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
Terraloon Do you really think the Kroenke’s, with the losses we are making are going to allow millions to just be paid out with out good reason? Do you think they won’t have their accountants checking all the numbers and asking “why are we paying Kia’s dog £6 million” for guard dog duties”? We all know in business the wheels get lubricated a little – something companies have to be very careful of today but the claims on here have implied numbers hitting £30 million, £40 million or more. If the claims were reasonable I’d give them some thought and… Read more »
Malinovski at Atalanta looks a player.
Pedro
So you can’t argue the numbers so now you’re saying I don’t exist.
I pity your kids when the tooth fairy comes – “I’m not paying out because Amy Lawrence said the Tooth Fairy’s taking back handers from dentists”.
Terraloon, a masterpiece of a comment.
Look at Ox going to win the title today
Marc, again, you drop these no context statements that don’t marry with reality.
Terraloon just explained that report and you still don’t understand.
Regardless, the point about agents isn’t just the fees… it’s the shit recommendations that aren’t moving us forward.
I’d give Raiola £12m for Haaland.
Yes agents or not, we are picking up shit players. We are holding onto shit players
shit man
Marc
As I explained agents it’s highly likely that part of the sums involved will have been paid via payroll, some quite probably will not be paid for some while.
Of course the Kronkes will be all over the sums being paid to agents but my point is and remains you can not say with any assurance that the sums recorded are the final amounts due to agents in respect of the summer 19 or January 20 windows.
“Regardless, the point about agents isn’t just the fees… it’s the shit recommendations that aren’t moving us forward.”
OK so we’re not chucking money about we’re just signing bad players.
Pedro – please rate all of Mislintat’s signings out of 10?
Mislintat gets WAY to much stick on here.
“There struggling to find one quiet enough for the Emirates!”
It would be cool if there were a third option for broadcast audio choices, one where they added cartoonish sound effects likes “boing!”, “doh!”, explosions, rockets, farts, etc.
Radio
Not up to the Turkish womens league but she had the spirit!
Terraloon Very probably not but the figures still show we’re operating in a window that is not wildly out of step with other clubs. This argument has been created to attack Sanllehi without any credible evidence – Amy said so isn’t credible. Can you imagine how quickly the numbers would be embraced by Pedro, Valentin etc if they showed we’d spent £35 million on agent fees? If the numbers are spread we’ll see a continual hockey stick increase that is out of line with our transfer spend. That’s assuming the Kroenke’s just allow tens of millions to be pissed out… Read more »
, it’s the simple fact you continuously overlook that one he an entire preseason and I put on what he needed for the following campaign injected into the squad; meanwhile the other took over at Xmas with no such scope, his task was to arrest a complete nosedive.
But Pedro is saying the opposite. Raul is in charge player recruitment so Emery got the players provided for him same way Arteta is getting the players Raul is signing
Sal
Really I don’t think he get’s enough. Spent a load of money and only one decent signing but he’s still someone we should listen too because he knows best.
So super agents are saving Arsenal money? 🤦🏽♂️😀
Marc
What’s the penalty for clubs not reporting agent fees to the FA.
There’s such a thing as creative reporting or accounting
Sal
Can’t believe 8 years has passed since those Turkish delights.
Dissenter
As I understand it the fees to agents payable by clubs are actually paid via the FA.
Let me state it clearly for those at the back to hear. I have no problem with Arteta and I believe he deserves more time. I have always said player poverty is a thing and a lot of our players are living on past reputation and over hyping. My issue is with Pedro and those who said player poverty isn’t a thing now saying Arteta needs time to get players….. What players? After you spent all of last year saying the squad is good enough? Emery got the players that were provided for him (Pepe instead of Zaha, Torriera instead… Read more »
Dissenter
A damn good thrashing followed by having to listen to Pedro whine on about data driven analytics.
Dissenter
“There’s such a thing as creative reporting or accounting”
On a serious not yes of course there is but that would infer that the Kroenke’s are all OK with tens of millions being paid out in covert payments.
Why would they agree to this?
Malinovski with a cracker!
Great match
Azed, player poverty wasn’t a problem before the break… then contracts expired, players were linked to other clubs and some senior players weren’t offered the deals they wanted.
Unless you think that is irrelevant.
Oh, we also suffered a pandemic.
“Oh, we also suffered a pandemic.”
So have 19 other PL teams.
fiszman screwed us selling to Kronke instead of Usmanov
He was ill so his judgment must have been in question.
