Arteta signing imminent, here’s what to expect + new scout details (Long Read)

by .

We’re nearly there people, the Arteta stories have moved from…

‘NEGOTIATIONS HIT SENSITIVE PHASE OVER OFFICE FURNISHINGS’

‘VIEIRA IS THE FAVE’

‘WENGER SPOTTED AT COLNEY’

… towards, who will he sign and who will he steal from Manchester City.

It’s being reported that Arteta will pick up £5m p/a on a 3.5 year deal.

There are lots of suggestions about who his potential assistant could be, perhaps Domènec Torrent, Pep’s 57 year ex-assistant from Barca B, Barca, Bayern and City. Or 48-year-old Rodolfo Borrell, a 13 year tenured youth coach from Barca (Pique, Pep, Messi), who worked his magic with Liverpool (Sterling) and later as a Global Tech Director with Manchester City. There’s even a story that we’re stealing one of their top youth scouts, Sam Fagbemi. According to his LinkedIn, he’s a massive Gary V fan, and specifically the Manchester City youth team scout for the South of England. He actually appears to have officially spent 15 months at Arsenal, he’s also listed 6 years prior to that with us, which might have been part-time while he studied.

Here’s how he describes himself (edited to reduce words).

I hold a strong enthusiasm and passion for the industry of sports, part of this passion and drive is identifying talents in relevant sporting areas; and a contribution in terms of development. One area of this contribution involves scouting and recruiting for ages 5-16, in specific areas in London, for football. Many who know me know my passion is scouting and recruitment. I’m an out and out scout! I also follow up on every lead given!

I am always striving to improve my performance and my knowledge, whatever you put into your work, in most cases, is what you get out of it. I aim to put in a 100% at all times.

I have very unique methods of scouting and a strong determination and hunger. I’m blessed to be part of a very good team of experienced staff, which I learn from on a day to day basis.

“THE FUTURE OF ANY BIG CLUB HAPPENS IN THE ACADEMY”. 

Sam, any man that uses block capitals to power home a message is a friend of Le Grove. Me, you, Donald Trump… what a team.

Here’s some of the stuff from his Arsenal job he rocked prior to moving up north in 2017.

Key Responsibilities

  • Identifying players at the required level through the use of video and numerical analysis.
  • Researching identified players in-depth using rigorous methods.
  • Building a video scouting capability, liaising with the Chief Scout but also the Player analytics team and the scouts in the field.
  • Identifying Players with whom his Club may wish to enter into negotiations with a view to securing their
  • Working with PROZONE and/or SPORTSCODE, Microsoft Excel and Sony Vegas and/or Final Cut Pro.
  • Working as part of a recruitment department at First Team/Academy Level.
  • Leading the storage, maintenance and collection of data regarding Player performance in training and matches.
  • Managing and overseeing an online scouting data resource.
  • Interfacing with some of the football analysis software vendors contracted by the Club.
  • Developing new and insightful initiatives and practices for evaluating Player and team performance.
  • Initiating and conducting ad-hoc research projects for the benefit of team and individual performance.

Sam seems to be up to lots of things, he reads like an innovative. Scouts, coaches, has dark arts. I’m sold. This guy definitely drinks oat milk lattes, has an opinion on how you pronounce trequartista, and he reads Mundial.

I think I’d be slightly worried if I were a City fan, not because Arteta is going to snatch the league this year, more because it seems like the staff are making moves before something drastic happens this summer to the main man Pep G.

Back to Arsenal. This move, when it happens, is a huge step forward for the club. They could have taken the easy option that’d placate the ‘safety’ crowd, but they didn’t. Carlo was passed by, Martinez was rightly told where to go, Raul gave up on Nuno, and we dodged anything Kia J could throw at us.

We moved for the hottest young coach in the world. We opted for the moon-shot. Arsenal has positioned itself as a forward thinking football club and they should be applauded for the boldness of this decision.

Rumor has it Arteta will be in dugout for the Everton game this weekend, fitting, wouldn’t you say? One club has opted for the future, the other has anchored itself to the past.

So what should we expect?

