Mr Motivator

by .

Well good ebening my wonderful darlings, and how are we today?

Glad to hear it. Let’s crack on.

John Cross leaked the news that the travel booker at Arsenal is running team motivation exercises before the games. I’d heard that Arsenal do some sort of cringe David Brent huddle preseason, but the news that the responsibility is being passed to a guy who is making sure there are no sharp objects in Mustafi’s hotel suite was quite the revelation.

Outside the big fat bag of cringe this whole thing is, I have some questions.

Firstly, who came up with that idea?

Was it Dave Priestly, team psychologist to the meek? Is it one of his brilliant ideas he imported in from Saracens?

If it is… what the fuck are we doing listening to this guy. He’s here to improve mental strength and we’ve just lost three games in a row by 9 goals for the first time since 1966 (true, according to @AngryofN5).

Raul needs to sit this guy down on a bruised banana patterned bean bag and ask, ‘what have you done for me lately’ (Eddie Murphy accent essential here)? Does the team look mentally stronger this year? No. I mean, like, it did for a bit. But right at the season’s money shot, when you hope all those motivational chats would settle in, we’ve flunked terribly. They literally had a collective nervous breakdown. So WHAT is he offering up here? We are in mental strength regression. The LG team has see the motivational posters on the wall at Colney, but WHAT are they doing for the players? Nowt it seems. Maybe the posters could say better things, like…

‘DON’T DIVE IN’

‘LOOK BEHIND YOU’

’VARDY IS FAST’

‘RESIST THE PUSH IF YOU ARE IN THE BOX NEXT TO THE REF’

‘DO NOT LICK THE PLUG’

IMPORTANT QUESTION: What Mystic Dave talking to Mesut about? Is he digging into that childhood past. Asking him if his dad bullied him about being greedy at party buffets. Probing if his mum made him wear hi-tec Velcro’s BEFORE they were hipster cool. THOSE ARE TRIGGERS!

RAUL, the line of questioning he is using is psychological kryptonite.

‘When you see a long ball over the top, do you see your first childhood pet grinding under the wheels of daddy’s new Ford Focus?’

We need less players sitting with him. More help on the posters. Ultimately, maybe we need to bring back Arsene ringing the ‘MENTAL STRENGTH’ bell around Colney like that scary bitch in GoT.

Secondly, if this magical idea came from Emery, answer me this… why is he outsourcing it?

That seems a bit of an odd thing to do. It’s like he’s struggling to motivate these players, and he’s passing the buck. If you are going to make people do a David Brent, I can at worst understand letting the captain do it, but the guy charged with telling the players to NOT urinate in empty Lucozade bottles on the bus? Fucking mental. That’s like me getting my Uber driver to write me a pitch deck. Or my dad asking me to hold the steering wheel on the M25 when I was six because he dropped a Wine Gum under the seat.

I feel like this sort of carry-on shows you how little leadership is going on at the club. How is an operations guy getting charged for fighting in the tunnel at Palace? Who is nipping that in the bud? Who is paying attention to admin staff running the players motivational excercises? Who has a pulse on the training ground to stop bad leaks happening? Because the above reads like it was leaked to JC for a reason, maybe by the players who think this info needs to be out.

Also worth remembering, shared leadership ends in death or a lack of accountability. Where do you think Arsenal are?

EVEN MORE interesting that The Times say the players are frustrated by the tactics of Emery, and that the manager is more concerned with nullifying the other teams strengths than capitalising on what he has at his disposal. He was accused of this at PSG. Again, why do multiple journos have this? Looks like a choreographed leak by agents of players.

Also adds fuel to the thought I posed at the start of the season that he looks at Arsenal more like a small club like Sevilla than a big one. The big man needs to step out of that mindset, because firstly, he’s not doing a very good job of nullifying strengths of mid-table teams, secondly, WE ARE ARSENAL. Gung-ho or go home… pretty sure that’s what the Latin under our old badge meant.

