Here we are, like groundhog day, overseeing the wreckage of another defeat against a team we really should have beaten.
It feels like the project is over. It’s likely not, but I think football careers of managers at top clubs can deal with blips, but not mega craterings. We’re now in the end of days of Emery. There is no real clue how to stop us from losing, and the biggest mistakes of the summer are coming back to haunt us.
We are a top 5 team. We have top 5 players. We should be in the pack of clubs at the top of the league fighting it out every week, particularly this season. The fact that we are not doing that speaks to bad decisions.
Arteta started strong when he landed here, he had a nice little run of games. He played those that deserved minutes, he dropped those who did not, there was some sort of vision, and the players were into the process. Since then, we’ve seen Arteta slowly dismantle what he came here to do.
Mesut Ozil was dropped from 10 games on the bounce to a nobody… without a viable back-up plan. He wasn’t electric when he played, but we had a far better brand of football with him in the team and he was a threat.
He moved out arguably our best player of the back half of the season. Emi Martinez was a dominant force in the box and he perfectly represented the new meritocracy that was forming. We sold him in the summer and I’m sorry, I just don’t rate Leno that highly. The bigger message was that big performances didn’t seem to matter to the system. We also attempted to sell AMN, another breakout star, who is one of our best defenders.
We doubled down on a plan that hasn’t worked for three years. We gave Luiz a new deal, we broke the bank for Auba, and we signed Willian. Those three moves look tragic right now. All three spoke to yesteryears short-termist strategy that has consistently fallen short.
Those three areas of failure are badly impacting us now. They show a lack of planning, a misunderstanding of how far-reaching alpha boss moves could be, it shit on meritocracy, and it showed subservience to super-agents and undeserving older players.
The starting 11 yesterday was miserable. No creative players and no one who could score. The performance was much better. The system actually looked pretty decent at times. But that’s not enough. We are way beyond showing a bit of style to justify this car crash. We are in the depths of hell and it’s unclear anyone has the knowledge to get us out.
The problem is, if you fire Mikel, look at the talent replacing him. The guys that sat in a room and doubled a 32 years old wingers wages when he wanted to stay in London. The guys that allowed Ozil to be exited from the squad without a plan. The people that signed the cheque on William Saliba and said they’d be fine for him to rot for 6 months after a great loan spell.
The real move is a football CEO. You have Ralph Rangnick and Luis Campos out of work at the moment. The exec leadership equivalent of 2015 when Pep and Klopp were available. Older guys with a history of creating football player conveyor belts. Rangnick set up 4 clubs that all feed each other for a net neutral cost. He’s blooded young managers. He’s been written up in the New York Times as a visionary. The power move would be to accept that the three-point plan the club has is shite and being run by 3 people first jobbing. The honesty would be to stop dreaming of the Champions League Final in 3 years and to make the hard decision to accept the way back is a 5 year plan that should start this January.
Arteta has flunked out this season, he changed what was working, and he lost control. Don’t let yourself be convinced that he wasn’t helped along the way. Vinai and Edu gave him the keys. They didn’t lead when bad ideas were suggested. They indulged fantasies someone like Ralph Rangnick would have nixed. There simply aren’t many coaches in the world that could fix Arsenal without a proper structure. These players are failures. The club is borrowing window to window. The whole thing needs a rethink… otherwise, we’ll be back here in a years time pondering the same questions.
As for Arteta? It should be over. He can’t motivate his players. We aren’t hitting the target. He’s not moving the pieces fast enough to get a different output. It’s pretty dire. I don’t think he escapes this… and here’s the thing. The January transfer window is a reward for progress. Where is that progress? Which players are getting better? What does the xG say? What the fuck are we working towards?
If the idea is that we’re 1 creative player away from this side clicking, again, I think there should be an intervention.
The club might be better off ignoring January, getting in a caretaker who could resurrect the players we have, and seeing what a proper Football CEO could do for us over the next 5 months. We cannot allow a management team that is failing to keep adding to the mess with short-term panic signings. The next manager shouldn’t have to deal with another two windows worth of half baked attempts at resurrecting a style of football none of us are really convinced can take us to the promised land.
