Well, there we are Arsenal fans. I’ve campaigned on Raul Sanllehi for about a year now, and finally, the club has acted and moved him on with a beautiful ‘mutual consent’ parting of ways. A staged exit works best for everyone in this situation.
It wasn’t just me, Arseblog, Gunnerblog, and Amy Lawrence all played a role in raising deep concerns about the way the club was run. I didn’t run my stories blindly, lots of information was fed my way about where to look. There was absolute horror at Arsenal about the way things were being run. Someone who had worked for Arsenal messaged me this last year after reading this post.
‘Last post = spot on. Sven warned everyone….’
That wasn’t the only leak. Lots of good people left the club and I have no doubt their exit interviews helped contribute to this most excellent culmination of a miserable chapter in Arsenal’s history.
So what went wrong for Raul?
He was a chancer. It’s as simple as that. He wormed his way into Ivan Gs ear as a fixer of deals. He wasn’t a leader, he didn’t have a vision, he had no clue how to run a professional football club. When you don’t know how to do something, what do you do? You look to other people to help you make decisions. In this case, Raul didn’t look internally, he looked to the deeply seedy world of super-agents.
I extensively covered some of the deals that looked wasteful yesterday, and there were lots of them. Nicolas Pepe played at a club with a murky structure, part run by one of his ex-colleagues, and we dropped an outrageous fee that didn’t line up with reality. Unai Emery told the press it was his agent that put him on the list to replace Arsene Wenger, Emery joined up with that agent just before he landed the job. The Luiz deal was disgusting. Agents were reportedly injected into the Leno deal. The Iwobi deal also had agents injected per The Athletic. Our Technical Director came from a favoured agent. We then used Edu’s agent to bring in Cedric Soares in January and we just inked Willian.
You don’t need to be a Clifford Chance partner to see potential glaring conflicts of interest that have come from our deals.
Nothing we did looked data-driven and lots of our deals looked very much in support of people Raul liked versus being in support of a better Arsenal.
I’ve pondered if he’d have survived if he’d delivered us Champions League or there wasn’t a pandemic. I don’t think so. I think the disgust at his modus operandi at Arsenal was becoming problematic for KSE. At the end of the day, he was wasting frugal billionaires money. I said months ago, you don’t make rich people look like mugs. I wrote at the time the hiring of Tim Lewis was ominous. He is one of the few trusted confidants the Kroenke’s have in London. From what I’m told, he asked all departments to give him information on their budgets and deals… then he landed on Raul’s department.
I honestly thought it would take longer, but average operators are often sloppy and I can’t imagine the paper trail of his decisions made for smart reading. If bloggers can see what is going on, can you imagine how easy it must have been for an elite lawyer who is an Arsenal fan to get to the bottom of the issues? Tim Lewis was appointed to Arsenal July 1st, by August 15th, Raul is out the door. That is incredibly efficient work that tells you Raul was not the sharpest tool in the box.
So where do we go from here?
Well, you should be fucking excited. 10 months ago we were looking over the wreckage of what Raul had done to Arsenal. We had Unai Emery bumbling on TV, we had a broken squad of uncoachables, we had a shit scouting setup, and there was no hope for our future.
Fast-forward to now and we are starting to looking like an actual football club. Our broken football process is dead. With Raul goes outsourced scouting, shit recommendations, and horrible management of our precious money.
We have one of the brightest young coaches in the world. He could be generational. He LOVES Arsenal and he’ll treat the club like it was his own.
The fans are united around the direction of the club. There’s no divide because there’s no divisive characters at the club now.
We’ve won an FA Cup. We have Europe next season. There will be a direction.
We are still skint, nothing will change that, but we now know that the same mistakes won’t be made moving forward.
Every decision will come from a good place, all in the name of a better Arsenal.
Vinai is now running Arsenal football club. He’s barely 40. I am extremely jealous of his achievements here. I’m told that he’s straight as they come and moving him up is a good thing. Split leadership was always a fucking joke, Netlfix share price dropped on news they were trying it. VV needs to hold everyone accountable to a high standard. It doesn’t matter that he doesn’t have a football background, you don’t need one to run an organization properly. Look at the mess Raul left and he was brought in because he got the game.
I’ve no idea what happens to Huss Fahmy. The guy inking contracts for all these agents and hangers-on must be worried right about now, but we’ll see.
