Arsenal is hiring a corporate culture consultancy to help them with the mess at Arsenal HQ. I’ve been hearing rumblings for about 6 months about some of the things that have been going on, it’s not great, a lot of demotivated people, and some grim people fired and replaced already.
Man like Matt Kandela, a business owner and a corporate operator thinks this is a good thing. I can see the upside, there’s a messy corporate environment, and Arsenal is facing up to it and taking action.
However… the leak is there to damage Vinai. The reaction online today is probably what that person wanted. No one tells David Ornstein things are so messy on the corporate side we need a consultancy if they think that’s a positive story. It means there’s a lack of leadership and worse: the tools to repair it aren’t readily available internally. Ivan Gazidis has been gone since 2018, Don Raul has been gone since 2020, and only now are we getting to the business culture? Not great.
Anyway, better late than never.
The club is calling the program ‘The Arsenal Way’ which sounds like a pretty decent name for something that has certainly been lacking since Wenger went.
Before we get into it, I’m going to defend the company looking after the project. It does not matter if they don’t have football experience. It doesn’t matter if a strategist on their team supports Chelsea. All that matters is they know how to extract the right information that will help our leaders get to the best possible outcome.
As Arrigo Saachi once said, ‘to be a jockey, you need not to have been a horse.’
Some things to nail down before we get into this.
Culture is a set of principles and behaviors that guides the employees of a business. To be effective, they are usually closely linked to the mission of the club.
The Army builds its culture around discipline. Why? Because if you don’t listen to orders, someone might die. 30 seconds late to a meeting and you put your whole team at risk. If you are not prepared at all times, it’s life-threatening. The army in the old days would go out of its way to beat the individuality out of you so you followed orders without complaint. Everyone had the same haircut, everyone wore the same clothes, the same rations went to everyone, the same discipline was meted out if you broke the code. Thinking outside the box was not the job to be done, following orders was.
Facebook started out as ‘move fast, break shit’ because global domination could only be achieved if they grew at an exponential rate.
Netflix has a ‘no rules rules’ culture. They believed that to dominate entertainment and the tech that underpinned it, they need to hire the best people in the world, pay them more, and give them total accountability for decision making. They chopped back all the rules, reduced bureaucracy, and held great people to high standards. If you don’t hit the mark at Netflix, you get a nice severance and big ‘see ya.’
Apple worked off a Think Different mindset. When Microsoft was selling its software to go on other systems, Apple revoked all the licenses so they could control the whole experience. When companies were inventing MP3 players, internet machines, and dumb mobile phones… Apple put them all in one place on an iPhone. Everything they do is underpinned by elite design. I’ve pitched to them and if you have a single error on a deck, it will derail a whole meeting because they are obsessives when it comes to the details… because that is ingrained in their culture.
When you know what you stand for, you build a culture around that idea. You hire people that want to be part of that culture, that understand the rules, and want to live in that world. It’s a sorting mechanism internally, if you don’t agree, go somewhere else, because the reason for being is in a culture deck you live by.
I once wrote a culture deck and someone on my team said it felt like I’d written the rules for a cult, my response, ‘kind of.’
I’ve written extensively about the lack of honesty Arsenal have had for who they are and where they are in this modern world. We have gone through a very public identity crisis over the past 20 years. Ideals that kept us at the top for a long time changed because the world changed. Stability was a point of pride, but it eventually became the reason for stagnation. Class was used to differentiate us, but it eventually ended up as an excuse for not competing. When we slipped out of the top 2 clubs for wealth, we didn’t accept that drop in class, so sat in denial for many years.
To get to culture, we first need to know what the mission of the club is: GETTING BACK TO THE TOP OF FOOTBALL BY WINNING BIG TROPHIES
Nothing else matters. The number 1 priority should always be about what happens on the pitch. Football clubs exist to win trophies. A club as steeped in history as Arsenal needs trophies to progress and grow. If we’re not striving to do that, commercial revenue will dry up, new fans will stop feeding into the system, efforts in the community will be limited, our influence will wane, and we will eventually fade into the background of elite-level football.
