I thought it was brave of Arsenal exec leadership to jump on Teams with the fans yesterday. Josh and Vinai fucked up. They have apologised to everyone and they took a whole load of questions on the chin.
The challenge with interview questions is that to be good at them, you can’t be emotional. Arsenal fans have been in an extreme pit of hell this week and I think the tension led to questions the exec team could handle.
We didn’t learn a lot from the call, only the things we’ve been talking about all week.
Arsenal didn’t lead the charge on the Super League, but they said yes. We didn’t break the windows, but we had our hands on the goods. The semantics of it don’t matter, we were involved, the fans busted the ruse, and now we are where we are.
There are a few things that don’t matter.
Trust.
Honestly, who cares about trust? What does trust really equate to for us? It’s not tangible. It doesn’t make my experience with Arsenal that much better. It’s just not that important.
Trust, for fans in 2021 isn’t earned… it’s spent.
The stories spreading through the internet are that the club is going to heavily invest in this football club this summer to make up for what they did.
Hold on… what? As a reward for bad behaviour, ownership is going to invest in their own product to make it more competitive?
It’s absurd logic on many levels, but mark my words, if there’s a £100m summer incoming, no one will care about ‘trust.’
The struggle I have with Josh, Vinai, and the execs that went before is they create these weird battlefields in the minds of the fans.
‘Long-term heavy investment is not sustainable’
Firstly, football in general is one of the most sustainable businesses in the world. How many professional clubs went to the wall during the global pandemic? Not many. Football is robust, it never goes broke, it always survives.
Second point, long-term high-level investment is only unsustainable for clubs that don’t want to do it. One of the big issues in the game is that certain clubs use bottomless pits of cash as their weapon of mass destruction, that won’t stop and will always happen as long as there’s oil in the ground.
Third point… if Arsenal just did things properly, they wouldn’t need to keep investing at high levels in the long term because they’d have a sustainable model that buys low, sells high, and constantly feeds high-quality players into the first team or out the door for big fees to other clubs.
Josh talks a good ‘I’m the only sensible businessman in the room’ game but he doesn’t produce evidence of it in the things he does and signs off.
Signing Willian on a 3-year deal at 32 years old for £250k a week was not long-term thinking. We know Chelsea had £120k a week 2 year deal on the table. We know Spurs couldn’t afford him. We know the player didn’t want to leave London. With all that leverage, we still managed to pay double and give an extra year, and no one suffered the consequences of wasting £39m of money we didn’t have when it came to funding the Gunnersaurus.
David Luiz, on big, big money, at 34 is not long-term thinking. £24m all in to replace Koscielny in season one. Then we went in again after he had a shocking season. Will we go there again?
Auba on a mega new deal, at 31, was not long-term thinking. I understand why it happened, if he’d scored 30 goals this season, we’d be 4th, not 9th… but a disciplined businessman with a long-term view would have sold.
Crying about the mess we’re in when it’s of our own making is unacceptable at this point in time.
Here’s the thing, Arsenal fans constantly complain about investment without realizing we’re one of the highest net spenders in the league.
The problem isn’t money, it’s that we give that money to people that spend it badly. That’s on Josh and no one else.
If there’s money available this summer, then he needs to set some rules for how it can be used.
- No contracts to players over the age of 28. Harsh, but needed.
- No players over the age of 24 should be signed.
- Edu needs to shift players out of the club and raise capital. If we win the Europa League, don’t give deals to the bums that have us in 9th right now. Move them on. Be ruthless
- Every name we consider needs to come with a scouting report, no more deals with super-agent buddies.
Josh should get an advisor that has worked in football at a high level behind the scenes. A Chief of Staff type that can help him with decisions and call bullshit on people that don’t give a fuck. Edu cannot be trusted. Look at his relationship with Kia. Look at some of the financial decisions he’s made with certain players. How did the physio get his job in the medical department? Who vetted that? Who continues to let the contacts people do contacts things that look the same as the contacts person before? Where is the control in the system? What have we learned? Where are the checks and balances that stop this summer being a disaster in which we waste cash again because we’re so damn slow to figure out average talent?
