SMALL BRUSHSTROKES PAINTING A BRIGHTER PICTURE?

by .

Listen, we can laugh, but that’d be unfair. Winning the FA Cup in your first half-season isn’t for every world-class manager. The truth is, we as a fanbase need to be sensitive to the feelings of Chelsea fans. Arsenal rocked Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea with an earth-shattering performance, he’s just lost an FA Cup final to Leicester, and that might have ramifications as they chase top 4 and Champions League glory.

Imagine trying to motivate your team to save top 4 whilst they are thinking about a Champions League final as their confidence plummets?

I speak for us all when I say we wish no ill on Chelsea as their season sits on a precipice.

Side note, I haven’t seen too many talking about Tuchel galaxy braining Arsenal and the final? One of the most expensively assembled sides on the planet losing to Leicester in the Cup Final is a bad look.

Back to Arsenal.

Our season has some way to go. Unfortunately, we are still very much in the mixer for the unsexiest European competition ever dreamed up. No one wants to be in it. I don’t even know what it is. It’s a bit like taking a cyst to the doctor, don’t tell me what it is, just get me away from it so I can move on with my life.

Finish above Spurs? Would be nice. But would I want to do that and be rewarded with Thursday night football in a poverty European league? Don’t think I would. Would you?

Interesting to see the negative spin merchants out in force over David Luiz. Same people crying about our win over Chelsea are trying to convince the world David Luiz rebuffed a contract he was never offered. Can’t have it. There was a lot of pressure on Arteta and Edu to wave goodbye to him. I also suspect there will be a lot of pressure to give William Saliba a chance next season. (brushstroke 1)

Wesley Fofana is proving that if you give young centre backs game time, they can do great things. I think we’d all like to see Saliba in the mixer, even if it’s not great. There is no doubt in my mind that the decision to give Mustafi Europa minutes to him was a very bad one. Someone wrote in our GC we’re about to get the biggest transfer blue balls when he joins the first team and fails to live up to the Ligue 1 tease. I’m not sure I agree. I’ve watched Luiz and Mustafi make massive errors every 6 games for 2 years, if I had the choice, I’d prefer to be a young player with a VVD ceiling.

Joe Willock has made the most of his loan move to Newcastle. The box to box midfielder has proved to be an exceptional impact sub. His goal scoring has been outrageous considering how poor his output was under Emery and Arteta over 80 odd games. It’ll be really interesting to see what happens here, for me, sell him while he’s hot like we should have with AMN last season before we bombed him off to West Brom. Whatever we do, the decision should be made on scouting, not emotion from the fans.

Matteo G is a player that creeps back into conversation because all we see is the guy tearing around the pitch doing mega passion things. If he’s raised his profile at Hertha (not sure he has), we should be selling him. If you are a culture terrorist, you’re always going to be one. Hertha, a team that were in a relegation battle (finished 14th), had to drop him during a prime moment of their season because he behaves like an ‘animal.’ We don’t need that at Arsenal next season. No one likes working with a dickhead and it’s the same in sport.

Part of the mix this summer is making sure the players we hire in are scouted for who they are as people. It’s so odd that we haven’t been doing that. Would have been interesting to ask Petr Cech why Chelsea didn’t give Willian the deal he wanted before we doubled their offer and added a year. Was there no way we could have landed some intelligence on why Frank Lampard was so keen to move on David Luiz after he signed a new contract, despite having the same makeup of squad that would have loved his ‘mentorship.’ You can forgive the Matteo signing, teenagers can change. But the other two feel like we really lacked something on the scouting front.

I’m also interested in the leaks coming out of the club.

Entrenched power is a big theme.

The Athletic wrote extensively about Arteta having too much power with too little experience. Wenger-like privileges without the battle scars or scalps. That sort of noise is well-sourced. We’ve been writing about it since he was promoted last season. I hope there are moves afoot to give more balance in the backroom.

Edu also seems like he’s under pressure, his trust capital is eroding by the week. His physio mate he brought in from the Brazil setup might not make the summer (more brushstrokes). Vinai took the professional steps of hiring headhunters to replace binned scouts, clearly a control thing to avoid more jobs for the boys. We’re also reading pressure on the keeping coach, which I told you first, but important for Edu because he took his recco for Runarrsson, which was a very, very bad one.

