EDU SETS THE FANS STRAIGHT: EXPECT A BIG SEASON

by .

Arsenal get back to business this week.

We have one more game left of preseason.

12 more days until the start of the season.

2 more players to buy.

About 7 that need shifting on.

Edu has a wide-ranging interview in The Athletic authored by James. There’s some nice bits in there, it feels like Arsenal are trying to get ahead of the PR this season, versus waiting like they did last year.

Some points that I thought were interesting:

He confirmed what I told you last season, Champions League was a stretch goal, making it back to Europe was the objective. It was totally fine to feel pain because we blew top 4 from a good position, but the whole purpose of goals and objectives is that you don’t change them. If the club thought Europe was a good enough target for the youngest squad in the league in their first season, then pivoting to top 4 when it’s doing well would be unfair. The corporate equivalent would be reducing a salesman’s commission when they sell too much. You don’t punish overperformance, you applaud it.

This season though, Edu has made it clear, he expects the club to move to the next level because all the pieces are in place.

There was also a bit of a dig at Unai Emery, Edu basically said it’s really hard to recruit for a manager that doesn’t have a clear plan. Don Unai was indecisive on the pitch, he was indecisive with player management, so there’s no reason to think he wasn’t indecisive with the players he wanted to sign.

There was a story a few years ago that Unai Emery brought a magical presentation to his interview, that might have been the case, but it was Arteta the struck first with a detailed analysis of exactly what he wanted to do.

At the second attempt, Arsenal hired Arteta. I think Don Raul stepped away from that decision and put it on Arteta. He needed a fall and likely realised putting more of his stooges at the club might not be good for career longevity.

Mikel is ruthless about how he expects Arsenal to built to a title challenge, he knows how he’s going to play, the types of players he needs to make it work, and Edu is happy bringing that to life.

It’s clear that when he arrived, the club was a bag of shit… just look at where the line-up was.

Edu is quite specific about the problem he inherited. A group of older players on massive salaries that didn’t give a shit about greatness. It’s hard to sell players that don’t have value. Schalke took on Mustafi and Kola and they joined a coup within a month. That’s what you’re dealing with. Europe knows the eggs we’re trying to sell have mostly been bad. That’s why we can’t get cash for them.

Edu has shifted 16 first-teamers since the Bournemouth game. He hasn’t gotten a lot of money. But he basically said terminating deals for shitty players is better than letting them stink out the dressing room. Remember when the players tried to down Arteta? Bad eggs are toxic, they bring everyone down, when you kill them, their absence oxygenates an environment and allows new leaders to emerge. I think the biggest issue for Arteta was some of the biggest names were the most problematic. If you have massive talent, you’ll always carry an outsized weight in a dressing room, that’s just how sport tends to work… so when your World Cup winners have downed one manager, why not the next?

That’s part of the reasons Arsenal didn’t sack Arteta during that shocking run. If they had, you create a club culture where the players know the downing of tools will get them another roll of the dice with a potentially more favorable manager. Football is a game of emotions, managing them when pressure is coming from all angles is difficult, but when you have a plan and an agreed vision… you can shut the noise out.

Edu and club leadership needs to be commended for working through the kinks. The whole point of signing Arteta was that 1) he was already one of the best young coaches in the world 2) if he could hone his management skills under us, we’d be getting a next-generation manager at the start of their career 3) if we could rough out the learning process, we could have ourselves a gem before bigger clubs find out.

This is the season when we find out if that theory will hold.

What we know already is this:

  1. The coaching is really paying dividends. If you can get a team of 23 yr olds to 69 points without a striker, something is happening that is working.
  2. The reputation of what is going on is traveling around the Premier League. Gabriel and Zinchenko don’t give their best years to a project that isn’t going anywhere. They are here to win, they are a level of signing that is a hard indicator that the footballing world gets that the Arsenal approach is a good one
  3. Our best young players are signing new deals. We’ll likely finish the summer with Saka, Martinelli, and Saliba committing to the long term. That is huge for a club that had been on a very poor run with contracts.

My favourite part of the piece was when Edu was talking about Gabi J. He said he wanted him to join, but not the player of last season, he wanted the Gabriel that shines.

I love that. No blowing smoke, just pure honesty, because last season Gabi J was trailing Lacazette for goals up until March with roughly the same minutes.