Arsenal need structure, we need to get back to some basic principles, and we need to do things the hard way.
Joe Willock is pulling up trees at Newcastle, sell him. Eddie has prestige on his name, sell him. Sell Reiss, Mavropanos, Torreira, and Matteo. Do not give a new deal with David Luiz. Sell Lacazette at his peak and don’t be tempted by another player looking for that golden goodbye.
Then invest in the future. WIlliam Saliba is going to be one of our 4 centre backs next season, give him games. Martinelli, Flo B, Odegaard, ESR, and Saka are the exciting core of a team we should build around. Arsenal need to build on that ‘U21 minutes’ table we’re top of this season because it makes fans happy and the strategy of growing a team from youth level up is better than one of cobbling together old players that used to be good… ‘one last job for the boys’ is not a sustainable vision. What you want is to build towards the Champions League with young/hungry players, so when you get there, you can compete for 5 years.
I might be in the minority here, but I don’t want to see more of Josh. I don’t care what he has to say about his love for the brand. What I’d like is less talk, more action, smarter thinking. Don’t tell me you’re a loving owner, show me, with an exciting vision, paired with a disciplined plan, activated upon with brutal efficiency.
Arsenal PR needs to sit down with Arteta and use this crisis as an opportunity for him. Let him sell the future, give him better talking points, use the end of season to blood the kids and ‘maybe’ win a trophy. This whole debacle really does shine a light on what Arsenal is at the moment, I know many can’t see it now, but Arteta really is the least of our problems right now.
Time for Arsenal to stop making life so fucking hard on themselves. Make smart decisions, even if they are hard. Move the club forward. Build on the worst season in living memory on and off the pitch.
Josh K has the privilege of fixing the most exciting problem in world football. He’s barely 40. Fix it, and he’ll go from a football insurrectionist to a god. It’s that simple. Make Arsenal great. Give trust to those that deserve it. Get back to basics and stop trying to shortcut sporting greatness.
Time to move forward.
There’s some actual football later today. I’m hoping to see something innovative out there. No strikers, what are we going to do?!
See you in the comments. x
First?
Second?
1-0 ARSENAL.
Third?
Tr4phy?
Clean sweep. Throw down the mike!
James tripped me up! 🙂
Tro4phy
First?
“Let him sell the future, give him better talking points, use the end of season to blood the kids and ‘maybe’ win a trophy.”
Pedro
We both know Arteta isn’t blooding any kids.. It’s not his MO.
There’s a higher chance of Eddie starting at CF tonight than Martinelli. Heck even William will start at CF before Martinelli.
I thik iys harsh to not give a 28 year old a contract, a 3 year deal would bring them to 31 thats still at top level for 90 percent of players
By the way, Arteta looks like a power grabber.. There’s no way he’ll stay at the club with a DOF that would buy him players.
That horse bolted the minute we made Arteta manager without giving him a boss.
That apology was reminiscent of Priti Patel’s ” I’m sorry you feel that way.”
We need to get greedy fuckers out. See you there at 6pm tonight.
Can’t get my head around fact that you’re ready to give another go to the scum that spent at least 5 years trying to franchise us and inevitably move us out of London. What happened to you, Pedro? Is chlorinated chicken affecting your reasoning?
Interesting response from team Kroenke. Clearly they are panicking. As I have posted negative vibes in the stadium is a bad look for the brand. The idea that they will invest seriously this summer is to keep us quiet. My view is thatvwe should go full bore on the negative vibe. Kroekne is seriously bad for the club not because he is a billionaire but because he isnt interested in our club. To him Arsenal is just to leverage other loans for other projects. No peace more war.
32 years old for £250k a week —————– He’s not on 250 a week, more like 100 but: If we make top 4, he’ll get a huge bonus If he scores, he gets a bonus (so far fuck all there!) Each assist, he gets a bonus (7 so far, so maybe an extra 70 grand) Appearance bonus. If we win a trophy, a bonus. If we get into the Europa League, etc etc Auba though I believe is on 350 because of Ozil but I don’t know if he gets payed when he’s off to visit his mum, ill with… Read more »
Quick reply to Nelson’s last comment on the previous post.
