I’m gonna be straight here, if you call Arsene Wenger ‘daddy’, ‘papa’, or ‘father’ it’s straight up weird. What is it with grown men doing stuff like that? Do their friends see? What do they say? What would your partner say if they saw the tweet?
‘Frank, did you call a man who is not your father, ‘father’ on the internet?’
I wouldn’t like that question if it were true. It’s so very, very odd. Almost as odd as 30 year old Arsenal fans notstalgia-jerking about the good old days of Olivier Giroud like that was some sort of joyous period for Arsenal fans.
I was there.
It was not.
ANYWAY, let’s get right into the mixer.
NFTs for art, largely speaking, are speculative assets that propped up by extrememly rich people connected to some sort of larger shill. They talk of it being a decentralised utopia, when in fact, 80% of the market is owned by 9% of accounts.
I’ve worked in industries where a large part of my job is to see into the future, so I want these things to be credible, but it’s very hard to envisage a world in which it is mainstream to show off really expensive gifs that you personally own. I was actually with someone the other day that told me he had an NFT that 1) Was made by a fancy artist 2) Had a hard connection to a one-off special event 3) Meant something in culture. Do you know how they showed me it on their phone? They showed me the signed physical picture they had on their desk. Why? Because it’s more impressive than a gif on your phone.
Reality is catching up to them. Just as the Robinhood next-gen influencers have stopped stockpicking because stocks don’t always go up, people like John Terry and Michael Owen are now looking at handslaps and unhappy investors in their shitty NFT shills. Generally, you know something is broken when very stupid people start making their way into them. 1 in 3 collections are failing. Jack Dorsey’s original tweet sold for $2.9m dollars, it’s owner put it up for sale for $48m, it sold for under $10k within a year. Football fans seem to roundly reject anything blockchain shaped because they sense they are get-rich-quick schemes.
Overarching point here is that a lot of smart people went along with something that felt kind of nuts because… they didn’t want to be seen as old or dated. Why? Because some of us remember a time when the internet was written off as a fad, then it came at people hard and ruined a lot of reputations. We also remember a time when social media was palmed off as a trend, versus a new dynamic way to communicate, create, and trade (that would never go away). There were even people that were part of the clamshell phone mafia who couldn’t see a world in which and iPhone might succeed.
… so back to NFTs. The reasons plenty have sat on their hands on this one is because no one wants to be the NFT naysayer, only to end up like Steve Ballmer who said Steve Jobs should be ousted for his iPhone adventure.
There are similar ‘keep quiet’ groupthinks that go on in football.
Arsenal fans used to end any criticisms of Wenger with ‘Arsene Knows’, because his batshit crazy ideas generally tended to work. RWB to striker? Why not. Pires with talent levels of Zidane? Sure. Go unbeaten? Ok. Betting against Arsene was a fools game.
Antonio Conte has this power, people just put their head down and charge at the idea he’s going to be right, but if you look at what he’s doing at Spurs, it feels a little bit like being convinced that a baseball capped beaver playing a tamborine that was produced by a freelancer on a day rate is worth $400k.
If Arsenal’s summer looked like Ivan Perisic, Fraser Forster, Djed Spence, and Richarlison… I think there would be riots on the street. But no one will say it because Conte has had the magic touch in the past.
The Brazilian striker, who is priced at 60m Euros undoubtably has a lot of very interesting features as a player. He’s powerful, he has Brazil international levels of technique, and on his day he can be unplayable. But the man scored one more goal than Eddie last season in 14.6 more 90 minutes than our guy. It’s quite nuts that we’re seeing money going like that on a player that was very, very off his game this season.
Am I rejecting the next iPhone here or am I rejecting John Terry’s vision of a WEB3 future? We’ll see.
You know what else is interesting? Arsenal fans are very, very mean to young players. Unless they bang right away, we write them off like they are yesterday’s news. Nuno Tavares started the season for Arsenal very well. So well in fact we thought he could own the left-back position.
I stole this comparison from @M1_RAG3 off Twitter, because it’s striking. Nuno, on paper, has a lot of very fine attributes. Now, we know that data without the eye test is not the way to judge a player… but what data does allow you to do is understand there is potential there.
Nuno is like a badly tuned car at the moment. His body is too powerful and fast for his control system. But if you could teach him more calmness in vital moments and you could hone his decision-making, there’s no doubt there’s a player in there.
