Thierry Henry is back it it again with his needling of the club. This time, it’s about where we’ll finish this season.
“For me, if they don’t do it, as I said at the start of the season, then it will be a failure”
Ok, now Thierry is a god.
… but, he was also part of a pretty terrible takeover bid that went absolutely nowhere. He showed up to Spurs, dripping in nostalgia, sitting with a billionaire because he thought we’d lose against title contending Spurs and there would be a symbolic ‘old player savior’ statement.
You can’t deny that.
So then we get to mid-October and he says that he doesn’t understand what Arsenal are doing.
“I don’t know if things are going in the right direction,”
Here’s what’s happening.
Thierry stating that anything bar top 4 is a failure is him repositioning what success should be this season. At the start of the season, he said he didn’t get it. Then in December, he said that we’re shit against top teams, and we need to be more than just beating the teams we should beat (even though the big improvement is Arsenal beating the teams we should beat).
Now we’re in a great shape for top 4, he’s saying that is now the expectation, anything else is a failure. He’s hedging on us not making it, so he can’t point at Arsenal being on the wrong path, then creating a ‘so what’ notion if we do finish top 4.
He’s reframing failure and in the process dimming how you’ll feel about a huge success if it lands.
It’s very transparent and quite boring.
There’s a whole collection of fans that have doomed all season that are now suddenly banging the TOP 4 IS THE ONLY WAY I CAN BE HAPPY drum.
Where were you after our summer transfers? Twitter search ‘doesn’t move the needle’ that was quite popular at the time.
Where were you after the first three games? Some were actually arguing with me on this site that Aston Villa were a bigger club. Everyone was cartastrophizing that we’d finish 8th. Almost no one was talking about how damaging a covid outbreak could be.
Where were you after the United and Everton results?
Where were you after the January transfer window closed?
What were you saying after United signed Rangnick and Spurs signed Conte? That Arsenal missed a trick? That our rookie manager would fail against the might of those two?
If you were calling time on this season during any of those points, then you really need to pipe down with ‘TOP 4 OR WE RIOT’ chat.
Top 4, with the youngest team in the league, would be a gargantuan achievement this season. It would be a feat of heroics from the players, it’d be a managerial and coaching masterclass, and it would be a huge W for the disciplined club strategy.
… but if it doesn’t happen, it shouldn’t be seen as the end of an era… because the era has only just started.
Spurs are coming to the end of a cycle and the start of a new regime under Antonio Conte. It’s pretty clear he doesn’t have the patience for a rebuild on a pittance. Nothing in his DNA says he relished the David and Goliath challenges. He likes being at the richest club and he likes big money NOW.
United are under new leadership with Ralph Rangnick. The leaks going on there are outrageous, their culture is toxic, and that will be very expensive to change.
West Ham have one of the oldest squads in the Premier League. If they don’t make CL this season, players like Declan Rice and Jarred Bowen will get hovered up by big clubs.
We’ve done the hard work, the foundations are set, now it’s about sprinkling some additional magic this summer to push to the next level.
The needlers constantly working out ways to reframe what failure would look like are very boring.
Thierry should know better. Majority of our fans in the ground certainly do.
Arsenal is on the right path. Top 4 will still be beastly tough. There will still be days that will shock you because that is just the nature of a young inexperienced team. But long term? We’re on the path to the top. The club has to keep making the right decision, keep tying down our best players, and sticking to the plan.
Right, short one today, see you in the comments.
Klopp in his first full season at Pool delivered top 4.
In his 2nd full season (where Tets is at now), he got Liverpool to the CL Final and finished top 4.
In his 3rd full season (where top 4 is a win for Tets next season apparently) he won them the CL and finished with 97 PL points.
Saliba is a massive problem to convince to stay . He was pissed he didn’t get a chance last summer that’s a fact not an opinion we’ve all read his interviews . He’s not coming back like a normal player coming back off loan , he’s one coming back who isn’t fully trusting of arsenal and arteta after last summer and his comments . Coming back after that and him being in that perilous 2 years contract left , he may want certain assurances of game time and here comes the stinger . He’s best by a country mile being… Read more »
Andy
I wasn’t making a direct comparison between Arteta + Klopp
I was making the point that if the best manager in the world needed time, and that he had defensive issues, was consistently questioned in the media about the defence, before having time to rectify them with expensive solutions
Then maybe if we make similar adjustments down the spine of the pitch, we can also see a big uptick in consistency.