Players, managers, coaches, and agents can move on we as fans are stuck in this mire of shit we are witnessing.
It hurts to see how badly run we really are.
Azed No you fail to grasp that the manager has an influence even if you want to debate whether or not he’s making the final choice for the player that eventually signs. You think saying ‘Emery wanted Zaha not Pepe’ absolves your man but the simple fact is he wanted a winger of considerable ability and he got one even if the very final toss up was decided by another. Arteta is getting players he wants in terms of position and squad need. That’s why it’s pertinent to point out Emery brought in 5 players and had a summer to… Read more »
“If you think the squad was good enough last year and Arteta is a better coach than Emery, Arteta should be doing better with this same set of players. It’s that simple.“ No, it would be this simple if Arteta and Emery were cut from the same cloth as managers with their philosophy but it’s well established that isn’t the case. Immediately in Jan Arteta asked for a left-sided CB because he feels that’s a huge benefit to the way he wants to play. These decisions don’t just roll over. Numerous personnel won’t suit what Arteta wants to do with… Read more »
“We had a base quality when Wenger left that was enhanced to Emery’s taste with 75 mil added net. ”
You really have no clue of how Emery wants to play.
“So have 19 other PL teams.”
How many are into there 3rd manager.
“Can’t believe 8 years has passed since those Turkish delights.”
Incredible, to think we are still shit.
“You really have no clue of how Emery wants to play.“
Must’ve been another guy managing us for 18 months then
Azed, the players didn’t understand how Emery wanted to play, hence his firing.
Sal
We are not on our 3rd manager this season, we had Emery, then a care taker for a 3/4 games and then Arteta was appointed.
Jesus – I don’t mind genuine reasons or even excuses but it’s like people look for bollocks.
Pedro
How does Arteta want to play? Because I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who doesn’t see a clear plan.
They will be dancing in the streets of Tottenham tonight after Sp*rs fans heard about Arsenal’s contracts. Glad we could make someones day.
Teams have gotten wise to the fact attack wherever Luiz is because he will help you win the game. 2014 WC Semi 7:1 result.
Pedro
Arteta must not be getting his message across then.
Why are we delaying the inevitable and not sacking him this season.
Big clubs don’t faff about like we do..
Azed
Not exactly true when it was clear as day the organisational changes that were being seen before the break.
Course you’ve just walked into the obvious, in that Artet hasn’t had the luxury of time that Emery did when he tipped up. Melon
Can we stop with this Pandemic talk…?
Every team has had to deal with it.
How we dealt with it, is how we dealt with it and we have to live with that.
Champagne charlie
You’re promoting a novice with no experience at coaching a team at any level. …for that I’m giving you 2 lol lol
Marc,
Jeez man its still another set of hands training the side over the course of that month or how ever long it was. Another philosophy.
It doesn’t dismiss fact Arteta’s side has been appalling since restart for a host of reasons but everything has effect.
https://theshortfuse.sbnation.com/2020/6/24/21302332/bukayo-saka-new-contract-expected-soon-mikel-arteta-arsenal-premier-league-roster-rebuild “I am very positive that everything is going to be done with Bukayo very shortly. The communications between the club, agents and the family has been going on for months and is very fluent. The player and family knows how much trust I have in him. He is just showing that every week and his consistency level is getting better and better. I’m so excited with the young players that we have. They just need the right environment around them to explode and Bukayo is doing that, even in difficult circumstances, which is even more merit for him.” Good… Read more »
“Incredible, to think we are still shit.”
Haha sad and true.
Easy to get sucked in in all the shitness. But there’s a lot of football outside of Arsenal. Atalanta vs Lazio was very enjoyable. Something very good is happening at Atalanta.
Freddie
“Good news at last.”
You haven’t see the VAT bill that’s coming. Makes Ozil’s salary look like petty cash.
Give Saka a 300 percent raise
To 90k pw
He ain’t going anywhere then
Pedro is beyond redemption now
Level 3 of the AKB manual
Its everybody’s and everything fault except you know who 😂
Its going to be fun next season that’s for sure
G8, when you are begging for my forgiveness next year, I’ll be fair.