We have Valencia coming up on Thursday, if there’s one pattern in Emery’s career that’s working in our favour, it’s the Europa League.

Valencia aren’t that bad. They went 2-0 up against Barca away and they beat Zidane’s Madrid. They’re also mathematically out of the running for Champions League spots. That makes them dangerous. What also makes them dangerous is we’ve been utter shite of late. Still, we have more quality than them and Emery comes alive in the Europa (kind of).

The manager has to save his season. I think people will struggle to defend him if we finish outside the top 4 and don’t make the final of the Europa. If he makes the final and loses, he’ll save enough to face give people comfort.

So basically, it’s a big game on Thursday.

Right, I’m done, heading to the work roof deck to practice my Arsenal David Brent special.

WE ARE ARSENAL
WE ARE ARSENAL
WE ARE ARSENAL

Damn, I could KILL A BISON RIGHT NOW.

Talking of killing things. Someone told me bears don’t kill deer… I was like, ‘bitch, stfu, they eat deer’… and she was like, ‘no way, bears are pescatarian’… I said, ‘check Youtube, bears do not have dietary requirements’… and oh my. Ruined my weekend and my dreams forever. DON’T LOOK (OR LISTEN).

P.S. Denis Suarez injured himself preening his beautiful hair. Gonna be sad to see him go. Nearly as many goals as Iwobi this season. Good luck. One of the most obvious terrible loan signings in years, and we have had MANY.

P.P.S HUSS MY MAN, you know this guy, get him in!

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Bamford10

*windows

Emiratesstroller

Gambon If as Ljungberg suggests Saka is “special” then I see no reason why he should not be added to the first team squad. Outstanding players often start playing in first teams at age of 16 and 17. Fabregas was introduced at age of 16. Nelson may not be at the same level, but I have no problem in adding a winger who has scored 7 goals in first season in Bundesliga to our squad. Can he be worse than Suarez? Smith-Rowe was rated last season to be the best prospect in U23 squad. On evidence of what I saw… Read more »

Freddie Ljungberg

So that’s 7 players if Monreal leaves. + a backup goalkeeper, Martinez said yesterday that he’s leaving if he’s not guaranteed playing time. not very realistic is it? I mean it would be nice, and we would still need more, but it’s never getting done in 1 summer. And this is after already buying in 3 starters last summer. Our squad needs so much work it’s unreal. That’s why most posters were saying it was going to take at least 3 seasons after Wenger left until we can start competing again, that’s the legacy he left. The high wages to… Read more »

gambon

Emirates

You keep saying “adding to the squad”

Thats all well and good, but its Iwobi and Mykhitaryan that are stinking the first team up every week.

Our rivals have Sane, Sterling, Mane, Salah, Hazard, Son, Moura,

We are not going to compete with them by playing 17 and 19 year olds.

I think Nelson and Saka have big futures at the club, but they arent going to score 30 goals next season, which is exactly what we need.

Freddie Ljungberg

ES

I have no issues promoting youngsters to the squad if they’re talented, we still need at least 1 winger if we don’t want to see the same one dimensional attacking play next season again.
None of our youngsters are ready to start regularly and Iwobi should not start either.
Mikhi needs to be sold and then we’re left with no one that can start. Not ideal is it?

gambon

6 players Freddie, I clearly stated 6 players.

LB
RB
CB
CAM
Wide
Wide

The club are trying to extend Monreal, in fact we have a 12 month extension in his contract.

