Today I’m writing out of desperate concern for the future of our club. I think Arsenal are perched on a dangerous precipice. There is a Trojan horse at the gates of Highbury House, inside it lurks a super agent looking to control his biggest club yet via a managerial proxy. The idea of Jorge Mendes installing his boy Nuno as our manager has to be squashed with brute force because outside of it being a painfully bland appointment, it comes with dire ramifications for how we are operated and run.
We cannot let this happen. It would be a mistake with grave consequences for our future.
Arsenal is an institution. A club dedicated to closely guarded values. Yes, those values have been used to defend mediocrity over the past 10 years, but forget that for a minute, we stand for something bigger than trophies and that is something you should cherish.
Whether it’s passing on Frank and Ronald De Boer because of what it said about our respect for contracts 25 years ago. Replaying a cup match with Sheffield United because of a rules infraction. Or the general standard of how the club conducts itself in the local community, we are a special club. There is an Arsenal way and it makes us proud to be fans.
Those values appear to be under attack by some in the leadership team.
Look no further than the open arms welcome to ‘contacts’ recruitment and the introduction of super-agents for evidence. Much like Unai Emery’s early subs in September 2018, we initially welcomed the shift towards a more pragmatic era, but 18 months in, with next to nothing to show for it, it’s starting to look like we’re being taken for a ride by Raul’s process for getting things done.
The last 18 months will pale in comparison if he is successful in selling us the dud vision of Nuno and Mendes running things at Arsenal. To be clear, this is not just agent talk. His name will be on the managerial shortlist the club is pulling together. Nuno might look a reasonable suggestion on paper, the one-season wonder has had some spectacular results, but as with Emery, scratch beneath the surface, and it’s clear all is not as it seems with the charismatic Portuguese.
So what’s the problem? Outside having a bland-on-toast resume that’s been heavily fortified with great wins against top 6 sides, the main issue is his super-agent kingmaker, Jorge Mendes. Every article leaked into the Arsenal ether this week has gone to great lengths to tie Raul and his friendship with Mendes to this potential deal. This is not an accident, Raul is canvassing fan opinion to see how we perceive this sort of partnership: You should be disgusted.
Mendes has a history with Arsenal. He has fucked us in the past. The biggest, and perhaps most consequential shafting was the Ronaldo move way back when. Mendes used Arsenal to earn a better deal from United. This is Wenger on the deal.
“There is always something you could have done differently, but the problem of negotiations is to know when you give in and when you don’t give in,” he added.
“Once we were at 4.5 million pounds, we were still in negotiations… so we were very close. But Man United went to 12 million pounds, which we could not afford at the time.”
Mendes was also responsible for sending Ricardo Carvalho to Chelsea when we were close. There are also numerous other deals that didn’t go our way. He is no friend of the club and there was a reason Wenger wouldn’t deal with him (no doubt it’ll be in his book).
Now let’s move onto Nuno. He was Mendes’ first-ever client in football way back when he was a reserve keeper. They have a storied history together.
Fast forward to Spain in 2014.
When creditor, Bankia, were trying to find a buyer for the beleaguered Spanish club Valencia, Asian billionaire Peter Lim brokered a deal for 70% ownership, his one stipulation? Nuno had to be put in charge of the team. The deal went through, the popular Pizzi was sacked, Nuno was given the managerial role. Who brought Peter Lim to the table? Jorge Mendes.
Things went as you’d expect, this from Sport 360.
‘And since Lim’s arrival was confirmed, the club has signed an unsurprisingly high number of players who are managed by or have close links with Mendes, including Joao Cancelo, Zakaria Bakkali, Danilo and Enzo Perez, creating suspicions that they owe their chief loyalties to the agent rather than the club, and that they will only stay until Mendes decides it is time to sell them.’
Things went deeper though, Mendes made real jobs redundant because he was the king. His roster of players was all that mattered.
‘Conversely, fan favourite Nicolas Otamendi was sold to Manchester City, with the deal facilitated by his agent – Mendes, of course. For many fans the most troubling aspect of the summer, however, was neither the club’s failure to significantly invest in players nor the Mendes links with those who did arrive. It was a political battle between Nuno and three of the club’s key backroom staff: president Amadeo Salvo, sporting director Francisco Rufete and scout Roberto Fabian Ayala, who felt marginalised by the powerful influence of Mendes and threatened to leave unless the situation was rectified.’