We need to be honest about who we are:
- We are not the richest club in the world
- We will have to create a sustainable model of football. i.e. self-funded
- It will take time
What do we have going for us:
- 60,000 seater stadium
- A club name that still cashes cheques
- The best online fanbase on the planet
- A loyal IRL fanbase that will still buy tickets and support a project they understand
- We are based in London
- We have a prestigious history
- Players and managers still want to come here
- Elite London corporate folk would take pay cuts to work at the club
There are also softer elements that might play a big role in establishing some of our cultural pillars. The consultancy we’re using should meet with fans and ask what makes Arsenal special.
We are class. Arsenal do things the right way.
We are diverse. Our fanbase has always been reflective of London.
We are great in the community. Arsenal PR pays attention, we invest in locals, and we try and do the right thing.
These sorts of ideas might stop the club creating a WIN AT ALL COSTS culture deck. That’s not us and it’s not who we want Arsenal to be.
Some more truth:
To get back to the top, we’re going to have to innovate, we’re going to have to be smarter than our opposition, we’re going to have to make money work harder, and we are going to have to be fucking relentless in the pursuit of our objectives.
Football-wise, we’ve already moved to the honesty phase:
We signed a hot shit young coach with the hope of him growing with us vs signing Jose Mourinho or Carlo Ancelotti.
We signed young players with 2 years of experience under their belts with the hope of them reaching their peak with us in 3 seasons’ time.
We leaned into our brand to attract them, promising them a platform to succeed they wouldn’t get at other Premier League clubs.
If that is our football objective, what does it mean for our corporate culture? What does it mean for The Arsenal Way?
If you can’t be the richest, you have to be the smartest.
That means you have to hire innovators.
That means you need to create an environment where innovators thrive.
That might mean you don’t hire sportspeople who say ‘well, that’s just the way we do it’
That might mean the ‘Bank of England’ baggage of the past needs to be shaken from the board of directors because banks are not innovators, they are supposed to represent stability. Well, our stability has gone, so being likened to a bank has to die. Who are the best sports execs in world sport? Who is doing hot shit in football that is putting a small club on a higher level? Who is the best technology person in the game that can upgrade our app?
That will mean a different marketing story, that will mean a different pitch deck from the sponsorship team who have been selling the same boring story that hasn’t moved our commercial revenues in the right direction for a long time
If The Arsenal Way is about innovating our way to success, it shifts the entire vision of the corporate structure. It sets the tone for who you hire, how they operate, how they are rewarded, how they are judged, and the behaviors they need to elicit to win at Arsenal.
When you establish a clear vision, it also tells you who needs to leave a business. At a very famous hedge fund that has a book about culture, they have a process of ‘sorting’, they go through the literal scores of staff and clear out anyone not cutting the mustard. That might not be The Arsenal Way, but when you reestablish a culture, you need to be ruthless about who works in it. Because, like sport, a couple of bad eggs can bring down the performance of everyone else.
Arsenal are not risk-takers, we haven’t been demanding of ourselves, we haven’t been good at holding ourselves accountable to a higher standard, we haven’t done a good job with our fans, the most interesting thing we’ve done in 15 years was last summer on the sporting side. Stan Kroenke has treated Arsenal like a piece of property he has accrued, as long as it gains 5% every year, he doesn’t need to worry about what’s going on. Well, other clubs in the market are gaining 15-20% a year and we have been left in the mud.
Fixing the culture at Arsenal is about so much more than people feeling good. It’s about making people understand the direction of Arsenal and giving them the tools to succeed at delivering the vision.
… and I know there are a lot of people saying you don’t need a culture deck to succeed, which is true, but without doubt, the very best organizations in the world have the very best cultures. Customer service can be automated or it can be John Lewis. Payments systems can be something boring, or it can be Dan Price of Gravity payments who gets on the Good Morning America show because he believes paying all his staff $70k makes for better business.
Culture isn’t necessarily about feeling good, it’s about knowing what the job to be done is and what behaviors will be rewarded. All the best managers in the world of football will tell you that culture drives performance. Even the managers that aren’t good will tell you the same. If you think it’s just tactics and a smack on the arse that has Pep Guardiola’s team dropping 100 points per game you are very wrong.
So in short, it’s good that someone at the club has recognized the culture is bad, and it’s good they are moving forward with fixing it. I’m just not sure it shines the brightest light on our inexperienced leadership.
