So bees vaccinate their youth? Unreal. Is there anything those guys can’t do? Actually, I was told they can’t count past 5… they use markers to navigate, once they go past 5, they get lost. Regardless, I’m impressed with bees.
What am I NOT impressed with? International break. Idle Arsenal fans festering is never a good blend.
The biggest concern most of us have is the return of Martin Odegaard next season. Honestly, I think the worry is a little bit overblown. Madrid are unlikely to be moved by his performances here. He’s played more minutes with Arsenal than he has in his entire career there. When he was sent to Sociedad, he was the 3rd most creative player in La Liga, Zidane was unmoved.
Madrid are £900m+ in the shit. They have no money. Their brand is built on superstars. It’s not really an option for them to double down on what they have, they have to brand their way back to the top. Martin Odegaard is an opportunity for some hard cash, I suspect we’ll try to buy him this summer, or more likely, we’ll loan him for another year with a purchase clause placed in the deal.
The most important thing is how the player feels at Arsenal. If he feels at home, loved, and sees there is a huge opportunity to be the focal point of a young and exciting team building towards greatness again… he might want to be a part of it.
His agent might also like that route as well. 4 seasons at Arsenal and he could have the pick of clubs to go to if we’re not to his fancy. Arsenal gives him space to grow, but not to the detriment of his brand. Arsenal is a big club. The Premier League is the grandest stage. He’ll do very well to stick it out with us.
I’m not really that worried about competition from the Premier League. Not sure the Carlo vibes are good. Liverpool don’t need him. City puts him in the same position he was in at Madrid. United have a #10. Spurs are shit. Chelsea are brimming with creators. He has a free run at Arsenal. At 22, what more can you hope for? He can be the new Cesc, but hopefully with a bit more success.
What else am I buzzing about today? Emile Smith Rowe. He needs a new deal and I’m already worried he might leave us. CAN YOU IMAGINE? When I was first in love, I struggled with jealousy so badly, I thought the person I was with was cheating on me in the bathroom… IN HER MUMS HOUSE. That’s the sort of panic I’m having over ESR. He’s so, so, so good… he needs the big deal. Someone get him it.
Also, Saka, can we give him a new deal? Just to be sure?
There’s been a lot of debate going off about whether there’s been real improvement at Arsenal this season.
Now, if you frame improvement by simply looking at the table, you could say: no… then bang the table and say, ‘TABLE DOESN’T LIE.’
Of course, this is factually correct, but it’s a bit reductive. There are many better ways to judge progress, the same way businesses are rarely judget simply on profit metrics, especially those in transformative moments.
On the grandest of scales, look at Jeff Bezos. It took 10 years for Amazon to turn a profit. They once went 17 quarters without making positive balance sheet impact. ‘TABLE DOESN’T LIE’ merchants were saying things like, ‘they don’t make profit, this isn’t a viable business, BEZOS is a fraud.’
Now look at them.
Arsenal isn’t Amazon, but currently, they’re asking people to buy into a vision in the same way. We’re closer to Apple before jobs went in the second time around. We had set the highest of standards once upon a time, but eventually lost our mojo, after giving the big job to a bum from Pepsico (Emery).
What did Jobs do? He slimmed down the organisation (Arsenal reorg’d). He streamlined the product line (slimmed the squad of duff products). He brought in his own people (new coaching staff). He set a lofty new vision (TO THE MOON).
Jobs new plans nearly took the company to insolvency, they were 90 days away from death. Michael Dell (Jose) told press Jobs should liquidate Apple and give the money back to the shareholders.
A year later, the company returned to profit. The rest is history.
‘TABLE DOESN’T LIE’ merchants can trumpet a truth and you can’t deny it. But what they can’t factor in is the context of vision. The easiest position is to be a naysayer, because it takes a leap of faith to believe in something better.
On the march to progress, things usually get a lot worse before they get better. That’s the nature of change in any business or team.
You have to accept that Wenger crashed our standards over 10 years. Don Raul crashed our class and our finances. Unai Emery crushed the good bits of the Wenger era and added even more indiscipline and confusion to the neglected areas. He left Arsenal worse than he picked it up, this isn’t up for debate, it’s straight facts.
The rebirth of Arsenal was never, ever going to be sorted in a year. Especially when at the same time you’re rebuilding the football you are reorging youth football, starting afresh with a sporting director, rebuilding our football transfer ecosystem, adapting to Europa… all while navigating the biggest shock to elite level sport since World War II (pandemic not being a mitigating circumstance for some is so, so beyond the pale).
So how should you be analysing our shitty season? Look for green shoots that the vision is coming to life. PreChristmas, it was hard to see that. The football was slow, we had no attacking flow, the results were absolutely miserable. At best, you could say we didn’t have the right players, at worse, you could say the taste in players of Arteta and Edu was shocking and we deserved what happened.