‘Nuno stood his ground, Lim backed him, and Salvo, Rufete and Ayala all departed – with the startling fact that chief scout Ayala was not even replaced speaking volumes for the club’s current recruitment policy, which appears to be based upon little more than shuffling around Mendes’ personal portfolio.’
Nuno was eventually fired despite returning Valencia to the Champions League, fans were disgusted at the power grip he and Mendes had on the club. By December 2015, Peter Lim had spent €200 million on players (lots of dross), many of whom were represented by Mendes. What did Nuno have to say about it?
“A short time ago I heard that it was a privilege to be able to work with the best agent in the world,”
“I don’t know why this has changed. He remains the best agent in the world. He has helped Valencia a lot.
“The players he has brought, I believe they will soon be the best in the world. You must recognise his work. The squad planning was what we believed was the best. I believe we were right in all the individual judgements. There is a young squad with a lot of potential, the youngest in La Liga. This project will have success for sure.”
Completely oblivious to the real reasons the fans turned on him, Nuno echoed an excuse reminiscent of what Emery said in yesterday’s press conference.
“The players believe they can give more, they must. But they need to be supported, to feel people are with them, that the fans understand their youth, that they are with them in every game, so their quality can come through.
“I had become the problem, because the fans were not supporting us, but had turned on me. Now I ask them to support the players, because they have the quality they have shown before.”
Valencia finished 12th the next two seasons.
Fast forward to 2016. Xi Jinping, the top boy over at China mainland, is a huge Premier League fan. He encouraged investment from his big shot entrepreneurs in the beautiful game. Fosun, a Chinese investment conglomerate, went out and picked up Wolves for £46m. Who was there to broker the deal? Jorge Mendes. He is the go-to broker for Asian billionaires looking to move into European football.
To make matters more complicated, Fosun’s owner has another firm called Shanghai Foyo that reportedly owns a 20% stake in Jorge’s agency, Gestifute. This from Wolves in 2018.
“Fosun have a percentage stake in the Gestifute company headed up by Jorge Mendes,”
Leeds Chairman, Radrizzani, was livid at the complicated relationship Mendes had with the club, obviously fearing conflicts of interest could arise.
“Not legal and fair to let one team owned by a fund who has shares in the biggest players’ agency with evident benefits (top European clubs giving players with options to buy) … why the other 23 teams can’t have the same treatment?”
It’s too boring for me to get into the details of every single player Wolves have signed or moved out of the club, but do the research yourself. Read commentary on Neto and Jordao.
It was swift, it was sudden, and it came as if from nowhere. Wolves, on Friday, with minimal warning until less than 24 horus beforehand, announced the signing of Portuguese duo Pedro Neto and Bruno Jordao from Italian outfit Lazio – for a combined fee of £18million.
Significant money for two players who were largely unheard of outside of Portugal and Italy, and two players who between them had barely racked up 100 minutes of senior football. From the outside, it looks like a confusing piece of business, perhaps even a rip off if you will, and a sign of the market spiralling completely out of control.
Read the Italian press write about the money Lazio spent to NOT play the two mentioned above. Read this 2018 article that cites 13 players as linked to Mendes that moved to Wolves. Or this Sun puff pieces that basically reckons UEFA would be killjoys if they let rules get in the way of a very strange setup. Remember Bebe? Mendes.
So now for Arsenal.
We’ve already had our fingers burned by the Kia deal for Luiz, I was told all in, that deal will have set us back £40m. We should have been looking at players with a high ceiling on the up, not a busted flush from Chelsea. Everyone is fully aware that we went above and beyond on Pepe with fees so steep, Napoli pulled out.
We also signed Unai Emery out of the blue and did the deal in 8 days. Without going over all the things that were clearly wrong with that hire, one huge miss stood out… Emery couldn’t speak English to Sven or Ivan G who interviewed him, yet we still signed him. How was that bulldozed through? No one at Arsenal asked if being able to speak the language was an issue? Very odd.
Anyway, it happened, we’re 18 months on, and who is being linked? Emery with a beard. A man with a very uninspiring resume, with very, very, very deep ties to a super agent that comes as part of his package whether you like it or not.
Signing Nuno is not about his talent as a manager, it’s about what it’ll cost the club in terms of a future. His introduction will make Edu an irrelevance, same for the scouts and the analysts (just like at Valencia)… because Jorge Mendes will become our Technical Director, Chief Scout, and Club Strategist. Why would Raul invite such a force into the club?