We ‘legacy’ fans do understand the American model and it’s complete fixation with money. Thing is, if money truly is the only thing in life worth thinking about then I suspect that I and a great number of other legacy fans would sooner slit our own throats and have done with it.
Not saying that you agreed with that model by the way Nelson, but what a shitty world it would be where only the size of your bank balance mattered.
Watch /like Aftv or not, Ray Parlour is quite a disgrace in the talkshit slaying Robbie Lyle on number of hits Aftv gets when the guy was supposedly invited to share views on the ESL and Josh Q&A with fans.. Some ex players have so little intellect that’s pathetic. It’s embarrassing.
I forgot to add that he got a big signing on fee as he was free, plus if anybody buys a shirt with his name on it then he gets a cut although a doubt anybody has!
Danny, Willian’s base wage may be ‘only’ £120k a week but you’ve forgotten that as a free agent he’ll also have negotiated a substantial signing on fee that reflects the transfer fee that we didn’t have to pay. Usually that would be paid over the period of his contract alongside his wages, so although I don’t know exactly what the total figure is it’ll be much closer to the £200k a week mark than the figure you suggested.
Sorry Danny, was writing my post as you added your follow up. Looks like we’re in agreement.
Everton last beat us away from home in 1996. Pretty incredible stat that one.
Will be interesting to see what transpires at 6pm.
Re the game itself, not a lot riding on it in all honesty. It’s Europa League or bust for us at this stage.
No Laca or Auba, big chance for Nketiah and Martinelli to put themselves centre stage. I would like to see Martinelli through the middle myself but expect him to play LF with Eddie as the ST.
2-1 win for us, why not eh.
Could the week get any more crazy
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9504717/Ryan-Giggs-charged-assaulting-two-women-controlling-coercive-behaviour.html
andy1886
I remember when he joined us it was mentioned his basic salary was about 100 and that under certain circumstances it could reach 250 but any way either we completely screwed up, I mean he didn’t want to leave London at all, his kids (twins) are settled here plus of course his restaurant with Luiz so we could have got him for a lot less for a 3 year contract.
2-1 win for us, why not eh.
————-
We couldn’t beat bloody Fulham at home 5 days ago, just saying……
One of the biggest problems in the game today is no-one on the club side can write a decent contract and the clubs do not live by any principle when it comes to money. The managers for example. Mourinho is a genius, there’s no one in the game better than him. Do you know why? Because he can extract millions from a club with minimal effort time and time again. His genius has got nothing to do with football. Why would you hire him? You know at some point you will have to sack him so why do clubs allow… Read more »
Most of the questions were so poor. You could tell they were prepared for majority of the questions they faced.
Anyway, JK is very well media trained, I will give him that. Talks a very very good game no action. Wish it was a straightforward process getting an owner out.
lol I loved that bit of deflection away from Arteta.
Let’s be clear if Arsenal perform in the EPL next season like they did this then Arteta will be a problem to the club.
He will be another problem for the club.
Nice try Pedro.
Terraloon, Giggs has form for this as you probably know. Always thought that he was a nasty little sh*t so hopefully he’ll get what he deserves.
Weagle
“Re the game itself, not a lot riding on it in all honesty. It’s Europa League or bust for us at this stage.”
I think Everton would like to make a point tonight because of the ESL shit. Still fresh in the memory for all EPL clubs.
But as their record at Arsenal is so poor they may not be be capable to do that.
Danny, if Arsenal FC was an individual agreeing these mad deals you’d have to ask yourself if that individual was brain damaged. It really is that bad.
Cazorla – he’s faced accusations from other women including a former girlfriend in the past too. While a nice payout can make those go away some of the time the truth will eventually come out. Hoping for a conviction and a custodial sentence (Pedro’s nose for a legal issue may make this post vanish but that’s my opinion anyway).
Good entertaining game tonight.
2-2 draw.
Why are arsenal playing a league game on a Friday night???
I read that there are current 4 members in the board, besides Stan and Josh, there is the lawyer and one legacy member from previous administration. I would suggest the board allows two guess members from the fan groups as observer in the board. The Gooner fan groups would come together to select two representatives.