That is backed up by the fact Marseille and Atalanta are in for him this summer. Two clubs that know their way around young talent. What this comes back to for me is that we sometimes need to be gentler with younger talent. The Premier League is the hardest on the planet, not many come ready-made for the fight, but that doesn’t always mean it’s over for the player.
One young player that exited for non-footballing reasons is Matteo G. The Frenchman burned too many bridges at the club, particularly with the players, which is something people don’t tend to factor. Regardless of the childish antics, he had a great season with Marseille… but he’s obviously still quite burned by his exit because this is what he had to say about Bill Saliba.
“William now has Marseille in his heart, and I’m sure that he’ll come back to Marseille next season. So I’m going to keep pushing so that he stays with us.”
There are a few strands to this. Firstly, it’s a bit cheeky to put words in the mouth of someone if they can damage relations for the player. Secondly, in what world does Matteo think Saliba is going to turn down the riches and prestige of the Premier League to play with him and Kolasinac next season? Honestly, he should stay focused on his business.
Also to reference back to Arsenal fans writing off players early. Sambi Lokonga is one of them. I see people angry that we sold Matteo (because they don’t understand culture) because Sambi has failed. Give him time, put him next to the right midfielder, and watch him blossom.
Finally, let’s talk about strikers.
They are expensive.
Spurs are droppoing £55m for a forward that scored 11 goals last season.
Liverpool is about to drop £100m on a Benfica forward with 2 seasons of experience.
Haaland is joining City for a combined cost of about £250m.
Some Arsenal fans thought the club lacked ambition for NOT spending £75m on Alex Isak who scored two goals in 2022 and just 6 all season.
This move that we make is going to be very consequential and very expensive. The big question is how are we going to divide the money. Do we buy a Jesus and a cheaper striker like Scamacca that comes with higher risks. Or is Gabriel Jesus the man?
What is startling is that these huge fees clubs are paying seem to be going on players that have a high risk of failure. But, the one thing they all seem to have in common at the upper end of the market is height, technique, and goals. If the best tacticians on the planet think you need all of those elements, I do think it would be regressive if the tallest player in our forward line was ESR at the start of next season. We need to have lots of ways to score goals. It would make very little sense to me for us to over invest in long ball specialists if we don’t have someone that can hold the ball up and occupy defenders.
So let’s see where it goes.
Actually, one last point before we go. It’s quite interesting that anyone in the real world right now is looking at massive inflation, crushed portfolios, the tanking of crypto, and a beastly white-collar recession heading into dry land… but no one has thought about if this could affect football owners. When you are not funded by a royal family or an oligarch… do these outside factors impact the dollars? Stan K is a real estate mogul, things are teetering there, cost of capital is going up, it’s hard to build, office space is being rethought, will the headwinds impact how he’s thinking about investment at Arseanl?
Idle speculation, but our reality is we’re run by people that are affected by the actual economy, so worth thinking about.
Alex, not sure I can buy into the miracle. But we’ll see next season. I think it’ll be a fat mess and I sorely hope that Zizou rejecting Paris might see him bounce.
Richalason is average at best 50m on him is a terrible idea really hope spurs get him
It wastes their money and that’s 50m less they have to spend on proper players
Jesus is 3 times the player he is
I think Tets will rotate esr and Ode a lot more in that central role with a game every 3 days especially if we get a winger to cover saka and martinelli.
He had to play ESR left as we played basically one game a week and Pepe was shit so if he rested martinelli he had to play the smith there
Wenger eagle Arteta might be wrong on Martinelli but we are developing him as a wide forward. Eddie is playing Central. And Jesus or whoever we sign is also going to be the striker. So at this moment in time he is a LF. We need players that can be versatile and play multiple positions in attack. I can also give you other players that have been playing as a LW with a left foot. Moussa Diaby who has recently started to play on the right has played successfully for Leverkusen as a LW. He has scored 19 goals and… Read more »
Pedro, why so aggressive? I said ‘did well’, nothing about ‘a miracle’….relax man.
Conte is a great manager so your stance on him is odd Pedro and has pangs of jealousy to it. There is nothing to suggest that he will bomb next season.
Which is strange because you ought to be secure enough in Tets not to care about Conte or the boys over on that side of North London.
if either Raphinha or Gnabry don’t move to Arsenal.
