Ownership rumblings dampen

by .

Welcome to Tuesday!

The ownership rumours are still swirling, and though I was extremely wrong about the Super League 48 hours, I’m not sure I’ll be so off the mark about KSE switching out to Swedish ownership.

There have been a few rumours that well-connected people have heard Stan is willing to sell. I just can’t see that sort of info finding its way towards Arsenal fans. Stan doesn’t roll in crowds that leak to proles. JP Morgan doesn’t have an insider that runs @Gooner4564. If a deal was going to happen, it’d happen in silence.

More to the point, the Super League might be dead, but I think we’re all living in la la land if we believe that billionaires are going to accept what the fans think and move on. They tried a takeover with force, they failed, and they’ll be back with a subtler type of move… as always.

In a week of fan outrage about competition, Arsenal, Villareal and Roma are about to fight Manchester United for a Champions League spot.

Manchester United failed to make it out of their groups in the richest competition in the world, and they’ve been given a shot in a totally separate trophy just because. It’s outrageous, but it’s a parachute payment for rich clubs.

Even more amusing for me, a week after German clubs said no to the Super League, RB Leipzig lost their head coach to Bayern.

Football is full of hypocrisy.

Stan K lost the battle, but the war rages on, and if there was £500m there last week, there will be 12 billionaire owners chasing it down this week.

The bigger hope for Arsenal fans is that when Stan hands the keys to Josh in the future, the son sells it for an easier life on a yacht.

It’s quite interesting to read Arsenal fans fuss over Daniel Ek. We’re hunting out billionaires like we search out our coffee beans in Crouch End. The checklist is long and idealistic. We’re looking for organic, fair trade, farm assured, low carbon footprint, with packaging that can double as a mini-tote bag. Spotify giving musicians a bum deal is deeply unfair in a business that has been built on being deeply unfair since time began. The Arsenal community is probably the most creative football community out there, the fanbase in North London is a who’s who of culture, art, music and advertising… so clearly, as matches go, the guy treating musicians badly is going to have a section of the fanbase raging.

… but. Could be worse, right? Hard to make a billion being pleasant. You could be minimum wage merchants. You could have a fortune built off government subsidies from your Eton mates. We’ve had someone in accused of mafia-like crimes. Money repped by royalty with human rights abuses to their names are in abundance. We have folk that stole the wealth of their nations. There’s a bad bunch involved in football. Where do you stop with ownership? Even going back to the past, we’ve had diamond dealers, which doesn’t exactly have a rep for being pleasant.

It’s hard to be at one with football and avoid soiling your principles.

If we were to move past the clear issues. The thing that’s appealing about someone who works in tech is their approach to survive has to be innovative, future-facing, and fast. Add to that, bold.

I’ve worked with Spotify in the past. Firstly, you cannot get over the scale of a business like that. The complexities they deal with, the volume of things that have to be done, and the standard of person you have to hire to stay at the top.

Though the tech industry has its issues, you’d totally welcome the data-centric approach at Arsenal. You’d welcome the ruthless approach to finding the best talent and then finding the best model to allow it to flourish. The thing you’d be most excited is the competitive nature of the game, they’re all about rapid expansion and retention. To do that, they need the best product with the most innovative features.

If Arsenal is content, working with one of the most ruthlessly competitive distribtion platforms is probably not a bad partner to have. Outside just the technical stuff, Spotify is very, very attuned to the next generation of money spenders. When everyone in the world was saying the kids can’t concentrate for longer than 16 second, Spotify signed the guy making 3 hour podcasts as part of a doubling down of longform content.

Have my doubts you’d ever hear Daniel Ek say, ‘young people don’t watch football.’

Bigger picture: Imagine someone showing Arsenal the care Spotify shows to its product?

Talking of care, there’s a lot of chatter about the summer Arsenal are planning.

The best news post-Super League is that KSE is going to invest. Seems silly for me to mention that, but for Arsenal to sell, other clubs need to know we have money. Last summer, we were lowballed for good players because everyone could taste the blood of a bleeding P&L in the Colney water fountain. If clubs know we don’t need to see to spend, there will hopefully be less flapping around.

