Arsenal flood fans with GOOD and TERRIBLE news. Where should you look?

by .

Arsenal aren’t messing around. They are flooding fans with so much news, they don’t know where to look. It’s an avalanche that almost looks like a distraction.

First, we won the FA Cup… hooray!

Then it’s leaked that we’re going back in the Kia trough for Willian… hmmm?

Then we officially tell the world we’re laying off 55 Arsenal workers… say what?

buuuuut… Coutinho… maybe… PARTEY?

Back to lay-offs. A large chunk of that sits in the recruitment department… names like McDermott and Cagigao… SAY WHAT?

THEN the David Ornstein of Lille newspapers announced that Gabriel Magalhães will be joining Arsenal as our right-sided centre back. That’s a fucking coup. Tall, aggressive, great on the ball, and one of the hottest young defensive talents in France (video)… SEXY?

Where do you start?

First, let’s start on the redundancies aspect of things.

There are two ways of looking at this. The first is that billionaire owners have some responsibility to stand up and be counted when the world is hurting. This was Wenger back in the day.

‘What matters to me is when you have a club with 600 employees you have the money to pay them at the end of the month.’

Letting go of 55 people when society is sick is heartless. Stan K is rumoured to have personally gained over $400m during the pandemic. The Walton Family, of which he is married into, has amassed $25 billion during the pandemic. Josh K said he wanted fans to ‘be proud’, I’m not sure slashing 55 peoples livelihoods at this time levels up to those words.

The other way to look at this is pure play capitalism: Never let a good crisis go to waste.

Businesses around the world have been given the cover of a pandemic to cut the fat and get lean. It’s grim, but there’s always 10% of a workforce that could be improved, and in this moment, there’s not only substandard talent to be rid of, there are also people that have nothing to do, so why keep them?

For me, this looks like a blend of self-sustaining-business-model ‘necessity,’ opportunism… and a bit of a power grab.

The biggest sledgehammer apparently went to the scouting department. That’s where a lot of the cuts will be directed. Are we really surprised though? The 3 years of Don Raul, Sven, and Edu was not the moment the weird recruitment started. We’ve been pretty bad at bringing through the cream for a very long time, so it’s hardly a surprise leadership is looking to upgrade there.

The big question Arsenal fans will have is: What is the plan post-lay-off-shake-up looking like? At the moment, this has the feel of a dictator hollowing out government institutions to concentrate power.

Most fans are spitting feathers because we’re not hiring in expert talent, we seem to have outsourced decision-making to cronies of Raul and Edu. Jason Rosenfeld of StatDNA quit, Sven Mislintat was moved on because he despised the approach, a whole collection of youth scouts didn’t have their contracts renewed, Cagigao who was promoted post-Sven is out, and Brian McDermot has apparently been moved on. We can pay £24m for David Luiz for a year, but can’t afford scouts and some corporate admin, really?

5 or so weeks ago, Kia J, the Shadow Tech Director numero 1 said this when he was asked about David Luiz’s deal.

‘There are several issues within the whole structure that will be resolved.’

Kia isn’t just a fee printing machine and an average talent spotter, he’s also clued into Arsenal’s restructuring plans that involved people losing their jobs. That comment on Talksport Radio now looks even more disgraceful than it did at the time. How can that not be a breach of trust or some sort of corporate protocol? It’s basically him admitting that ‘problems’ at Arsenal will be resolved. What problems were they I wonder? One can only speculate. Either way, if I came out and said something like that about one of my clients in the media, I’d be kicked off the business and I’d be in big trouble.

The whole thing is very sloppy. The worst thing is that Arsenal aren’t out ahead of these very obvious PR problems. That press release doesn’t cut it with a fanbase that chases down the planes of players on transfer deadline day. Where is Raul to explain what the future holds?