Overall, the impression is that the tight leadership and aggressive standards we set have not been kept to. We know this to be true because we’ve seen it.

Ceding power to individuals above the collective good of the club is unacceptable governance. The club needs a vision with a guiding philosophy so strong, there’s limited impact on the project if key people leave. The best clubs know who they are, how they play, and what they stand for. Arsenal don’t. So every time we bin someone, we lose momentum trying to fix the damage.

If we’re possession-based football played with young players that are technically gifted and extremely athletic, then everything should be built around that vision. The coaches, the scouts, the academy staff, the analysts, the manager and the technical director. If something goes wrong with Arteta, we have someone like Graham Potter lined up. If something goes wrong with Edu, we should have a technical director lined up that has a background building teams that play the way Arsenal needs to.  At the moment, we’re being driven by managers, who average 18 months in the role. That’s not smart business for a club that constantly bangs on about the unsustainability of the game. If you want to play the sustainable model, do sustainable things. Like Leicester City or RB Leipzig.

I’d love to think these micro-moves are part of a bigger Vinai plan. The start of him taking control of the club like a proper CEO. Who knows though. Our leadership team has shown consistently they never learn. Bin Ozil, sign Willian. Move on an authoritarian manager, give new manager authoritarian powers after 6 months.

Let’s see if the changes we’re seeing actually mean something.

See you on the other side.

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bennydevito

Good post Pedro, you keep them coming, good on you.

I’m totally behind the decision to keep Arteta and am hopeful of a good summer. There’s no point going on about Arteta now because he’s staying until next season at least so let’s get positive.

“Oh! We’re gonna sign Jack Grealish
Oh! Bring him to the carpet
Oh! He’s gonna play with Partey
In the Arsenal midfield 3”

Wenga boys.

bennydevito

I do like that new yellow kit, and the away gk kit is nice too along with the new pre match shirt. Getting far to pricey keeping up though. My eldest 2 aren’t fussed about Arsenal anymore which is disappointing – thanks Wengemery. My youngest 2 though especially my 7 Yr old daughter loves the shirts though and my 4 Yr old daughter loves watching Arsenal with me on the TV. We need to start winning again because we’re losing the next generation of fans. My eldest 2 literally said it’s embarrassing to be seen in an Arsenal shirt. They’re… Read more »

bacaryisgod

Pedro

That makes no sense. If you think he’ll succeed next season then why did you call for his sack? Not much has changed in the last 10 days.

bacaryisgod

‘We’re top 3 over 22 games. 3 points off United. That’s a big sample and pretty positive that we are more than capable of competing for top 4 next season’.

Sounds like you are regretting saying he should be 10 days ago because the only difference from 10 days ago is that it was a 20 game sample instead of a 22 game sample.

bacaryisgod

*should be sacked 10 days ago

bacaryisgod

The funny thing is that you are making a reasonable argument for keeping Arteta. Our record since Christmas is a legitimate position to take.

What doesn’t stand up to scrutiny is that you went from defending him passionately to calling for his head to defending him passionately all in the span of a little over a week.

Gonsterous

If we want to make top 4 next season.

Put saka or martinelli at LW, play auba up top and saka or pepe on the right.
Behind them play ESR, that is an attack that will score many goals.

Also If mikeal can stop shouting from the touchline, that will help too. These are professional players who should know how to pass the ball and don’t need constant reminders on when to pass.

Pepe can contribute the goals that laca does, if used right, he is a 15+ goal machine. Lethal left foot.

Guns of SF

Not sure that ESR is ready to log these heavy minutes – he is still young, and injury prone. His body is getting stronger but we should be looking at getting another CAM. Someone like Rodrigo DP, a similar player to Szolobaszi- someone who is brave, strong and a powerful dribble and can shoot/score Our goals should be getting 20 plus goals from the midfield this season! Enough of the U shape posession- we need shooters and players who can get into the box… ESR is great…but maybe a Buendia would do fine too Bissouma/Anguissa as well to protect the… Read more »

Sean M

If you believe Thomas Partey will come good next season. You’re in for a very big shock… His injuries are going to be recurrent.

