The absolute peak of arrogance is conducting grim business in plain sight of the whole world.
Raul and Edu have moved into the ‘I don’t give a fuck’ territory and it is utterly miserable. We’ve let the foxes into the chicken coup and no one is concerned that there will be no eggs for breakfast tomorrow, next week, or in 5 years time.
We are a super-agent fee trough. That my friends is a terrible place to be. I have been warning you things aren’t right at Arsenal for a while, now you’re witnessing first hand what’s important to our leadership as they double down on average deals with new contracts with a cadre of select super-agents.
Now, to be clear, you can find good deals from super-agents. Their presence in the game is very grim, they suck money out of the sport and offer next to no value, but sometimes the cost of dealing with them is worth it. At a modern superclub, the process should always go in the order of data > extensive scouting > club engagement > super-agent. Not super-agent first. We are now the latter and that has lead us to one of the saddest David Ornstein tweets of 2020.
🚨 Hearing Arsenal have signed:
🔴 David Luiz to a 1-year contract
🔴 Cedric Soares to a 4-year contract 🔴 Pablo Mari to a 4-year contract
The defenders will be part of Mikel Arteta’s rebuilding job at #AFC@TheAthleticUK: https://t.co/qDXi0s3GLI— David Ornstein (@David_Ornstein) June 23, 2020
The problem is this: If the majority of your average deals go through the same people, serious questions arise about the truth of how you landed on the decisions. Why would a club as prestigious as Arsenal lean so heavily on 2 agents? Why do we keep signing up average players from these people? Why, even when our money is being spent badly and we’re 10th in the league, has the club not stopped making these awful deals? How has no one at Arsenal flagged that a technical director using his own agent for a bunch of shoddy deals looks very bad? Huss? Vinnai? Friar? Where are you? Who at Arsenal has the power to scrutinise these deals?
At the moment, it looks like Arsenal are beholden to two agents that are favoured by Raul: Kia and Arturo Canales.
They both have abysmal records with Arsenal.
Canales repped Unai Emery who was an absolute disaster. He repped him BEFORE he officially represented him. His recommendation was so powerful, Raul managed to jam the deal through even though Emery couldn’t speak a word of English to the CEO.
Kia has managed to push Edu, Luiz, and Soares our way. He’s working on Willian and maybe even Neto according to reports in Spain.
Yesterday, despite Arsenal pleading poverty, it was announced that those two agents have managed to land deals for Pablo Mari (4 years), Cedric Soares (4 years), and David Luiz (1 year).
That is contacts football at its peak.
I like Luiz, but his record this season has been atrocious outside a small patch of good games he had before the break.
David Luiz with a red card once every 160 PL games with Chelsea, once every 13 games with Arsenal. Gave a penalty away once every 53 games for Chelsea, once every 6.5 games for Arsenal.
— Duncan Alexander (@oilysailor) June 17, 2020
Pablo Mari, a player I really want to like, has managed a single full 90 minutes for Arsenal, outside that, he has 22 competitive games in Brazil to his name. He lands a 4-year deal with an injury that sees him out until November. Why not a 2 year deal with an option for an extra year? Just to play it safe? He’s a risky signing and let’s be honest, Raul hasn’t exactly been hitting 6s with these sort of deals.
Cedric Soares, a player that Southampton were willing to lose for free because they thought he’d go to a lower league club, has landed a 4 year deal with Arsenal without playing a single minute of football for us. He arrived injured. The player is 28 years old, we’re in the worst economic crisis football has faced in its existence, and Huss Fahmy is out here dishing out long-term deals to questionable talent AGAIN. The man who wanted to instil high-performance culture and smarts on deals is locking an average player into a longterm deal before we’ve seen a single minute of him play? Quite remarkable. Where are the standards?
You’d be hard-pressed to find many people in the world of football looking at these deals positively. The length of the contracts is generous given what we know, the quality of the players is barely subjective, and it is very, very unlikely the players move us onto a level we require. They are unimaginative deals and they are all tainted by cronyism.