Perisic took a pay cut to be reunited with a manager he thinks the world of. Did Conte promise him that he will win the CL in 2 seasons? That story will break soon.
I just can’t get the big choke out of my mind. I may need some Arsenal therapy
So a fanbase who were creaming themselves over DCL suddenly laughs at Spurs for signing a far superior and younger striker? It’s like with dumbing down our goals as a club we’ve also totally lost our judgment of players.
Richarlison is young, can use both feet, a good header of the ball and a total nuisance every time I have watched him. How can he possibly be a bad signing?
If we’re the one that signed Spence and Richarlison I would be over the moon
WE, you can infer jealousy all you like, but 15 years of writing will refute that I yearn for an arsonist like him. I am happy they are doubling down, because I know where it’ll end. You’ll see.
Pedro Neto is a good shout Habesha but I would be wary given the ACL. Players rarely regain the same agility/movement in that knee and it also leads them to being very vulnerable on the other knee and rupturing that ACL. Moussa Diaby is somebody that I would be interested in. Was not impressed by him vs Austria but that is an international friendly so it isn’t even counted. He is a good player and is quite dynamic and suited to the PL. Not sure how intelligent he is though, strikes me as being a bit overly reliant on his… Read more »
https://twitter.com/EBL2017/status/1535540764016529409?s=20&t=ndiodpQQf1faV2jwFtN_UQ
Here is a Twitter thread explaining how Raphinha would be used if we signed him.
Pedro, not sure why people have a hard time comprehending my position which has never changed no matter what club is being debated.
Leicester’s net spend over five years stands at $151 million (transfermarkt)
That makes them 13th in the league.
Their wage bill is 8th highest.
Please explain how placing fifth is anything but overachievment.
Pedro
I think that if we brought in Conte post Wenger that you would have been thrilled with that. Maybe not but to bring in a top 5 gaffer on the planet that has won a PL title on 93 points aa recently as 2017.
I highly doubt that 4 years later and we’d still be outside of the CL.
Mr Serge ‘ Jesus is 3 times the player he [Richarlison] is You’ve started doing that pre-signing biggification that gooners do to potential new signings You’re conflating the Guardiola/ city gloss with Jesus actual quality….maybe it’s the ‘Jesus”name itself that stirring you up. There’s nothing Jesus has done at city that Richarlison won’t have done had he been there. Richarlison has grown up feeding on scraps, imagine what happens when he goes to a club that creates chances. For me; it’s a 50-50 split. Both are too limited in their own ways. If Spuds get Richarlison, it’s as a squad… Read more »
Thorough, this fan base creams itself over better strikers than DCL mate. You are propping up a striker that scored one more than Eddie despite 14.6 more 90 minutes than him.
I’d totally missed the Papa Wenger thing. Jesus Christ, you couldn’t make this shit up. The Stockholm Syndrome is still strong in this fan base.
Habesh
Who is this dude? He does not play like Di Maria who is possibly the most creative wide forward of his generation.
He scores more than he creates. And he loves that right flank and is much more effective there than LF.
Seeing as how Saka is our best player I do not see the wisdom in moving him to LF to accommodate a new signing.
Give it a rest Dissenter.
Richarlison is not good enough to have ever got near that City team. Jesus is clearly a superior player.
Richarlison to me is a poundland Alexis Sanchez.
WE, I don’t think I was campaigning for Antonio Conte that season. He’s a chequebook manager that is an arsonist. Not for us or our project and he’s grossly mismatched to Spurs.
Tom, your position is very clear and people notice.
Wengereagle I do see that Martinelli might be better as a striker. In his first season he looked like a proper number 9 like Suarez or Vardy. But he is a wing forward for now. There are plenty of players that are playing on the left that might end up as strikers. Even Suarez started that way at Ajax. Cunha was a LF. Rafael Leao who might end up as a CF is playing LF too. Who can we target as a LF without having a thin RF options though? Who would you sign and who would play where considering… Read more »
Every manager in the modern game is a chequebook manager Pedro. That is lazy criticism.
Arteta has spent over £200m and we are still awaiting even getting back to Wednesday night football.
LoveSausage, it’s so, so weird.
Jesus is clearly a better player than Richarlison. That said, I can see Richarlison doing well under Conte. There are few players better suited for a park-the-buss-and-counter system. He has the power, verticality, and aggression to succeed and there will be plenty of minutes for him.
And how did he burn down Inter?