WengerEagle,
I also never understood the hype over Pavard. The same thing about Jules Kounde. Upamecano, Pavard, Kounde need an organiser with them to let their athleticism shine. Without an organiser, they are just liabilities.
”The youngest team in the league, with no depth, and no striker, is tracking for 4th in its first season, together.”
Pedro, come on. We went into this season with 5 strikers at the club in Auba, Laca, Martinelli, Eddie and Balogun. And can there be an excuse for ‘no depth’ when we have either loaned out or practically given away our depth?
As well as having spent £135m (more than anyone else in the league).
Valentin, the sporting side will have to share the same values as the main club, but they will have their own culture.
If anything I suspect the consultancy will borrow from the sporting side. Coaches normally have much stricter principles because you have to run a sports team differently to a corporate team.
WE, having bodies is not the same as having Haaland, Vlahovic or Darwin Nunez at the club, is it?
Auba fell off a cliff, Lacazette gave up scoring, Folarin is developing, Martinelli is a wide player who hasn’t been scoring goals, and Eddie should absolutely have been given more minutes.
Pedro, we had two strikers and we’re in a top four convo curtesy of United.
I mentioned yesterday that Klopp is the most valuable player at Liverpool. No one has talked about Liverpool needing a culture change since Klopp joined. Almost single-handedly, he has taken them from ‘also rans’ and a ‘banter’ team to arguably the best team in the league and world.
The right coach will take you places. I personally see this ‘Culture improvement’ talk as the club’s way of expressing their dissatisfaction at Arteta. For example if we had won our last three games then we probably won’t be talking about culture change.
Valentin
Think that’s a little harsh on Kounde who is more intelligent than the others but you are right, Diego Carlos is the unsung hero of that Sevilla spine.
Upa shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same sentence as Kounde imo, he is absolutely shocking and barely looks like a defender whenever I watch him. His performance at Old Trafford a year or so back was like prime Titus Bramble.
Pedro Run through even the top clubs’ striker options and they are pretty thin past the starters. Chelsea have struggled in front of goal and are not competing for the title because of this, Lukaku and Werner have both come in and flopped. Liverpool’s goals have mostly come from their widemen, same with City. Jesus has pretty much taken the season off in front of goal. United have 37 year old Ronaldo and then… ? Who do Spurs have as a Kane back-up? Can you even name him? It’s near impossible to defend a £135m summer spend for a team… Read more »
WengerEagle,
You are absolutely right. Those were anomalies. Perhaps those weren’t the greatest examples but I have no doubt that if I were to do a little digging I would find examples of teams having a wild swing in point tally in just 1-2 seasons.
I think the manager can hugely influence that outcome. Leeds finished with 59pts last year. They ll be lucky to finish with 40 points this year.
Naija
Lille last season would be a decent example, won the title on 83 points with Galtier and were on pace for a 67 point finish the season before that.
This season without Galtier there and pretty much the same team barring the GK are on pace to finish midtable with 57 points.
But also worth noting that Lille had CL football this season to juggle with their league fixtures.
Last season they were playing weakened sides in the EL and went out in Round of 32 which no doubt helped with the league finish.
We are failing to take advantage of that over our rivals this season, next season we will not have a full week to prepare for games anymore as we will likely be in the Europa League.
If Chelsea score early tomorrow it could beome a rout.
Players like Mason Mount are on some serious form at the moment.
It’s somewhat hilarious that Arsenal fans are even talking about Haaland, you guys still living on planet Wenger circa 2002?
Tom, Man City and Liverpool are only good courtesy of the entire Premier League. You can only say things like that on a web chat board, because you’d get laughed at if you said that in really life. WE, you can be thin past a main man, but we don’t have a main man. Spurs have Son. United has Rashford, who has nearly 100 goals and 60 assists for them. They have £100m Sancho. They had Greenwood up until recently. Chelsea can bench £100m Lukaku because they have £100m Havertz. Liverpool have Salah, Mane, and Firmnio All you have to… Read more »
WE, I’m not sure we have failed to take advantage. Half the team is newly assembled, it’s the youngest in the league, and we’re tracking for where we should be. Think it’s a bit of a stretch to think that no Europe meant comfortable 4th this season. You certainly didn’t think we’d be doing that at the start of the year, you thought we’d signed average players.