Where does Arteta fit in all of this, after all, he’s in the media praising the deals?
Well, you have to put yourself in his shoes. It’s his first job out of coaching University, it’s a huge one, and his boss is in the front seat of the Raul bus of average.
What would you do? Slay your bosses publicly?
I can’t have it.
Martyrdom is for idiots. Very few are remembered or effective. Arteta needs Arsenal to work out for his career to move forward. More than that, he genuinely wants Arsenal to work for him because he loves the club. You cannot affect change if you get yourself marginalised or fired. Complaining in the media doesn’t help him this season and it’d make him look petulant. It’ll also depress an already fragile squad and further fuel uncertainty and stress. He doesn’t have enough reputational capital in the bank to be demanding so soon. Sadly, he has to play the game.
I feel for him. Worse, it now seems apparent that part of his appeal to Raul and Edu is that when you are a maker of Kings, they are in your service. Emery was going to Sociedad before Raul leant a hand. The exPSG coach wanted Zaha, but that didn’t work for Raul who wanted to deal with Lille, so Emery needed to stfu and deal with that. Arteta was a target of Newcastle and Everton before our interest. This is the best first job in Europe he had a chance with. He’s not squandering it, he’s too smart for that. Look how long it took Poch to pipe up about his unhappiness at the way Daniel Levy would run summers. No wonder Raul didn’t want Jose Mourinho at the club, he’d pipe up and get in the way of his special friends.
Not that I think Edu’s decision was a bad one. I am convinced Arteta will earn the right to speak up eventually. It really wouldn’t take much for him to earn more cache at the club that his overlords boast. We know that Josh and Stan love an exciting manager, so let’s hope that despite weak football leadership at the top, he can still achieve something… because my word, we need him to come good, the alternative is bleak.
It’s also up to the people who work at Arsenal to speak out against a Football Director that has taken over and rooted out any possible dissenters or wielders of oversight. Maybe Josh Kroenke should show a bit of interest in the people that have left Arsenal. Sven, Sir Chips, Lord Harris, the data guy to who left for Wenger to name but a few… do they have some insight into the inner workings at the club? Do they have opinions on why we’re landing on deals like this despite all our scouting and technical prowess? Highly likely. I just don’t understand why Arsenal’s owners don’t seem to want to inquire. It baffles me that you can have so little curiosity about what’s going on at something you have a vested interest in.
Still, don’t despair, things always work themselves out in the end. Arsenal is a huge club. We have a curious media. There are a lot of people that are angry about how we’re being run. I don’t think Raul will get away with this sort of performance forever, the question is how low do we have to go before someone at KSE pays attention and makes the necessary changes to push Arsenal back to the top?
A question for the ages, fingers crossed it’s answered soon. x
“You lot fold faster than Superman on laundry day. Now Willian is okay? A good old pro. Good with the kids. So was Saville and that doesn’t make it right.”
🙂
It is an embarrassment to be an Arsenal fan right now and we are at the butt end of any joke regarding transfers and contracts. So for the time being to my UK friends I switched to Dortmund support and my US friends have no idea what the EPL and Arsenal is.
Been good reading your comments here, now whee do I find the equivalent forum for Dortmund fans, oh wait I would be missing all the shit that happens here.
We need midfielders to compete next year. We should check out those three demoting teams. Maybe we can get someone suitable for our team.
‘It is an embarrassment to be an Arsenal fan right now and we are at the butt end of any joke regarding transfers and contracts. So for the time being to my UK friends I switched to Dortmund support and my US friends have no idea what the EPL and Arsenal is.’
Man you’re a wrong-Un.
@Marc – To be honest, I rarely read the posts anymore. Too often this place breaks down to you’re either for X or you’re against X. Wenger, Emery, Arteta, Stan, Edu, Raul or whoever. I couldn’t care less about any of them, as long as the club is heading in the right direction. But, it isn’t and hasn’t been for a long time. All those names I have mentioned each one of them is at fault for that. Each one has played a part, Arteta included. What happens is someone backs an individual like for example Emery, and from then… Read more »
Mislintat has told people Arsenal are an “absolute mess”, “dysfunctional and with no clear plan”.