But it happened. The club didn’t sack anyone. They priced in the blip like Amazon and Apple shareholder priced in the short-term losses. As fans, we have to move forward from that moment in time.
Now where are we?
The linear progress is showing up if you rejigger where you look from.
PreChristmas, was shite.
PostChristmas, here is where we are.
We’ve played 15 games. We have 28 points. We are 4th. If we beat Liverpool, our game in hand over United, we are joint second.
We have scored 28 goals in one less game than United. We have scored the second-most goals.
Defensively, we’ve slacked off a bit. We’ve conceded 14 goals. The West Ham game took us from joint 2nd best defence, to 3rd best.
Those are hard numbers over a decent sample set.
Let’s get into eye test theory.
The football has a clear identity. We consistently dominate possession. We play good football. Sexy football. This has been a consistent theme since introducing modern numbers 10s. Pep said this explicitly about Arsenal.
The system is defensively stable, bore out by the numbers. Teams don’t walk through Arsenal these days. Our biggest weakness is unforced errors. Without those, we’d be 10 points better off right now. No team inflicts wounds on itself more than Arsenal. You could blame that on coaching, sure. But this is an issue we’ve suffered with for over 10 years. Most of our errors come from players we can lose this summer, or names that are Wenger signings. This is a very focused issue that will be addressed. Liverpool addressed similar flaws with VVD and Allison.
Our attacking system has moved to a new level in terms of production. We create a volume of high-quality chances in each game. We still haven’t landed the sauce needed to take those chances, but the point is, at some point, that begins to happen. Last season, we created few chances and took them at a higher rate, you’d much rather be creating more and scoring less… because great players take those chances in the end. Again, we’re bemoaning our efficiency in front of goal, when we’ve got the second best goalscoring record since Christmas. There’s a whole new level to reach and we’re doing well anyway.
We’re also tactically innovative. Bielsa, one of the greats, explicitly called out that he couldn’t deal with what Arteta had instructed Ceballos and Xhaka to do. Also, tell me the last time you were confident as an Arsenal fan that we’d compete in every game?
Again, these aren’t feelings… we’re dealing with facts here. Arteta has won 3 times as many games against Big 6 sides. We’ve conceded 19 less goals. Arsenal are a competitive outfit. We have beaten every major manager in the league.
Are there things that need to be fixed this summer? Absolutely.
The biggest chink in the armour of the coaching staff is their deference to older players that are never taking you back to promised land. Arteta seems to have quickly forgotten what saved his Arsenal career back in December. It wasn’t Auba and David Luiz, it was ESR, Martinelli, and Saka.
Hunger wins football games. Auba has not looked hungry for a while and he’s given a hall pass every time. David Luiz, throughout his career, has shown that he can’t be trusted over long stretches. When it’s West Ham, he’s not mentally there. That’s a massive blind spot. Hunger over talent, every single time…
Overall though, we’re getting to a good place when the best argument against the momentum is playing with data to show the worst possible outcome to appease the weird Emery Fan Club that exists.
Getting back to the top in the hardest league in the world requires vision, faith and time. You have to accept the choppy waters because it’s never plain sailing. Arsenal finally look like they’re taking the hard route. They’re doing the work, accepting the process, and delivering on a sustainable football future.
So in short, what is the fatal flaw of a big vision? Short termism. There are enough green shoots to show the direction Arsenal have taken is working… if you choose not to see it, you’re as bad as the table bangers that said Amazon would never succeed because the profit table doesn’t lie.
Right, listen to the podcast. Agree with me in the comments. See you later. x
Tony
Yes, that always makes me smile. My all time favourite has to be Fever Pitch, that’s an emotional, roller coaster ride especially for those of us old enough.
Nelson
How the hell do you arrive at the players being confused about the system?
Auba was on the right wing as opposed to the left, he wasn’t piloting a fucking aircraft. The whole side was sloppy and laboured for 30 mins, everyone witnessed it. The second goal was evidence enough.
Was it confusion that had 6 players with their back to the ball at a free kick? No, it was total lack of professionalism. They woke up after that and 2nd half they dominated matters, same approach, different output from them all.
China “So if you’re judging him off that I think you’re extremely harsh” As you know , my judgement of Martinelli was when he first arrived and what had happened since his opening burst of goals doesn’t surprise me at all.. He is not “the talent of the century”, he is potentially a very good player who has a manager that doesn’t trust him at this present time , and maybe never will. As i said earlier , i would llke to see him up top with smith rowe , Odegaard and saka supporting him …the question is, does Arteta… Read more »
Arteta should.
Pedro Great analogy, but it begs the question. When do we set expectations for arteta? For the sake of the vision, is it okay to have a poor start each season and languish in mid table? When does the job start getting result oriented because it sure was when Wenger was here and it was also.present when emery was here. When is it okay to question why we are losing to Olympiacos and going down to west ham in less than 5 mins? When does this vision that you see take place? Next season or like apple and amazon do… Read more »
Who do you sleep with most, Pedro?
