Arsenal dropped a Vinai x Edu collab so dense in information, I’m about to give you a 2000 word analysis so you can digest it. The newly empowered duo rolled up on a fancy lawn looking like the two new Godfathers in town. There was a lot to unpack.
The big news.
- Vinai is now the CEO of Arsenal Football Club
- Mikel Arteta is now the Manager of the first team
- Edu and Mikel are on the same level in a shared football leadership role
Ok, so let’s go deep on this.
Overall Messaging:
Le Grove has called for this sort of communication for a while. We need to know how the club is setting up for success, we need to know what the new structure looks like, and we need to hear from our leaders. Vinai acknowledged Arsenal had been weak on this a few weeks ago. So what is the plan? Well, here it is.
‘We belong in the Champions League. Yes we’ve been in European football for the past 25 years, which is a great record. But the past three years and this one, we are in a competition we don’t want to be in.’
‘We want to get back in the mix competing for the Premier League – and doing it the way Arsenal have always done, playing the entertaining, engaging football our fans want to see.’
We don’t need to ask for the timescale, Mikel Arteta has told Willian he wants to win the Champions League in 3 seasons, it’s clear how fast we’re moving.
The CEO Title
Arsenal made a huge error when Ivan G left in handing over the keys of power to two people. It generally doesn’t work in business. Human nature is a one leader system, don’t fuck with nature. What tends to happen without clear leadership is a power vacuum opens and people land grab. If you work with two leaders, you can play them off against each other. If you are the two leaders, it creates paranoia, arguments, and stand-offs that are unproductive. I know because I work in an industry where you have to partner with people in leadership and I hate it. No one is truly accountable (or one person is totally accountable), which can also lead to excuse-making and dropped balls (‘I thought you were doing that!’).
Netflix recently turned to this leadership approach and its share price dropped. Raul was not of the standard needed when he was paired with Vinai and the lack of oversight on what he was up to led us down a very dark road. Vinai taking on the CEO job in its totality is what is needed. Pure accountability for direction, execution, and performance. He is the leader of the commercial side of the business as well as the football side. That is how it should be. Is he young? Yes. But he has 10 years under his belt at the club. He knows what has worked and what has not (bit like Arteta). He needs to be ambitious, bring everyone together, drive the staff forward, and keep the fans (and sponsors) excited. Today was a good first step.
The Manager
Mikel Arteta has been given a promotion in a pandemic, saucy. The Adidas kit launch video positioned him as a rockstar at the club. The job title bump gives him the power to really make changes.
“This is recognition of what he has been doing from the day he walked in the door and also the capabilities we believe Mikel has,”
“He has walked into probably the toughest nine-month period this football club has had in its 134-year history. He’s on a long term contract and we’re really comfortable with what he’s doing.”
This is massive. As I’ve said on numerous occasions, Arteta is a generational coach. He’s an obsessive freak of nature. Creative, driven, innovative, as well as being an elite communicator. This bump is recognition of those traits. It’s also a reflection of the love he’s getting from everyone at the club, especially the players. The bet Arsenal is making is that he’ll bring some of the Manchester City IP into our setup, but also bring people in that can help him shape that knowledge into something uniquely Arsenal. The best artists copy and build upon the greats work. There’s no greater manager in world football than Pep. He is the ultimate artist.
Additionally, I think this is a protective measure. The club is hedging that the chances are, Arteta will do pretty well and attract attention from other clubs looking to jump on the young manager bandwagon. The concern, I suspect, is that when Pep bins off Manchester City, they’ll come knocking for Arteta with a big deal. Remember, they were promising him the head coach role the first time we came knocking. This is horse before the cart, but at the top end of business, you have to plan for every eventuality.
The Technical Director
It was great to see Edu rolled out to talk about his plans and step out of the shadows. He spoke glowingly about the manager and the project.. then Vinai dropped a bombshell.
“So in terms of how that will work, going forward Mikel will join a really strong team with Edu and they’ll be working really, really closely together to manage all the other elements of our football operations that are so important, whether that is analysis, recruitment, high performance or medical, they’ll be looking after those areas together.
“And they’ll also together be responsible for our technical recommendations, whether that’s players that we’re going to buy, whether that’s players that we’re going to sell, whether that’s players that we’re going to loan.