Should’ve put that money towards Ndidi, what a player!

China1

Pedro would rather finish the season below spurs, with no European football, just because he doesn’t like the idea of arsenal having to send out the kids and squaddies for mid week European games for a few months?

Am I reading this right or is what little was left of your sanity completely gone Pedro????

DivineSherlock

So we have to believe that Arteta who relied on experience the whole year when his job was on the line , will now use youth in upcoming season. Oh Pedro sometimes your optimism is just too much . Arteta’s best signing this season is gonna be Aaron Ramsey and then you will realise.

China1

why is this a 22 game sample? Why not a season sample? The season didn’t start at Christmas. By focusing on the league it also conveniently removes the several poor results and embarrassment of the EL from the equation. Can’t even include the FA cup or league cup since we went out so long ago Pedro if you keep flipflopping this hard every time arteta gets a few solid results you’re going to get whiplash at this rate. What changed in the last 10 days since arteta was failing and not good enough? We got a result against Chelsea and… Read more »

Guns of SF

We need all roads to the CL again and if EL is the way, Ill take that all day and night.

China1

It’s also plainly transparent Pedro that the reason you don’t want us to qualify for Europe is so that if we finish below spurs you can pretend this is in fact some kind of weird success story for arteta rather than a total embarrassment like in reality

China1

Pedro this all reminds me of that mate we all have who comes clubbing with you

Spends the first 3 hours of the night trying to chat up the sexiest girls in the club

no takers.

For the next hour Reluctantly moves down a level to the moderately pretty but slightly off looking girls.

Still no takers

Leaves the club without a girl and says he always preferred being single anyway and is glad that his most hated colleague left with one of those moderately pretty girls he tried and failed with

Okay.

China1

Pedro this all reminds me of that mate we all have who comes clubbing with you

Spends the first 3 hours of the night trying to chat up the sexiest girls in the club

no takers.

For the next hour Reluctantly moves down a level to the moderately pretty but slightly off looking girls.

Still no takers

Leaves the club without a girl and says he always preferred being single anyway and is glad that his most hated colleague left with one of those moderately pretty girls he tried and failed with

Okay…

Guns of SF

My worry is that Mike has not even figured out his style of play. We have no identity. This hinders or hampers who we target… how do we know they will fit into his system if he does not even know his system…
Its like fitting round pegs in square holes with a blindfold on

Guns of SF

can this fool – get in a new coach and its will make things a lot easier
can edu too

Mics_

Appreciate the optimism of this post, but I’m not convinced it is merited. What exactly has changed about Arteta, Edu, and the Kroenkes since the Villarreal loss? We won a couple of utterly meaningless games, one against the worst team in the league and beating Chelsea by parking a bus Tony Pulis would have been proud of. A bit hard to be optimistic about the same bloke who insisted on getting Willian and renewing Luiz last summer planning this summer.

China1

Guns he definitely doesn’t know what his CB pairing should be. I’m not even sure if he plans to have a first choice or just have a conveyor belt of rotation I agree with whoever above mentioned Gabriel + Saliba I think these two will both make some mistakes. They’re both young and learning. But they both have exceptionally high ceilings currently and I think it would be a mistake to prioritize the solidity of holding or Mari over the development of Saliba and Gabriel who *could* both go on to be fabulous CBs. I’d be willing to roll that… Read more »

Emiratesstroller

The transfer window reopens in just over 3 weeks time on the 9th June and at that point in time we will begin to have a picture of the clearout which is planned. We know already that Arsenal are not extending the contract of Luiz so he is leaving at end of his contract. Apart from that we know absolutely NOTHING, because further decisions are dependent on three factors which are: 1. Arsenal 2. The player 3. Finding a club willing to buy/loan/pay wages. Willian will be difficult to shift, because of the wage bill we committed to pay. Based… Read more »

Dela Mere

Emiratesstroller

The nightmare is the manager who dropped Guendouzi resulting in our worse season for many a year.