Sounds about right. Absentee owner, overpaid players who don’t seem that bothered, young hot shots all over the place in terms of development.
The whole culture needs reset, with a big clearout at the top.
Arteta must be wondering what on earth he let himself in for.
By the way, we have a racist owner. Stan doesn’t support Black Lives Matter.
Marc
“I agree 100% with the exception that I know Pedro slept with Doris the Tea Lady, she was 83 at the time.”
Looks like Marc has started early today, the alcohol is seeping into his bloodstream a few hours earlier than usual , so be prepared for a few hours of schoolboy humour interspersed with the usual gutter language to anyone who doesn’t sink to his level ….I’m sure your favourite sparring partner jamie will be here to interact with you soon Marc.
“‘It is an embarrassment to be an Arsenal fan right now”
Right now? We have been a banter club for the past decade. The scary thing now is that the embarrassments are becoming more and more frequent and increasingly detrimental towards the club. Now instead of losing 10-2 to Bayern over tow legs of a CL last 16 we are being dumped out of the EL by Olympiacos.
Pierre
You really are a pathetic little man – you throw insults out at other people and then play the wounded party when they retaliate.
Let’s see if you can put up some stats showing how Nektiah’s PL goal scoring record is better than Martinelli’s?
Jim, must be really annoying that people have opinions on Arsenal. Oh how we long for the days when that wasn’t the case.
@Pedro –
“Jim, must be really annoying that people have opinions on Arsenal.”
Nope, opinions are just fine, but its when people try to present that opinion as fact is when I have a problem.
Arsenal are equatable to really bad lyrics at moment: Gotta find the bottom to reach top.
ITs even worse spelled out.
Little redemption
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDLyVGz0epM
Jim, you have to assess who is trustworthy and who is not. Aggressive opinions in football are always presented as fact.
Wow pedro, Can you get more deluded than this? He praised the deals because he thought they were sensible. If you think these deals suck and Arteta is praising them, You have to criticize Arteta. The let’s all Pity poor Arteta doesn’t make you look good. You shoft goal posts as you like. Anyway I didn’t believe arteta was going to get us up the table with a magic wand and I don’t believe in him as much as you pedro and avoid criticizing him. But I think he is right in saying these deals are important for us. The… Read more »
Shift
Jim “So are we decided that Arteta will not be behind any of the transfers in or out of Arsenal while he is at the club?” Obviously he is, a manager can succeed or fail by whom in brings in or allows to leave, Arteta will be no different. Having a fraction to spend compared to the other clubs is a problem, so it is probably wise to look at any new signings as being value for money or not. Giving Luiz another year , costing 5-7 million wages( or whatever it is)is not a bad piece of business when… Read more »
When you have a moment.
Have a look at the David Luiz twitter page.
“”The Geezer”””
This is type of culture Arteta/ Edu wants at The Arsenal?
The Geezer to be The Arsenal Leader?
Arteta Out!
Anyone here remember when Pedro called Emery weak because some people said Emery didn’t really have a say in transfers? Anyone here remember when Pedro used to say Emery was interested in nothing players like Banega (who would start in our midfield today). Pedro remember when you wrote this? 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… Read more »
Marc
“Let’s see if you can put up some stats showing how Nektiah’s PL goal scoring record is better than Martinelli’s?”
A bit of a feeble retort there Marc.
I will apologise for my obvious attempt to wind you up …banter I think they call it these days.
@Pedro –
Maybe it is, but it is always up to the individual whether they want to present something they don’t know to be factual as fact or as an opinion. And there is nothing wrong with it just being an opinion.
And this isn’t an attack on you, it is just in general.
Oh no, Azed digging the dirt from past comments .
The lowest of the low if you ask me, at least Pedro is prepared to put his money where his mouth is , unlike some others on here.