They were an away day wobble at Bologna away from retaining their Serie A title.
Can’t see Conte going to PSG although I have heard that he’s selling his house in North London. Apparently he doesn’t need one now that he’s living rent-free in Pedro’s head…
Pedro,
In a way, I’m glad that more people seem to appreciate the man now that some time has passed. He will go down as an Arsenal legend and the toxicity was extreme for a while. But projecting one’s daddy issues on him is seriously messed up…
Habesha
Saka is the 1st name on the teamsheet. Why pre-emptively spend £50m of our limited resources on a rotation RF?
We could get away with signing an Olise-like prospect who Palace got for £8m (BARGAIN) to cover Saka.
WE, he went there, overspent, then when they had to call in the debt, he threw a hissy fit… people like you think that is elite behaviour, most in business would call that weakness. Post-Conte things: ‘The club, which suffered a rating downgrade deeper into junk since it last sold debt in 2017, will pay 6.75% for a 415 million-euro bond ($464 million), according to people familiar with the deal. The new bond will refinance an outstanding debt that pays just 4.875%. The investor meetings which were arranged by Goldman Sachs concluded on Wednesday and the deal priced Thursday.’ ‘Inter… Read more »
Sorry Andy, didn’t realise you were too cool to think about our biggest rivals.
Weagle So is it the 50 mil price tag that bothers you about Raphinha? So you would sell Pepe, sign a good LF and sign a backup to Saka too? That means we would have ST, New ST, Eddie Martinelli LF New LF, Martinelli CAM Odegaard/ESR RF Saka/ new cheap RW That is your plan? You know we aren’t signing more than one winger right? If we did sign a cheap backup and a striker then we are done signing attackers right? And Olise is an exception. The chances of you landing a talent like Olise for 8 mil is… Read more »
Lets all just be open and honest here. Conte is a WORLD CLASS BOSS. Yeah i said it. World class. I personally didn’t want him to join spurs because i knew he would improve them. It’s kind of what he does with teams… I don’t view him as a long term developmental boss, he’s more of a “win now or I’m off” type. Ala Mourinho. The type to come in think for the “now” then move on. That’s why a player like Perisic at 33 would make good sense for them but not us.as we’re looking to the future as… Read more »
Arteta has made a lot of our players harder to sell, basically sending their value lower.
But people here saying he messed up Torreira, and threw away Emi Martinez… that’s just dishonest.
There’s enough true examples to name without adding false ones. Emi won the job but didn’t have the self confidence to stay ahead of Leno.
Torreira had some great periods with us, and was a strange case, but I think he has some personal issues. He’s a signing I really wanted, was excited when we got him. He kind of made himself hard to sell.
“KDB not better than Kane because Kane gets his noggin to defend the odd corner is a bizarre take Tom when you weigh up how much of a factor that is for attacking forces.” Weagle , 173 defensive headers makes for a lot of” odd” corners, and four times the amount KDB gets his noggin involved on D. Is KDB four times better going forward considering the attacking talent he’s surrounded with? That’s the definition of an all around player whether you like it or not. . Last time I checked Benz and Lewa don’t play in the PL. Now… Read more »
vs
No worries Pedro, just checking that you still have a fully functioning sense of humour. Figured you must have to support some of the nonsense that EB puts out on a regular basis!
Pedro: ‘Inter Milan recorded the highest-ever loss by an Italian football club of 245.6 million euros in 2020/2021, as noted by KPMG’s Football Benchmark, the year it won the domestic league. ‘ You think their fans care?! Before him they couldn’t crack 70 pts, highest finish 4th place in the last 9 or so years. He comes, gets 82 pts and 2nd in his first season, 91 and the title in his 2nd season. Now they are a club that makes 80+ pts on the regular after another 84 pts this season. Who cares if they had to sell. Guy… Read more »
You feeling all right Tom? Lol bit of a random attack on the Messi/Maradona front.
Kane is more well-rounded because he clears corners? 173 in how long a period? That cannot be a single season.
Does Kane get into every team in Europe? Nope.
Does KDB? Yes.
Debate over.
Pedro, nice effort evading.
The day Arteta finishes ahead of bigger spending rivals and you fail to write a series of posts highlighting that fact is the day the hell freezes over lol.
Biggest Rivals? When they’ve made shit signings and the serial arsonist is about to make them implode? No, I’ve taken your arguments on board and so I’m not bothered about them at all.