How utterly depressing I’m writing this after such a strong start to Arteta’s Arsenal career. The biggest lesson for me is that there are no rockstars in Premier League football these days. There are rockstar teams. We don’t have the support network in place to help managers thrive. Wenger, Emery, and now Arteta have all failed because of a lack of leadership… there are two options on the market that could help fix that, will anyone at the highest level recognize what we all see? I doubt it.
See you in the comments.
shad
December 20, 2020 19:55:30
Glad that Pedro has finally seen Arteta for the quack he is.
Has he!?
Anonymous
🎤 drop 🤙🏽
Please fire Arteta Every day he is here, the malaise and depression remains. He should never have been given this job. The blind faith the club put in him is absurd. A rookie coach, no experience. only the hype of working with pep. How stupid is that Meeting him in a secret midnight meeting in Manchester. so amateur He is going to bring the team down, the fans etc. Edu needs to fire him, and bring in good talent in Jan. Wasnt Bruno Fernandes a Jan buy? Who said there are no gems out there in Jan? Imagine if he… Read more »
The players clearly have mailed it in.
Arteta is too young and too inexperienced.
The players know this…. heck he is only 5 years older than Luiz
A terrible hire for the club. A stain on our history. Get this fraud out.
Let this asshole coach some youth team or some team in another league.
Cut his teeth like all the rest.
I doubt personally he will ever get a call up to a top team again.
HE has dug his own grave with his arrogrance
A veteran and experienced head can handle egos like we have.
Many of us were clamoring for experience when Emery left.
However the hype was a genetational coach for the future that was so bright and talented.
What a load of BS
Arteta is a stubborn and clueless coach. He took the job because of ego. He took it for the money. He took it bc he had a chip on his shoulder due to the Emery hiring.
Emery was way better than this.
Wenger too.
Heck I would gander that Freddie might also have done better with time….
Even before the title of manager, he was making manager like decisions.
Why? Who allowed all this power?
Nutless Edu? yep. Josh yep…
I put that on ownership and Edu.
The FA cup win was like crack cocaine…. the high was overwhelming…
So Arteta, than you for the cup, now fuck off
Stan needs to drop cash in Jan….
I doubt Arteta can turn this around.
Our CM cannot create at all…
This is a major problem area.
Xhaka, Dani need to sit.
Both should not be here next season
Podence, Ferandes,
Edu should scout Portugal for creative mids…. they produce a good amount of technical and intelligent players…
make an offer for Buendia… show some ambition. I dont care that Norwich is doing well. We are Arsenal…. we should be able to pull players in still.
First step fire Arteta… Get Allegri in… show some balls
One of Arteta’s biggest PR machine “beside Pedro lol”
was John Cross
I don’t know about Pedro, but surely Cross got that complementary basket along with the champagne and the expenses pay out from Arteta’s agent
He’s still bullshiting tweets of unwavering support to Arteta from arsenal hierarchy
All stems from the days of kicking DD out the door – he had effective leadership and vision but the stalwarts wanted Arsenal ‘tradition’ , which was in fact just stagnation….
The longer Arteta is in, the closer to relegation we fall.
This shit is real….
We finish 15-17th this year, its going to be EL or bust for us….
EL trophy is his lifeline if he stays
5am
Dein had to go for what he did – the mistake we made was not replacing him with someone who could do what he used to the club.
used to for the club!
We need scouts in South America and Europe again.
Firing them was like going on a road trip it emptying out your gasoline tank before you start
Idiotic !
Get Allegri in. The players will respect him. They will listen to him. He can tell Edu what he needs, and Stan an co need to pay up.
Arteta is making their asset lose value…. just talk in business terms to Stan.
He will understand.
We need 150M… thank you….
I just wen through the squad and these are the only people worth being in the 25 man team. S for starter and b for bench r for reserves Leno s Tierney s Gabriel s Saka B Amn B El neny B Saliba B Holding R Partey S Ceb B Smith row r Willow r Laca R William R Auba s Pepe B Reis R Martin b Torreira B Guess B We have 5 players who are starters for most top teams. 9 bench players who could rotate. 6 players who could do a job as reserves. People not listed… Read more »
I think Mike’s kiss of death seems to man management ish…
His Sherrif and Seargent mentality has alienated too many in the team.