Tom
Your explanation is the likeliest reason – Haaland took the easy path – but there are others. I’ve given one: Edu has found a goalscorer as prolific as Haaland but cheaper.
Stories are already emerging of Vlahovic drying up at Juve and becoming frustrated because of a slow attack and lack of decent service.
If a team is predictable and ponderous when in possession, they are easier to defend against. Just why would it be any different for Arsenal with Nunez in the side? Arteta’s approach hasn’t worked for Auba, Laca or Eddie. Three different types of striker, but the same outcome.
WengerEagle, Jules Kounde has the chance to be a system where his assets such as great lep in the air are put to the fore and his flaws are not cruelly exposed. When he played for France, he was shockingly bad and that’s why Saliba is now with a shout for the World Cup. You would think that as Deschamps is moving to a back 3, having Varane as the lynch pinch should offer Pavard and Kounde guaranteed place. But no Varane aging body means that one of the two were going to be organiser. That has been exposed as… Read more »
Pedro
If you want to play that game we spent £110m on Aubameyang and Lacazette.
Son isn’t a striker he is a LF. And is Greenwood different to Martinelli? Rashford has been gash since he was taken off penalties which inflated his goal numbers.
Of course we would be better with a Nunez up front but would the difference be so vast? I don’t think that it would. And if you are putting all of your eggs in that basket I think that you’ll be very disappointed in time to come when we still have glaring offensive issues.
“Tom, Man City and Liverpool are only good courtesy of the entire Premier League. You can only say things like that on a web chat board, because you’d get laughed at if you said that in really life.“
Come again?
Newcastle scored a winning goal at the 95th minute via Bruno Guimaeres, but if Guimares had joined us he would never have scored that goal. Arteta would have been screaming on the side for him to show some discipline and stay in the center of the pitch.
Mind you Ødegaard would have passed backward or been brushed off the ball before the cross.
When was the last time, Arsenal scored a quick counter attacking goal that involved just three or less passes?
Pedro We have failed to take advantage for the simple fact that both Spurs and United are unlikely to be anywhere near as bad next season. If we finish top 4 it gives us a massive leg up on both in terms of our attractiveness to incoming players. The opposite is true if we end up in the EL and one of them finish in a CL spot. I also didn’t call all of our signings average. I said that Ramsdale was average and I am happy that he has proven to be very good indeed. I said that we… Read more »
InsideRight, well he’s stuck there now.
WE, it’s not a game is it, does the price change suitability to the system or tanking form or decline due to age.
Valentin, Bruno has spent most of his Newcastle career benched for Jonjo Shelvey, not sure using his goal is a weapon to pick holes in Odegaard.
WE, let’s see where we are next season with a striker that can run the line, bully defenders, and score goals.
You think a Darwin Nunez doesn’t change things, let’s see how that holds up next season.
Ishola
‘A club shouldn’t require to shout from the rooftops what their “culture” is.’
That’s a very good point.
It’s also quite familiar sounding stuff.
We’ve had all kinds of rebrands and statements thrown at us since the stadium move.
I can’t think of any other PL club that tries so hard to define itself.
Interesting post. I recall reading a post (Pedro or maybe someone else) a couple of years ago about how working at Arsenal (corporate side) was really awful. I can’t remember the details but the post really gave you the impression that actually working at Arsenal was not a great place to work in. At all. And I have a feeling this consultant led review is to rectify this. But, as InsideRight nicely put it earlier, the Kroenke’s are those ones to set the tone for the club. The fact that you are 1000 km away from Arsenal HQ is a… Read more »
Pedro
Well in that case why did we spent £135m on defensive players and go into the season with two seriously declined senior strikers in Auba and Laca? When we scored 55 goals LAST season.
What kind of strategy is that?
WE, there are lots of reasons we did things the way we did.
I know we wanted Tammy but couldn’t shift Auba or Lacazette.
What are they Pedro?
So you can’t sign Tammy you move on to someone else. And I don’t want to hear those excuses about there being nobody available, that reeks of the dark transfer days under Wenger.
You likely didn’t even know who Darwin Nunez was this time last year and now he is the difference maker for us. My point being there are plenty of players out there that are talented and very capable of exploding.