I understand that staff are having conversations this week on the redundancies, so maybe they are waiting to make things official before they come forward with a plan. However, from my understanding, if you make someone redundant, you have to kill the role, or the redundant parties can file for constructive dismissal. If the scouts are being made redundant in that 55, we can’t legally replace them, so we’ll be running with a severely depleted department or relying on junior talent to pick up a lot of important slack.

We’ll have to wait and see where that lands because I’m sure Arsenal’s head of HR is well aware of the law and will have made sure Arsenal has the maximum flex to do what is best for the club.

Regardless, I’ll say it again, days like this remind you that Arsenal is not being run properly. The lack of leadership, true expertise and empathy is palpable.

Gutting data, scouts, and dissent is not a plan, if KSE thinks it is, we’re in trouble. If cronyism is the strategy, watch Arsenal burn, I’m sure QPR fans loved it initially when Kia was pulling the strings at their place, ask them how they feel about that now. Ask Barcelona how their ‘we don’t need scouts’ approach has gone for them… no, ask Lionel Messi. We’re gravitating towards football structures most clubs are trying to get away from.

Doing things the hard way is the only way, shortcuts always end in tears, especially when super-agents are close by. Our infrastructure should be built out with elite specialists in every department. Technology and data should support experienced people making tough decisions. Our staff should feel empowered to find marginal gains, innovate processes, and eke out advantages where others aren’t looking. Raul should have the whole club pulling in the same direction with a grand vision for the ages. There should be no doubt about where his priorities lie because he should bleed Arsenal like Arteta and the fans do.

Still, there’s time for a plan. We might see it this summer. We might make some elite backroom hires in the vacant positions. We might mix it up with the players. I might be totally wrong about our leadership. This summer could be the one. My worry is that all the things I’ve told you to watch out for haven’t just happened, they’ve gotten markedly worse in a very short space of time.

This summer feels scary, promising, weird, exciting, and a little bit sad.

Fingers crossed it works out. We can’t afford another disaster. Arsenal has to get it right.

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Marko

Dissenter are you suggesting that we don’t offer Aubameyang a new contract in lue of 55 people losing their jobs? I mean let’s be honest here fuck 55 people losing their jobs if this club doesn’t improve it’s squad and continues to miss out on champions league football a lot more than 55 people will be out of work.

Dissenter

Marc
Do you recall when you wrote that 2.5 million wasn’t a big deal for a club like Arsenal.
Do you think that 2.5 million better spent would have helped mitigate this?

I’m not arguing that the club shouldn’t let people go but the type pf people you let go shows what your priorities are.
I don’t get all these dismissiveness of our scouts. Our scouts aren’t the reason we got into a mess. It’s the upper level management mistakes that got us here.

Words on a Blog

Cc,

Not sure if I agree that it was the scouts who were not fit for purpose.

If, for example, the scouts (who have no authority to contract new players) identified Auba as a key target when he was young and cheap before he went to St Étienne, and Wenger passes until he has success there and even more success at Dortmund Then that does not represent a failure in scouting.

Marc

Dissenter

Do you mean in January when we had a turnover of circa £400 million and before our income was decimated?

Marc

Un

You were almost on the end of some beached whale comments there!

Champagne Charlie

Hays travel have just laid off nearly 900 staff because of Covid, that’s from an overall head count of what was intended to be 5700 after a recruitment drive in November of last year – so probably closer to 4500 actual at the time of the cuts. Arsenal employs approximately 1200 staff and 55 are up for redundancy. It’s too left leaning a POV to state that the remaining staff should accommodate losses so that nobody becomes a victim in a damaged economy. Simply isn’t how business can operate, introducing morality is a really cheap and opportunistic attack on capitalism.… Read more »

Dissenter

Marko
I’m saying that any club that can pay two players that much money shouldn’t have problems retaining their scouts.
I’m railing about a short-termism that pervading this club and firing scouts at a time when good scouting is vital is silly.
If you tell me that Cigagio was fired because of poor performance then so be it but that’s the case, is it?