You can get away with that if you are winning regularly.
That will do you in, when you start losing…..
Players do not forget… and this bunch seems tighter than he thinks
SF Whilst I’m not sure the Kroenke’s would put up £150 million if they have any awareness of the fan base they do need to get fans feeling the love again. By the time we get real numbers of fans back in the ground it’s going to be at least a year since they were at a match. People get out of the habit of going every other week and find new ways to spend the money, wives get used to having the other half about on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon etc. Season tickets range from just under £1,000… Read more »
Its clear Arteta has to go. Its also clear that that alone isnt going to be enough.
Congrats AC brilliant insightful and thought provoking piece. Absolutely on the money.
@Matt I appreciate the curtesy with which you responded to an opinion that baffles you, thanks 🙂 Clinging at straws here, I know, but Chelsea don’t always turn up…if they do, I agree we are in for a long evening. The Burnley and Southampton games were moving in the right direction before the red cards. After the red card at Burnley we were under the cosh for the remainder of the match. After the red card against Southampton we did at least make an effort to get back in the game. I only saw the second half of the Everton… Read more »
AC – hats off to you – absolutely nailed it. Hope Pedro cuts and pastes your post for tomorrow’s Le Grove.
Martinez sale was the sign of disastrous thinking to come. MA needs to go immediately and so should Edu. We are going to experience second division football for the first time since pre Word War One – a proud record about to be ruined.
Samesong
“I got a feeling Leeds will be fighting relegation too.”
Nah they wil have a few games like this.
Their manager gambles and plays the same way. Some weeks it will come off for them, some weeks they will lose and a few weeks they wil get absolutely murdereded like today.
But they are trying to play progressive football through all this and Leeds will be rewarded for this with enough wins by the seasons end.
They will certainly end up wih more wins come the seasons end than a boring drab Arteta led Arsenal side.
Another clean sheet for Martinez, how many is that now, 7, 8?
😄 no problem Ray. No harm in being courteous, even when there are differences of opinion!
Like I said, I wish I could see it, but I just don’t know where our goals come from at the moment. As soon as we concede a goal it feels like game over because we are lucky to get one let alone two.
Did anyone else think that Calvert-Lewin looked like Walcott when running towards goal…besides Mariner and myself, of course 🙂
David Smith
“Think the nearest we will get to a DoF is if they were to succeed in talking Wenger back”
Don’t be daft. Stop living in the past.
This is a big problem for Arsenal fans living in the past.
We appointed Arteta not only because of Guardiola telling us how good he was but also because Arsene Wenger signed him once.
Just think, Arteta had the answer to a lot of his problems in Emi, and you can imagine how the chat went down.
I expect Emi confronted Arteta and the Spaniard didn’t like it. He definitely doesn’t Come across as someone who likes to be challenged.
Samesong
“AFTVRobbie – Arteta out
DT – Arteta in”
Absolute dickhead isn’t he that DT.
He was a Xhaka enabler not so long ago praising him. Surprise, surprise he disses him now.
And he keeps having his childish attention seeking tantrums every week like a little girl.
AFTV should drop him but mind you the channel is a bit cheapie ain’t it so DT fits in ok.
Best guy on there is Lee Judges.
I dont know Danny. Emi’s contract was up in a year and I think it was ultimately an easy decision to make to sell him – especially with $ needed for Partey. Wrong decision, but easy to justify from a short term thinking perspective which is basically the MO with this club ATM.
Funnily enough, I think selling Emi has been disastrous not only from a defensive perspective, but also attacking. When you think of a lot of our attacking moves/goals, a lot of them did come from playing out the back which Emi was great at. We dont have that in our locker with Leno anymore.
attacking moves/goals from last year****
G8
“One of Arteta’s biggest PR machine “beside Pedro lol”was John Cross”
Oh my goodness I’d forgotten about that creep and slimeball and you bring him up again.
He’s just delighted that he is on Arsenal’s christmas card list. Pisses himself with excitement at the thought of it.
Excellent weekend for us, all our relegation chasers stumbled.
Diss
Maybe that’s Artetas plan. Actually put us in a situation we can succeed at.
