ARSENAL MAKING MOVES, HUGE JAN 2021 NEEDED

by .

Well, here we are, the last blog post of 2020. A really, really, really shitty year for everyone.

From a football perspective, we’ve had it all.

We picked up a young coach who arrested the rot that had set in under Unai.

That new coach changed a lot of things. We looked better structured on and off the ball. The players fought like dogs. We binned the melts. Arsenal were far more competitive against big clubs. We won another FA Cup, beating City and Chelsea on the way.

Off the pitch, we had a huge win. The disgusting leadership of Raul S, which a few of us relentlessly pursued, came to a very satisfying conclusion. He was binned after about a month of Tim Lewis joining the board. Good riddance.

That didn’t exactly make our summer, but at least it meant the incompetence could be blamed on actual bad judgment versus something more insidious.

Our transfer window was a bit of a mess because we had to work on compact timelines because of covid. Still, we managed to sign two really great players in Gabriel and Thomas Partey. We also managed to stay true to form by signing Willian on an outrageous deal from a grim super-agent. We did some good business on renewals, tying down Saka and Martinelli. We did some bad business, giving Luiz another deal. We did some ‘errrr… not sure’ work by keeping Auba tied to us until he’s 34.

Arteta the ‘rookie coach lucky to land the job’ at Arsenal was given a big promotion to rockstar manager. Edu was sat down in a fancy garden and told to tell the world he was happy that his relationship with him had gone from subordinate to equal.

Everything went to shit from there.

Arteta had a big hand in every shit decision we made over the summer. His non-negotiables became negotiable. The stars that promised to be with him ditched the project fast and hard. Form plummetted. The football became incoherent. All the discipline went in a storm of redcards. We went coach > manager > politician. It looked like the same end scene from the Emery era.

… but then Christmas brought a special gift: Light at the end of the tunnel.

We beat Chelsea by shifting some things around.

David Luiz and Willian were dropped for ‘sickness’ that wasn’t covid related.

Emile Smith Rowe was introduced with Gabriel and Saka to the front 4.

Lacazette finally found a role that suited his ailing physical traits.

The football sped up as the coaching handbrake loosened.

We moved to mid-table.

Now, the story is far from over. We could easily lose 2-0 to WBA on Jan 2. The blip could be the moment of serenity before a big Arteta induced football heart attack.

… but football is about hope.

January is a big opportunity for the club to right some wrongs.

Dani Ceballos might be moved on by Madrid. They don’t like that he’s not playing. Italy is seen as an option for him to land some game time. Good. He started a fight with Eddie and he was at fault for getting his nose smacked by David Luiz in a training ground ruck. He’s been shit. Cut him loose.

Kola might be finally heading back to Schalke. They hired in Christian Gross and want to kill the fans by subjecting them to the Bosnian knife fighter. Good luck to them.

I suspect Ben Knapper will be busy with other loan moves. Mustafi and Sokratis are both internationals of pedigree that could do a 5-month job at most places. Their wages are high, but not disgustingly so if you are club plugging a gap. Both need game time if they want the next move to be sexy. What will he do with Cal Chambers? Joe Willock? Reiss Nelson? Eddie Nkeitiah? William Saliba? Can any of them be used as bargaining chips for players we need?

No doubt there will be a lot of fumbling around to bring in a creative player. No one seems to like Isco. 95% of fans telling me he’s a fat ponce. A bit mean if I’m honest. The club want a piece of Julian Brandt, but I’d be shocked to see Dortmund move him in January. Jack Grealish has been all up in the Arsenal players gramz over the last week, clearly he is DESPERATE for the big move the North London, but be real people, the £75m we spent on Pepe is not coming back. A player like Jack is not going to end up in our squad, so stop dreaming. There’s talk about Sabitzer of RB. I really like the player, he always impresses me. He hit double figures for goals and assists last season, but my worry is that at 26, he’s a finished product. Shouldn’t we be looking for the next big thing after the learnings of this summer? Buendia has great numbers, but according to Tim Stillman, his attitude stinks, not sure we should be going there if that’s the case.

The good news is that we’re heading into the window a little calmer than we might have been. We’re not going to make a shocking error by panic signing Eriksen on a 5-year deal. I also think Arteta has gone to a very dark place over the decisions he made this summer… he has to know he fucked up very badly. I am sure he’ll not be begging Edu to sign anymore Kia bums, because he knows that at any other club, he’d be on the bonfire right now, looking at the next job at Bournemouth if he were lucky.