Arteta’s full size cut out or your GF?
Threesome?
I’d imagine the only jealous one in your life is your GF such is your obsession with Arteta.
God help you if you whisper in your GF’s ear the name Arteta as you come.
Pierre should be able to give you some worthy advice on that subject.
Given the talk of progress going on in here everyday, is it enough to ask that arteta at least reach the EL finals? Or is it going against the narrative if we set even a little bit of expectation?
Kroenephobe “Analysing Arsenal’s current fortunes is like making love to a beautiful women. First you remove all the superfluous undesirable clothing (in other words Ozil, Mustafi, Kola) before indenting for some more exotic lingerie (Saka, ESR, Tierney). Then you get her to Partey with an innovative strap-on Odergaard) that will lead to a thrilling climax. Boom!” You said you were a writer. Freud one of your go to philosophers? Personally I prefer Nietzsche. Are you in training for the next 50 shades with new a trilogy of 71 Shades of Teen fumbling angst using strap ons et al or do… Read more »
Gons “Given the talk of progress going on in here everyday, is it enough to ask that arteta at least reach the EL finals? Or is it going against the narrative if we set even a little bit of expectation?” Expectations and accountability was only set for Wenger and Emery. Arteta, as you know, gets a pass from any such scrutiny of our factual league position and continual long list of costly errors over the last 15+ months that Pedro lovingly refers to a few bumps along the way. If we go out of the EL cup, it will be,… Read more »
If Amazon were like Arteta’s Arsenal half the time the parcels delivered to my house would contain some hobos shit stained drawers and not the diesel boxers I ordered.
China I feel it in my bones that Martinelli will become one of the hottest strikers in Europe. He is like baby Suarez. Either we will give him the platform or he will succeed elsewhere. Pierre is just pressed that his favorite Eddie who I think is an average striker isn’t being compared even a little bit. Pierre Honestly you are a very poor judge of talent or you have a thick head. Everyone can see the talent there. You saying he is not talent of the century while klopp named him that after playing against him is a farce… Read more »
“Kendo, Liverpool scored 100 points last season, Arsenal are 4 points behind them right now.“
You just have to give it to Pedro, when he makes up his mind about something he’ll never let go no matter the evidence.
Liverpool have had the most injuries in the PL bar none and Arsenal have been as fit as anyone.
Whatever the reason for their injuries( luck, overtraining, style of play , it doesn’t matter)
that’s why they’re having the season they are having.
Not sure Martinelli is the next Suarez but 10 minutes of game time every now and again is just not enough for anyone to show off their talents.
Lindgard couldn’t get minutes at United even though rumors were he had been crushing it in training.
He went to Westham and he’s been the hottest striker in the league since.
10 minute cameo per game is a joke.
Le groves chrismas table is slowly sneaking out the door, to be replaced with Arsenal vs big 6 sides,
Which is sad, its accepting the fact that Arsenal is below 6th place in ranking
Tony
I added the source from which it came so it wasn’t even an attempt to be original.
Slow day mate? You’re still smarting because I challenged you about your certainty that Guendouzi has a chemical inbalance in his brain? It was fucking embarrassing but you’ve decided to carry on with it. One of Pavlov’s dogs with a mouldy bone stuck in it’s gob.
Climb down old man and take that course in psychiatry.
Tom you say 10 min cameo per game but the truth is Martinelli has probably only played 30 mins of football across our last 10 games.
10 mins per game sounds like a luxury right now haha
Yeah I’m sorry but we’re close to liverpool because they’ve had an awful season due to everlasting factors, most significant of which has been an absolutely decimated defense for half a season If arsenal were on course to finish just shy of 100 points then the comparison would mean more, but that’s like Tyson Fury goes blind in one eye and injures his wrist before a fight and you say ‘look After 8 rounds I’m only losing be a few points!! It’s close!!!’ Arsenal do appear to be improving recently but let’s not compare with liverpool, who have fallen off… Read more »
Habesha “Pierre Honestly you are a very poor judge of talent or you have a thick head” I think you need to learn to understand what you read before calling someone thick. I did say he’s not the talent of the century (he’s not)but as you can read below , my main concerns are to do with the manager’s use of him and whether he rates or trusts Martinelli. Here are some of my comments on Martinelli. “Ideally we sign Odegaard , keep Martinelli and Arteta finds a way of integrating Martinelli, smith Rowe, saka and Odegaard in the same… Read more »
I’m always curious why the pandemic is only an excuse that applies to arsenal It didn’t impact liverpool last season. It hasn’t impacted city this season. Teams like west ham, Leeds, villa, Leicester, Everton are all having perfectly reasonable seasons. Only a few teams are miles away from where they should be. Arsenal being one of them. And the lamest thing about the pandemic excuse is that we can pin point several significant errors from the club in the early part of the season. Player selection, formation, man management, tactics. All these things had tangible impacts that you could directly… Read more »
I’d much rather we just call a spade a spade and admit arteta started his arsenal career well. Then made several key mistakes. Now he seems to be working his way through them.