Pedro. 10 goals and 5 assists in a team that scores 43 goals all season isn’t bad at all. If he can produce that in a team that was in crisis mode all season then it’s obvious he can do better. Jesus on the other hand had 8 goals and 8 assists, and I think 4 of those goals actually came against an already relegated Watford. There’s absolutely nothing to show Richarlison is worse than him. Richarlison has scored 43 goals in in 135 appearances for Everton, while Jesus has scored while Jesus has scored 58 in 159 appearances for… Read more »
And who says that spending money is that easy to begin with.
Look where Manure still are after billion pounds wasted?
Look where we are after flushing money down the toilet?
Knowing the profile and the exact player that will improve your team is an incredible skill.
Pep and Klopp have it. Conte just showed it again with Bentancur and Kulusevski. It’s in incredible skill.
Meanwhile we are wasting 100s of millions on the Willians, Maris, Whites of this world.
Thorough, if Richarlison were a great player, maybe they’d have scored more goals. Just a theory. Andy, like I said, you are very cool to not care about Spurs and I respect it so much. If only we could all not care about our rivals, wouldn’t that make the league more fun in general? Tom, there you go mate, proving EXACTLY why people think your relationship with Arsenal is a little odd. Raptora, yes, yes, yes, do I think Inter Milan fans worry about their club’s finances as they watch AC Milan lift Serie A. Honestly man, this is the… Read more »
People don’t get the Papa Wenger, it’s a cultural thing. It’s more a mark of respect than some odd Freudian issue.
My dad’s from West Africa, we live in the UK. People in his community here refer to him as ‘baba’ meaning papa, despite him never having completed an unbeaten season.
The tweets appear to be from people either based in Africa or of African origin. It makes sense, they’re being respectful even if some of the tweets are less than complimentary.
Marking them as oddballs lacks cultural nuance.
Xhaka, Mustafi, Lacazette another incredible waste of time and cash. Chequebook manager is such a shit excuse when there are so many managers that will fail massively given a lot of money. Wenger played it safe so he didn’t put any expectations on himself. The moment he started spending, he started failing and lost his job for it. It’s not easy buying the right players even if you have a good amount of money.
Raptora, insulting Wenger to defend Conte? How much lower are you willing to go on an Arsenal blog?
“My dad’s from West Africa, we live in the UK. People in his community here refer to him as ‘baba’ meaning papa, despite him never having completed an unbeaten season.”
This made me smile.
Comment of the day Aitch, bravo.
Pedro… that Dorsey NFT example is amazing. I never trusted the concept in general. I could see it working in the distant future though. The economy is looking much worse than people want to believe. I read an article that says if inflation were calculated using the same formula/methods as the 1970s and 80s, the real number would be over 18% currently. On Lokonga, Habesha laid it out on the last post…….. Not ready to be trusted at 6, really should play at 8. Totally suits his skill set more, and less vulnerable to the pace of pressing opponents in… Read more »
https://youtu.be/Jfqm8cnKTus
This video of Darwin Nunez failing at passing and his first touch is funny. He won’t be as shit for Liverpool. But the striker market is really dead when you see a raw talented player like this goes for €100 mil when his real value should have been closer to half that. Thay should get you an accomplished player not a Raw one.
Nigel, NFT fraud is so awful. Check out how the fan tokens did today, more fraud.
Tom
In no way is Conte an Arsenal type manager. He is akin to Jose. An egoist, a self-promotor, a flash git. In the years I have been watching Arsenal the closest we have come to the Italian is Arsene – but he had the saving grace of blowing his own trumpet in matters other than football – such as beautiful wives, politics, morals – lectures on behaviour through which I believe most of us dozed peacefully.
If you asked me to guess, I’d say Terry Venables was/is your numero uno.
.
“Tom, there you go mate, proving EXACTLY why people think your relationship with Arsenal is a little odd.”
Pedro, that’s the fairest thing you said to me all day.
Guys, we have to reduce the amount of Spurs love on this blog, I won’t have it. Take it to Reddit. Jeez man, you get so wrapped up in proving me wrong you lose orientation on what it is to be a Gooner.
Eagle
Have you seen v junior? Hardly Brad Pitt is he?
Or modric or bale
EB, fuck me sideways, I never thought this day would come, when you and I completely agree on something. I think I may need to lay down.