The football side is all with Edu. I don’t think the concern with the Brazilian is that he’s up to no good, I think it’s that he might not be very good at Technical Direction. Some say that he’s been in Raul’s shadow. Whatever is going on, he’ll now have to be on his sharpest game, and he’ll have to prove that he knows what the fuck is going on. It’s a chance for him to shine and make some magic this summer.
Kia J must be feeling sheepish this morning. No doubt his embarrassing carry-on in the media added to the troubles for Raul. To have a super-agent brazenly share news on impending structural change at the club and then to slag off Sven was the inmates running the asylum type stuff. It was also a direct power challenge to the owners. Moving forward, Arsenal has to control super-agent influence. Any fees have to be signed off by a neutral party or a committee of sorts. We have to bring rigor to an ugly but necessary part of the business.
There are a number of people that are worried that this summer of recruitment will be run by Mikel Arteta and Edu. I wouldn’t worry too much about that. Arsenal didn’t fire all their scouts and end up with nothing. There is plenty of talent still at the club that can help with that side of things. I’ve no doubt that Arteta will have more of a leadership role now, but he’s not literally scouting players on his own. I’d also not worry about the fixer issues. What did Raul’s ‘fixing’ bring to the table? More complication. He added layers where they weren’t needed, he paid over the odds time and time again, and he allowed the decision-making process to be swayed by outside influences. Why would we miss that? We need to do things by the book and we need to be perceived as straight-shooters.
What I am interested in is how the profile of player changes. Arsenal shouldn’t be signing players like Willian, we should be finding 22 years olds that can become the next Willian. I want to see us looking at the right names, the club should shift focus to where the game is going, not where it has failed. Barcelona vs Bayern was a choose your own adventure for the future of football. Do you invest heavily in young talent for the future and base your decisions on data harvested by experts mapped to a vision? Or do you ignore your scouting department and throw money at big names recommended by super-agents like Barcelona have? No one doubts the talent at Barca, but the lack of coherent planning has led to some of the most wasteful years in their history.
I’d rather have a squad that looks like that of Bayern and Leipzig, bustling with young talent, explosive power, athleticism, and outrageous technical skills. I would like to bring in clever players that can understand complex systems and execute them with precision. That is where the game is heading. Edu and Arteta need to formalise a plan, share it with the fans, then get cracking.
We’ve rid ourselves of a cancer today. This was a good day for Arsenal football club. We now look like we have a direction. All the ingredients are there. Hunger, elite talent, young players, brilliant brand name, a huge stadium, and a massive desire from all that have remained to return us not to the top 4… but to the very top of world football. Who wouldn’t support that?
This is an exciting time to be an Arsenal fan. We’ve finally moved forward. I cannot tell you how thrilled I am that we can share the next 5 years together thinking about all the good that is happening. It’s been a long time since I felt this positive. I hope you feel the same way. This is going to be a fun, fun ride.
See you in the comments. x
Pedro While you were wetting yourself with the imminent arrivals of Sven & Raul double act and eulogising the 2nd coming of football gods, I saw things completely different in the same way as you saw the damning Emery effect long before it happened while I was giving Emery a season to achieve a way back to the CL. From the moment I read that Raul was being touted by Gazidis to be part of the new management team I knew it was wrong for the club. Further examination of Raul’s online history fuelled more posted disdain on my part.… Read more »
Whatever are the reasons for Raul’s departure I think that there is now clearer clarity in the way that the club is being run. First there was the appointment of Tim Lewis as a Non Executive Director. He is a senior partner of Global Firm of Solicitors Clifford Chance with commercial and corporate background. He has been recruited because of his links with Kroenke family and as AST suggest to improve Governance at Club, which has had issues in recent years. Second Vinal Venkatesham the current Managing Director is put in charge of the day to day running of the… Read more »
@stroller, I know it’s a truism, but we do need to bring some more “football” people in. (Aside from some more scrutiny on the commercial side of things).
Someone to help Arteta to articulate and drive his vision for the club.
Question is, who would we want (back)?
More than delighted with Raul’s departure. I used words like greasy, crooks, slimy, wheeler dealer and couple of days ago ‘big time crooks’ when posting about The Raul. KSE did something finally. But when things that didn’t (still don’t) make sense keep happening in a large ‘organisation’, it can’t be right and it took KSE too long to act. May be that’s how billionaires’ work. With the cancer surgically removed, Afc needs to look at the right kind of therapy whether chemotherapy, nature or Zen. Raul was Head of Football Crooks but he didn’t work alone all these times. Tim… Read more »
“Question is, who would we want (back)?”
