I went to TJ Maxx yesterday, to shop for a fancy dress outfit. My word, one of the worst experiences of my life. Stacks and stacks of clothes pilled up on racks that go on forever like some sort of nightmare… then, out of the blue, I accidentally found something I liked at a very good price. Now, I am a TJ Maxx shopper and I have to live with that shame.
Reading around some of the news outlets, you’d think Arsenal were raiding the rails at TK Maxx. No rhyme or reason to what they’ll pick off the shelf, as long as it’s warm and has a loose connection to the Premier League.
Things to note: For a lot of the drab names we’re being linked to, just being mentioned in the same breath as Arsenal is the win.
Everton have an open job, West Ham might in a few weeks, if there’s a chance they can up their leverage and reputation, they’ll take it.
Kovac, Martinez and Marcelino are all Everton level managers, but given then chance they’d take the huge opportunity on show at Arsenal.
I just hope that doesn’t happen.
The names that I care about are Pochettino or Arteta (knowing the Brendan is off the table).
The exSpurs man would be the ideal candidate. Young, burned by Levy, and at the very top of his game. He would be incredible. I just struggle to see him being interested in our project. No money, a huge mess, and a salary a few bands below what he’d want. You can never rule it out, but I think we are going to shoot lower.
Mikael Arteta is the great unknown. A lot of people are writing about the influence he has at City. He runs most of the training sessions, he’s a true innovator, and he has the electricity that could jump start the post-Wenger rebirth. I think he could be a sensational move. A visionary hire that would be about the future. A coach that could ensure we don’t piss away the youth talent we have. Someone that could bring the sort of the football to the club that wakes you up at 3am before a game.
Like a fart in a small meeting room, anyone else is just noise. Kovac, in the fucking bin. Marcelino, not for me. Martinez, stab my eyes out with chip fork. We have to be serious about the future with the next hire.
Good football. Elite grasp of our culture. The ability to command the attention of a squad with a vision. An ego that will stomach a 3 year rebuild.
I do not want someone at the club that Raul met in a club in Barcelona in 2013. I don’t care if Edu played guitar with someone at a house party in Sau Paulo in the 80s. I want someone right for the job.
Tonight we play West Ham. Freddie really needs a win. The players need to pull something out the bag for him. It was interesting to read that he has chosen to play the senior players because he doesn’t want to crush the kids. Very noble of him, but it’s not doing him any favours. West Ham have been in a mess tonight, lose this evening, and we are in a relegation battle before the worst month in the calendar.
Fear not though, it’s bad, but once they sort the managerial mess, we’ll claw our way back up the table. It’s probably better for the next manager if we finish 8th this season. No Europa next season, more time to coach, more time to rest players.
Before I go, I thought the below video from Souness about homophobia in the game was something else. The ultimate alpha male from yesteryear where they drank toxic masculinity for each of their three meals and thought woke culture was dropping your balls on the face of a teammate to see how long it’d take for them to wake up, now talking about his views on the state of the LGBTQ scene in the Premier League. Magic.
Graeme Souness on why there are no openly gay footballers in the Premier League
🗣”I came from a generation which was extremely homophobic. I went to the Brighton pride and learn’t so much, it changed my attitude” pic.twitter.com/ysbBlZshJ7
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) December 8, 2019
Anyone that confronts their own ignorance and learns about a community alien to them is a top fucking bloke. Love that he went to Brighton Pride to get informed. Apparently good mates with the late Dale Winton. Big names like that speaking up is what the game needs. Who cares who you fuck, unless it’s another teammates wife.
Right, see you in the comments my qweeeens. x
P.S. Check out my new favourite Youtuber, Stat Man Dave and his thoughts on how Arteta might set the team.
DM
2
Yo
Tr4phy
Trofee
I’ll take 3rd DM Cheers bro
I’d still take Benitez in a flash. Don’t know why he so rarely gets mentioned here. Quality manager who’s languishing in China. Might cost a bit to get him, and he’d prob have to take a pay cut, but would he not do it to return to the PL?
For me it’s him or Poch first, others second.
Double trigger fest today with the Arteta gushing and something for our rabid Christians on here as well. Excellent.