Instead of trying to be in the top 4, we can try not to be in the bottom 3. Achievable goals and all that.
Please hire Allegri ASAP . Hire a CEO and eventually a new Director of Football . Quickly sell xhaka .. start playing Ozil fir the rest of the season . I strongly believe an experienced Elite manager likes of Allegri and bringing Ozil back short term will motivate Auba , Willian , Pepe to play much better . Gabriel , Tiereny and Partey will help us climb up the table once under an elite manager . During summer with new CEO in charge and Allegri , start clearing out players and bring in athletic technically superior players. We must start… Read more »
Marco
Totally agree.
Arteta out of his depth and has worked himself into a corner with a lot of players.
Without him going into January and signing a completely new squad, there is no coming back from this.
Someone like Allegri would breeze into that changing room and know exactly what to do to get all those players on board.
Disappointing that Pedro retweeted a Gunners Town article on his twitter timeline though.
That article is basically excuse making for Arteta and no call for his dismissal.
One of the excuses is no crowd attendance. This apparently is a big issue in why Arteta is failing.
The article is very Untold Arsenal like.
A sign that Pedro is not letting go,
Pedro tweet
“Been meeting Gooners, ringing them, and reading the blogs.
Everyone is a little lost on the best path forward.”
Unless you are heavily invested in just Arteta the man himself these Gooners shouldn’t be lost on the path forward.
It’s obvious.
The first step of many is to get rid of a failing manager.
Allegri is class
Not sure he’s a realistic option
Any thoughts on interim and long term options
Reality is .. likes of Ozil who has been the best number 10 in the world and won the World Cup and played for Real Madrid .. or David Luiz who has won just about everything don’t respect a young rookie coach who was a very mediocre midfielder . Arteta is not Lampard or Ole .or Zidane .. once senior players don’t respect the coach and coach exiles them just to stroke his own ego .. situation becomes toxic and other senior players like Auba and Laca start tooling down and others go on vacation until things get sorted out… Read more »
Ishola
“One of the excuses is no crowd attendance. ”
What he hasn’t been sacked because there are no crowds or he wouldn’t be in the current position with crowds?
Everyone is just playing for time now.
The club and Arteta backers.
Just one solitary win in the next few weeks and he will be back on the path of being the special chosen one.
Whoever takes over would be hard pressed to match this bumbling fool, so the only way is up.
Calypso
We’d be hard pressed to find someone who’d be as bad if we actually tried to pick a bad candidate.
Marc
”What he hasn’t been sacked because there are no crowds or he wouldn’t be in the current position with crowds?”
As said an excuse making article for the benefit of Arteta and had a very Untold Arsenal feel to it.
The players are very badly missing playing in front of a crowd and this is a big reason why Arteta is failing.
I said before on here if things got really bad for Arteta which they are atm then his backers and probably the cub itself would just blame covid.
Arsenal hiring Allegri is a realistic option .
Arsenal is one of the biggest clubs in Europe and Allegri will love the challenge of being in the same league with likes of Klopp and Guardiola and Mourinho
A fish out of water would do a better job than this donkey.
It’s past the point of comparing Arteta to Emery. Arteta’s arsenal is pure shite. And Emery is a quality coach who just didn’t work out here. People who deny that really are cunts. Also I do think a proper manager could come in here and do a job, despite our back room team. Wenger was the Overlord after Dein left. He just got worse and worse as his ego kept letting him down. Emery had no real say. We were trying to be a big boy club again with the suits above him calling the shots (and falling apart behind… Read more »
Ishola70, An undeserved or fluky qualification to the next round of the domestic cup and I am sure Pedro will go back to the tune that ARteta has seen the light and the promise land is just over the hill. Another poster who has disappeared lately will rear his bully comments to explain why we were all wrong to call for Arteta head. There is absolutely no evidence that Arteta can ba a good manager. As I wrote before being able to design amazing training session as assistant does not make a good manager, nor does being an assistant to… Read more »
Sorry the rants have been coming thick and fast lately
Please lets stop mentioning Ozil…..its irritating personally to think Ozil with the will of a feather can help a struggling team. Arteta is lost and needs to go yes. Ozil is not in the squad so no coach can use him now…FACT. Hope they both leave in January…if not he needs to revert to what was successful for him in the Cup run…..ultradefensive and hit on the counter. Arsenal’s midfield might be the least dynamic in the league… Truthfully, Everton went to 2nd and Spurs are nowhere near us on the table for a reason….going there and somehow thinking he… Read more »
And what that rant started from was Pedro saying we are in the final days of Emery.
