Matteo G has been training on his own. Sad to see so much talent, with so little control. There are folk painting this as ‘caring too much’, but it’s nonsense. He’s badly behaved, he’s unpleasant to the staff, and he refuses to get on board the new direction the club is heading.
He had issues with Freddie before him, so it’s not just a Mikel thing.
So what do you do? Do you truly believe that elite players behave like this? They don’t. If he won’t play by the rules, he has to go. We’re not far enough along in the process to absorb a player like that. This is not Nik Anelka here. The delivery on the pitch doesn’t merit the problems off it.
Barca had something similar when Pep landed. He booted out problematic players way more accomplished than Guen, all in the name of making sure Messi and the kids coming behind him could thrive. Arsene Wenger did it when he landed, moving on senior players he thought were a bad influence.
We’re not quite Barca, or the squad Arsene inherited, but we have a lot of youngsters giving more than Matteo, and preferential treatment would not be helpful. That is Emery-style thinking.
The only shame of the blow-up is it might reduce interest in him, or lower the asking price.
I think it might work out well for us though. He’s a pretty sexy make-weight. Might be perfect for Simeone. He’d look like a smart move and allow them to save face on the Partey deal. Let’s see where it goes, but don’t cry over someone that thinks they make the rules at 20.
In news that I didn’t speak on, Tim Lewis joined the Arsenal board. I’m going to stick my neck out here and say that sort of hire from the Kroenke’s makes for ominous reading if you are Raul.
A few things stuck out for me:
- The KSE group don’t exactly have a lot of trusted confidantes in London. I’m pretty sure this guy worked with them on the stadium or takeover move. He’s trusted.
- Tim is a lawyer. They ask questions, they probe, they get to the bottom of things. What Arsenal need right now is someone assessing how we landed on deals and why we did them. Having someone with laser focus and the time to assess is going to be very valuable to the family. We don’t have a counter to Raul, a Clifford Chance partner; if activated with a mandate, is a force for good.
- He’s a ‘lifelong Arsenal fan.’ I don’t know the guy. I’ve never had a beer with him to assess how much a fan he is (‘DO YOU GO TO AWAY GAMES MATE’). But if he is like you or I and spends over 16 hours of screentime on Newsnow, reads all the blogs, pays for The Athletic, mainlines AFTV, and has a google alert set up to catch transfer stories from Eastern Europe and beyond, my hope is he gives a fuck about Arsenal and wants the club to do right by the fans.
- This move has happened as leading bloggers and journos write about the wacky goings-on at Arsenal… combined with very senior people at the club clearly leaking hard. I just do not believe that billionaires don’t pay attention to their most valuable assets. For me, being a total amateur, this looks like a statement addition to the hierachy.
My hope, at the absolute minimum, is this means Raul and Edu have a very long think about how they want to conduct this summer. Do they want to bring in players that have been recommended by Arsenal people? Or do they want to continue suckling the contacts teet of Kia and Canales?
We shall see. We’re rooting for you, Tim.
Arsenal has a huge game later today. Spurs beat Everton in a horrendous game. We need to make some space before Sunday. If we go to 52 points, and beat Spurs, we’ll be 4 points clear of them with 3 games to go. Lose tomorrow, and lose Sunday, we are in biiiiiig trouble.
Let’s see what we’ve got.
I’ll leave you with a solo podcast. It’s a good one. So listen. x
Nice one, Eddie. Rush of blood to the head.
You can’t watch that in slow motion. Real speed shows you that is a mistake and not serious foul play.
Fuck
looking red
Nketiah fucking idiot.
Long 20 or so to go now
Terrible substitutions!
yup
Oh Fuck sake. Here we go.
Fuck off. Eddie is not that sort of person.
Ok kid. No issue. This galvanise the team!
Move Auba central
Fucking joke.
Played it over and over until it was a red card. Cunts.
Harsh red.
If we see this off i wouldn’t actually mind that lol..Never rated Nkieteah
Fuck
That’s really harsh.
Shame for Eddie.
Over enthusiastic and yes very rash
Two players went for the ball…one player withdrew at the last moment.
It looks worse on the replay.
Bollocks to that VAR decision . It was not even deliberate!!
Fucking cunt of a ref.
Not a red for me.
These cunts have been committing fouls all evening and nothing.
Need a goal… shit
No laca no saka
Need another attacker on
Lets see what we are made of
Does anyone actually think willow is any good?
Can’t see the fuss about him.
The ref looked at it once from one angle that’s bull
Stupid stupid stupid challenge from eddie
Vardy kicks Mustafi in the head and not a second look. Shitbags.
Perfect example of how a slowmo makes a challenge look worse than it is.
Just the 37 replays to convince themselves, absolute rubbish.
AMN on for Tierney ?
“Who holds these curbs accountable? Shit decision”
Think that would be the local council pow
Why the fuck do we always make it miserable for ourselves
Fuck VAR
Yeah if this would’ve been Guendo ….. ahh never mind whatever ….
we going to try and hang on for 12 mins
Long 10 minutes coming up
@CC –
“Just the 37 replays to convince themselves, absolute rubbish.”