Ish
“But as their record at Arsenal is so poor they may not be be capable to do that”
———————————————————————————————–
I read that Everton has never made the double over Arsenal. Hope Arteta won’t break another record again.
Would be nice to see Martinelli up top with Saka and Pepe flanking tonight, that’s the future right there, might as well start it now. Probably be Eddie up top and Willian somehow squeezed in for absolutely no fucking reason though. Martinelli created more chances for himself last match than Willian and Eddie has done combined the whole season. He just needs that little bit of sharpness infront of goal that he’s only going to get with proper minutes on the pitch. Criminal that he hasn’t plaued more, it really is, the difference in talent between him and the rest… Read more »
Emirates
So KSE has gotten certain senior executive appointments wrong, but they’ve gotten the managerial appointment (Arteta) right? Is that your view?
Ish, not sure it’s an insight to say that if we play the same as this season next season it’ll be a problem.
Benny, yes, they got the Arteta appointment right. He is the correct appointment for this setup.
There are some life video/images in this link from the demonstration site.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54dhH1krTEQ
I can only see next seasons form being very similar
unless 3/4 serious players come in.?
We have seen what happens when certain players are out. Already.
Big turnout this evening!
@Pedro
Agree on josh just talking shit with no proof he actually means what he says. But have to disagree about Arteta being least of our worries mate. He’s broken countless records for the wrong reasons. The guy is not good enough, seen enough proof of that. Anyone who makes Emery look like a cross between fergie and Wenger, is not the man to take this club forward. The fact he’s still in a job proves the kroenkes don’t give a fuck about us getting back to the top
Pedro
” not sure it’s an insight to say that if we play the same as this season next season it’ll be a problem.”
Well he’s got it all to prove hasn’t he that he isn’t a problem.
Pedro
Do you agree that there is a need for change? Protest is the first step to let the administration know that the fans want changes. Suggestion for changes can come later. Salut to all the Gooners who turn out to support the cause.
This is a better link fo view the Gooners army.
https://twitter.com/amylawrence71/status/1385639003752439814
I’m sorry I want to hear from Stan Kroenke on this, not his son and Vinai.
As owner, he has a responsibility and an obligation to speak to the fans. The problem is, SK is unfortunately incapable of communicating.
To be honest the guy is a joke and a total disgrace.
All those fans at the Emirates tonight, I salute you all.
Kroenke out!!!!
Well one thing this whole ESL debacle has done is united the fanbase some.. think we can all agree Kroenke’s have not been good for us in the slightest and nobody would miss them in the slightest bit if they leave. That’s why I don’t care about trust building… how do you trust an ownership group that fucks fans over left and right?. St Louis fans are like … what’s new?. Oh Kroenke fucked you over.. to try and make more money for themselves at the expense of fan interests? yeah we could have told you that would happen. Other… Read more »
Kroenke out y’all kroenke TF out
Owners an mess
The managers a mess.
The squad is a mess.
Bad times
Wrighty is with us. #KroenkeOut
Arsenal FC have announced the crowd attendance tonight is 59,479.
Stans not going anywhere, our shareholders should be also hounded as they sold our soul to the devil for greed.
Team to play Everton: Leno, Chambers, Holding, Mari, Xhaka, Partey, Ceballos, Saka, Smith Rowe, Pepe, Nketiah.
Subs: Ryan, Bellerin, Gabriel, Odegaard, Willian, Soares, Nelson, Elneny, Martinelli.
FFS Arteta!!
We have Martinelli and Balogun on the bloody bench and fucking Nketiah up front.
SMH
Fred
“Martinelli created more chances for himself last match than Willian and Eddie has done combined the whole season. ”
And missed those chances , but seriously, he did play well and I hope gets the game time he deserves inthe next few weeks , along with Eddie and Balogun.
Poor Reiss Nelson must have a dedicated bench seat.
I called Eddie starting earlier.
Pedro
Arteta doesn’t do blooding kids.
Eddie is a kid. And he scored last time out.
