Well, this is awkward… Mikel Arteta is… a… Xhaka fan.
“When I was going from Arsenal to City to start coaching and we were looking in that position, he was one of the players on my list,”
“This is how much I liked him. I was happy when Arsenal signed him because I thought he was going to be a terrific player.
“ He has done some really good things and now he has got stuck in a very difficult situation that, I think, was growing and growing and growing and one day it exploded. But I have been amazed as well by how this relationship is starting to come back a little bit and I think the fans have been very, very positive about him. Obviously it is difficult to change completely the scenario from where he was to a magnificent one. But I think we are in the right direction with him.”
This certainly appears to be the dead body under the patio the entire exec team missed when they interviewed him late at night when it was clearly too dark to see!
I mean, there’s only one thing to do here, look for the light that shines on this turd the best.
There’s no one else in the squad that can play the better bits of Xhaka’s game like he does, so unless there’s a spare £50m in the pocket of the Kroenke’s, it’s very likely this is as good as we can do right now. Just to double down on the claim that we spent next summers money last summer, Raul said this to the press.
‘It is in general. The strategic window by definition is the summer window that’s when you plan the season ahead. ‘Last summer we did an incredible effort where we were very grateful to the support we got from our ownership.
‘We went really one step further and made a real investment that increased our expectations for the season.’
Doesn’t sound like he’s keen to splurge. I’m also not sure I trust the club to do good work in January, so unless there’s a player we can loan, I’d rather us save what little powder we have for sharp moves in 5 months time.
Back to Granit.
You either build him up, or you cut his throat right away. If we’re in the hearts and minds phase at the moment, there’s no one that needs as much heart as the player who told us to fuck off in a shit fit the other week. It’s also clear to anyone that’s been paying attention that Xhaka is a big personality behind the scenes… he managed to bulldoze his way to the most undeserving captaincy of all time. It makes sense that anyone who is feeling out the squad would give him a chance to make good on his ‘potential’ because he really does have to show some of the players his words mean something (they didn’t under Emery who flip-flopped).
I really do think we have to take a lot of the press talk with a pinch of salt over the next few weeks. Arteta has to win over big names in the squad and he has to make the best of the mess he picked up from Emery. I would imagine he’ll also fancy himself as a proper coach, he needs to have case study signed off over the next 6 months, no bigger player to take on than one of the most misunderstood (as in, WHAT DOES HE DO?) and mistake-ridden players of the decade.
This following quote kind of confirms my thinking, but as it’s Boxing Day, I’ll be honest, I read the below quote and built my blog around it to make it seem like I’m insightful.
“I don’t want to change everything drastically in two days,”
“I want to put my feelings slowly, I want to see what is going around, and in the right moment I will make the decisions for the benefit of the team and the club. At the moment I don’t think it is the right time, with the amount of games coming up and the amount of things that have to be done, to change too many things.”
The most important thing for today is the win (also insightful). Bournemouth is in a mess, they’ve won 2 games in 8 and lost the rest. Sure, they beat United and Chelsea in that time, but they’ve been awful. Their confidence is shot to pieces, they’ve conceded 10 in their last 6. Literally the worst team in the league right now… but remember, we are normally a gift for struggling managers, and it’s not a given that we’ll get a new manager bounce.
That said, we are still only 4 points off 5th – if we beat Chelsea, we’ll be 3 points away from top 4 at the start of January, which is unreal. There is certainly a very real chance we could make a power play for the Champions League this season if Areta gets things to click. Again, it feels unrealistic considering the drama, the contracts and the confidence… but hey, crazier things have occurred. Spurs are going to be up and down, Jose struggling to impact them like you’d have thought. Chelsea boasts a young squad with a young manager that will be inconsistent, and United are shite.
I still think the brief to Mikel is simple… find out who is worth keeping, deliver a quick appraisal of the kids, and lay the foundations for next season.
