AFC re-message disaster briefing as Arteta rumours resurface

by .

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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Bamford10

Receding

Even that’s not right. I like being right — who doesn’t? — but I don’t give a fuck about “having been right all along”. I only care that certain positions were correct all along, like that Wenger was the problem. That I personally held this or that view isn’t especially important to me. It only becomes important when one of my devoted harassers, like Charlie, tries to have a go at me.

Paulinho

“Wouldn’t completely write off a title challenge but we don’t have players for top 4 these days. Alright mate”

Charlie you dense idiot.

I completely stand by that.

If Ramsey, Bellerin, Welbeck, Holding had stayed fit we had the mixture of talents to stay in contention until March at least. Emery was doing a superb job of realising our first eleven was not the best, and rotating accordingly.

And find anything I’ve said in the past that contradicts that. Have I not said consistently we are weaker this season that last season? Yeah I have. Sit back down you muppet.

Bamford10

Raptora

Wenger deserved that abuse. Bad argument.

Bamford10

Raptora

“but to defend Emery, a completely random manager”

How long must a manager have managed Arsenal before you regard him as Arsenal manager? Do tell.

Words on a Blog

Bamford,

Ultimately the consistency or integrity of what poster x or y posts over time is immaterial.

If the facts change people change their minds: it’s what I and many people on here have done.

There’s no shame in that, only logic.

Micheal

Arteta:

An interesting perspective on Arteta is that Pep G is probably in the final stages of his time as City. Pep’s contract ends in 18 months and he needs extra time to rebuild and replace quality players like Kompany, Aguero, Fernandinho, etc. I doubt he has the appetite to start again.

Is Arteta the chosen one to replace Pep ?

My feeling is that, if Raul and Edu have identified Arteta for Arsenal, they should move quickly.

Bob N16

You’re sleep-deprived Bamford, get to bed!

Bamford10

Words

Yeah, I agree with all of that. The problem is you think you have “the facts” on your side, but you don’t, because you’re only looking at certain facts and not others. I’ve now explained this many times, though, so I don’t see this discussion going anywhere. You never got around to responding to my long answer to you re squad quality yesterday, though. Or did you?

Champagne charlie

Banford

You don’t have any devoted harassers, you have a myriad of folk intolerant to your pompous attitude, and self-appointed authoritative voice on Le Grove.

Whether it’s lines about ‘being here longer’ than another, or whether it’s about ‘how we do things here’, you’re insufferable.

raptora

RH: “look at me i was right all along” is a general issue here”

It’s a general issue everywhere. But it’s weird how someone comes here only to say something like that on the first game of the season of his “favorite” team and then not show up for weeks.

Bamford10

Paulinho

Words is one of these guys who thinks Leicester’s finishing 18 points behind us last season is proof positive that they cannot possibly have better players than we do. You have done a good job of dealing with this point previously, but I can’t seem to track any of those discussions down. If you have a second, could you speak to this? Cheers.

Bamford10

Make an argument, Bob.

Champagne charlie

Paulinho

Yes lad, we were a fit Bellerin and Welbz away from an outside title tilt.

Just not enough quality to negotiate our last 6 games for top 4.

Paulinho

Bamford – Charlie wanted Perez in the summer, he wanted Tielemans in Jan (and criticised the board not getting him). That’s one of the reasons he doesn’t want to go into detail about personnel and the mechanics of why Leicester are better than last season.

Bamford10

Churlish

“You don’t have any devoted harassers”

This from a guy who has literally harassed me every day here for three years.

Paulinho

Ha ha ignores Ramsey. Knows to stay well away from that one.

Words on a Blog

Bamford,

Nope, didn’t respond. The argument about squad quality has been rehashed to death and I don’t intend to go through a player by player analysis of why this years squad is demonstrably better than last years.

If you choose to believe our problems are the result of a deterioration in the quality of our squad that’s your prerogative.

I’d just observe that 99% of people would disagree with you.