Emiratesstroller

Gambon I have no problem replacing most of our first team squad if you have the money to buy new players. Sadly those players you recommend we sell have very little transfer value and we know that Kroenke is not going to spend his own money. So it is pie in the sky to suggest that should offload all these players.It is not going to happen. What should happen first is that Monreal and Koscielny who are in 30s and becoming injury prone should be offloaded. Also we need to buy a top class centre back to replace Mustafi. Those… Read more »

Un Na naai

Gambon

1) how much could we get for AMN and who could we get to replace him for less and provides better quality

2) it is not essential we replace our substiturbbright back to challenge for top four next season

3)why is cb not a priority for you when it is for almost everyone affiliated with the club

4) how much do you think it would cost to replace Ramsey, ozil, iwobi and Mkhitaryan

5) how much money do you think arsenal have to spend this summer and if we will have enough to facilitate your plans?

gambon

“I have no problem replacing most of our first team squad if you have the money to buy new players”

Ive said we need to buy 6 players.

How is 6 being described as “most” of a 25 man squad?

Freddie Ljungberg

I know you stated 6 players, but nothing has been heard lately about Monreals extension and honestly I don’t think he can handle another season in the PL. So that’s 7. If Martinez leaves it’s 8.

I’m not disagreeing that that’s what we need, I even think we need more, just don’t think it’s realistic in 1 window. This is why I’m willing to give a new manager (regardless of who it is as long as it’s not Arteta) time.

gambon

“1) how much could we get for AMN and who could we get to replace him for less and provides better quality” Why do we have to replace him for less? I would try to get Max Aarons. Someone who is actually a RB. “2) it is not essential we replace our substiturbbright back to challenge for top four next season” Hes not our sub rightback. Firstly he cant even play as a RB, we have to change formation to accomodate him. Secondly, Bellerin is injured, so hes our first choice. “3)why is cb not a priority for you when… Read more »

gambon

Martinez will be second choice next season.

He even said a few months back that the club informed him of this

The quotes about him leaving are old.

Un Na naai

Stroller

It would be madness to get rid of koscielney

Forgive me but a year ago you were of the opinion that holding should be sold along with chambers who (to varying degrees) have since proved their competency.

Koscielney is now our longest serving player and the closest thing we have to a leader in any form once cech leaves

Un Na naai

Gambon

1) fair enough not a bad shout but I’d not sell AMN. He’s cost nothing and he’s low wage. He’s also (in my opinion) worth more to arsenal than you give him credit for. I’d actually try him in cmf more often as I think he has potential

To the rest it all seems pretty reasonable but we both know arsenal aren’t spending £100m this summer
I’d eat my hat if we do.

gambon

YEah, Koscielny should stay He has one year left, may as well just let him see it out, rather than get £5m for him, Mustafi clearly needs replacing. New CB, Sokratis, Holding, Koscielny, Mavropanos wouldnt be too bad. Would also consider selling Mavropanos if we can find another good CB. New CB, New CB, Sokratis, Holding, Koscielny could be very strong. I would actually try and do a deal with Leipzig to buy their 2 CBs over the next 2 summers. £30m for Konate now, then ask for an option on Upamecano for 2020 (give them ESR for 12 months… Read more »

Freddie Ljungberg

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/1120969/emiliano-martinez-arsenal-unai-emery-reading-fc-transfer-news

Plenty of articles from yesterday, and from 3 weeks ago where he says he’s leaving if he’s not getting guarantees.

Nevertheless we’re not fixing everything in 1 window, same as we could only halt the rot last summer, but hopefully we can take a couple of steps forward now. Need at least 2 summers to get a competetive 11, more if we want the squad to be above average as well.

Samesong

We need a left sided centre back not talking about (Monreal). La Porte type

gambon

Un Na 1- Having AMN replace Elneny is a reasonable option, as we could then get maybe £10m from selling Elneny to invest elsewhere. The only problem is AMN isnt good enough (in my opinion) 2- If we could sell AMN for £10m, and get Aarons for say £15m, we have done good business and upgraded the squad. Need to take sentimentality out of it. If AMN was playing for West Ham, not one single Arsenal fan would be calling for us to sign him. 3- We spent £65m (net) last summer, and we have far more money coming in… Read more »

Emiratesstroller

Leaving aside Cech who is 36 and has announced his retirement we have Lichsteiner [35 next season], Monreal and Koscielny [both 34] on our books.