Frame souness has gone gender neutral. He’s done a Caitlin Jenner. Myaa babayy
You heard it here first
TJ to TK…
It’s detail like this I’ve come to appreciate from you pedders.
Will Rafa come all the way from China to join Arsenal ? I dont think so.
We need to catch hold of Poch before he ends up joining Man united.
Interesting what Ornstein had to say about our transfers. Emery wanted Maguire, Partey and Zaha before money became an issue after the Europa League final. His preference with a limited budget was then Partey to address a weak midfield. He was overruled and a winger brought in with the majority of the budget. That means the summer before he wanted Nzonzi and got Torriera, this summer he wanted Partey and got nothing. Never said a thing though. As much as I think he kept setting up the midfield wrong if he kept telling everyone the midfield is shit and nothing… Read more »
It was a very interesting discussion they had on SkY Sports yesterday, particularly of why no player has come out yet in the Premier League. When you think of how open players such as Megan Rapinoe are. I am sure there are other examples in others sports? As they said, it perhaps takes the first player to publicly state who they are and perhaps others will follow, but that is obviously a brave and huge step to take for that individual. I hope this can be discussed in a few years in a place where there are players who can… Read more »
Another decent option would be Carlo Ancelotti. I know he has struggled with Napoli this season, but its worth taking a risk. He knows the league very well and can speak good English . Pluspoint is that Ozil wont be able to dictate terms to Carlo. Carlo clearly doesnt rate him and kicked him out of Madrid
Given Citeh’s performances lately Arteta might well be ready to jump ship. Hope he hasn’t been teaching them how to defend the Arsenal way. Credit when things go well must be balanced by criticism when things go badly, can’t have it both ways.
That said if it’s Arteta or Marcelino then Mr Lego head it is then.
Did he really go to TJ Maxx?
Actually isnt it TK Maxx?
What worry’s me is the decision making at board level. No money available is a joke!! We all know that is fake news!
The selection of transfers has been abysmal for the demands of our premier.
So what inspiration can we draw from their ability to employ a top manager for the rigours of our premiership.
SP
As it stands, I’d take either Carlo or Rafa.
We need that sort of mindset to steady the ship.
Lol
“Mikael Arteta is the great unknown. ”
Ffs Pedro, didn’t you see The Matrix ??
People talking about Rafa not wanting to leave big money in China but many people don’t settle well in China
It’s an acquired taste as a country and Benitez hardly needs the money. He might jump at the chance to join arsenal
That said I think Benitez is a very underwhelming hire
He’s solid tactically and all but he’s not inspiring in the slightest for me. Never been a fan of his
It’s TJ in the US & TK in the UK !
China.
I agree Rafa is no genius, but as Graham said we need someone to steady the ship. If we get the next appointment wrong ,then we are fucked for the next 5 years.
Get ready to be Hammered tonight!!
“…….. according to The Telegraph, the club has held interviews with candidates for the role. The Gunners are believed to be looking for a man who is currently out of work, as he would be able to take over quickly and take control of the team for the remainder of the season. This puts Mauricio Pochettino and Massimiliano Allegri in the driving seat for the job, as the pair are out of work following spells managing Tottenham and Juventus respectively. It also rules out Arsenal making an approach for Brendan Rodgers, Mikel Arteta or Patrick Vieira, who are all currently… Read more »
For anyone in any doubt that we’re likely to be in a relegation scrap if a new manager can’t bring an instant boost, look at the PL table excluding the first two matches of the season: we are the 16th best team over last 13 games (over 1/3 of a season), one point above relegation. If we continue like this, the Kroenke’s will be staring at the very real possibility of losing £1bn+ in asset valuation come May. Hopefully this focuses minds.
I came across a mock 11 on my IG feed, one that I found interesting for a number of reasons.
Lacazette at CAM
Auba at CF
Martinelli ón the left
Pẹpẹ on the right
Xhaka-LT pivot
Chambers – Holding at CB flanked by Hector and Kieran.
Your thoughts?
Nice to see Kolo Toure in his new position
as 2nd in command to the 3rd best club in the Premiership.
On the game tonight, it’s a real struggle for me to see us get a win, giving our legendary ability to make shit teams look like prime Barca.