I call bs.
We’ve been there for months
The problem with Emery is that he is a poor man manager. In a club with low expectation where the players are willing to listen and tolerate his idiosyncrasies it is not a problem. At a big club where players have characters, he can’t manager with an iron fist. ARteta is worse in that he does not even realise that his tactics are failing. Emery could see things were not working but did not know where to turn to fix it. In a bad analogy, Emery is the driver who realise he is driving toward the cliff but can’t find… Read more »
Valentin “An undeserved or fluky qualification to the next round of the domestic cup and I am sure Pedro will go back to the tune that ARteta has seen the light and the promise land is just over the hill.” Yep they are just waiting for any signs of life from the corpse. The very slightest twitch of the eye will be enough to see them get back on the Arteta bandwagon. Sadly this is very reminiscent now of Wenger later years and this to me is crazy as Arteta has hardly had any time at the club but plenty… Read more »
Nagellsman is good but not Elite . At this point we need an absolute Elite coach who commands total respect with a huge proven track record . No more taking risks .
Everton tried various “good” coaches until they finally decided to go Elite in Ancelotti and results speak for themselves .
Allegri will command 10-15mill PA and 150-200 million for rebuilding to start with
These owners won’t do it
Valentin
“At a big club where players have characters, he can’t manager with an iron fist”
And some of them pretty poor characters.
We wouldn’t have even appointed this guy if Wenger hadn’t signed him once.
And some people wonder why some dislike the Wenger cult.
One positive.
Thank god Martinelli is back in the frame.
We need him big time.
My worry with him is Arteta.
In fact my worry with everything is Arteta.
Ishola70, Unless you have total control over the coming and going of the players, no manager can rule anymore with an iron fist. Conte tried that with Costa and it backfired on him. And that’s after he won the premier league! Things have changed, the hair dryer treatment would not work with the current generation of players. Ten minutes after the tirade they would be on the phone with their agents asking for a transfer or demanding the coach be sacked. Anybody who wants to be a manager has to be psychologist. A leader and convincer in chief rather than… Read more »
Marco, I agree. But was just using him as the example as he hasn’t worked at a top top club but still plays great football and knows where the holes in his squads are. He also works on very low budgets. Valentin, Ishola Yeah, Emery is made for the la liga 2nd tier teams. His stint at psg should have been enough to show he wasn’t what we needed after Wenger. We needed(and really still do) that manager to grab to team by the balls and demand respect. (Whether or not that’s how you gain respect I’m not sure 😂)… Read more »
Ish,
“We wouldn’t have even appointed this guy if Wenger hadn’t signed him once.”
If that wasn’t so true I’d have had a good laugh
Nice to see that you guys, quite rightly, are ignoring QL. 🙂
Valentin,
It’s a shame the world is going so soft.
Where are the Tony Adams’, Patrick vieira’s, Roy keanes, of the modern game?
Left nut, I think today I just needed a vent rather than a petty argument 😂😂
marc
Way off beam as usual
DD brought Stan along ti INVEST in the Club, not to buy it, the idea being to spend the money on top players. Danny & Co preferred to sell the Club, and keep the money for themselves.
When DD objected, Danny & Co booted him out. DD is a hero, not a villain.