All three are past their best and need to be replaced. Apart from all these players we have Mustafi and Kolasinac on mega wages.

Collectively these six players are costing the club about about £600K per week
in wages. When you see how poor our defence has played this season and the
number of goals conceded we should be asking some serious questions about
this department of our game.

Bamford10

In addition to criticizing Emery, certain people have criticized a lack of leadership at the club, a lack of vision and identity. “Where is the vision?” these people shout. “Who is guiding this ship?” Some of this is sincere, some of this is cynical and opportunist, but all of it can be addressed by paying closer attention to what the men who run the club (Sanllehi, Venkatesham, Emery) have actually been saying. James Benge’s April 14 piece in Football London on Arsenal’s search for a sporting director is useful in this regard. He writes: “Arsenal are acutely aware of the… Read more »

Bamford10

AS (Spanish Newspaper) is reporting that Madrid have reached a verbal agreement with Christian Eriksen.

gambon

Ive said a few times that Spurs and Chelsea have a tough couple of years ahead.

Now is the time to build our squad up to leap ahead of them both.

Bamford10

Ornstein is reporting that Ramsey will not be able to return prior to our season end and that he has played his last match for Arsenal. I saw someone say the opposite here the other day, so I thought I should mention this.

Danny

I reckon there’s a chance AMN could improve so we should hold on to him. Iwobi on the other hand wont improve, he’s shit, just get rid of him.

Marc

gambon

100% if we work smartly we could give ourselves enough of a head start they’ll struggle to catch up.

gambon

Marc

That will require some real hard work, smart investment and ambition.

The problem is, I think Arsenal see the transfer window as a problem rather than a solution.

Man Utd will 100% see Chelsea and Spurs struggles as a great opportunity to get, and stay above them for the long term.

Arsenal, I feel, will say to themselves “at least Chelsea and Spurs wont pull away from us in the next few windows”

Champagne Charlie

Gambon I agree with a lot of what you say, but I differ in opinion on where to start with the squad. AMN for instance is a good squad player, compare him to Elneny who is absolute dogshit and has about 14 minutes football this season. He’d be first out for me, because he’s exactly the sort of body offering nothing to the side that kills us. – Offer nothing: Elneny, Chambers, Ospina, Jenks -Bloated wages for their input: Ozil, Kolasinac, Mkhi -Players we could get good money for: Mustafi, Xhaka, Laca/Auba I think the summer sees a mixture of… Read more »

Jamie

Bamford 10May 1, 2019 10:41:51

AS (Spanish Newspaper) is reporting that Madrid have reached a verbal agreement with Christian Eriksen.

How does this happen without Real Madrid falling foul of FIFA’s tapping-up regulations? Genuinely curious. In my view, all these ‘articles’ containing claims a player has agreed terms with a buying club without the selling club agreeing a fee are clickbait.

Marc

Emirates

Lich – Contract up 30/6/19

Monreal – Contract up 30/6/19 although I did read somewhere that we’d taken up an option for a year extension probably just to get a small fee.

Kos – Contract up 30/6/20

So your problem is pretty much solved. Personally I’d keep Kos on as backup and bring in 1 or 2 more CB’s. The problem at the club is not those players they’re sorting themselves out the problems are Xhaka, Mustafi, Ozil, Miki, Kolas etc.

Marc

gambon

If you were given two options of what might happen in a random circumstance I guarantee you’d go for the negative outcome.

I’m not saying everything will be easy but being a miserable bastard 24/7 isn’t’ really a solution.

Marc

Bamford

What do you reckon he’ll go for? I reckon £75 – £80 million but some on here have been quoting £120 million etc – I just can’t see a player with a year left (not this player anyway) going for that.

Bamford10

Marc

Hard to say what he’ll go for, as the market is both inflated and a little volatile. I personally don’t think he’s worth any more than £45m, but Madrid may feel differently.

