Emery talks politics, history, and presentations + Club linked to deep-lying midfielder

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Just as heads up folks, the only thing Black Friday is good for is watching middle-class folk fight over Calvin Klein boxer shorts deals. What a fraudulent holiday. A total con. Look at the shoddy deal Arsenal are trying to pull here.

Looool… Bantonio Banlencia with the cross, Alexis Bantchez is in on goal, oh my, it’s over the bar…

Sometimes you just gotta bring the A-game.

Something else that amuses me. Unai Emery looking awkward.

Emery: Guys, I don’t do pictures

Reporter: Come on Unai, just one

Emery: Ok, how’s this?

Reporter: Perfecto

Absolutely zero creativity in that shot. Just Emery, in a tracksuit, pointing at a picture. No esoteric layers, no filters, just pure Emery pointing at his job. Love it.

Anyway, his interview was very interesting. This bit was was worth paying attention to.

“In the past, teams had already approached me with their decision made: Paris Saint-Germain, Sevilla, Valencia, Spartak Moscow, Almeria… I wasn’t used to being another candidate and putting my arguments across. I prepared for the meeting with my staff. I went into it with the doubt of my English speaking, but they always said that this wouldn’t be a problem. And I spoke to them very naturally that day.”

Apparently one of the other managers in contention made a very impressive presentation, so Emery was asked to do the same to make it fair (in case it leaked). This quote still smacks of oddness, unless of course, Ivan Gazidis and Sven Mislintat could both speak Spanish. How was the interview structured if they were all speaking naturally?

The best line for me was when he was asked what his approach has been at Arsenal.

“Before Wenger arrived, Arsenal celebrated the 1-0 wins and were based on defensive solidity. With Arsene, they became an attacking team, with players who were good on the ball. And the perfect combination came with The Invincibles [in the 2003/4 season when Arsenal won the Premier League and remained unbeaten]. But with time, you can only take care of technique and attacking freedom, losing your defensive structure. What I want to do is unite the two and become more competitive. Arsenal were falling. We had to stop that and start to lift them.”

That’s a man who understands the now, but also what went before him. I’m extremely impressed at something which I guess should be a basic for £6m a year job. But really, for a Spanish manager to have a strong grasp of over 30 years of Arsenal football history is a measure of the man. Classy. Wisdomish. Mesmerical.

I mentioned in the post yesterday that I was wondering whether the clubs hierarchy would hold itself to account moving forward, which of course, I truly believe they will… but we have a little bit of self-preservation PTSD after 10 years with a CEO and a manager who were happy with hitting financial goals, working harder to reframe secondary success, versus actually achieving primary success (troooophies).

“We can improve this team. I want to be demanding. I am delighted with the treatment of the club in all areas, but I want them to be demanding of me because I will then push the club forward. I want to be demanding of myself, the team and the club. The Premier League is different to how it was 20 years ago, when City and Chelsea weren’t the same teams, and Everton were stronger. Money has changed everything. And Arsenal must be great, not allowing the four above to take advantage of us [there’s also Manchester United] and not allow the teams below to get closer to us.”

Good to see the manager wants to be pushed. Again, these are basics for competitive people who want to win things, but they’ve been sorely lacking.

Final quote before you go to the site yourself to read the rest, but it appears we had an answer on why he didn’t start with Leno and LT, and it wasn’t performance, it was political, as we suspected at the time.

“Because you have to respect hierarchy. [Bernd] Leno arrives, but [Petr] Cech is doing well and you must respect that. Petr was first. The same thing was true with [Matteo] Guendouzi and Torreira, who arrived later. I gave him [Guendouzi] the chance first, which I was delighted about, but now he’s not playing as much and Lucas is.”

Again, it’s all part of the onboarding process. You can’t shake the applecart too hard, you have to make sure you don’t completely break the spirit, and you want to make sure the leaders respect you. Dumping players doing a good job isn’t smart, and there’s no doubt Guendouzi and Cech were smashing it earlier in the season. Now they’ve been moved to the bench and that’s fine, because Torreira and Leno proved themselves. That’s the sort of fair competitive environment you want to foster.

Bacary Sagna, like so many ex-players and pundits are now coming around to the realisation that it wasn’t the players who were the issue last season.

“It is strange. From one year to another, it is totally crazy,”

“They enjoyed the summer to clear their minds and come back stronger.

“It seems like they give even more on the pitch and it is working for them. I am so happy to see the club back to its best. Arsenal is in my heart, it is my club.

Incredible how many professional athletes didn’t seem to grasp that a manager who doesn’t hold you accountable probably won’t extract the most out of the squad.

Big Raul reckons Stan K is a fucking ace guy.

“The one thing that’s crucial for the good management of a club is stability and now I believe we have full stability.

“Every time we’ve interacted with the owners, we get a total sense of support and alignment.

“We are in a new chapter of the club and the passion these people have for Arsenal has given us the right working environment.”

He’s never going to call him a ‘f*cking mugged up mug,’ but at the same time, you’d have to imagine he’s hearing good things if he’s going to the press about his boss. Right? RIGHT? £100m Dembele incoming people!