“Of course, working closely with me and the board and working closely with the owners on the financial elements to make final decisions. But those are going to be their responsibilities and I think we’re going to have a really dynamic team to drive this club forward.”
Yes, you read correctly. After experiencing first hand what power-sharing looks like, Vinai has dropped the same model on his subordinates, placing the Technical Director and the Manager on the same level.
Let’s have this clear: Power sharing does not work.
This is a demotion for Edu. There will always be a dominant partner in a ‘power share’ and that is going to be Mikel Arteta. ‘We really love each other’ is not a technical rationale for this move. I don’t want to hammer anyone, but I have heard whispers that there is a lot of convincing that needs to happen for Edu to work his way into the good graces of the Arsenal people.
My overarching concern here is that we’ve spent years trying to move away from a superstar manager structure, and we’ve just walked right back into one. If things go well, then the concern is moot… the problems come when things go badly, or, the superstar manager leaves. What are you left with?
That’s a story for another day. What I will say is this: Edu was the driving force behind hiring Arteta. His trip up to see the City coaching assistant in December blew the race wide open. If it wasn’t for his pressure, we’d be looking at Perreira or Nuno as the Arsenal coach at the moment. So, we have to give him credit for recognising elite talent and making an effort to bond with our ex-captain.
What does a Technical Director do?
We all asked wtf is an Edu? Well, let him explain.
“It is simple for me,”
“With my position here I want to put in place one clear process how we are going to sign, who gets the responsibilities, where we start to understand where we need the player, the position we need, the characteristics we need. That has to be very clear internally right now.
“The decision we made, to change a little bit our infrastructure, it is clear for me. I want to work with less people. I want to work with StatDNA a lot more, which we have internally here at the club and is very important.
“I don’t want individual people working in one area or for one country. I want a group working together. Less people with much more responsibility. That is my vision and for me in this process the most important thing is that everyone is very clear on the responsibilities which everyone has to make the right decision.”
I love this. The old scouting approach of 50 people sitting around clocking timesheets is over. The technology these analysts have now is unbelievable. We have had all the tools needed to be a top data club since 2013 when we purchased StatDNA, now, it seems like we’re finally going to activate the tools with elite people that can pull the insights and action them.
What people don’t realise is there has always been a lot of very talented people working at Arsenal, we just haven’t used them properly. Edu is speaking the language of elite business. The job of a director is to unleash talent. We want the best people in the world employed at Arsenal feeling absolutely empowered to do their best possible work. When you create a high-performance culture, every cog is vital, the competition between people should be real, but healthy, and all in the name of the best possible work outcome. I am excited that the talk now is about how well we’re executing against that vision, versus having to debate whether the ‘contacts’ approach was about to come roaring back into relevance.
The other comment I liked is the stake in the ground when it comes to agents.
“It is important to be clear,”
“What I would like from now is that everything related to football has to come through me. All the contacts, agents, internally, externally, people outside Arsenal, have to see me — and my name — as the first one to call or connect to. It is important because sometimes they feel unclear about it. To be clear and open that is how we are going to operate.”
Vinai had a crack at this, trying to pretend that the last 24 months didn’t happen when he stated the people writing about agent influence were wrong. No we weren’t, but I guess he wasn’t about to dig up the past. The important thing Edu now knows is that if you step out of line, you will not be working at the club. Part of this rebirth has to be about restoring the values we hold dear as fans. Edu, like Vinai, has made it clear, he is in charge when it comes to this part of the club, and everyone has to fall into line.
What about transfers?
Edu seemed to be fairly bullish about moves.
“Everybody is waiting, everybody wants to do swaps, everybody is talking about loans. What is important is that we have a clear plan on the players we want to keep, the players we want to loan and the players we want to sell. After that, we have to be patient, to understand how the markets are reacting, and then to make the right decision.”
I think we’re going to make the signings we need to make. I suspect there will be a few days when everything goes crazy and we make all the signings we need in quick succession. It appears that we’re about to move on Martinez for £20m. It’d be sad, but if it adds to the coffers so we can sign Aouar, I’ll take having an average back-up keeper. I am very confident we’ll have the squad we need to compete for top 4 this season.