Jamie

You may be right. I don’t know about that.

Emiratesstroller

Marc

I have no issue keeping Koscielny for one more year providing that both Lichsteiner and Monreal depart.

However, Arsenal need to bring in at least two “quality” defenders in the summer transfer window namely a Centre Back and Left Back. Our current defence whoever is selected is not fit for purpose.

You cannot continue to concede 50+ goals in EPL and expect improvement
particularly when you are conceding 3 goals in each of last 3 games against
Crystal Palace, Wolves and Leicester who are mid table teams.

That tells you that our defence is not fit for purpose.

Marc

Bamford

As you say who knows – I do know that by announcing that they’ve effectively put 12 players up for sale won’t help – looks like they are desperate for the money.

Marc

Emirates

I see a LB and 1 CB as being minimum requirements. After that it’s how much money we have plus how many players we can shift on.

Batistuta

If we don’t don’t do anything about that midfield in the summer then it wouldn’t matter anywhere else though….We struggle to get any sort of control against teams that press us and bar Torreira and the odd ball from Xhaka when he has the freedom of the emirates, our midfield options are terribly shit

Batistuta

1 CB would be okay for this window at least but we need to so something about our midfield and wings because all our goals literally come from pur forward players, without them, we’re a 16/17th place team

bennydevito

Personally I’d keep AMN and Iwobi as they’re young, know the Arsenal way and are home grown. AMN can fill in at RB and CM and Iwobi although limited does give us options and a bit of pace coming off the bench. Maybe keep Jenkinson and Chambers as back up RB and CB to cover for injuries especially if Kos and Monreal stay on one more year and they’re both homegrown too. If it were up to me and I was taking over this squad on football Manager, which I know it isn’t, I’d get rid of Kos, Monreal, Mustafi,… Read more »

terraloon

As I pointed out a while ago there is nothing in the 2017/18 accounts to suggest that there will be a lot of wriggle room. The every increasing charge in respect of amortisation and the fact that there is no way that the £120 million player trading profit will be replicated indeed increased commercial income will of course help but the 2018/19 accounts will in my opinion show a loss. That’s not to say that the cash reserves won’t go up but it’s the bottom line that FFP is based on and not cash on hand. I read the other… Read more »

gambon

benny

Heres the problem…

AMN, Iwobi, Chambers, Jenkinson are not Arsenal quality….or certainly not if we want to make any kind of improvement.

Even the language you use “know the Arsenal way” is all sentiment and not based on their quality.

If Klopp had kept Sakho, Ibe, Allen and Wisdom Liverpool would not be on 91 pts right now.

Tough decisions have to be made, we cant just keep everyone and sign 1 or 2 players.

Un Na naai

We need a spine. Leno holding Torriera could be the makings of one in theory and have the team built around that. I wouldn’t worry too much about the full backs in the summer if we can’t find options. I’d focus my efforts on cb, cmf, am, Wong That in itslef is a lot for a club Ike arsenal these days but they have to be priority for us now. We have enough youth coming through to sprinkle around that but if we add those four positions properly to the players we already have then we have a great springboard… Read more »

gambon

Charlie I would say the full back positions have been a huge issue this season, and along with replacing Mustafi, are the priorities. That is both RB and LB. Kolasinac & AMN are a huge issue because (along with Mustafi) Emery has to change the formatoion every time he wants to play them. With Bellerin having a serious injury and not being ready for the start of the season, I would say a good RB is vital. Either a young player (Bellerin succession plan) or an experienced (not 34 year old). Now if we are going to buy new full… Read more »

gunnershabz

the main thing we need this summer is pace and power from the premier league

we need that athletic midfielder like doucoure of watford £30m

also ryan fraser as a wide player will be more useful then mkhi and iwobi

even a playmaker like ruben neves would do wonders

chilwell and mcquire would be great additions to our team

but we do need pace and power on the flanks

Marc

Does anyone know where we are on home grown quota if we’re going to lose Ramsey and Welbeck this summer.

