We’ll start with the positives. English teams are without doubt the most exciting to watch in the world at the moment. That was a final brimming with beautiful technical football, put on by two managers that believe in football artistry. Chelsea were exceptional, they showed how to control a game against a better team. They were the more dangerous side over the 90 minutes and deserved to take home the trophy.
Some of the football though… just exceptional at times. Olivier Giroud, what a career…
There was a lot of handwringing after the game from Arsenal fans that think there are lessons to be learned from two clubs dripping in oil money. I’m not sure I can have that.
High standards with no constraints isn’t an admirable trait or one that’s replicable for Arsenal. Chelsea spent £250m in a pandemic summer on a top 4 squad. They sacked their manager in December and brought in a rockstar coach they’ve been in talks with for a few years.
People keep pointing out Thomas Tuchel to me like I wasn’t pointing him out on this website when he was at Mainz.
Thomas Tuchel: Now, I only know about this guy because Rapha Honigstein has high praise for his work on the BT European show. However, now I’ve made myself and expert on his life and journey and I love this guy. He took over Mainz back in 2009. He doesn’t have an incredible playing career, but he fundamentally understands people and what drives them. Go beyond that and he’s a master of the game as well. A real trailblazer. Apparently, the first thing he did when he tookover was take his players to a retreat to get to know them better. He noticed that at meal times, everyone ate at different times. There was no respect, no camaraderie. So he set about improving the manners of the squad to build unity. Then when you dig into his training methodology, it’s really interesting. His sides train on rhombus shaped pitches to cut out long ball passing. He has a great record against Bayern as well (as well as being tipped to manage them one day). He’s a clever guy who put strategy at core. I love this style of manager. Deep thinkers. Football is changing and the clever guy is winning. An amazing transformation over the course of the last 5 years.
Same people calling me a hipster for like Arteta were doing the exact same thing when I was talking about Tuchel. In fact, when he was sacked by Dortmund, people were in my mentions raising his failure as the death of hipster football managers. He’s an exceptional thinker, he’s improved/softened some of his more erratic behaviour, and now he’s winning the biggest trophies. But he wasn’t available to us in December, even if he was, he’d have all the same problems to deal with because he would want the players to do the same things Arteta struggles to get them to do. Bigger point, we’re not a rockstar destination at the moment.
Same for City. They spent £1.2b to get to their first Champions League final. The response to the poor tactics will be… spend £200m this summer. Hard to extract lessons from clubs that can do that. Obviously, they do a lot of good things, but fishing them out is hard because they always have the best players.
The lessons Arsenal need to take come from clubs like Liverpool, Leicester, and maybe Atleti. Those clubs do it the hard way. They put the best people in positions to make good decisions. They have a clear mission and vision for the football. They build a plan and they ruthlessly stick to it. They do things the hard way because they live in a world with financial constraints.
Arsenal hasn’t really behaved like we have financial constraints over the past 4 years. There have been 4 different plans, no consistency, and lessons that should have been learned haven’t been. The wastage in the system has been eye-watering.
This summer, that needs to change. There are reasons to be hopeful and look, I’m going out on a positive limb here because I have to have a fun summer this year after the misery of pandemic land.
IDENTITY
The last 18 months have been garbled from an identity perspective. We had half a squad dedicated to Wengerball, half to Emeryball, 8 center-backs, the most expensive bum of all time causing issues behind the scene. Arteta started with a shithouse approach, then tried to maintain a fine margins game as his strikers lost their shooting boots, then we tried to play a more creative brand of football post-Christmas to mixed reviews.
What I think we saw develop is an idea of how we want to play. It’s Manchester City lite. A brand of positional football underpinned by a solid defence. Clearly, we don’t have the players needed yet, but when we added more creators post-Dec 25th, the football moved forward.
Edu knows what he’s scouting for now. So do the analysts that sit in the backroom. We haven’t had that sort of clarity before. That should make the filter for great easier to judge.
PROFESSIONALISM
Again, this is a major stretch for me here because I don’t know. But Richard Garlick is trained in law, he’s worked on all aspects on a club level and he’s also an operator at the league level. He’ll need to bring process to Arsenal and maybe we’re starting to see some of that with basics like moving on the physio and using headhunters to find the new generation of scouts. No more contacts scouting, no more sweetheart deals for people Edu like, some rigour in the recruitment process. If he’s not here to bring that to the club, I have no idea why we hired him.