We seem to have done it the other way around, we’ve fixed our defence first, and our attack + midfield are hopefully next on the list,
“Would Saliba want to come back with Arteta being there?” Would you rather play for Arsenal or OM? He’d be coming to play for Arsenal and not coming to play for Arteta. In the end the club remains the club and managers come and go. If Saliba wants to be an elite player in his career, he’d be better off at Arsenal rather than OM. It really is dependent on his career aspirations, Graham. Listening to the likes of little shits like Mateo Guen isn’t a career enlightening move. Taking out the obvious Arteta connection, do you want to play… Read more »
Agreed Peckobill and Arteta has shown zero faith in him.
He is also mates and team mates with Guen who Arteta banished to the wayside so the idea that he will brush all that off and happily come back to play under Arteta here is fanciful at best.
I think he won’t be an Arsenal player next season.
Also Does Arteta have it in him to let bygones be bygones?
I’m not so sure
Arteta would have to up his management skills to pull off Saliba signing an extension.
If both parties, Saliba and Arteta start on clean slates then we can keep him.
Saliba is 20 I mean the idea that he will never have a big club in for him again is pretty much a non-flyer.
I am sure he is more than happy to learn his trade in Marseille rather than put up with Arteta.
WengerEagle
I think you may be right.
“Also Does Arteta have it in him to let bygones be bygones?”
Absolutely not! He has always been a challenging person to play with and work with, its just part of his being. Arteta has standards that he expects others to live by, the same that he has always lived by. The challenge with being rigid in your standards and expectations is that you narrow your field of vision down to the finest of lines.
In the end you either like a guy like Arteta or you don’t, there is absolutely no in-between.
Peckobill Last season Saka had more minutes than any teenager in Europe’s top 5 leagues We’ve got by far the youngest team in the league, we tend to give young players opportunities when they’re ready. I like the look of Saliba, but maybe he wasn’t quite ready, and needed to go out on loan as a finishing school He won’t be the first, and he won’t be the last young player to go out on multiple loans, before going back to his parent club and being a success. The idea we’ve treated him badly is a joke: We made him… Read more »
Looking forward to the Brentford game
It’s going to be a bruiser and we may have to grind out another result.
Is Eriksen going to be ready to face us?
What has concerned me about Saliba is not whether he is ready to play in the EPL, but rather his mental and emotional state of being. He’s very young and, from what his interviews have produced, an person prone to influence.
Be it just me, but Arsenal should be looking to get Saliba away from the likes of Mateo Guen and others, who are toxic towards Arsenal in their opinions. Its unwise to have one of your best young talents being influenced by questionable characters.
What have we got to do with anything on that list Rich?
Besides paying him as any other club would? He was left to rot on the sidelines and wasn’t even given a crack in our EL squad behind deadwood like Sokratis.
I hope Saliba has some roots in the club, like friends he’s made over the 3 years of being an Arsenal player.
Looks like all his mates; Guendouzi, Lacazette and Aubameyang would have left by the time he returns to the club.
Arteta clearly had a problem with him.
It’a not about being fragile.
WE
He was supposed to go out on loan to France, can’t remember who to now, but the club pulled the plug at the last minute, and took a defender on loan from Italy instead
We tried to get him back to St Ettiene, but ran out of time.
You could rightly argue why we hadn’t sorted his loan long in advance, but we didn’t make the same mistake this season, we also got him out straight away in January
Rich is running wild, in that activity wheel of his
He’s achieved all those success with a tenuous connection to the club and that other club in N17 would have signed him if we turned the opportunity down.
Also, Saliba has a very successful loan in Nice last season. He was selected in the team of the season based on a half-season loan.
We had enough data to make an informed decision last summer.
Saliba is not our best defender, Gabriel is. Saliba is a bit behind White for me as well. He will need to improve a bit more to be considered first choice for us. I don’t blame Arteta for loaning him to Marseille, as long as we renew or sell him on a good profit say 50m transfer fee. I blame Arteta for not playing him in the first year of his Arsenal career when he should have played in all of our Europa League group games, and in a lot of the Premier League and cup games instead of Mustafi… Read more »
I’ve watched maybe 12-13 games of OM this season. The most of any team outside of the EPL. I’m not saying that my opinion holds weight, but that I’m not talking out of my arse.
Raptora
So why is he being selected over and over again for the league team of the week?
Seems like lots of neutrals disagree with you.
How many times did Gabriel get selected for special mention for the team of the week, when he played in Ligue un.