Not Wenger for any reason.
We should be looking forward for new people with the possible exception of DB10 as a midfield/attacking coach.
A CEO and additions to the BoD should be experienced with demonstrated and transparent business and leadership success aged between 45 to 55.
Aoaur is Quality. Great dribbling , good vision , good passing , good work rate and good in the final 3rd. Still young and can become a genuinely world class player.
Would be a coup if we get him.
Check out this amazing twitter thread. The guy uses Patrick Viera’s data to find similar player U24
https://mobile.twitter.com/Tw3rcazette/status/1294696991780478978
Why are most of the tabloids reporting 220k per week for willian?
Too much is being made of this FA cup win, too much power is being ceded because of it. Edu/Arteta should not be running a football club the size of Arsenal because they are both green. Vinai doesn’t count as long as we are talking football. Soares,Mari and Willian are not here on long term deals because of Raul. Guendouzi’s value hasn’t plummeted in a matter of months because of Raul. I keep reading Pedro was right about Arteta but I really don’t see how that is the case. The target for this football club is get back into the… Read more »
Freddie. Yes I’d bet on Dominik Szoboszlai as part of Afc rehab than the expensive Coutinho anytime. Unless it’s a Wenger-basement bargain! The Luuz, Soares, and Mari deals should be more than scrutinised. In business ‘bad contracts’ could be renegotiated due to changing circumstances. Surely this is one such circumstance. Outta good faith and all, related and connected parties, even the players, should come to the party and work out amended terms that are more equitable. Why not? Don’t ask don’t get, and Afc has nothing to loose. Happy to retain Clifford and take the Chance! While at it, Tim… Read more »
I too am happy we have been rid of Sanlehi. I mentioned last summer, something looked fishy. To be fair, Mslintat before him was not much better. He was roughly recruiting from his old rollerdex with Dortmund although at least we landed Auba and Guendouzi so there were some hits. BUT our recruitment machine has been poor since Wenger relinquish control. Prior to that the issue was more of Wenger being pennywise pound foolish but he knew a good deal when he saw one and had the testicular fortitude to stare through a poker game to final hours of a… Read more »
Sorry for long ramble…lots to get off the chest. Vexing decade.
Renne-Adelaide, Gnabry now Guendouzi….Just saying.
For god sake, no Wenger please. We don’t need his sort at this juncture.
Young achiever, , ambitious, innovative people only. But, again, Edu isn’t the guy.
Now the biggest myth to bust.
Setting aside his love for Luiz, did Arteta really want Soares, Mari and Willian, as reported and cited quite widely?? Does Arteta really see AMN in Afc’ future?? It’d be a big worry if true (vs Arteta playing along while Raul was pulling rank)…
RH It’s no secret I’m not a fan of the FA cup as a trophy; it lost its magic a decade or so ago. However, it did get us the EL cup next season, so in our current football cycle it means more to the club than you would suggest. As for Arteta his brand of football was beginning to win important matches over the top 6, so at the very least Arteta should be given 15+ games next season to see if He really is the future for the club as head coach – not, as you rightly say,… Read more »
Messi without iniesta is still chasing CL
Im telling you for free
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/53762915
This just recently – Luis Campos.
Hablo Espanol Arteta?
While at it, Tim should talk some sense into Ozil. I’d appoint Ozil as the Chief Water Boy on match days if he plays hard ball. Or loan him to a Championship team to help him getting robust! What a spectacle that would make around the world.
This!!!!!!!
RH, The only reason why Arteta has so much influence on things is because the people above him were not up to the task. If the club corrects that and put in place the right people, then Arteta will be able to concentrate purely on the coaching side. It is clear that he is a great coach. He may still be learning the man management part as demonstrated by his heavy-handed approach to Guendouzi. The club needs a proper structure put in place with the right people starting with recruitment cell composed of 3 or 5 deciders. The manager should… Read more »
Anybody who wants Wengo back has to understand that he lost all credibility when he refused to accept or understand modern football governance.
Prior to his humiliation at the hands of Bayern I understood he was passed over anyway as they felt he could not work within their structure
So the little fella from Fantasy Island gets the boot from Arsenal.