CG

Victoria Concordia Crescit

Victory Grows Through Harmony.

Not any more it does.

Freddie Ljungberg

Don

“given Southampton £5m”

Don, got a source for this that isn’t Dissenter?

it was reported as a 1m loan fee. Don’t know where people are getting 5m from.

He’s not on crazy wages as far as I know either in case people want to include that again in the cost for some reason.

Champagne Charlie

“Not sure if I agree that it was the scouts who were not fit for purpose.“

Every signing we’ve made has come recommended from our scouting department.

Name all of the players you personally wish we never bought and then sober to the fact our scouting department put them forward as a viable option for transfer.

Clearly there’s been incompetence and poor performance at several levels. But our executive staff are all changed, I see no merit why legacy scouting staff have earned a pass for our poor recruitment. Incredibly selective to pretend they’ve not been complicit.

Jamie

Bunch of communists on this blog thinking a business owner should keep paying staff occupying redundant roles indefinitely because he’s wealthy, or that he shouldn’t invest in other areas of the business until everyone at the club has a job for life.

Ashwin Gunner

After laying off 55 people, Arsenal formally make 21 million offer to Willian.

Let that sink in….

Marko

I am however pretty stunned that we’ve taken moves internally that aren’t well received by the players and such. That’s a real leadership concern for me, idk how the suits can cultivate a trustworthy relationship here if they’re telling everyone to take pay cuts to protect jobs and we bomb 55 employees. I agreed with everything you said up to this point. I personally don’t think trust comes into it I think players honestly need to know they’re place and their responsibility to the club. That people are being made redundant shouldn’t have absolutely anything to do with them taking… Read more »

Words on a Blog

Cc,

We can have a disagreement over whether our scouts were “complicit” or not in our poor recruitment under previous management.

Presumably we don’t disagree that the club needs a functioning scouting network, even if it can get by for a short while without one?

Jim Lahey

@Un – “Those aren’t my words but they do echo my thoughts” Apologies, I thought it was a direct quote, I was incorrect. So, I think we need to separate the footballing and day-to-day running side of things. Kia and the Cedric dealings both a huge waste of money, no one will argue that. But it is the footballing side of the club and the footballing side is the side where money is made allowing the club can go on employing hundreds of people. When the club asked the players to take a cut it was to save jobs. It… Read more »

Marc

Jamie

Maybe Pedro should re name the blog “Le Corbyn”

Marc

If the players feel so terrible about the 55 being laid off they could always club together and pay what they were earning until they all get new jobs.

Marko

I read Wenger talk about how close we came to signing Petr Cech and Didier Drogba. We came close — which means the scouts had done their jobs already. The cock-up wasn’t up to them.

Right but you do realize that we signed Almunia and Sanogo instead. You do get that right

SpanishDave

I can’t believe some of you guys.
Would you rather keep personnel and subsequently have no money to buy players which in turn looses us more money by sliding down the league?
The club exists by wining things and attracting revenue, that’s the first consideration.
We are not a charity and the government are not going to bail us out.
Get real

Words on a Blog

Marko,

Sanogo was always the Apple of Arsène’s Eye – please don’t lay that one on the poor scouts!

Marc

Dave

Funny how the concept of high performance and how you achieve it goes out the window when it’s a chance to have a pop at Sanllehi.

Dissenter

Freddie
All the media sources you and I have access to list the Soares loan as 5 million. I challenge you to post any tabloid/media post that says otherwise.

Some of it is disputable, but fact is we signed a player on a 6 months loan for at least 2.5 million loan fee when he was crocked. He was playing in a position that AMN could have covered adequately till at least the summer window started.

Thorough

If we actually do get Gabriel, dare I say we would have done better than getting our own Van Dijk, we would have gotten 2.

Fuck age, if these boys are good enough they are old enough.

Freddie Ljungberg

Don

You took the effort of cutting and pasting that article but you apparently didn’t read it.