Leg DB 10
”””’The fact that you are 1000 km away from Arsenal HQ is a massive problem in itself.”””’
That won’t be in the consultants report/review.
These consultants state what their paymasters want to hear ( especially the good ones)
The truth – whats that, these days…..
And what is the actual point in having scouts anymore if they aren’t any more clued-in on the European ST landscape then the common ‘internet fan’?
Pedro you keep harping on about Darwin Nunez, what makes you so sure he’s gonna come especially if we finish in “European places” (not top four) when he’s gonna have a host of CL clubs looking to sign him. Have any of your sources alluded to his signing as a near certainty come what may?
Nunez will have a host of clubs after him, CL ones at that.
Office Space – what is it you do here?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m4OvQIGDg4I
The time to sign him was actually last summer but of course we did not have our finger on the pulse and there was nobody available.
11 goals and 10 assists in 24 starts last season but our scouts were too busy Grimanditubing Tammy Abraham when the Chavs wouldn’t sell us a virus.
WE Exactly, Darwin Nunez is now the new flavor of the month and were talking of missing out on Tammy Abraham like we missed out on Mbappe. What are the other options, at least since we have data scouting, also why are we so sure Darwin is gonna settle in nicely into the system. Laca and Auba are two different profile of strikers who scored a sh*tload of goals in their careers (and most importantly at the Arsenal) yet they struggled, Nketiah who brought “mobility” in the last match also wasn’t much of a difference so we can’t just assume… Read more »
WE Exactly, Darwin Nunez is now the new flavor of the month and were talking of missing out on Tammy Abraham like we missed out on Mbappe. What are the other options, at least since we have data scouting, also why are we so sure Darwin is gonna settle in nicely into the system. Laca and Auba are two different profile of strikers who scored a sh*tload of goals in their careers (and most importantly at the Arsenal) yet they struggled, Nketiah who brought “mobility” in the last match also wasn’t much of a difference so we can’t just assume… Read more »
Now that WE has mentioned it, someone did have a boner for Upamecano and I remember some epic “is he 3rd choice or is he a starter” arguments. WE was saying he’s not even a starter at RB, and who was the other one? I’m almost sure it was Marko.
Rap
Ah yes, Willi Orban vs Upa I believe. Not quite the thrill of Hazard vs Walcott but equally important a debate to have been had.
Marko owes me a beverage.
Arsenal does not need to change the culture of our scout department, because we don’t have scouts anymore.
Raul started the culling and then Edu completed it. They both conformed that Arsenal did not needed scouts, because the info of every relevant players were in his laptop.
Last year, there was a mission started by an external recruitment team to rebuilt it, but they could not find anybody who would have improve us….
Marko definitely went in hard for Upamecano especially during Emery’s first season when we were seriously linked to him. About £54m then i suppose
The whole culture rebuild announcement is bull crap, other clubs go about this in silence and fans get to see the results at the end by the enormous successes on/off the pitch in the not too distant future. It’s only Arsenal that makes culture rehab announcements to deflect from another potentially underwhelming season
I love Pedro’s favorite go to if you said that in the real world – meaning at the game or a in a pub – you’d get laughed out………whenever he doesn’t like something said on here.
Yes, the stadium is the caldron full of football savants, especially the ones who leave their seats 5 minutes before half time and come back 10 minutes after restart with a couple of pints in both hands.
WE, Arsenal has a finite amount of cash and they’ve had bad experiences keeping senior players on the bench.
One in one out on strikers.
No one wanted our talent, so we were stuck.
Valentin, we have fulltime scouts. However you cut it, the scouts we let go weren’t doing a good job, and you don’t need a huge roster of scouts these days. Analysts do a lot of the heavy lifting.
Won’t be the case this summer. We’ll have one striker by June 1st this season.
I assume Richard Garlick initiated this process of review to pretend that he is doing something, learning culture of club, while in actuality this illustrates he has his thumb up his bum and his mind is in neutral. Competent leaders who know their onions don’t need to hire outside firm to send over a bunch twenty somethings with no real work experience to reorganize their company for them. I liked China1 suggestion that we focus on “victory through harmony” as our guiding star. There should be ruthless focus on winning, that’s all that matters in sports, and all our employees… Read more »
Pedro
What’s the rave about Marcelo Flores in the media of late, is he in line for promotion into the first team next season
Tom, I say it whenever people say genuinely ‘silly’ things that would be laughed at in a pub.
