Brighton is a tough team to play against. They play high intensity, positive game and have Europe in mind. Having played 3 less games than Tottenham, who sits at the 6th position, Brighton could overtake them with a win. They are in a happy place but they know things can turn bad towards the end of the season, and won’t really be wishing to leave it to that. They will fight, and they will make things tough for us.
Today’s game comes with a relief for Arteta, both Solly March and Webster are ruled out of game and we are back in fine form. Saliba and Zinchenko are ruled out for the season, but Kiwior didn’t disappoint and Tierney is as good a player at LB. He might come up short in his midfield abilities, but I’m of the belief that a defender’s first priority is to defend well. Anything else is extra.
Having said that, I would really like him to excel in the three games left. Rumours about him leaving (or sold) is not a good news for me, I don’t know if we need to splash another 60m for a LB when we already have a lad covering it and doing well whenever given a chance. It would be like creating a problem and then fixing it.
For the rest of this season, we don’t have anything to win or lose now. I’m a generally optimistic person but everyone and their dog knows City are not going to drop points, and are not going to give away their 1 point lead with a game in hand. We feel the Liverpool’s frustration, in a short amount of time they have overtaken the title race. No doubt we have thrown it away ourselves by sharing points against the likes of West Ham and Liverpool after going 2-0 up, and against Southampton at home, but Pep is showing to us how hard it can be for any other team. Not only does he prepares his team tactically, he engrains in them a tough, winning mentality which allows them to perform at the top when needed the most.
It was nice till it lasted. It leaves us to the last three games, and I’m looking forward to finishing our season with 3 wins, and 90 points. It will keep the confidence high, make the incomings in the summer easier and gives us the confidence to pick ourselves up and retry again next season.
—
Back to the game, I’m expecting a a back 4 of White, Kiwior, Gabriel and Tierney. Jorginho would probably keep his place after a good game against Newcastle. Xhaka starts because he always do. We would see Saka, Odegaard and Martinelli behind Jesus, but I would personally like to see Eddie given a chance today. We are at home, we are playing Brighton and Eddie can do a job.
Trossard would like a game too, but unless we play in 2 competitions, I doubt we will see much of him. Mikel has his favorites and there is nothing wrong in that if it works. The only problem is, it don’t keep people happy. We need a strong bench, but good players don’t like to settle on the bench. A conundrum Mikel has to overcome, and we still have ESR and Eddie waiting, Balogun, Lokonga and Tavares returning, Saliba and Tomiyasu injured.
I would love to see a clean sheet. It felt sh*t to David De Gea winning the golden glove. I wouldn’t have mind if it was Ederson or Allison but lol.
Right, a short one today. Lets beat them seagulls and continue the quest of being the best out there. If you are saddened with missing out the trophy after being top of the table virtually the whole season, here’s some positive – we will be playing in Champions League next season, we will be fighting again for the trophy, Spu*s might not even make to Europa and London is red through and through.
#COYG
As a postscript to that, I should also admit that my antipathy to Arteta has a lot to do with me.
I’m nearly 60, more anti capitalist and anti big business than ever and I’m sick of PL football. In a just world City would be stripped of their titles but it’s laughable to think it’ll actually happen.
Arteta has been put up by the club to represent the Kroenkes and their money in order to sportswash their own image and protect the brand and the investment. Good hair, designer clothes, cod emotion on the touchline etc. ad nauseam. I got an even stronger sense if that after watching all or nothing. The utter insincerity of high level football. The championship isn’t much better – just more shouting and swearing really.
And you know what? It’s all fake and easily seen through. Arsenal’s demise in this respect started with Wengo as Arsenal joined the ranks of turning a fast buck for as little investment as possible. We’re now a horrible, soulless club like many others. Liverpool are not quite there but soon will be. North London forever is bullshit.
I most enjoy the youthful exuberance and thankfully there’s been lots of that this year. Reiss’s goal v Bournemouth was as terrific as Tets’s neglect of ESR was painful.
I’m feeling out of love with the club, out of touch with it and London, and sometimes wish surgery was available to remove that part of my brain that will always care about a club that laughs in the face of its real fans.