We didn’t pay Southampton 5m, that’s what they saved. Not the same. At all.

Dissenter

Markp
“I read Wenger talk about how close we came to signing Petr Cech and Didier Drogba. We came close — which means the scouts had done their jobs already. The cock-up wasn’t up to them.Right but you do realize that we signed Almunia and Sanogo instead. You do get that right”

That was not the fault of the scout.
Even if scouting recommended Sanogo months other options [ scouting s not infallible]…the scout did not make Wenger persists with him for so long, same as Almunia.
It’s Wenger management decisions or indecisions that cost us, not the scouts.

Habesha Gooner

https://mobile.twitter.com/GoonerTaIk/status/1291379337267228672?p=v

Gabriel and Willian is a great start to the window, Ceballos coming too if Gooner talk is to be believed. Get Partey and Buendia and we will have a serious team.

Duzie

Hello Grovers. Well it has been a sad few hours for the club’s public image. However, we should look at this from an OPEX point of view. Yes, it may seem that the club is just cutting a few million pounds, but it is still money. I can imagine the second wave of the pandemic elongating the return to normal operations not only in the football industry, but different industries worldwide. It would not make sense to retain employees who are not going to do much over the next few months. Probably, now, roles will be merged. One person would… Read more »

Jim Lahey

@Un –

Yeah I mean the club aren’t going to coming out of this looking good.

But I would like to know how many jobs were actually saved due to the players taking a pay cut?

Marko

Sanogo was always the Apple of Arsène’s Eye – please don’t lay that one on the poor scouts!

He would have been scouted. Can’t be selective about the players we signed they would have been scouted. This whole well we missed out on Messi and Mbappe there’s nothing wrong with our scouts and then you realize that somewhere at some time there was an Arsenal scout who had Bischoff, Eisfeld, Sanogo, Park, Santos, Stephenovs, Squillaci fucking Kallstrom compiled on a list of players for us to sign.

Words on a Blog

Marc,

No one is being a Corbynista.

Everybody accepts, that especially in a downturn, and in order for the business to keep going, management and the owners have the right to lay of employees they don’t need, whilst largely protecting key employees, in this case the players.

But everybody also knows that it’s also an opportunity for senior management to make politically opportune layoffs of people who are inconvenient to their way of operating.

Dissenter

Marc
“Do you mean in January when we had a turnover of circa £400 million and before our income was decimated?”

Yes , even in January it was a lot f money,
You must be swimming in money if you think 2.5 million isn’t a lot of money in any context for a club with a revenue of just 400 million..

Freddie Ljungberg

Don

Arseblog? Ehm, ok. They apparently can’t read either or they also have an agenda. It wasn’t a 5m fee, or a 2.5m fee. Not reported anyway. So much misinformation being spread here it’s ridiculous.

Duzie

Also, how do we know the actual spend cuts which will be achieved from the downsizing/redundancy project?

Habesha Gooner

Dissenter still pushing this Cedric and 5 mil bullshit. And everyone is being conned in to these debate.

Habesha Gooner

this debate*

Marko

On a fair note, it would be great if the management offered compensation to the laid off employees, considering that it may be tough to get similar jobs in the football or other sports sub-industries.

They will.

In other news apparently Aubameyang is close to signing a new deal. The monster. Quick take it back I know 55 people who deserve it more

Marc

“You must be swimming in money if you think 2.5 million isn’t a lot of money in any context for a club with a revenue of just 400 million..”

Do I need to point out the glaring contradiction in that comment?

Dissenter

Jamie
You’re just being a bit dim with the communist remark, actually I’ll take that back. That communist remark was outright stupid.
You’re back to your baseline of throwing up straw men to fight against.

The argument is not about laying off workers. most understand the rationale. It is about who you choose to lay off.
Do you have problems with Arsenal still duplicating management positions like ‘director of footballing operations’ and ‘sporting director’?
Do tell you great disciple of Adam Smith.

Duzie

We need more squad-improvement-related news.