You said the approach of hoping elite young players maturing to compete was a silly idea. There’s not a serious conversation to be had there. It’s my go-to with you because your MO on here is to be the anti-fan, even if what you are saying is ridiculous.
Raptora, the mission of this blog is Arsenal focused, defending Spurs like that is for your other blog.
Shameful stuff. Slap your own wrist there.
🚨 Erling Haaland understood to have approved Man City move & initial personal terms agreed. Still work to do on contract, payment to Dortmund, agent commission etc so not yet closed & will take time @TheAthleticUK (follows @MikeKeegan_DM scoop) #MCFC #BVB https://t.co/WabQnU56PS
Some on here actually thought this dude would come to Arsenal just because of Odegaard.
Le Sauce, I don’t know much about him, but he’s getting international call-ups, so he must be tasty
Nurturing a culture sounds good, but when you have a manager who falls out with players on a
regular basis as MA seems to do you have a problem on you’re hand. His team-selection and
formation is also often dubious. Why going for Lokonga when he is clearly not ripe
Pedro lol
“You said the approach of hoping elite young players maturing to compete was a silly idea. There’s not a serious conversation to be had there. It’s my go-to with you because your MO on here is to be the anti-fan, even if what you are saying is ridiculous.“ Small correction , Pedro. I said hoping a team of young players maturing together challenging for the title was silly. You added elite and changed challenging for title into competing lol. We’ll revisit this in two seasons time when you are no doubt reciting a new litany of excuses( hopefully not). But… Read more »
There’s a video of Thomas Partey doing rehabilitation work at the Arsenal training center, it’s hope that kills but I just wish that guy would be available for Spurs
WoB, I blame Odegaard
WOB
The guy is England’s best by name and England’s cringe worthy worst by opinion
Words, wrong blog to come on here with the insults.
Tom, you said similar things at the start of the season after predicting impending doom. That didn’t pan out, nor will your assessment of our strategy.
Pedro, nonsense. Quotes please. Let me help you out and explain the main difference between us re Arteta. You said , on faith, he was generation talent and one of , if not the brightest young managers in Europe, and then you proceeded to whitewash every blunder he’s ever made. Until recently to be fair to you. Meanwhile, I said , while winning the FA cup was a massive achievement, whether he was generational or not would be decided in the league. He hasn’t shown much in a way of that to date. He’s a promising young coach who’s been… Read more »
Clubs likely to buying a striker next season:
Man City (probably Haaland)
Chelsea (bye bye Lukaku)
ManU (geriatric strike force and a fading Rashford)
RM (maybe Mbappe)
PSG (if Mbappe leaves)
Barca
Dortmund (when Haaland leaves)
Bayern (if Lewandowski leaves, or possibly even if he doesn’t)
Arsenal
That’s eight CL clubs off the top of my head that are likely to be more attractive. Haaland and Mbappe will fill two of those slots, what about the other six? And who does that leave for us to target?
I’d say that Darwin Nunez is highly unlikely.
When things start sliding downhill, we start seeing esoteric posts by Pedro that really have very little to do with success or failure in the pitch… ultimately. The things we’re talking about today did not cause us to lose 3 winnable games this month. Also, should stop attacking Guimares. I heard a lot of good things about him before his move, especially some stats, and was surprised that he went for such a fair price. Of course he would have loved to join Arsenal instead. We chose not to strengthen MF in January. We understood the difficulty getting a striker,….… Read more »
Andy
Thankfully, Arsenal won’t be painting themselves into impossibility this summer. They know their targets, they’ll have sounded out players, we’ll get a great striker.
When are we going to see some actual progress regarding Arteta’s project ? Statistics used correctly without an agenda usually reveal what’s going on. Emery’s Arsenal finished the 2018-19 season (with inferior players to Arteta) on 70 points. He was consequently sacked with the team in 8th position. Since then, Arteta has achieved two 8th-placed finishes with final points totals of 56 and 61 respectively. If he is to equal Unai’s 70 points he needs at least five wins from the last seven fixtures, which is highly unlikely. So where is the improvement? Points on the board is a far… Read more »
Tom, arguing with you why Arsenal are actually really shit is so dull. You aren’t near the pulse of what’s really going on.