Frightening times
Cesc “”””””His preference with a limited budget was then Partey to address a weak midfield. He was overruled and a winger brought in with the majority of the budget.”””””” And in a nutshell -thats why we wont get a decent manager- we will get another patsy/village idiot. The manager must choose the players he wants otherwise stick the Teck Deck or DOF in the dugout! Talking of our rancid Teck Deck and DOF or HOFO – has anyone actually heard a pipsqueak from them? One Word or platitude? they are cowards and an utter disgrace. Loose tonight- and they will… Read more »
“”””””His preference with a limited budget was then Partey to address a weak midfield. He was overruled and a winger brought in with the majority of the budget.””””””
– Did he need to make CL to get the deals done?
– this was something that happened regularly with Wenger in the last few years.
The executive management at the club is rife with incompetence
“they will hearing some Noise Sunday”
Even if the stadium is half empty ?? lol
Emery was, as any other manager would be, hamstrung by the quality of players at his disposal. Even before Nzonzi, he wanted Fabinho. Now that he has left the building, the scales have begun falling out of the eyes of many Arsenal fans. Mourinho was full of praise for the Spurs team he inherited. No one currently at Arsenal has the speed of Son or the athleticism of Sissoko/Aurier or the inventiveness of Alli. That Martinelli, who by the way was voted the October Player of the Month, is the only real hope says a lot about this team. The… Read more »
I can understand Freddie not wanting to “crush the kids”. But surely he only needs to tell them to go out there and give it 100%, that they have a long way to go in their development and if things don’t go to plan not to worry, mistakes happen, this is about building vital experience they will need in their career so go out there and get valuable game time.
Pedro Great clip from Souness. On to Arsenal: It’s a shit show post wenger as I predicted. I get no pleasure from stating that fact. There’s no schadenfreude here. Post Wenger, I’ve tried to be open minded and not be the sad bloke standing in the corner on his own at a party while everyone else is dancing, smoking joints and playing spin the bottle. But, the real issue at arsenal is the ownership and has been for the last 12 years.. This isn’t the NFL which is designed to distribute success as evenly as possible between clubs. This is… Read more »
PARTEY /MAGUIRE/SAHA
Three players Emery wanted but was over
ruled by the board.
You ask yourself in his defence “why have a manager”
Mind you he would have probably FRIGGED UP on how
to play them.?
Cesc, I made the comment that if a manager make a request for a specific type of player but then get a player with none of those characteristics, it is unfair on both the manager and the player. I don’t rate Emery as I don’t think that he can handle big ego or star players. However in my opinion that he was not helped by Raul meddling with the recruitment. Now that he is gone, the truth seems to leak. Asking for a tall lanky powerful defensive midfielder to screen the back four and getting a small rottweiler pressing machine… Read more »
Errr…it’s Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve!
@Muyiwa At this point, that’s probably our best 11. I may switch Holding for Sok (I know). That’s because Holding hasn’t been playing and has looked rusty when has.
If Lacazette and Aubameyang are going to be in the same team, Laca would have to play as an 8. Auba is wasted on the flanks.
@Rod
You’re absolutely right, but we’re still quote soft down the middle. Makes you wonder if Mkhi would’ve added a bit more guile/steel
The board should spare us the drama. Just hire Pochettino and get on with it.
The truth (Stan was quoted) is they didn’t want to hire a new manager any time soon. Somehow they were hoping that Freddie would hit the ground running.
Do you think that if we offered Arteta the job NOW or in January he would leave City & come to us, even though City has said they want him to stay until the Summer?
The only question I have left in me is this:
How bad do things have to get before see changes upstairs? What will it take to move Don Raul on? And a complete rejig of the board to include actual football brains??? Pedro raised a valid/scary point last week that we still don’t have a chief scout in place!!! Makes you wonder….
How bad do things have to get?
“Mikael Arteta is the great unknown. A lot of people are writing about the influence he has at City. He runs most of the training sessions, he’s a true innovator, and he has the electricity that could jump start the post- Wenger rebirth. I think he could be a sensational move. A visionary hire that would be about the future. A coach that could ensure we don’t piss away the youth talent we have. Someone that could bring the sort of the football to the club that wakes you up at 3am before a game” I sure hope arteta doesn’t… Read more »
Muyiwa
Holding has a knee injury. Lac’s passing ability is below average. He can’t build up the attack.