“The context is very important, and the context right now, here, is not Manchester City. It is completely different. So I can’t demand the players to do some things because I will expose them and that is the last thing I want to do. I want to give them confidence, reassurance and guidance. But slowly, slowly, slowly, hopefully we will get to where I want.”
Today is a huge first step and it’s exciting. However, I want to stress over and over, the next 6 weeks are going to be very difficult. We could well be replacing 7 first-team players this summer, he has to find out if the kids have the mustard he needs, and he has to win over the fans. Arteta has to somehow build a culture, lay technical foundations, and make brutal decisions all without a preseason.
Bear with it… it’ll come good. I’m certain. See you in the comments and listen to my podcast if you were rude enough not to have already.
If Arteta gets GX functioning better than Emery or Wenger did, I won’t complain.
Fingers crossed.
1st
2nd
First?
3rd
Tro4phy
Damn, that was my very first tro4y and I blew it
“” I say to Arteta ,be your own man and ignore any outside influences.””
Agree and I think he’ll do just that – he knows what he wants and if he doesn’t get it he’ll make the changes needed when he can If he can get the ‘3 hate figures’ playing well then who can argue ? I certainly won’t. If we’re Winning with those guys and winning convincingly , no one can knock that.
You heard it here 1st!
Fingers crossed, arsenal with a 3-0 win
4th will be great
Arteta “”“When I was going from Arsenal to City to start coaching and we were looking in that position, he was one of the players on my list,”””” These comments show -that in Arteta we have a potentially very exciting manager and not just an exceptional coach. They are Kloppe-eque- players love this sort of thing. (tell them they are the best- chances are they will start playing like it.) They dont even have to be true. We have had far too much obsessive coaching at Arsenal post Wenger and very little man managing – hopefully this is a start… Read more »
Xhaka should be sold next Wednesday along with Ozil and Mustafi. All 3 are crap. If Xhaka stays he should be booed every time he touches the ball, maybe only then Arteta will realize he’s not wanted.
Arteta a Xhaka fanboy?
Looking forward to the day’s game.
Hoping for a win. A word of advice.
Don’t watch the match too much hope and optimism. With that u can enjoy the game.
Today is a win, no doubt.
Everytime someone gives the house Key to Xhakalson the house locks get jammed.
Sangare is achievable this winter.
Im telling you this for free!
Arsenal will win today. Saw it in another holy vision.
Getting this prediction right would raise my prediction success rate for the season to about 5% so read in to that what you will…
At the moment, I think The contingency approach in leadership that Arteta is using is known as path goal theory. Here we give each member of the team or the Organization what they need in order to reach their goals. The leaders select specific behaviors that are best suited to the players’ needs and the working environment so that they may best provide the high performance needed to achieve the organisational’s goal. This can be in the form of directive leadership (need for guidance), supportive (need for affiliation and human touch), participative leadership provides involvent (need for clarity& control) ,… Read more »
Auba is down tooling. I have the feeling that he wants out.
I hope that today’s game will give us an idea what system Arteta wants to use. It is important for the players to build up the chemistry and practice the same system every game.
I still think that EPL should give the players 24 to 26 Dec off for their families to enjoy X’mas. That’s what we did in NHL.
For once I hope the Xhara love affair is (and better be) Arteta’s talk the talk…
“The context is very important, and the context right now, here, is not Manchester City. It is completely different. So I can’t demand the players to do some things because I will expose them and that is the last thing I want to do. I want to give them confidence, reassurance and guidance. But slowly, slowly, slowly, hopefully we will get to where I want.” So much to take from one small quote. 1. He realises there is a gap in quality between us and the top and wont get a cityesque performance out of our lot. 2. He will… Read more »
Pedro has ignored Leicester City and Wolves. I think these two teams will also be fighting for a top 4 finish, along with Chelsea, Spuds and Manure.