This move will create a lack of trust in the system. If you’re upset about the lack of transparency at Arsenal since Stan took us private, my word, you’re in for a treat if Raul gets his way with this manager. On the technical side, this move will rupture the already diminished culture at the club because our approach will shift from data and intelligence, to whatever works best for the fees.
To use Josh Kroenke’s words, it would not leave the fans proud. The Nuno suggestion is an assault on everything we believe about the club we love. It should not and cannot happen. If it does, you’ll know what Raul is all about, and you’ll know where it’s going to end… a financial/football disaster we’ll be lumped with for the next decade.
This sort of carry-on does make me wonder if Sir Chips’ fight to have Arsenal people on the board is about more than hurt feelings. Perhaps Raul’s ideas are alarming the sleepy old men? The same folk that were content with average football for 10 years might not be happy to see the club taking an unsavory path toward opaqueness. One can only hope.
I think it’s very telling that top journalists are being briefed very specifically that Raul is the one responsible for Unai’s continued tenure, as well as being the one that went off-shortlist to make the horrendous recommendation to hire him in the first place, that tells you he has enemies internally because those stories are an attack on his leadership, judgment, and credibility.
My hope is that the good people at the club are aware of the motives behind this managerial suggestion. Josh Kroenke needs to get off his Instagram and start speaking to the folk at the training ground with real football knowledge before he’s hoodwinked into another Raul shambles. Nuno is a Trojan horse that must be burned to the ground before people start entertaining the idea that the horse would look ace on The Emirates concourse. Arsenal are not Valencia. We are not Wolves. If Manchester City are valued at nearly £5b, then so are Arsenal. Nuno isn’t Arsenal levels to start with, factor in his baggage, and I wouldn’t even give him the courtesy of an interview. The absolute last thing we need to be doing is giving Jorge Mendes a parking spot next to the power at Arsenal FC. We are better than that.
My hope for this article? Firstly, you see the danger here. Secondly, that fans steer clear of falling in love with the Nuno idea, see it for what it is, bitch about it online, and share this story with anyone that thinks otherwise. This move is an attack on your club, it would fail miserably, and it must be dismissed with the same vigor we used to swat away the Jose stories.
See you in the comments, but not before you’ve gone onto Twitter to complain about this Nuno nonsense. #NuNoFuckingWAY
Jeepers, this Arteta thing cuts Pedro real deep. Again I say, If Everton are not interested in Arteta, why are we. Or do they think he is simply out of their league?.
“Deep breath everyone.”
Arsenal Football Club has stopped breathing since a while now…
If we were to eliminate anyone who’d ever failed in a role we’d never appoint a manager
Marc
Point of correction
If we were to eliminate anyone who’d ever failed in a role we’ll appoint Mikel ‘the saviour’ Arteta.
He’s never failed as a manager.
Marc, you play the balanced card, but you’re a bit of an extremist. How anyone can read the post today and feel comfortable is beyond me. I’ve had people from the club message me about how spot on it was. Be in no doubt, if Nuno is our manager, we’re going down a path we’ll struggle to recover from. The club is already on the path, this is just phase two.
https://talksport.com/football/635663/man-city-football-group-cfg-mumbai/
How the hell are they allowed to own 8 Football clubs?
Pedro, were we definitely in for Mourinho and were gazumped by Spuds? What’s the good word?
Michael
You are obviously on the class values wagon.
It’s a load of bullshit.
Tell me how many players in the top european leagues have football agents as their representatives.
They are a massive part of the football furniture now.
And that you want to portray these agents as comic book villains is a bit daft.
No-one would give a shit if Mendes makes some coin if it coincides with him providing good players for Arsenal.
Oh except you and and perhaps a few select more.
Raul went to dinner for him, no idea if an offer went out, unlikely after the reaction.
Nice sentiment Pedro.
The remain classy you need an owner who wants that ideal as well.
We have a greedy asset collector who has no idea what a football club represents in the way of history, fans,and values.
All they want is bottom line money and asset growth which they are getting.
Agents are part of the modern game and their industry attracts sharks as it’s easy money for them. Sky pumped millions into football and this is the result.
We desperately need success again and our so called values are a millstone around our necks
But Wolves seem to be doing just fine, doesn’t look like they’re going downhill anytime soon and they’ve bought some really good and fit players
I am more concerned about playing style of Nuno and whether/how it is going to fit with our style/players. As far as I am concerned all the agent related stuff is a sideshow – important but not the most critical issue.