Concluding Thoughts
Arsenal is mostly doing the right things. The power share thing is a nonsense, but in a relationship based on bromance, it might just work out. For the moment, as long as it’s being led by smart people making smart decisions, for the right reasons, we’re in a great place.
We now have a proper club to support, the banter is hopefully in the past. We have a young and dynamic leadership team. We have one CEO. We have a manager. We have a Technical Director that wants to lean on data to drive the club. We have our best player signed. There is wind in the sails and momentum is working with us, not against.
This is a GOOD time to be an Arsenal fan. You should BE excited this time. I cannot WAIT to share this season with you.
Big love, now fire up the record player and inject some Le Grove into your ears and listen to our NEW podcast.
P.S. The new Newsletter lands today. Let me know what you think.
Excellent as always Pete. I don’t think being tech director and manager a bad setup. The TD has higher level oversight whereas MA is on the ground doing operational work. Makes sense for me
1st!- Thats us f*** kd Real Madrid supposedly in for ooh argh 😤
Typo.2nd.Damn!
DM must be having a wank
We are being way too slow & this is what happens.
“ everybody’ wants to do swaps”.Just not with us…….
We now have a proper club to support, the banter is hopefully in the past. We have a young and dynamic leadership team. We have one CEO. We have a manager. We have a Technical Director that wants to lean on data to drive the club. We have our best player signed. There is wind in the sails and momentum is working with us, not against.
……..
Saturday 12 August
Fulham…..3 Arsenal…..1
Martinez over Leno all day.
Just the fact that he catches the ball instead of punching means we retain the ball and can dictate the play. Leno’s punches just put us under more pressure. Martinez also has more authority and is superior with his feet.
You watch. Martinez will be sold. Leno will get injured and we’ll be left with a second rate keeper between the sticks.
Realistically there are two players specifically in midfield that we want to recruit and those are Partey and Aouar. Ideally Arsenal want to make a swap for one of these two. The most likely scenario is that the “swap” player is Lacazette. Ideally Arsenal would like to offer Guendouzi in a swap, but it would seem that neither Lyon nor Athletico Madrid are interested. The idea that Arsenal would consider a swap of Bellerin or Guendouzi for Draxler if being considered is complete nonsense. Draxler is an injury prone player on the way down. Arsenal should only be considering swaps… Read more »
This is family but the fans and redundant staff are the bastard children from daddy Kronkes house servant.
Awesome article.Every pricess will be judged by result in short and long term. I think Edu and Arteta can do it.Better fir Vinai to stay at bay focusung on firm financial matter.
We have had way too many restructures and false dawns that have yielded next to nothing in terms of how we recruit and retain players, our style, mode of business and the end of goal of winning the EPL and champions league.
So I will hold my judgement until things develop.
But when you hear rumblings about selling the keeper who inspired so much confidence at a time when we down in the dumps, for a pittance to Villa, and the foot dragging on their top two signings you start to wonder if you being sold another bridge to nowhere.
LT – completely agree. They have got Martinez wrong and he should be given assurances he is our no 1. I cant believe Villa are going to get him for such a paltry sum. What’s the point of signing great outfield players if we’re going to give away one of our stand out players from last season and one of the best keepers to have emerged for Arsenal in decades.
Leno is a distant no 2 by comparison and Macey not at the races. We are giving ourselves a massive problem.
Best scenario for Arsenal is to resign Martinez to an extended deal and charge a one year loan fee and guarantee him the starting job next season and hope he bites
It used to be a trait of continental keepers that they punched the ball whereas British keepers used to catch it. This was why for years we had what many regarded as superior players in Clemence, Jennings, Shilton, Parkes. That actually is still the case although there are fewer British keepers on display and many of these have got this punching habit. So when we finally get a gut who is comfortable catching it and is totally commanding in his box, partly sue to that, Why the fuck would we give him away. Someone really needs to address this. I… Read more »
*Guy
Wow, I know Arsenal fans have short memories but this is insane. Leno was voted the 2nd best player of the season FFS. “One of the best goalkeepers to have emerged for Arsenal in decades”???? He was good for 15 games. We aren’t giving away a keeper that led us to a champions league and premier league win. If he stays he deserves to start the season as No 1 but that doesn’t mean he is first choice. How do you guys know this isn’t his purple patch? How come he didn’t show this form before? It took 10 years… Read more »
Wow, I know Arsenal fans have short memories but this is insane. Leno was voted the 2nd best player of the season FFS.