Dela Mere

Emiratesstroller loves building a team around lame duck managers.

Well if you look at the start of the season before a ball is kicked, we’re top of the league, what more do you lot want…oh sorry it’s after 39 games if you’re on top you win. Oh

Kroenkephobe

I doubt that many clubs would pay the player £100 K pw let alone what we are spending on him. ES There was a lengthy exchange on here a few months ago about what Willian is actually being paid by Arsenal. I recall the upshot being that contrary to initial reports he is on about 100 to 120k per week (with some hefty bonuses on top for winning trophies… Imagine that). So if some other club in the US is offering similar money for playing in a lower level league and under less media and fan scrutiny, it looks like… Read more »

Dela Mere

I find it difficult to fathom how the board are struggling to replace a novice or is fear of yielding the axe a case of once bitten twice shy

Sid

Sean MMay 17, 2021 05:28:44
If you believe Thomas Partey will come good next season. You’re in for a very big shock… His injuries are going to be recurrent.

100% On point as usual!

Dela Mere

I find it difficult fathom how the board are struggling to replace a novice or is fear of wielding the axe a case of once bitten twice shy

Pierre

Pedro “. The box to box midfielder has proved to be an exceptional impact sub. His goal scoring has been outrageous considering how poor his output was under Emery and Arteta over 80 odd games. It’ll be really interesting to see what happens here, for me, sell him while he’s hot” Will just point out that willock has 11 goals/assists from midfield in 28 starts under Emery/Arteta, which is hardly a “poor output”.. The fact is , he hasn’t been given the opportunity to impress. Will also point out that Willock has started 9 out of 12 games at Newcastle,… Read more »

Emiratesstroller

Dela Mare

You are talking garbage

First of all I have never supported “lame duck managers”. I was critical of Wenger for a long time before he left club and I was also opposed to recruitment of Emery.

Second I supported the recruitment of Arteta as “Head Coach”, but not his premature appointment as “Manager”. I don’t regard him as a “lame duck”, although he has a lot to learn.

Rambo

Pierre spent many a season taking dump on Aaron Rambo Ramsey. The words ‘glory Hunter’, ‘selfish’, were fixtures on his numerous posts.

Now he pines for Joe Willock, citing goal scoring…..

Batistuta

Alumunia

Man it was a depressing 90mins, could feel from the first 5mins we weren’t going to score much like Arteta’s boys against Villarreal, toothless yea and somehow each time Ibra isn’t on the pitch we look clueless.

Lol yea hope Atlanta have some kind of breakdown and filed a weakened team next week if not we’re most def going to lose that one

Crazy that Lilie couldn’t find a goal yesterday, going down to the wire

Batistuta

Lol at 3rd best defensive record when we’ve lost as many games as we’ve maybe won. Anyway, we’re also 3rd the last 22 games i think so that should very we’ll power us through next season with the “perfect” window.

Lol it’s like Wenger and that Calendar year champions thing we used to win back in the day, full circle stuff

Dela Mere

Emiratesstroller

You favouring a novice as ‘Head Coach’ over a professional shows how clueless you are.

Raulishuss

Agree with pierrr sometimes this young players need a lot a patient. Some of you will be quick to sell adebayor van persie etc if they were playing now. Sometimes all it takes is an injury or consistent game time with confidence and everything changes, i still believe we have an amazing crop of young players and while it’s possible all won’t make it at arsenal or become world-class it’s not bad if we atleast give them the platform

Habesha Gooner

Pedro always trying to spin things. Arteta has been awful for us. He has tanked completely this season. I mean I wouldn’t be mad if we improved with him in charge next season. I would still support my team even with a fraud in charge. But I genuinely don’t believe he has it in him to at least get us back to a decent Top 4 side. Pierre Rambo makes a really good point though. I agree with your views that willock needs to be given a chance. But he is very Similar to Ramsey. He is also positionally suspect… Read more »

Dela Mere

Sacking Emery as I said at the time was a premature decision and nothing subsequently has convinced me otherwise.