Will go for my four possible predictions for tonight.
West Ham 3 Arsenal 1
West Ham 2 Arsenal 2
West Ham 1 Arsenal 2
West Ham 2 Arsenal 0
God knows.
All things pointing towards Arteta becoming our next coach. Honestly id love Arteta and I would only take Poch or Nagelsmann over The Zeal-Black haired Pep. Just Hope Marcelino doesn’t come in and pull an Emery. How much the difference any 2 of Maguire, Zaha and Partey would have made for Emery. A Lot i think. Even if had got only Partey would have been transformative for us. The Fact that he was interested to join gives me hope that we should go in for him again next summer. If not Partey then move on to Docoure. Emery was a… Read more »
I find it hard agreeing with some sentiments and the similarities of the Leeds united that went down under Peter Risdales leadership. I think their is a darker nastier underlining mess a Arsenal and we will never know it. I think at board level there is something real bad going on. Egos and pride ruling strategies. I’m worried we will lose tonight, our next 3 games are not looking great. We do not have the players nor the “stick together” fan base to actually get ourselves out of a battle at the bottom half of the table should after Mancs… Read more »
Graham
West Ham 2 Arsenal 3
After more than a week, the EXEC still won’t let Freddie bring in his assistants. He is forced to work with Per, who openly wants to team up with Arteta. How do you want Freddie to operate. The players also seem to think that Freddie will be replaced soon. My advice to Freddie: study the Manure ‘s game against MC and copy it! Don’t try your luck and copy something that works.
Where is the win coming from?
The Goal reports that AFC cannot afford to give Freddie a chance and must act now. Can’t agree more.
We past sentimental time by miles. Emery should have been let go in the summer .
My prediction for tonight :
2-0 for the Hammers in the first half, but we will fight to score 2 goals in the second half, in an intense – but shitty – thriller.
Then Xhaka, at the 88th minute, will give them ze penalty… lol
Just looked at the league table, Leicester have double the points Arsenal have; 38 points to 19 points.
At the rate we are garnering points, we will still be in the low twenties come spring.
Tonight is a cup final, we have to win it to stabilise the situation a bit.
If we loose then a new manager must be signed on this week.
The board and directors are rotten , they won’t fall on their swords, and the owners haven’t a clue. That’s the biggest problem.
Nelson
“ After more than a week, the EXEC still won’t let Freddie bring in his assistants”
The assistant wants to bring in assistants?
What shall we call the assistants of the assistant?
The club need to expeditiously hire a proper manager. Don’t people realize that Freddie will have us mired in relegation within the next week?
I sure hope arteta doesn’t tank for pedro’s sake. I too think he will become a good manager but I don’t specify it as fact. A big company doesn’t hire CEO’S that haven’t managed even a small company. They might gamble on a person they have a small sample of Sucess. If we were Southampton’s level I probably think we should hire someone like that but at arsenal a gamble should at least be backed with a small sample.
No but they do promote from within someone who has never been a ceo before but worked very closely with one
Dis
Who is the coach for today’s game?
Freddie wants to bring back Arsène.
Nelson
…Freddie is the manger for the day. I really don’t know if that answers anything.
Why should the club need to get Freddie’s choice of assistants?
That’s would be idiocy, they should be working day and night to appoint a real manager ASAP and not making the interim manager more comfortable.
Un
You can see the headline now
“Arsenal bought in Arteta to make them play like City but Arteta got City defending like Arsenal”
If he gets the job and flops I reckon Bob Geldof will have to do a “Save Pedro” concert!
“they should be working day and night to appoint a real manager”
They should be working, mostly.
“freddie wants to bring back arsene”…..perhaps his judgement is shite……judging by the results so far…it is shite.
Freddie is a legend….no problem there….but wanting wenger back….that is seriously mentally deficient.
Wenger couldn’t fix his zipper let alone arsenal in crisis.!
Why don’t his cult followers let the old guy rest now………this absurd sentimentality for this mr magoo has-been is sickening.
High Leg
“”””2-0 for the Hammers in the first half, but we will fight to score 2 goals in the second half, in an intense – but shitty – thriller.”””””””
It will be Squeaky and Leaky Bum time – thats for sure.