Hearts and minds

Wenger (Merson), Emery (Cech) and Freddie (Xhaka) all did it. You have to play the hearts and mind game with the squad to start with, that means the unsuitable big names will likely feature. Go in dick swinging early, the senior players will down tools on you, and you’ll have a miserable start to your career. I have personally made the mistake. I started a big job, disliked the talent and the process, so I tried to make changes early. My intuitions were right, but my early actions made me the enemy of a lot of people. Always give people a chance to fail. Everyone will likely have the opportunity to prove themselves to Arteta, and so they should. This is not a caretaker situation, so hopefully we’ll see performances move up a level, if not, then the action will be taken.

Statement of Intent

I would suspect a huge part of interview process would have centered around the type of football we’re likely to see. The fans want to see excitement, it’s a simple as that, we are not about pragmatism, never will be. Mikel Arteta will have been hired to bring back Wengerball with a modern twist. He will go on the charm offensive with the fans early on and rectify all the wrongs of Unai Emery’s inane jabbering. Expect him to wax lyrical about style and vision when he sits in that first press conference, be assured that he’ll play up his Arsenal DNA, and let’s hope he can articulate a sniff of what the future holds. Maybe he’ll shed a tear? I’d like that.

No one ever cared about Emery, he couldn’t speak to us in English, let alone in authentic terms. Arteta will be different, he’s a trophy winning excaptain with a formula we want. He’ll hopefully have a ‘Mourinho walking through Chelsea in a Spurs tracksuit’ like moment that we can all get behind. Maybe a knuckle duster in his pocket at The Toilet Bowl? Too far?

A shift in style

Freddie is a fan and a solid coach. He wanted to move our football to the next level, but he lacked the resource, time, and backing to do it. Arteta is a different beast. He’s the man that controls the future, players that want to stay will know this. He’ll be confident he can move the club to another level this season. Expect a rough 3 months, but don’t be surprised to see glimpses of very exciting football well before the 3 years most of you were willing to give Emery to change things up. He’ll want to prove to the fans and the board he is a coach, first and foremost. Good coaches make magic happen with whatever tools they are handed. Jurgen Klopp had Liverpool in beast mode early on, though intermittently, with a far worse squad. Nagelsmann saved Hoffenheim from relegation in his first season, then took a team with a sub £40m wage bill to the Champions League with elite coaching. I don’t think it’s unfair to expect to see the makings of a footballing identity early on. Just don’t expect consistency this year.

Focus on Youth

Part of the hearts and minds offensive strategy will be to woo the fans with his approach to youth. I see there being two key initiatives. Firstly, like peak-Game of Thrones, there will be some senior heads that will roll. Not immediately, but rest assured, he’s taking someone big down. The solve for the molten-steel-on-the-head slaying will be bringing a kid into the mixer that we didn’t expect, or one that we didn’t expect because they’ve been average. He needs a poster child for his elite coaching to prove the fans he was worth the hype and to show the best kids in world football that they should give their early careers to us. We need to be the Ajax, Atleti or Dortmund of the Premier League. There will be a huge clear out of senior players this summer, we have to bring in replacements like Brandt, Haaland and Aouar if we’re going to push on next year. You only do that if those names are convinced by the coach.

A brutal summer

There are some great people at the club and there is some real shite. I fully expect the club to use this next 5 months to reshape the way we operate. Expect exits from the backroom team, be sure that there will be a very busy summer of players on the cards, and understand that there will likely be a lot of ‘who the fuck?’ people signing on for Arsenal.

Raul needs to make this work, he’s under pressure. Edu needs to show the fans he’s more than a well dressed, beautifully groomed, elitely (word?) fragranced man. Arsenal need some wins.

We do not have time to fuck around. The next 3 years will be the difference between us being a super club like Liverpool, or falling into complete irrelevance like Spurs in the 90s.

If Arteta is the man to take us forward, the vision is clear, the Arsenal way is about high intensity pressing, attacking football, geared around exciting young players. Now we know that, the technical team has to work their magic and make sure there are no excuses for failure.

This is it. It’s the future we’ve been waiting for. This is the most exciting move we could have made. Back it, because if it works, this really could be the next level Wenger was talking about.

I am absolutely thrilled, I hope you are too.

See you in the comments x

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CG

“””Swoon. That’s all.”””

Isn’t he just Fabulous G of H.?

Our Cary Grant

The original CG!