Kroenke
I’m 50 this year, more Capitalist than ever, love big business and “greed is good” gets me sexual aroused. Arteta’s a cunt – its got nothing to do with age or political persuasion he’s a piss poor manager who walks with the swagger of someone who’s been there, seen it all and won everything when all he really is is a bottle job.
Marc-now that you’re approaching the half century mark maybe you’ll finally come out of your shell and start speaking your mind LOL…Cheers
KP-I both feel for you and concur with your “soulless” sentiments…it all feels like we’re simply going through the motions, almost as if someone had built a house made entirely of glass on the top of a mountain surrounded by the most breathtaking of vistas, but instead of allowing it’s occupants to venture out into their own private Eden they were forced into spending all their available time on a treadmill watching CGI-enhanced nature videos…so close, yet so far
from the time of Wenger’s dismissal I was all for a youthful rebuild, if that was what it was going to take in order to get our club back into a position of European prominence…I was clearly more enamored with this possibility than our current manager, as evidenced by MA’s original squad building script, so when it became obvious that he was only choosing this option as a means to his own selfish vocational ends, he should have been summarily dismissed
this was always going to be an incredibly complex undertaking that logically required someone with a singular vision, experience with such matters and a highly knowledgeable supporting cast already in place, which clearly wasn’t the case…if this was Klopp, Pep, Nagelsmann or even the duo of ten Hag and Overmars, there would have been a clear line of logic, but the whole learning on the job narrative always seemed a bridge too far…the craziest part of this whole equation is just imagine what might have been on offer by now if we had given one of the aformentioned managers our in-house emerging blue chippers and a king’s ransom to boot
of course, some will be quick to suggest that we made a valiant title challenge and this is a clear sign of things to come, whereas I would disagree with such misplaced optimism, as I feel that their assessment lacks the necessary nuance and context…besides the fact that we won the majority of our matches in the much less pressurized first half of the season, you can’t escape the fact that in the business end of the season we were a middling club who got continually worse when it mattered most
so much in the same vein as when the Kool-Aid crew, two season ago, hung their hats on our late season uptick in form, under the guise that this would be the perfect jumping off point for the season to follow, shouldn’t our late season severe dip in form lead those same individuals to make similar, albeit conversely negative, predictions about the start of next season…as such, I’m deeply concerned about giving this manager another transfer bounty, especially knowing full-well just how important this window will be for our foreseeable future…if he fucks this up by not finally securing some seminal pieces and cutting the cord on some of his favourites, we could easily find ourselves back in Wenger Cup mode this time next year
What an enjoyable and spirited discussion. I am trying very hard to look to the future with a positive outlook but I am having a very difficult time. For me bringing in new players will not solve the problem as direction to form those players into a feared squad is not in their own hands but the manager and DofF have a lot to do with forming them into an elite squad.
Because we finished 2nd at the next CL draw we could end up in a group of death that according to the Sun could look like this:
Bayern
Real
Arsenal
Marseille
Alternatively, the Gunners could draw the likes of PSG, Barca or Napoli from Pot 1 not a pretty picture. This would now require a manager with nous to progress to the knock out stages.
On a very positive side starting with the 2024/25 a place will be given to each of the two countries whose clubs collectively performed best in Europe the previous year. If the EPL maintains it’s first place rating it means finishing 5th that year will give that team CL.
Now to the most important part. Edu has never established connections and a rapport with the footballing elite in Europe the way he may have in Brazil. That is a handicap add to that the poor person management of Arteta and you can see we are thin on the front of those that give the club direction.
All the clubs we are competing with for trophies and honor have proper Directors of Football, I believe we are short changed in that and you can see it when we sell players or try to buy players, Edu and Arteta are being taken for chumps. Not as bad as Todd and Co but still naive and as KP said for me also a C-Rating.
Morning all
What a great night of POV debating. I’ll be happy to be on the similar time lines to you guys.