We wouldn’t need anything close to 50m to replace Xhaka though. HB are rumoured to offer 20-25m for Xhaka, that’s enough to get someone like Sangare who would improve us massively. Don’t know if Atl Madrid already snagged Bruno Guimaraes but he’s available for 25m if not. Plenty of other players that would better what Xhaka gives us that we can get just for the fee we’ll get from him. If we don’t do something about that midfield in January then I expect very little change in our play unless our existing players steps up at least 2 levels, can’t… Read more »
Merson picked his arsenal team of the decade and it included wilshere but not cesc… I wonder what he’s smoking For me (based on assuming all players performances from their best season with us in that time) ——————Leno Sagna-vermaelen-kos-monreal ——————-flamini ————-cesc——-santi Rosicky————————Sanchez ———————-RVP Peak Cesc and Santi in the same midfield would be overpowered lol Rosicky for all round contribution. Sanchez for crazy goal scoring record and rvp as the best striker we’ve had post invincibles by a country mile Imo Flamini from that season we nearly won the league when he played like gattuso! Sagna for a nailed on… Read more »
I know he was a heathen for joining utd but I was watching vids of RVP the other day and just wow what a fucking player he was for those few weeks each year when he wasn’t broken
Unreal talent
Or simply using the City angle to squeeze more dish out of Hertha Berlin Better be.
Seriously the thought of wanting to keep Xhara would wake up the most intoxicated from last night …
Not something you wanted to see opening the boxes today!
Xhaka about to sink Arteta’s boat🔙🔛🔝
If arteta can get a couple of wins and try not to lose (or to play acceptably when we do lose) over the next 4-5 games then it will be a great foundation for the team to build on
It’s true Hertha Berlin were more than interested in signing Xhaka this winter transfer window due to a new investor at their club but it seems Arsenal want to hang onto Xhaka even coming to the scenario where they want to convince him to stay.
So be it. Maybe Arteta sees a bit of himself in Xhaka as a player. Arteta wasn’t particularly good off the ball either.
Hertha Berlin are now sniffing around Draxler.
Arteta needs the win today.
We are just doomed as a club. I really hope Arteta has his turd polishing kit out and ready.
What does xhaka has ever that makes managers forgive his 1 or 5 mistakes a game!
Next article
Arteta – ‘I’ve been really impressed by Ozils chances created stats in training’.
I think arteta is telling the truth if he says he rates xhaka In his first interviews he was saying that it will be live up to the expectations and Arsenal culture or get fucked and that he’s ruthless, so if his next step is to pander to our overrated babies (the senior players lol) with gushing praise regardless of how bad they are, he will have no credibility If you wanna get them on side and be nice to them ok, but then no point telling the fans you’ll be ruthless and care about the culture etc as thisnis… Read more »
And yeah they were vaguely similar players, tho arteta wasn’t error prone and read the game well which made him fundamentally useful even if not amazing. He was also a decent organizer so was a net positive to the team
Xhaka is like arteta’s inbred brother in terms of playstyle
” if Xhaka stays he should be booed every time he touches the ball, maybe only then Arteta will realize he’s not wanted.’
With fans like yourself hopefully you don’t go to games..
Unless he is talking Xhaka up to sell him then I already know that Arteta is a dud. Could you ever imagine Man City or Liverpool having a midfielder who combines suicidal passing just outside his own penalty area with cowardice when he should be heading the ball plus total lack of pace.
I said that I would judge Emery more on who he got rid of than his signings and the same is true of Arteta. Emery failed and it now seems likely that Arteta will too.
0-2 Granit to score and play well in a clean sheet away from home
Pedro, It is okay to criticize Arteta you know. What I think is this, If arteta values Xhaka to be a proper player for us my doubts about him will be magnified. What we don’t need is a player with weaknesses like Xhaka. Ruthless and keeping Xhaka don’t go together. And we can’t Create Mancity type of football with the likes of Xhaka in our squad. If it is a game from Arteta to Increase his value and sell him later I will applaud him, if not he It’ll just be like Wenger and Emery who both failed to get… Read more »
China1 ” care about the culture ” Maybe the overall culture is the problem here. Arsenal can bring in as many new managers as they want but if the overall culture stays the same then we can continue to have scenarios where a player that has had so many errors off the ball and some on it is still indulged. Xhaka had a good match against Everton. He was even winning a header in his own penalty area in the last few minutes in that game. But that game was an overall dead one and he is going to need… Read more »
Þorkell Einarsson
“0-2 Granit to score and play well in a clean sheet away from home”
As said in the other post he had a good game against Everton but it was an overall drab match but there is hope he could possibly go on a little run of form on the back of that which basically means he doesn’t make big errors in a game.