Marko

CG you’re a grown man right?

guest man aka WW

@marko…. grown???? as in what? haha

Nelson

The first thing I expect Arteta to do is established a clear plan for all the players to follow. The system should be much more compact. The defense, midfield and attack should stay closer together. He’ll try to improve the chemistry between the players. That’s Barca’s DNA. It’ll take time to develop the culture of the team. We’ll also need to replace some dead woods. At least, the players won’t be at a loss like under Emery.

Edu me a favour

Yeh I know what you’re saying dissenter , but I just don’t trust some of this lot to afford him the breathing space. I think we have a lot of hungry youth players that would be more suited and are more coachable. But it’s a dangerous time to be handing the responsibility over to the kids and obviously that wouldn’t be MASSIVE gamble I genuinely thought that we would up our level just a tiny bit after emery left – what with all the stories about the players not understanding him and being lost on what they were supposed to… Read more »

Edu me a favour

** would be a MASSIVE gamble

Marko

He’s an adult right? Between calves this handsome that he writes like a really immature dumbass. Earlier he wrote:

Mr. Arteta aint he delicious?
That jaw -line: that tan?? CG can see a romance blossoming with that new attractive doctor we have on the bench too.
Two beauties there together.
Just hope it dont distract from the job in hand…….
The soccer.

Like who would think to write such a stupid thing.

guest man aka WW

love this website….the put downs are so imaginative..
the metaphors top notch….
Thanks again….

Gentlebris

I laugh when people judge AMN on his supposed body language, I don’t argue, I just laugh.

Because I expect any intelligent adult to understand that football is a sport that demands high technique, which means you have to understand as a player how you get out the best from your brain. If you have to act calm and seemingly nonchalant to get your brain firing accurately, then you have to. It does not mean bad attitude or being absent-minded or being high on weed or anything, it’s just doing your job the best way you know how.

David Smith

Thanks Pedro, you have convinced me over time, this could be a very exciting appointment and one I look forward to.
Hope the club back him in so far as is realistic for their model, I get the impression they will or he perhaps wouldnt be signing

Romford Pele

It has nothing to do with AMN’s body language. i think we’re all intelligent enough to know that we act and perceive things in different manners plus the body language is not reflective of what the player may actually be feeling.

We can only judge objectively. My criticism are about his lack of intensity both on and off the ball. Being slow to react to stuff is nothing to do with body language.

Wasi

Important thing right now is for the fans to get behind Arteta. He will need time to sort this mess out. We might still play drab football till the end of season. Its going to take a lot of coaching to get the players s playing beautiful football again. We have to support him no matter the results we produce .
This is a project and it will probably take 3 or more seasons before we can challenge the elite again (considering Arteta is the real deal and recruitment is good in the coming transfer windows).

Romford Pele

Even though I don’t rate Joe Willock highly i would say his level of application is good in terms of work rate and he has what you’d also perceive to be relaxed body as well.

Romford Pele

relaxed body language*

Distant legrover

Romford

The exact opposite of maitland-niles.

Ishola70

Wasi

“We might still play drab football till the end of season.”

It’s results at the end of the day.

The team can play pretty patterns all day long and still get hit by sucker punch goals and lose too many games or draw too many games and he will be questioned simple as that.

It’s all about results.

Marc

I’ve just heard some devastating news. Arteta wears a wig and is completely bald – there’s no sauce people Pedro’s deceived us all.

The end is nigh!

CG

Marko “”””CG can see a romance blossoming with that new attractive doctor we have on the bench too. Two beauties there together. Just hope it don’t distract from the job in hand……. The soccer.Like who would think to write such a stupid thing””” Ill have you know Tommy Docherty was sacked by Manchester United for having an affair with the physios wife in the 1970’s My point was Mr Arteta is a very handsome young man and our club physio/ doctor is a very attractive young lady. They will be working long hours together, staying in hotels, mingling, talking about… Read more »

Distant legrover

Ozil’s ability to draw controversy and for people to give a shit about what he’s up to is close to legendary at this point.

