due to the time crunch. Even a cursory look at Google would tell you he couldn’t organise a defence, he had trouble with egos and the football was overly negative.

So unless every single person on that list rejected the club, it really must have just been Arteta at the death before we switched attention to someone that had been freshly fired.

Arteta’s lack of a backroom team was apparently a problem. Again, it’s another contradiction for me. The club has gone out of its way to talk about the new modern infrastructure, then the first thing we do is let Unai Emery bring in 5 of his own coaching staff, completely unvetted after being fired by PSG? How is that due diligence? We literally bought in a strength and conditioning coach when we already had one that had won a World Cup with Germany and transformed our pitiful operation back in the day. We had an assistant. We had a keeping coach. We had video analysts. We could have just copied what PSG did for Thomas Tuchel, namely, gone out and purchased whoever the best assistant in world football was at the time. If the only problem you have with a candidate is they don’t have 2 additional coaching staff, that’s kind of ideal. It reduces the candidate’s power, gives leadership more control of the direction of the club, and gives everyone the assurance that quality control measures were in place.

Major point here: The club fired Wenger in April. They had time to work out all of these kinks. They had the opportunity to rebuild Arsenal around a vision. Fuck whether that was Arteta or not. The idea was correct. Bring in a young coach with big ideas. Set the bar low with the fans, tell them we’re building an exciting future around kids, and we’re going to build from the ground up, and we’re going to make The Emirates the most exciting place to watch football in the world. Exactly the approach Chelsea took this season.

How could last season have been any worse than what it was? We’d have had a style in place now, a City light. The players would have known what they’re doing. We’d be in year two now and we’d all know exactly where we were heading as a club.

Again, I have to return us to the original point. Some of our leadership team wanted to give Emery a new deal last summer, despite the mountain of evidence he was tanking the squad. This season, seeing that we’re in deep decline again, with fires literally everywhere, we’re being assured the manager will be given time.

Based on what? A lack of a replacement could be a fair point. Not surprisingly, there’s no contingency plan outside Freddie Ljungberg, which is a huge problem and a major red flag. How can no thought have gone into contingency after watching the insipid Europa League final? How can they not have a list of 5 candidates after travelling down to the training and seeing what’s going on? We should have someone waiting by the phone, studying our squad, making plans.

You know what happens when you don’t have a plan? Jose Mourinho. The lack of direction we have is similar to that of United. Because you don’t know where you’re going, you outsource your decisions to super agents. Make no mistake, Mourinho would feel good in the moment, but he’s an arsonist. He’d bury us in 2 seasons. OGS is taking a lot of stick at the moment, no one is out here pointing the finger at Jose for the wreckage he left him to fix.

Interestingly I was told that Edu has been the black hand behind the Mesut Ozil issue that’s going on. Questionable strategy against a player that has public sentiment on his side, not to mention the fact he’s consistently communicated to the media that he’s going nowhere. Again, is this what you’d call leadership? Creating a huge media fuss for what is essentially a losing battle that has in part, contributed to the break-neck speed in which public sentiment has turned against the manager. I would also bet that this inconsistent behaviour has led to some of the dressing room split that lots of papers are reporting on this morning.

Remember this: Arsenal pulled forward transfer budget from this upcoming summer to make last year happen. It wasn’t a gift from Josh. It wasn’t anything clever. It was a major gamble. The missing part of the commendable effort was considering the manager. He’s not very good, we could all see that last season, but Raul has been so invested in the decision, maybe he can’t see beyond his nose here?

Let’s see where it goes, but it’s worth noting we’re in October, two of our captains are in disgrace, the football is terrible, there’s a dressing room split, the fans have turned against a manager so petrified at the moment he has ‘good ebening’ Tourettes syndrome and it’s affecting him in interviews.

Not a good look. We need strong leadership and we need it now. Showing faith in something that’s clearly broken is not that.

What’s the plan, Arsenal?

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Bamford10

Fully agree with Ceballos. Fans should be united behind the team. But Xhaka can no longer be captain and he should not be in the PL starting XI any more.

Bamford10

“Anyone else wondering where Xhaka’s apology is? #AFC”
– @DeeceRods

PhD2020

Bamford10October 29, 2019 02:01:34 Good point. Do you still claim to have a season ticket, Champagne? —- Do you still claim,that we are more organised and disciplined under Unai? Despite the following graphical evidence to disprove your assertions:- https://twitter.com/TheMightyGambon/status/1188831254256504833 https://twitter.com/TheMightyGambon/status/1188830953977856000 & taking into account your in-game pronouncements on the Arsenal vs C.Palace game on Sun 27th Oct 2019: And I quote: Bamford10October 27, 2019 17:46:27 “Excellent. 2-0. We are playing with intensity, energy and urgency, and this on both sides of the ball.Fuck off to all who have said that Emery has brought nothing to the club or that he… Read more »

salparadisenyc

“Duly noted there Sal but have you considered our first 45 mins against Bournemouth ”

Haha thanks for that CC, this space gives as much as it can take. I salut you sir.