…………..
That might have something to do with being bombarded with shots every game. We’re a different animal now. We’re playing out of the back with more authority.
How do you guys know this isn’t his purple patch?
……………..
How do you know that it is a purple patch?
Allison Ederson Leno Pope Henderson In that order last season for the best goalkeepers in the league. Pope and Henderson being part of a team that usually has a low block Arsenal fans are such knees jeck and reactionary you’d think we’ve had some average goalkeeper in goal before Martinez came in. Again we can all have preferences but Martinez wants to play regularly and we need funds to improve our midfield so what exactly do all those saying we shouldn’t sell Martinez do? Have two good goalkeepers and a porous midfield that gets bypassed at every chance?. Madrid sold… Read more »
Agents! Edu’s agent is Kia Joorabchian, so are Luiz, Mari and Willian. No wonder they managed to bring in Soares, a 29 yr old for a 4yr because Soares’ agent is also Kia.
Soares was a reserve player at Southampton; so how did he managed to get a good contract at Arsenal at his level? Kia Joorabchian. Kia is also trying hard to push Felipe Anderson of West Ham on Arsenal. Watch out Edu and remember what happen to Sanllehi.
Embarrassing.
It’s Leno who should be going.
Trouble is selling him.
So short sighted again Arsenal.?
Our midfield options are
El Neny
Xhaka
Ceballos
Guendozi
Torreira
Ozil
Willock
Literally no single goal threat or defensively capable player in there but sure let’s lose our rags over the departure of our 2nd choice goalie
Habesha
This is true but a top keeper helps those in front of him and helps them stay calm.
Do you think Leno has these attributes?
What’s to say Martinez won’t revert to his pre covid form once opposition fans start heckling him again?
Martinez played in front of hostile fans at Eintracht Frankfurt last season. He was sensational.
Graham
So we keep him and have two good goalies and no acceptable midfield for our gaols this season?
If Martinez does leave I hope that Arsenal have the common sense to include “first refusal”
clause in contract as well as sell on fee.
We need to sell players FFS. who do you guys want us to sell that is going to generate funds then? People overreacted to selling AMN and now Martinez. They have had a purple patch but for most of the season they were squad players. We have the most average midfield around and people want to have two great goal keepers. Leno wasn’t a liability before and he won’t be in the future. We have liabilities in Midfield. Do you guys know that Everton Now have a better midfield than us? If Leno wasn’t injured people would have been okay… Read more »
we don’t know *
Batistuta
No, we keep him because he’s the better keeper.
Tough shit if Leno doesn’t like it.
Show your metal and work harder to try and get your place back.
That’s life.
Martinez starts the season not so well and these frothing at the mouth, knee jerk Arsenal fans will be crying for Leno again.
Leno has been one of our better players since he came in, the disregard would be staggering but Arsenal fans are ridiculed everywhere for how they are so no surprises.
Habesha Gooner
I have no issue selling Maitland-Niles, but I do have concern about Martinez.
Arsenal need two “First Team” Goalkeepers. It is not just a matter of who is first choice.. Leno
suffered an injury which could have turned out much worse than it is. He could have been out for a season.
If Arsenal buy the Brentford Goalkeeper it will cost us almost certainly a large transfer fee.
So where is the benefit in this deal? Also I am not a fan of buying a 1.83 Metre Goalkeeper.
Leno is the better goalkeeper! It’s ridiculous reading where someone described Martinez as one of our best goalkeepers ever. lol.
Retaining Leno as first choice and selling Martinez for £20m to help finance our midfield upgrade is an understandable decision.
Lets see how Martinez fares over a season as 1st choice, in front of a crowd etc or under a different set of tactics because we don’t know if he’s the real deal or this was a purple patch.
Graham
So we keep him and have him and Leno fight for top spot and have even lesser funds to upgrade our midfield positions? You do realize we actually need to sell to raise funds for any further signings right
Manager Mikel.
Always knew this guy was indeed generational.