Goobergooner
What are you talking about, Emery was successful at PSG
“Allegri will command 10-15mill PA and 150-200 million for rebuilding to start with” We were about to collect ~70m from just Xhaka, AMN and Lacazette if Arteta wasn’t a complete fool and declined the offers. I’m sure we can make close to 120m from selling some of the underperforming players – in addition to the 3, add Nketiah, Willock, Chambers, Holding, Kolasinac, Torreira and you’ll make quite the bank. Balogun and ESR can take Nketiah and Willock’s places and we won’t even feel it. We even have the 190 cm next Ibra in line – Moller. Nketiah isn’t needed, neither… Read more »
eb Can’t believe you haven’t been snapped up by some circus somewhere. Dein introduced the Kroenke’s to the club and then sold his shares to Usmanov, was fired for negotiating the sale of other shareholders stakes in the club. It was a fuckfest of ridiculous proportions and was routed in Dein’s belief that we couldn’t afford to build a new stadium. Dein was brilliant for us for a period but royally fucked up at the end, from a club’s perspective we should’ve replaced his skill set which was basically a DOF instead of giving the power to Wenger. Here endeth… Read more »
Conte actually showed that you can do it with Costa. He had a player who wanted to leave Chelsea for either China or Atletico Madrid and Conte managed to extract the absolute maximum of a sulking player. Then Chelsea just had to sell Costa in the Summer and Conte would have done perfectly well. But since Conte didn’t have a say in transfers Costa stayed and stank the place for half a season more and Chelsea bought Conte Alvaro Morata who turned out a massive failure, when Conte wanted Lukaku. “I asked for two players and we [Chelsea] were very,… Read more »
Danny this situation seems so much more resourceful… Who would have thought haha
“In a parallel universe after winning the FA Cup: We got rid of Luiz, Xhaka and Elneny. We kept Martinez, Ozil, Guendouzi, Torreira and Saliba, didn’t sign Willian (of course), still signed Partey and Gabriel – gifts from Kroenke for winning the cup, and guess what, we’re 2nd and Everton are 15th! It’s not fuckin’ rocket science!”
Goobergooner, You are confusing the role of captain and the role of manager. You can still be a vocal leader on the pitch, but that dominant approach has to be associated with a more consensual vice captain. Players need to be able to believe that if they have a problem you will have their back. At Fulham Felix Magath handed two youth team players on £2,000 per week a fine of £10,000 each. Scott Parker at the time tried to intervene and convince the manager that the fines were excessive. In the end Scott Parker payed the fine himself. That’s… Read more »
Raptora, Conte mishandled the Costa situation. He told him to fuck to wherever he wanted. Costa took exception of that and then sulked for six month. Conte wanted power he was never going to be granted. Had he been a little more consensual and less confrontational, he might have received the players he wanted. Conte never had the character to play the long game. Show you are a team player and that today you are willing to take one for the team, later people are more likely to listen to your demand. Chelsea management are ruthless. Behave like a selfish… Read more »
Haha Val,
I understand what you mean.
I was just referring to how soft players are that nowadays they would have cried to a Fergie hairdryer treatment.
But we need some personalities on the pitch is what I meant.
The manager needs to accommodate them all to get the best from the squad.
Keane is on par with Arteta as manager, but at least tried to start at the right place
BTW that anecdote about Scott Parker show the difference between ARteta and Parker.
Parker took upon himself to pay the fines for a youth team player.
Arteta used the fines levied for lateness so he could buy an expensive watch to Gazidis, officially as a gift from the players but particularly from him. Fines that were usually used to give to charities or to less well off Arsenal Colney staff. Rumours abounded that other players were “surprised” of the gift. Per (the vice captain) in particular did not approve of it.
Val that whole watch scenario really is bizarre.
What would the other players have thought of such a kiss ass.
Also Pepe apologised, Gabriel apologised yet xhaka still hasn’t?
Wtf is wrong with that prick? And how the fuck does he get away with it?
The fact xhaka told the fans to fuck off because he has no situation awareness was a reason to never play him ever again.
Just having him in the side since then really does leave a sour taste in the mouth.
Arteta started off sooooo poorly by not releasing him.
Maybe it is that xhaka reminds Arteta of himself 😂😂😂
Id be happy to pitch in for a watch for Mike only to come with his termination notice
Valentin: “Costa took exception of that and then sulked for six month.” He wasn’t going to sulk if he was already out the club. That Chelsea refused to sell a player that was wanting out for a full year before that, isn’t on Costa, it’s on them keeping him. Exact same thing with Alexis. We should have cashed in. The team that keeps a player wanting out never wins. Except that Conte still was manage to extract that top season Costa had. Re Chelsea not giving freedom to their manager – yes, it’s on Conte because he should have known… Read more »
Goobergooner, Here is is one of the article that reported the incident in a less than enamoured way. https://theshortfuse.sbnation.com/2018/1/8/16863242/mikel-arteta-ivan-gazidis-arsene-wenger-arsenal-manager-watch The fact that ARTETA lawyers asked for the reports to add that no misappropriation took place just show that ARTETA was much more interested in his reputations than doing the right thing. Since to avoid such problems, the club has imposed that players choose a charity at the beginning of the season. Most of money must then go to that charity. Gift for individual people are still possible, but unless they are of medical nature the value of the gift must… Read more »
Wrong manager.
and we continue to rot…. I fear the worst through the next 2 weeks….