Bob
I enjoyed your input and felt your points merited interesting thoughts form our regulars. I had a laugh out loud moment at you choosing to sit on the fence. 🙂 Not for any other reason that you’re true to yourself in your beliefs where I see your fence as a recuperating and gathering of thoughts ready for the next debate. Maybe the odd shot of Hine Antique for fortitude of thought.
Still waiting to hear back from Ambarish, but it’s normal, as he’s busy with his business. If you feel like adding a main post please do. It helps ambarish time wise and keeps the blog fresh.
Regards your son’s project the more thought I gave it, the more I’d lean towards telling the story of the song the way the song came together with production in mind and initial desk settings –
-explain changes made to any parts of the song’s arrangements because of production needs –
-and then the mixing instrument by instrument to the desk’s channels with additional effects, such as reverb, auto tune +++
-and then creating sub groups, such as drums or Keys and then the final mixing with any effects’ additions not already added to lay the tracks foundation before adding vox tracks and harmonies. Sisters & brothers work best for harmonies because of the gene pool in their make up. Jackson 5 anyone?
It would help to know your son’s style of music: Junior is all over rap at the moment. Also, your lad’s instrument preference for writing songs and instruments played.
Knowing this, I’ll be able to advise you on session musos experience to look for. My initial thinking would be to find a keyboard player in his 40s but still like me, young in music. Keyboard players tend to be more production minded and desk oriented.
If junior were doing this I’d find the right session guys and make sure the drums and bass are a tight unit having played together for years. The backing track sets the stage for the rest of the track laying in timing and feel – compression from low frequencies.
Next I’d book a rehearsal room and get together with the chosen musicians for say 4 days doing 2 songs a day working about 10 hours a day with breaks. You son will learn so much from this.
Once the songs are ready to be recorded choose your studio. The Church would be my preference when you listen to what’s come out of the spiritual studios from the elite of music.
“To sing in The Church today is to play a part in music history that has included Adele, U2, Bob Dylan, Radiohead, Annie Lennox, Depeche Mode, Robert Plant, Patti Smith, Elvis Costello, Lana Del Rey, Tom Jones, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Florence + The Machine, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Mumford and Sons, Seal, Spiritualized, The Stones Roses and The xx.”
The resident desk jockey will be all your son needs to collaborate with the production and keep note of the desks set up to begin with and then the additional effects as required.
Finally for now. Less is more, same for painters.
Some of the most powerful songs can be the least produced and simply written as ink this case:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oadhHk2xs6c
This should get you thinking in the right direction and we can talk further when ambarish sends you man email, which i trust you to keep private.
The only time we spoil our son and daughter is for education for work and travel purposes. Presently, our daughter is looking at becoming a chef after graduating top of her year for aerospace engineering from RMIT, Melbourne. At the moment she’s looking into 2 renown culinary schools in BKK and Paris to learn Thai/French fusion for our France project. Covid has been her issue in finding work without experience that companies did before covid and then culling their workforces.
Can’t have hungry guests and musicians. Time is money in studios.
Back to football I understand you better in your replies here from the enjoyable iteration from last night. Part of my comments to you, which I apologize for was to hope you’d come over to give your views, which are far more moderate than we generally write.
Sorry for the way in which I tried to lure you over but I hope you enjoyed last night and we’ll see more of you because if we’re honest some moderate opposing POVs would be welcome as it promotes excellent conversation and intelligent debate.
To all
The Schiller Bluray arrived yesterday so Junior and I did a production listen in the Room last night. Whether you like the music or not the production is sublime. Worthy of adding to one’s collection if the music is to one’s liking.
KP
I went into junior’s study/entertainment room yesterday with him locked into conversation with a girl on Face Time. After the call ended in Thai, I said new GF? Junior said no dad you asked me to think about money making ideas, so I’m doing Tarot readings to girls as boys aren’t interested.
He does about 10 a day and charges 39THB (90p) per question asked. He told me he was going to do a main marketing push at exam times, as students typically want to think they’ve done well and want confirmation of their hopes. I said what happens if the card readings don’t tally with their results? He said I’ll offer 2 readings with a free question instead of charging.