This is the reality which gives him his due credit without needing to sugarcoat the wounds he inflicted on himself in the early season via his own mistakes
Tom
“Lindgard couldn’t get minutes at United even though rumors were he had been crushing it in training.
He went to Westham and he’s been the hottest striker in the league since.”
Yet another example of a manager not getting the best out of a player ….
Same as Arteta/Martinelli…zidane/Odegaard….Moyes/Benrahma…
This happens in football, managers prefer working with certain players.
Moyes can make lindgard look world class but he can’t get a tune out of Benrahma.
Arteta has Odegaard purring but is struggling with Martinelli..
Lindgard and Odegaard have benefitted with a move away to work with a different manager.
If you guys go on YouTube you’ll see there’s a compilation video of Ode’s west ham performance uploaded by the arsenal account It’s really interesting because rather than the usual tv camera shots it’s all close zooms mostly on his upper half and with subtitles Considering how well he played it’s quite striking how determined, vocal and important he was to the team. We all focus on what he does with the ball but he was constantly telling Laca where he needs him, demanding the ball, telling his team mates to wake up etc. he looked like a real leader… Read more »
China Agreed. City are in their own orbit and will remain so until the cash drys up if it ever does. But one of the differentiating factors this year seems to be whether a team has additional euro fixtures or not. Maybe there is added anxiety for teams travelling because of extra time and bureaucracy to do with covid not to mention varying r rates in countries. Moreover, playing in empty stadia overseas could be more demoralising than just playing empty grounds in ingerland. In any case, covid cannot be used as an excuse that only applies to some clubs… Read more »
China
“In short arteta came in and during the pandemic largely had us doing pretty well last season.Then he lost the plot in the summer and made several mistakes in the early season directly tying in with our form collapse.He fixed many of them from Xmas onwards and now we’re improving again”
Exactly …you could have added that our form and creativity dipped with the unfortunate binning of Ozil..
13 defeats in 25 premier league games during the period you mention is confirmation of our dismal run of form playing without a CAM
I think when you compare Ode with Ceballos it’s interesting
I believe Ceballos is very talented and when on form is an extremely capable player with some really useful qualities. But his attitude is a complete nothingness. In the second half of last season he showed up to play for his new contract. Came back and hasn’t been the same player since. Ode meanwhile *so far* looks like a player who is seriously vested in being as good and successful and he can be
Their career trajectories now look very very different.
Lol Pierre you can blame our lack of a AM but not our lack of ozil.
Nice try tho!
Pierre you seem to have forgotten ozil was dropped after the covid break yet we had a good end to the season and won the cup Apparently we didn’t miss him It’s quite comical you think when we were struggling this season that ozil would’ve showed up to be counted for rather than vanishing. At the best of times he liked to vanish, how do you think he would’ve coped early this season? If you are imagining him bossing games and be a key difference maker the I’m afraid this fantasy belongs well and truly in the bin. Ozil has… Read more »
Amazing how many of you were so critical of chambers during and after the match while he was turning in a MOTM performance
Typical know nothing le Grover’s
Only a handful of what remains of the comments section even understands what you are watching.
Still, makes it so enjoyable every time you make a claim and are left with egg on your faces.
China
Ceballos has no bottle. He’s also not the great on the ball. Neat and tidy passer but no skill. No turn if the shoulder. And only vision when he has time to get his head up
Odegaard is a different gravy. Bags of vision and looks like the bollocks to match
And to think. The usual melons on here were criticising Odegaard as too static and only taking the easy option.
😂
Wiglaf yeah Ceballos has let himself go in footballing terms and I’d be surprised if he goes onto to be a top end player as his heart doesn’t look in it for a top end level He’ll go back to a middling team in Spain and do just ok and nothing more. But I disagree that he’s not good in the turn. Ceballos has a really good ability to carry the ball in one direction and the reverse direction extremely quickly. Saw it several times last year and it’s rife in his early years compilations but I can’t even remember… Read more »
It’s amazing really isn’t it?
I’ve said since 2018 that we need 2 playmakers in this team and the moment we brought ESR and Odegaard In we are immediately a different beast
Personally I’d not have wasted the money on Partey or Gabriel last summer. I’d have sold Leno, Aubameyang and bellerin too.
Still can’t believe we chose Martinez over Leno.
China His body seems too rigid or stiff to turn properly. Or to feint and glide past someone I was a slow player but I could go past opponents due to my ability to misdirect my opponent. You have to be able to seem like your fully committing to one direction before taking the ball in another to effectively sell the closing player(s) I dont think Ceballos really has that in his locker For me he excelled as a deeper, more combative cmf role last season. Loved him in that role. Still had the opportunity to play those passes down… Read more »
Still can’t believe Don keeps coming back.