THE GIFT OF TIME
Last season was a mess for most clubs and nearly all managers. This season will be different. Clubs will get a full preseason, players will get a proper break from each other, coaching will make a difference. A rookie coach with no time to work with his players wasn’t ideal. Next season, there’s no Europe to worry about, so there are no excuses for not extracting the most out of the squad.
YOLO EXITS
Don’t even tell me you’ve not considered quitting your job to do something MAD like setting up craft beans on toast restaurant that sells one dish for £27. We’ve all been there and football players will be no different. Granit Xhaka probably wants out, why not? Willian might have had a realization that playing and being loved is more valuable than an extra £50k a week. We’re going to see exits this summer that move us on from comfort blanket players.
That’ll give us more cash to reshape the squad and go from incremental improvements to something more dramatic. Arsene Wenger did this at the start of his Arsenal career and again in 2001 I believe. The risks of shocking the system are that it takes time to settle the squad, but look, the risks of keeping players that aren’t right is you firmly entrench yourself in 8th position.
MONEY MONEY MONEY
As I mentioned the other day, there’s cash being injected into the system this summer. We don’t have to sell to buy, and hopefully we can sell and top up the pot. We could have a very big summer this year. The easiest way to jump a level is to invest in better players. We have the chance to do that this summer (did you read Pep confirm Arsenal is investing?).
Hopefully we’re not spending money on Mahrez like figures. With big money comes great responsibility. We should be using the cash to sign players that will have a residual value. Don’t just blow it on old players like we have done in the past.
CONCLUSION
The above points are spinning plates. They all have to be spinning by the end of the summer or we’ll fail next season. But there’s a path here. It’s a tight one, it’s fraught, but if we make smart decisions we can go into next season and surprise people.
Let’s see what the clubs has in store.
Marc it’s a joke i made why so pessimistic all the time man
PPPP
So you’re quoting an article you didn’t actually bother to read?
Fuck me.
Serge?
Sorry missed your thread?
Pedro, you’ll recall that Wenger scored similar ratings right up until a few months before he was fired.
Marc i said guendouzi was pretty crap and Pedro joked that i should not say that as half the transfer market will be put off by my scouting report so i then apologised and said his great he was
PP, that seemed to be the gist of it, give him another shot but must do better or else. Question is do you think he’ll do better?
The only reports on Guendouzi I have seen state the fee is expected to reach €12-18m. We paid £6.5m for him so a clear profit. With Guen it was always about potential – I’m sorry to see him go but we have to move on. The fact that Hertha don’t want him either tells plenty.
Quite something considering some of the noise on here
But Pedro you were making some of that noise when calling for Arteta’s head after Villareal.
And wasn’t it Groucho Marx who said 80% of all statistics are made up?
Serge
I don’t care about Guendozi being good or bad – if he’s a pain in the arse sell him no issue.
My issue is don’t cost the club £20 million or more in doing so when we really need the money.
Marc guendouzi cost the money by being a brat
Another day of Ishola making Xhaka the centre of his universe. Just needs to have a dig at Weagle about talking European football and he’s literally reliving his weekend.
I’m not sure Groucho is a good inspiration for life in 2021. Not many businesses you can reel off that quote and survive
Charlie
We have talked many issues on this thread today including Xhaka.
That you trigger wholy on the Xhaka conversation says a lot.
Defender to the last.
Marc – you can only get what clubs are prepared to pay.The deal likely to have add ons so will be difficult to assess properly. He’s gone on loan, didn’t impress that club either and now is one year from contract expiry. In those circumstances it is inevitable we will not get full value. Move on.
Marc.Not totally necessary to read the article.After all it’s hardly a legal matter.It was misinterpreted for which I apologised & appreciated the clarification from Andy.No need to get excitable…..
Ishola
I’m the one triggered even though you’ve failed to let another day pass without mentioning Xhaka anonymously online. Spectacular.
I find the repetition amusing, as was the interaction between you and Weagle the other day. You’re so far off the deep end it’s comical. But bully for you, got a few comments in about general football before opening up a can of Xhaka.
He lives in your head rent free, ouch.
Andy.If & it’s big if.A v.good transfer window will be reqd.Whether he or they are up to it.We’ll know soon enough.
Charlie only you get upset though it seems by having to respond all the time and Weagle for some reason at times.
As long as he is still at the club making us suffer which has been the case since he joined then he will continually be called out.