Long live the sauce!
Chika, some joker on here actually said Martinez is one of the best goalkeepers in our history the other day. Unreal.
I don’t understand how anyone can be in favour of selling Martinez. We have stumbled upon a diamond here. For me, he was as big a story last season as Saka. Of course it’s still early days, his form could dip significantly, etc. But he has earned the right to get the chance to prove himself over the next season. Having two top goalkeepers both fighting hard for that number one spot is a good position to be in, and then reassess next year. And if we WERE to sell him, it should be for a hell of a lot… Read more »
I’m sure we’d all like to keep Martinez but the harsh reality is we are skint and we have a position where we can be able to raise finds from and we also now have actual bids coming I’m for someone, funds that will help with the squad rebuild and somehow we should reject said money and have them fight it out for the number 1 spot and neglect all our other pressing needs.
Arsenal need two “First Team” Goalkeepers
I agree.
Unfortunately Martinez isn’t prepared to be one of them.
Graham62
September 11, 2020 10:23:43
Martinez played in front of hostile fans at Eintracht Frankfurt last season. He was sensational.
Martinez played in front of hostile fans at Anfield and conceded 5!.
Football is a weak link sport, as opposed to a strong link sport (like say basketball). That is to say that having Messi in your team means nothing if you have Titus Bramble in defence. Whereas in basketball, if you have LeBron, you’ll probably win. I’d like to keep both Leno and Martinez, I don’t want to lower the overall quality of the squad. However you can only have one keeper on the pitch at a time and having one of Martinez or Leno – both seemingly solid 8/10 keepers – on the bench when we likely will start with… Read more »
I don’t think anyone would be in favour of selling Martinez by choice but we all are aware of the situation. We finished 8th last season and are going in tomorrow with largely the same squad.
There may be some unpopular decisions but they are for the greater good of the team. If we’re losing Martinez to then go out and buy a replacement- what is the point? If the funds go to our midfield targets I’m all in.
I think there are players outside of England that can be had for cheap fees. spend up to 8 mil and selling Martinez for 20 mil has it’s upsides.
12 mil profit might be the difference between getting a special midfielder like Aouar. We can’t create right now. Having aouar with Leno in goal might get us some more points than having Martinez in goal and Leno on the bench with the current midfield. If we didn’t need the finances we should keep Martinez but you have to make Sacrifices to get to the top.
Leftside
Shocking stuff really. We should be glad our back up keeper can fetch as much as £20m.
Martinez prospered under the new goalkeeping coach …from Brentford . If Maupay hadn’t fouled Leno we wouldn’t be remotely concerned about selling Martinez and we’d have got £5 million tops for him . The Brentford coach has obviously recommended we go for Leno as first choice and clearly believes in Raya who he has worked closely with
Very positive post Pedro. You have great resilience , radiating positivity to some of the pessimists on here !
I’m sad to see Martinez go because I’d have made him first choice, but 20m is useful right now and Leno is a good keeper too. I just wonder if that 20m is enough to make our next move or do we need another sale like torreira or guen to be able to afford whoever that will be Fingers crossed that 20 is enough. Even if we only sign one more player, I’d be very pleased if it’s a brilliant MF. More outs and a second top MF is a luxury which I won’t expect. But Martinez our surely puts… Read more »
It’s the same with AMN, sure we’d all love to keep him but if an offer close to 30mill came in, we’d be foolish not to take and reinvest into the squad.
Like someone said, we finished 8th and are going into the season looking almost the same so there’d have to be unpopular decision to be made in that regard.
Would be nice of our owner found some coin at the back of his sofa but that ain’t happening so we need to be realistic and deal with the situation best we can
I really, really like and rate Martinez (whether he’s playing in the presence of fans or not.) But if we’re gonna have a side that challenges for top4, we need more than saucy tactics from Arteta: we need to reconstruct our squad, specifically to improve our midfield and our chances created whilst maintaining our improved defensive record. In other words we need a better midfield. But we don’t have the cash to improve it without selling, and we don’t get reasonable money for sales without sacrificing good players. So if Arteta and Edu need to sell Martinez in order to… Read more »
One of the best goal keepers ever is moving to Aston Villa on 60k a week.