Only one question I enquired, is that fair? Junior said ‘ow common dad this is business and I get the phone numbers of very cute girls.
I had no words!
Sadly, Pumpkin is leaving for BKK with our daughter tomorrow; he will be missed. Oh and our daughter, too. 🙂 It’s his first trip under scary savant sister’s watch where he’ll stay with her and meet his school mates who live in bKK and board at Junior’s school here in the north. So, a peaceful weekend ahead although I’ll miss Junior for the football, but he can get Pumpkin (our daughter’s life cat, Bob) to watch with him in BKK.
Nottingham Forrest away will be a tough game where I imagine Steve Cooper will be looking to take the 3 points and PL safety.
BOB, I should also mention that keyboard players are generally multi instrumental playing bass, sax and other instruments.
I’m not fixed on Arteta, in fact the way our squad will have now turned around, I think we are now an incredibly attractive proposition to manage, in a way weren’t when Wenger finally left.
Whether you like it or not Arteta has been part of that improvement and most of the support, KSE and most importantly the players would all give him a measure of credit.
Projecting into the future, with the investment they’ll have put in, expectations will be rightly high so 5th may be not enough but it’s hard to simplify it to just a league finish, what about the cups and particularly CL progress? 6th would be sackable though(outside CL places!).
Tony, I received an e mail from Ambarish and e mailed you yesterday. Occasionally he has a vocalist in(something I try and encourage!), his brother has done the sax on his music, otherwise it’s all him, bit of guitar, a few chords and a lot of samples!
Bob, All received and replied to. Going to listen now in my room.
Bob
I don’t like Arteta as a person where it was interesting to read that Steve Parish, owner of CP, stated that he feels Arteta is missing an important ingredient to win a major trophy. We’ll see next season. If Arteta makes it, we will all be happy for the club. We dared to dream here for a very short while, so we’re not anti Arteta just anti poor management of repeated mistakes.
There’s a lot of people on the Internet praising De Zerbi where some pundits are saying if Pep misses the treble, and De Zerbi gets CL then he should be manager of the year. Hard to dispute on the budget Brighton operate on for now. I Think the future is good for Brighton with Tony Bloom at the helm.
To be honest If I were De Zerbi, I’d stay where I am with the talent he gets top polish and work with.
Who knows, Bob? Time will tell.
Worrying story about us being interested in Joao Cancelo – if true that means White will be moved back to CB (Arteta can’t drop a £50 million signing he overpaid for) so who’s on their way out Gabriel or Saliba?
Marc
Gabriel, unless Arteta needs top money then he’ll get more for Saliba unless his back injury is going to be a recurring one? Junior likes Cancelo, but I thought his defending was suspect but good at inverting. If Arteta is hell bent on Cancelo, then we should also keep Gabriel and Saliba. I can’t see us getting Caicedo, but he’d solve our RB issues.
The blogs and online papers have gone nuts and we’re a couple of weeks away from silly season yet.
The crux of it al is we still need 6 players at lest to put out a first 11 with all players in their preferred position for the CL and PL. When we look at why? We see names of lokonga, Vieira, Tavares, Jorginho and it’s clear out recruitment has been poor for a side wanting to mount challenges on the CL & PL while rebuilding.
Rumours of our annual clear out already out there, so maybe that’s 8 or 9 we’re going to need incoming this summer
It’s going to be a very long 12+ weeks to the TW closing because if history repeats itself we’ll be chasing a £100m+ elite until the window closes with lower level bodies over the line early, such as Tielemans or Madison.
Another worry is that Jesus and Zinchenko moved the needle, but were poor after their injuries blowing hot and cold returning the needle back to where it had moved from by the close of the season.
Some would say J&Z have reached a level that is more about support players rather than the first 11, that should be the new names being bandied about. Shouldn’t it?
Looks like Xhaka has all but signed n the dotted line. He’ll do well for BL in the Bundesliga – the pace will suit him better.
I’m really clueless other than to offer potential scenarios, but I hope KSE are going to buy what we need or things could go tits up by Xmas.