Pierre
Believe it or not right now it’s almost to hot a have a beer! I am very tempted but I’m trying to hydrate a little first.
@Pierre –
What I was trying to suggest is that none of us know who is ultimately making the final decisions. You would hope it was the manager, picking players to suit his style of play. But potentially it could be a mixture of the manager and the board.
If Arteta is being overuled on signings / having no input (which is a bit daft bearing in mind we haven’t really has a proper TW this summer) then the one thing he can do is not select the players he doesn’t like.
It’ll be interesting to see what affect today’s weather has on the ManU v Sheffield Utd match.
Apparently it’s got above freezing today in Manchester and it almost stopped raining at one point earlier.
“The lowest of the low if you ask me, at least Pedro is prepared to put his money where his mouth is , unlike some others on here.”
Not surprised that is your takeaway from that comment, you are always making snide remarks on here at certain posters, in fact every poster, you are only here to laugh at the WOB’s as you call them and extol the virtues of Ozil as a footballer, outside that you are all snide remarks and insults
No on should pity or encourage pity for Arteta, no one should say his hands are tied. Everything is perfectly setup for him to show what he can do as a coach. “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… Read more »
Pierre
I know accountability is an alien concept to you, so I’ll let you carry on with your Ozil worship
On Arteta: Initially when he signed I had mixed feelings, obviously I wanted a big name to come in, the last thing I wanted was more uncertainty. But.. I warmed up to the idea, new, young, exciting manager. A totally different direction. Six months on and I am very worried. I feel like he is making mistakes, as any inexperienced manager will, but he is making them at the expense of Arsenal. I think his team selections have been odd to say the least and his in game management has not been great. One of my biggest fears is how… Read more »
Jim By signing players that are not suited to the manager’s style of play is a policy that is doomed to fail. Sounds simplistic doesn’t it but we have been doing exactly that for the last 2 years. Pepe, Suarez, Luiz , to name but 3 were all players that were signed without any consideration for the type of player that Emery needed. To prove my point of how little thought has gone into Arsenal’s strategy, I will just add that hiring Emery a few months after giving Ozil a massive contract was doomed to fail due to Ozil not… Read more »
@RH –
What I wanted to see from Arteta was fast flowing football with a plan. And so far it hasn’t really materialised.
Receding
“Snide” is my word , try being original for once in your life.
Jim
Realistically it’s only been a handful of matches but I agree on Arteta’s selections and in game management. Have we seen him make a sub that isn’t like for like and that’s actually influenced a result?
By 8 or so tomorrow we could be behind Burnley, Newcastle, Everton and level on points with Southampton. With ManU 9 points off.
“Receding
“Snide” is my word , try being original for once in your life.”
Wow, imagine claiming ownership of a word..the state of you
Emmanuel Petit: ‘If I was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, I would leave Arsenal. It’s becoming an average club. I feel so sorry for the fans and all the people who love the club. I feel sorry for the former players that try to uphold the Arsenal reputation.’
My feedback is that Arsenal are more secretive since Gazidis departure. A sports journalist friend told me a while back that following the departure of the press officer it was now far more difficult to get information out of the club. The three signings announced are frankly not altogether surprising. 1. Luiz had a one year extension option. Before the Man City game I think that most posters would not have disagreed that we exercised it. 2. Soares has come on a Bosman presumably as cover for Bellerin. We don’t have on our books a reliable right back replacement. So… Read more »
Emirates,
Our back four has been shit for years now. What do these clowns do? Sign a past it Chelsea reject, an injured Southampton reject and another CB, which we’ve seen in ONE game.
Absolutely no way to spin this positively, especially that we have probably pissed a handsome amount of money on Kia’s fees signing Luiz, etc.
Emirates
A fair assessment, I think the truth is the reason the signings are getting so much attention is because the football and the results are poor. Since the ManU result and performance we’ve played 9 – drawn 4 – won 3 and lost 2. Turn 1 draw and the Brighton loss into wins and things are a lot more positive, fans are prepared to be more patient etc.