It would seem that so far, we have an invigorated player, and we might just see a side of him this season no one has witnessed before.

The business we have to do is clear over the next two weeks.

We need to sign an experienced #8 that looks like Tielemans.

We need to sign a Nico Pepe replacement if we can shift the Ivorian. I’m a little worried the player has ‘I’m committed to Arsenal’ posts rolling up, obviously the realisation no one will pay him what he seeks, but I’m sure we’ll come to a deal and shift him on loan somewhere. He’s just not suited to what we’re doing and he needs to play at some point.

Pablo Mari has a lot of interest, Lucas Torreira might end up at Valencia, Arsenal are moving out Bernd Leno to Fulham… Ains, Reiss, and Runarsson will all find homes.

Then we’re cracking.

This season is going to be immense. Spurs, hate them or hate them, have signed decent players. Chelsea will add more names but might be weakening. United have a fancy hip coach. City and Liverpool added top tier talent. We are in for a helluva ride, but I feel ready, and the hope IS real this time.

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DM

I’m here

DM

2

grooveydaddy

Tr4phy

Rich

4th

DM

Tr4phy

grooveydaddy

Boo

DM

Ouch, well played Rich

Rich

Cheers DM

Gunnershabz

Pedro

Did you hear the sky sports interview how he spoke to deco about raplhina 5 min convo turned into a love fest on twitter

I guess we have to be careful with links raplhina would been dream signing but I do think Sambi is being coached for the number 8 spot

BAHATI

First team

Davey

Loving the optimism just hope a week on Friday we don’t get bullied and outmuscled by a very physical team in a red hot atmosphere should be interesting.

Rich

Emery did have a plan, he wanted a right footed left winger with PL experience = Zaha Sanllehi signed him a left footed right winger, with no PL experience = Pepe Emery wanted Nkunku for £12 million, the club ignored him. I’ve been fair with Arteta, I’ve only credited him with signings after Sanllehi left, so Runarsson he takes the blame for, Partey was certainly his signing, and anything after that. Emery was our head coach, he wasn’t our manager, he wasn’t employed on that basis, and he didn’t wield anywhere near the amount of power that Arteta currently does.… Read more »

GD4

Considering what he had to work with,, Unai Emery was a bloody miracle worker.
What a bag of crap he was handed.
I’m so happy he went on to win a Europa cup with Villareal

GD4

Great astute points Rich

Tom

“He confirmed what I told you last season, Champions League was a stretch goal, making it back to Europe was the objective. ”

That statement would carry more weight if it was made sometime last season, preferably right after the closing of the TW when Edu said he didn’t have a set goal for this team other than wanting to see new player gel and stay fit.

Rich

GD4 Unai Emery is one of the most successful managers in football, and the most impressive thing is, that other than at PSG, his success has come at clubs without huge budgets. 5th and a Europa league final was a disappointing end to the season in 2018/19, but it was nowhere near the disaster some made it out to be. When Emery was sacked we were 8th, just a couple of points off 5th, at the end of the season we were still 8th, but further away from 5th, and we were still 8th, 12 months later….. Arsenal were a… Read more »

azed

Pedro

You’ve got to let your hatred of Emery go.

There’s no way an indecisive manager like Emery would have won the amount of trophies he has won.
You don’t stumble to 4 Europa trophies.

PS: Who’s to blame for William and Mari?

China1

A refreshingly frank interview from Edu. When was the last time you saw a technical director talking that way? Lots of truth in there as well and glad he felt that way. Seeing arsenal decline has been very painful and being on the inside during this period but feeling that pain with us matters because he has the power to make positive changes, which over the past 18 months or so he certainly has been Loved him as a player, very glad that his story at arsenal for round 2 hasn’t gone the way it was starting to look a… Read more »

azed

Rich

During the Emery era, I said the players we had were not good enough and Pedro claimed player poverty isn’t a thing.
After the generational manager finished 8th the 2nd time around, Pedro joined the player poverty gang quietly.

Tom

Axed, not only wasn’t player poverty a thing, Mustafa was a WC winning star and Ozil an assist making machine.
Arsenal also won the TW trophy and third place in the league was talked about as a possible objective.