We’re being linked with Julian Weigl in some of the press. This move doesn’t really make sense to me. He’s certainly not a direct replacement for Aaron Ramsey as The Sun guessed, but he would be for Granit Xhaka. The German sits at the base of midfield and sprays balls around for fun. He’s very slight of frame, but certainly a talent. It does make me a little uncomfortable that half of the rumours surrounding Arsenal are exDortmund players. Can we just look elsewhere?

FINALLY, we’re being linked to Fornals of Malaga. This player is sexy on toast. An absolute delight on the ball, he can track back, he plays long, short, he scores and he assists. Check out his video here…

P.S. Get a hit of Arsene Wenger rocking blue sneakers with Gray and Keysey in Qatar. Bit sad to watch, the man wants a job and the offers don’t seem to be rolling in. Love that his opener was a jab about people with opinions… to move on Mr Wenger, you have to take responsibility for your own bad press (you don’t, but it would be nice if you did).



Xhaka shade + 3 exceptional prospects you’d hope Sven has earmarked

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Rumours all over the place about who we’re going to sign to replace Aaron Ramsey. Denis Suarez has thrown his name into ring, and I couldn’t be any less excited there. The versatile Spaniard had a spell under Emery back in the day, he clocked some solid numbers considering he was 20, but I’m not sure he’s really hit the heights at Barcelona.

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BIG games coming

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via @Arsenal instagram

The third international break in 3 months is by far the most frustrating. It’s the guy who gets booted out of the pub and keeps trying to get in. Fuck off. You are boring.

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Sven transfer leaks are exciting

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Pet peeve of mine. Ex-players talking about how they got shit-faced before a game then scored a hattrick. Nice one. You were reckless. Your career never blew up because of it. Not sure you should be celebrating that.

Secondly. Seems like the comments section of Le Grove has turned austere in times of plenty. No one seems to fancy Dembele, preferring to invest in a creaking squad. I have to say, as much as I love the French international, spanking out £100m on one player at the minute feels a touch luxurious. We really do have very serious issues that are going to be exposed like a loose plaster trying to cover an axe wound.

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DEMBELE LINKED? Exciting…

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You never want to be the person who says shut up and play football, but my word, you kind of wish Mesut Ozil’s agent would stop trapping off like the Trump of the agent world. Dr Ergot took time out to speak to James Olley at The Evening Standard.

“We had some really big offers from Asia – there were some crazy offers. But, for Mesut, money was by no means the biggest factor. (more…)


Bernd De Gea + Arsenal round-up

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Bob Wilson spoke at the AST last night and he had this to say on Bernd Leno.

“In my opinion, Bernd Leno is as good as DDG. I have only one concern: Leno has got to learn to catch rather than punch. He is prepared to learn from Petr, and Petr is a brilliant guy in that respect. Petr is still the best at taking crosses and killing it.”

I mean, not quite sure about the DDG comparison so soon in the season, but god damn it Bob, you are on the money with the catching crosses part.

Just remember, when I say something on keepers, I’m always right. Unless I’m talking about Manone ousting Buffon for the Italy shirt, or praising Alex Manninger as the greatest of Arsenal greats.

Talking of Bernd De Gea, he revealed the manager prepared a Facetime message for WELBZ after his horrible injury.

“We talked to him because the coach [suggested it] before the game in the meeting, we had a FaceTime session with him,” Leno said. “It was very good.

“He looked very happy and I think he was happy to talk to us because he is still a big part of our team and we will support him to have a good time when he is injured.

That’s really sweet. Emery a master of mobile video, which is apparently all the rage these days.

Talking of Danny, he’s had his second operation on his ankle, which doesn’t sound good. I very much doubt we’re going to see him back before the end of the season. I’m very interested to see what the club do with his deal. Dumping him on his arse, even if he is out of contract, feels a touch brutal. What protections do players have here? In my job, we land workers comp and we have insurance etc. Do footballers get the same thing?

Apparently, we’re not going to sign someone in his place. The job of replacing Danny goes to Edddiiiieeeeee. A fantastic opportunity for him to show what he’s worth in the Europa League, leading the frontline, as well off the bench as an impact sub.

Talking of impact subs and beautiful segues, super sub, Reiss Nelson, scored again for Hoffenheim at the weekend. The fastest non-German player to 6 goals EVER in the Bundesliga. Not bad for a teenager, you have to say. I’m still torn about whether to bring him back. He’s in great form, and you don’t really want to break that confidence and flow he’s found under Nagelsmann. You also don’t want to watch non-wide players stinking out the pitch all season. I still can’t quite believe we won’t use January to make some moves.

I also can’t believe how much cash money we have wrapped up in Ozil, Ramsey and Mikhi (£600k pw or £700k if you believe there was a contract we could afford on the table). We could by some good Europa League players for that cash.

The coach has pulled Lacazette from the French squad because of a groin injury no one noticed at the weekend. I love that, a Fergie classic from back in the day, but something we rarely did under Wenger. Well played Arsenal medical staff.

Finally, take a bow Danny Finton.