Auba signing should be the biggest statement.

karim

Un
Very powerful over short distances

That’s what she said

SpanishDave

Un
You Covid comments are spot on.
More people are dying from lack of NHS treatment than Covid yet blundering Boris blindly goes forth.
With regard to the club we have to trim down as nearly all clubs will before long.
We have too many employees and too many overpaid crap players all have to go in order to move forward.
In business if you don’t trim back early enough even more will loose their jobs.
Our scouting section is bloated and very poor.

Duzie

Marko,

I had seen some absolutely sanctimonious arguments on social media.

It seems they are forgetting that the football personnel are the most important.

I find the justification for Ozil’s lack of compliance with the wage cut policy incoherent.

Marko

I find the justification for Ozil’s lack of compliance with the wage cut policy incoherent.

Same. Also very important to remember his stance has never been about others losing their jobs it’s always been about whether or not another pay cut was possible down the line. That cunt only thinks about himself.

Jamie

Dissenter –

Hold fire on calling folk dim, yeah?

Maybe stick to recalling “the dismissiveness of many posters here when/being laughed at” you make your absurd predictions on the regular, and labelling internet point scoring “childish” when your dumb statements are read back to you.

I understand the argument perfectly well, thanks. 55 employees are being made redundant because the club no longer requires their services. List the names of everyone being released, and what their club responsibilities were so everyone here can understand your hysteria.

Marko

Don are you making a case for the scouts getting the sack by bringing up how little they did all those years under Wenger? Bold strategy

Dissenter

Marc
There’s no contradiction
2.5 million is a lot of money for a club with 400 million revenue
Squirm as much as you like. You dismissed 2.5 million as small money.

Jamie

It’s low-hanging fruit, Un

SpanishDave

The clubs income will drop dramatically this year as the government won’t let crowds come back until it has bankrupted everybody and nobody is ill ever again.
There is not exit strategy with this bad flu, panic when 30 people in 100,000 has a cough. Football will take years to recover the losses and most clubs have factored in big future profits which will not happen.
As ffp is dead in the water Man City will buy their way to the top again.

gambon

Auba new contract.

Along with Gabriel, Partey, Willian & Coutinho, that would be some window.

Sell Lacazette and sign a young CF and that would be a great summer.

Marko

Arsenal and Aubameyang have reached a verbal agreement. Auba has received assurances regarding new additions. [@TeleFootball]

Promising for the summer.

Freddie Ljungberg

Duzie I’ve seen Ozil being defended here and articles written to defend him on other Arsenal blogs. “He didn’t trust management and he was proven right” bullshit. If he had taken the wage cut maybe they would still be in a job, even better if he fucked off and we would have saved 18m. Same with all the rest of the dross that doesn’t want to move on because they “want to honour their contract” aka no one is stupid enough to pay me what Wenger and Gazidis did. Then you have special cases that think we’re wasting 27m if… Read more »

Marko

Good point. Sack the lot of em and hire AW as head of recruitment.

So hire the guy for the awful signings made over the years. Okay

Sid

Good that Karim is back
He is back for free!

Saliba being huge is emphasized by being around arsenal smurfs

Captain Tierney

No point in trying to figure out where we could have saved 2 mil or 3 mil or whatever the combined wages were for those 55 people. I’m guessing it was more than the 2 mil that is being assumed. Anyways this is Arsenal football club and even if their total salary was 5m or even 10m , if we wanted to preserve those jobs , we would have. For Stan , 5 or 10 mil is chump chump chump change. The guy reportedly earned 400mil in this depressed environment. Maybe this is just a fat trimming exercise, the club… Read more »

Champagne Charlie

“Presumably we don’t disagree that the club needs a functioning scouting network, even if it can get by for a short while without one?“ Of course it does, but I disagree that on the face of these cuts we no longer have one. I think that’s a bridge too far. 1) How many employees constitute our scouting network total? 2) How many are being let go? From what I read it’s half dozen to a dozen heads of regions that are off, plus some domestic under 18 positions. I think you’re talking like 5-10% of the total scouting network at… Read more »

Captain Tierney

took*

Dissenter

The Daily Mail is reporting that the Willian deal is 100k weekly for three years.
That’s not so bad.