Wiglaf check out his YouTube compilations from his pre arsenal days and you’ll see what I mean He had this thing he was abusing in Spain where he’d run one direction and reverse on a 6 pence without seeming to lose any speed or momentum. It was a really odd and stand out thing that I think would be absolutely killer in the PL as it can make you press resistant. Either the player stands off you and you get time to look up and do your thing or they chase you and risk getting turned inside out I really… Read more »
Given a choice between Willian and Ozil, i would take my chances with the latter
Nelson I think your taking the comments too literally regarding the game plan. Saka and Auba been in opposite flanks didn’t confuse the players or cause them to be slack for the 1st 30 mins. Auba was played on the right to get in behind cresswell their most dominant attacking full back where there would be more space and saka is a better one on one vs their more defensive fb coucek. We didnt manage to get on the ball, and make challenges to find a way to play in him in behind as we wanted so we changed tact… Read more »
If and/or when Ode regains his form its unlikely he will stay at a midtable club
If Arsenal offer Ode 250k a week he might change his mind and stay
Jamie
I can’t believe that you’re still masquerading as male and an arsenal fan. Crazy but true
Fans and media consistently refer to players making mistakes or conceding goals as lack of character/bollocks/mentality/didn’t want it enough.
Sometimes the player is not capable of doing something.
Ceballos lacks top level dynamism. In the PL he can look alright in a three man CM unit as a continuity player or in a double pivot with a back three behind him.
Chambers (good game overall on Sunday) and Pablo Mari were both caught out when they tried to press West Ham players. They simply don’t have the foot speed to close down a player over distance.
China
I’ve watched his YouTube vids and caught a handful of live games before he came to us and I’ve not changed my opinion on him in 2 years
Neat and tidy but not enough brains, vision or bottle to set him apart.
Guendouzi is similar to me. Not enough of anything to set him apart
Martinelli will break through when he’s ready, there’s no need for any immediate panic, he’s 19, not 27 Suarez was dominant for Ajax in his younger days, but still took 18 months to find consistency after his move to the PL, and didn’t start producing consistently for Liverpool until he was 24 There’s definitely similarities between Martinelli + Suarez, they’re both street footballers, both incredibly direct, and both look to press relentlessly Suarez is a killer with predatory instincts, if Martinelli develops into anywhere near the level of player that Suarez was, then we’ll all be in for a treat… Read more »
Playing the big man after his 12th ban from a football blog. Yikes.
Rich
I remember that Suarez likes to bite the opponent also.
Nelson
The most talented and most brilliant individuals, are usually deeply flawed
There’s a fine line between genius and insanity
I absolutely loved Suarez, what a player
Ceballos doesn’t bring enough to the table. At his best he is an efficient recycler of the ball but he neither has the pace or power to make him a ‘must have’ signing. We can do better.
Wiglaf one of my favourites was Ode is too one footed and he doesn’t pass forward enough. Know nothings alright but when it comes wrapped in hysteria it’s hard to read it’s that embarrassing.
Ceballos was superb in the under 21s Euros and I was ecstatic we signed him as he looked to have all the tools but for one reason or another he really hasn’t shown anything like that.
If Martinelli turned out even half as good as Suarez is take the biting all day long.
If you put in performances like Suarez you can bite who you want.
Ceballos + Chambers are both technically really good players
But both run like they’ve got breeze blocks tied to their ankles
I know many disagree, but I’d tie Willock down to a new 5 year deal, and give him the No8 shirt next season
Strong rumours from Italy that UEFA is set to overhaul the Financial Fair Play rules that were introduced in 2010/11. It is claimed UEFA wants to provide clubs with greater freedom over their spending power, despite the huge mess Barca and Real are in. Over the years an increasing number of clubs have failed FFP and it looks like UEFA have given up on being able to control spending, while legal costs and challenges increased. Others believe this is an attempt to kick-start the transfer market, which has stalled during the pandemic, despite Chelsea spending over £220 million last season,… Read more »
Cazolar
“The players not executing a plan was down to them no being able to due to an impressive and motivated West Ham ”
_________________________________________________________
You are saying that after half an hour, West Ham was no more impressive and motivated. We had a game on Thursday. And we played West Ham on Sunday. The players were asked to play a different game plan. Did the players have time to train with it? After half an hour, our team was suddenly better than them?
Nelson don’t mean to be patronising but from your comments it doesn’t seem like you get it. On a simple level it’s our aim to play a possession based front foot attacking football. For the 1st 30 we couldn’t play our normal game due to West Ham playing well and us been too passive and cautious and not aggressive enough with and without the ball. Read my comment why Auba was on the right and saka the left, that was part of the game plan but we couldn’t work the ball to Auba in the space behind cresswell. After 30… Read more »
Cazorla Of course I don’t get it and I am still confused why we sucked so much and then we overpowered them. I want to find out the cause of us playing so badly in the first half of an hour. If as you say that we were too passive and cautious and not aggressive enough with and without the ball, so why did we enter into such a state. We won’t be able to win the Europa Cup if our team can suddenly enter into such a state again. I also remember the last 10 mins in the NLD… Read more »
Rich. Genuinely interested in what you see in Willock. I see a player that lacks concentration and is only switched on going forward. I see a low touch player with less skill and less finishing than Ramsey. I don’t see a player that fits our style to boss teams.