On a me, me, me note. The year was rough as a blogger! Traffic nose-dived. I had nothing to write about. BUT, I want to thank the loyalists who checked in regardless. You are the real heroes.

I also want to send my love to all the readers that were impacted by covid. The Arsenal should be escapist, I try and keep it upbeat here (or REALLY FUCKING INTENSE), but I am fully aware of the heartache this virus has caused. I know many of you have lost loved ones or suffered health problems personally. I truly wish you and your families all the best and hope to see you back to full fitness in the new year!

So we end the year on hope.

Hope that Arteta has grown up and can see what he needs to do to make it at the top with this basketcase club.

Hope that the club has finally seen the error of its ways and has the guts to pivot towards a better path.

Hope that we have some exceptional young players that will play out the rest of the season with passion and pride. #HaleEnders

Hope we’ll all be having a pint together at the start of next season as the vaccine is rolled out.

Thank you for reading and listening for another year. This site brings me so much joy. I cannot tell you how lucky I am to have such a rabid community of lunatics that come to chat football every day. It means the world that you spend your valuable time here and occasionally take the time out to call me a c*nt in the comments.

On that note, I’ll raise a glass to you, thanks for being awesome.

Stay safe tonight, be merry, and let’s have a much better 2021! xxx

P.S. I want to say a huge thanks to the heroes that have helped me create elite content this year. Matt, Alex, Aash, Johnny, Dom, Jonathan, Mike McDonald, Janan, Lee… THANK YOU.

Now listen to the podcast.

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Kenyangunner

Can’t believe we are still talking of Capoue in 2021!

Northbanker

happy New Year to all – decision making of Edu and Arteta has on the whole been terrible but so too has been what has gone before them. But we know Arteta stopped sales of Xhaka and Laca and promoted the sale of Emi. He has disgracefully dealt with Saliba wrongly and looks to be fucking up over Balogun. Put together with being in 13th place to me we should be lining up a new manager for the year problem is who does that? there is no one competent enough at AFC so agree priority is a DoF Marc Overmars… Read more »

Goobergooner

Northbanker, it’s quite an unreal situation we seem to have got ourselves into isn’t it.

No one actually has proper football experience in the management positions. It’s seriously bizarre

Goobergooner

I’d also take Overmars. He should have came instead of edu, but we wanted to play shitty games with agents and leaving any major decision up to Gazidis was quite the disaster. Wenger was the last proper footballing person who had a proper semblance of power. We’ve had Emery as well as diamond eyes who both had no real say and hence them not being here today (well Emery we all know what was wrong, but why wasn’t he given the leeway Arteta is being given, and I don’t give a shit that he’s an amatuer so that’s not an… Read more »

Northbanker

I would still say that Arteta is an improvement over Emery who just seemed such a buffoon. The football at the end of Emerys time was even worse than it was pre Chelsea match. That isnt really a compliment though. My only reservation right now is that in the last 2 games Arteta may finally have seen some light. IF he can learn from his shitty decisions then maybe just maybe we have a better manager going forward The other factor is just hanging fire as well as last 2 games and lack of decision maker is the fact that… Read more »

Northbanker

We need someone who can build for the long term with our Academy and some bargain basement buys. Eventually that will allow us to buy marquee players but until you do this well that is a huge gamble and so often goes wrong. Look at how many flops Barca and RM have bought for big money. Something happens to players mental attitudes when they get ridiculous money. Id stay well away and focus on using AFC name to get tomorrows stars. Build a strategy which doesnt rely on getting into ECL to buy and retain players . If we can… Read more »

Nelson

Goobergooner
“I cannot for the life of me see why managers love him.”

I also want Xhaka replaced. He is too slow for EPL. But I understand why managers and players love him. He is a straight arrow. He is dedicated. He always gives 100%. He supports all his teammates. That’s why he was voted as captain. Luiz can be a trouble maker. Auba is obviously down tooling. Watched how he played last game makes me sick. He just went through the motion. Laca looked happy and still wanted to contribute. Hopefully, he can influence Auba to try harder..

