AFC re-message disaster briefing as Arteta rumours resurface

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Don Raul and Edu had a little rethink after their car crash leak to Ornstein about the fans being ‘noise’ bitches.

Their new angle is a little more nuanced, a little more ‘Arsenal class.’

“We are as disappointed as everyone else with both our results and performances at this stage of the season. We share the frustration with our fans, Unai, players and all our staff as they are not at the level we want or expect.

“Things need to improve to meet our objectives for the season, and we firmly believe Unai is the right man for the job, together with the backroom team we have in place.

“We are all working intensively behind the scenes to turn things around and are confident we will.

“We never take our fantastic support for granted. We hope we can all stick together and get behind the team in this challenging period, as together we are stronger.”

Take this intel as you will, the club absolutely know what a garbage fire the Unai Emery regime is. They do not believe the club is on the path to progress. They see it as we do. They know it’s highly unlikely his tenure can be saved. They are football people, they know in far more detail than you what’s going on, and it’s not pretty.

The above statement backs the manager, because at this point, there’s no choice. They can’t come out and call him a joke and explain how they’re going to replace him shortly, that my friends would be worse PR than telling the fans they are ‘noisy ass hoes.’

What you need to look for in situations like these are the stories that enter the media seemingly out of nowhere. We’ve already had The Times report on Raul’s dinner with Jose. That wasn’t an accident. It was a gross mistake, the culinary equivalent of waking up in bed with a damp box of donner kebab on your chest with Wayne Rooney licking your chili sauce stained fingers. Rest assured, that story was planted to let the fans know that ‘ideas’ are under consideration.

Yesterday, in part two of #FreshLeaks we had a hit of ‘Arsenal still interested in Arteta.’ The source appears to be The Sun and it seems a little too specific to be a clickbait job.

The message is either an accidental leak from the club (which I doubt), a trial balloon to see what the fans think after Unai ‘safe hands’ Emery failed spectacularly, or it’s a message to Arteta to smoke him out about the renewed interest. I certainly don’t believe it’s come from Arteta’s camp, because I doubt he has a camp at this stage of his coaching career. I also don’t think he’d want to make Pep look a chump for the second time running (especially during a slump), that might be a death blow to his fledgling coaching career at City. Remember, Arsenal disrupted his relationship with Pep last time when they flaked on him after bringing him to the final stages of negotiations. I also don’t think City would brief against a highly rated member of their own staff.

With the story rebubbling, I thought it might be a good opportunity to reassert my passion for a hire of his ilk.

Arsenal need a vision of football the fans can get behind. We’re not Allegri, Conte or Mourinho types. We’re a Wengerball club whether we like it or not, and that is built on foundations of exciting possession-based football. We should be hiring someone that can deliver that to the fans.

If Arsenal were a tech start-up, we’d be prying the best product visionaries from the best places. You can either try your luck with a Steve Jobs (I’m in the 2000s Apple, obvs), which is a fruitless/expensive task, or you steal one of his underlings, like Tony Fadell (iPod VP, left to work with a VC to bring Nest to life). That’s what the big boys do. They find people with less of a name, that have good reputations, and most importantly, the blueprints for success. If you can get 50% of a legendary name’s stardust, you are on your way.

Arteta has been with Pep during two of the most successful seasons ever witnessed in the Premier League. Manchester City found new levels of brilliance. Their attacking football has been a thing of beauty, fast, intricate and devastating. Their movement off the ball is exceptional, as a team, they’re winning the league on 98 points, making the least tackles in the league. They use a positional play on the pitch to force mistakes, think of the smarts needed to teach footballers how to do that. They play a brand of cognitive football we could only dream of (read).

Why wouldn’t you want the number two of the City winning machine at Arsenal?

Arteta is on the record stating the type of football he wants to play. This from the Arsenal Magazine in 2016.

“My philosophy will be clear,”

“I want the football to be expressive, entertaining. I cannot have a concept of football where everything is based on the opposition.

“We have to dictate the game, we have to be the ones taking the initiative, and we have to entertain the people coming to watch us. I’m 100 percent convinced of those things, and I think I could do it.”

“You can have an idea of a system, but you need to be able to transform it depending on the players you have – how much pace you have upfront, how technical your team is, what types of risk you can take and whether your players are ready to take those risks.

He also talks about having players 150% committed to the cause, how he admires Pep’s drive to look to the future of where the game is going, and how he looked up to way his PSG captain Poch built love with players. That was an exciting glimpse into his mind in 2016, imagine how his ideas have developed since?

This is a player that can speak at least 4 languages, including scouser. He’s an excellent communicator. It’s also worth noting that he didn’t shame us as captain, which is a small thing, but it shows he has values. He did a very good job for us as his career declined. We were still a CL team under his watch, whatever you think of his ability at the time, he helped stabilise us during a rough period that involved Andre Santos.

He has an excellent reputation at City for being an innovator, a mentor, and a brilliant coach. Pep widely credited his assistant for developing Raheem Sterling. Players and staff constantly talk about his influence and impact on their careers.

This is Pep in October.

“He has an incredible work ethic, and he has a special talent to analyse what happens, and to find the solutions, and we talk a lot about what he believes and feels and so on,”

“He’s an incredible human being, with incredible values about what it means in the locker room and to be together, and he is already an incredible manager and he’ll have incredible success in his future.”

Fernandinho:

“For me, especially Mikel Arteta, because he played in the same position as I play. So sometimes I have private chats with him to correct some positioning or something that is wrong.