I think he perfect in a lower half team that needs to have 9 players behind the ball and Feeds off 30% possession. Adds an extra player in transition and will score maybe 7-10 goals a season.
Could be decent. Not for us.
What do you see ? Honest question mate
Odegaard has to be the priority.
Sell smart.
Sell quick.
Act decisively.
It should be possible if we put together a sensible package with cash up front. With Real Madrid in genuine money trouble they’re going to sell to us if we tempt them with enough money.
Then I would I would move quickly to sign a young backup for Tierney.
If we get those deals done then look at an upgrade for Bellerin and Lacazette.
Plus instead of wasting millions on a partner for Partey, what about bringing in Azeez from the U23s to see what he can do?
Wiglaf
Odegaard was definitely guilty of taking the easy option up until the Olympiacos game where he seemed to find his feet in an Arsenal shirt.
Leeds
Yes Real are in a mess financially but their short term debt as at 31/5/20 is actually less than Arsenals £235 million
Real will of course be looking to sell fringe players but Looking at the age profile of their senior players such as Moderic I can see him being given an opportunity to break into the first team at his parent club if he continues to impress at Arsenal
Pedro, Good post but I don’t think your analogy to tech companies applies here. You’re ignoring arguably the biggest reason why Bezos and Musk are given so much time – scalability. Those massive investments in cloud infrastructure, AI, production capabilities etc become massive moats that kill competition, provided you’re selling something your customers want. In football, there is no equivalent because our most important assets are people – on the pitch, on the bench, in the club offices etc. That means we have to achieve success faster and, once achieved, success will last for a shorter period of time. Milan… Read more »
LoveSausage, you can only get to speed if you have City money.
We don’t. We’re more akin to Liverpool, and that project took 5 years to hit its peak.
The best to say here is that this is an opinion and will take it as such and leave it there…..
Amazon changed their vision. They were a bookshop. Then a generic retailer. What elevated them was opening their platform to outside sellers and then cloud computing. AWS was never part of Bezos’ plan at the beginning. You can’t say it’s all vision then the vision changed. I’m delighted with getting rid of certain players. The breakthrough of Saka is awesome. Signing appropriate players for appropriate roles, like Tierney and Leno, is a great improvement on the Wenger banter years. Being a match for the top 6 again is a nice feeling. But… But… But… It’s not enough. Nobody stays still.… Read more »
Haha trying to equate Ceballos and Odegaard in football ability, good one.
Their difference isn’t simply mentality or application, Odegaard is 3 times the footballer. Deary me, Ceballos had a charmed life here at Arsenal being compared to Cazorla after game one and lasting two seasons.
No one said they’re equally talented Charlie
I said it’s interesting to compare them because Ceballos has a lot of talent which will not be realized because of his mentality
In case you haven’t noticed they’re both young Real Madrid prospects on loan playing in central roles.
You really are exceptionally smug, dude. Go back to your xhaka posters
the Irony of you always going in hard on CMs you don’t like whilst bending over backwards for a xhaka chubby at every available opportunity
Ceballos has failed and will duly be sent packing to Madrid. I guess that’s charmed?
Tho not as charmed as your dreamboat Granit being one of the most error prone players in the entire PL consistently in the last 6 seasons and being an automatic starter every single year. Who is fucking charmed Charlie? 😂
Your inconsistency is only outweighed by your incessant smugness
The fact that there has been a gradual dilution of quality in player terms over the course of a decade seems to have alluded many, quite how is unfathomable, add that to the total of 31 players we ended up with of which about 6 or 7 could be considered good enough to play in a team worthy of a top 4 challenger. The consequences of this was a wage bill that was Man City like, quite how some think this is suddenly now some sort of revelation is laughable, unless they haven’t been paying attention for at least 5… Read more »
China
Smug because I scoff at your lazy comparison of Ceballos and Odegaard? Yea makes sense. Oh look, rattle China and out comes talk about Xhaka, the shock.
First thing you mentioned when I came back on here is Xhaka, first thing you bring up when you don’t like what I say is Xhaka. Why? Because I call him what he is whilst you pretend he’s something else and talk up all these other duds. Get over yourself.