Ishola70

lol surely Paulinho wasn’t talking of title tilts.

Outside or not.

Receding Hairline

Patrick Vieira on the situation: “I think he [Emery] has enough experience to get them through this difficult spell. We have to get behind him & give him time to change things. I am not sure a change of manager will fix the problems.”

Shut up Patrick your EKB

A hysterical change of coach, anyone apart from Emery seems to be the theme, is what we need right now.

Ishola70

Paulinho

“Charlie wanted Perez in the summer, he wanted Tielemans in Jan”

Why would he want those for?

They play for a pub village side in the Midlands.

HighburyLegend

“Yet I’m the “bad fan”. ”

You’re not a bad fan, you’re just a pain in the ass.

Ishola70

RH

“Shut up Patrick your EKB”

They are everywhere.

Emery’s oozing charisma has seen to it that he has a mass army of devoted fans only a year and a bit into his Arsenal tenure.

HighburyLegend

“Shut up Patrick your EKB ”

Ah ah ah!!
More seriously, instead of giving your opinion, dear Pat, why won’t you jump on board with us ??

Bamford10

Paulhino

Hilarious. I also love that these guys are not interested in player to player comparisons between the two teams — as Benny has done — but would prefer to draw inferences from a nine month season (which involves countless factors other than player quality) in which one of the two clubs was forced to fire their manager halfway through. Right, that makes sense.

Valentin

My take is that this season and the next one is a write-off. Raul is unlikely to act soon. By the time he make the decision to sack Emery, never mind top 4, just qualifying for Europe may even be a struggle. Once Champion’s League is a mathematical impossibility, Aubameyang, Lacazette, Torreira will want to jump ship. As both our strikers will in the last year of their contracts, we won’t be in a position of force to negotiate new deals. Their replacement will therefore have to be cheaper. Cheaper does not necessarily bad, but it is likely to mean… Read more »

Paulinho

Ishola – TR7 asked me (like he often does) to get me to be committal about something if I’m praising something he doesn’t like or whatever, so he actually brought up the title challenge thing out of nowhere. I would’ve never mentioned it otherwise. But I think we easily had it in us to keep on beating the rest of the league, and stay in contention. We finished with 75 points. If Bellerin, Holding, Ramsey, Welbeck(playing his way into Emery’s plans) had stayed fit consistently we would’ve easily got another ten points at least and that is 85, so not… Read more »

Paulinho

Sorry 70 points, so 80. Still title-challenging level.

Bamford10

By the way, does anyone remember the time when Charlie was so committed to defending Wenger that he argued that we did not actually gain an advantage when our opponent went down to ten men? I do. That was priceless.

Receding Hairline

Ishola they want a new coach but are already making excuses ahead for time for any difficulties he might encounter, one even wants a new DM and left sided Defender before any improvement can be seen. I wonder why the new coach needs this and the present idiot doesn’t. If you are going to bring in someone only to say “well he failed because the first guy failed” why not let the first guy right his mess and look for someone long term who can undertake a project. Rather than this Benitez and Jose murmuring. One even suggested Sam Allardyce… Read more »

Bojangles

Well it took less than 5 mins to read the comments toniight. 80% are either from Bamford or directed at Bamford. Scrolled past all of them.

Valentin, you maybe should have cited the site you got your information from re number of points we require for top 4. Read that almost verbatim yesterday.

Words on a Blog

Receding,

Either as fans or as club management,
it’s not “hysterical” to want to change your
Coach if he underperforms (e.g. Puel)or does not “click” with players and fans (Sarri).

Yes it does represent a risk, but plenty of clubs have done it before and will do it in the future. Outside Arsenal, it’s just a routine part of football

Paulinho

Interesting people referring to that Leicester game at the Emirates.

If you remember the first half of that game Leicester were the better team by quite a bit. They were penning us back with some lovely build up play. But as was the case with Leicester back then, they never seemed to strike while on top, and they dropped off in the second half.