Nigel, culture isn’t esoteric and it absolutely impacts the football. I’m not attacking Bruno, just pointing out that he’s played 495 minutes and he was benched by Jonjo Shelvey until recently. I’m sure he’s amazing.
BFB, maybe you should wait until you assume failure.
Pedro, I agree in that we’ll get a striker and it probably isn’t going to be anyone that we’ve been talking about over the last few months. As to if he’s great or not we will see next season. There are no guarantees, even Haaland could flop.
Andy, you are probably right, but the profile will be the same.
DCL, Nunez, Vlahovic… it’s clear what they want. We won’t be seeing a Jovic or a Jesus.
Tom
‘ Yes, the stadium is the caldron full of football savants, especially the ones who leave their seats 5 minutes before half time and come back 10 minutes after restart with a couple of pints in both hands.’
Can you be my date to the prom
Encapsulates the so called stadium crowd
I see more of the game perched on my recliner than 90% of the fans that attend games.
I can’t imagine any top striker would have Arsenal in the top-3 options if we finish outside of the top-4.
United are looking for striker and will blow us out of the water with wages.
PSG are looking for a striker too
Bayern are looking for a striker too
Chelsea will move on Lukaku but have other options
Dortmund will have to replace Haaland
The list goes on and on. A top 4 finish would her made us more appealing
Diss, not a shocker that you can’t imagine the club you support might attract a striker.
Let’s see how that plays out and how you breakneck to deny that comment in June.
I wonder how KDB would feel about Harland’s reported wages. De Bruyne was the highest paid player in the league because he negotiated without agents.
Someone explain how city will pay for this?
Pedro
So you think a striker we compete with PSG or United will choose us ahead of those two?
We won’t be stupid to enter that bidding war because there are names that aren’t on the radar that can do a good job for the club.
Diss, the fans that have blown the lid of the Ems this season. Not sure you should be picking on those that spend a chunk of their money to show up every week.
Diss, I think Arsenal can attract a proper striker this summer because we are a massive club with a great project.
“Tom, arguing with you why Arsenal are actually really shit is so dull. You aren’t near the pulse of what’s really going on.“
Again, I never said Arsenal were shit, Pedro.
They’re just about where I thought they’d be with Arteta and Josh running things.
You thought Arteta would be done by November, we are not where you thought we’d be.
“You thought Arteta would be done by November, we are not where you thought we’d be.“
If that was to me then you got me confused with someone else.
I never did.
Ask Rich, if he ever graces us with his presence again that is.
The fact that AFTV even had room to exist and influence the fanbase the way it did says everything about the culture to me. Vinai coming from deloitte was another shocker but maybe josh is actually starting to pull weight, not that it will change hisnfathers ultimate gameplan re real estate investment, but im going to reserve judgment for now… Btw its verybeasy tonwrite on a blog about how fans who believe in arteta never criticize him but we all know thats just internet trash. Every manager on the planet is subjected to more criticism than they deserve except maybe… Read more »
Pedro The definition of “great striker” is very vague West ham and Palace got Bowen and Olise from the championship, respectively. Both are going to be in the Salah range pretty soon. If we deploy that strategy if we can attract the best with a ‘project’ and the ‘massiveness’ of Arsenal, we will end up being used like Vlahovic did in January We haven’t played in the CL for five years and we have a young manager wh9 doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing offensively. Your so called ‘project’ now needs consultants to redefine the club’s culture. We shouldn’t… Read more »
Perhaps those looking at “culture problems” within the club should be looking at those wild celebrations when we managed to scrape past Wolves and Villa away, or the bloody fireworks on display when we won home fixture Vs Wolves. Pedro, I go to the games, and I’m always vocal when it comes to pointing shortcomings of our current manager. And even if there were people laughing at me in the pub, I assure you they’re not laughing anymore. You need to keep up. I find it rather ironic that you sitting in New York are telling me, sitting in Stoke… Read more »
We should be scouring the championship
Olise went for only £8.7 million last summer.
As for strikers, the best we can hope for is Sterling, who’ll become surplus to requirements once Haaland arrives to City. And he’ll love nice little retirement package in London. Cue weeks of salivating over how “Arteta made Raheem the striker he is”.