GD4

Rich,
Well said again.
The bias on this forum can be shocking sometimes.
Even a blind man could see that Unai was handed a raw deal with shyt players, injuries and the added burden of following a legend. He made mistakes but damn he had no chance to succeed at Arsenal

Tom

But the biggest bunch of bs going at the time was pointing out Arsenal transfer spend under Emery( not a penny of which was spent according to his wishes btw) that included the £30m spent on Saliba who went right back to France.
That was a nice touch.

GD4

“ After the generational manager finished 8th the 2nd time around, Pedro joined the player poverty gang quietly.”

Ouch 😂😂😂😂😂

China1

Lol yeah

Emery didn’t even have much say in transfers and he’s being blamed for them

Nigel Tufnel

Pep Guardiola’s message to Arsenal fans on Mikel Arteta: “All I can say is we worked two or three years together. What I learned from him is a few times in my life I could learn many, many things. He’s above and beyond a good manager: His character, personality, leadership…”

GD4

Edu comes across as a real smooth operator and despite his faults I hope Arteta does well this season .:: he will not survive if they don’t make it this year for sure

Rich

Arsenal have spent plenty of money on fees + wages, they just did it very badly for a few years, there’s certainly been no player poverty, we had a £72 million winger who couldn’t get off the bench last season, when we were desperate for goals. Last summer our investment was in younger players, and getting a return on that investment was going to take some time, if you buy young players with potential on lower wages, you often have to wait for those players to deliver on that potential Same with Saka, Smith Rowe + Martinelli, who are brilliant… Read more »

TheBayingMob

I don’t want one of those shirts, even with 10% off … thanks …

Tom

What we also found out after Arteta’s first season was that improving average players is overrated and no longer in fashion, and probably a waste of time.

China1

The player poverty wasn’t about the fees it was about the quality

Philip Durell

That awful shirt reminds me of the equally awful bruised banana kit

Tom

“Edu comes across as a real smooth operator and despite his faults I hope Arteta does well this season .:: he will not survive if they don’t make it this year for sure”

I hope it doesn’t come to this( finishing outside of top four) but $50 says they do survive another top five finish.

China1

Scamacca joining west ham for 35m No idea if it will work out but it’s one of the more interesting signings to keep an eye on. As far as good strikers go these days he’s pretty cheap if he does well. If I had been artedu I’d have more likely signed him than Jesus because I wanted a profile of CF to contrast more with Eddie physically. Obviously Jesus has looked immense so far and long May that continue. I’m very much hoping my preference will be proved very wrong. Italians rarely travel well anyway so he could very easily… Read more »

Nigel Tufnel

Pep Guardiola: “Mikel [Arteta] knows everything, he is so good, he is so clever. I learn a lot watching his teams, he knows everything about football!”

Rich

Klopp is the coach who makes average players look elite, I can’t stand the guy, but he’s the standout manager in the league for me. Pep needs specificity, and a high level of talent in order to implement his vision, and Arteta is the same. All managers need good players to be successful, the required level to be successful over the past few seasons have been redefined, but the job Klopp done at Dortmund + Liverpool, far eclipses anything Pep has done at Barca, Bayern + City. Barca were successful after Pep left, Bayern were more successful before he arrived,… Read more »

China1

Lol is pep trying to get a favour or something 😅😅

GD4

I think Arteta has a great football mind.
He has struggles with his lack of experience and man management. In two or three years he will be an elite manager. But by that time he might be sitting in the Elland Road dug out. We shall see.
This will be one special season.
Personally I can’t wait till the All or Nothing series comes out

GD4

Ughhh
Etihad stadium

TR7

The only major personality at the club who has passed his test is Stan Kroneke. He has supported Arteta beyond everyone’s expectations. Wenger and Emery were not lucky enough in this regard. Now Arteta and Edu have to prove themselves.