Hold the press
Not a knock against Leno but against the top teams we have never looked so calm and secure at the back and that’s partly due to the organization and confidence that Emil translates to the defense ….
The Leno howler against Chelsea at home plus a number of others are a part of Leno’s legacy along with his great saves
Justin bijlow of feyenoord is 22 and he will go for around 7 mil pounds for example.
Pedro Brilliant Piece. I get where you are coming from with the dual leadership approach, most of the time it does not work and I agree. And even though the club may maintain that Edu and Mikel are on the same, I don’t really think that’s the case. Mikel is clearly the more dominant figure and has now moved into a Wenger-like role.Edu was happy to be Raul’s no.2 and in this case I think he will be happy to be Mikel’s no.2 I dont really think Edu is as meek as some might think as he reportedly pushed for… Read more »
I support the idea of the bromance working between Edu and Mikel. I think it has to do with their aligned ideologies. If it were another coach, Edu won’t be on the low with such. He is not on the low but technically, both of them are still learning their jobs. I will want you to write something about the new coaches added to Mikel set up…. Thanks for this great read, always spot on.
For me the main thing I care about is just us not being banter FC anymore
We might fail at our targets and I can live with it as long as I feel the club was doing everything it could to be the best it could be. Arsenal haven’t done that since we left highbury.
I can take the bad with the good as long as arsenal are just trying. You really do feel the club is trying right now.
The promotion of Arteta seems daft to me. If Edu can’t fire Arteta and can’t have final say on transfers, then surely he’s just a glorified academy head?
If we sell Martinez for 20M, we’re going to have to buy a replacement?
Apparently we’ve already bid 10M for Brentfords David Ray and it was rejected.
I’d much rather keep Martinez than sell him and buy another GK for a similar price. Or if we’re going to sell him we should promote Macey.
Hello? Hello?anyone discussing what we REALLY NEED at this moment? Two midfielders at least & pronto.where are we with that?
The problem lies with KSE. The club won’t sell Martinez if we were not so in need of fund.
I was one of the few who criticized the way Arteta handled Guen. Now he is wondering why Guen’s value dropped so much.
Like a lot of you guys on here is be gutted to see Martinez go, he has that love for the club being here for so long. But 20m is 20m also Bellerin the same scenario another 35m for a player who yes loves the club but does pick up a lot of injuries. This is why I’d be inclined to keep AMN as he has more versatility but can fill in at RB. The next is Torriera if we get 26-28m for him were looking at 81m in the bank for purchases. Considering we allegidly offered 38.5m plus Guendouzi… Read more »
If we accept offers on the table for Martinez. AMN, Torreira, and AN Other, we should be able to add two midfielders.
And that’s before we attempt to unload the unwanted.
Pretty good piece Pedro.
I have no idea what we’re going to see from Arsenal this season but we’re about to start finding out.
What I do know for certain is that the goal posts for expectations has been moved and performances or results that would’ve seen Pedro call for Emery to be hung drawn and quartered (unfairly) will suddenly have excuses made and I’m sure “it was always going to be a rebuilding process” will be uttered several times this season.
Basically stop using Pierre’s Ozil sock and give it back to him. And FFS wash it first!
Arteta needs to hold his shit together and not sell Emi, if that is the difference between us signing Aouar or not, then fuck it. Cebellos was improving towards the end of last season and Gwen, as I mentioned before, has the ingredients to be world class. For once we have a keeper that you don’t have to shit yourself when opposition is closing in on our box. Why mess with that??
Stand strong Mikel!!
Arteta is caught between a rock and a hard place with the goal keeping situation. If he sticks with Leno and Martinez kicks on at Villa Arteta will be slaughtered for letting a good player leave – especially if Leno concedes a goal that people perceive Martinez would’ve saved.
If we keep Martinez as No 1 and it turns out that it was a purple patch Arteta will be slaughtered for not getting the money and using it to strengthen a squad that desperately needs it.
” and Gwen, as I mentioned before, has the ingredients to be world class”
As what?
“If we accept offers on the table for Martinez. AMN, Torreira, and AN Other, we should be able to add two midfielders.”
Thank goodness you don’t make the decisions at Arsenal
Uwot
“Hello? Hello?anyone discussing what we REALLY NEED at this moment? Two midfielders at least & pronto.where are we with that?”