PhD2020

Look,let’s get things into perspective… Mr Guy(Bum10) 🙂 has and had all along hedged his bets on the American guys knowing what they are doing. He hedged his bets on IG forever and a day removing OGL and appointing the next successor that would hopefully do a projectile urination spree galore over OGL for years to come.Well,so far,that turned out well-didn’t it??!! Lol That guy-IG turned and hot tailed it to Milan, within a blink of an eye,once he saw the opportunity to salvage what remnants of a shit show he could salvage for himself,after hiding under Arsene’s skirt for… Read more »

Redtruth

Who are the bad apples in the side, you’ve guessed it, Wenger signings.

Redtruth

The Muslim players are troublemakers : Kolasinac, Mustafi, Ozil and Xhaka.

Dark Hei

RT

That is in bad taste. Not even going to throw in my customary attempt to lighten things up.

Graham62

RT

Not called for.

You should have stuck to your “Wenger signings” post.

Tony

Here’s another way to lighten the mood, Dark Hei:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7622579/Models-Julia-Rose-Lauren-Summer-banned-flashing-World-Series.html

Maybe hire them for opponents’ penalties

Tee

A poster on arseblog

suppose the players will be voting on team selection and transfer signings next. What exactly is Emery’s job these days aside from confusing matters?!

Tee

This redtruth guy is a complete idiot.

One of the shortcomings of internet is coming to a blog to read idiotic comments like that.

Anyways, I will keep doing what I have been doing which is scroll pass comments from some posters here.

Tee

From arseblog comment section It just goes to show what a shit coach he is that within 10 league games every last once of goodwill from the summer has evaporated. Never has so much talent delivered so little so fast. More than half of his job is man management and I get the impression that’s the one skill he is even worse at than progressive football coaching. Our club lurches from crisis to meltdown week on week directly due to this guy’s total indecision on and off the pitch. Who’s my captain, who’s in my midfield, what formation, what strategy,… Read more »

Redtruth

Mesut Ozil, Shkodran Mustafi
Granit Xhaka, Mohammad Elneny and Sead Kolasinac.

All these players have one thing in common, all have an attitude problem….troublemakers….

Redtruth

They also give half-arsed performances on the pitch.

Pierre

Pedro “Bamford now the new Pierre of Le Grove… oh how times change.” I think I’ll take a step back and watch it all go tit’s up for Emery, deservedly so I have to say. He needs to go on a course of man management and if Edu has anything to do with Ozil not being in the squad , then his judgement should also be brought into question . Looks like Edu is learning a lesson very quickly on how not to treat a player who still has a vast support amongst the fan base. The fans have spoken… Read more »

Redtruth

Kolasinac’s crossing is pitiful.
Mustafi is a complete berk
Ozil is a fraud.
Xhaka is the biggest liability the club has ever signed.
Elneny lol

Graham62

A hearty good morning to you Pierre

Redtruth

The fans are ambushing the club with their pathetic chants for Ozil…

Graham62

We need to do our special 2 for 1 offer.

Emery and Ozil to go at the same time.

Now wouldn’t that be a bonus.

Would definitely save on the paracetamol.

Bojangles

Foreigners and blacks, Muslims and even an elephant cleaner for a father. Maybe remove all these unwanted players from England, then see how the pl stacks up against other European leagues.

Give idiots a voice and get idiotic comments in return.

Graham62

Emery-Xhaka-Ozil

The Three Stooges.

Get rid of them all and things will blossom.

Actually, no it won’t. We’ve still got Stan and Josh and the BoD and the butcher, the baker, plus the candlestick maker.

Graham62

The fact that a few fans are chanting Ozil’s name shows how bad things have become.

Desperate times at the Emirates .

Graham62

How many years is it now since we all had a genuine connection with the club?

You know, that feeling of pride and respect, where other clubs fans would be openly saying. “Wow! Look at Arsenal. What a great club. What great players and what wonderful football. They really know what they’re doing”.

Exactly!

terraloon

Redruth Tell me how you rate Mane, Salam and Shaquiri at Liverpool. Or what about N’Golo Kante and Rudiger at Chelsea or Maherz, Gundogan and Mandy at ManCity. To even trying to suggest the Arsenal players you clearly don’t rate, and to be fair quite a lot of others don’t, is down to their religious beliefs isn’t just naive it’s offensive in extreme. The problems at Arsenal runs deep but have nothing to do with race, religion or anything of the like it’s down to poor recruitment, poor attitude, lack of professionalism all leading to a poor environment where far… Read more »

Nelson

No wonder Xhaka slapped Emery’s hand when he walked passed him.

He must be cursing Emery: “Didn’t you, fucking moron, know that I would become a lightning rod when you subs me out. WTF!”

Graham62

terraloon

RT knows he made a disgraceful comment.

Is he big enough to offer an apology to us all on here?

I doubt it.

Graham62

Nelson

Very good point.

So are you saying this was all premeditated?

Did Emery plan this?

Omg, shock horror!

Surely not.