We might need to keep / integrate some English players to meet it.

bennydevito

I don’t think we have a snow ball’s chance in hell of getting Maguire or Chilwell.

City are rumoured to be after Chilwell so they will blow us out of the water and will need to as Brenda is going to be reluctant to sell.

The same goes for Maguire as Man utd are rumoured to want him.

We won’t get any of them and need to stop dreaming about it I’m afraid.

bennydevito

Marc,

Precisely why I argue we need to keep AMN, Iwobi, Chambers and Jenkinson.

Jamie

Maybe keep all our players (since some argue we have the 3rd/4th best squad in the league) and just replace Emery with habanero sauce? The club would save £100m in transfer fees this summer, and the new exciting gaffer would easily have us back in the CL in 12 months. “Emery is shit, he lost Ligue 1!” Swiftly followed by “we need to replace Kola, Cech, Mustafi, Xhaka, Elneny, Welbeck, Rasmey, Monreal, AMN, Iwobi, Mkhi, Ozil, Jenko, Chambers in order to compete!” without a hint of irony. Our squad is trash, and our shiny £110m strike force are two limited… Read more »

terraloon

Marc

No such thing as a HG quota. What there is is a number of the squad positions reserved for HG players. In effect you don’t have to have any HG players in your squad although that would be madness.
If you ignore Ramsey and Wellbeck from the September 18 squad you still will have the following HG players. Bellerin, Holding,Dayan, Iwobi, Jenkinson & Martinez who is on loan and of course Chambers who probably will return from Fulham

Jamie

..and AMN, Smith-Rowe and Nelson. No issue with HG if they’re all in the squad next season.

gambon

Benny

Lots of talk in the last few days that City aren’t after a LB.

terraloon

Jamie

Smith Rowe and Nelson are under 21 so won’t be in the 25 man squad but will qualify by virtue of age .
ANM is an interesting one as he was 21 last August so didn’t need to be included in the 25 man squad but for next season he will so the question is will he justify a squad place?

Marc

terraloon

Sorry but however you word it each club must have a minimum of 8 “home grown” players in their 25 man squad. We are losing 3 in the summer – Jenko, Ramsey and Welbeck.

Interestingly AMN was not included in this seasons list. We’re either going to have to incorporate Chambers and one other back into the team, 2 youth players or buy one or two British players.

gambon

“Sorry but however you word it each club must have a minimum of 8 “home grown” players in their 25 man squad”

Not true.

Jamie

terraloon –

Under 21s can still be included in the squad registration, I think, but they don’t need to be if the squad in question is already loaded with over 21 talent.

Marc

gambon

https://www.premierleague.com/news/844127

Premier leagues own website says you can’t have more than 17 players who do not fulfil the home grown criteria you can then make up the squad with a maximum of 8 home grown players to a maximum of 25.

Now if you’re arguing that we should go into a season with 17 “non home grown” players plus a few others then dear oh dear.

gambon

We currently have the following non home grown.

Cech
Lichsteiner
Mustafi
Koscielny
Sokratis
Monreal
Kolasinac
Elneny
Torreira
Xhaka
Mykhitaryan
Ozil
Aubameyang
Lacazette

So we can add 3 non HG players without even selling.

Bearing in mind Cech, Lichsteiner are certainly going we can add 5 players without selling.

bennydevito

gambon,

I thought Guardiola said a whole back he wanted to sign 4 players to replace those who keep getting injured and he focused on the LB position citing Mendy as not reliable because of his injury record? He also said he wanted a DM another attacking wide player as KDB is always injured and I think another striker although not quite sure.

Chilwell, Declan Rice and Ruben Nevas are rumoured to be his top targets.

gambon

HG status will not affect our transfer plans this summer.

gambon

Benny

All I know is that everyone has been reporting that City won’t be after a LB and that Mendy and Zichenko will be trusted.