“ But Wolves seem to be doing just fine, doesn’t look like they’re going downhill anytime soon and they’ve bought some really good and fit players”
And we haven’t beaten them with Nuno in charge
Quick question, if we brought in Arteta as manager ,would you still be okay with us doing business with Jorge Mendez?
If those in charge of buying and scouting talent do their jobs and do it absolutely fine, if the manager can get the players playing for him and the results are going well, everyone would be 100% behind them not minding if it’s the Devil as an agent we’re dealing with…
I think all Stan/Josh care about is money – and the real money comes from being in the CL. Raul & Co had sold them a ticket to getting back there as quick as possible – that ticket was Emery. That didn’t work out last year – Raul and Emery’s excuse was the quality of the players – so they agreed to speculate to accumulate for this season. It’s not working – but having sold the owners his plan, Rauls reluctant to admit he was wrong and now needs to find a solution and quick – enter Nuno and Mendes… Read more »
Pedro
I don’t feel comfortable at the moment but the rumour mill around football is so full of shit it’s ridiculous.
It’s the same with transfers: if we bought 1% of the players we’re linked with we’d have a squad of about 300 players.
I also find it unlikely that it’s common knowledge around the club who’s being looked at / on a shortlist outside of a very small handful of people who would not communicate this to the media unless it was a planned press leak.
“ Marc, you play the balanced card, but you’re a bit of an extremist. How anyone can read the post today and feel comfortable is beyond me” I think we can feel comfortable because we know that the scaremongering is just that Why will us having Nuno be different to all The clubs where Mendes has brokered Jose’s deals ? How comes Chelsea Madrid inter then Chelsea again , weren’t subjected to an influx of Mendes unknown crap players ? Why will it happen at arsenal ? If Mendes and Raul are such great buddies then how comes we haven’t… Read more »
Weagle
When you see this, saw your post about German managers and thought to chirp in there, can’t think of any of them who have come here and done well, except maybe Pep but that’s an exception… Caught Leipzig again and that suicidal high line of his that he employs kept giving me PTSD from the Wenger years. Too further up the pitch and not particularly fast defenders… Still, like Upamecano though…
I agree that Mendes had an outsized and arguably pernicious influence at Valencia and Wolves. But that is only because he had a direct line to the owners and/or an indirect ownership interest.
In the case if any potential Nuno-to-Arsenal move this would not be the case, and would be no different than any other manager he represents (e.g Mourinho) or any other manager represented by AN Other agent.
The case against Nuno should be made on football grounds alone.
Marc, with the greatest respect, you don’t really have an understanding of how the club operate in the current climate if you believe that.
Pedro
I have a very good understanding of how business operate in these circumstances and that’s precisely what Arsenal are.
How many rumours were there about Mourinho going to the Spud’s?
Lee Dixon said on a podcast this week that Stan Kroenke didn’t even look up from his soup he was eating , when he was introduced to him. A legend of the club didn’t even get a head nod , yet some slimey agent They don’t even know is just gonna waltz in and start dictating to the kronkes on who to spend their money on ?
Marc, you don’t, you are talking absolute nonsense about how Arsenal operate to someone who spends more time on the subject than anyone here.
You are literally trying to sell people on the view that Mendes/Nuno shouldn’t worry people, despite a mountain of evidence hot off the heels of telling everyone you were the balanced view on Emery.
Edu, Stan K doesn’t run the day to day of Arsenal.
If you’re going to try and dismiss an article, at least do it with musings that are relevant.
Pedro, At last, somebody has the courage to explain what real menace Raul is to the fabric of this club. I have nothing against him on a personal level. Having met him he seems a polite and amenable chap. However he represents everything that I loathe in business. The backroom deals with croony friends, the bribes made legal by calling them fees, the opaqueness that only benefit a small coterie of people, the brazen lie told with a smile and a cigar (I used to love smoking cigars before the wife put a stop to that unhealthy activity), the incompetence… Read more »
If it’s not ARTETA Pedro won’t be satisfied. For me I’m relaxed, sipping my lager with crisp grilled pork.
Pedro, plz get some pressure pills. Your concerns are well documented but some minds are already made up. If it’s NUNO or whoever, I’m supporting him.
Talking about values and class, can we do the unthinkable and appoint a female coach? Plz someone help me with name of the THREE best female coaches around (not males coaching female teams). And suggest the best one for the club.