That’s why I never wanted Conte at Arsenal , a fact which, in its simplicity should be clear enough of a tell tell sign one might not actually have much love for this manager, but apparently not clear enough for the likes of Markymark and the type.
.
Or Vallejo
Nigel Tufnel
So you’re saying that Martinez didn’t have the bottle?
Is that what you’re saying?
Pedro Acknowledging that a manager is good, even if he manages your biggest rival is not the same as liking the team he manages in any way at all. I hate spurs more than ever because of conte and the fact that he makes them more of a threat. You can understand that surely. During the height of the arsenal /man u rivalry in the 90s, I despised man u- their players, their attitude, their manager, their fans, the ref bias etc etc.. But no one in their right mind would deny that Alex Ferguson was a great manager. ..would… Read more »
What is a Gooner?
Aitch, I can tone police my own blog.
Alex, he is a good manager, but I think he’s going to ruin Spurs.
… I mean, the guy was threatening to quit a few months ago because he lost too many games.
Guys, we have to reduce the amount of Spurs love on this blog, I won’t have it. Take it to Reddit. Jeez man, you get so wrapped up in proving me wrong you lose orientation on what it is to be a Gooner.
Ironically if you stopped writing about Spuds
and their Manager on a Arsenal blog
maybe people would stop talking about
them. But that would not be good for hits, views
and comments, which nowadays seems most
Important.
Agree on the Spurs love in here, WTF! Do Spurs forums love us?
Poch sacked, anything interesting about that?
Hahaha good to read AFCF and the merry band of holier than thou posters still making excuses for last season. Partey, who didn’t play a good chunk of his first season here was relied upon again this season, without replacement or actual quality as backup. That is squarely on the manager and his squad building ability. Tierney, injury prone. Go into a season with an unknown Quantity in the PL and at the very top level in Tavares as replacement at RB. He played well ebough to displace Tierney, then one mistake and he’s demoted to the bench for half… Read more »
Ben, I wrote for 14 years without ads, paying the costs myself… but… I would like to know what you think I should be writing for if it’s not readership and engagement?
Goober, so your big idea was, with hindsight:
Try Saliba as our main centre back.
If you want to whine, you have to come with some ideas here.
We finished with 69 points with the youngest team in the league and your suggestion is… less experience in defence.
And so much for Arteta being this brilliant coach coming in to save us money and improve our squad.
By the end of this window he will nearly have a whole new squad that is his own doing. Just built in the most uneconomical way, and with his rookie mistakes flowing over from the previous seasons instead of actually learning.
That isn’t hindsight at all.
Every comment I made before last season began was stating the above
I wanted Conte at Arsenal way before he took the spud job. How does rating a manager have anything to do with “loving the spuds”?! Does talking good about Klopp or Pep ruffle any feathers too?! Might as well never say anything good for any manager out there, especially when we could have had said multiple title winner instead of the rookie we went with. In the end, our Generational got stuffed by the arsonist and I hated it. I did see it coming though. The manager difference is clear. And I hate it. Obviously I wish it was the… Read more »
Pedro is obviously baiting this whole topic to then say that it needs to stop.
This is like the Fofana chat all over again.
Having
bellerin, tomiyasu
Holding saliba,
Gabriel chambers
Tierney (capable backup, and I was impressed with all action Tavares at the beginning of the season)
Just because we added white and his “experience” doesn’t show we moved the needle as much as you seem to think.
Saliba would have brought your *youngest squad in the league* numbers down also.
And pedro,
Did you forget we finished on 69 points, while Arteta absolutely blew an incredible chance of champions league at the same time
Goober, so your view, is that Saliba, with no Prem experience, and no Ben White gets us top 4?
Raptora, youngest manager, youngest squad, 2 points off Champions League, think my narrative is shaping up quite nicely. Raving about Conte 2 years ago is about is insightful as raving about Ronaldo or Messi. Hardly pulling a name out of nowhere, are you?
Saliba is going to be an incredible player, and hopefully for us.
He would have taken holdings place in no time. By the end of the season it would have been Gabriel and saliba as our best pairing. And he wouldn’t need a season to adjust next season
Pedro, if you read the other points I made, then yes that is what I’m saying.
50m on white is some of our shortest business when our midfield is so poor.
And white came in and helped us concede more goals.
I’d have been way more forgiving if that was saliba, not a 50m player not 100% essential for moving the needle.