Johnno Willock is very quick and direct, he’s got two good feet, and I definitely think he has the potential to become a double figures goal midfielder, and those types of players are essential, one of our problems recently has been our inability to spread the goals around I see Willock developing as a No8, but also covering on the right side of midfield, a similar type of role to Ljungberg used to play, one of the things that really annoyed me about signing Willian, particularly on a 3yr deal, was he’d block Willock’s development Newcastle fans seem to love… Read more »
Pedro, Agreed, and I’m not arguing that we should take the City approach. I’m just saying that the scalability logic behind the long term investments in tech doesn’t fully apply to football. Where I see it apply partially (and even then it’s fleeting) is around the notion of identity, and that’s the main reason I support Arteta. He’s brought back the progressive style of football we’re supposed to have. This will make it easier to recruit the right players because, presumably, we’ll have a clearer idea of what we’re looking for. But beyond this, it’s about getting the most out… Read more »
Doublethink
Clearly one of the guilty party then!!
The lad had just arrived from Europe having never played a game in England at 21/22
What were you expecting? He’s already massively outperformed expectations, and many of his team mates as a bloody loan player.
I didn’t see a lad taking the easy option
I saw a lad working out the league and his team mates, which he’s done quick smart already
The kid is elite. Just as Pepe would be if Arteta lets him off his leash and gives him the space needed to devastate the opposition
LoveSausage, scalability wasn’t the point of the post. The point was that big visions require faith and time.
‘Facebook will never turn a profit’
‘Amazon is flawed business’
‘Jobs should disolve Apple’
The scalable business model was invented by Bezos, it wasn’t a thing before he made it a thing… shareholders needed to keep the faith.
Football is the same. Big clubs look 5 seasons out, not 1. If you have the right person in charge, you keep the faith.
Comparing Ceballos to peak Joe Cole was another peach
Pedro
Agree. Evidently why Emery was sacked and the club took a sledgehammer to the senior technical staff behind the scenes. Didn’t have faith in him, or the project on the table, so cleaned house for one they’re actually invested in.
Tough pill, hurt us in the short-term, but the club will undoubtedly be better for it than had they stuck it out.
Pedro
Amazon’s business investors didn’t give a damn about profit because the company was dominating the online business milieu and even creating new markers for itself in that period.
They were EXPONENTIALLY growing in EVERY other area, investors knew the profits will follow suit.
How can you juxtapose Arsenal with a newbie cookie cutter manager along with an inexperienced DoF and CEO team with amazon.com?
You are really one of a kind. You take this Arteta-love in way too far.
You are the true first Arteta-bender.
Pedro Do we have the right people though? Signing off on 3 year mega contracts for Aubameyang + Willian suggest we don’t Putting €50 million cash on the table for Partey, and a reported £200k + p/w, doesn’t take much imagination, we just needed KSE to sign the cheque Going into the season with a first team squad of 31, was negligent Not loaning Saliba out on time was negligent Until we improve our scouting, recruitment, contract management, squad planning, and all round decision making It won’t matter how good the coaching is, because we’ll be setting Arteta up to… Read more »
Diss, easy to sit there and an be an ‘I SAW IT’ merchant. You’d be the guy saying the business model was shite because it didn’t turn a profit.
You spent a year claiming I was being unfair to Raul… piecing together threads is not your strong suit.
You are the table banger I’m talking about.
Rich, 3 people learning on the job at the same time isn’t great.
Can they learn fast?
Odegaard on loan was impressive… they need to follow it up with more moves like that.
As a reminder, the visionary that is Dissenter said Odegaard was a bad signing.
Isnt wiglaf a dude from Beowulf? Or is it an acronym for something? Either way, can tell its Un by the belief Pepe is elite and merely not getting his shot. Incredibly wishful thinking on that one imo. Pepe is latter stages Ozil II, going to have a tenure here that’s super reductive and all about moments.. ‘that pass vs whoever’, ‘he’s scored 3 in 4 starts’ etc. There’s nothing about his all-round game that screams mainstay, he shirks defensive actions, dribbles down blind alleys, loses the ball, takes bad touches, fails to release the pass. He’s the furthest thing… Read more »
Pedro
You’re confusing me with someone else
I supported you when you went after Raul and got tons of digs my way for that.
You are overstating the case for Arteta when you use a multibillion dollar company that was crushing the industry and creating markets where none existed before.
You’re slowly devolving into a propagandist for Arteta even though the case for Arteta is simple – he’s a newbie whose mistakes can be excused because of his inexperience, everything else is just fluff.
League table after December.., and now amazon.com comparison, What comes next after this?
Rich,
Whilst I agree with the sentiment of many of your posts,
Name a manager or club in history that hasn’t made poor signings in their career ?
As for this Saliba obsession on here, I’m pretty sure that an outgoing loan for a teenager is pretty low down the pecking order of importance when we had circa 30 players on our books, most overpaid, some toxic, 3/4 of them nigh impossible to shift and not fit for purpose.