Goobergooner

Northbanker, Agree with that second message’s sentiment. We need to become more like Dortmund, but we have (covid is the real kicker here) a bigger income and ability to spend than them so we should I’m theory be able to do it better. We have made an absolute hash of majority of big money signings. Either being square peg for round hole (Ozil and to some extent both Auba and Laca. We only needed one of them if we kept giroud) , or just not being good enough (Pepe, xhaka, mustafi). What I cannot agree with is that Emery ball… Read more »

Goobergooner

Nelson, I do understand that. But a captain doesnt dawdle off the field and then tell fans to fuck off, he was binned then and rightfully so. But then he comes back under arteta, has a few decent games (for him anyway) and is now the mainstay, then goes and gets a fucking incredibly daft red card. I can’t believe he supports all his team mates after seeing a raging Tierney (who shows proper heart and desire) be pushed away by xhaka for him to only go and put his arm around the bloke who got Pepe sent off. Xhaka… Read more »

Goobergooner

If I was Tierney in that situation I would have had a few words to xhaka after that.
He should have put his arm around Tierney and been that leader he says he’s been since holding onto his house keys as a kid.

What an absolute melon of a bloke.

Chris

Our next 2 games are West Brom and Palace. With the bounce we are on we can grab 2 wins.

Chelsea’s next 2 are Leicester and Man City, could easily lose both given how they are currently.

Imagine the scenes if we are level on points with Chelsea, who have spent £250 million, in 2 games time.

Just a light hearted thought!

Goobergooner

Rookie managers hey 😂😂

Moray

If Xhaka is giving 100% every game then he’s a much, much worse player than I ever thought he was. For me, he’s a caricature or maybe a parody- a parody of a midfielder, a parody of a regista, a parody of a captain and a parody of a tough guy.

Nelson

Goobergooner

I don’t want to sound like I am defending Xhaka. I was trying to explain why all managers including the Switzerland NT and his former German team all selected him as captain. He had a bad relationship with the fans. If by chance he comes across Le Grove, he’ll find out how the fans hate him. As for the event with Tierney, I heard that the “bloke” is his friend and countryman. It had nothing to do with football. Anyway, Partey will definitely replace Xhaka in the starting 11.

Moray

Sid, if that were the Kroenkes they would be investing in her unsustainable business that they knew nothing about

Moray

Nelson, sounds like you have a man crush on the great Swiss hope. No shame, he’s not bad lookign if you like the gypsy thing he has going on.

Goobergooner

Nelson, my bad didn’t mean it to sound like I was having a go at you for defending him haha. And I do get it. He’s a dressing shed personality. Haha and yeah I used bloke as I couldn’t think of his name 😂😂. And I’m sure there would have been heaps of time to have had a chat to old mate, but at that point in time Tierney should have been his main concern. He just lost a match that should have been won any other season, and he’s going off being chumps with the literal enemy of the… Read more »

Goobergooner

And that’s the hope and dream that Partey comes back and does what’s needed!

Goobergooner

Moray not calling you out here, but it has been a random theme (not sure if it’s just here) that people love how suave tets is and want a team full of models. Stems back to the giroud era.

Give me some absolute trolls that can play some bloody football all day every day 🤣🤣

Moray

It’s true, goober. Look at the shit show Cavani is creating up north.

Moray

https://www.caughtoffside.com/2021/01/01/ceballos-could-be-on-his-way-back-to-real-madrid-with-spanish-giants-unhappy-with-his-treatment-at-arsenal/

So The human pencil is going to play more in Madrid than with us, with our paucity of midfield options?

I would say we’ve been very generous with playing time for Ceballos, who really isn’t up to much.

Aussie+Gooner

Happy New Year to all on LG and thank you Pedro for making it work during a very difficult period. I suspect that worse is to come. Fortunately we were able to celebrate NYE in normal fashion here in Western Australia although the crowds were down on last year. I went to an 80’s disco night! I bet some on here wern’t even born then! My hopes for this year: See the back of COVID Arteta to wake up and smell the coffee or move on I like the look of the following players were are supposed to be interested… Read more »

Goobergooner

You’re right Aussie. I was born not long after the 80s haha but not quite.

I agree with that list though. We need excitement and potential rather than has been early retirees

Nelson

Reports from Turkey linking Sokratis to Fenerbahce in recent days, Turkish outlet Takvim add that the club now have an agreement with the defender. However, the 32-year-old is delaying on making it official, as he also has interest from Napoli.

Globalgunner

Cant blame a Greek for not wanting to play in Turkey

Mr Serge

I am of Greek Cypriot origin I would never play in Turkey (if I was good enough)

Sean Mukiza

Thank you for the great content that you have produced for us over 2020 don Pedro! Don’t always see eye to eye with you. But I read everyday. Love the blog. Keep well and safe my guy! Only way is up in 2021. Lots of love to you !

p.s (please give us more Pods in 21′ thanks xx)