100% agree and that’s assuming Auba is going to sign.
Thank goodness you don’t make the decisions at Arsena
I don’t see any offers for anyone else.
Don’t you think we need a midfield?
Romero and Caballero are the two elite EPL backup keepers who have restricted Emi to exactly zero international senior caps.
I like Emi too, but £20m for him is incredible business. Especially if we can throw that money at Partey/Aouar.
I’m not sure people are bothering to moan about selling Martinez. Yes, we need two quality first-team goalkeepers. But Martinez doesn’t want to be one of them. He wants to be the team’s number one, and that’s Leno, plain and simple. Therefore, if he’s not happy playing as one of our two keepers… and there’s an offer on the table… and we’re sorely in need of funds to strengthen midfield – then all you can do is sell him and try and get the best price for him. Moaning about keeping him is pointless, he doesn’t want to share the… Read more »
Marc
As a B2B CM, attitude aside, he was great for us last season and doesn’t hide. The only thing I didn’t like about him was that he hung on to the ball too long that used to stagnate our transition between defence and attack, giving the opposition time to fall back in to position, Arteta can coach that out of him
Some very good news!!
After all this time, we start to look like a proper football club again… better late than never, I guess.
“Mikel Arteta has told Willian he wants to win the Champions League in 3 seasons”
Sorry, but this one made me laugh hard… I mean, it’s great to have big ambitions, but we have to stay a bit realistic.
Steve
I’m not so sure. He looked raw but had potential in his first season but never kicked on in his second. I just don’t see what his main strength is – tackling – not great, passing not great – runs round a lot doesn’t get goals or assists.
I just don’t see what this “amazing player” has or does. It seems neither do the scouts and managers of other clubs.
Karsa
One decent CM at most (not Elneny). For once we have a Ace goal keeper that dominates the box, he pisses over every goal keeper we have had the last 15 years
Highbury
That means that Arteta is planning to win the CL in his first attempt because no one on here seems to think CL football is a guarantee for next season.
Marc
I don’t wanna play the youth card but….
and I think our results and where we ended on the table are also obscuring your view a bit
One decent CM at most (not Elneny). For once we have a Ace goal keeper that dominates the box, he pisses over every goal keeper we have had the last 15 years I hope you’re right. Personally I think we have a decent loan player in there and that’s about it. Two additional midfielders for me if we are to challenge for the top 4. Martinez has been great over a small collection of games behind closed doors. That’s not enough imo to base our goalkeeping future. I’d love to keep him but it’s clear he won’t stay if not… Read more »
Tomorrow is an away game. I won’t mind we keep it tight first.
Regardless of what sides you’re on in the Leno vs Martinez debate. [I preferred Emi to Leno] Don’t forget that Emi forced his exit, he put the club in a position where they just had to sell him. £15 million is good business for a reserve goalie who was only in the shop window for 3 months.The draw back is that we have to get a replacement and I expect that Brentford will want £7-10 million for David Raya who looks like he has lots of errors in his game. Raya is only 6 feet tall, just reminds you of… Read more »
I like how some here are saying £20m is a pittance when only 3 months ago, his value was probably a quarter of that. The reality is, Martinez has great attributes and seems to have come out of his shell but that doesn’t immediately make Leno garbage. A better defence and a more dominant midfield automatically means the keeper has less to do, by keeping the pressure on the front foot. Leno actually reminds me of Casillas, and look at how many games were worn by the outfield players. Martinez has forced the move and remember he gets a longer… Read more »
Great post Pedro, I see Edu to Arteta as Dein to Wenger. Arteta’s in charge and Edu does all the donkey work of transfers etc allowing Arteta to focus on the Football. Sounds like a great setup to me. Regarding Martinez, I can understand the frustration but if we need the money to improve our midfield then I guess it’s the most sensible thing to do. Me personally I wouldn’t mind seeing him go to Villa on loan for the season and see how he performs over a whole season as no 1, and see if Leno gets injured again… Read more »
Even if you keep aside who is better between Leno and Martinez debate, selling Martinez and bringing in Raya doesn’t boost our coffers by much.