Schmeichel was furious post-match, and refused to give credit to us because he was so angry that they stopped pressing and let the likes Ozil receive the ball under no pressure.

Receding Hairline

“Once Champion’s League is a mathematical impossibility, Aubameyang, Lacazette, Torreira will want to jump ship.” Yes because Torriera was always a regular champions league competitor before his move here not some kid struggling at a mid table Italian club. Torriera leaves Arsenal he does not move to a club above us in prestige or standing, i can guarantee that. Lacazette has not really done anything since arriving here to demand Champions league football and in hindsight should have been put on the market this summer. We had both him and Auba in a final with an already qualified Chelsea and… Read more »

Words on a Blog

Receding,

I mentioned Allardici and Pardiola but if you think I was being serious then
I’d be really worried!

azed

Pedro back on the Arteta “sauce” again.

Well I can’t fault you. Emery has his chance and tanked.

Ishola70

I presume all this talk of title challenges or outside tilts at the title was made during the unbeaten run. It’s been said so many times before that those run of fixtures were quite kind to Arsenal and the duration of them. Forget home matches. A team can have a good home record in any league but not be seen as a very good team overall. They have to back it up with away performances as well and Arsenal were not playing any real headache teams away from home in that run. And the length of that unbeaten run was… Read more »

Receding Hairline

WOAB it’s hysterical when phrases like “anyone but Emery is used”..it signifies change just for change sake and i am very glad Raul and Edu are not falling for that.

Edu was coached by Emery for a season in 2008/09 so he very much knows what his capabilities are. I see nothing wrong in two men making a decision to back the man they trusted to do a job just a few months ago simply because the fans are baying for blood.

Would you also take Sam Allardyce just to satisfy your craving for a change?

Graham62

B10

Bob is right, you need to break away from here and have a nap.

Receding Hairline

Words no it wasn’t you

Someone else floated Allardyce and he wasn’t joking

Paulinho

Ishola – We didn’t flow during those games (mainly because Emery was playing Rambo at 10) but Emery was constantly making sub at half-time and winning games with the squad in the second half. So might not have looked great on the old XG stats but we always finished games looking the stronger. The squad were fresh and no reason we couldn’t keep doing. Brighton game was prime example of injuries effecting that serene run. 1-0 up, looking comfortable, and Leichsteiner makes a massive cock-up and they equalise. Southampton lost because Kos came back(due to Holding injury) and was a… Read more »

Receding Hairline

“Ishola – We didn’t flow during those games (mainly because Emery was playing Rambo at 10) but Emery was constantly making sub at half-time and winning games with the squad in the second half. So might not have looked great on the old XG stats but we always finished games looking the stronger. The squad were fresh and no reason we couldn’t keep doing.”

We were known as a second half team then for a reason.

Ishola70

If the team were being over-rated last season due to that unbeaten run there is no doubt that this season they have regressed from that position now as well.

Paulinho

Receding – Remember in the first month or so Emery started Guendouzi, and took him off at half-time, and replaced him with Torreira. Just did that every game and it worked.

Valentin

Bojangles, I have no idea what you are referring to. The mathematics and me discounting any points to be made against ManCity and Liverpool are mine. If you can find a web site with the same comment, I would just say that great mind think alike. I am not accusing Paulinho or WOAB of stealing my idea, just because people think in term of maths to prove a point and arrive at the same conclusions. The fact is that we have 26 games left and that the window to clear up this meas is closing with each passing poor results… Read more »

Receding Hairline

Paulinho yep many hailed his as a tactical genius back then who read the game well and countered the opposition

Now he is a scared, reactive clown who any manager (or non manager) in the world can do a better job than.

Paulinho

Talking of XG and XA, Leicester are supposedly out-performing both at the moment.

Their level drops off markedly should any one of Chilwell, Maddison, Vardy, Tielemans get injured.

azed

Raul is unlikely to act soon. By the time he make the decision to sack Emery, never mind top 4, just qualifying for Europe may even be a struggle.