There is hope we could shift £100m worth of talent. Hector, Torriera, Guendouzi, Willock, Reiss and Eddie alone should bring in enough revenue for a reshape. There are also big earners dropping out the other side as well. David Luiz, Alex Lacazette, and the dregs of Mesut Ozil will be leaving the wage bill.

No doubt we still have some contract work to do, but it won’t be Auba levels like it was last season.

There’s also some work to do with the PR of this summer.

Are we shooting to win the Champions League in 2 years?

Or will the club have a smarter view on how they promote the vision?

We’ll have to see what the inward signings look like, my hope is we’re moving away from old men and building back to the top with a youthful zest.

Who knows whether that’ll happen, but one thing is clear, if they botch the way they communicate that, next season will be painful in the stadium.

There’s still some way to go in the season. We’re going to Spain tomorrow to see what Unai Emery’s new side looks like up close.

I’m dreading it. Not gonna lie. Chukwueze masterclass against Granit Xhaka. Unai Emery sliding 46 feet on his knees to lift his button-down shirt to reveal the message, ‘GOOD EBENING.’

Ugh, just did a bit of sick in my mouth.

The karmic forces are rounding on me.

At least I’m in America.

More on that game tomorrow. For now, let’s chat in the comments. x

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Moe

Avi
They surely did……how can Arsenal get out of this mess? Arteta has taken us as far as he can, am afraid.

MidwestGun

Well the first half was pretty good.. second half … snoozefest. Scoreline favors RM I think… just need one away goal and they are in business to control this one. Chelski wasted too many chances first half.

Nelson

LMC

Dear Kroenke’s,

Fuck off, you greedy cunts..
You are the most hated person in the Arsenal word.

Kind regards,

The Arsenal.

Ishola70

Chelsea much better all round passing team than Real Madrid in this match.

Funny enough Chelsea played like the continental side and Real Madrid played like a traditional British side.

For all how important and effective Kroos and Modric are for Real Madrid they don’t have real presence and team play in that area just before the forward line. Advanced midfield.

MidwestGun

Modric was dropping way too deep for my tastes.

Avi

They surely did……how can Arsenal get out of this mess? Arteta has taken us as far as he can, am afraid.”

The most important change Arsenal cold make going forward is to replace Arteta,quite frankly

if we start next season with him in charge then I’m so sorry its a midtable finish so worse for arsenal again regardless of the quality of players in his disposal

I can confidently count about 7 or 8 managers that are just so much better than Arteta in the EPL

Avi

This summer is important tho whoever the manager is good smart signings should be made if we go and sign another near 30’s year old players we may give him the rebuild and just stick being midtable club. You have players like ESR Saka Tierney Gabriel Saliba Martinelli Balogun now who is staying, you build the team around them, they are the long term project not Willian not even Partey or pepe. I can see the fans absolutely losing the plot in the stadium next season if they still see the likes of Willian, Luiz and Xhaka trothing out for… Read more »

Guns of SF

Avi,
At least one of the three will trot out

Dissenter

The problem with a rookie manager is that they run out of what they know very quickly because they have limited repertoire of skills./know-how

One way to replenish is through experienced assistants
Arteta won’t do this, instead he will keep doing the same nonsense while surrounding himself with the same dunces, like the goal keeping coach who considered Runnarsson good enough.

Dissenter

Guns
Arteta has surrounded himself with nobodies
Dont waste your time with Steve Rounds and Inaki
He git them in a hurry midseason in 2019 when he was signed and should have tweaked his team over time.

WengerEagle

Modric is past his best.

Still obviously class but not as influential as he was a few years ago.

Same as Kroos.

They really do lack consistent quality in the wide areas to support Benzema. Vinicius is brilliant one week and horrific the next two and Hazard looks like a tubby imposter compared to his Chelsea self.

Dissenter

I expect Real to still go through though.
Eden Hazard will stick the dagger in at SB.