“I see Edu to Arteta as Dein to Wenger.”
I’m all in!!
Marc, I don’t understand why you are so obsessed with Emery justice. He gave us our worst start in 38 years after spending 150m. I said he was a bum and he proved it. A total non-entity. Thiago said he cost PSG 2 years.
Arteta has been here since Dec and he has 2 trophies. The goal posts are different because the world changed and so did the club.
I hope Edu’s remark about being patient means he and Arteta have every intention of bringing in two or more first-XI quality players before October 5th. I do not see the current squad, as is, competing for top four.
Pedro,
In a nutshell, you don’t see Edu as being the best fit for DoF as per the “whispers”? Because you don’t fancy a power-sharing structure, but don’t want Mr Sauce to be invested in all the power lest he slowly morphs into Wenger. And given Edu has shat the bed with his Kia dealings…
Ammarite?
I do not see the current squad, as is, competing for top four.
Me neither. Maybe 5th or 6th given we have players in key positions yet to bed in and play..
Mikel Arteta + Edu = Arsene Wenger + David Dein .
Looks likely this is gonna work . Sven and Raul had friction between them and clashing work philosophies. Edu and Arteta seems they are on the same page .
Marc
Are you reassured by Edu’s statements that we are bringing in more players?
Pedro/Marc,
Marc is obsessed because he’s known around here for being a Social Justice Warrior, specialising in justice and redress for “protagonists” such as foreign football managers with dodgy accents.
I think Guen is a hard worker and has a winning mentality which I like but his play is short of elite in every category so I won’t be sad one ounce if we get 20+m for him
Maybe he will kick on at some point but he’d have to improve a fair chunk and be much more consistent to be a player we should care about losing. Even with our midfield considered as awful, he shouldn’t be in the starting 11 which tells you something imo
Benny
I would join in too , its fun to test everyone knowledge in fantasy premier league.
And yeah lenos time will be far easier now we aren’t conceding 2000000 shots a game like we were under emery. That shit was ridiculous for a GK to come up against at this level
We need him to just make a couple of good saves a game and work on his catching and distribution. I don’t want to see the arsenal defense letting the opposition take shooting practice ever again. That was just awful
Pedro: “Thiago said he cost PSG 2 years.”
Correction. His agent did.
Emery was a dud though. I wanted him to work but he was clueless.
With that being said Arteta has made gigantic errors in-game. Wrong subs, not changing anything when we are leading but the opponents are taking control of the game, wrong game plan. I obviously liked a lot of what I saw, especially in the final run of games. I hope he does better this season since the FAC is nice but a sign of an obvious improvement will be finishing in top 4.
The key thing right now is you at least believe arteta cares about winning and edu and Vinai want to do their jobs rather than just making this a vanity project
That’s in stark reality to what we’ve suffered under wenger, Ivan and Raul respectively
These reports linking us with El shaarawy must have come out of Trump’s arse, they better be fake.
Pedro I think you would find that if you adopted a more reasonable and moderate line on Emery and Sanllehi, you would get less push-back from certain folks. I have no interest in getting involved in these battles again, but as long as you continue to represent (i) Emery as an unmitigated and incompetent disaster who was the sole reason for our struggles last season and the previous and (ii) Sanllehi as a disgraced and villainous conduit for super-agents, you are going to get push-back. And you are going to get push-back on these points because these are not reasonable… Read more »
“Edu and Arteta seems they are on the same page ”
They are both ex_Arsenal players. That helps.
Pedro, Get off the fence, you was against the power sharing job at AFC months ago and now you’re trying to make excuse for it. You already trying to find excuses if things go south by saying people aren’t impressed with Edu. Then in the next line you stating that he hired Mikel which he should be commended for it. The fact of the matter is all these jokers are novice and will be judged on what the Club deliver in the PL campaign, football is not a political campaign. Let’s see how it unfolds before we start hero worshiping… Read more »
Edu and Mikel are on the same level in a shared football leadership role
And then goes on to say
Let’s have this clear: Power sharing does not work.
So which is it? Because you’re contradicting yourself. Luckily though it’s not power sharing. Sure Mikel is more involved and influential than a normal head coach but it’s Edu who’s running things. He is the point of reference for a lot of things on the playing side.