Valentin

Saying a lie a million times would never make it true.
Raul cannot sack Emery without approval from Josh Kronkre.
The only reason we could buy Pepe was because the Kroenke’s approved it.
You once stated that Raul over paid for Pepe when everyone without an agenda knows the club has a chief Negotiator and it’s not Raul.

Receding Hairline

“Talking of XG and XA, Leicester are supposedly out-performing both at the moment.”

Xg is no longer a thing here these days, there was a time you couldn’t read a post without it hurting your eyes

Ishola70

Receding Hairline
“yep many hailed his as a tactical genius back then who read the game well and countered the opposition”

Tactical genius or just getting over the line? in a run that didn’t see the team play an EPL side that ended up in the top ten before the Man United match?

Genuis in regards beating Cardiff, Newcastle, Fulham and Bournemouth away doesn’t really add up does it.

Receding Hairline

Most of the views expressed here are stated with the assumption Leicester and Chelsea will maintain this level through out the season and if that is a case why bother changing coaches now only to blame Emery for the eventual failure to finish fourth later. He is a Europa league expert after all and we are still very much in that competition or has it been conveniently forgotten we can qualify for the champions league by winning that? I say hold your horses, bid your time and make a more informed hire end of season. The hire that should have… Read more »

Valentin

Azed,

Remind me again what does Raul so.
According to you:
* He does not deal with the academy. That’s Per’s role.
* He does not identify players to purchase. That’s the role of head scout
* He does not coach. That’s Emery’s job.
* He does not set the style of play. That’s Edu’s role.
* He does not do contract negotiation. That’s Fahmy’s role.
* He can’t sack the headcoach. That’s Josh role.

Outside of dining at Arsenal great expense in fine restaurant, according to you what does he do then?

Batistuta

Make excuses all you like and say nothing will or might change even with a change of manager, doesn’t negate the fact that the current manager doesn’t look like he has a clue what he’s doing with the squad… Will a new manager get us playing better? Probably yes because we’re not as bad as some of you like to paint us. Will a new manager succeed here with us? No one knows as there are still issues to sort out squad wise especially in midfield and defence… Is the current manager doing any better or does he look like… Read more »

Receding Hairline

“Genuis in regards beating Cardiff, Newcastle, Fulham and Bournemouth away doesn’t really add up does it.” Chelsea and United were beaten at home in a game were we were tactically well set up and every player knew his job. The Liverpool home game was also a very pleasing game to watch,w e played with intensity and a clear game plan. The Spurs come back and the praises he got for it, not to mention he thoroughly out coached Poch away when we played them. You may like to paint last season as a flat track bully session but thankfully i… Read more »

Nelson

EKB! LOL!
I was told that Emery is expert losing away games.

CG

The G “”””””So things could get a lot worse before they get better”””””” We have not even touched the sides- of how low we will sink. In any organisation- if you allow muppets, frauds, incompetents in it- there is no way back. Its carnage its oblivion And with us there are no cech and balances to remedy it either.( i.e no proper board of directors- just tweedledum and tweedledee) they said Titanic could not sink they said the Banks would not fail they said Enron was innovative We will be the next Villa/Leeds.Take your pick. David Luiz on £100 000… Read more »

Champagne charlie

“Bamford – Charlie wanted Perez in the summer, he wanted Tielemans in Jan (and criticised the board not getting him). That’s one of the reasons he doesn’t want to go into detail about personnel and the mechanics of why Leicester are better than last season“ Sure about that one? I remember citing Tielemans when folk were talking about how we couldn’t bring anyone better than Dennis Suarez in Jan, how we couldn’t acquire any CM. Given Tielemans had a great introduction to the league, and Suarez was Suarez, and joined them on loan Jan 31st makes sense to quote him… Read more »