ES 1. Think you are wrong. Once it was revealed that Luiz was only on a one year deal then most of the disbelief was about how much he had cost. As for him signing a year extension then I would suggest that it was more 50-50 as opposed to the majority agreeing he should be offered another deal 2. He wasn’t signed on a Bosman. He was transferred from Southampton, he was not a free agent.In a few days he would have been but had Arsenal waited till then he would not have been available to play till next… Read more »
Azed, we’re 13 games into a season that was suspended due to a once in a 100-year virus and we’re currently 6 points from 5th.
Arteta really is the least of our problems right now.
Emirates
With regards to the club not being so open to the press – this is why we’re seeing certain negative agenda’s in the media it’s a bit of retaliation. We’ve seen something similar with the Government and Dominc Cummings.
‘Negative agenda’
😆
😆
😆
Luiz is Leaving next year. He is here to help us not spend any money while we fix the midfield. We will go for a CB next summer. And Mari came from flamengo and I don’t believe we are paying him more than 60k. For all the chatter about us spending money on agent brought players, We have high wages because we signed stupid players during the Wenger and Mislintat Era. Let’s see the high wage list. Ozil 350k Auba 200k Miki 200k Lacazette 180k pepe 140k David Luiz 120k Kolasinac 100k Bellerin 100k Xhaka 100k Leno 100k Mustafi 90k… Read more »
Partey rumors heating up on Twitter £45m.
Pedro
Arteta gets us CL football next season and a great many of our problems either disappear or get a hell of a lot easier to fix.
This is why I and a few others on here are picking you up on previous behavior. Personally I think your anti Sanllehi agenda is a combination of trying to distract from Arteta not being the coach you told us all he was going to be and preparing the ground for his failure.
Trap
Mate you’re getting mixed up that Party is a rave in Sussex!
Pedro
I haven’t said a word about Arteta and I won’t because he deserves the time to build his squad.
I have said alot about your ever changing goal posts though.
Anyone know how Mari did his ankle in? It only looked like he he simply moved or ??? Now out until Nov? These injuries are linked to our training. How many of our players are getting decimated in practice or games? This question needs to be asked… Either over training, or a bad pitch or a combo of the 2. Look at how this is all playing out… Luiz comes on, shits the bed, Martinelli out, Xhaka out for a similar injury as mari, etc. Holding Bellerin and Chambers all blow their ACL out. This is more than just bad… Read more »
The very day we considered hiring Mikel Arteta was the day we fcuked up for good. There’s no reason why the execs went for Mikel over Carlo. For such a massive business to hire a novice in such a competitive league is laughable. An unnecessary risk that wasn’t worth taking.
Marc, you are desperate to pin me down on opinions I don’t have. I was picking on Raul long before Areteta, and low and behold, look where we are, the whole world has woken up to his performance. I have always said Arteta is a brilliant coach and I have not changed my opinion there. Don’t take my word for it, listen and read Dave Ornstein, look at the Delaney piece today, absolutely no one is questioning the manager bar a group of Emery fans who are still badly burned. You’ve all gone from preaching 18 months, to demanding to… Read more »
Let’s go Azed! Ignore the haters. You’re doing what’s needed. Let people face their own comments if they refuse to listen to others. Let them take a look at the man in the mirror.
“is questioning the manager bar a group of Emery fans who are still badly burned. You’ve all gone from preaching 18 months, to demanding to know why we’re not 2nd in the league. Quite amazing how high your standards are all of a sudden.”
I’m not an Emery fan I expected you (and all fans) to give him a chance – you wouldn’t and didn’t, I’m just applying your rules to Arteta.
Quite amazing how low your standards are all of a sudden!
Pedro,
A brilliant coach makes the team better than the sum of its parts. Let’s face it: we have had something of a pre-season: do they know what they are doing? No. Is there any desire to win? No. Is their fitness top notch? Bollocks it is.