Pedro, It all depends of the objective of owners and what type of owner. At Lille, the objective is not to make money on the club but to make money via the buying and selling of players. So everything is geared toward that objective. If 3rd party ownership were still allowed, those guys will just buy football academies and make money by selling young players placed at specific clubs. As 3rd party ownership is banned, those private fund owned by agents owns a football club. In France most clubs do not have a European reputation, so in order to showcase… Read more »
Pedro, all I want is to beg for your forgiveness tomorrow 8 pm lol
We have had reports today that Arsenal have concluded 3 Deals with Luiz, Soares and Mari all of whom I would classify as bench players. The club are rumoured also to be on point of signing a new contract with Saka. Saliba and Smith- Rowe will also be returning to the club this summer and joining the first team squad. So any further transfer business will in my view be dependent on who is offloaded this Summer. The players I would offload are MUSTAFI SOKRATIS MAVROPANOS ELNENY CEBALLOS MAITLAND-NILES GUENDOUZI MKHITARYAN OZIL LACAZETTE I would focus then on recruiting 3… Read more »
Why are we always in the eye of the storm.
Always the club in financial crisis.
Always the club that can’t close the deal
and complete transfers.
Always the Almost-Signed Him club.
Always the club with key players running
Down their contracts.
Always the club that over pays for scrubs.
Always the club that overpays scrubs.
Always the club with Open civil unrest
amongst the fan base.
We are well and truly fcuked as a Club!
This is so bad
Why Mikel why?
Is David Luiz really worth all the bull crap?
Really?
Arteta knew Mari from their city days. I believed he sanctioned the buy. City wanted a right back to replace Danilo I believe Cedric Soares was one of the players City looked at. Arteta surely sanctioned this buy too. As for David Luiz, he is a leader in our team. Aubameyang is a good player but not a leader. Ozil will never be a leader. The 2 players that come close to Luiz are sokratis and Xhaka. And Arteta needs a leader in the team. I believe that’s why he pushed for the Luiz deal. At the end of the… Read more »
Nice post bee
If David Luiz is on the team for leadership
then we are better off with no damn leaders!
Why stick with a leader who has us down in the bottom half of the table? And Luiz has been the weak link in every team he’s played in that won something.
This is the problem with Arsenal. Not ruthless enough. We desperately need to twist not stick.
All those four that you mention leave then we should have some Funds to bring in proper leadership.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8457497/Former-Arsenal-head-recruitment-Sven-Mislintat-calls-Gunners-dysfunctional-club.html
Apologies if this was linked yesterday but Sven has called it
Charlie Arteta has had a couple of months of competitive football followed by many months off, where he’s had loads of time to help instill his tactics, vision, plan etc. the idea that he’s still short of a preseason is not serious He did inherit a mess from emery, for sure. But that mess was also a slightly more talented and clearly better balanced squad than emery inherited and emery was walking in off the back of a 20+ year manager which is an enormous ask. I don’t rate emery at all, after a good start he did a crap… Read more »
Luiz has an option for year 2 and the club did it. I think Saliba and Mari will be our starters . Maybe. Mustafi Luiz should be a bench and cup player There is too much chumminess going on at arsenal with the execs , agents and players Ruthless is what we need to change Soft and chummy is not going to move the needle much I do hope we go hard for Partey and 2 more mids… there is no shortage in the world of mids… Will not surprise me if another agent Raul knows sells us his client…… Read more »
Spot on China
And please no more pandemic excuses… all teams had to deal with this
Then break actually gave needed rest to staff and players
Time to train and get new ideas in.
So far nothing to show….. and our attack is woeful.
I pray we win tomorrow somehow
Guns, we have no money unfortunately and are still paying off the Pépé fee. It was a risk that hasn’t paid off and which will no doubt cost us CL qualification for the next few years (though we are more likely to be mid table anyway).
We are also unlikely to command much in the way of transfer fees for our outs though on the plus side, Our wage bill will be going down considerably.
Pedro,
Get over yourself , Arteta is a multimillionaire , He does not need this our any job , Guy could live in your ear, He is not part off the solution, He is part off the problem, Another would be if could be but can’t be, Anybody that stood ideally by and let this happen today is not an Arsenal Man,
We are Owned, Run by and Managed by Gutless, Pathetic, Losers and any person who contributes to this regime is an enemy off THE ARSENAL.
Club is a fucking embarrassment.
Mid table dross.
Also rans.
Relegation potentials.
Who gave David luiz the contract?
Stackable action.