CG

gambon

“”””””Along with Gabriel, Partey, Willian & Coutinho, that would be some window.””””””””

Looks like we will be winning the Transfer Window Trophy again.

2 years running now : win it again next year we can keep the bloody thing.

We will forget that we stunk the place out and finished 8th and we usurped mighty Burnley on the last game of the season.

Just another concoction of high profile names.
Everton style!

Marc

Dissenter

Yes there is.

“You must be swimming in money if you think 2.5 million isn’t a lot of money”

So £2.5 million is a lot of money.

“for a club with a revenue of just 400 million..”

But £400 million is not as it’s JUST £400 million

SpanishDave

Well done Un .
Not easy.
Auba news good maybe he knows who is coming in?
We need to see some dross going out.

Champagne Charlie

Auba close to signing a three year deal, and Bellerin fancies a move away after a decade at Arsenal.

Expect the usual suspect to reignite the ‘why are a EL team paying 250k to a player’ debate.

Looks as if Cedrics mammoth 5 mil signing is in anticipation of us losing Bellerin/AMN who will cost a lot more than 5 mil.

gambon

Dont see the likes of Cedric or NKetiah in the first team.

If Bellerin & Lacazette go, I fully expect us to buy a replacement.

Marko

If we negotiated a pay cut for the players on the basis it would save jobs at all levels You see that’s where I have my doubts that it was part of the discussions. First off how could they possibly guarantee that because A no one knows what the future holds least of all during a pandemic that was predicted to last 12-18 months until a vaccine was made and B these discussions were made if I remember before decisions were made on the return of football. It’s just as likely that discussions centered around pay cuts and not future… Read more »

Neil

Having worked in HR, I can tell you this is how it goes down Let’s just say you have (as an example) a Training Manager, and you want them out because they’re bloody useless, but really still need the position. First you make them redundant, but you can’t then immediately hire another Training Manager as that would be unfair dismissal. So what you do is you advertise (for instance) for a Skills Development Officer – or some other bullshit name. Same job, different title, with a slightly changed job scope in order to make it sound different enough to the… Read more »

CG

Cha Cha

“”””””Auba close to signing a three year deal, and Bellerin fancies a move away after a decade at Arsenal.””””

Another one joins The 1000 day club.

(Other members: Mary, Cedric, Willian)

The Gravy Train continues apace

Next stop……..?

Habesha Gooner

I don’t think anyone is sure about linking us to coutinho. Willian and Gabriel are being extensively targeted. Partey is also a target because we had a bid rejected. Dani ceballos is also being lined up for a loan with a permanent transfer in mind. Aubameyang is also set to sign a three year deal. Arteta knows what he wants.

Gabriel, Partey, Ceballos, new CAM, Willian is an amazing summer.

Marko

Can’t wait for a new RB. Christ we’ve needed a good one for a few years now.

Habesha Gooner

Gambon, Arteta like Nketiah. And auba is extremely fit. I don’t think we are buying one when there is also Martinelli to come back.

Habesha Gooner

likes*

Jamie

“Can’t wait for a new RB. Christ we’ve needed a good one for a few years now.”

Let’s rehire the 55 scouts who unearthed Lichtsteiner.

Marko

If AMN is our starting RB next season we’re finishing 8th. He’s dogshit let’s move on.

Emiratesstroller

CG

You are beginning to sound like the new RT. Got absolutely nothing to say which is remotely positive.

Marko

Let’s rehire the 55 scouts who unearthed Lichtsteiner.