It’s something that you should be at peace with now but obviously not.
Seems like the blame Arteta gets is picked up and put down at will regarding these players.
If a player does well on loan (Saliba, Willock) then he’s a mug for sending them on loan, whereas a player tanks and is looking to leave the club (Guendouzi, Torreira) and he’s a mug again for screwing the value of the player.
Pedro is the spin merchant though is he?
Ishola
Again, I’m upset since when? You’ve not got control over your own emotions so less of the bogus commentary about mine .
I load Le Grove for the day and first comment at the top is you in your element, followed by the next 3/4 firmly on top #1. I find it amusing as I’ve stated, maybe you make peace with that
At the beginning of the next season we will find out the winners and losers of leaving or staying at Arsenal. Post some of your ideas here are mine:
Winners:
Ozil, CL qualification football
Sokratis, CL qualification football
Mkhitaryan, European Conference league (but Maureen as manager)
Losers:
Shkodran Mustafi, Looser looking for a new club
50/50
Emi, but he got regular No 1 starting position
“Tom
You’re the new king of caustic sarcasm, you know how to make it bite.“
Thank you Dissenter for kind words.,
Someone had to pick up the slack from Jamie and FL , who fucked off probably to watch their crypto portfolio swell up beyond imagination.
CC, we’ve also been wrestling with ‘shit coaching tanked his value’ but can’t resolve why no other major club has spotted the opportunity to pick up an undervalued superstar at a pittance.
Ghanaian news presenter reading Premier League results goes viral!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a8ZW63bHwc
Pedro
Oh I read that memo too. Looks like Xhaka is a wasteman because he’s going to Roma, and Guendouzi going to Marseille reads as: ‘Arteta fucked an elite talent because he didn’t keep him here and play him’
Ignoring of course the obvious fact that he sent him on loan where said loan club have welcomed the end of that agreement. It’s a weird twist, but silly season and all that.
Please notice the hesitation before reading the Arsenal result, looks like he can’t believe Arsenal 0 Villa 3.
Priceless
So Guendozi is bad all of a sudden right and that has nothing to do with Arteta? So what happened to Xhaka who was worth closer to 30 mil before Arteta stopped the move? He turned shit without Arteta having anything to do with it again right?
Shaking my head.
I have been watching Guendouzi in the flesh probably more times than the majority of those who post on here. Moreover I monitored him “off the ball”, which you don’t do when you watch him on the screen. One thing I learned about Guendouzi is that he expends a lot of energy on the pitch with very little productivity. He was also exceeding lightweight in the tackle. The idea that he is a “great player” in the making is a myth. There was nothing I saw which suggested that he was an exceptional player. There were also far too many… Read more »
MD
It’s an old video, but still hilarious
Arsenal losing to a village team !?
Peddlers.
Because nobody is linked to Guen doesn’t mean he’s shit. Manu haggle Penandez price for almost a year and nobody bothered. Klopp had a free run at Sallah from Roma. Stop putting baseless assertions out as some immutable truths. Who fought us for Cazorla or Hleb when we bought them? Or Diaby?
Et. Arshavin was lazy as fuck but he was a dynamite. How many goals did Rosivky score in his entire Arsenal career? Was Willock anywhere near Guendozi s rating before he went to Newcastle and started scoring like it was running out of fashion. Oxlade can never be a central midfielder Arsenal fans kept saying, that’s exactly what he’s done in Liverpool even scoring a cracker enroute winning the UCL despite injury limiting him. Arsenal is not a place to judge a player. The coaches tend to burden or misuse the players and destroy them in the process. Guess who… Read more »
Marseilles are a bit like Arsenal.
Have a proud history but have fallen.
Oh and they have won a european cup.
But yeah complete mickey mouse move for Guendouzi.
Very big fanbase as well and most know they were one of the biggest in France before the PSG money came in.
Thorough
“Guess who was utterly ridiculous we had to give him away again? Mkhitarian, yes the same guy who just had double digits in goals and assists this season.”
He was shit at Man United as well.
Even Batistuta here the Italian poster says not much should be made of a player getting some numbers up in the present Serie A or making too big a deal out of it.
And what did Mhiki’s numbers do for his side Roma this season? Not a lot. They ended up 7th.
Mhiki given free rein. Mhiki excused team work load.
Thorough
If you don’t want to judge Guendouzi’s performance at Arsenal take a look at how he played at Berlin and his impact there.