The Bard

This transfer window is going to interesting to say the least. Dear old Stan is between a rock and a hard place. Does he give the manager substantial funds to make a difference knowing he might have to sack him early season or does he shift a few deckchairs around and wait and see ? As some have mentioned there is also the thorny question of getting rid of several players on big wages. Not easy in this climate. My feeling is there will be 1 major signing to try to appease the fans and a couple of nothing signings… Read more »

Kaz

Guendozi should be retained.

He’s legit the only nasty bastard we have and with a tremendous ceiling.
Plus if Pedro is pushing so hard for selling him then obviously he has to be kept on as Pedro is more wrong than right.

bacaryisgod

Kaz

The reality is that if Arteta is manager he won’t allow Guendouzi back.

Emiratesstroller

Dela Mare

Oh please!

What is your expertise that you can judge Arteta’s football and coaching background?

Dela Mere

Emiratesstroller

You said he has a lot to learn which is the definition of a novice.

Foxy

We will probably sell Willock and give Ramsey £200k a week who will then spend most of the season injured!

Kaz

Bacaryisgod

I don’t see Arteta surviving next season so it’s not that much of an issue, the suits have to just ignore Arteta’s demand to sell.

Foxy

Willock and Guen both have the same serious flaw – both good on the ball but both useless when we do not. We need as mobile ball winner to play along side Partey who is great in transition

Foxy

Would still like to keep Willock on the books and loan him out for a full a season as there is something special in his ability to break forward and score instinctively.

Emiratesstroller

Del Mare

Every football manager if he is intelligent will always want to learn from his mistakes. It does not mean he is a novice.

As I pointed out last week age is not a determining factor when making an appointment. There are plenty of people in their 30s with far more responsibility and less experience than Arteta.

For a start George Osborne at age of 34 and Rishi Sunak at age of 39 became Chancellor of
Exchequer.

NORG

S & M have only just shredded the new contract being offered to DL

Bob N16

I’ve watched almost all senior games Willock has played and I’m torn on whether to keep him. I think he has key attributes, his athleticism, his forward runs and his shooting but I wonder where he fits in our present system. If he were to play AM then we lose the link play that say ESR gives us. I don’t think his defensive ability is sufficient to play as a box-to- box midfielder. He could play attacking right but again I’ve not seen him cross the ball much and we have other players, Saka/ Pepe who are ahead of him… Read more »

Dela Mere

George Osborne and Rishi Sunak were/are the Arteta’s of politics.

Foxy

Willock would be wasted as a squad payer he needs to play regularly under good manager in the right team. Leeds maybe under Bielsa

Foxy

Willock would be wasted as a squad player he needs to play regularly under a good manager in the right team. Leeds maybe under Bielsa

Emiratesstroller

Bob N16

I agree 100% with your analysis.

Willock is a “squad player” at Arsenal and no more. Smith-Rowe has more potential.

If Willock accepts that he is a squad player then of course he is good enough in that role to
stay at Arsenal.

However, he has reached the point in his career when both he and Arsenal need to reach a
decision, which is the best solution.

At the moment Arsenal are short of midfield resources assuming that both Ceballos and
Odegaard leave. We need at least one midfield upgrade to be recruited even if Willock stays.

Captain Tierney

China That clubbing analogy 😂. Bennyevito Obviously the 22 game run is pretty positive and shows great improvement in results. But the fact of the matter is a season is 38 games long, we got out of the Fa cup and Carabao cup pretty early and the Semi final 2nd leg was one of the worst Arsenal have played ever. + Arteta was already on his second chance. If Arteta was to be sacked it would have been more than fair. And all the reactions in the span of 2-3 days were reactionary but also justifiable. The club though has… Read more »

Captain Tierney

Willock definitely looks like a good prospect. He is physically gifted, makes smart runs and most importantly adds goals from midfield. That is a very rare trait. Wenger, Emery, Freddie and then Arteta all placed a lot of trust in him even putting him before ESR in the pecking order. There has to be a reason for that. Therefore Willock should be sold only and only if we can’t make other sales and require the money to fill other positions. Best solution is to extend on a small wage increase and loan him out to a PL club where he… Read more »

Foxy

squad players really need to be experienced players who can slot in as needed and do the required job. our youngsters need to play regularly if not at Arsenal then somewhere else otherwise you get more Reiss Nelsons.