Pray tell, where is that supposed ‘brilliance’? Arteta is a suckup, buying watches for useless millionaires.
When is Un due back from his “white lives matter “banner Man City flyover ?
This place isn’t the same without him.
“I think your anti Sanllehi agenda is a combination of trying to distract from Arteta not being the coach you told us all he was going to be and preparing the ground for his failure.“
Idk how you, or anyone else, can even come to those kinds of conclusions at this point frankly.
Tomorrow will be telling. I hope to God we win.
If we lose, and in a bad manner… it is going to be really tough to stomach.
I expect a drastic response tomorrow. I want to see a determination.
I want to see a strong line up and subs that are appropriate at the right time.
We have to see something go right !!!!
SF
We replaced all of the training pitches a while ago (can’t remember exactly when now) because we put them down as the cause / one of the causes for the number of injuries we were getting. They were a grass / synthetic hybrid if I remember correctly.
Thing is we’re still getting these injuries – Holding, Bellerin, Chambers all with ACL’s, Mari’s done his ankle and now Martinelli’s done his cartilage.
That doesn’t include Xhaka or Leno’s injuries.
SUGA, since pre-covid, where we were unbeaten, there’s been a pandemic, a paycut, contract issues and a lot of uncertainty.
We’ve had bad luck with injuries, we’ve been let down by senior players, and we’ve had a red card.
This season is a write off. That Jose is 5 points ahead with a better squad and Carlo is behind us, tells you that there was no easy fix for us this season.
CC This is about Pedro – I think he’s panicking because he built Arteta up to be on the level of Pep and Klopp and it’s not going smoothly. All of a sudden “inexperience” is a real thing and “squad poverty” has been proven after being dismissed. The once in a 100 year pandemic? All 20 PL clubs are having to deal with it, before the loss to Brighton and piss poor performance against City it was a blessing because it gave Arteta a pre season of sorts. Anyone being sensible knew that the rebuild after Wenger was going to… Read more »
“and Carlo is behind us,”
Er you do realise that Everton are playing Norwich at the moment?
There’s a good chance that Carlo will be ahead of us after we’ve played tomorrow.
I hope that isn’t the case but what I want and what I think will happen aren’t the same thing.
Pedro,
I do not believe in the ‘bad luck’ nonsense when it comes to injuries. Leno, fair enough, but Xhaka and Mari? They did it to themselves, what are they made of, glass? Where is the fitness conditioning?
Arteta had two full months to prepare the team in his image. What is this image exactly? Where is the game plan, character, balls?
Receding Hairline “Emmanuel Petit: ‘If I was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, I would leave Arsenal. It’s becoming an average club. I feel so sorry for the fans and all the people who love the club. I feel sorry for the former players that try to uphold the Arsenal reputation.’” What he should have said is that I feel sorry for the fans who gave their full support to the club during the years when we made the top 4 every year despite failing to add to the many trophies won during the Wenger era. He should have gone on to say ,… Read more »
Pedro the only way a coach can show his “brilliance “ is by making a group of players outperform massively their objectively observed talent level, or another words make the whole outperform their parts.
Arteta hasn’t done that yet.
Everything else is just an opinion based on some else’s opinion.
Saying anyone denying Arteta’s greatness must be a butt hurt Emery supporter is crazy talk.
Marc, you seem to be unable to follow changing situations. Your view is fixed, but you can’t adapt your thinking to how squad dynamics have changed. Think that’s what CC is alluding to.
To pedro
FA documents show that, from February 1 2019 to January 31 2020, Arsenal paid around £13.5m to intermediaries.
That’s considerably less than Liverpool (£30m), Man City (£29m) Man United (£27.5m) & Chelsea (£26m). Also less than Everton (£17m) & Leicester (£15m).