With Xhaka though you always feel he is prime at any time to revert back to type.
Ramgun, you know Jordan Henderson plays for Liverpool?
2-3 years ago Xhaka was rated above players like Henderson.
We need to stop judging players who have been playing in severely dysfunctional systems for over 3 years and at least give Arteta time to implement his system before saying this or that player wont work.
China1
“And yeah they were vaguely similar players, tho arteta wasn’t error prone and read the game well which made him fundamentally useful even if not amazing”
Yeah they were similar in that Arteta was pretty slow as a player in the holding position as well.
But as you say Arteta had far less errors in him.
Oh man…Arteta has to go. Sorry but that’s unacceptable.
Nagglesmann in.
Unai
Henderson used to be mocked because he was seen as not very good on the ball.
His overall work rate and his off the ball stuff was not mocked to the same level as the above.
So the comparison between Henderson and Xhaka is not the best one.
If you can think of a player that was heavily criticised for being very suspect off the ball but improved with a new manager and system then that would be a better comparison.
Team of the decades peeps
Wanna see them
Oh here we go… Some people here would rather see Arsenal fail than see them successful with a redefined Xhaka (or whoever else you dislike). We’re at the very start of a radical new era of modern Arsenal football. Fucking spare me that anyone has some elite insight into who or what is best suited for that. Have your suspicions all you like as to who isn’t, but draw the line before making claims about Arteta based on a sentiment of admiration for a player you don’t care for. It was the same bullshit line Emery got. Arteta is creating… Read more »
Pablo
You got the Tro4phy
I instituted it to celebrate or rather deride the bullshit celebrations by AFC management for being failures.
Was first called Tro4pheu
Congratulations
Today isn’t boxing day to Arsenal fans around the world, it’s Arteta day.
If you are a new manager in a bad situation. You already know that you want to get rid of some bad apples, but you can’t do it straight away and until you do you need those people on your side. What do you do? Go in hard and tell them upfront that they are finished, alienating everybody in one full swoop leaving with nobody on your side and tanking until you can get rid of the entire staff. By that time, you may have already been sacked anyway. Or use psychology and keep them on board until you can… Read more »
With fans like yourself hopefully you don’t go to games..
————————-
I do whenever I can and I hope it pisses you off.
“and I think the fans have been very, very positive about him”
Because they thought he was leaving – the only argument was about which lucky fan got to drive him to the airport.
Mikel Arteta saying he likes Xhaka is like your new flame saying your crazy ex is cool.
It’s Steve Round day. Let’s rally round Round and his clipboard charts.
Hey guys
Every government or coach needs a short honeymoon period. The Club management dithered in outing Emery until it is very difficult ( not impossible ) to get 4th place.
We need MATURITY to lay off the boos for a couple of months. You’ll might even make it Impossible to get 4th place if do not support the team in the interregnum.
Let’s have some X’mas spirit and forgive and forget of what Xhaka did to the fans.
Pedro I know that I will be in the minority on Le Grove, but I can see the logic in Arteta’s viewpoint not to sell either Torreira or Xhaka in January. Both players are on contracts which expire in June 2023. So if he believes that he sees the potential in upgrading their performance levels he has time to satisfy himself one way or another in the next 6 months. The real problems for Arteta at the moment is the lack of quality in the Centre Back position. Mustafi is a disaster and both Sokratis and Luiz are not starting… Read more »
“ for.Ignore what Arteta says, just look at what he does. I am willing to bet that Xhaka will not play for us next season. Same with Özil, unless he adapt to Arteta’s demand, Özil will either be gone or sit on the bench with the occasional appearances in easy games. “
Spot on Valentin
CC
First off, shocking that it was you coming to Xhaka the terribles defence…
“Some people here would rather see Arsenal fail than see them successful with a redefined Xhaka (or whoever else you dislike).”