Pierre

Habesha/ Rambo “What changed” Let me explain. The problem I had with Ramsey was when he played in a 2 man central midfield as he lacked discipline and didn’t understand the role.. It is no coincidence that our best central midfield pairing during that period didn’t include Ramsey . Coquelin and Cazorla were the ideal pairing as they both knew their role in the team. Ramsey often played out wide during this time, as in the villa cup final and had more freedom to get in goalscoring positions. Sadly Cazorla suffered long term injury and then Xhaka came into the… Read more »

Foxy

CT totally agree having no goal soring midfielders is a key part of our recent troubles, in the past we had Freddie, Fab and Rambo who could all chip in with 10 + goals a season.

Emiratesstroller

Dela Mare

My daughter was appointed a senior manager at a FTSE 100 Company in her mid 30s . The
company is 40x larger than Arsenal with a turnover in excess of £20 billion.

Does that mean that she should not be employed, because by your criteria she was a novice?

Arteta has more than 20 years experience in senior football as a player and coach.

The only matter which is relevant is whether he is up to the job and not your limited assessment of his capability..

I repeat the question. What is your expertise in this matter?

Foxy

good post Pierre highlighting a key problem of young player development or lack of it under Wenger , Song of course another good example

Dela Mere

Emiratesstroller

Your daughter would be sacked had she performed as badly as Arteta has this season.

Pierre

Foxy
Ramsey and Song probably played their best football under Wenger , maybe he got the best out of them by not putting constraints in their game.

Both players development stalled without Wenger’s influence.

Bob N16

Good post Captain T. As always on LeGrove the partisanship of strong opinion often appears to reduce some posters to almost welcoming a poor run of results to support their passionate positioning. There are a handful of regulars on here who find it hard not to post 20 anti-Arteta posts a day – not sure if they’re hoping to achieve much but it makes me scroll through a lot! I like many others would have welcomed Arteta’s sacking after the season we’ve had. However, it would appear that he’s going to be given more time; a hopefully productive summer TW,… Read more »

Vintage Gun

William Saliba with 113 passes yesterday and a 95% accuracy. 7/8 long balls completed too.

Jeeez

Bob N16

ES, not sure why you’re bothering with Dela Mere….

Dela Mere

Bob N16

So the board who approved a flop is to be given more time and that’s okay with you lol

shaun

Look there is actually something we can be positive about and it is actually fact , if we look at the season objectively no one and I mean no one can possibly do as bad a job as Arteta has done , even if we signed fat Sam we would still be better off i mean nine let that sink in nine home defeats horrible football bar maybe two games .The up side is not even Arteta can be as bad as Arteta of this season he has to get better, no where near good enough in my opinion but… Read more »

Captain Tierney

One can say Wenger allowing Ramsey to go do his thing cost us in defense but it also added 15+ goals in our attack from the midfield. And not just silly tap ins, Ramsey scored some wonderful goals and also in many important games like the 2 FA cup finals. When Emery starting ranking after the 22 game wonder run ended it was Ramsey who single handedly dragged us to a guaranteed too 4 finish with 4-5 games to go. Then he got injured again because Emery literally played him every game since putting him back into the side. We… Read more »

Captain Tierney

We’d at least be in the top 6 rn if Ramsey got the minutes that Ode/Mo/Ceballos got.

G+A from midfield is exactly what we are lacking

Vintage Gun

“+ Theres many reports from top tier journalists Arsenal are going to do something ‘exceptional’ this summer.”

I’m hearing this also. At first i just brushed it off as “Season ticket renewal time” like the ole war chests stories of yesteryear. But KSE have to do something this summer or their asset will be worth as much as a subbuteo set come next year May.

Exceptional to me would be something like buying Jack Grealish and then allowing us to spend what we make on transfers to further strengthen the squad.

A gift from the Ghouls if you like.