Pedro, I still think Arteta is the wrong man for this precise moment. He hasn’t got the capital to challenge the people running the club. We needed a manager with a reputation for running winning teams. However, I can see your point that the powers at be were never going to appoint someone who could challenge them. The Ornstein tweets just begin to add weight to what I said a few days ago about where we’ll be at the end of next season (between mid table and the relegation places). Kroenke needs to wake up. How do we wake him… Read more »
That Brighton twat took out Leno, where was the team character then? Nowhere, Leno had to give him shit on his own from the fucking stretcher. Bunch of ponces, the lot of them.
Tom, he was doing pretty well before the break. If you can’t see how bad the situation is now, tough to converse. I’ll take the stories coming from Ornstein and people close to the club over someone that doesn’t understand what the job is right now.
Pierre,
‘Free flowing football’. We must have been watching a different team for the last decade. The last season when it was a thing was 07/08
Suga3
“Arteta had two full months to prepare the team in his image. What is this image exactly”
Of course he did, every day during lockdown he had the whole squad on the training pitch working on fitness and tactics , because lockdown didn’t apply to Arsenal football club did it.
Alexis
Where did you get those numbers because if they are true Pedro’s going to look really daft (I’m being so polite!).
“look at the Delaney piece today,”
Always knew Delaney was one of your sources when it comes to how amazing Arteta is.
Pierre,
Yawn. Lockdown, schmockdown. Surely, we could afford testing the players daily?
“This is about Pedro – I think he’s panicking because he built Arteta up to be on the level of Pep and Klopp and it’s not going smoothly.” Don’t agree at all, I think that’s a projection you’re putting out there. Pedro has never said Arteta is on the level of Pep and Klopp, he’s always maintained he’s a candidate that could be “our” version of a Pep who comes right in with modern ideas and takes to it right away. I also think he’s pushing back against the gaggle of players that are using the current meek output as… Read more »
Aston villa cup final was as free flowing as you will find , and before you say ” it was only villa” in a whiny voice, I would like to point out that I have attended cup finals over the years in which we have lost to Swindon, leeds twice , Ipswich, Valencia west ham and Luton.
A cup final is never a certainty.
I could also point out that in wengers last season , his last eight home games were won 7 drawn 1 , scoring at over 3 goals a game on average, FREE FLOWING FOOTBALL.
This is le untold
*gaggle of posters…..not players
“Tom, he was doing pretty well before the break.” After the New Years Day match our results: Palace A draw – same a what Emery did last season Sheffield Utd H draw – Emery won all of his home matches against promoted sides last season Chelsea A draw – good result Burnley A draw – Emery got a win there last season Newcastle H win – 4 goal margin good result Everton H win – conceded 2 at home against a team we’ve taken more points off than any other a wins a win though West Ham H win I’d… Read more »
This is very accurate.
If you read it and think, ‘why aren’t we top 2 right now’, then there’s not much I can do.
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/arsenal-news-mikel-arteta-sanllehi-mislintat-joorabchian-luiz-a9580756.html?amp
Pedro, not sure how COVID turned Arteta into a poor judge of a player. Let’s not forget that he’s championed Xhaka, Luiz, and was desperate to sign Soares and Mari.
The one upside is that if he can turn that mediocre bunch into a successful team we’ll know he really does have something about him.
Pedro
I understand very well how difficult his job has been and will continue to be well into the next season, but nothing Arteta has done thus far screams greatness to me.
I would describe it as adequate on the pitch and above adequate off the pitch.
Pierre
Who did Villa beat in the Semi’s that year?
For those who care to read the Miguel Delaney piece
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/arsenal-news-mikel-arteta-sanllehi-mislintat-joorabchian-luiz-a9580756.html
Basically throws everyone under the bus bar Arteta
Lets hope results improve and we see some evidence of coaching on the pitch during games or we will keep reading articles like this blaming everyone but the coach
Pierre: “I would like to point out that I have attended cup finals over the years in which we have lost to Swindon, leeds twice , Ipswich, Valencia west ham and Luton.”
Ever considered that you just might be Arsenal’s kryptonite?