Shortest = shittest
If we don’t manage top 4 or cl though el this coming season…
What then Pedro?
Goober, so again, your view is that you would have given the starting spot to a player that had never played in the Premier League… over Ben White.
Seems like an odd move.
Our midfield got us to 69 points.
Don’t get me wrong. I like white. I support him fully as an arsenal player.
He just wasn’t what we needed. And in hindsight, definitely didn’t contribute like he was meant to be brought in for
It’s also interesting that you cannot forgive the youngest team in the league getting 69 points… but, you’d have been forgiving if it was William Saliba in the defence.
Bit odd.
Yeah and our midfield is still shit. You cant cry we have injuries if we don’t have a squad to rotate properly.
Elneny did well. But let’s be honest you weren’t calling for him in any of our previous seasons.
And no I still haven’t said drop saliba straight in to starting place.
He would have won that on merit by seasons end (well who knows actually Arteta loves a good favourite)
Just for the record, there is not enough Tottenham hate on legrove…. and too much effort to bring down our own players and club. A week ago, a bunch of people tearing down Ødegaard, trying to dig up any stats to discredit him. Then I come across the stat that he had 2nd most chances created in the whole league. Also came in 2nd only to Saka as clubs player of the year. I bet anyone who voted Saka had Øde as their 2nd choice too. Too many posters here out of step with mainstream of Arsenal fans. Some good… Read more »
Goober, the midfield that controlled City at Arsenal, got to 69 points, and won 22 games is… shit?
Not sure that will fly.
It’s a bit odd you call this season 1.
Arteta has more lives than a bloody cat.
If you don’t want to understand my perspective, that’s fine.
But we 100% should have done better this season, and that is all on one man.
I don’t give a shit for “stretch” goals.
We had top 4 in our grasp. And instead of stretching we curled up in an Arteta style ball and finished with a whimper.
We give shit to spurs for failing, but we bottled so hard this time around.
Yes I’m saying shit.
I am a little fiesty this morning I guess 😂.
I’ll rephrase.
Our midfield is not of the quality needed to sustain a proper challenge over the course of a season, let alone actually competing properly in CL.
And that is what we are all hoping Arsenal are striving to achieve
Goober,
Pivoting out of a conversation is fine. But ‘our midfield is shit’ doesn’t really marry to reality. Nor does ‘my solution to top 4 was Saliba.’
Spurs have a team that is nearing the end, we have one that is at the very start of something special… we tanked at the end, but don’t call it a bottle-job, because these kids are so far from being bottle-jobs.
This season was a learning experience, they will get better, and they will do what they need to do next season.
Also Pedro, that city game was my absolute favourite of the season.
Let’s see that in some sort of consistent way and then we can agree our midfield isn’t a level below what it needs to be.
Goober, how was the midfield in that game? What changed when we ‘bottled it’?
Oh… I see. We lost Thomas Partey, both our fullbacks, and we had a striker that couldn’t score.
Pedro
Are you not concerned about the attack? And squad management? I have faith that arrest can build mean defence and solid midfield. His tactics seem more geared towards it despite the leaky end to the season. But I worry that we are so dull at the business end. Is this not something that concerns you?
I hope Jesus and Nketiah can add another 20-30 league goals between them next season but the one thing that really bothers me is how often we pass the ball backwards when we are in promising counter attacking positions
Pedro you love to miss a point.
I never said top 4 was with saliba.
I said bringing saliba back and not spending on CB maaaaay have given us a different result. A better cm or striker and we would have been a different beast.
But no we got a CB and no fix to our actual problems.
You are literally back at my first point mate.
Read my first comment again.
Goober, not sure why you are making a big deal about Saliba if he doesn’t get us to top 4.
Un, totally.
We need a striker and a winger that can score goals. We also need more potency in midfield for delivery.
All areas that will be fixed this summer.
Imagine, just for a second.
We didn’t spend on white. We had saliba as CB with chambers and tomiyasu being the utilities.
We had an actual replacement for partey so we didn’t lose a gear when we all knew he’d get injured.
It’s hilarious you’re saying that partey was our biggest miss.
This whole debate is how bad Arteta is at both squad building and management.
Even just letting chambers go helped blow our season. For what, 6 months of chambers wages we had no cover going into the end of the season across the backline.
Shocking stuff
Haha love the chat Pedro! Keep up the good work. I’m off to celebrate a day off for the queens birthday?!