Vintage Gun

Ramsey was cool but he lost his head after that 16 goal season. Started playing like a deep lying striker and was consistently leaving gaping holes for our athletic Midfield to unsuccessfully cover.

Plus he started yapping on about joining curious George at Madrid. And finally when the contact was offered (before being taken off the table) he was waiting for other offers. Then cries when we lose patience.

Decent player overall but nothing we should be revisiting moving forwards.

China1

That yellow kit in the pic is sexy as fuck. Absolute banger of a kit

China1

Yes batistuta I forgot about the ‘league winners over the calendar year’ trophy we used to be told to celebrate in wengers heady barren years haha

Captain Tierney

Ramsey didn’t lose his head. He was always the same type of player. Not suited to play in a 2 man midfield especially with partners like Xhaka and Cazorla. We should have brought a Kante type of player to cover for Ramsey or switched to a 4-3-3. Trying to shoehorn him as a deep lying midfielder was the actual issue. But it seemed like whenever we took him out of the side the team’s attacking potency dropped down a couple of levels. Hence why not Arsene ir Emery could keep Ramsey out of their starting 11s. Vintage Ramsey wasnt waiting… Read more »

andy1886

Exceptional? I’ll believe it when I see it. Thing is when the judgement of the people making these decisions is suspect (and that’s putting it kindly) then exceptional might turn out to be exceptionally bad. Remember the Pepe signing? Some people were ecstatic, lots of claims that we had ‘won the transfer window’. Didn’t turn out too well because

andy1886

the people running the show didn’t know what they were doing.

CG

ES ””””Willock is a “squad player” at Arsenal and no more. Smith-Rowe has more potential.”””””””’ Only clueless Arsenal fans ( and they don’t come any more clueless than this one ) would ever contemplate letting a player who has scored 5 goals in his last 5 games go to a possible rival. The hardest thing to do in soccer is find goal scoring midfielders and we have a potentially brilliant one , who has been at the club since he was 4. and who bleeds red and white and yet the club would rather sign another old and ageing Chelsea… Read more »

Sid

Diet pep and his fanboys prefer Partey in CM instead of dynamic players like Willock, Buendia

Pierre

Captain Tierney “One can say Wenger allowing Ramsey to go do his thing cost us in defense but it also added 15+ goals in our attack from the midfield” If only He did score some very good and very important goals but Ramsey’s goal scoring record at Arsenal ( all comps) is not as good you think ….I would hazard a guess that apart from his very exceptional season , Ramsey’s goalscoring record is only on par with a certain lazy, shot shy German who rarely ventured into the box 2011/12…….3 goals 2012/13…….2 goals 2013/14……..16 goals 2014/15………9 goals 2015/16………6 goals… Read more »

Emiratesstroller

CG

If you read carefully what I posted I suggested that we should hold onto Willock as a squad player.

However, I made it clear that I consider Smith-Rowe to be the more gifted player and with greater potential.

Willock may decide to leave Arsenal and if the price is right then we should let him go. He has I believe one year left on his contract.

englandsbest

We should be upbeat about Willock, AMN, Nketiah. They are young, they have realistic potential, are bound to improve, and have Arsenal commitment. We should keep them. The guys we should get rid of are the want-aways like Torreira, Guendozi, the give-aways like Kolasinac, and Willian, and the no-ways like Bellerin and Elneny.

Pierre

Hopefully Eddie will be given the chance to prove a lot of people wrong in the near future, just as Willock has.

CG

””””””Diet pep and his fanboys prefer Partey in CM instead of dynamic players like Willock, Buendia”””””””

This Willock scores goals for fun.

He would have scored them against Villareal too, if given the chance.

Martinez stopped them and they wanted to sell him,
Willock scores them and they want to sell him too,

Always think of the x 3 G’s Sidney.

Goals,
Gold,
Girls,

James wood.

Trouble is Willock is loved at NEWCASTLE.
HE’s game has been upped by a large percentage.
He is enjoying he’s football.
Newcastle want him.
I just don’t see that being replicated by the current
Arsenal set up.
I have no doubt’s the same will happen to Eddie /Nelson etc
A bit off love a few goals the back room and the team behind you
you up your game and the worlds your oyster.
I just don’t see ARSENAL PLAYERS with a smile on there faces
they play with fear .
Arteta does not seem to be a motivator.