No you plonker. It’s the opposite, we want Arsenal to succeed and it’s clear as day to everyone except you that that’s not going to happen with players like Xhaka in the team.
Emirates
The problems you rate in the side as being the most problematic flip flop virtually week by week.
Danny
‘ Xhaka should be sold next Wednesday along with Ozil and Mustafi. All 3 are crap. If Xhaka stays he should be booed every time he touches the ball, maybe only then Arteta will realize he’s not wanted.’
Great solution Danny. What if we have no money for this window and don’t improve the squad and sell your favourite players for pennies? Won’t we be in a worse position?
Any chance these players could perform better in a better structured team with clear instructions?
Completely agree CC. As Pedro wrote ‘we’re at the hearts and minds stage’. He’s attempting to nurture the right mind set and that is going to include public utterings that are designed to trigger a positive response in individual players. All Arteta has said is that before he arrived at Arsenal, he rated qualities that Xhaka possessed. He’s not commenting on his performances recently. He’s not saying last transfer window City decided on Rodrigo after contemplating Xhaka. He’s saying, in this case publicly, show to me that you are a player that I can depend on as you’re capable to… Read more »
Freddie
I didn’t defend Xhaka you melt, I said spare me the run down of Arteta because he’s publicly backed one of the players you don’t like and let him have the remainder of the season to judge.
Illiterate as ever well done.
Ishola, not the point, both have had very poor periods, one is now more than serviceable with the right coach and system.
Who knows how well Xhaka will fair under Arteta but I think it’s right to have an open mind at this stage.
CC
Ah, yes, the “poor misunderstood boy” routine, well played as ever, pulling out your favourite move this late in the year, can we hope that it’s because you’re retiring it after new year?
It is getting a but old, get some new moves already.
“Re-defined Xhakalson” is qualidee, has ze mental strength, is a protagonist
You heard it here 1st
Unai good posts. Reasoned and sensible.
Lego Hair
——–
Ozil is 31 and way passed his best, Mustafi and Xhaka just aren’t good enough and are both error prone. These 3 should be sold next week and hopefully Kroenke had promised Arteta some funds to get in at least one decent defender and a midfielder.
Unai
“not the point, both have had very poor periods, one is now more than serviceable with the right coach and system.”
Well there is a point there Unai.
Henderson was never heavily criticised for being suspect off the ball.
Where people have been more impressed with Henderson more recently is his input on the ball and offensively.
We don’t need to see great improvement from Xhaka on the ball. We need to see great improvement from Xhaka off the ball.
So as said before the comparison between these two players are off in this instance.
Ishola 70 I am not flip flopping. Do I think that Xhaka will suddenly improve? Frankly the answer is no. However, Arteta has time over next six months to satisfy himself one way or anther if that is the case. Xhaka’s contract expires in June 2023. Our centre back position on the other hand is in my view critical. We have on the books Mustafi who is a disaster and two players in Luiz and Sokratis who are also playing poorly and their contracts expire in June 2021. As I said many times finding a top notch CB with experience… Read more »
All people are saying is it’s worrying if Arteta in fact rates Xhaka, a player totally unsuitable to the PL and one of our weakest links, that is undeniable to anyone with eyes and a working memory of the last 3+ years of bang average to poor performances. It doesn’t take 6 months to suss that out when he has all those years as a body of evidence. It’s a question mark over his judgement that’s all. Most reasonable posters are still going to back him, would be a dick move to turn on him now or after a couple… Read more »
We all need to to pipe down this Arteta hype, it’s been rarified praise that’s beginning to grate especially when the dude doesn’t get to coach his first premier league game till today. Calling it the ‘ very start of a radical new era of modern Arsenal football” is just laughable cringeworthy stuff. Truth be told, Arteta has to play with the players the club has already. He has to deploy man-management tools to achieve those goals. He has to boost their self esteem. Arteta’s remit does not include moving a single player out so he has to deploy the… Read more »
Emirates
tbf you have rated the problem areas of the side differently according to which game has just passed.