Gentlebris

‘We can only judge objectively. My criticism are about his lack of intensity both on and off the ball. Being slow to react to stuff is nothing to do with body language.’ Not just you Romford, People have repeatedly accused AMN of nonchalance. I bet you a 22 year old who is on less than £40,000 a week and who plays with monied rogues like Ozil and Auba in same team is not thinking he has arrived yet. People say AMN doesn’t care but he does, you don’t have to be like Sok or Mustafi before you help your team.… Read more »

Rambo

“talking about body parts etc…”

LOL

Marc

It’s strange we appoint an attractive female doctor and the number of groin injuries have quadrupled.

Distant legrover

People just care about his words and actions a little too much you would think his name is Kim Jong-Un.

CG

Walt

“”It’s strange we appoint an attractive female doctor and the number of groin injuries have quadrupled””

Well Observed,

Page 3 Of Soccer management

Always Get an ugly physio with big cold hands.

Never get what we have got. She is far too attractive.

Players minds will waver.

I wonder why none of our lot can press properly ( whatever that is)

kristoman

How come what is so good for Emery and freddy is no longer good for arteta talk about agenda

Champagne charlie

“How come what is so good for Emery and freddy is no longer good for arteta talk about agenda“

What are you talking about?

Rambo

“It’s strange we appoint an attractive female doctor and the number of groin injuries have quadrupled.”

What sort of aspersions are you directing towards our good doctor?

That’s it, I’m calling the FemiNazis

Gentlebris

‘It’s strange we appoint an attractive female doctor and the number of groin injuries have quadrupled.’ Just shut up already Marc. They complain about groin injury whereas you would request a scrotum massage had you been in their shoes. What is the benefit of playing for a club if you can’t get some special medical service from a beautiful lady doctor in the house? I’m sure Emery still comes to say ‘hi’ to her in Spanish English from time to time. Not that the lady doctor pays any of them any attention though. I hear she goes to bed with… Read more »

Gentlebris

‘It’s strange we appoint an attractive female doctor and the number of groin injuries have quadrupled.’ Just shut up already Marc. They complain about groin injury whereas you would request a scrotum massage had you been in their shoes. What is the benefit of playing for a club if you can’t get some special medical service from a beautiful lady doctor in the house? I’m sure Emery still comes to say ‘hi’ to her in Spanish English from time to time. Not that the lady doctor pays any of them any attention though. I hear she goes to bed with… Read more »

Gentlebris

Sorry for the double post, Marc really got on my nerves.

Romford Pele

Fabrizio Romano and Di Marzio just confirmed Arteta is happening and will be the new manager. Guess we’ll hear the announcement tomorrow.

Victorious

Just want to see Arsenal play exciting and swashbuckling football again.

All for Arteta if he could deliver a bit of Wengaball sprinkled with some Pep sauce, would be fun

Batistuta

Nah, don’t need to have an IQ of a super computer to know or see that AMN plays like he’s on holidays or like he was forced to be out there, it’s an attitude thing which he has cultivated over time, he looks like he’s sleep walking because most of the time he can’t believe he’s actually on the pitch, like his body is there on the pitch but his mind is somewhere in Cuba smoking cigars…. Plus his footballing ability isn’t exactly great, he’s a squad player and he looks like he’d be glad being just that till he… Read more »

Distant legrover

I gotta say I m really excited to see what Arteta has to offer. Having said that I was very excited for Emery too. He seemed like a good fit, until it became obvious he wasnt.

HighburyLegend

So, when is Sauce Man is gonna be introduced ??
(without any displaced thought lol)

Distant legrover

Arteta with the sauce of Wenger and Guardiola has no excuse being a pragmatist child.

Nelson

You think Pep will let Arteta coach today’s game against Oxford. MC will field a lot of youngsters. It would be a good practice for Arteta. I’ll find out what system Arteta will use.

Gentlebris

‘Nah, don’t need to have an IQ of a super computer to know or see that AMN plays like he’s on holidays or like he was forced to be out there, it’s an attitude thing which he has cultivated over time, he looks like he’s sleep walking because most of the time he can’t believe he’s actually on the pitch, like his body is there on the pitch but his mind is somewhere in Cuba smoking cigars…. Plus his footballing ability isn’t exactly great, he’s a squad player and he looks like he’d be glad being just that till he… Read more »

Romford Pele

Surely Arteta ain’t gonna be with City tonight after the confirmation?