Guns of SF

I would buy Inaki williams from Bilbao
Great fast forward
Lightning fast

WengerEagle

Nicely poised though, not a bad result for either side.

Real will back themselves to score at SB and Chelsea will fancy getting the job done at home. All in all, a better result for Real given Chelsea should have scored 2-3 on the night.

Avi

Guns
And who might that be? If we get our summer window right(far fetched I know) , I don’t expect to see any of those 3 in the first 11

Guns of SF

Avi,
Come on man, you know how shit we are. We are a sentimental team, always keeping players longer than we need to. Look at our track record!

Now if we ditch them all, I would be happy of course

WengerEagle

Guns SF

Inaki would set anyone back about 70 million for Bilbao to be even remotely interested in selling, they always sell extremely high look at Kepa, Laporte and Javi Martinez.

They only play/buy Basque region players so replacing them is a massive challenge and Inaki is on a ridiculously long-term deal.

Guns of SF

Ditch that Inaki and get Inaki W

Avi

Madrid was made to look average because of the way the Chavs neutalized their strength, Tuchel basically just cancelled them out with same formation and elite tactical structure. He did same to Pep in the FA cup semi final.

They get a good striker in the summer and I’m backing them for the EPL

Guns of SF

WE

He is on a long term deal.. Just checked.
A great player though…. he should leave to new pastures….
Hes swimming in a small pond over there. Needs to shine with Arsenal

Guns of SF

Benz to score at Chelski….
Zidane will have enough to outwit Tuchel…

Dissenter

I would sign Bissouma and pair him with Partey and ESR.
It would make us much harder to beat from the get go.

That will mean Arteta has to be willing to get rid of Xhaka and Elneny.

WengerEagle

Chelsea have an extremely good group of players.

People heralding Tuchel are quick to forget that Lampard had them looking very good up until mid December in all competitions, didn’t they trounce a really good Sevilla team 4-0 away?

Not to take away from the improvements that Tuchel has made to them defensively but they have a serious group of talent when they can bring a player like Ziyech in off the bench.

Peckobill

With exactly the same players Tuchel got Chelsea looking the real deal compared to fat franks nonsense yet we constantly get told changing the manager won’t change the needle .

Dissenter

Wenger eagle
Yes Chelsea g have good players but Lampard didn’t know how to get the best of the new toys.
Lampard would never have beaten Atletico Madrid and played Real off the park away.

Tuchel has brought fine control to their game.

Nelson

Julian Nagelsmann will join Bayern on July 1 with RB Leipzig getting up to €25m including bonuses as compensation

How about we offer Arteta to RB Leipzig for half that amount.

Thorough

Seeing Chelsea hold their own in Bernabeu, is reason enough to sack Arteta. These are the same players we made look like nohopers. Yet a new coach has totally invigorated them.

Avi

You’ll find good players mostly amount to f’all with a bang average manager conducting things

The Chavs I’m watching under Tuchel is levels above anything I saw under Fat Frank, he’s made them so tough to beat and resolute, they have what only 2 defeat under him as well.

He’s undoubtedly a very good coach

Avi

Willian was a disaster signing. It was so obvious that we shouldn’t have gone anywhere near him after bringing in bums like Luiz and Cech from Chelsea.

Immediate red flags for all three above as they just wanted to sign for a club in London because they love the city. It’s similar to the Aguero situation at the moment.

We really do have some dunderheads in charge running this club to the ground

Big Weng will no doubt be wincing in pains right now

WengerEagle

We need to bin Arteta, that much is very clear.

Even if he wins the Europa I’m not convinced long-term that he moved the needle for us. We’re getting worse domestically by the year and descending into a midtable club.

Avi

Weagle

Who would you want as Arteta’s replacement?

englandsbest

Kroenkephobe

If you insist on comparing Arsenal managers you have to take account of what they found at the Club. The closest to Arteta is GG. He came to an Arsenal that hadn’t won a damn thing in years. Whereas Wenger inherited the best defence in England (and maybe Europe) plus Dennis, Platt, Ian Wright. In Arteta’s case he inherited the worst defence in PL, plus a bunch of overpaid underpeforming players.