Pedro
Is the problem with Mendes or Nuno?
Would you be against the signing of any manager that has Mendes as their agent?
Valentin, the hope is that they’ll catch wind before we get to that stage.
” can we do the unthinkable and appoint a female coach?”
No we can’t and don’t be fucking stupid.
Azed, Nuno comes with Mendes, that’s the deal.
Edu 10000x agree with everything you said in your long post Oh and big lol at Pierre. You are truly a lost cause Expectation was higher in years gone by because we had the foundation and means to do more but chose not to. Then we regressed majorly with your lord arsene still in charge. Top 4 is now a *short term* target because we are no longer a top 4 team since the regression wenger started and continued under emery. It’s really not hard Pierre. Wenger was a useless cunt in his final years however much this upsets you… Read more »
“ If you’re going to try and dismiss an article, at least do it with musings that are relevant” Who’s money is it ? Rauls or stans ? Has Raul got a blank cheque book or does he have to get money from Stan ? I’m not trying to dismiss your article , I never do , I read every single one and enjoy your talented writing. How is anything I’ve said today irrelevant? I’ve addressed your article on the points I don’t agree with. You’re trying to force us to believe that we are Valencia , we’re not. You’re… Read more »
edu If Mendes and Raul are such great buddies then how comes we haven’t had all of Mendes’ crap since Raul joined the club ? Because he has been too busy – alone at the pigs trough- buying his ‘own crap’ perhaps? The Spivs Menu pepe -£70-100 million (inc wages and commissions) luiz ( 40 million all in) tierney (30- 50 million ( inc wages and commissions) cebollas (10 million loan all in) saliba ( £35- 50 million inc wages and commissions) with what he has gorged upon in commissions to date with this sorry lot he will soon be… Read more »
Its sad that most on here(Le-grove) have ignored all the important points highlighted by pedro in this article but are riding on the ‘values’ thing.
Even though people have differences in their understanding of what the Arsenal values are, we should all be concerned about what Nuno and Mendes combo will mean for arsenal .
Pedro
Can you answer my earlier question –
“As Mourinho’s agent is Mendes as well does that mean that the Spud’s will also be stuck with who the agent provides them rather than what they need / who they want to buy?”
I think you are not seeing the whole picture Pedro.
Raul is the bigger problem here.
Unai’s still in a job because he consented to Raul’s game, freezing Ozil out of the starting 11 as a fundraising play.
Good question. Is Nuno the problem or Mendes?
Valentin, you’ve been on the case of Raul from the get go. How’s that not personal? You and CG are the two rumbling about the new executives.
Pierre on the other hand is a bit rational.
If we had signed Ronaldo, Bernardo Silva etc. will all these ‘red alerts’ be highlighted? Calm down, Nuno may not even end up here.
Marc, it all Saharan but that won’t be bad. Imagine the players scoring and getting a hug from their sexy coach.
Kay
“Saharan” No idea what that means but as a women can’t even get a job coaching Arsenal’s, City’s or England’s women’s team I think I leave the lala social experiment for someone else.
I just did a bit more reading and realized this is NES’s 7th season as a manager. Of course if his coming means we have our whole transfer strategy dictated by Jorge Mendes it does have it’s draw backs. This is by no means guaranteed. I don’t fancy the way Wolves play, they are better suited to play big teams than they are teams they are expected to beat, the setup is not that of a big club going places nor are they defensively solid as a whole. I really don’t see why we are attracted to NES in my… Read more »
Marc,
Not sure you’re comparing apples to apples.
1) Levy runs Spurs.
2) They don’t operate a ‘contacts’ operation
3) They have no money
If Mourinho had the chance, no doubt he’d get back into bed with super-agents like Raiola.
Reality is, no one would hire Jose. This is his last chance. He’ll do what he’s told and there is no greater check on a manager than Levy.
WinOrDie, glad you raised that. When you decide values don’t matter, what are you?
Lari, the whole point of the article was flagging Raul as the problem. Even the title.
Edu, if you want to know what Stan is preoccupied with, check out this read.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/28117460/inside-rams-chargers-marriage-nfl-fights-los-angeles
He’s not paying attention to the deeper problems of Nuno.