Victorious

Emery made us played the worse football I’ve ever witnessed as a fan

A mate actually told me he used our games to cure his sufferings of insomania

It was painfully bad.

Victorious

Think he’ll use today’s match as an opportunity to bid farewell to City’s management and fans

He officially joins tomorrow

kristoman

some morons on here where adamant that the reason we are not in top4 is because of emery that this team is good for top 4. Why are we making so many excuses already for arteta. Alot of posters especially marko and hairline where highlighting these facts that emery might be out of its depth but these players are so bad that it will take a miracle for these set of players to get top 4 even with the best coach around but no, the know it all on le grove tag emery a total fraud. So what has change… Read more »

Batistuta

Quietly optimistic about Arteta, hope this whole thing goes well for him

Gentlebris

‘Just want to see Arsenal play exciting and swashbuckling football again.’

And get countered with a goal in our net for our troubles?

The first work to be done with this team is to manufacture an actual defence.

Wouldn’t it be refreshing to see that after 10 years of active service, we have retired from the noble duty of goal gifting?

Left testicle

Daft situation if Arteta is sat next to Pep at Oxford tonight.

Tenerife Gooner,

To young for SHuston.Vic.That was dire.

Left testicle

RP
Sorry, just saw your similar post.

CG

Vic

“”””A mate actually told me he used our games to cure his sufferings of insomania”””

I did state that Vic:

I warned everybody about The Season from Hell and maybe a Decade in the Doldrums too- they didnt want to know.

Emery and Raul have Killed us.

Well pleased that Arteta is coming back home.

But he has the hardest job in club management to Stop The Rot.

Left testicle

Pep did say yesterday that he expects Arteta to be at Oxford.

Victorious

Everton away is a tough start

Big Dunc has totally turned them into a different beast as caretaker…any kind of result will be a plus for Arteta

Left testicle

There has got to be a bit of an atmosphere at City with Arteta expected to leave and the rumours surrounding other coaching staff and scouts.

Joe

Auba agrees with me. Arteta isn’t the manager we need right now.

Terrible appointment if it happens

Champagne charlie

“Ask yourself would arteta get top 4 with these lots if he started the season with us? If yes you are a moron“

Impossible to say, what’s probable to say is that a competent manager would’ve had us in the top 4 last season… hence us having the requisite quality.

But alas… there’s no discussion at all from you, it’s ‘agree with my premise you’re a moron’ literally.

Obviously you’re another with elevated thinking, but you do a grand impression of mong in the shadows. Kudos.

Graham62

I find it quite amusing that Mr Wenger has advised Arteta to go back and follow the Arsenal “VALUES”.

Thanks Arsene for your pearls of wisdom.

Dissenter

Left testcle
“There has got to be a bit of an atmosphere at City with Arteta expected to leave and the rumours surrounding other coaching staff and scouts.

Ha ..[sigh]…gooners are really special creartures
Because one of Pep’s assistant and a youth scout that feeds the academy is leaving the club?

You people are really hyping this Arteta thing, are’nt ya?

Victorious

CG

Yea,obviously you have been vindicated in your strong disapproval of both Mr bland and Raul.. The pair was on a mission to sink us into oblivion

Arteta has daunting task to stem our worrying tide,he would provide a big improvement on Emery already if he has us playing decent football once again,results will follow swiftly

Joe

Charlie

Have to agree with you. Emery should have got us into top 4 last season. That’s where I lost faith in him and knew he was a bottler like wenger

When we dropped points in our last 4-5 matches and blew top 4. Against Sub standard opposition. as well.

That’s when I knew emery wasn’t the one for The Arsenal

Graham62

I believe that a good coach could have got “top 4 with this lot”, both last season and this.

Oh well, that makes me both a “moron” and a “vile supporter”.

So be it.

Nelson

Marc
You have a point. I read that the club doctor was doing part of the warm-up against City. No wonder the players have forgotten how to play football at the start of the game. Arteta better comes with his team of assistants.

Romford Pele

Results are the most important thing in football of course. And you’re more likely to achieve these results by playing well. How do you play well? By having a discernible style of play. Whether it’s proactive or reactive it’s important to have similar patterns of play. How often for example have you seen City/Liverpool score the same type of goal? Often. Any why is that? Cos they’re a well drilled outfit. naturally it’ll take time but hopefully by the end of the season we’ll be able to identify repeated patterns which we’ve seen. Too often Emery chopped and changed in… Read more »

Marc

Bris

It was a joke and you are a cunt.