This was yesterday.

Champagne Charlie

Gambon

I’m certainly not against selling anyone, there’s nobody in this squad you could sell that’d she’d a tear.

But for me AMN is a good squad body, and Licht needs the replacement. Perhaps sell Elneny, replace Licht with that money, then let AMN operate as the backup

Danish Gooner

To many off our flair players have no end product,Iwobi the latest Gercvinho and Hleb other great candidates the list is endless that is why Willy Zaha would be a good buy probably overly expensive but he is starting to score goals and we need someone lightning fast from the wing.

Marc

gambon

I hope you’re right – we have a recent history of coming up short because of injuries etc. I don’t know how many of the U21’s will switch into the senior squad who aren’t home grown – I think for example Guendozi will step up season after next.

You also missed Leno off of your list.

terraloon

Marc

There’s no must about it.

As I said earlier a set number of the 25 squad places can not be filled by non HG players over the age of 21 but that’s it.
You can have as many under 21 year olds as you like so in theory could go with not one player named in your over 21 squad. Would be madness but it’s allowable
Jamie
As far as I am aware then players under the age of 21 aren’t named in 25 man PL squads and in reality it would make no sense whatsoever to do so.

Dissenter

The talk of replacing AMN and Iwobi is kind of daft because they won’t fetch much in transfer fees. They both cost us nothing and are low wage earners.
Lets just consider them bodies who shouldn’t be starting no more than 10 league games s a season.

Marko

Even the language you use “know the Arsenal way” is all sentiment and not based on their quality.

It’s very true. There’s a lot of Arsenal fans out there afraid of change and who are too attached to players which is baffling to me. AMN will never be anything more than a squad player at best if you can replace him with better do it and become attached with his replacement. It’s not even about tough decisions needing to be made this summer it’s easy and obvious decisions

Dissenter

The club needs to set a mandate on the manager to incorporate the academy players a lot more. That’s where the lack of a DoF is costing us.

What in the word is Raul Sanllehi’s job description if it doesn’t include the work of a DoF?
Someone help me please.

Marko

The talk of replacing AMN and Iwobi is kind of daft because they won’t fetch much in transfer fees.

That’s not necessarily true and besides it’s irrelevant if they’re not good enough they’re not good enough you don’t just keep someone because you won’t get much for them and forgo a better replacement. That’s honestly loser talk.

gambon

Dissenter

We cant incorporate academy players if they arent good enough.

Really, who are we supposed to incorporate? Most of our U23 players will not even play Championship level football.

People going over the top based on Ajax’ current success.

De Jong isnt a great player because he was given a chance – he was given a chance because he’s a great player.

Its up to the kids to meet a certain standard, not for the standards to come down and meet the kids.

bennydevito

MarkoMay 1, 2019    13:51:29 Even the language you use “know the Arsenal way” is all sentiment and not based on their quality. It’s very true. There’s a lot of Arsenal fans out there afraid of change and who are too attached to players which is baffling to me. AMN will never be anything more than a squad player at best if you can replace him with better do it and become attached with his replacement. It’s not even about tough decisions needing to be made this summer it’s easy and obvious decisions >>>>> Marko, I’m not afraid of change and… Read more »

Ishola70

Ajax have remained loyal to a footballing philosophy and these players we see now are a product of that. They remained loyal to it even when they were an irrelevance in the big european competition for so long and it was said that they would not get back to being anything of real note because they were a side who had no money to spend in comparison to the bigger european league teams and that they played in an inferior league. We used to hear that Wenger was implementing a footballing philosophy and style of play through all the youth… Read more »

Dissenter

gambon
Are you sure Willock wouldn’t have been better that wasting time on Elneny
Are you sure Saka couldn’t have been played in one of these three games that we lost woefully, games where Auba looked like the waling dead.
I’m not referring to a wholesale adoption of the academy, just certain players who may be able to match the physicality of the league.

gambon

Dissenter

Raul is effecively the football Managing Director.