He played in 24 games. They won only 5 games when he played including 2 when he was a
late sub.
That does not suggest to me an influential player either defensively or offensively.
I am 50-50 about Willock, but I have always rated him at a higher level than Guendouzi. Moreover he is home grown and conducts himself in a professional manner.
Ishola.
Was he shit at Dortmund too where he spent a longer time than Manu and Arsenal?
What did Aubameyang’s goals do for us the 2 years he was top scorer in the Epl? Did we make UCL? Does that make him a bad player.
Sanchez was shit in Manu and Arsenal too but he’s been amazing everywhere and just won the scuddeto. Maybe it’s Arsenal and Manu that are actually dysfunctional and not the players?
Emirates “”””I have been watching Guendouzi in the flesh probably more times than the majority of those”””” Well done. Good judgement there ES Well , it took me about 3 weeks to know he can’t play and is a 100% ‘wrong -un’. He should never have played for the club again after that Zaha tackle. Having said, once again it all.comes down to man managing players and not alerting potential buyers that you have rotten apples in your camp so you get the optimum price. (A Wenger sold Bentley 20 years ago for £20 000 000- and he was nearly… Read more »
Our transfer business has been fucking horrendous for the past few years. Not that I rated Guendouzi, was one of the least enthused on here about him even in the Emery days but to only be breaking even on him given all of the hype is pretty dire. We paid 20m for Papa Sok and ended up letting him walk for nothing, paid 25m for Toreirra and will end up letting him walk for fuck all, paid 8m for Guendouzi as a 18/19 year old and a few years later are selling him for the same price, no increase in… Read more »
Thorough
We all know what type of player Mhiki is. It’s no mystery.
He needs to be given free rein attacking wise and excused from other team duties.
This is what happened at Dortmund and he isn’t doing a lot of running around at Roma either other then when it’s about an assist or goal for him.
This type of luxury player is mostly frowned upon now.
Emirates. Stop judging a player because his team is poor. A player can only do well when a coach has built the team to function maximally. Robertson came from a relegated Hull city and went on to win UCL with Liverpool. Why not blame him for Hull going down? Wijnaldum went from Newcastle to Liverpool. Why didn’t he take Newcastle to UCL? Stop connecting points that have absolutely no correlation is what I’m trying to say..Even Arteta didn’t discard Guendozi cos he wasn’t talented enough, he did because of his useless intangibles. A French u21 captain can’t be a below… Read more »
The idea that he is a “great player” in the making is a myth
ES
It’s not a myth, it’s an opinion. In much the same way as saying he’ll amount to nothing in future 8scan opinion.
He’s another one who sharply divides fans unfortunately. I think there’s enough to suggest that he’s worth another try but if he fucks up then it’s sayonara. That said, it must be difficult for young players at Arsenal to feel as though they’re making any headway with Tets and Round. Saka being the only exception really.
*Nice not Lens
Ishola.
If you, a fan, knows this much, then how come the team didn’t do their fact-finding before buying a player that does not suit us? You see why it’s unfair to paint something black or white based on whims.
If we hadn’t watched Partey all those years in Athletico people will be telling us he’s shit now, no?
Thorough
Mhiki was just thrown in as face saving when offloading Sanchez wasn’t he.
A quite big name to appease a little the loss of Sanchez.
Ishola.
So should we then blame the player or the technical team that got him without bordering about his suitability? These guys keep committing sackable offence yet nobody gets punished for it. How can you buy a player on circa 200k wages for the sake of it. That probably pays the wages of 5 players in Brighton.
It was probably Wenger Thorough that said let’s have him as a face saver.
I saw Mhiki once put in what you can call an overall team performance against Spurs at Wembley. He was very good both offensively and off the ball. Good work rate as well as doing his thing attacking wise.
So he could do it but just doesn’t have the mentality to do this regularly or just isn’t interested to do it.
Stroller that’s exactly what i saw in guen at matches shite headless chicken
Marc
Saliba is probably worth less now. Reiss Nelson and Eddie could be doing better if they were sent out on loan like Willock.
CG whenever sold Bentley for 20m you are garnishing the facts a little there bud we sold him for 2.5m to Blackburn but had a 50 percent sell on Clause and Blackburn sold him to spurs for 20m we got 10m so 12.5m all in it was also about 15 years ago not 20
Tuchel wants Traore ( think Baby Oil , Wolves)
and Lukaku and 1 other UK Telegraph.