Graham62

Oxford will give MC a harder game tonight than we gave them last Sunday at the Emirates.

Romford Pele

All we needed was one win vs Palace/Brighton at home last season and we’d have CL footie. Emery is a war criminal for that. Was given funds in the summer and has completely bombed it leaving us in a dreadful position.

kristoman

How did you know that emery was not getting top 4 this season charlie

Victorious

Good to have you back Joe!

Was wondering if you stayed away too long because of the outbursts coming your way for throwing all credibility out the window and going to bats for Emery when it became painfully obvious he was a dud and a painful mistake
The mere fact Arteta can clearly communicate his ideas to the squad is an improvement on Emery already

Give the guy some support

Marc

Nelson

My comment was a daft joke that comes off a mate who knew someone who played semi pro where there was a female doctor. The manager genuinely used to fine players who went to the club doctor claiming a groin injury.

There’s a huge amount of banter that goes with football – Bris will maybe learn that one day.

Left testicle

Dissenter,
Kindly urinate off.

Champagne charlie

Kristoman

The utter capitulation of last season, failing to win 1 in 6 games to make CL, and our worst start in 40 years gave me a clue mate.

Marc

Romford

If Auba had scored the penalty against the Spud’s we would have got top 4.

Joe

That haunts me to this day Marc

I was willing to use that as an excuse to defend emery last season but the way this season started you have to say emery wasn’t the one

Now I don’t think Arteta is the one either

Marc

It’ll be interesting to see Bris explain how wrong Arteta is when AMN is sold this summer or next. Of course he might go down the route of Arteta wanted to keep him but was overruled.

China1

Yes let’s hope arteta brings back the values…. great old values like…. you know… VALUES GUYS CMON WE MUST HAVE SOME VALUES

kristoman

That is point charlie
that we bombed at ending of last season tells you the coach was not fit purpose while for me it was the players and not actually emery.

Marc

Joe I don’t remember anyone calling for Emery to be manager prior to his appointment. Some on here including me were prepared to give him some time and judge him on the season. He painfully fucked up the end of the season and failed his primary KPI of getting CL football. He was then given several new players and things went from not great to fucking awful. He didn’t work out – it happens, Daniel Levy his praised on here by some on here as some kind of genius because he appointed the Poch – it did take him 12… Read more »

Romford Pele

Marc, for sure he should’ve scored that pen but that was in Feb. We played Palace and Brighton in May. Crunch time at home and we couldn’t beat either. Poor. To compound that we got slapped in the EL final. Trash. There were even grounds for sacking him there tbh.

Marc

Romford

My point was about how fine the margins were between us getting CL football and not. If you look at the Spud’s record after Christmas it shouldn’t have even been in doubt.

kristoman

It was Valentin or victorious who said that the most important area of the team that need strenghten was shunned for a winger all of le grove was demanding for. He was right after all. Instead buying a proper CDM in tomas partey emery asked for and proper central DF, we went and waste 70m on area that secondary to the team’s need. There i know it would a mountain to achieve top 4

Romford Pele

Marc, it shouldn’t have but the warning signs were there for us. When we went 22-games unbeaten last season everyone thought it was a new era (despite the fact we didn’t play well in many of those games and in fact should’ve lost a lot). A lot of fans urged caution. Eventually our luck ran out. That’s why it’s important to play well because performances are an indicator of future results. You can play bad and win but it’s not sustainable long-term.

Luteo Guenreira

The Arteta thing has been talked to death form over a year now but being certain he will fail at this juncture is just as bad as being certain he would succeed twelve months ago. It’s all conjecture at that point anyway. The fact that certain players don’t want him is a good sign if you ask me.

kristoman

Fans trying hard to rewrite history here FYI we didnt miss top 4 last by a late collapse but rather other top teams almost lost it to us due to their own failure to solidify their top 4 position

Marc

kristoman

There was a reasonable argument that we lacked a wide player who could help us break especially in away matches. As for lacking a proper DM – well Emery had Torreira and with the exception of the first half of last season either didn’t play him or played him out of position.