Chika

“Who are the bad apples in the side, you’ve guessed it, Wenger signings.”

Emery is not a Wenger signing you lemon.

Chika

Even the younger players must have lost their respect for Emery.

Bamford10

Starting XI for the last League Cup match:

Emiliano Martinez
Rob Holding
Shkodran Mustafi
Kieran Tierney
Calum Chambers
Mesut Özil
Joseph Willock
Lucas Torreira
Gabriel Martinelli
Reiss Nelson
Emile Smith-Rowe

Subbed in:
Héctor Bellerín
Dani Ceballos
Bukayo Saka

It will be interesting to see what Emery does this time.

Graham62

Just saw the funniest thing in my back garden.

A cat and a fox having a standoff.

“Which team do you support?”

“Watford”

“Watford are rubbish”

“I agree”

“Oh,in that case, I don’t agree. They just need a new manager”

A Fistfull of travellers cheques. Rik Mayall, 1984

Ah yes, the memories.

Bamford10

I think he’ll go with something like:

Emiliano Martinez
Rob Holding
Shkodran Mustafi
Sead Kolasinac
Hector Bellerin
Joseph Willock
Lucas Torreira
Mesut Özil
Gabriel Martinelli
Bukayo Saka
Alexandre Lacazette

Yep, you read that right. I think he could include Ozil tomorrow night. For me, there would be a logic to it, and it might be a good thing to do PR-wise, to calm certain waters a little.

Peckobill

Bamford
I think that’s pretty much who he’ll play , Tierney will switch to premier league games now you’d hope but a question mark on if torreira starts though as there’s no way xhaka starts against Leicester on the weekend so there’s a question on who takes his spot

Bojangles

My club is in a mess at the moment. Nothing positive happening on or off the field. The captain(lol) spitting the dummy like a spoilt child. Emery cannot make a decision on his own. There’s no leadership at all from what I can see from admin through to the players at the club. The only solution or at least the obvious one is to show Emery the door asap. I would be surprised that come midnight November 10 he is still head coach at Arsenal. Please do not replace him with Maureen or we will be revisiting this within 2… Read more »

Bamford10

Peckobill

Good point re Torreira. If Xhaka issues an apology today, he could be in the starting line-up tomorrow. That too might help to heal wounds, calm waters. Then Torreira could start against Leicester. Torreira, Guendouzi, Ceballos as the new starting three in midfield for PL matches maybe.

Peckobill

Red Man your on one this morning, what the heck is their religion got to do with anything. Also how the hell are they trouble makers ? They may not be good enough players for where we want to be but they don’t seem to be causing any trouble or playing up . Mustafi has had his daft brain farts ball watching but he seems to have taken being dropped on the chin and trying his best in cup games , whether that’s good enough is another matter Kolasinac only really half functions being a wing back but what trouble… Read more »

shaun

Yes but the used tampon from a heavy cycle will try and make Torreira play as a number 10

Receding Hairline

Edu, a football man and fellow midfielder is behind the frustration of Mesut Ozil, Ozil knows he isn’t wanted but is playing the victim card and dividing the fans, winning a supposed PR battle rather than seek a move to a club were he can play.

And we had grown ups chanting his name on Sunday.

Peckobill

Bamford Yeah if and it’s a big if that if he does ever start xhaka again common sense says it would be in an away game . He’d be nuts to bring him back in a home game. I don’t know if it will happen but my guess is he won’t even make a squad until the Norwich game away game . Honestly though I think xhaka is toast and will be gone in January because the situation emery has found himself in now if he plays xhaka ( especially at home ) he’d probably have to commit to playing… Read more »

Receding Hairline

As for Emery being a sub standard coach and not good enough for Arsenal, that is personal opinion. Coaches do well in a job or do badly depending on a lot of factors, some within their control and others beyond. He has a 59.7% win percentage with Arsenal but i am told all the wins are on the players (or Freddie) while the lost games are him interfering. He may fail here and move on to another job and do well and some of you may shamelessly say what we need is an Emery. Kind of like how Rodgers is… Read more »

Bamford10

Receding

“the decision lies with certain men who apparently have more patience than the average fan”

More vision as well, and more sense. It’s a good thing the club is in the hands of Sanllehi and Edu and not the average fan.

“And we had grown ups chanting his name on Sunday.”

Absolutely embarrassing.

Bamford10

Peckobill

Good points. Xhaka could be off in January, but we don’t have a lot of options in midfield, so I think there’s a chance Emery might have to use him more in the near-term than you allow. But I agree that it should be in away games and cup games.

Do you attend matches at the Emirates?

Bamford10

New post.

CMac

Why would Edu have axe to grind with Ozil? For shredding Brazil in rag strips in 2014? Nobody in this team in pass the ball and I’m not talking to Ozil’s standards because there has been less that three in the history of the game. I mean pass half accurately to feet. Torierra showed an uncanny ability to pass thirty yards to the feet of attackers and he was quite a revelation even being a scoring threat from DM as all must be who who aspire to be a world class DM. The Jerk tanker him for being good and… Read more »