Does anybody really believe that the current squad is ready for Champions League? In spite of how much we as fans want it, the squad is far too thin and it’s debatable as to whether Arteta would be given the money to create the depth necessary in order to be considered competitive
This squad is not deep enough for the champions league as it is. I am hoping we’ll add a few pieces… it’s clear we’ll need to spend a lot.
I hope this is what Arteta and Stan spoke about when we cleared wages and bodies in January, even if we didn’t get the midfielder and striker we really wanted.
Aaron if you are only here to shit on Arsenal, take your work elsewhere.
spot on Diss…all this fluffing up of the in-house crowd is so counter-intuitive, as they’re, in many respects, the very reason why this club has struggled to meet the demands of the new world footballing order…the complacency shown time and time again by those in the seats when we needed them most, the long waiting list for those desiring well-placed tickets and the constant bending of the knee to the nonsensical whims of managers who have failed to meet reasonably held objectives regarding our table standing and the brand of football on offer, has sent the wrong message to ownership…this,… Read more »
HerbsArmy,
Arsenal is worth 2.5b, it has an incredible history, we are massive. That’s not contentious.
Take that garbage elsewhere.
Arteta supporters shifting the goalpost once again. Now it’s all about the next season when we will have a fancy striker and a brand new midfielder. Over $400M of money spent over more than two and a half season and nothing to show for in return. What happened to “our summer signings moved the needle” talk or do we need to spend another $400M to move the needle enough to get back in to top 4 ?
Both Arteta and his fans are bullshit merchants – lofty futuristic talks and nothing else really.
TR7, you were going to quit this website because the summer signings were so bad, you thought we’d be shit, now we’re 7 games out competing for top 4 we’re moving goalposts?
Quite amazing how your expectations suddenly shifted.
Herbs, if you don’t like the debate, don’t post here.
Pedro
Don’t worry, I rarely post here nowadays and hopefully will be able to stop altogether very soon.
By the way Arsenal are not competing for top 4 due to our own excellence or something. It is just that United and Spurs are equally shit. I don’t even remember the last time we lost 3 consecutive games twice in a single season.
Pedro it’s your site and you’re free to do whatever you like but not sure why you feel the need to ban/remove posts that even mildly criticize the club now.
HerbsArmy is a long-term poster here and he has never been even remotely offensive or abusive. Just debate these posts rather than delete them.
Good luck TR7.
WE, I write this site to enjoy it, not to have the most miserable parts of the internet unload on Arsenal post after post / attack me.
I’d rather have no comments that read that all day.
If people don’t like it, they can go somewhere else and have honest debate. Or start their own site.
TR7, it was 1983-84 under Terry Neill. He lost his job a week after the second three in a row defeats.
Open debate is great to thrash out issues, but it’s only a debate if both parties points are heard.
There was nothing insulting about my comments, but you can’t challenge them because it doesn’t suit your St Arteta driven agenda.
You gush about him like he’s some sort of world saving super hero.
He is overseeing a historically sleeping giant, and not moving the needle.
Debate how can we if you delete posts that are not abusive just a different point of view
Pedro It’s becoming a bit echo-chambery in here though, some of these guys are not personally attacking you from as far as I can see (some have and deserve condemnation/binning for that which they have gotten). The club and Arteta shouldn’t be above criticism, we all used to bag on and mock Untold about this exact sort of thing but even then Wenger was more worthy of the obsessive devotion than Arteta is. It’s just strange how you are so far gone down the Arteta rabbithole when you gave Emery less rope then he could grab a hold of and… Read more »
Pedro How confident are you that Saliba will 1) sign. A new deal and 2) play for the club next season? I have a strong feeling Saliba is firmly in Arteta’s Guendouzi bucket. He didn’t like that Saliba was openly unhappy with his lack of opportunities since his signing, will probably say the infamous video he took in the French dressing room is a sign of poor character. and will use a contract impasse as the excuse for shipping him out. Arteta seems to conflate immaturity with character. You can see what a different style of management has done to… Read more »
‘Culture Workshop’ is the new ‘Club Values’ and ‘Trust the Process’. Its all a load of bullshit buzz words and phrases that mean jack shit.