Ominous.
Serge
(Corrections Accepted.)
But you know what I mean
You dont go around telling all and sundry you have troublesome players, do you?
You say they are all wonderful.
Even Arsenal execs should know the basics.
1. Guendouzi was not a trouble-maker under Emery and had a much higher value. 2. That huge valuation on Guendouzi was formulaic nonsense that plugged in his first-team appearances, his age, his central midfield role and Arsenal’s Premier League position at the time. Nobody bought it at the time and it looks absolutely ridiculous now. 3. Guendouzi was clearly acting immaturely in the Brighton game both with his actions and his words. 4. Arteta handled it with a ham-fisted approach and Guendouzi in turn reacted dreadfully. I’m convinced more experienced, less arrogant manager would have handled the situation better. 5.… Read more »
#2 is an assumption but clearly there’s something wrong with their valuations of players.
Thorough Did you really just write this? ‘Sanchez was shit in Manu and Arsenal too but he’s been amazing everywhere and just won the scuddeto. Maybe it’s Arsenal and Manu that are actually dysfunctional and not the players?’ Alexis was great for us for most of time he was here and then seemingly aggravated his teammates with his attitude. off the field and selfishness on it. However, for much of his first three seasons he was remarkable. and was a goal in every two games scorer and provided a number of assists too. Winning the Scudetto really means nothing. He’s… Read more »
Agreed Sanchez was exceptional for us top drawer player,
Cg I get what you are saying 100 percent don’t air your linen in public
ES, 100% agree on Matteo. He had a decent work rate but no output, defensively or offensively. I don’t get why some people are all up in arms over him. I don’t think Arteta should still be in the job but using Matteo to beat him over the head is ridiculous. MA gave him plenty of chances, the guy proved over and over again that he’s a shithead. And even if he was some great talent, certain behaviours are toxic enough that they should never be tolerated. The price being discussed sounds realistic. We bought they guy for potential that… Read more »
Pedro this is silly ‘ What is Saka worth? What is ESR worth? What is Tierney worth? What is Martinelli worth?I’m not sure they declined in value. Even Pepe worth more now than under Emery.’ Saka is worth more, everyone agrees. But that only happened a year in to the job when he finally noticed you can play him in his best position on the wing. ESR, yeah sure. Tierney? He’s not a kid dude. The only thing that made Tierney kick on is stringing games together without being injured. He was already quality Martinelli??? Why on earth would he… Read more »
The reason why Arteta gets blamed for Guen is because the only reason he got shunted out of the team and isolated, then sent packing was because he made one immature remark to an opposition player who had just intentionally injured his team mate and arteta grossly overreacted and tries to show him who is boss rather than putting his arm around him and saying ‘I actually like that you fought back and said some shit to him just be careful about what shit you say next time because certain things will make us look bad. Next time instead of… Read more »
China,
If that was the first incident with MG I’d agree with you. But it wasn’t.
Love let’s put it this way
Guen contributed far more in the first half and back end of this season than ceballos did. If those performances guen put in before Christmas for Berlin had been in an arsenal shirt that would’ve been a big help at a time when arsenal were at our worst.
We gave those benefits up because arteta wanted to grand stand about a storm in a teacup incident.
I have no love loss for guen. Sell him tomorrow I don’t care. But his handling was extremely novice
Fuck me, over a year later and there’s still fans that think Guendouzi was banished for mocking another players wages.
You’re right Charlie he wasn’t banished for that. He was banished for refusing to apologize about it despite the fact he needn’t have even been asked to
He broke the set in stone non-negotiable… the same things Willian broke when fucking off to Dubai without consequence
Good job Mikel
China,
I didn’t see him play at Hertha. But based on what I saw before he left there was a lot of running sideways with the ball. A bit faster than Cebalos but all in all very similar.
IMO, Artetas coaching has been complete amateur hour. The guy seems to get things wrong more often than should be statistically possible. But Guen is one of the few things he got right.
Love guen is a far from elite CM but he was getting rave reviews in the first half of the season in Berlin as one of their stand out players.
That was at the same time we were absolutely tanking.
Guendouzi had a different output under different conditions? I’m shocked.
How was his output after he’d created similar conditions to those he found at Arsenal? Oh yea, was left out starting XI’s, criticised, then sent back to Arsenal the morning his loan agreement ended.
Spectacular observation China, you’re good at this.
Sent back to arsenal? Hertha don’t own the player dude.