“I have nothing against him on a personal level. Having met him he seems a polite and amenable chap. However he represents everything that I loathe in business. The backroom deals with croony friends, the bribes made legal by calling them fees, the opaqueness that only benefit a small coterie of people, the brazen lie told with a smile and a cigar (I used to love smoking cigars before the wife put a stop to that unhealthy activity), the incompetence and lack of accountability hiding behind the cash.” This guy Lot’s of Me’s in there on a subject that has… Read more »
I’m not familiar with the exact timeline of Arsenal Ronaldo interest and Wenger/ Mendes negotiations but to hear Arsene tell it, Christiano and Yaya Toure’s would be transfers are his two biggest regrets. Wenger’s official Yaya Toure story was that he couldn’t sign him because of passport issues so maybe his Ronaldo story needs to be taken with a grain of salt too. Yaya was at Beveren when he had a trial at Arsenal and Wenger saw him as a striker even though Toure wanted to play box to box mid. Because of passport issues his agent recommended Metalurh D.… Read more »
RH, agree with you.
Bigger issue with Nuno is he’s simply not that impressive.
To your second point, you take the heat where it’s needed. Raul is the biggest danger to Arsenal at the moment. His view of football isn’t aligned to where we need to go as a club. Fans need to know that.
Pedro
1) Levy runs Spurs. – Levy’s a fucking moron.
2) They don’t operate a ‘contacts’ operation – they do now!
3) They have no money – not sure we have that much if we don’t get back into the CL.
CG “all of the above : Over rated, over hyped , over paid and under performing garbage if being truthful.” I’m prepared to reserve judgement until Emery is gone. All of the squad are regressing alarmingly in Emery’s dysfunctional system , so it is difficult to get a true reflection of the new players qualities at this present time. I actually think there is a case for bringing Mustafi back into the side ( alongside holding) , Sokratis performance last weekend was unrecognisable from his performances last season and should be dropped . Mustafi is not as bad as often… Read more »
“Raul is the biggest danger to Arsenal at the moment. His view of football isn’t aligned to where we need to go as a club. Fans need to know that.” I don’t know what his views are so i will take your word for it. However he was hailed for doing a smashing job this summer window, that goodwill seems to have disappeared with our poor form. Now we are scrutinizing the Luiz and Pepe deals and feeling shortchanged. Everyone and his dog knew Pepe wasn’t worth 70+ million but neither was Zaha worth 80+ million. Luiz was a product… Read more »
Kay, There is a difference between not liking somebody on a personal level and not liking somebody for what he stand for in term of work ethic. There are people who are charming, delightful to have a conversation with but you know that in business term they would murder their grand mother to close a deal. On the other hand you have colleagues you would not have a drink with but that you implicitly trust to get the job done right. In my view Raul is the former. And I tend to view those people as long term toxic poison… Read more »
RH
Results and performances on the pitch are everything.
They can make people like Raul look geniuses or complete fools.
It’s all about the manager for me , he can transform a club ( like mee, Graham and Wenger) or he can destroy a club ( like Emery is doing)
Pedro what values do we actually stand for? We’ve been said this word a million times and I’m still absolutely clueless after 10 years of stagnation what values arsenal club holds in the modern era. The club has treated its fans absolutely horribly for ages. Joke prices, negligent ownership and management, useless managers, crap transfers on the regular. Christ arsenal have such values that the captain can tell the fans to fuck off twice and likely walk back into the team despite also be a wank footballer Values? On what planet does arsenal have values in 2019? Unreal people still… Read more »
Pierre you really can offer more than finding different ways to name drop Wenger and Ozil. You are a smart fellow and doing yourself a disservice here.
This blog ran a Wenger out campaign for years that was based on facts we all see before our eyes. Some of us saw the error of our ways later than others but we quickly became a joke under Wenger then a nonentity.
Stop name dropping him every chance you get, he did a lot of damage to this club by standing still while others progressed.