Champagne charlie. Pepe has more ability than anyone in this team bar Odegaard. Saka and ESR are great. I love them. But they can’t do what Pepe can do. You once said Pepe is a moments player as a negative but I see nothing wrong in a forward being a moments player as long as he makes those moments count. Pepe is doing that through fleeting cameos. Every time he’s on the field he’s dangerous and making things happen. He’s not as technically secure as someone like odegaard or ESR but you need a little variety and that’s exactly what… Read more »
Pedro We need to be able to do what Dortmund + Leicester continually do, we need to be able to identify elite young talent before they develop into superstars, buying players at the top of the market, and offering mega contracts is unsustainable Hopefully Saliba turns out to be an example of that type of signing We didn’t sign a player who was currently worth €30 million, we signed a €30 million player who we believed could develop into a £70 million player, we’d just have to wait a few years to see a return on that investment Apparently we… Read more »
“Does Edu or anyone else at the club, know who the next big superstars are?”
Does anyone truly know the answer to this question ?
Latter stages ozil II??
Not in a million years. Latter stages ozil was a disgrace. Pepe wants to play, wants to score, wants to run at defenders and play his game.
Bergkamp63 I don’t have a problem with loaning out Saliba, if he’s not ready yet , then he’s not ready My issue is that we didn’t get the loan over the line in time, and left him twiddling his thumbs for 3 months Not the end of the world, but it really shows the ineptitude of our bureaucrats, and how non existent our squad planning is We had 8 senior centre half’s, and Mavropanos out on loan Mustafi, Luiz, Holding, Chambers, Mari, Gabriel, Sokratis, Saliba Sokratis wasn’t registered in the league, Saliba wasn’t registered in the Europa Why couldn’t we… Read more »
Is Pepe playing better now than he was under Emery ? If the answer is yes, what reason do we think is ?
Wiglaf At the top level being a moments player is a negative irrespective of how devastating those moments are. It certainly doesn’t offer a team a player they can rely upon to deliver them success. Mane, Salah, Mahrez, Sterling aren’t moments players, they’re all present in the game throughout and offer various qualities to their side behind raw production. I agree about Pepe and the amount of talent he has, but players like Pepe will never be the cornerstone of a side like Arsenal. He’ll be a bench option at best because the game is a team one (especially under… Read more »
*that is ?
Rich,
I gather it was St Etienne that fucked the paperwork up on deadline day, admittedly we should have given them more time.
Bergkamp
Without doubt he’s better now
He’s stronger and more adjusted. Also, he now has two no10s plus Saka who are able to get the ball to him early and in dangerous areas while giving more runners around him. It’s no coincidence he’s making things happen every time he gets on the field right now
Diss,
I’m drawing parallels between business and football.
There are the non-believers that point to the table because they have no vision.
That is the case here.
Emery vs Arteta points comparisons after West Ham highlight that.
Time and faith needed. I’m not overstating anything.
I hope we have learned our lesson on giving contracts to older players, it’s worked well for Juventus until this year but all things have a cycle that eventually need a rethink ?
Bergkamp63
Borussia Dortmund
Sancho Free
Bellingham £22million
Haaland £18million
Reyna Free
Dembele £18 million
Pulisic Free
Hakimi 2yr loan
Leicester
Maguire £11 mill
Soyuncu £17mill
Fofana £30mill
Justin £6mill
Maddison £22mill
Pereira £17mill
Tielemans £40mill
Vardy £1mill
Iheanacho £24mil
Both these clubs have a brilliant record at buying players at the bottom and middle of the market, and selling at the top of the market
And they do it with wage bills much lower than ours
Wiglaf,
Perhaps he now has the right coaching ?
Rich,
What about the other 200 clubs in Europe ?
It’s easy to pick out 2 that have succeeded, perhaps it’s harder than it looks ?
At the top level being a moments player is a negative irrespective of how devastating those moments are Champagne charlie I disagree. I think that’s what the modern iteration of football is about. Transitions, moments, presses, turnovers, counter attacks The days of putting your foot on the ball and tika takka-ing around your opponents are gone for now. “Mane, Salah, Mahrez, Sterling aren’t moments players, they’re all present in the game throughout and offer various qualities to their side behind raw production.“ Again I disagree. I think these are precise examples of modern moments players as opposed to someone like… Read more »
Don’t get me wrong, I prefer the old style of football, technically superior ballers with vision who bounce off each other and dictate a game. But that’s not where we are at right now. It’s all pace power and energy. I think Pepe can be very much the arsenal moments man to make a difference
His double meg and right foot finish at wolves being a prime example
I’m a fan of Arteta but not a propagandist. The reason is simple: he doesn’t need propaganda. Okay, it was risky to sign a rookie. But in every other respect he seemed right for the job. I gave the pros long ago – an Arsenal man, intelligent, beautiful wife, etc – and they outweighed the single con, inexperience. But that would come, And it has. He has grown steadily into the job. I wouldn’t swap him for anyone – not Pep, not Jurgen. It’s not just his management, it’s the man himself. He is honest and straightforward. A breath of… Read more »