No-one should be surprised as he didn’t really convince did he.
Now we have the fella who was previously stapling together the memos Vinai as the lone figurehead.
Jobs for the boys the lot of them.
Valentin and Tony we are all both saying the same thing. Who is Edu’s agent? What’s his track record for building teams? Has Arteta proven he can sustain results over the period of a regular premier league season? No…so why does it seem some are hell bent on handing him the keys to run a club with the problems of AFC? Yes Raul is gone and frankly I don’t see him as the demon or anything, he is gone for a reason though, so where do we go from there? An Edu/Arteta double act? I am not excited by that… Read more »
“This years FA cup was harder to win than the champions league”
This sort of nonsense was why Wenger stayed on longer then he should.
Some never learn.
Learn please.
Have to agree with Markymark in regards those calling for Wenger to return in an upstairs position.
As he pointed out Wenger was ousted with the accusations of being outdated and set in his older fashion ways.
The club wanted to look forward and try to get up to date without Wenger.
Mind you anything is possible because as was said before jobs for the boys isn’t it.
Vinai could be a secretary to Wenger. Could work.
Ishola who said this years FA cup was harder than the champions league? Surely no living person thinks that way.
Some poster who puts pride before sense. We are all happy to win the FA Cup and even happier that Arteta managed to win it in his first season but anyone that thinks winning an FA Cup in today’s football world equates to top team if it isn’t backed up by league position is off their rocker. We have been here before with Wenger’s FA Cup wins in his later years and the club moved forward by zero. In fact they regressed. Thankfully the club knows all is not well despite that FA Cup win as the sacking of that… Read more »
Absolute bonkers that comment from Un na about the FA Cup this season being harder to win than the Champions league.
Have you see the level of quality of football being played by even the likes of Leipzig and Lyon?
While everyone was over the moon and ecstatic about our FA Cup triumph, man in no way was that easier to win than the Champions league
At least the club are not resting on their laurels and maybe just maybe they are learning from recent past Arsenal football history.
Or the sacking of the little fella was just another cost cutting excercise by Arsenal.
Who really knows.
Oh it was Don…thought it was someone normally reasonable.
The two “top” teams we beat to win the FA cup are no longer in this years champion’s league, guess in his twisted mind it means we are on the same level under Arteta as the two teams in this years semifinal who beat Chelsea and City. You have to understand how someone like Un na nai thinks.
Ishola if we go into next season with Edu/Arteta running the show and Vinai happily nodding along I won’t be optimistic.
And while we are at it still no reasonable outgoings to talk about on the playing side. ESPN rated us a D for the Willian signing and Chelsea a C+ for selling him. Make of that what you will.
I wonder how much more money Raul was on in comparison to Vinai and Edu.
Let’s cut the fat meat shall we.
Nothing wrong with the decision though even if finance is really the key to it as Raul wasn’t up to much.
Thanks for the blogs, kept me sane throughout Raul’s reign. He was indeed a cancer, killing the club from the inside. Tim Lewis is a hero right now. I’m a very, very happy Gooner.
Receding Hairline
“if we go into next season with Edu/Arteta running the show and Vinai happily nodding along I won’t be optimistic.”
Does it really matter though from what was previous?
Minus Raul. May even be an improvement.
If Arsenal don’t get that midfield sorted it will be another season out of the CL. That midfield is not good enough over a 38 game EPL season.
I can see un’s point .
United, City, Chelsea and Arsenal were semi finalist in the FA cup .
Lyon, Leipzig, PSG and Munich.
Lyon .finished 7th in what we are often told on Le Grove that the french league is weak .
Leipzig….finished 3rd in the German league.
Yep, I can see his point.
Moar brazilians! Make the right choice Gabby.
“According to Le10 Sport, Lille defender Gabriel Magalhaes will now decide between joining Arsenal or Napoli after both had bids accepted.
It’s claimed that Arsenal and Napoli have both offered around €30million (£27million) for Gabriel, including ‘various bonuses’.
Lille have accepted both offers, meaning Gabriel must now decide between the two clubs in the coming days”
Receding
“ESPN rated us a D for the Willian signing and Chelsea a C+ for selling him. Make of that what you will.”
Scraping the barrel now, quoting ratings from ESPN…
Of course you can see his point Pierre , you think the FA cup is the holy grail of football because Wenger won it so many times. Who needs the UCL or a higher placed league finish when u can win the FA cup. United, City and Chelsea will be green with envy.