Delph, who credited him with extending his career at City.

“I think Mikel would be a fantastic manager. When the rumours were circulating about him leaving, I was thinking ‘please don’t!’ We get on very well as do all the players and staff. We’ve got a great energy and that energy is similar to what we’ve got here with England.”

The PR wins rack up for a coach that Wenger, Poch and Pep competed for when he retired.

Some say he should go to a lesser club first, but why would you? This is Pep on Arteta.

“I’m pretty sure [he’ll succeed me]. He will have success,”

Go to Newcastle to prove to Barry on Twitter you have balls? Please. Man moved to Glasgow for his career, that’s all you need to know about his character.

With Arteta, we’d be hiring in Manchester City IP, with a player that knows and loves The Arsenal. Raul and Edu could be kingmakers, just like the Barca execs were with Pep G. The experience he lacks could be covered by a more experienced assistant and first-team coach.

Would he make mistakes? Absolutely. Would it take time to get things right? You are damn right. Would it be worth it if he succeeded? 100%.

Imagine being exciting by Arsenal again?

A lot of people like to talk up the failures of career assistants. Arteta is still only 37 years old. He’s punching well above his weight for where he is in his career. He is clearly special, an obsessive, someone desperate to succeed. He is in an elite category for young coaches. I do not think this is the same as Mike Phelan making a play for a first-team coach role at Derby.

We tried safe and by the book, it failed in spectacular fashion, like I predicted. ‘Safe’ isn’t a strategy. It’s cowardice. Why not try something with a bit of vision? Hire in a manager who is a bit of an unknown. At the very worst, we’ll be playing a coherent style of football, at best, we might have landed the next big name in world football.

We don’t need a has-been manager taking us to top 4 if that’s the ceiling. We need to find a coach that can work with the tools he’s given and coach our team into the future.

That could be Arteta. I think it’s a far more palatable option than the other managers on offer. The risk is lower than people think, and if it’s between the names on offer currently, it’s Arteta all day for me.

Right, that’s my piece, I’m running for my pelter shelter, see you in the comments.

P.S. Auba, fuck the noise bitches. The fans love you. Chin up, you’re our best player. x

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Pierre

Valentin
Your take on the Aubameyang /AFTV situation is much more feasible and believable than what is being reported.

The media are just trying to use it to create divisions in the squad and sadly , many fans are gullible enough to believe what they read .

Knoxville

PHD2020

You know so much about AFTV for someone who thinks they are an embarrassment. lol

raptora

Alex Cutter, what you wrote is such a joy to read. In the sadistic way of feeling happy that someone is feeling pain, but a bit less than before. From what I’m gathering things are on the up. Just hearing about it put a smile on my face. Hope you have a PS4 for Hideo Kojima’s new shot at uniqueness in the way that only he can do it. It’s called Death Stranding and sadly I’ve only watched streams of other people playing the game cause I have a really nice PC and Xbox One, but no PS4. Of course… Read more »

DigitalBob

Alex Cutter – wishing you a speedy recovery sir, all the best!

Pierre – I think its safe to say the next four league games are the most important of Emery’s short arsenal career, max points are needed heading into the mid December run-in.

He needs to understand we are The Arsenal and in his own words are the Protagonists of positive possession football so the aim should be playing them all off the park!

Ishola70

Digital Bob “He needs to understand we are The Arsenal and in his own words are the Protagonists of positive possession football” Isn’t this one of the problems? This mania among fans for possession football. A quick transition breakaway counter attack goal with few passes and quick interchange can be a thing of beauty on it’s own. As long as we have fans wedded to posssession football then the opponents are ready to wreck it with the press. And it’s not as if Arsenal are good at possession football anymore is it. Needs a complete shift in the philosopy of… Read more »

Left testicle

Can’t get my head around Troopz-unable to string a coherent sentence together, mouthing off about Arsene for almost eternity.Only to meet Arsene in person,soil his pants and start screaming and jizzing like a new born virgin that’s been royally mounted!!
………..
Have to agree with this comment.
I agree with a lot of what Troopz says but would love to give him a slap. Does he really say ‘blood’ every 20 seconds in his every day life? Pretends he’s a gangsta, when he’s really a pussy.

Dream10

Aubameyang and Lacazette should know better than to associate with current/former AFTV crew members. They were partying with them in Dubai when Arsenal went there for a few days in February or March of this year. That’s nonsense from two captains and senior players in the side.

Un na naai

Bamford10November 12, 2019 22:16:58
If Arteta took over today, we’d be in 14th place by February. No chance he would do well with the weak squad we have. He’d try to play the one approach he knows — whic

Oh. Yet Brendan Rodgers can do it with bargain basement team who finished 9th and Lampard can do it with a team of kids

Yeeeah. Keep trying Bamford

Un na naai

Bamford

“Address me by my name or fuck off”

Bamford again

“Hey churlish”
About as consistent as the wether

Un na naai

Troopz is a 3rd world council estate mong.
Represents a good chunk of our fan base.

Un na naai

In closing, thanks for asking, fuck you, and I’m sure bamford is a good guy in person, but his internet behavior suggests that something’s not quite right.

Cutter

Great news mate. Hope you get back on your feet and your locks grow black as glorious as ever. You’re a trooper mate.

Fuck you too.

Left testicle

Un,
There is a case for castration. Make it happen Priti Patel.

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