Samesong

Teun Koopmeiners

Never heard anyone on le grove mention this DM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orGBnkD5U8Y

Positive pete

When all is said & done ,top four is the target.Has to be.5th, unless it goes to the wire.I.e last day might be acceptable.Depends how the season as a whole pans out.But either way,what fans want to see & believe,is that the following season we are gunning for the title.No Question. Palace away will be a an absolutely huge match as a marker to where we’re at.Are we going to get a kicking & be physically dominated,because that’s what heading our way or are we going to lay down that marker & put the fear of god into the rest… Read more »

Rich

Pedro You hit the nail on the head, Emery was weak, because the club didn’t make him strong, how do you expect management to lead from the front, if they’re clearly not backed by their superiors? That’s not how hierarchy works, Wenger was finished the moment Gazidis rightly or wrongly, tried wrestling control from him. You think City would back any players over Guardiola? Look at how ruthless Alex Ferguson was with Stam, Beckham, Keane, and many others, he only wielded that power, because he had the backing of his superiors to do so. Arteta is now omnipotent, the club… Read more »

CaliGooner

It was entertaining to read good ebening in the comments 100 times a day. I miss that from the unai period.

That shirt is only wearable in a place like Jamaica..

Dissenter

That Edu interview corroborated lots of what Pedro has written about.
Three cheers to Pete

Dissenter

Rich
Right on
‘Emery was weak, because the club didn’t make him strong, how do you expect management to lead from the front, if they’re clearly not backed by their superiors?”
‘But make no mistake, it was the club who failed Emery, not Emery who failed the club”

Arteta was backed from the moment he shipped out Guendouzi. Once it was clear he had the backing of the owners.
Have to give Arteta props for winning over the Kroenkes

Positive pete

Please.No more convos about Gwen Dozy.Bad hair day has gone.& good riddance.

Dissenter

Pedro
Why don’t you just move on from Emery
If Arteta was appointed in June 2018, he too would have struggled amid all the backroom chaos and squad bloating.
We didn’t have the structure to support any manager/head coach, in the aftermath of 22 year totalitarian Wenger control.

Of course Edu wasn’t pleased with Emery because he wasn’t the one who hired him. Two of the three apparatchiks who hired him were gone and iust was phoney Raul left.

Let’s just call it a day and move on. Listen to Rich.

Dissenter

Pedro
It’s not the first time managers were fired by new tech directors.
Edu wanted to do things his way and found a young manager he could walk with.
It happens in football.

Be fair pedro. Don’t you think Arteta would have struggled in the backroom chaos of 2018-2019.

Have you considered that the club also learned to back managers after Emery. Listen to Rich; Arsenal failed Emery same way Emery deserved his sack.

Hitman

Have heard it all now.
Is this the same clever know it all decisive Arteta who refused to give Saka, Martinelli, ESR, Eddie a shot until injuries forced his hand? Kept Leno as his No 1 only to ditch him the following season.
Loaned off & belittled Saliba for two years before now realising the lad is the real deal.
Happy to sell Xhaka to Roma but now first on team sheet.
Making it up as he goes along is the accurate description.

Bob N16

I’ve read it all now!

Northbanker

Rich that is half an analysis

The power may ultimately spring from the board but it will only do so where it is warranted and a strong leader demands that backing

Emery was weak and the Board rapidly saw that and lost
Confidence. He did not have the charisma and strength of character to overcome this

Karsa

Haha Bob. There are some amazing opinions on here.

Zacharse

RichJuly 25, 2022 15:59:15 GD4Unai Emery is one of the most successful managers in football, and the most impressive thing is, that other than at PSG, his success has come at clubs without huge budgets. Good to see that you’re starting to figure it out here. There was and has been no hatred of Emery in the way everyone implies. I personally think his tenure at afc was befitting of bum status, but the reality is that, as rich says, he thrives in an environment where huge budgets are not available. I agree. He flubbed here and PSG and did… Read more »

DivineSherlock

Man there are a bunch of Emeryistas still on here . Do you not remember the way we played under him ? Jeez Even worse than late Wenger years .

Rich

Pedro Edu throwing Emery under a bus, tells us more about Edu, than it does about Emery. The fact Edu isn’t willing to admit that Emery was thrown under a bus, wasn’t backed in the dressing room, and ignored in the transfer market, and at very least take ownership of a percentage of the blame, should tell us everything we need to know. Emery might have been the wrong person for Arsenal, that’s fine, managers come and go. But the idea Emery was the root cause of our problems, or responsible for the situation we found ourselves in?…. I’m flat… Read more »

Zacharse

agree divine. i barely watched after the first few months. coming after wenger too you couldn’t have chosen a more polar opposite way to play

Dissenter

Zach
Everyone fails at PSG
Poch went there and had his star dimmed to a candle

DivineSherlock

Why Pedro did you have to scratch their old wounds again. I would only tell the Emery lovers one thing , that we did interview Arteta first before hiring Emery but Raul the crook decided to hire him via his agent mates . The club at that point in time had made Raul incharge of Sport related decisions . And so the club suffered with his equally bad decisions on the transfer market as well . If Emery was strong enough he would have gone to Kroenkes and demand he be backed over Raul.