Yea ESPN is a reputable football outlet and they don’t think the Willian signing is all that, of course Its up to Willian to prove them wrong but they have had their say and I’m no less a fan for airing it.
Now back in your box
“ESPN rated us a D for the Willian signing and Chelsea a C+ for selling him. Make of that what you will.“
I’d give them an F for that sports reporting. C+ for offering a player an extension and him instead joining a rival? Makes so much sense, is that what “selling him” is classified as for ESPN?
‘Selling (verb): to receive no money for an asset you wish to keep a further two years’
Clearly written by a ‘soccer’ and ‘pk’ merchant.
We need a big appointment as DoF so that both Arteta and Edu report to. Edu might be useful for his South American connections and I assume he will really have some useful input in a technical sense. But someone in the know needs to be able to properly evaluate all of that and ensure we don’t just have a Raul lackey. I have said before we need to pull out all the stops to sign Marc Overmars as dof – who has done such a brilliant job at Ajax. I would be quite comfortable with a triumvirate of Overmars,… Read more »
Today’s lesson, boys and girls, is to distinguish between the Champions League and the FA Cup.
Apparently, some people on le-grove think the FA Cup is easier to win.
What do you think?
Pretty pictures can be drawn to explain your answers.
Bear in mind that no one takes the FA Cup seriously until the QF stage, whereas all teams in the CL are 100% committed from the pre-qualification stage.
Pierre
Sorry man, absolute glorious beating City and Chelsea to win the FA cup but for them to then go out and lose to Lyon and of course Chelsea had been out of the champions league when the draw was made against Bayern.
Shows the league is maybe not as hard as many like to think and if we got our shit together we could actually give the top teams in the league a run for their money
‘We need a big appointment as DoF so that both Arteta and Edu report to. ‘
Why do we need so many decision makers at Arsenal ? Arteta and Edu have already identified the areas that need strengthening and apparently we have a shortlist of players too. We have a finance head and a specialist dealmaker too. Do we really need a DoF ?
The gulf in quality is actually quite staggering really. Can go from trouncing Burnley or Norwich 7-0 to struggling against a Lyon defence that had Jason Dennayer but were absolutely resolute and filled with players who’d walk into a lot of the top 6 teams in England barring maybe Liverpool
Funny lad, MBappe…
https://twitter.com/kmbappe/status/1294741137392107520?s=21
Batistuta I think that was long proven with regards to the strength of the league, We were an Aubameyang penalty miss away from finishing third the season before or a home win against Brighton. Yet we were crap for large spells of that season.
United finished Third last season but were dog shit for most of it.
Liverpool won the league unopposed
So much for the strength of the EPL
TR7 personally I would replace Edu not add someone to the mix. I honestly don’t see the point of him. Lovely man but not what we need right now.
“ESPN rated us a D for the Willian signing and Chelsea a C+ for selling him. Make of that what you will.”
just means that chelsea had a garage (hopefully not garbage) sale and we helped out our London neighbour and bought something
How long before a news pops up about Wenger taking a director position at the club?
Would be interesting if it was to happen.
Receding
“Lovely man but not what we need right now.”
He clicks his fingers between his sentences and thus far has come up with David Luiz and Willian for Arsenal.
Certainly room for improvement from him.
And stop clicking those fucking fingers.
We need a competent CEO not another Chief DoF.
Edu likely not good enough and should b replaced asap. No sauce, in Pedro speak.
Receeding
Watch a lot of European football and you’d see exactly the stark difference in quality is quite huge. United barely got past Copenhagen and Wolves looked very ordinary against Sevilla.
Sure you’d get stuff like last season where you had 4 English teams in the European finals but those were two of the most boring finals ever and Pool didn’t even need to leave 2nd gear to beat Spurs.
Much prefer the one legged knockout format too, gives little old Arsenal hope going forward as we look every bit a cup team these days anyway
Got to say though as much as i really don’t care that much as long as they perform on the pitch, can we maybe not buy so many oldies? Probably not anyway as it looks pretty much like the goal is very much to get back into the top 4 next season as we should anyway as some of the teams that finished above us last season were absolutely poor minus the league winners that is
We desperately need to cut down the football being played. One leg tournament like the UEFA Cup would make sense and be more exciting and arguably competitive. Unfortunately nobody is going to accept a 50% reduction in the takings.