A few months ago you were telling us the midfield was the real problem. Now this area has been relegated in problem behind CBs again and now CFs.
Never ending and evolving eh lol
ES, like reading your posts but your formatting does not enhance the message. It appears that you have a tourette’s -like attitude to the return key. What’s going on?
Any chance 2020 can see a change?
I think the only way Xhaka can ever be consistently good in this league and team is by having water carriers, Ndidis orbiting him consistently. Put any lightweight, indisciplined guy next to him and you get Xhaka the imbecile.
Mid field is the biggest problem not defence I’d say. If Arteta walks the talk some defensive disciplines ,structure and energy can be added but with wot we have you can’t add pace, guile and creativity in MF even if you forget about physique and aerial for a moment. In which case the forwards don’t get enough services and our back and front would remain as disjointed as it is … Mid field is a must fix and even a Xhara 1.1 isn’t an option.
Ishola 70
Midfield has been a real problem. I agree 100% with that statement.
However, Rome is not built in a day. January transfer windows are always
problematic and finding a top class midfielder particularly one who is not
going to be sold at a grossly inflated price is probably beyond the club’s current budget.
Let’s be frank Ozil is unsaleable and Xhaka’s valuation will have dropped. So
there is not a lot of budget available to cover that particular area in the current
transfer window.
If Arteta doesn’t start Xhaka, then what other meaningful choices does he have.
if he’s realized that then the comments were spot on. he has to massage the players ego. Xhaka is a leader in this group, regardless of how the last few seasons have been.
Bob N16
Lol Emiratesstroller types on his keyboard like he used to write in his notebook in Form 4.
I think it has been mentioned before that even if people see how much of a handicap Xhaka has been in too many matches selling him this winter and not getting in a senior experienced player as a replacement will not really see an improvement in the midfield to any great extent and that is an indictment on the midfield personnel as a whole currently at the club. And that would tie in with Dissenter’s post about Arteta having to work with what he has at his disposal at this time. The selling of Xhaka and a replacement brought in… Read more »
Emirates
I agree that out financial position is anything but strong.
Maybe we get one player in on loan with a clause to buy buy there’s not going to be a sweeping change of the squad next month.
Arteta has to make it through to the summer. I suspect that even his backers will change in the summer too.
Freddie
No, it’s you displaying you cannot read. Maybe own the fact you jump down peoples throats because you’re a bit dim. There’s something you can work on in the new year.
Dissenter
That’s why you were called a clown. Rarified praise that’s beginning to grate?
Imagine being upset that your own fans are excited lol
Dissenter
“Xhaka is a leader in this group, regardless of how the last few seasons have been.”
I would say this is correct but it doesn’t reflect well on the team or squad as a whole does it.
Xhaka is a leader in the group that has been stripped of the captaincy.
Harry Kane is off
Hahaha
Wonderful Xmas gift, nothing better that seeing Harry Kane’s goal disallowed.
Ishola 70
Our season is over as far as finishing in top 4 and qualifying for Champions League.
So what we are discussing at the moment is how to improve the current team and also perhaps offloading a couple of players and replacing them with upgrades.
Arteta does not have time, money or availability in January transfer window to achieve what most posters hope he will do.
His priority at the moment is to stabilise team and if possible hope for some improvement with resources he has got currently.
“No, it’s you displaying you cannot read. Maybe own the fact you jump down peoples throats because you’re a bit dim. There’s something you can work on in the new year.”
Bohoho, I’m just a poor boy, nobody loves me. Same old same old Charles, that record has been broken for years.