Sid

Since our dead rubber wins against WBA and Chelsea, the superfans are back and emboldened with choruses of ‘doom merchants’,
thats the reasoning that got us into midtable.

Im telling you for free!

CG

ES

”””’If you read carefully what I posted I suggested that we should hold onto Willock as a squad player.””””

I know you did. And I am only jesting.

you are entitled to your opinion, like anyone else.

Batistuta

Lol why would you call fellow gooners “doom merchants”? Why should your own style of supporting be seen as superior to someone else’s? Funny bunch

Batistuta

China

Yea lol, incredible all the crazy stuff people usually come up with to defend failing managers

Emiratesstroller

CG Arsene Wenger made it crystal clear on many occasions that once a player reaches 21 years of age you have to make a decision about his future. Willock is one of those 50-50 players who could become a very good player. However, I think that Smith-Rowe has greater potential and he would be my preferred starter at Arsenal if we had to make a choice. Other players such as Maitland-Niles and Nketiah should be offloaded, because I don’t think that they are good enough. Nketiah for example will be competing for a place with Balogun who is rated a… Read more »

Kaz

Pierre.

Put the games played per season to goals rate for Ramsey.

He missed large swathes of the seasons due to injuries.

6 goals in 38 looks weak.

6 goals in 16 looks very capable.

Kaz

Pierre running an agenda against a player? Who would have thought 😂

Champagne Charlie

Bati

When a manager has just embarked on their first ever full season in the job you look at the patterns and underlying metrics to establish whether they showed signs of improvement.

Arteta started horribly and we’ve improved on that throughout the season, it’s really not that difficult to figure out. There’s no excuses for anything either. It’s been a poor season, but if all you’ve got is ‘we finished 9th sack him’ then you’re pretty basic no matter how many “lol”s you type.

Pierre

Kaz
“Put the games played per season to goals rate for Ramsey.He missed large swathes of the seasons due to injuries.”

WIll just point out Ramsey averaged over 40 games a season for Arsenal .

CG

ES ””””’Willock is one of those 50-50 players who could become a very good player. However, I think”””””’ Surely with 5 in 5 and goals against Liverpool at Anfield ( last minute) Man City Spurs ( last minute ish) Leicester City one other He is a very good player now. He scores goals from midfield. Which is off course the hardest thing to do in soccer. Lets not beat around the bush – this current manager aint good enough, Willock, Kolasnic and AMN should not have been loaned out in January. They should all have been in the squad for… Read more »

Pierre

Kaz
If you care to look back you will find that Rambo and Habesha brought up Ramsey due to the fact that I mentioned how well Willock was doing….his goal scoring stats are already better than Ramsey’s , though you wouldn’t think it by the way Willock is talked about on Le Grove .

James Wood summed it up with this comment

“Trouble is Willock is loved at NEWCASTLE.
His game has been upped by a large percentage.
He is enjoying he’s football.
Newcastle want him.”

TR7

Willock’s is good off the ball but incredibly limited with ball at his feet. No serious team can accomodate such a player in their starting 11.

Captain Tierney

Pierre

By that I meant goal contributions. Compare that to Xhaka, Partey, Elneny and Ceballos.
And not only that, but his late runs into the box created havoc for the opposition defense.
And the drawback to that was us being vulnerable on the counter.
It was a simple give and take..

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

I find it strange that Eddie was just dropped midway through season…

Think that was harsh . The main strikers under preforming yet he gets the blame.

Matt

Batistuta

‘Lol why would you call fellow gooners “doom merchants”? Why should your own style of supporting be seen as superior to someone else’s? Funny bunch’

All is well in the garden of Arsenal, didn’t you know? We are top 3 since February 6th at 8:36 PM and the Krankies are going to do something exceptional this summer. There is nothing, I repeat nothing to be negative about. We have Arteta in charge, what could possibly go wrong…

raptora

Willock is 1/2 of Lingard as a player and we know Lingard is not highly rated in general.