Brilliant

Freddie Ljungberg

Marko I know you’re not a fan (to put it mildly) of AMN but if we sell Bellerin and sign Gabriel, Top CM and CAM, Willian and sign Auba up on a new deal I can live with AMN and Soares sharing that RB position for a year. Would still be incredible business done and Rome wasn’t built in a day. A replacement would be ideal of course but if it helps us fix the spine of the team I won’t complain. Different matter if we’re moving AMN on too, which seems less likely now than a couple of months… Read more »

gambon

Habesha,

Arteta may like Nketiah, but he also said youngsters have played too much football this season.

salparadisenyc

Lichsteiner so poor, Juve let him go on bossman with a smile.

Northbanker

We’re making redundancies because we have a bloated payroll and sometimes sadly you need a major event to take action I’ve been through many redundancies surviving as an employee and now making decisions as an employer So too have a huge number of my clients All I can say is that I cannot think of a single occasion in all of those experiences where there wasn’t a rooting out of the dead wood You would need a huge production line before it ever became a pure headcount. The payroll is the starting point but the real point is to get… Read more »

Duzie

Freddie,

Absolutely. Since he cares about causes, he should have shown example.

Marko

Has to be said as well between Aubameyang signing on and being given assurances on additions and Mikel’s comments on additions and being confident on bridging the gap quickly it surely must mean investment from the Kroenkes right?

Champagne Charlie

“Anyway. The whole thing is just cuntish charlie You’re defending Cunts being cunts because they’re bringing in a few Brazilian so that’s you placated and a card carrying lobbyist for the new regime. You must love Fulham on a Friday night. Or samba nights at the coliseum.“ Impressively stupid breakdown, well done. “Yes there have been duds but the squad was if sufficient quality to win a champions league place every season for 20 years Charlie and now it’s not so you tell me if the pervious methods were better than the current ones being employed.“ The current ones being… Read more »

CG

Es

“”””You are beginning to sound like the new RT. Got absolutely nothing to say which is remotely positive.””””

I will say something positive- when I feel there is something positive to say,
I don’t cheer-lead for no one.

If you think giving out lengthy contracts to overrated , over hyped players is a positive and noble thing to do during these Corona times- good for you.

I dont.
One year deals with incentives is the way to go

Take it or leave it.

Guns of SF

He often gives to the “oversized googly eye foundation” and the “tiny mouthed skinny headed turks” charity
2 causes close to the gaping hole where a human heart should be apparently

UN, come on man, your better than this……
Ozil indeed has many issues but helping those in need is not one of them… the fella is quite charitable for kids

Marko

Freddie I wouldn’t keep AMN for a season if it gets us to strengthen in other areas because they’re not mutually exclusive. Besides he’s not remotely good enough to start at RB for Arsenal. It’s all well and good strengthening in other areas and then hamstringing yourself by starting a RB who’s not good enough. Anyway I think Mikel wants a new RB anyway

Freddie Ljungberg

Oh, and get Ceballos in on another loan with option/obligation to buy. We need 3 midfielders to fix that area. None of our current option are good enough and only Ceballos has any potential to become a part of a fully functional top midfield. Helps our rebuild if we don’t have to shell out a permanent fee for him this summer too.

Marko

I’ve little interest if it’s being orchestrated by one man and a FM subscription. Because it’s progress.

Nice

Dissenter

The daily mail has photographs of Lebanese customs officials as they pried open the door of the port warehouse containing the ammonium nitrate …12 seconds before 2.5 kilotons of explosive force took over
That must be a very tragic photograph for the families of those man when their families see it.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8599453/Last-photo-emerges-firefighters-Beiruts-Warehouse-12-blast.html

Marko

Also Coutinho looks like it’s still on recent comments on us saying no and Kia saying nothing happens until the UCL is finished ties in nicely together.

Dissenter

“Let’s rehire the 55 scouts who unearthed Lichtsteiner.”