Batistuta

How much time exactly do we red to give him though is the question? Are we saying we shouldn’t change managers because there isn’t better out there than him at the moment because there is even though all of that associated with the risks come with that? What is clear at the moment is that the current gaffer doesn’t look like he has it in him to turn it around Europa league or not? We can’t chance our season on the off chance we don’t meet any good team or that stronger teams don’t drop into the competition from the… Read more »

guest man aka WW

Wenger again? its like an ancient tale of the great kings clothes and the slow demise of an empire. In a nutshell…..Wenger was good then when adams etc lef toh and sol Campbell DB10 etc wenger was exposed and was found out. We couldn’t get rid of him, allowing him to dictate his resignation…which infuriated the fans. Emery was average, then with 10 games to go last season became shite. Still shite now and with no hope to improve as the players wont play for him. He wont dictate his resignation which wont infuriate the fans. Ok history lesson and… Read more »

Ishola70

Pedro
“RH reimagining a phase on LG he was celebrating tactical genius and the rest of us were questioning a dithering manager that had bad xG”

Yeah it doesn’t really bare up on closer scrutiny.

All you have to do is look at Arsenal’s EPL away results in isolation and it gives the truer picture.

Arsenal stopped becoming a team that looked capable away from home mid December 2016.

Since Everton away on the 13 December 2016 Arsenal have won only around 16 matches away from home. Played nearing 60 matches away from home in that period.

Paulinho

“Paulinho, his subs weren’t a load management strategy. Team were fucked by December.”

Not sure about that.

A dodgy spell with certain players missing and only in January we put on a high-energy performance at home to Chelsea. Some recovery if they were physically spent the month before.

It was the start of the period where I foundations had been weakened by the long-term injuries, and worrying foreboding of what was in store later in the season with the likes of AMN playing long-term.

guest man aka WW

Tony Adams on sky with j.redknapp talking about arsenals woes….pinpointing a massive change of emphasis in the recruitment of players.
Buy “character” and “fighting spirit” first then look at the technical stats was his opinion and personally I subscribe to that opinion.

Ishola70

That’s an awful stat isn’t it.

Look at Arsenal’s away EPL record since Everton away on the 13 December 2016.

It’s appalling.

Receding Hairline

“Ish, RH reimagining a phase on LG he was celebrating tactical genius and the rest of us were questioning a dithering manager that had bad xG” “If a fan says they hate transfer windows or paaaashun, it tells you a lot. But there was a lot of that over the past ten years as people tried to make sense of the cold blue lips of our squad and manager. Not anymore, Emery’s face is all of us. That guy feels every strike of the ball, every missed shot, every goal. I love him on the touchline. It’s sunk into the… Read more »

Batistuta

Did Emery do well last season? Points wise definitely upgraded on Wenger’s final one with lots of room for improvement and that’s the thing though, he’s not improved us by any metric this season… What happened last season is immaterial if you ask me.. Why are we in the road to finishing with even less points than last? Why haven’t we put in one stand out performance all season? Why are we looking more disorganized than last seaaon? Why are we letting our goal keeps have the record for most shots saved this early in the season? Why are we… Read more »

Ishola70

And Unai’s little flat track bullying run of getting a few victories on the road in the EPL last season was alas a mirage.

Paulinho

Charlie – You’re always loathe to delve into the details on how individual players affect the collective. I don’t particuarly think Tielemans is a world-beater but he’s great passer, has a nose for goal, and when his weaknesses are offset by the powerful rangy Ndidi, you get a synergistic effect that is often greater than the individual parts. Same with Tielemans just behind Maddison, which helps unlock his ability and again you get the multiplier of increased effectiveness. Last season Leicester had the limited defensively minded Mendy playing instead of Tielemans, so they lacked that vital component. I don’t particularly… Read more »

Ishola70

However comes in after Emery they have a big job on their hands.

A very big job to get this club back on track.

guest man aka WW

Once the players have lost confidence in the manager its like breaking a glass…it will never return to anything resembling the original. That’s whats happened at arsenal.
It would in fact be easier to polish a turd.

Graham62

CG

You are 100% correct.

“In any organisation -if you allow muppets, incompetents and frauds in it- there is no way back”

Starting with you know who and Ivan the Terrible at the top of the pile.