Sackable*
GoH “We have to be realistic about our club. We’re a shit club with money. Which means we are cannon fodder for agents, shite players who want big deals or end of career players looking for one last pay day.” Spot on. We’re regarded as being the bag holders in the market. A club perpetually in crisis with some legacy money, who get left holding the bag of turd as markets shake out because we’re no longer shrewd operators, nor have any long-term strategy: just fighting fires and trying to keep some semblance of a straight face to the paying… Read more »
It was inevitable that a rookie coach would make mistakes. He talked the talk alright but appears unable to instigate any form of change which is really puzzling. Are we really any better off than we were, say under Freddie? We still appear to be rudderless both on and off the pitch. There are no natural leaders at the club period. This is worrying as it appears that the club is directed by non-footballing entities with vested financial interests. As such we will continue to struggle. We are now in a position where we are worried about playing Southampton! Let… Read more »
Mari Soares and luiz might all do a very good job for us over the coming years (dear god I hope so) and we’re all praying saliba is gonna be *dat guy* at CB, but what worries me is that really hope is all we’re now riding on It’s not like we’re looking really great on paper and odds are sooner or later we’ll explode into life, it all just feels incredibly speculative and hopeful rather than founded in logic We *desperately* need to upgrade the midfield. If we can’t get partey are there some under the radar diamonds out… Read more »
Read somewhere that kia might want to push Coutinho our way as well since he reps him.
I’m on the fence and depends on the costs
He will need to help us since we giving him lots of business!
Partey and Coutinho 🤔
Could be good
Our competitors for European places all have better squads than ours and many seem to be strengthening, while we will inevitably weaken while we pay off Pépé and probably lose our top goalscorer.
We should be writing off next season and looking to blood youngsters. Maybe that is the plan. Our CM is hugely depressing.
Hope we are looking to sort our mid with quality, and all this piss poor defender transfers are to save money. This may just be my positive side talking but I feel raul and co are pretty effective when it comes to buying players.
Fingers crossed we sort the midfield and the balance of the team.
It does look like Partey might happen, as we have player swap leverage on Atleti. And it seems the player might be interested (in the money we can offer him if nothing else)
We desperately need to get the midfield right. Both to take pressure of our calamity backline and to keep moving the ball forward to our strikers.
“….David Luiz is a character …. so were Laurel and Hardy but I wouldn’t want them in a back four either”
Priceless!
It is rumoured that it was Luiz that injured Martinelli in training………. Agent Luiz strikes again? Watch this space!
PedroJune 24, 2020 22:27:26
G8, when you are begging for my forgiveness next year, I’ll be fair.
Did you beg for forgiveness about Gazidis? Do it and we will be fair. Then we will proceed onto the next one.
Send Laca to Strasbourg get, ibrahima sissoko
Then get buendia
Players that need to be sold this summer:
Xhaka,
Ozil
Mustafi
Bellerin/ AMN (both are sh1t)
Auba/laca ( we can’t have both leave)
Sok
Chambers (any one stupid enough to buy an injured player?)
Is the club ruthless enough to do it? If it’s about rebuilding then yes, they have to be ruthless and sell these duds that are costing us money.
A better title would be “Is anyone paying attention AT Arsenal”!
Sean Dyche may be avaiable at the end of the season!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8457063/Sean-Dyche-eyeing-Burnley-exit-breakdown-relationship-chairman.html
Aussie
You are kidding right?
Aussie
You are kidding right? Luiz!!!
1$ Arteta leaves before Dyche
Before you all rejoice in the news that Saka (yes, the guy who hasn’t actually done anything in his career to date) signs his monster deal…remember that he hasn’t actually accomplished anything! No goals, no assists and generally…FA.
Well worth his £150,000pw! Another mind blowing decision on the relegation threatened Arsenal.
GOH
Well informed as usual. Saka has 3 goals and 9 assists this season mainly being played at left back, pretty decent numbers for an 18 year old.
He won’t be on anything close to 150k either, it’s not Dissenter that’s in charge of our wage policy.
https://www.premierleague.com/players/49481/Bukayo-Saka/stats
Piss. Fucking. Poor.
I’m afraid we are being treated like a bunch of twunts.
We will end up like Portsmouth or Leeds. Spending cash like it’s free but not getting the returns. Administration beckons.
Just to put into perspective the excuses regarding the pandemic Atalanta situated in the area most ravaged by Corona in Italy as well as Gasperini catching the virus as Arteta did have won their two games since resumption scoring seven goals in the process. We all know that Atalanta have been in a better place than Arsenal all season but the narrative has been from the excuse makers that Arteta had been doing alright before the virus but it has disrupted. Excuses, excuses. Last night’s matches Jimenez of Wolves scores another classic centre forward goal. Shame Arsenal can’t sign him… Read more »
Not very good at reading stats are you?