Lol @ Emery “unproven”. Maybe check what unproven means Don.
If you think winning the FA cup is showing your credentials then I don’t see how you can in the very same sentence call Emery unproven but then its you.
By the way not Everyone who doesn’t think the sun shines out of Arteta’s ass wants him to fail. No need for this militant defense of all he does.
Football management is a young person’s game these days. It’s moved on. Even Mourinho is an antique and he’s what, in his 50s?
We have Soares,Mari and Willian here on long term deals, all those deals vetoed by Arteta, so I don’t think you can say all indications are he should be completely trusted with team building, I don’t buy that.
Cedric, Mari and Willian ….players brought in for positions that needed strengthening for a total of 7.5 million in transfer fees.
Whether or not they are good enough, time will tell .
The real money will be spent on a deep lying / holding midfielder…
Thiago is the one player that would transform the team …pay him top dollar and try and get him in .
CC
ESPN probably rated us B+ for “selling” Ramsey to Juve last year lol
@Pierre, these are positions we need to bring in new first team players, not back up and squad players.
“We have Soares,Mari and Willian here on long term deals, all those deals vetoed by Arteta“
Grand total of 8 million down for all 3, meanwhile Cedric and Mari give scope for selling AMN/Bellerin and Sokratis/Holding.
Would love to hear all about how Willian isn’t the right calibre, you’ll have to pick your avenue though because if you criticise the fiscal matters then you’ll have to walk back the chat about the other two as that’s precisely where we’ve benefited there.
Maybe you’ll go down the lonely path of saying Willian is an average footballer?
R.H “”””We have Soares,Mari and Willian here on long term deals”””” And that’s why Huss Fahmey has to be the next one to go. He was supposedly brought in as the contracts whizz kid. He ain’t. He is just incompetent. He should get on his bike and stick to sorting out cyclists contracts. As for Viinny – how on this earth can this man get PROMOTED.?He has aligned himself with Raul and never once informed the owners about any misgivings during the last 18 months ( Lewis had to do his job and inform what was actually happening) Solely concerned… Read more »
God for bid Cedric, Mari and Willian perform to an adequate level or be consistent, What will people’s agenda look like then? Arteta was smart signing these three for a total of 8 mil. Willian will probably be a starter. Both Mari and Cedric are squad players on reasonable wages. They aren’t as crap as people are saying.
The departure of Raul may have some impact on potential mega deals being talked about such as loan of Coutinho but I doubt that it will change dramatically the requirements of the squad or potential departures. I am pretty sure that the club knows what is its transfer budget for this summer, the players it would like to shift [apart from perhaps the disagreement over Maitland-Niles] and the positions in team, which need strengthening. Some of the departures are pretty obvious. My guess is that the following players need to be shifted: Sokratis Kolasinac Elneny Guendouzi Mkhitaryan [no longer listed… Read more »
https://youtu.be/O-0olTcdkHg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-0olTcdkHg&feature=share
Venkatishampati is another meek lamb himself at the top,
Arsenal is a case study for the Peter principle
* who has found.
Mbappe calls it the Farmers league, tihihihi
TR7 – we need someone on the football side for Arteta to report to and who can properly oversee all aspects of the football operations – the football equivalent of a COO. From what i can see that person is not Edu. As stated already, IF Edu can add something then I’m happy for him to be in the team but that would mean he can massively contribute to the scouting and data analytics and his South American connections (I won’t use the dreaded word Contacts) are worth something. I’m not referring to agents btw. We do need someone though… Read more »
Habesha
There’s a total absence in understanding what a squad is all about from some on here. Only two tracks are acceptable, either we buy top tier players or we buy top tier talent. No bit in the middle or low cost additions, they’re shite apparently because there’s no excitement to it.
Sid
“””””Venkatishampati is another meek lamb himself at the top,
Arsenal is a case study for the Peter principle””””””
Total agreement ,
Only at Arsenal where a man was either :
A) too cowardly to speak up about shady Rauls deals at Arsenal and at their fans expense.
Or
B) Too stupid to know about Rauls shady deals.
Gets PROMOTED!!!!