If values take precedence over sport at arsenal, we should give emery a lifetime contract like wenger practically got
And if Unai does leave we should give a lifetime contract to Steve bould next because values etc
Pierre “””””all of the above : Over rated, over hyped , over paid and under performing garbage if being truthful.”””””” CG assessment. Pepe -24 ,one footed counter attacker in the French league: never played a CL game and never will. No Calf muscle definition= no proper player. No sensible club wanted at the price asked. Tierney- undoubtedly a footballer, Great Calf Def. Unfortunately Crook.No sensible club wanted a price asked. Luiz. Rotten Apple. Beyond Hope. The Spivs and Edu’s Finest Hour? Cebollas.- ZZ knows his midfielders like no else out there. He knows this one is a Wrong ‘un! Saliba… Read more »
China, There’s an Arsenal way. You can’t really bundle ticket prices in North London into a ‘lacking values’ narrative. The club give the fans more access than any other top club in the league. We’ve always done things right by players, to our detriment We help players that have fallen off the ladder We do tremendous work in the local community The club send fans letters when bad things happen that they see online They do lots of sweet things for the junior Gunners We try and conduct ourselves properly in a very murky world of football We have values.… Read more »
Arsenal talking about values is like when you see those arrogant self obsessed guys posing in the mirror at the gym with very well developed upper body but have skipped legs for the past ten years so they’re practically floating on two spindles match sticks
Everyone in the gym thinks they’re a wiener apart from the guy himself who thinks he’s a tank
… and values and performance assessments are not the same thing.
You can have values and still be ruthless.
Good post Pedro, but I don’t feel threatened by anything. Arsenal can’t have it more down than this, maybe it’s time Arsenal had it down some other way than the ‘value’ way. Of course I can see your points and they are valid, but Nuno is not coming here to start with. Whatever they do now must be seen by the players, fans, media(and even Spuds)as the way to go. They have to bring somebody on board that even if it goes wrong, no one can blame them because it would be believed they did what was best, that’s where… Read more »
Right Pedro we’re the only club doing those things?
*eyes roll so hard I can see my own damn brain*
Pedro the fans have been shafted for a decade what are you talking about The fans are the backbone of the club. Not the players who come and go. The fans. The fans have been shafted for a solid decade. Treated like wankers by a club that will take their money gladly but has made less than the bare minimum effort to deliver what the fans actually care about And I’m not even talking about actual success, I’m talking only about trying to be successful. How hypocritical can it be for you to have led a campaign against a shit… Read more »
Arsenal values mean caring more about xhaka than the fans
He told the fans to fuck off, gave a half arsed apology and is likely to play again very soon.
Values.
China, I’m a fan. The solve for this is no Jorge Mendes and his portfolio of players.
In my company, if a client gave me angry negative feedback due to my poor performance and I told him to fuck off, I’d be sacked before I even got off the phone
Values.
Pedro
So you’d accept Nuno as manager?
I don’t care which agent we use or which manager we have provided it’s legal and doesn’t damage the club’s ability to be run successfully
Who honestly cares what approach we take so long as it’s not evil? If it is effective and not evil, sign me up. I couldn’t care less
China
What’s your direct line?
Marc m8 gimme a call just don’t give me angry feedback okay?
China
Sorry but it’s not going to be pretty!
If Mendez and nuno is a bad move for footballing reasons don’t do it.
If mendes and nuno are good from a footballing perspective and neither illegal nor evil then values shouldn’t be part of the question
If we wanna talk about showing our values how about we start by sacking the manager rather than allowing the current manager to stay in the knowledge that we definitely will miss our targets – just because our senior management wants to save face?
Have values – do what’s right for the fans. Stop arsing around and sack unai
Arsenal are the Harrods of the football world. The name is still above the door but the club is now just a limb of an American conglomerate. Arsenal ‘values’ are no longer recognisable.
“Who honestly cares what approach we take so long as it’s not evil? If it is effective and not evil, sign me up. I couldn’t care less”
There is an apocraphal story about Winston Churchill in 1940 when Britain stood alone against the Nazis. The Cabinet drew up plans for a massive cut-back in public spending and the closure of theatres, galleries, museums and most of the nation’s cultural heritage.
Churchill asked: “Then what are fighting for ?”
China,
Pipe down mate.
Pedro knows the value thing is just a mere spin to shake us into Mendes consciousness, but maybe he shouldn’t have brought ‘values’ here of all places. A bit like telling Asians the benefits of malaria.
Marc you cunt just shu-
Ah shit… I’ll box up my stuff and be out by 4:30 🙁
Does Julian Nagelsmann speak English?
‘Does Julian Nagelsmann speak English?’
What if he did?
Marc, meant to say sacarsm (just being sarcastic). Forgive my typo
Kay
No worries
China
Chances are your managers would say “we’ve called him worse than that”
Jim, he does, counter to what was penned by me (I listened to someone tell me 50 times on here he couldn’t)
But does he have cool hair?
‘who needs values if we’re having fun’
Deary me.