DM “We have Martinelli and Balogun on the bloody bench and fucking Nketiah up front.” Very sensible move by Arteta when you consider the stats for our strikers for this season (as per whoscored, this is what they show in the Premier league and Europe ( they do not show detailed stats for fa Cup and league cup) Eddie 133 mins per goal Aub .199 mins per goal Laca 141 min per goal Martinelli 456 mins per goal (Martinelli has only played 456 mins this season)… Pass percentage Eddie 80.7 Aub 77.5 Lacazette 77.3 Martinelli 75.1 Assists Eddie ..an assist… Read more »
Team to play Everton: Leno, Chambers, Holding, Mari, Xhaka, Partey, Ceballos, Saka, Smith Rowe, Pepe, Nketiah.
All things considered, a good line up with good substitutes.
Let’s hope Martinelli and Balogun get at least half an hour..
Its so weird you go anywhere and talk to Arsenal fan and rhey’ll tell you Kroenke is the problem . You come on LeGrove and fuck me its like a puff piece on here telling Josh to get it right , when KSE has had a decade to get it right . wtf happened to Pedro ? Fan sentiment wont give a shit about his spending , Kroenke will spend 100mill and fans will forget everything ? Jesus what a fall from grace , again failing to read the room spectaculary.
Anyone who rates Nkiteah over Martinelli should basically give up watching football. It’s not even about the stats. It’s bloody obvious that Martinelli is leagues above Nkiteah in what he brings to the team.
And Cedric benched again.
Cant wait for Arteta to be sacked. Haven’t seen a more clueless and stubborn manager ever.
Seems like a good kid but if Eddie Nketiah is the answer, the question must be arsewipingly bad. I seriously wonder if Arteta is looking for a P45 and a payoff.
How the actual fuck is including EN helping us to prepare for Villareal? More evidence of Arteta tinkering with the line up. Not encouraging.
Why isn’t Balogun even on the bench?
How the actual fuck is including EN helping us to prepare for Villareal?
Well if Aba and Laca are still out I guess he will be starting the Valencia game.
Auba and Villareal lol. Look how the selections are screwing with my head.
This line up basically confirms Arteta has an agenda against Martinelli. Absolutely no reason why he should not be leading the line tonight.
Buzzy
Agree 100%.
Ridiculous!
That’s an impressive turnout tonight-really didn’t think rookie would show up in these numbers after the ESL collapsed.
Buzzy I like Martinelli and I like Eddie ..there is no preference. What I will say is that in the games Eddie started this season , creativity was zero, and yet ( as per whoscored) he scored at a faster rate than Aubamayang, Lacazette and Martinelli, who(unlike Eddie) have had Smith Rowe and Odegaard to create chances for them. I say give all our young players the chance to prove themselves. The loan striker’s role is without doubt the hardest job on the pitch and relies on good service from his team mates. Martinelli and Balogun will get their chance… Read more »
*people not rookie
If I were in north London, I would arrange a rock band to provide some entertainments for the Gooner army at the Emirates Stadium.
MA going with Eddie because he’s the most experienced and scored last time out. Kinda understandable but I think most would agree that Martinelli will be the better player ultimately. Arteta falls back on things like stats and basic parameters because he doesn’t have an eye for a player as his selections have repeatedly demonstrated. That’s a pretty big failing in a manager.
Mikel’s comments on the protests – not sure that he really gets it tbh: “Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta on Sky Sports: “We hear them [the fans outside], we know what they think but our responsibility is on the pitch and to try and win the match. “It doesn’t help to have your own fans try and stand out on a match day and say loud and clear they are not happy with something. Win the game and everything is better, that’s how we can contribute. “We had to arrive early because we knew something could happen outside.” No Mikel, even… Read more »
I agree with Pierre. Eddie has demonstrated that he has a nose for a goal. He has never played with Saka and ESR before. Let’s give him a chance to show us what he has in this formation.
Pierre
Eddie got plenty of chances last year. He has proven that apart from scoring some tap ins he’s extremely poor at controlling the ball and his first touch is probably the worst out of all our attacking players.
He’s extremely clumsy and brings nothing to the team.
The only player who’s not got a fair chance is Martinelli.