Champagne charlie

Paulinho

That’s simply not true, I’ve always been sympathetic to that sort of understanding and in fact Ive said as much when considering players that have been grossly under fire.

But whatever way you slice it that’s the managers job to deal with, and if he doesn’t have the apparent requisite partnerships then he needs to source solutions however short term they may be.

He pushed for Dennis Suarez when others, like Tielemans, were available to bring in. Same this summer where he was privy to the needs of the team in terms of recruitment.

Ishola70

Guys

You have got to stop pretending that this run of form is surprising. It’s not good enough but it is not surprising.

Arsenal are overall not a very good team.

Very good teams don’t have such a poor away EPL record since end of 2016.

Look at that EPL away record and weep.

That is the indicator of how the club have fallen.

CG

graham

“”CG

You are 100% correct.””

Not quite, old bean.

I am 87% correct. And Always have been.

Paulinho

“He pushed for Dennis Suarez when others, like Tielemans, were available to bring in. Same this summer where he was privy to the needs of the team in terms of recruitment.”

Well we were short of wingers and Tielemans is CM.

Who exactly pushed for who will always be open for debate with our structure. It seems we were pushing hard for Perisic and settled for Suarez at the death.

peanuts&monkeys

“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.”

Super,super

azed

Remind me again what does Raul so. According to you: * He does not deal with the academy. That’s Per’s role. * He does not identify players to purchase. That’s the role of head scout * He does not coach. That’s Emery’s job. * He does not set the style of play. That’s Edu’s role. * He does not do contract negotiation. That’s Fahmy’s role. * He can’t sack the headcoach. That’s Josh role. Valentin It’s very simple, he coordinator’s all those people you listed. If Per needs a new building for the academy, Per isn’t going to call Josh,… Read more »

Graham62

CG

Are you an Aussie?

Their cricketers are very superstitious about the number 87.

Wickets tend to tumble when the score reaches 87.

Paulinho

“That’s simply not true, I’ve always been sympathetic to that sort of understanding and in fact Ive said as much when considering players that have been grossly under fire.” Well why don’t we see any of it then. All I keep reading is “we spent 200 million!” and no one goes into any specifics as to whether they are compatible with the players already here. Emery has supposedly got lucky with Laca and Auba yet Laca needed Fekir to provide the guile at Lyon, Auba didn’t have a striker partner at Dortmund, having players like Pulisic, Kagawa behind him. Yet… Read more »

CG

graham

13 from their 100?

Marko

Another grotesque Arteta puff piece. One has to be wary of appointing someone Man City would so easily discard at the first bit of interest. Hardly sounds like something you’d do with someone who’s next in line after Pep.

Champagne charlie

Paulinho

Yea, don’t think you can hide behind anything with that Suarez loan. The lad played something like 94 minutes for us total.

What we needed was someone who was going to come in and give us something extra, patently not what he serviced. Tielemans wouldve been much better, a CB of any kind again much better (Cahill mooted i think for peanuts). It wasn’t a case of any winger will do.

raptora

I believe it’s a good idea to not have a look at the people who want a change of our manager as people that are anti Emery. Plenty of people including me, were really warm to his arrival and the entire first year of his reign. I was actually finding excuses and defending Emery for our late season collapse. Even starting the season I believed that he will do a good job and develop us more. My idea was that we needed to add another 7 points to our tally like we did in Emery’s first season. From 70 to… Read more »

guest man aka WW

I was thinking about an ex-arsenal player to take over.
I cant think of any better than arteta……..and that doesn’t inspire me.
I like arteta as a cool guy,,,,but personally…ok…personally I don’t like watching man city unless they are chasing a game…..their possession football is a fckin bore.
Like klopps heavy metal style though.
I like heavy metal…maybe that’s why…haha

Ishola70

Receding

It has already been pointed out to you that a team can have a good home record but that doesn’t equate overall to being a really good side.

So why quote home matches to me?