Yeah, he has 21 appearances in the PL, 6 of them as a sub and a majority as a left back, what did you expect? 10 goals 10 assists in the league alone?
From a 18 year old left winger played as left back? I know you’re unbelievably stupid but this is beyond what I thought was possible even for you.
FL
I don’t have to read the stats. They are available for everyone to see.
Whatever way you want to look at it, Saka is a Saka shit player.
I have seen zero evidence that he will be better than anyone else based on his age, contribution, physical ability etc.
I don’t want my club to sink even closer to the abyss by hanging themselves on a multi million/year contract on a total nobody.
My God – we’ve had 2 defeats and a load of you think the world is coming to an end. How do you deal with personal set-backs? Get a grip , stop moaning and just support the club
Not sure I agree that “things always work themselves out in the end”… Define “the end”. 10th with 10 more open spaces below? Look, I like Arteta but he has not moved the needle on how we play. We still pay the same turgid football that we did under Emery. We still struggle to move the ball forward from the keeper EVERY BLOODY TIME wasting loads of gametime in the process. Only to lose the ball as soon at gets to the front line. What has Arteta done to change this approach? We have speed upfront. Why aren’t we dropping… Read more »
Northbanker “””Get a grip , stop moaning and just support the club.”””””” Maybe it’s the not the 2 successive defeats but it’s the inevitable defeats that will surely follow. While the rest of the teams in the Prem are looking physically more imposing and stronger we are recruiting injured and pedestrian garbage AND at huge expense. If the rumour is true , and Luiz did injure Martinelli .( needs to be confirmed) Not only has he seen red at City, Chelsea after being on the pitch for less than 30 minutes and gave a penalty away at Anfield. He has… Read more »
What we need to see tonight is much more expansive and attacking play from the fullbacks. It is not acceptable that we didn’t see the fullbacks attacking until the real late stages of the game against a team like Brighton. Kolasinac likes to get forward and even Bellerin as he showed against Chelsea isn’t a complete mug attacking but question marks of course about him overall. Add to that Arteta has Tierney at his disposal as well who likes to get forward. Not acceptable the fullbacks hiding as we saw against Brighton and that would have been an instruction from… Read more »
It may be all gloom and doom at the moment but this time next year we will be celebrating the departure of Ozil – unless of course our management team renew his contract with an inflation increase.
There is too much blame game at the moment and not enough reality of the current state of the club. Arsenal are a club in “transition”. We have a lot of young players in the squad with very little first team experience. Some are very talented as has been proven this season i.e. Saka, Martinelli and Saliba. Others such as Guendouzi and Maitland-Niles are frankly less convincing. The club has also recruited over many years some very average and poor players. Last summer we offloaded quite a few of these. The question now is how many more can be offloaded… Read more »
“”””I want to make the point also which seems to be missed by most of the younger posters that pre Arsene Wenger the club was quite often a mid table team.””””” We have agreement ES They sure did. Wenger took over Arsenal just above mid table and having left only 68 games ago soon find they are back entrenched there. Coincidence? And there was no transition with Wenger. Constant Top ‘s and Trophies though. Here is CG ‘ suggestion. Sack the lot of them ( from Arteta to Hussey) And get the Dein And Wenger Double Act back in the… Read more »
“I know you’re unbelievably stupid but this is beyond what I thought was possible even for you.”
Careful Freddie GOH has got a fierce rep.
Any more comments like that and he’ll be on a plane after you and your family frothing at the mouth.
To say Saka is a poor (for a “better”) word is just GOH going out of his way as per to be the contrarian and garner attention. Saka is one of the few plus points in this squad and of this season.
Left
Pack it in. Let’s forget my choice of words for a second and look at the cold hard facts. What exactly has Saka done to garner this level of excitement and falling over backwards to get him to sign for the next 15 years on £50m a season?
As many, many people have said, he doesn’t even have a position nailed down yet but we’re prepared to throw the kitchen sink at him! Why?
I don’t need attention, but I am providing a counter to the hyperbole that goes off on here.
Tony
Oh, I’m well aware, those comments were aimed at me last time. Even if he has tried to walk them back many times after the fact.
He’s said many times he doesn’t even support the club anymore or watch the games so no surprise he hasn’t seen any evidence of Saka’s potential. He’s just here to troll as usual.
15 years 50m per season, smh.
He’ll likely be on 50-80k a week ffs.