CC Yea …”very start of a radical new era of modern Arsenal football” Sure you don’t want to put the bong down. What nonsense. let him manage his first. Some of us Arteta backers are pragmatic, he is a blank slate. We expect him to serve his own share of turd as he learns his trade. he will make mistakes like all inexperienced manages, regardless of sauce. It’s people like you that keep painting him in unreal times. You’re setting him up for failure with all the highfalutin PR language. Only a clown will be writing such nonsense as “radical”… Read more »
I’m thinking his shock selection will be Robbie burton today…
Haaaaaaaa
Boxing Day gift unwrapping from Spuds
Well, it seems Arteta plans to be very different to his former boss. Pep walked in and immediately weeded out players he thought unfit to the culture he wanted to create. Pep was immediately ruthless. Then we have to consider the possibility of Arteta talking up Xhaka to raise his market value. Because if Arteta indeed thinks there is possibility of Xhaka holding the middle for Arsenal going forward, then I can tell you that maybe Arteta is not really ready. Apart from the certain one or two deadly errors per game(which I don’t see being coached out of him),… Read more »
They’ve just said on Soccer Saturday that since Mourinho’s appointment the Spud’s have conceded more goals than any other team in the PL!
bris
Didn’t someone mention Berlin looking to put together a bid of 25 – 30 million euros?
I can’t see us getting anymore than that for him and would bite their hands off!
****Pep in his first gig*****
‘I can’t see us getting anymore than that for him and would bite their hands off!’
You can’t blame a man for trying. Some sucker might bite.
“Only a clown will be writing such nonsense as “radical” to describe a blank slate.“
Obviously your blinders have been on for 18 month because everything anticipated/expected of Arteta in terms of his football vision is a radical difference to the muck we’ve seen over the previous 2 years.
Ergo we’re at the start of a radical change in our football. Not a hard one to grasp coco.
–
Freddie
Give it a rest, you’re boring as it comes. There’s nothing misunderstood about me, you’re just pretty stupid. Cure that and get back to me.
Lost a bit of buzz for arteta with those granit comments…
sorry but xhara ain’t fit to wear the shirt .
If arteta can’t see that then he ain’t the man for the club.
Adam Webster is a top player. Better version of big Lewis Dunk. Good in both boxes. Ideal for a back three. Nice that the Spuds are re-signing Toby and Verthongen and not targeting a player like him. Should be on our list
Focusing on MF doesn’t mean ignoring defence, forwards, or contracts. All for upgrading defenders and/or trading strikers to raise additional fund during the January TW.
If Auba is remotely downtooling sell immediately to minimise loss. With Kroneke ownership can’t afford to piss more finances like what Ivan the snake did.
Assuming Arteta manages to introduce some systems we may not strictly need Auba and Laca.
Gentlebris
Pep was ruthless because the money was there to buy players of his choice.
The same can’t best said of us presently. We don’t have the cash and even we do, it not entirely enough
I think Emirates is right that Arteta has looked at the situation and decided that while neither Xhaka nor Torreira is ideal long-term, he needs them for the next five months, as it’s hard to revise your entire central midfield in a January window. Arteta spoke directly to Xhaka in order to instill confidence in him and to make him feel wanted at the club, and I’m sure Arteta believes that under his tutelage, Xhaka can be a solid, reliable component of his XI over the next five months. Whether Xhaka would be or will be in Arteta’s plan for… Read more »
Spuds bar Son and Kane are a collection of below average players coached and motivated to perform way above their level by Poch. Now that the motivation is gone, what remains for Jose are below average talents with big names and big bitching.
Brighton up 1-0 over Tottenham’s talented bunch led by Jose Mourinho. Today’s PL is a tricky and competitive beast.
Xhaka has to be used until he is sold or we get in someone better.
Some people, as hard as it is to swallow, need to realise he’s the best midfielder we have.
Bamford
Torreira’s agent has been complaining since the moment Lucas arrived in North London. Decent player but I don’t think he has another level to reach at Arsenal where a defensive midfielder has to play in space and be able to handle typical chaotic end to end PL football. Move him on as soon as possible