Terraloon The stink about Luiz originates from Pedro’s comments about the Agent and Raul’s relationship plus some allegations about the June transfer which turned out to be false. Arsenal’s defensive performance following arrival of Arteta and until the season went into lockdown improved. We conceded a couple of bad goals away against Chelsea in last 10 minutes and a poor end game against Olympiacos at home where we conceded two poor goals. Otherwise the performance level until last 2 games seemed to stabilise. Part of the defensive weakness in team is down to midfield performance. As I have posted many… Read more »
I get that he does not want to upset his new bosses, but what Arteta is saying to the fans ( indirectly) is that , even though you know these players are shit, I want to retain them.
It does not come across very good.
Luiz is a good communicator and passer? Also a red card every game in the making.
There is something very fishy at the club.
I also have a big questions over what the fuck EDU actually does or has done for US.
Pierre
“””””The lowest of the low if you ask me, at least Pedro is prepared to put his money where his mouth is , unlike some others on here.”””””
Absolutely,
As I recently stated PedRo is the Arsene Wenger of the Arsenal blogging world.
And this is his 8-2 Old Trafford** moment ( re: Arteta extending the Luiz deal )
But like our legendary Wenger he will dust himself down and keep calm and carry on.
But it just wont be with Arteta. Arteta is toast.
** Wenger finishing a miraculous 3rd that season.
Pedro Oh dear looks like the numbers are out – we paid out just over £3 million more last summer and in Jan to agents than we did the period before. A total of £13,556,101 on 5 transfers totaling circa £135 million plus 3 loan deals. How did we pay £6 million to Luiz’s agent if that’s almost half of the total spend? How did we pay millions upon millions to agents on the Pepe deal? Didn’t someone quote he’d seen numbers between £20 and £30 million? It’s still a lot of money that I’d prefer to see stay in… Read more »
And how is our Technical Director represented by an agent??? Kia
They are not players. They are individuals. Why be represented by an agent.
Already there has been a conflict of interest with Kia. I agree with Pedro on this one.
Andy
I’ve seen us win a few times as well
“the entitled fans who disrespected the club for so many years are now seeing that actually things were not so bad”
Translation:
“careful what you wish for”
Pierre playing all his old hits from the other day.
‘Pedro has never said Arteta is on the level of Pep and Klopp, he’s always maintained he’s a candidate that could be “our” version of a Pep who comes right in with modern ideas and takes to it right away.”
Not so fast, Pedro refers to Arteta as “world class” all the time.
Maybe Pep and Klopp are in a stratospheric class, above “world class”. World class is the new division 2 of managers.
I was heartened to admit that Arteta has ZERO experience when he was appointed because he spent the last year arguing otherwise.
Marc
“Pierre Who did Villa beat in the Semi’s that year?”
Klopp’s Liverpool..
Pierre
Really? Wow and of course we were then thrashed by Villa right? I don’t remember must of been pissed!
See this is what fucks me off – agendas. I wanted Wenger gone but I can appreciate that not every thing he did was bad.
Emmanuel Petit is really furious about the extension of Luiz’s contract. “‘David Luiz hasn’t been a proper footballer for about three years,’ Petit told Paddy Power. ‘But I’m not surprised that he has been given a new contract at Arsenal, because I’ve been very disappointed in relation to the club’s activity in the transfer market. ‘If I was David Luiz, of course I would sign a new deal and I would also say a prayer of thanks to the Arsenal directors every time I wake up. Even when he last won the Premier League with Chelsea, he’s not the same… Read more »
*Luiz will be the albatross around Arteta’s neck.
Marc
The figures you have just posted confirm the dangers of false rumours.
When Pedro first made the allegations I suggested that the contracts and
financial arrangements were negotiated by the MD and Lawyer and not by
Raul.
Also it is highly unlikely that the Kroenke family would have sanctioned payments, which were out of the ordinary. They may not be “football astute”
but I doubt that they are financially stupid.
The only element of the three deals, which maybe we could question is the
relationship between Raul and the agent.
Dissenter
You’ll find out on Sunday!