Zacharse

Rich
what you call throwing emery under the bus sounds to me like a fair EXPLANATION of WHY emery was eventually SACKED (thrown under the bus ALREADY, YEARS AGO)
If the guy in charge doesn’t have a vision for what’s supposed to be happening there is no possibility of anyone under him having one either. If the guy in charge is seducaed or made anxious by the spotlights of a BIG club with a BIG budget, he best go somewhere else where he can manage and play reactively instead

DivineSherlock

Zacharse

I am still haunted by that Europa League Final .

Dissenter

Rich
Lol, you’re letting Pedro have it
That’s why your balance here is notable.
Emery is the head coach who took all the bull shite while the club was sorting out the Wenger mess.
It’s like the chaos that followed the collapse of the cold war; new parties being formed, new movements coalescing for societies to function differently.
You don’t move on from an all powerful manager for two decades without chaos; Emery is the one that was foolish enough to hang around during that time

Dissenter

It’s Pedro that decided to do a gloat fest.
Emery is gone, deservedly so
Let’s move forward.

Johnno

Oh wow. Phillip – you’re right. That DOES look like the bruised banana shirt !!!! I wonder if they meant it ? And how lucky is it that they are pushing it on an Arsenal fan website ?

It really is a small world of wonder……

Northbanker

Diss – yes that’s right but unfortunately he was a disastrous choice as he was too weak a character

When a manager can’t even appoint a captain he is advertising himself as a joke

Zacharse

divine- it was disgusting. that one game probably had just as much to do w getting emery sacked as all the rest in balance

Chrispy

Johnno…..🤣😂🤣

azed

When a manager can’t even appoint a captain he is advertising himself as a joke.

Northbanker
Man City players voted for their captain, I guess Pep is a joke.

Zacharse

Dissenter
its almost as if the type of manager that emery was led to those conditions & made the obvious power vacuum at the club exponentially more problematic. its almost as though the type of manager emery was allowed the chaos to spiral out of control and leave AFC in a much worse place when he left than how he found it on arrival. Not saying it was functioning super well when he came but he did us no favors. i do not understand the apologists for a manager who left us in an objectively worse place!

Markymark

Pedro – you owe us a Unai low down one of these days. You say he was a complete mess? What did you hear ? The Europa league final disaster against Chelsea I’ve heard the preparations went to shit. Do you have any insider on that ? He looked like he lacked control at PSG so I suspect the same gremlins affected him with us. Still I give him massive props for the greatest nil nil and penalty win vs OGS UTD Europa League final. UTD via their friendly media had crowed for days they were going to win .… Read more »

Freddie Ljungberg

Was always going to take time to sort out the terrible squad that Wenger left behind. Was so much overpaid dross on long contracts that was impossible to get rid of right away that it wouldn’t have mattered who the manager was, it was doomed to fail either way.

Now finally the squad looks a lot better, just needs a Xhaka replacement and we’re good to go.

benkind

It is funny how long it too Edu to come out to say what he is saying about Emery. Additionally, people talk like Emery failed at PSG. Emery is still more successful than Poch and Tuchel in terms of silverware in PSG. Funny Poch & Tuchel are legrove favourites. I remembered mourinho mentioning that Emery is well respected amongst his peers than Arsenal fans give him credit. Also, this thing about Emery being a cup manager; really Arteta is still living off the cup he won even though so far so good there has been question marks about his tenure.… Read more »