Avi

I trust Arteta less as a football manager than I would Bill Cosby as a bartender.

WengerEagle

Avi

Not sure, pie in the sky maybe but Galtier from Lille has them playing amazingly well in France. Talent-wise they have absolutely no right to be competing with PSG and even Lyon.

Nagelsmann would have been my top choice but Bayern snagged him.

Other managers I like are Gasperini (older and no experience out of Italy though), Lopetegui, ten Hag and Rudi Garcia.

What about you?

Guns of SF

Its shaping up like Emery’s last stand. A poor finish to the regular season, and a EL loss, a bad one. The next season it was curtains.

Mike is on the same path…. terrible string of games later in the season with losses and draws…. no change for CL but to win EL. SO all eggs in EL basket. At least Emery had us finish 5th

Guns of SF

* chance

Kroenkephobe

England’sbest

In your predictable rush to eulogise Arteta. I think you misunderstood my point which was that comparing him with his less than stellar predecessor is totally pointless because neither have proved to be of the requisite standard to manage Arsenal. I do however think he ought to be measured against the better leaders in our history because surely we want nee managers to equal and then surpass the performances of our greats.

On current performance Arteta is a million miles away from GG, in my opinion our best post war manager.

Emiratesstroller

May I remind some posters that it took Alex Ferguson four years to win a trophy [FA Cup] at Manchester United. He was also one game away from getting the sack. It took Arteta half a season to win the FA Cup [against Chelsea] and Charity Shield [against Liverpool] and yet throughout his time at Arsenal he has been criticised for a variety of issues and described as a generational coach ie too young and inexperienced. Let me remind posters who criticise him as a generational coach that Nagelsman is 33 and has been a Head Coach at Hoffenheim and… Read more »

Pedro

Amen Emirates.

Let’s see how he does after what is looking like a big summer and a normal season.

Nagelsmann has a huge job on his hands. 33 years old, working with big names for the first time, going to be fascinating to see what he does with them.

Wonder how long before we see him over here?

RockyRoe

Emirates

So you are hanging your hat on the hope that arteta does a fergie…. Maybe we should have kept sonogo and he could have done a vardy.

Nelson

I find Tuchel rotates his players well.Their good performance is tied to their players being fresh and less injures. Imagine that if Tierney and Laca were healthy for Thursday.

China1

If villareal win but emery celebrates by revealing a huge tattoo across his chest saying GOOD EBENING then I’m totally ok with the result.

Nelson

China1

We heard that before. ” here is my chest. Hit me!”

Tony

Very little news today in the media. A few nothing stories, such as Wenger is happy to help advise Daniel Ek and his invincible trio to buy Arsenal from Wiggy. However, as in all pre negotiations the owner, Wiggy, is saying the club is not for sale and that he wants to make us competitive again. Simple solution to top that. Fire Arteta and Edu and hire Ralph R and Ten Hag: as I said simple! Don’t remember Wenger buying many clubs as a manager and power hoarder with the exception of interviewing Gazidis and being around for the Kroenke/Ursmanov… Read more »

China1

ET it’s not a very accurate comparison between arteta and nagelsmann Nagelsmann started at small clubs did a great job and earned his way into successively bigger roles. Arteta started at the top and started well then went backwards. 18 months in and it’s hard to even say what the plan is + this season will have been rubbish if we don’t win the EL Lastly you say judge arteta in December at the end of his 2 years and that he hasn’t had many transfer windows but two issues with this 1) pretty sure you judged emery faster than… Read more »

Tony

ES May I remind you of all the negative records Arteta has given us. That’s without discussing Arteta’s zero mana management skills, in-game management, both essential to do the job. No footballing identity after 15+ months and utterly useless evaluation of player before buying them. Stick to your several days a week players in and players to be sold posts ES. Not that you’re any better at it than other posters, but at least it stops you making yourself look stupid with your pro Arteta posts, as with today’s post comparing Arteta to Fergie. Although that did make me laugh… Read more »

Tony

Good morning China!
Was sitting in my office this morning wondering if I’ll make an exception to watch the game at 2am Friday morning live with my son?