Receding Hairline

“What we needed was someone who was going to come in and give us something extra, patently not what he serviced. ” Yes which is why Perisic was pursued “Arsenal identified Perisic as a target late in the January transfer window as they looked to bolster Unai Emery’s squad. An initial approach for the Croatia international was made last weekend, with the Gunners keen on a loan deal until the end of the season. Arsenal’s desire to only secure Perisic’s services on a temporary basis was driven by a lack of funds at the Emirates. And it seems Inter were… Read more »

Champagne charlie

Paulinho

With respect, unless you’re studiously sat absorbing every single comment I post on here its safe to say you’re not likely to catch everything that’s said.

What do you think is missing from this team in terms of knitting it all together?

Last season it was a big fuss about fullbacks and wingers come Jan, what’s Emery need now for Emeryball to take off? I can see him being here until 2026 with the same arguments being distorted across each section of the league season.

What are we missing, and what will their arrival facilitate?

Paulinho

“His decisions to sub at halftime were geared around picking bad starting lineups.”

That’s one way to look at it. I think he evaluated the squad, saw that we lacked star quality, and decided the use our strength; which was a squad full of players that could be very effective used in small doses. Iwobi, Welbeck, Torreira (struggles physically), rotating Kola and Monreal etc.

Leicester are the opposite. Rodgers won’t be rotating shit if he can help it. Praet might play a few games, but that’s more or less it.

Marko

Do people not understand that Adrien Silva was part of the Tielemens deal? It was very opportunistic by Leicester but I’m not sure they could have done it initially without adding Silva to it.

I’ll be honest with you hearing certain people raise their skirts in anger over signing Suarez over Tielemens while in the past have made excuses for Wenger’s blunders in the transfer market is a bit rich.

HighburyLegend

“I am 87% correct. And Always have been.”
Priceless, to say the least.

CG

Bamford knows absolute nowt about life- let alone soccer.

But he has stumbled upon truism

Leicester do indeed have better players than Arsenal.

And thats because we keep buying total over hyped dross for fortunes.

pepe/tierney/cebollas/louise= are average on their best days.

(our ladies team are less crook, more two footed and more agile than this sorry lot)

So in this instance ( and only in this instance)

Bamford 1 Le Grove Patients 0

Receding Hairline

“Paulinho, he saw we lacked star power then yanked the deal for Ramsey and benched him.”

Before proceeding to injure him…

Valentin

To be fair to Emery, last winter he made clear that he wanted 1 CB and a right winger. All he got was a lightweight CAM who got injured pretty quickly. That same CAM has now found his level at Celta Vigo. BTW this season Denis Suarez has mostly played on the left, which tend to really prove that even without being injured his move was not the right fit for us. Tielemans was available on loan from Monaco and my view is better suited to the EPL than Ceballos. Whoever is responsible for those deals is proving that Leicester… Read more »

Marko

No shock that our injuries were up last season on the year before.

https://www.arsenalreport.com/injuryroom/history

Dunno I think 13 is significantly less than 55.

Paulinho

“What do you think is missing from this team in terms of knitting it all together?” I said it in the summer. An Arthur Melo or Verratti that has the mixture of agility, dribbling, pace, and passing to receive the ball high up the pitch, with players on him (like Kovacic is doing at the mo), and that will assauge the disconnect that exists between our limited forwards and midfield. Ramsey did it from central midfield with his runs and all-round dynamism, but his type seems scarcer and Emery likes two deeper-lying central midfielders so the guy that he can… Read more »

Paulinho

Pedro – I’m sure Emery would’ve liked the luxury of walking into a club where Ramsey was tied into a three year contract, and he had the whole season to evaluate him.

Ramsey is ridiculously injury prone. Huge loss for this season and probably next but I can understand cutting him loose with Ozil contract.

raptora

2 starts in 19 games for Ramsey, let’s not forget. All the while he was starting in Europa League, FA and EFL Cups. Player poverty. He’s not playing his best players.