Billp79

Great read…except for the salesman metaphors
A bit weak

Dissenter

Zach I disagree with you in a 100% diametrical manner. We couldn’t be farther apart. We had an all powerful manger who hugged all the footballing aspects of the club. This caused atrophy atrophy in footballing know-how, outside of Wenger The CEO hired a supposedly begius football scout from Dortmund and an insider-bagmen from Barcelona. ———–> They decided to hire Emery No sooner after hiring a manager with no knowledge of the English game, lacking in the English language and totally dependent on strong backrooms ………………> Gazidis bailed out and Mislintat was pushed out. Imagine you were a manager who’s… Read more »

Dissenter

*The CEO hired a supposedly genius football scout

Rich

Zacharse Emery did have a vision, dump Ozil, Sokratis, Mustafi + Kolasinac in 2019. Arteta had the same vision after having time working with them. The difference being, Emery wasn’t backed, which left him resembling a sitting duck…. Whereas Arteta was backed, which established authority. Emery wanted Zaha + Nkunku, he wasn’t backed. Arteta clearly wanted Ramsdale, White + Odegaard last summer, he was backed to implement his vision, and has again this summer. Emery wrong place, wrong time. Arteta backed to do his job, backed to establish authority, given time to ride out the storm, particularly in Dec 2020,… Read more »

GD4

“ Man there are a bunch of Emeryistas still on here . Do you not remember the way we played under him ? Jeez Even worse than late Wenger years .”

Have you been watching Arsenal under Arteta?
His best football was when he played like Tony Pulis en route to the FA cup

GD4

I still remember Emery with the kids of Le Coq and a bunch of no names smoking Arsenal in the Europe cup en route to winning it … just an FYI

Zacharse

“Emery did have a vision, dump Ozil, Sokratis, Mustafi + Kolasinac in 2019. There’s genuine reasons for that downward curve, but if you’re pinning it all on Emery, then you’re seriously agenda driven.” i guess we have different ideas of what ‘vision’ is when you are head coach or manager. dropping/selling players can absolutely be part of that but leaving it there leads me to believe you’ve missed my point. a vision consists of not just deciding to drop or replace players. nkunku how many years later is still in germany. wonder why that is- maybe if emery is targeting… Read more »

Zacharse

GD4
what you say and what i say aren’t mutually exclusive.
unless you’re incredibly thick it should be easy to understand the difference between an underdog mentality and a champions mentality.
sorta like pierre not being able to understand the difference between a team that can win the league and a team that can win a cup comp

Mr Serge

Emery is not the manager for a club of our statute we are a massive club and he is a manager for misfit and small clubs

The football was shit and we had to pay for the privilege
Anyone who thinks he was the right manager for us is nuts
Good riddance to him and the dross we endured under him

Zacharse

diss
“The head coach wanted Zaha…they game him Pepe. That singular transfer encapsulate the utter failure that Arsenal was in that regard.
Emery wanted Nkukun, talk about having an eye for talent.”

that singular transfer encapsulates what you think- that is obvious.
and tell me if nkunku was one of his targets, and nkunku
a)rejected him
b) is STILL in germany
says to me nkunku might not have been a realistic target. says to me emerys vision ehhhhh questionable

Jonathan

“Spurs hate them or hate them”….almost choked on my drink 🤣🤣🤣

Rich

Emery 2018/19 5th, 70 points, 73 goals + Europa League final Arteta + Emery 2019/20 8th, 56 points, 56 goals, exited round of 32 by Olympicos, won FA Cup Arteta 2020/21 8th, 61 points, 55 goals, no European qualification for the first time in 2 decades Arteta 2021/22 5th, 69 points, 61 goals, got exited by a Championship club in the 3rd round of the FA Cup We couldn’t even match Emery for points or goals, with no European distraction, but with largely a young team, that’s understandable. The problem Emery had, and Arteta inherited, was when you fail with… Read more »

Dissenter

Some people haven’t figured out that Arteta faced the same problems Emery struggled with.
Some of our problems only got resolved when the club started committing big money to move players with questionable attitudes out
It wasn’t elite coaching, just plain old backing up of a manager you hired.
The club learned that very quickly in Arteta’s first full season; move out deadwood to give the manager space to do his work.
The manager too learned his lessons; trust the young talent and ditch the relics.