Then feel like crap all day Friday after a few hours sleep.

You and I are in the same boat time wise, so wondered if you feel the same?

I’ll see how I feel tomorrow night, but maybe I’ll watch the home leg live next week (7th) if we’re still properly in the running.

Dissenter

Emirates Stroller loved the number “2”.
Why else do we have to wait for two year to be complete?

Arteta shouldn’t be learning coaching while managing Arsenal.
Only the EL should save his job.

Champagne Charlie

Abundantly clear that some fans only want a young manager when that said manager is nothing but sexy from the get go. Anything like learning on the job, growing pains, inexperience showing and there’s trigger fingers at the ready.

Arsenal hired a guy in his 30’s into his first head coaching role. If you think he’s getting the arse end of a pandemic season and one full one following that then I think you’re a bit out of touch.

Guns of SF

I really hope we win the EL, it would make for some good vibes heading into the summer. CL next year too, so KSE would need to throw down some good change to get us back competitive. If we lose, well I dont know what to say. If its a Arsenal v Manure final, which is likely, then I think it may be a bridge too far to cross. But then again, its Arsenal, so as Pedro said, Mike will still be here. We would need to see how he does next season…. We need that CL money. that winning… Read more »

Globalgunner

Ferguson’s was not a nobody when he took the reigns at United. He had one wonders with Aberdeen before that winning UEFA cup beating Madrid in the process. Arsenal tried to be clever trying to hire Klopp before he became Klopp as in Arteta. However it looks like instead we hired Gary Neville before he became Gary Neville

Dark Hei

“Unai Emery sliding 46 feet on his knees to lift his button-down shirt to reveal the message, ‘GOOD EBENING.’

Lol,

Tony

And now for something completely different

Tony

With losing to Everton Sunday, I thought a little joviality wouldn’t go a miss before Thursday evening’s match. Sitting out at the back of our house the other day I had this jumble of thoughts come into my mind imagining a pre-semi-final phone call or Face Time connection of Pedro calling Arteta. Use your own imagination as how you see this satirical effort character’s talking and accents they use, if it will make your reading of this funnier. The hope is the following will bring at least a mood lifting smile or at best a belly laugh. If nothing at… Read more »

Nelson

Tong

I am not sure they have enough money in the phone card to last through this long conversation.

alex cutter

“Kroenke should immerse himself more in the club.” I doubt he even receives daily updates on the club. “Immerse himself”? 😒 He’s sitting on a legendary club, along with a stadium and real estate in London. Barring relegation, none of those will ever decrease in value. And he will never NEED to sell under any circumstances. He couldn’t care less about fan protests or internet hot-takes. He’s half a world away where he’s shown that he’ll fuck over his own home state for a buck, regardless of the backlash in the press. What makes you think he wastes a moment… Read more »

Tony

Nelson
They can get a sub from Stan lol

Tony

Sad but probably true re the greed Alex.

Good to see you’re ok. I wondered the other week having not seeing you round these parts.

Guns of SF

The battle between UEFA and this MK 2 ESL will continue…. I am not sure how it would manifest itself given the ass kicking the ESL took a week ago. However, if UEFA can cough up enough $$$ for these ESL teams, it might be moot. Its all about the $$$ , so if UEFA can share more profits with these top clubs it might mitigate the need to spilt into their own CL. I mean what happens if UEFA kicks these teams out of their national leagues, EPL, serie a etc. It feels too ugly and messy to see… Read more »

alex cutter

Hey Tony. Good to hear from you. Hope all is well in Thailand(?). It’s been a pretty tough year or so — like for everyone — but am back to a point (externally) where I was able to play a round of golf today. Sore af, but fortunately I have a Dr. Robert (Beatle’s reference), and have discovered that fresh-squeezed orange juice screwdrivers and Vicadin are vastly underrated. I find Arsenal harder and harder to watch, and sometimes I think I jinxed them since they started going downhill as soon as I started following them (2004). But to be fair… Read more »