Rich
Saliba isn’t replacing a 50 million arteta signing I can promise you . It took arteta a whole half a season to try prove a lost point with a free willian , he isn’t letting saliba replace a 50 mill signing he pushed for .
We have evidence of this in arteta’s make up
Dortmund being run ragged by Rangers.
No idea honestly, Diss. He is classy, don’t get me wrong, but maybe it’s cause he’s a big name. How many 30m defenders are playing in Ligue In?
I can make a compilation of stupid mistakes, bad positioning and dodgy defending that have lead to goals and clear chances. He is not the full ticket yet. He is going there but fuck me he is so laid back that his calmness might be mistaken with him being slow in the head.
Adama Traore has to be the most threatening non-threatning winger ever
Peckobill Arteta is certainly quite hard to warm too, Pedro calls him transactional But his transactional nature means that he’ll have no issue in dropping White or Gabriel, if he thinks it’s the best thing for the team. As long as we’re back in Europe next season, we’ll need a better 3rd choice centre back than Holding or Mari The idea we can play 50-60 games with 2 good centre backs, then 2 who aren’t really up to it, will definitely come back and bite us at some point The Athletic who are usually on the money, claim renewing Saka,… Read more »
raptora”I can make a compilation of stupid mistakes, bad positioning and dodgy defending that have lead to goals and clear chances. He is not the full ticket yet. He is going there but fuck me he is so laid back that his calmness might be mistaken with him being slow in the head.” We can agree it’s all subjective You’ve made this point about mistakes that Saliba makes before, I’m not sure it’s that germaine. Gabriel and Ben White are making mistakes too, same as Man U’s 80 million defenders. If he’s some mistake machine like Mustafi, no one will… Read more »
Diss,
Agree with the above. All defenders make mistakes.
My biggest gripe with him is that he seems slow with his head and feet. He is so relaxed that the faster players and harder pressing game in the EPL will be really tough for him.
His positioning leaves a lot to be desired. He is a speedy player but the tempo he’s playing on is not fast enough. Could be wrong ofc.
Auba subbed..he actually played well..will always have a soft cotton for him for the cup goals
*corner
Buzzy
He played really well,pressed from the front all game too but just like at Arsenal, barely anything was created for him.
He’d have been better off with Dembele starting with him rather than the useless Traore
“Adama Traore has to be the most threatening non-threatning winger ever”
Hahahahaha – Now thats a real beauty! True and absolutely correct.
Adama Traore.Seriously overrated.Dodged a bullet there.Maybe it was the baby oil that gave his fanboys on here a hard on for him.So glad it’s those c** ts Barca that got him.
As for Saliba.Team of the week regularly in Ligue 1 doesn’t equate to team of the week prem.So stop creaming your pants till he proves himself here Or as pointed out we get top 💵 for him if he won’t sign.
I must admit that this particular thread has put me off. It just smacks of agenda bias in order to hammer home a point that otherwise, is irrelevant in the grand scheme. I know it’s Pedro’s Blog and he calls the shots, but its postings like this that make me ask whether its honestly worth having my intelligence insulted in this way? Its a me thing, but thats how this registers with me.
Same dickheads talking the same shit
Having 3 young CBs fighting for 2 positions is a wonderful position to be in if you ask me. The idea that only 2 is needed doesn’t really fly when we would play 60 games a season.
Plus the idea of these 3 young CBs pushing each other to be at their best is very tantalizing. Got a feeling that Saliba would be up for the challenge.
We can also always play 3 at the back in some games, with all 3 starting. There will be injuries, suspensions, etc.
Only person I feel bad for if Saliba decides to return to us is Holding. As he’s barely getting any game as is. He would become forever stuck on the bench.
Naija Point taken but that was not the conversation though Saliba is contracted with Arsenal till 2024 so he has to be ready for the challenge – he has no choice really.. We were writing about getting him to extend his contract. There’s a possibility that Edu may decide to cash in if a fantastic offers comes in for Saliba because we already have a developing partnership between two young center backs who are decent. I think you need stability in the back line, can’t be chopping and changing like that. 3 young center backs fighting for two positions sounds… Read more »
Pedro is reframing success,
After 3 seasons in charge and almost half a billion spent, we’re not asking for top 4 or top 6, that’s beside the point. All we’re entitled to is 70 points, no more no less and that’s the minimum we can ask from this generational manager as Pedro and his mate telling us.
Poch, with less time and money got more than that. Can’t put generational do less than that.!