BacaryisGod

Overall excellent post Pedro and I was really impressed with Edu in his interview with James McNicholas (quite a scoop). Much of what he said is what many of us fans have been saying for years about overpaying g average players like Mustafi etc. I like his tribute to Wenger’s ‘human’ side of dealing with players. Feels like a good management combination between Arteta’s intensity and Edu’s affability. Your business comparison is inaccurate, though. We didn’t overperform expectations. We performed to expectations. The comparison would be punishing a salesperson for not exceeding his sakes targets after he looked like he… Read more »

Richard

I run a clothing brand, Ive been running it for 15+ years. I know a thing or two about product. That shirt is poor. Terrible choice of colours. A really simple cutting pattern that doesn’t flatter the wearer. Targeted at a 20 something. Very limited in customer profile. Not cool. Arsenal colour schemes are going to be hard to work with for mens clothing, but whoever came up with that needs to go back to the drawing board. Or get a job where they know what they are doing In TkMaxx, that would end up on the discount rail. Teacher… Read more »

Topside Northbank

The telegraph are reporting Leno to Fulham pretty much done 8m.

Martinez and Leno off the books for a combined 28m not great tbh.

Only thing with Leno last year of contract 100k a week wages so one out on a high wage a few more squad players loaned/sold may help get other deals over the line.

Freddie Ljungberg

Serms Leno is off to Fulham for 8m and Mari to Fenerbache on loan with an option/obligation to buy for 4m.

Not exactly great money but that’s what happens when salaries are high. At least we’re clearing out some of the unwanted players.

Topside Northbank

Freddie

The Mari deal i’m ok with he’s not suited to the league a poor punt signing it didn’t work but as it stands he’s a 5th choice cb that clogs up squad numbers.

Obligation to buy ideal but option is the European club go to, Torreira deal should of may as well made it obligation lower fee 12m euro instead of 15m as we will be paying him over the summer, just my take. He not coming back to play for us just move him on.

Zacharse

DissenterJuly 25, 2022 19:30:09 Some people haven’t figured out that Arteta faced the same problems Emery struggled with. Some of our problems only got resolved when the club started committing big money to move players with questionable attitudes out wow. amazing how you get so close to understanding the reality and then it all just falls apart. the point is that arteta got the club to commit. whatever was discussed and strategized behind closed doors made that happen. same way w emery the opposite resulted. less confidence less trust less willingness to commit. so if anything now you’re infantilizing stan… Read more »

Tom

“Edu throwing Emery under a bus, tells us more about Edu, than it does about Emery.” Of course. People getting their panties all wet because Edu said some things to back their agenda. Edu serves Edu first , Arsenal second. Just like they ate up the six years to make United competitive again bs RR served up in his pressers to illustrate the scale if his rebuild. All United players thought he was a joke and ten Hag wouldn’t even take a meeting with him. Klopp said he would win the PL within four years but RR needed 6 with… Read more »

Graham62

Keep it simple guys.

Arteta has 9 months to prove himself.

Dissenter

“he just didn’t feel like doing it when emery was there. raw deal. so unfair. right, cuz that’s how the world works… smh”

If only life was simple.
Never mind that the Kroenke’s spent 72 million on Pepe [minus agent fees]. They spent but no strategically and that continued under Arteta’s first full season too.
It wasn’t until Edu started imposing his young player-high ceiling idea that the nonsense stopped.
We are diametrically at odds nut keep spinning. It’s nice to read.

Dissenter

*We are diametrically at odds but keep spinning. It’s nice to read.

KAY Boss

How I wish I could have substituted our FA cup win and 5th place with Emery’s Europa cup win and a CL semis beating the likes of Juve and Bayern.
Emery shouldn’t have been appointed but he’s no bum.
Honestly Arteta ain’t fut to lace Emery’s boots.
Oh and how I wished one of Emery’s four EL trophies will be lyeing in our cabinet

What has been done is done is done. Still some fans ain’t convinced with Tets performance.

Markymark

For those concerned about out our bargain bogof fire sale . Just to look to poor old Chelsea . Werner 272k per week and bitching peek Ozil. Kept the worlds most expensive keeper, now the worlds most expensive reserve keeper . Looking like Barcelona going to nick Kounde.
Literally no offers on their want-a-ways who are still likely to be there . Plus Tuchel having melt downs
Looking good for West London , Fulham that is!

Markymark

Peek* peak

Markymark

Can I start that post again spell checker messed it!

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