Tony

“and have discovered that fresh-squeezed orange juice screwdrivers and Vicadin are vastly underrated.” Brilliant! Love your attitude to it all, Alex. If you’re going to check out, go with a smile on your face is my mantra. Generally, I’m good – probably a bit better than expected considering. Fortunately, my real sporadic pain comes from my colon and gout from my dominant kicking foot, big toe joint. The government here have passed laws for people to have 6 marijuana plants per household for their medicinal properties. Restaurants all over the country are cooking infused dishes. Of course I had to… Read more »

Goobergooner

“Unai Emery sliding 46 feet on his knees to lift his button-down shirt to reveal the message, ‘GOOD EBENING.’”

Pedro this is a quality LOL right here.

Sid

For better libido go for sativa, try out shashamane strain, indicas have a sedating effect.

Habesha Gooner

This ridiculous defense of Arteta has got to stop. Emery was given the same amount of time before we knew he wasn’t good enough. We are having the same type of results now. I would argue we are in a worse run of form. And it is not like our form is gradually picking up over the last 15 games or since December like pedro uses to justify Arteta’s failings. My point is this, If Arteta doesn’t reach the Europa final considering the level of the opposition and the bum manager (pedro’s words), he needs to be sacked. This would… Read more »

Kroenkephobe

And Now? I must think about my semi coming up.

Hiya Tony
When I read this snippet from your tome about Mikel’s apparent tumescence, I thought the story was going to take an entirely different direction!

And this…

The government here have passed laws for people to have 6 marijuana plants per household for their medicinal properties.

Have you got a spare room?

Emiratesstroller

Habesha Gooner.

Come off it Chelsea spent last summer well over £200 million in transfer market on players.
They recruited also some of the best talent in the market, which was available.

By contrast Arsenal’s budget before Kroenke intervened at 24th hour and we bought Partey
was a measly £35 million.

You don’t spend £200 million and not expect the manager [Lampard] to perform.

@.Kroenkephobe

Hahahaha, do you need a roomy

Kroenkephobe

TYAG

If it’ll get me access to Tony’s herbal horticulture.

Dela Mere

Emiratesstroller

How much did Leeds spend compared to Arsrnal.

Tony

Kroenkephobe I was mindful of the bin and thought my humour would be missed with it being so bad. 🙄 I seem to be seeing friends I haven’t seen for years, so the guest rooms are occupied. Have to say the anti government protesting has been very passive lately. Reminds me of the World Cup where fans were kicking lumps out of each other in Belgium I think then when the fans got to Holland for the next rounds they were cuddling each other telling the opposite fans how much they loved them sitting in the cafes. Heard many a… Read more »

Dissenter

Emirates stroller
Stop the rambling, really.
Kroenke didn’t ‘“intervene” at the 11th hour, that money was there all along. It was Arteta’s insistence on prioritizing Aouar that led to the dithering. Edu broke the deadlock when it was obvious that Aouar was just leading us along – he decided to sign Partey to rescue the window.

Our transfer budget could have been more had Arteta not decided to hold unto players that were placed on the market, like AMN, Lacazette and Bellerin. All three were on the chopping block but Arteta overruled their exits.

Habesha Gooner

Emirates Stroller But you are also forgetting Arteta binned Guendouzi, Saliba, Torreira, Martinez who are worth around 90 mil+ talent. He Signed a 30 mil CB, A 10 mil CB, A 45 mil midfielder, and acquired Odegaard mid season who is a 40 mil+ talent. This is his team. You can’t say it isn’t. He chose average elneny. he chose to stick with willian and Luiz. I get we don’t have talent like Chelsea but we shouldn’t be below Westham, Everton and Villa. He is massively underperforming. You have to accept that before backing him. It’s not even a debate… Read more »