Finding the talk about Edu a bit puzzling it has to be said. Lots of people wondering if he’ll offer something, the guy’s been here a year so surely he’s had a role in what’s transpired? Otherwise can someone explain what he’s done for 12 months of his contract at a senior position at the club? Nobody seems willing to give anyone their due that’s not named Arteta, idk if it’s reticence so they’re not left with egg on their face down the line or what but: – we sacked Emery and hired Arteta – we restructured the academy –… Read more »
Someone should do the honourable thing and hide for a while.
For me, it is obvious that Josh calls the shot and Raul is out without even a notice period. Emery was strewed up by the board. He couldn’t sign the players he wanted. Arteta doesn’t want the same thing to happen to him. He told us that he has a direct line to KSE, bypassing the board. Josh is siding with Arteta. As I mentioned before, Raul has no history with Arsenal. He has more interest in benefiting his friends and continues to build up his world of contacts. Let us give Edu a chance and see what he comes… Read more »
Imo, the only reason the EPL is seen as being so much stronger is based on the intensity of our season and what it offers from a viewing perspective and, of course, all that money. Two cup competitions definitely devalues the league. Fixture congestion devalues the league. The PL and FA devalue our league by not helping out the English teams in Europe. The rest of Europe assists their teams by rescheduling domestic games. We expect our teams to deal with it and consequently our teams are never as fresh as our European counterparts. I could add more reasons. Because… Read more »
raptora
Re: 08:25 post
You think?
Wenger incoming. Heard it here first Graham.
Pedro I’ll admit, I don’t know as much as you do about arsenal’s corporate management structure. I agree regarding Sanlehi but surely the buck stops, as always ,with Stan. Yes, he’s made the right decision here but he’s still presided over a marked decline at the club. In the end, it’s been his lack of interest and expertise that has lead us here. Looking at the positives, we’ve employed an extremely promising young manager and against the odds, we’ve managed to win another FA cup, but Arteta will have work in spite of stan. Kroenke and co. have held the… Read more »
Charles I have a problem with the length of Williams deal and his motivations for being here.
I have issues with the fact that Soares and Mari are as average as you can get yet somehow landed four year deals
Maybe stop policing the place.
Edu has the look of a crook, if you ask me.
The EPL has become too agricultural, too much emphasis on huff and puff, in cup competions that will work against EPL teams.
Receding ‘stop policing the place’ aka disagreeing with you? You can freely post and comment that Arteta/Edu shouldn’t be directing matters, that Cedric/Mari are bad deals, that Emery wasn’t a mess……but I better curb myself for finding fault in that, very good. You have an issue with Willians motivations… and what are they exactly? Or do you prefer to muddy matters of debate with speculations and negative projections because you think that betters your argument? It would be meaningful if you offered up any semblance of balance, but you take absolutist views and frankly are only ever interested in one… Read more »
Guardiola can never get his teams into the right place mentally in the champions league. It’s why every year you know that they will flop at some point and get turfed out against opportunist teams that peak at the right time. His teams play fast when they should play slow, and slow when they should press the action. They allowed Spurs to send them into a trance in the first leg last year, and get mugged at the end, when they would usually go full throttle in a league match. That defeat at Spurs ended up being the reason the… Read more »
Edu has all the qualities to succeed but does not have a track experience of building teams. That’s why I worry about him taking on the tasks of rebuilding our scouting network on the go. His model of sporting director is more of s team administrator than the visionary thinker that’s focused on long term needs of the club as is the immediate needs of the manager. He has to be a counter balance to Arteta, not just act to grease the gears to make the manager’s job easier. The manager has to exist for the short term – they… Read more »
Northbanker ‘we need someone on the football side for Arteta to report to and who can properly oversee all aspects of the football operations – the football equivalent of a COO. From what i can see that person is not Edu.’ Not a convincing argument for me. I don’t think Edu will spend his time scouting around Brazil and Europe. Besides, there is a designated data analytics team at Arsenal. It is not that Edu will use MS excel, Tableau,Python etc. himself to figure out who’s a good fit for Arsenal. He will have all the findings and reports presented… Read more »
I am not defending or attacking Edu as I simply don’t know other than he was No 2 supposedly in a now finally proven poor although mercifully short regime So I think the club have a duty to investigate Edus role (as I am sure is happening ) and see how much contribution he Can make and what he has achieved so far If there is no value then he needs to go. If he is a silent assassin who can take the much needed knife to the sick parts then great Only those internally are going to know this… Read more »
“Vinai: Those two [Arteta & Edu] are the experts and they have a very, very clear plan about how they want to rebalance our squad in the short term, in the medium term and in the long term. We’re starting to work on that immediately in this transfer window.“
Tears incoming
“Otherwise can someone explain what he’s done for 12 months of his contract at a senior position at the club?”