If you think the next 6 fixtures are tough.
More importantly look at the last six.
Imodium sales will be going through the roof in 2020 in London Drugstores , methinks.
West Ham 1 arsenal 0.
unfortunately
If we hire Poch or Allegri I’ll delete everything I have in my Amazon cart as Christmas would have come early.
The problem with likes of Arteta and Freddie is that morons like Ozil won’t listen to them . Emery was wrong on many fronts but he did the right thing by dropping Ozil. But the u-turn he took later proved to be his undoing . We didn’t win a single match since Ozil was back in the squad.
Great stuff from Souness, and really pleased you highlighted it Pedro!
On managers etc., I’m not optimistic…but then which Gooner is, these days?
Watching Everton smash chelsea should remind the fans that go on about allegri, poch, arteta etc, that there is a great value in an inspirational manager.Its not all about 5-3-2, or 4-2-3-1 etc, its about the spirit of 11 players wanting to die for the cause.
Get Tony Adams in some capacity at the club and let him inspire these lost souls.
2-0 to the Arsenal if Xhaka, Mustafi and Sokratis don’t play. If they do its anyone game(most likely W’Ham’s).
Obviously every game is must win but this one is massive for us. We need this to maintain our hopes of a top 10 finish as the next month or so will be very difficult.
Get allegri in ASAP.
Pragmatic, well disciplined defence. Knows how to set up as a unit.
We need structure in the team now. We’re spiralling out of control.
We can’t play a certain way. We’ve been shit ever since we changed from a 4-4-2.
Even the year we blew the league, we played a 4-4-2.
All this Barcelona lite shit, that followed suit.
Our history of winning was the old fashioned two up front. Build around that ffs.
Will we be churning our cider this evening or are we playing soccer?
I need to know……
Surely the Human element comes into Pochs thinking.I ll prove them wrong.
Emery to Everton? You couldn’t make it up! But he may take more time to improve his English before taking another job in the EPL. Now he tells us!
Kudos to Souness, who I have to admit I’d written off as a throwback macho 1980s troglodyte. The man is more thoughtful than I realised, although the thought of him at a gay pride march is kinda scary – for the other attendees at risk of suffering from a reducer of a tackle….
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11670/11882166/arsenals-malfunctioning-midfield-is-a-bigger-issue-than-their-defence
Nothing that’s not been mentioned here many, many times, but interesting nonetheless.
Have to say I’m not feeling optimistic for this evening.
In the 2013–14 season, Caen were in Ligue 2, but won promotion to Ligue 1 for the 2014–15 season. Leicester got Kante because he was viewed as the best defensive midfielder in Ligue 2.
No he was signed from first division caen after a season where he only missed one game and recovered the ball the most in the whole league. Typical Val caught in a lie and changes form from snake to worm instantly.
It’s going to be tough tonight.
We really need to win but so too do West Ham. I’m not confident at all especially if Ljungberg drops another Wengemerfreddie starting lineup.
‘Who cares who you fuck, unless it’s another teammates wife.’
Who cares what you eat as long as you don’t eat my spaghetti.
You could eat faeces and drink urine on top while the kids enjoy the show, you are hurting nobody.
It’s okay, that’s the way you are. You don’t need to feel ashame, you can come out of hiding and eat your faeces in the open, with a tall glass of urine. You are hurting nobody. You need no help……. it’s just the way you are.
IT’S YOUR BUSINESS WHAT YOU EAT!
Such a shame.
No to Martínez despite getting to a world cup semi final. Yes to Arteta never managed a game in his life but he’s a visionary and guarantees…stuff. Just another day. I hope he gets the job I really do. I of course will be instantly judging his team selections and performances straight away not to mention his facial expressions during a game. I’d even be fair and assess him after 12 games
WOAB – Good article. Very nuanced 😉
When do people expect we will bring in the new manager?
Valentin
“Now that he is gone, the truth seems to leak. Asking for a tall lanky powerful defensive midfielder to screen the back four and getting a small rottweiler pressing machine is not recipe for success”
But wasn’t that small rottweiler pressing machine identified by Sven and actually played well as a DM in the first half of last season.
Are you saying Emery misused the player or that Sven fucked up his scouting?