Kroenkephobe

Tony I’m an immigrant from the London/Kent area – now the lorry driver’s toilet of England (my other half though is from Cardiff). To be honest, the only time when you feel properly behind enemy lines out here is during the 6 nations. Things are quite a way behind Scotland in terms of independence sentiment but it’s growing. Latest polls say 40 of Welsh people, a lot of whom are youngsters, want a break away. A huge increase from 10 years ago. I think it’s gatheriing pace as people realise that Ingerland and Bojo speak a different language. Mrs K… Read more »

Rich

Teams are assembled through the youth teams and the transfer market, but they’re built on the training ground, Chelsea have also used their loan market much better than we have for educating their young players Lampard did a lot of the donkey work with the likes of Mount, James, Abraham, Hudson-Odoi, when you bring young players through, it always takes a bit of time, even for the most talented ones Havertz wasn’t a £72 million player, he was a £72 million talent, he’s 21, you don’t always get an instant return on investment, sometimes you have to wait for that… Read more »

The Bard

I agree with the thrust of your argument Pedro but there are 2 factors that might work in our favour. The team are currently closer to Palace than to Liverpool and it will take a few seasons to get up a level. So I’m not sure the Emirates will be buzzing with optimism any time soon. Factor in how much we detest Stan and there could be a lot of protest at the ground and in the media. That damages their brand badly. Stan sacked Wenger for the same reason. Its not over yet by a long way.

Emiratesstroller

Dissenter

You have a short and selective memory.

Arsenal had a net budget last season of under £40 million and Edu and Arteta were expected
to sell players specifically Torreira and Guendouzi to increase the budget.

It became clear that most clubs were unwilling or not able to spend money in transfer market.

Athletico Madrid and Olympique Lyonais did not budge on their valuations and it required
Kroenke intervention at 24th hour to buy Partey.

Stop your usual reinterpretation of facts.

Tony

Kroenkephobe
Really beautiful area, especially Barcelona and the Pyrenees and Madrid a few hours in either direction. Do these 2 words mean anything to you: zero zero? If not, then the Morocco hills are worth finding a guide for.

Let’s know if Arteta appears in the area after the game tomorrow?😛

Definitely see from a geographical side why you’d chose there to lay roots.

Good luck with the bureaucracy

Ishola70

lol ES will be calling for Arteta’s head soon enough.

Samesong

lol ES will be calling for Arteta’s head soon enough.

Yeah we’re watch how this pans out. All this Fergie comparison stuff is madness.

Rich

Kroenkephobe Don’t let the door hit you on the way out….. If Barcelona doesn’t work out, you should try China, Russia, Venezuela, or North Korea Live your dream of the state controlling every single aspect of your life, you won’t have to worry about people voting for someone like Boris, it’ll either be rigged, or you’ll just be given a self appointed lifetime ruler If worst comes to worst and you have to settle for Barcelona You’ll still have you’re beloved unelected + unaccountable EU commission, who have the sole right to propose laws + regulations on your behalf, so… Read more »

Sid

Emery may Not want to embarass Diet Pep, they are both spaniards, they are both Rauls henchmen.
OGS on the other hand will have little sympathy

Useroz

We are so blessed that Bayern didn’t pinch Arteta the generational one from us, or we’d have been in deep sauce!

Emiratesstroller

Ishola 70/Samesong

No I won’t call for his head, but I recognise as I have stated in past that Arteta like every other football manager is time limited unless he is producing results and/or meeting expectation.

Let’s be clear Arsenal was in a mess when Wenger left the club and finding solutions to the
problems will take time to redress including recruitment of Board, Senior Management and
not least Coaching and Players.

There will be mistakes along the way.

andy1886

ES, very selective use of transfer spend there to try and paint poor skint Arsenal as the underdog compared to Chelsea in the transfer market. So here are the real numbers (you know very well that Chelsea’s spend last summer was inflated due to their inability to spend the previous year due to a transfer ban): Last five years net spend: AFC £308.6M CFC £262.24M Last two years net spend (to take into account CFC’s transfer ban): AFC £155.78M CFC £68.52M Clearly a lack of spending hasn’t been the issue at Arsenal, it’s been how BADLY it was spent. And… Read more »

andy1886

“You clearly hate everything about this country and our union, I’m ecstatic that you’re leaving and taking your anti-freedom and anti-free choice voting habits with you, before this country gets turned into Venezuela without the sun”

Blimey Rich, a bit intolerant of someone else’s views aren’t we?