He was brought back into their first team in the second half of the season rather than left out to try forever to prove some point for the managers ego
‘ He led the boys. He played very, very good games and always gave everything for the club,’ Hertha sporting director Friedrich said.
‘But the fact is that he does not belong to Hertha and is going back.’ quote from their manager about him when he played his last game.
Who knew that you can manage players, even drop them but still be strong enough to know in cases where forgiveness can be worth more than boneheadedness?
It’s hard to imagine I know
China,
Managing egos is an important part of the job, no doubt. But the more high maintenance a player, the more you should be able to expect. Matteo was by many accounts a real piece of shit. There were too many stories for it to be some sort of PR hatchet job. But there was no output on the pitch. So I think the club felt it just wasn’t worth the effort.
Love, sure (excellent name btw 😁) But my point isnt that guen is a great kid and no trouble at all. I fully believe he’s difficult. But just as Guen has some form of being awkward, so too does Arteta of freezing out players (especially young ones) for the smallest of (or literally zero) infringement. We can look at guens record and question it but equally compare with Arteta’s. Arteta cunted over saliba Arteta treated martinelli like an outcast for reasons unrelated to football or bad behavior Arteta outcasted AMN immediately after backing him a lot and turning down good… Read more »
Like I said put a 20 year old vieira in this team and he’d be sold within 18 months. Arteta can’t cope with this kind of player who has opinions and a hot head
Love
You seems to believe everything you read “many accounts”. I can guess that some of the accounts were from the same source who had a specific agenda. The fact is that Guen was a regular under Emery for a year. He is currently the captain of the France U21 national team. Those are facts and not some dirty rumors.
Nelson,
Not everything I read. Usually it’s not too difficult to see the difference between a hatchet job and a real thing. When there are many similar stories over a long period of time, there tends to be some truth in it. The only other explanation would be that the club was running a sustained campaign to erase the value of one of their assets. And that’s tinfoil hat stuff.
China, Couldn’t agree more on Arteta’s track record. Like I said, I feel MG is one of the few things he got right. Otherwise, it’s been beyond the pale. For someone who’s supposedly THE coach sauce, he sure doesn’t seem to like coaching. Prefers predictable old players every time. Doesn’t matter how bad they are. And I’m not buying any of the BS about most U-21 minutes. We only got to that point through an unhealthy reliance on Saka and ESR. And even that only after he got himself fired over the old players. Except for those two, he’s shown… Read more »
*almost got himself fired
China
Some good stuff there about Guen. Like you, I recognise that his behaviour probably hasn’t been that of a model professional but I don’t get all the pseudo tough talk about getting rid. That sort of criticism needs to be directed to some of the older players living off their past reputations, not the younger kids. Guen is probably gobby, belligerent and rough round the edges. So what if he’s not a fucking robot? Arteta needs to prove he can bring him back into the fold and rehabilitate his standing as a player.
Twice we messed up the manager recruitment. First with emery and then with arteta.
If we offer this job to Wenger, he wouldn’t touch it even if his life depended on it.
After arteta the only managers will be able to pull are the likes of eddie howe and Graham potter. Great time to be an arsenal fan eh?
Soo whats the new excuse for today ?
BacaryIsGod.
I can’t believe I wrote that too. Heat of the moment I guess. After Pires and Cazorla Sanchez had to be my most favorite Arsenal player.
I was too he’ll bent on establishing that the club is dysfunctional I snucked in the wrong name.
Divine one of the excuses that almost irks me is that everyone has been having a bad time of it this year and we are no exception City had a good season Chelsea had a good season Utd will not be too unhappy Leicester will not be unhappy Spurs – unhappy even when doing better than us West ham very happy Villa happy Leeds happy Everton ok Liverpool considering a ridiculous injury crisis for half the season – ok Half the league or more are give or take where they’d like/expect to be. The ‘we’re all struggling through this covid… Read more »
I should note many arsenal fans are quite happy even tho we got worse. That’s the weird part of it
Emirates roller. ThoroughIf you don’t want to judge Guendouzi’s performance at Arsenal take a look at how he played at Berlin and his impact there.He played in 24 games. They won only 5 games when he played including 2 when he was a late sub. Again, a young one joins a new club in a new league and an alien culture and you’re surprised he struggled? BTW I’m not even agreeing he strugled because 24 games is a lot for a young lad. Maybe they won only 5 of those because the team is actually shit. You never tho ht… Read more »
China
I agree , also what irks me is why we should we look at other clubs . Why shouldnt we as fans have a right to be unhappy about where we finished the season , how we finished it ? The unhappiness stems from the fact that with better decisions , smarter strategy this couldve been avoided . Instead we wasted a whole season .