This “disconnection “from the club has been festering for many many years. Can any of you remember when you started to get this feeling that the powers that be basically didn’t give a shite? I can. It was the start of the 2008-09 season when we lost home games to Hull and Aston Villa, threw away a two goal lead at the Emirates, going into added time, against Spuds(4-4),and bottled it at Stoke a few days later, against Tony Pulis and his bruisers. I remember being at the Emirates with my son the day we lost at home to Villa… Read more »
Michael this is not a war we need to fight though *If* good for football, If not illegal and If not evil. We are not some bastion of virtue standing up in the free world for all that is right. We’re a club that doesn’t give a rats arse about treating its own fans like wank but we should be avoiding big agents like the plague? How about we prioritize the stuff that matters most first – trying to bring happiness and positivity to the fans and worry less about wading into battle with others until we get our own… Read more »
G62. Wenger instilled that crap. Passing pretending to compete as competing itself
We need the Spuds to win the CL. Maybe then the coma will lift.
China, how have you personally been treated badly?
Pedro please Wenger was out there making his case for fiscal responsibility and saving for a rainy day all those years and you were complaining like hell every day about it for a decade because it didn’t mean shit in the real world But ‘living within our means and being careful and frugal and not jeopardizing our future through reckless spending were ‘values’ the club held dear. As was the value of a ‘respectful’ life time contract for wenger until the fans pulled out pitch works and aeroplanes There is nothing special about what arsenal do that sets us apart… Read more »
I just do not understand how the manager of a player or coach becomes a factor in whether we should make a decision that we believe is in the club’s best interest.
Is the blogger saying that after we have identified someone to be the best fit coach, or for a playing position, we should move to the second choice because the top man is managed by Mendes?
I find it rather absurd.
Pedro do you think the kroenke years have coincided with a period of fans being treated well?
If so you must have banged your head mate
Pedro do you think the kroenke years have coincided with a period of fans being treated well?
If so you must have banged your head mate.
Pedro/China,
For supporters of a club that sold its soul to the devil and abandoned all their values as founder members of English club football, the Wolverhampton Wanderers supporters seem like a remarkably cheerful bunch.
The irony being that assuming your inside line on the club is actually true, *you* were personally treated very poorly by being fed a constant string of lies from your source about how Ivan was working tirelessly to bring progress to the club Looks like You were being used as a simple mouth piece to say some pro Ivan stuff by someone who was either talking out their ass or wasting your time If I were you I’d be pissed about that rather than feel warm and fuzzy because we done a community activity or we have some ex players… Read more »
“For supporters of a club that sold its soul to the devil and abandoned all their values as founder members of English club football, the Wolverhampton Wanderers supporters seem like a remarkably cheerful bunch.”
They are having the time of their lives
Oh talking of values I didn’t find this highlighting how our values are pretty special after all… ‘Each year the Club receives letters and emails from friends and family of supporters who believe that The club can play some part in the treatment of terminally ill fans. The Club recognises that by bringing a moment of happiness through a memorable experience like this can have a positive uplifting effect, whatever the future holds.’ That is genuinely lovely and I do respect that very much…Tho I actually found that on the spurs website after a 5 second google search Clubs do… Read more »
@Pedro –
“Jim, he does, counter to what was penned by me (I listened to someone tell me 50 times on here he couldn’t)”
Ah okay, he would be my choice so. I never really thought the langauge barrier was that much of a problem, but I guess from our current experience it really is!
David Dein the mega brain leaving the decline of the traditional
English board for a mixed cartel of people pulling in different
directions.
The Kroenke sell out.
A catastrophe in our transfer dealings.
Our Wage structure.
And holding on to Wenger for far to long through the wilderness years.
This must start at the top Kroenke must be forced to go.
Slimline from there downwards.
Ex players like Bould etc who are on the old boys pension rights
must be moved on ?
EDU ?
Empty seats will eventually tell.?
China
Stop going to the gym if you feel so inadequate.
China, you may not have values, and that’s fine. But let’s not start pushing around the idea that Arsenal aren’t a special club so you can jam a grim vision of how we should be run down our throats.
Jim, you’re right, he’d be ideal, but I think he’s going to be a Bayern man at some point.
Pedro,
China is not an Arsenal executive or decision-maker.
He’s in no position to jam any grim vision down any Arsenal supporters throats.
Relax. He simply doesn’t share your vision.
Lolz at Arsenal being a values club or a special club