And that’s not down to any injury. It’s down to something that has happened between Arteta and the Brazilian I’m sure of that. Arteta is a bloody bully!
Anyways lets hope Eddie proves me wrong tonight! COYG!
I’m rooting for Eddie but I just don’t think he has the quality or potential to shine at an elite club. Reminds me a little of players like Jay Simpson and Arturo Lupoli.-talented and will do fine in lower leagues but just falls short of what we need him to be. Sometimes, this is where we could be more ruthless but it’s tough when a player has been with us from a very young age.
Just to clarify-we’re not an elite club but that should clearly be the goal.
Mikels reluctance to use Gabi martinelli will never make sense to me
Yep Martinelli been banging Mrs Arteta
Pedro You’re tying yourself in knots regarding the Kroenkes. It’s time to accept that they’re shit- finally. They don’t know what they’re doing. They will never know what they’re doing. Stan’s main reason for buying into the club was because he liked Wenger. He liked the way early Wenger achieved success on a relative shoestring. Like Billy Beane. Post Wenger, Stan has been utterly without a clue. He’s been as inspirational, authoratative and successful as a 60 plus physics secondary school teacher that the kids have been taking the piss out of for years. Josh is like a Stan avatar-… Read more »
After wining the FA cup, we were all begging Auba to sign and i’m sure if the club did not extend his contract, we would call it total incompetence but now some on here including Pedro are blaming Arteta & Edu for extending Auba’s contract which is kind of ridiculous considering the consistency Auba had. About Willian, few of us anticipated his form to fall to this level after watching him do well in chelsea shirt last season. bottom line we should keep things in perspective. In fact if both Auba and Willian’s form of last season was this low,… Read more »
MA doesn’t select Balogun on the bench. I guess he doesn’t want to give Eddie more pressure. The problem is, we’ll never know whether Balogun is better suited to play against Villarreal.
Fantastic outpouring of Gooners at the front of the stadium to say:
KROENKE OUT!!!!
For player over 30, the contract should be performance driven. There should also be a review every year. We have a rookie administration.
Maybe Martinelli should change his name to Willian he might get more game time then. Arteta is fucking clueless, just look at his reaction and comments tonight. He probably wanted to join the ESL for his own ego. After all I doubt he’ll get many matches in the CL to play pretend manager.
Tonight’s line -up proves once again that Arteta is both clueless and stubborn.
Nketiah IS NOT THE ANSWER!…He has no great touch/ball skill, pace nor physical presence.Yes…he tries hard and is good at “tap ins”….Neither Lacazette nor Aubamayang are likely to be available for Villareal so why the f××k is Arteta selecting a player who’s going to be shown wanting once again against decent opposition….As long as Arteta is left in charge then Arsenal will continue on their mediocre journey to nowhere in particular!!
Starting with 5 English players, that makes a change. Everton have 6.
Balogun not being on the bench doesn’t bode well for the “imminent contract signing” Don’t want to be negative but this is the perfect opportunity to give the lad some meaningful minutes
Come on The Arsenal!!!
I hope he scores a hatrick and rubs my nose in it……….but Ceballos is shit, their I said it😁
At least, their 2 CB’s are just average size. Eddie may still have a chance.
DCL is faster than Holding….
If Pepe lost his right leg in an accident and had to play with a wooden replacement it wouldn’t affect his footballing career one bit.
Holdings quite slow though. I wonder who are quickest centre backs is? Probably gabi
Fuzz Pedro, today you are Gold, Baby!!!
I cant disagree with anything you have written, nothing.
But…
You know, I know, and everyone here already knows, no matter how much money is given for spend this summer, it will fall victim to the same clod pair of hands that has the club in the predicament its in today. Nothing is going to change until something catastrophic happens. Then and only then will meaningful change take place. Otherwise, its deja vu all over again.
Damn fine piece today, Pedro!
@Laca
🤣🤣🤣
Why didn’t Pepe just cross that? We had players waiting for the cross. Instead he gives the ball away.
Most of our players are so Dopey with their positions they take up on the pitch. Like the opposite of playing the percentages. Almost hiding