CC
Edu was taking orders from Raul and Kia. At least that’s what I get from everything here.
Paulinho ‘Guardiola can never get his teams into the right place mentally in the champions league. ‘ He certainly has a mental bloc when it comes to the CL. In league games he sends his team out to dominate games and doesn’t let fear of losing dictate his style of play. But in CL, he is so consumed by the fear of yet another failed campaign that he goes against his own instincts and forces his players to employ tactics they are not used to. City’s poor display against Lyon last time they played each other in CL was playing… Read more »
Time to put absolute faith in Mikel Arteta. That won’t please the chronic complainers, but it makes absolute sense By absolute faith that does not mean we expect him to get everything right, never to make mistake. No man achieves that in any field of human endeavour. It means we believe in his agenda, in his judgement, in his total commitment to winning major trophies, to returning the Club to the elite. At the same time we recognise that he will work within tight financial parameters, that there is no sugar-daddy way, like Man C or Chelsea. We all know… Read more »
TR7 – It’s like there is some form of neurosis with him. If his teams try and play open they get smashed ( Bayern in 2nd leg against Juve five or six years ago), so when he tries to adapt and be more pragmatic his teams end being too subdued, and are not sharp enough mentally to play cautious game and take advantage; they just end up being sitting ducks because they are obviously not comfortable playing a game alien to their instincts. Said it already seven years ago, but will be amazed if he ever comes to close to… Read more »
englandsbest
‘ In the meantime we should support him utterly. He needs that to fo the job.’
You want to create another Wenger.
What does support him ‘utterly’ even mean.? He’s an employee hired to do a job, no more no less.. Does ‘utterly’ imply unquestionably or without checks/balances?
PierreAugust 16, 2020 07:56:40 I can see un’s point .United, City, Chelsea and Arsenal were semi finalist in the FA cup .Lyon, Leipzig, PSG and Munich.Lyon .finished 7th in what we are often told on Le Grove that the french league is weak .Leipzig….finished 3rd in the German league.Yep, I can see his point. ——- Can you really se his point though, Pierre? For starters the CL hasn’t been won yet but let’s leave that aside for a second. Leipzig shut out Spurs 4:0 over two legs and Bayern put seven past Chelsea before destroying Barca. Give one realistic reason… Read more »
Man, I’m not so sure between edu and arteta, they can manage recruitment. I mean arteta has so far green lighted soares, mari, Luiz extention (god fucking knows what was that about) and willian (good deal).
Nothing of the early recruitment says arteta and edu are visionaries or have a knack for spotting talent. I hope edu knocks it outta the park and mikel to have a great season but right now it’s looks like too much hope is being placed on these 2.
Have you morons actually started to wake from your perpetual and collective slumbers?
Arsenal are fucked and have been for 15 years. The sacking of whats his face means nothing, as does the redundant 55 nobodies. We aren’t streamlining anything, but we are cleaning the decks for new jerks to take a salary and do nothing for a few years.
Edu is a prick. A total nobody.
Raul. Ditto.
Vinai. Whatever?
Poor Arteta hasn’t a chance…but based on the contracts for Luiz and Willian and the continued support for Mustafi…perhaps he doesn’t deserve one.
Find another sport.
Rocky
If Edu can’t manage transfers then why does he have the title of ‘sporting director’?
We should be able to sign players with the team of a sporting director, CEO and Huss Fahmy. Edu has had a 6 month grace period to settle in and have a reasonable contact list of agents on his desk.
I left out Arteta from that above list
Un
So 56 PL points is worth 70 in la liga and 78 in Italy now. Jesus!
Reminds me of that quote of a former English great :” we are the bast in the World until we actually play someone “
Paulinho
Yes, this CL was a golden opportunity missed. On paper Bayern was the only team left in the competition which could stop them but Pep really blew it away. PSG are a good team too but they themselves have some sort of psychlogical barrier and an inferiority complex when it comes to the CL. They were mighty close to being knocked out by Atlanta.
That sort of negativity GH helps no one. Yes do find anther sport where you can be as equally miserable.
best
G of H
100% accurate and very pertinent analysis.
I agree with his sentiments entirely.