17-20 is not out of the realm of real
Knowing how rigid Mike is, it would not surprise me if he was Wenger’s little spy in the dressing room.
Funny that he does not have anyone doing the same for him.
with his wanting to find out who the leaker was of the Luiz and Dani incident.
What a loser. No Mole for Mike….
lol
Players are shit. Manager keeps repeating same mistakes. We keep signing has beens. Too much deadwood sitting on the sidelines. Owners don’t give a fuck. Gonna be a long ass time before we are anywhere near the top 4 again.
Guns of SF,
Maybe that’s why Xhaka start?
It clearly is not because of his tackling ability as a midfielder.
Thanks Val, I’ll have a read
It’s amazing how players just magically turn to **** as soon as they get here eh?
Get a proper coach in and we’ll be anywhere from 5th-7th. Sometimes you have to take a chance(Arteta) but when that experiment fails spectacularly you have to have the stones to pull the plug .
Lol I had forgotten the story of the watch. Arteta is truly an arselicker. Makes perfect sense he has put his trust in garbo like Xhaka. They share the same characteristics. Closest thing to Arteta in every shape and form. I’m not surprised at all he’s managed to fight with basically everyone around him – Guen, Ozil, Saliba, Luiz, Auba – everyone with a grain of personality about them or ego in Ozil’s case. He is happy to bully Pepe, Guen, Saliba while he is willingly giving a pass to the likes of Xhaka and Willian. Captain Rob fkin Holding?… Read more »
Tits, I get what you mean,
But I just don’t understand how giving Arteta a chance as coach then manager without experience was even considered by anyone at the club. Especially after the squad downed tools on Emery and we were in some real strife (for the top for trophy) for the first time in 20 odd years.
It makes me sick Willian and xhaka are free from the non negotiables
We had Luiz and (potentially) Tierney as the only real leaders on the pitch against the toffees. And if the captaincy was taken from Luiz then I guess holding was the most senior squad player (lol) on the pitch.
It was a very poor lineup
Valentin that’s a very interesting article but it doesn’t say it was artetas lawyers that made them add that disclaimer. Would make more sense that it was their own since this is an inflammatory accusation to make about arteta (true or otherwise)
If you say it was forced by mikels lawyers the onus is on you to prove it, otherwise it’s just conjecture
But you also wonder why Gazidis would be so impressed by a watch. Gazidis was on 3m a year and worked for us for about 8 years. Unless it was some 80k diamond encrusted one of a kind worn previously by Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, JFK and Igor Stepanovs, you’d think that gift wouldn’t be that special to a guy who already has everything
Sleazy fucks like Gazidis love to get their ass licked China. The whole idea that Mikel goes and buys a watch to the CEO of Arsenal with the fines he collected from the players, it’s so fkin idiotic, what the fuck?!
Borderline I feel like vomiting after being reminded about it.
He is a kiss ass.
Sure he pulled similar shit at City.
This fella knows how to brown nose to get what he wants.
Now he is fucking up the Arsenal universe.
And so it stands, the gap between the Haves and the Have Nots keeps increasing and the best that Pedro keeps coming back with are headlines that read… TIME FOR ARTETA TO DELIVER Detailing the complicated mess Arteta is struggling to escape ARTETA DIES ON THE XHAKA HILL Arteta fumbles around for the lighter fluid Arteta squirms over press quotes + TIME FOR HALE-ENDERS TO SHINE! Arteta Enters The Death Spiral® All of them speak essentially to the same thing – a Manager completely out of his depth, bereft of any real clue as to how to rescue a situation… Read more »
Why hasn’t he been sacked yet?