Exactly. played it over and over until it was a red, haven’t seen it been done before. No shock at all it happens against us.
If that was against us I expect most on here would call it a red. Straight leg, high, studs into the knee. Silly, but he’s young.
“You can’t watch that in slow motion. Real speed shows you that is a mistake and not serious foul play.“
Unfortunately refs don’t think much of the intent Slow mo of course looks bad Seen worse and not carded.
So VAR can’t decide if it’s a red card or not but the ref on the pitch can? Aren’t they both professional referees who are watching the same replays as we are? Having said that, it’s a clear red. Poor decision making by young Eddie there.
shit man
Appalling decision. Eddie didn’t catch the guy’s leg, he just clattered him. The angles didn’t show it clearly but you could see from the reaction there wasn’t contact with the boot. Shocking.
Yellow at best. How Evans and Bennett haven’t got their names in the book multiple times is beyond me. Positives – Tierney, Ceballos and so far (fingers crossed) Mustafi has put in a shift.
Un
I don’t give a fuck that Leno is a good shot stopper, because that litterally is all that he has to offer us.
He may be a good GK, but not with us.
I hope Mikel makes the right decision and gives the no1 shirt to Martinez, have Macey deputise and use the proceeds to get Partey in MF.
Team looks dejected… need a shot of something to get us going
It’s a straight red all day long. Studs up into Justin’s leg. Doesn’t need to have any malicious intent. Poor challenge.
Doesn’t matter how many replays, the ref took one look at it and sent Eddie off.
One of those from Vardy against Saka and we’d all be demanding a red. Fair’s fair.
Where is bloody Torreira, Arteta?
“If that was against us I expect most on here would call it a red. Straight leg, high, studs into the knee. Silly, but he’s young.”
Exactly, Andy.
Like Auba chasing left right and centre. Great pro
Re willock he’s gona become a reliable regular for us.. A lot more to come from him
Time for Barca dark arts Arsenal …. Fall down, waste time, surround the ref on every call.
You know the drill
The only substitution should’ve been Pepe for Saka, there was no need to over complicate anything
Our aerial duels still poor.
Engage time consuming mode boys!!
Un –
Yeah, and he missed. That’s how fouls are committed, generally.
No intent or malice from Eddie so how can it be a red.??
Oh fuck off Vardy
Well there you go, just what they wanted
Arteta don’t blow this bring Maitland-Niles … we need ball hawks.
Must strolling Xhaka play every damn second
VAR earn your corn and give us one back
Fuck off
Vardys such a c u next Tuesday aswell
cunts
Fuck off. Offside c’mon.
offside but they will give it anyway
Theyre gona go on to win this game now
Fuck!!!
Offside.
Pete touched the damn ball and vardy is offside
Not all reds need ‘intent’. It was a bad challenge because it his miss made it dangerous and he was sent off.
Now we concede. Fuck. Come on, VAR. Save us.
England player, 100% goal. Surprising nobody
Cmon has to be offside var balance it out
Perez went for the ball and was offside – dont obey your own rules fuckerz
I’m about to be sick … blame Laca and that idiot Nketiah.
Hope both are gone at the end of the season ….
Var sucks balls
VAR is fucking garbage.
*sigh* Hate Var. All I Can say.
So annoying ffs
I really don’t know what the fucker kola does, a part from fuck all!!
come on
VAR. Ffs. Easy decisions took minutes and this was quick.
Really saw the ball touched by Perez whatever VaR says
Well the refs have decided to piss us around, nothing new then.
And thanks to them that twat Vardy scores.
I thought the other guy played with the ball?!?!?! Did they even looked at it as if the other guy is touching the ball? No lines drawn or anything? They were like – we have shit replays we should give it??????????
Vardy was off
Fuming with that bullshit
Well we were never going to get into the CL places anyway. 1-1 with 10 men will be a good result against a more consistent and better team this season.
What the fuck is Luiz doing?
Btw. Mustafi was slow and let Vardy got to the call. At fault.
Mustafi gets a yellow for nothing after the ball had been passed…..
We had all those chances to put the game to bed though
We blew it.
Had a chance to sort the game out
And blew it!
So Typical
Arsenal being arsenal, always creating problems where there’s none
Perez never touched the ball and he didnt influence play.
Fuck me its annoying though. We had a good game but we really needed the second goal when we were dominating in the 1st half.
Personally I think vardy was off. Ffs.
Fuck this corrupt bent league
Book gray
Such a shame after our first half. Should’ve been 2 up at the break.
Now we can blame the ref for dropping points.
It doesnt matter whether Perez touches the ball or not – he made motion towards it from an offside position. It’s offside – why did they spend so long repeating Vardy’s starting position? 8 minutes added? FUCK OFF
8 min to keep the point.
Or surprise us with 3??
There will be 5 minutes of extra time.
We should throw everything at winning. A draw serves us as poorly as a loss
We didn’t turn up 2nd half
And we have some terrible footballers stinking the place out
1 goal lead is never enough eh
Irritated
Don’t think Leicester is all that
Fuck VAR
EIGHT minutes!!!