So much for democracy eh?

Emiratesstroller

andy 1886

Forgive me but we are discussing the spend by Arsenal since Arteta was appointed Manager
and was involved in transfer decisions.

Do we need to blame him for all the bad decisions made in the preceding 14-15 years?

Sid

What happens when the market fails you?
Nordic countries have the best quality of life, while the upward mobility imperialism once promised has stagnated.

Useroz

It’s quite beyond belief given earlier media reports that the trio of tierney, auba and particularly laca would all be in contention to face Villarreal… magical! Didnt know theres such top notch sports medical expertise in house.

Useroz

Xhaka can breathe a sigh of relief 😎 and more so we fans

englandsbest

Kroenkephobe.

Patience, my friend. Arteta will get there.

As I recall there was as much fan criticism of GG then as there is of Arteta now – even when he was winning games, titles, trophies! One-nil Arsenal? Boring, boring?

Like me, you rate GG as Arsenal’s best post-war manager. But we have to take account that his disciplinarian methods would not be acceptable in the post-Bosman era. Which makes Arteta’s task all the harder.

andy1886

Stroller, see the last two years spend. As I mentioned you don’t know that Lampard got the players he wanted either, a big part of the job as a manager is to use the resources you inherit not just the ones you personally select and buy. What manager walked into a job and immediately got a complete new squad of his own choosing? Precisely none which is why your argument doesn’t hold water.

Emiratesstroller

As far as I am concerned Arteta did not have any say in transfers until he was appointed Head Coach in December 2019 and was almost certainly not involved in transfers or contract decisions until he was promoted to become manager. Let’s consider some of the decisions taken since the summer transfer window was opened. Aubameyang. Only a tiny number of Supporters disagreed with decision to renew his contract. Most pundits considered it essential. I agreed with that decision. Willian. Most supporters and pundits thought it a great deal for Arsenal. For the record I was opposed to deal not… Read more »

andy1886

Well, well EB, something we agree on, GG was indeed Arsenal’s best post war manager. I made the comparison with MA after the cup win, that and the clearing out of big name underperforming players was a distinct parallel with what George did.(incidentally the ‘boring’ bit was only really rolled out post ’92 and wasn’t a thng prior to that). The difference for me is George could pick a player. I doubt that anyone before or since has been able to build a team as good as ours back then from unheralded players from lower leagues and youth prospects. One… Read more »

Rich

Laca, Aubameyang + Tierney all in contention to play tomorrow night

Rich

Luiz potentially available as well

Hopefully we don’t rush Tierney back and break him again

Sid

There should 0 excuses now that the full squad is available

Valentin

ES, You are moving the goalposts and rewriting history. Regarding Aubameyang, the decision imposed by Arteta was wrong. The real good options were as follow: 1) exercise the option to extend his contract for a year. Even if the salary was high that would have given us the time to bed another playerbas his future replacement. 2) renew his contract for 2~3 years on reduced terms with large incentive part for the last 2 years. So instead of having a player milking the club, we would have a player either working hard or ready to leave on our term. 3)… Read more »

andy1886

ES, I don’t think that we are a million miles apart on our assessment of the players but the real question is has MA got the best out of what he has to work with? I don’t believe he’s been even close to that. This squad is much better than the results we’ve had so far this season. Look at the league table. Do we have a worse squad than West Ham, Everton or Leeds who are ahead of us in the table? Of course not. So par for the course would have us fighting it out for 5/6/7 with… Read more »

andy1886

Strange, my previous post seems to have re-ordered itself, hopefully it still makes sense.

Victorious

Arteta embarassingly sucking off the Kroenkes in the pressers, almost like he’s fully aware he currently wouldn’t be in a job under a competent owner.