It’s like your kid asking for another bike for Christmas when he never rides the new one he got last year.

Marc

“we didnt miss top 4 last by a late collapse but rather other top teams almost lost it to us due to their own failure to solidify their top 4 position”

That’s very much 6 of one half a dozen on the other.

Edu me a favour

“” Fans trying hard to rewrite history here FYI we didnt miss top 4 last by a late collapse but rather other top teams almost lost it to us due to their own failure to solidify their top 4 position””

What ?

It was in our hands

kristoman

Torreira was no good at the tail end of last season. In fact we all made an excuse for him that he is tired due to world cup duties.

kristoman

And yes Marc we do need a winger but it was not a priority, defence and midfield was.

kristoman

Edu
no it was not in our hands they gave it to us and we fcked it up

kristoman

Pedro
i remmeber chelsea where 4th with totteham far away in 3rd. Then chelsea hand it to us by losing a lot. That is called giving, we where never in hunt for 4th until the free meal fell on our lap of cause we fcked it up but it was never ours in the first place

Edu me a favour

“” All of that attitude and he still managed to get hold of his dream out of millions of kids with such dream? All of that attitude and he was actually promoted from the Arsenal academy to the first team? All of that attitude and three different head coaches who have been in charge trusted him enough to play for them?”” Now Apply this same logic to sayyyy , yaya sanogo and realise that sometimes players find themselves in positions in life that they just shouldn’t be in – then think about how many academy players at arsenal have been… Read more »

Edu me a favour

“” no it was not in our hands they gave it to us and we fcked it up””

What logic is this ?? Do you apply this same logic to winning the league ? So we only ever won the league because other teams fucked yo and gave it to us ?

salpardisenyc

Only Arsenal could string something out to the depths of this potential Arteta appointment.

Joe

Kristo

Who cares. It was in our hands. We had an easy tail end of the season

We bottled it.

Champagne charlie

Kristoman We failed to get 1 win from 6 remaining games when we needed to. That’s always going to land at the feet of the manager, and even more so when you consider the nature of the defeats/performances at hand. *9 goals conceded in 3 games, an embarrassment in a European final, failure to score from open play against the 17th place team in the league at home.* You claim squad issues and therefore wasn’t expecting anything this season despite yet more spending that was overseen by Emery. So we didn’t have the players last season, had a summer of… Read more »

TR7

AMN is a very talented player. He gets a lot of stick from people and to be honest he has underwhelmed in a lot of games but the guy has got genuine ability. Martinelli is obviously good. Saka has got a good technique although he will have to become a more rounded player. ESR has done well in a few cameo performances. Let’s see how much can Arteta’s coaching improve these talented players.

Thorough

I’m sorry I will judge Arteta after 3 matches max. I said Freddie was up to no good after the first game and people didn’t get it. Any coach worth his onions should at least make some bold moves immediately because our problems are so obvious. We’ve discussed the need to restructure the defence ad infinitum and I won’t bother with that. What I will however expect our coach to do straight away is to correct the imbalance between the attack and midfield, which would go a long way to help the defence. 1. Midfield is powder puff for lack… Read more »

Romford Pele

“to the only physical playmaker in our team who won’t shirk his physical duties- Lacazete”

Lacazette as a playmaker? Dash that whole post in the bin mate.

kristoman

Edu
you remmeber when united where leading manc by 10points with 4 matches to go only for city to win league with go difference. That is called handing over because it was not city’s to win in the first place.

Leedsgunner

What a huge huge risk. I since hope it works but I personally wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t.

Taking over a well trained and well financed club like Man City is one thing. Arsenal has multiple problems. I’m not sure Arteta has the experience (in fact I know he doesn’t) to handle problems in a divided dressing room.

Emiratesstroller

My info is that Arteta’s appointment will be confirmed tomorrow.

The delay is so that he can say goodbye formally to staff and players at
Man City’s game tonight.

Romford Pele

There’s only so much you can do if the personnel aren’t up to scratch, especially dfeensively where we need athletes. Do you guys remember how often the narrative around Liverpool was “good going forward bout you can get at them defensively”. The VVD signing was transformativre and allows Liverpool to play the type of football where they can defend on the high way line because of the athletic potential at the back. We need that. Saliba is a start but we need another.