Marko I am actually agree with pedro regarding Martinez. He is a very poor version of Wenger. his teams play good football but in the end almost always get a poor result. That’s what happened at Everton and Wigan. And he had decent defenders back then. Him coaching Luiz Mustafi and Sokratis will be the kiss of death to an already shocking defence. At least with arteta we don’t know what is gonna come out of it.
“Lacazette at CAM
Auba at CF
Martinelli ón the left
Pẹpẹ on the right
Xhaka-LT pivot
Chambers – Holding at CB flanked by Hector and Kieran.”
That is something I might be tempted to try with the exception of beating Xhaka to death with a shovel and putting a different player alongside Torreira.
I actually *
I mean I don’t Martinez either I just don’t get people being so utterly dismissive of certain people like Martínez and then to use words like elite and guarantee with Arteta. The only guarantee I see with hiring Arteta is that’ll be twice he’s been hired by Arsenal undeservedly so. Everything else is wait and see and frankly hope.
The distance between midfield and defence, Sometimes marvels me.
Marko
I’ve got to a point where I’m almost resigned to get Arteta at least it’ll end the constant speculation. If he works out great if he doesn’t at least we won’t have to here any more about him.
“The distance between midfield and defence, Sometimes marvels me.”
I assume that’s not in a good way?
I want Arteta to succeed and pedro’s theory to pan out. I wouldn’t mind pedro pulling the “I told you so” card when ever we win as long as we win. But I still believe it is a massive gamble that we shouldn’t take. we need pragmatism right now.
Marc.
Yh not in a good way. My stomach is all over the place today hence the error in the use of words.
Arteta sounds like he would be great at Freddy’s role before Emery was fired. The one where Freddie would help bridge transition from U23s to 1st team and also give individual coaching to young players(u25 players) helping them improve certain aspect of their game in relation to team. From my gathering Arteta helped Stirling to make him more knowledgeable about getting more into attacking position and improve his shooting technique. And some other young players similarly individually. He would have been great theoretically when we had young British core. He may have asked Wilshere to tweak his dribbling style, make… Read more »
Marko, Your problem is that you Google things you don’t know them. N’golo Kante was voted best defensive midfielder in Ligue 2 in his first season at Caen. His second season in Ligue 1 was not so successful. In fact during some part of his Ligue 1 season he was poor. Steve Walsh had already said that he was studying Ligue 2 players during the 2013-2014 season. That is how he found Mahrez. He also found Kante at the same time. However he could not convince management to buy him that summer. He continued to follow him the following season.… Read more »
I’m really not sure Arteta is equipped to take over now. 18 months ago would have been better as the squad moral was high and everyone was on board with change. The entire team appears to be seriously demoralised now. Is that something you want to hand to shut who’s not cut his teeth yet?
Any thing he tries will be effectively trial and error with a team who are getting fed up of new formations, new faces, new everything.
“I said when I first came in that having tactical flexibility is so important,” Rodgers said. “The style will always stay the same, how we want to build the game, how we want to play. But having that ability to change systems and give teams different problems is how we want to work. “We did it in pre-season in our preparation phase so that we could lay in some principles for that. We felt we have never really had to use it until this point, but the players carried it out ever so well. The players were so good in… Read more »
Tierney- Doubtful Doubtful!
(An injury plagued player getting other injuries. )
Surprise Surprise!
West Ham have the left back we should have bought.
Gorgeous left foot. Plops in free kicks for fun.
British stock too. Robust and durable to boot!
I am buying Cresswell MOTM.
Rodgers had spotted something in Villa’s setup he could exploit. “Sometimes you come away from home against a good attacking team like Aston Villa where the full-backs will go and the midfield is very strong,” he explained. “I just felt having four in there would give us the extra man. When you are playing a team at home that is going to commit the full-backs, that gives us two versus two against the centre-halves. “I will always back our two against the two centre-halves.” Iheanacho seized his opportunity, for sure. While Evans rejected the theory his team had been outmanoeuvred… Read more »
“2-0 to the Arsenal if Xhaka, Mustafi and Sokratis don’t play.”
lol
You guys need to forget about Allegri, such a great coach has better things to do than rebuilding a club in ruins.
We need to double what Rodgers is on.
Rodgers is a far better choice than Arteta.