His direct reports are:

– Head Coach
– Director of Performance
– Technical Director (still looking)
– StatDNA & Analytics
– Head of Academy
– Director of Development

Ishola70

tbf though Ajax has better opportunities to nurture these players and get them playing regular first team football at a young age due to the league they play in. Less demanding than the EPL.

Dissenter

Ishola I made that point about Ajax when Pedro was drumming up Overmars as if he had invented the wheel. Overmars has just been an administrator implementing the Ajax philosophy, nothing innovative about that. Ajax have always been revolutionary since the 1970s. Their scouting has always been more far reaching than other European clubs. They found an unknown Nigerian player called Finidi George in a Nigerian club called Iwuanyanwu Nationale in 1994. The first time most Nigerian’s even heard of this guy was when he played for Ajax in the CL final of 1995 against Juventus. The closest system to… Read more »

Words on a Blog

Gambon

Presumably also Head of Recruitment (still looking?) also reports to Raúl

Un Na naai

De Jong isnt a great player because he was given a chance – he was given a chance because he’s a great player.

Gambon
He was a £500k signing from lower league
Only overmars spotted him he could still be there

Ashley cole was on his way to palace as a forward and Harry Kane was deemed surplus at spurs until they had a striker injury crisis

It’s not always that simple. You’re taking a Mourinho view on young talent.

gunnershabz

i still think we should really consider abu docourau of watford

he is a good player, box to box beast

i think he would do brillant for us

i think he can be ramsey replace for his engine but he has better in game discipline

gambon

Dissenter I would say Willock and Elneny are quite different players. Willock will probably go on loan to prove himself next season. Saka is 17. I really like him, but 17 is a bit young. He will go on tour this summer and get his chance to impress. Look at Chuba Akpom. People were calling for him to be involved in the first team, but he went on loan to Hull and scored 3 goals all season in the Championship. Look at Jeff Reine-Adeleide – people were calling for him to be involved. Hes just scored 3 and assisted 3… Read more »

gambon

Words

I thinkour Head of Recruitment will report to the TD

Words on a Blog

Gambon – ok thanks

Marc

New post guys

Biggles

I fully suspect Chambers will be back in the squad next year. That’s RB cover and CB cover sorted. He’s under a long-ish contract and cheaper than several of the others. No way we’d renew Jenks in the summer. Too expensive, not good enough. Same goes for Lichtsteiner. We probably will renew Monreal in the summer. He’s on £65k I believe. He’s not long turned 33, so this would be his last season with us presumably. I think we’d probably be looking for a new first choice LB, but that might have to wait until next summer depending on who… Read more »

Valentin

The truth is that no club can play a full premiership season with only 17 players instead of a squad of 25. That means that either U21 or over 21 Home Grown players have to be involved. Realistically we need an upgrade on four positions CB, LB, DM, CAM. If as suggested by some we were to decide to sell Iwobi, AMN, Nelson, Chambers this summer, that means that we need to replace 8 players including 4 HG in one transfer window. We can’t afford the best English players, especially as ManCity, ManUtd have the same position requirements LB, CB,… Read more »

Valentin

Chupa Akpom looked good at U21 level, because he was faster and stronger than most defenders of his age. However he was lacking technique. As soon as he started playing against players he could not physically bully, he reached his ceiling.
He is still making a great career for himself, winning the Greek league.

That’s completely different to Willock, Saka, Nelson. Bar pace, none of them relies on physical advantage, but on technique, dribbling skill, vision and knack for late surge in the box.

Tony

“Tipped as the next Dennis Bergkamp by the man himself at 10 and told to use his farmer’s strength… how Donny van de Beek became one of Europe’s most exciting young midfielders”

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-6979895/How-Ajaxs-Donny-van-Beek-one-Europes-exciting-young-midfielders.html

How do our management/scouts etc not know about this kid over the last 10 years?

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