I doubt there is any player whose value has increased under Diet Pep,
Partey should be worth around 25m
Arteta has sucked the value out of Guendouzi. He could have handled it in a different way. He could still have loaned him out and got better value this summer for him. But we are getting crap money because everybody knows there is no coming back for him and we need to sell. I don’t understand why our management lets teams know that we absolutely need to sell. If the exit to Berlin was amicable and was narrated like it was for his development then we might have gotten better value. On the merits of playing him, I think there… Read more »
Magalhaes value should be max 15m under Diet pep
China I don’t know where you get the idea that some Arsenal fans are happy with where we are. From what I read and hear the dominant narrative is that if we had a world class manager and put Saliba in defence and/or played a different system all would be well. This narrative is delusional to my mind The structural problems at Arsenal are massive. You could have Pep as manager and we would still be struggling. Arsenal are a financial asset for the Kroenke’s nothing more. They have nil interest in moving the club forward. Until they go we… Read more »
If Guendouzi was such a great talent please explain why PSG offloaded him after just 2 years in their Academy? Guendouzi has been rated hard work at every club that he has played in and that is not a characteristic which any club is going to tolerate if it becomes an ongoing trait. The incident at Brighton was not the first time he had been a problem. There was trouble at a Camp in Dubai as well. By all accounts he had pissed off not only the coaches but several other players as well. Also if Guendouzi is such a… Read more »
Lovesausage “Couldn’t agree more on Arteta’s track record. Like I said, I feel MG is one of the few things he got right” Time will tell as it did with his disrespectful treatment to Ozil. If we are looking at events on the football field then the treatment of ozil was obviously wrong , of that no one can deny. Ozil was our only CAM before Smith Rowe arrived on the scene and it destroyed our first 3 months of the season . The football was appalling, unwatchable in fact.. Le groaners consistently bemoaned our lack of creativity during that… Read more »
Morning, I don’t have all the information on what guendouzi got up to behind the scenes in Dubai or at the training ground. And maybe the people that comment on it are just listening to rumours that may or not be true or have been exaggerated? And I haven’t watched him at Berlin this season, but I would say this, People change, he’s just become a father. He may have gone to Berlin and thought damn I want to get back to the premier league, I want to show arsenal what I’m worth. I dont want to end up back… Read more »
China “””””The ‘we’re all struggling through this covid season together’ is a myth. Arsenal are one of the leagues biggest under achievers this season. No other way to dress it up that”””””””””””””” Well said, spinners have got to spin, I suppose. But WE CAN all see through the bullshite. By my reckoning, Every established big club will be in the Champions League next season ( eg Dortmund, Juventus, AC Milan etc). At some of them their executives played their part and changed managers mid season to achieve their CL targets. (They will get richer and further away and Covid was… Read more »
Thorough
Well said on Alexis Sanchez. For a while, you couldn’t find an Arsenal fan that wasn’t in love with his effort, skill and directness. I think peak Alexis would easily make it into an all-time Arsenal squad, even if we used him as an impact sub.
City want Kane and Grealish.
A new British spine.
Ominous.
Pierre,
Your dedication to finding a way to get Ozil in the conversation is truly breathtaking. I shjould start offering a betting line on how long you can keep this going for.
How many England players are nailed on for a starting place right now?
Pickford, Maguire, Chilwell, Rice, Kane, Foden, Mount. Any others?
Not a day goes by in Pierre’s life where he doesn’t think about Mesut Ozil.
He has genuine mental health problems.
I also think there’s a typo in Pedro’s title of his post.
‘It should read ‘Narrow Path to the Top 4’. Pretty sure that there’s no path to the actual top.
Say it very very very quietly
But England has an awesome squad
This England team is honestly nuts
Grealish, saka, Foden, mount, Sancho, Sterling, Kane, this team needs to ATTACK because there are goals in this group. As ‘our’ cilla black would say… ‘a lorra lorra goals!!!’
But I remember at the last World Cup sterling was doing his best Danny welbeck impression
Elite springing skillz and absolutely no end product. Assuming he’s in the starting 11 he needs to cut that shit out for England