Every man knows that one was on Sven Mislintat

Freddie Ljungberg

Marko

I didn’t think you would. Just thinking practically. I’m not expecting all our squad issues to be sorted this window. If we can fix most of them it’s good enough for me and keeps us on track for a 3 year rebuild post Wenger.

Valentin

CC, I think that you overestimate the size of Arsenal scouting network. We have been losing people for the last 4 years. How many people do you think cover France, Belgium, Brazil, Argentina, ? I doubt that we have an army of scouts in Chili, Equator, Uruguay. For most regions the head of the scouting network is the entire scouting network. When Grimandi was in charge of France, he had friends/acquaintance who alerted him to some prodigy. Initially there was no formal scouts reporting to him. I think that when Grimandi left, there was just another one. If you get… Read more »

Habesha Gooner

It doesn’t make sense to buy another CF if we lose Lacazette. And Nketiah was playing in front of Lacazette this season. Even if Lacazette leaves we still have three C.Fs, Two of them can play on the wing too. So 7 players for three positions is more than enough.

LW Willian , Saka
C.F Auba, Martinelli, Nketiah
RW Pepe, Nelson

We are already stocked in attacking positions.

TR7

As per IMF, the coronavirus recession is going to be far more severe than the financial market crisis in 2008 and could end up being the most severe recession since the great depression in 1930s. Arsenal like most other business entities is staring at significant drop in revenue and nobody even knows when will things return to normalcy. That Arsenal has made 55 jobs redundant is not a surprise given the current grave financial situation but the fact that significant number of the casualties happen to be scouts suggest that there is more to the development than only financial constraints.… Read more »

Marko

I didn’t think you would. Just thinking practically. I’m not expecting all our squad issues to be sorted this window You know if we sell Bellerin and use the money from his departure that would be sorting an issue. AMN is reportedly linked with a 20 million move to Brighton you know 20 million could address the problem of a new starting RB. I don’t see why we should be forced into a situation where we have to have AMN and Cedric as our RB options for a season until we muster up enough whatever to get a new RB… Read more »

Champagne Charlie

Un
Of course you’d think some reductive nonsense is spot on. Imagine if we were going British you’d be making typos galore with the one hand stroking.

Val
Do enlighten me on the specific numbers associated with our scouting operation.

TR7

The argument that scouts are to be blamed for our poor record at spotting and signing good players is faulty. Arsenal are always linked to bright talents across the Europe but in most cases we lose out either due to low transfer fee or wages on offer or sometimes the decision makers don’t act on the inputs given by scouts.

Words on a Blog

Marko/Un,

Regarding a new right back, the only thing I can add is that at least our @Useless Redundant Scouts had nothing to do with AMN!

That was our @ExeptionalYouthTeamProfessionals.

Marko

the fact that significant number of the casualties happen to be scouts suggest that there is more to the development than only financial constraints

I mean you could spin it that way. You could also spin it underperforming department at the club is getting addressed. The idea that it was only going to be matchday personnel effected is a bit narrow. But again timing of it aside it’s very possible that changes to the scouting network have been in the works for a long time now much like the trimming of youth coaches and scouts not too long ago.

Guns of SF

A bit worrying is the image of our club.
Our PR team has not done a great job but to be frank,
Our team has been run so poorly over the years and I feel the once “classy” organization we were has been quite eroded into a club that is run clueless, with an owner who is absent and only concerned about $, and a club that is broke.

We can only run on the fumes of yesteryear so long…

The remedy is to win, simply put.

How that will happen with the other issues is quite alarming.

Freddie Ljungberg

Marko Sure, but we also need 3 new midfielders and a CB and we’re apparently signing a winger shortly. That’s already 5 new starters and although I’m not buying that we’re skint I don’t think we’re swimming it it either so it depends on who we can sell and what kind of fees we’re looking at. I’d be more than happy with a new starting RB but I’m not expecting it, more important positions to take care of. Last summer was already a vast improvement on our recent transfer activity and of those only really Luiz, Tierney and maybe Ceballos… Read more »