Time for Arteta & Edu to really step up after nearly 4 years and find the players who want to play and be part of the process.
Did I really say process. Sorry!
Tony,
Parish may have said that but it would be fairly straight forward to come up with a list of other footballing people who would state that Arteta is one of the best up and coming coaches around! I think Arteta is part of a developing, improving squad but if he is unable to be more proactive and flexible when setting up his team then many more people will demand better. If he gets 3/4 quality additions to this team then no excuses from me if he doesn’t push City even harder and are unable to progress in cup competitions as well.
If he gets 3/4 quality additions to this team then no excuses from me if he doesn’t push City even harder and are unable to progress in cup competitions as well
Hi Bob
Now who’s being harsh? 😊
I agree. A bigger, better squad needs to make inroads in all tournaments. I think we ran City reasonably close over the entire season (lengthened by the WC of course). We haven’t been in the title conversation for a long time.
As I was saying the other day, I still think the people in the hierarchy above A and E ought to be asking themselves whether it’s really prudent to go again next season with the same managerial set up. It comes down to ruthlessness and risk taking.
If he gets 3/4 quality additions to this team then no excuses from me if he doesn’t push City even harder and are unable to progress in cup competitions as well
Hi Bob
Now who’s being harsh? 😊
I agree. A bigger, better squad needs to make inroads in all tournaments. I think we ran City reasonably close over the entire season (lengthened by the WC of course). We haven’t been in the title conversation for a long time.
As I was saying the other day, I still think the people in the hierarchy above A and E ought to be asking themselves whether it’s really prudent to go again next season with the same managerial set up. It comes down to ruthlessness and risk taking.
Tony
You’re missing that Saliba only has a year left on his contract – why hasn’t he signed on.
I’d like someone to tell me which players the 3 or 4 quality additions will replace? Xhaka obviously but what about the others?
Women’s team 4 nil up at Everton at half time. Very pleasing although they too will finish trophyless this season.
Marc
I reckon the squad will expand slightly given CL involvement, but Arsenal really need to get better at extracting value from sales (they couldn’t get any worse could they…)
In addition to Xhaka, sell Holding and Eddie Unket (and maybe Tomiyasu if we can get a fee) . Various others (Vieira, Lakonga, Patino) need loans and some will go (Reiss, Elneny).
Marc, Holding, Lokonga, Nelson. If KT and ESR go too then they’ll need replacing. Would obviously prefer Viera to be moved on over ESR.
Hoping City win CL as feel Guardiola’s work will be done. Even City might struggle to stay focussed if they win the Treble!
@KP
They definitely have to get better like 3.8mill for Leno when everyone yhought +10mill, embarrassing!!!
Kilroy, I know it’s not enough but we’re getting a few more million from Fulham as Leno helped them stay up.
Bob, I certainly share your optimism that Pep may consider it mission complete should he win the CL. But I have always felt that City have never allowed themselves to become dependent on any one manager as we and utd did. Can’t see his departure being their death knell unless they make a massive mistake with his replacement ( Liverpool appointing Souness comes to mind).
Bob
So the quality signings you want will be squad players?
Nelson has basically done bugger all, Holding has already been replaced by Kiwior, Lokonga hasn’t been seen for months and only made a couple of starts.
Really seems you’re tinkering round the edges. If you think “quality” players will sign for Arteta to be squad players when Arteta can’t rotate you’re delusional. We spent £35 million on Vieira and you want to move him on already.
Courtois reestablishing himself as the world’s best keeper here tonight,but he is helpless to stem the tide such is the dominance of City. Alison and Ederson also in the conversation. Maignan is also class. There is a dearth of really top class keepers though. Very disappointed we didn’t move for Maignan or Pope but given Arteta’s desire to utilise a sweeper keeper I understand him passing on Pope even if I don’t agree with it. Ramsdale won’t improve further I fear,if anything he could regress. I don’t think you can teach the type of composure and calming influence that the likes of Seaman had. Ramsdale has tremendous reflexes but that isn’t enough in itself. Time will tell I guess and I genuinely would like to be wrong. I love my goalkeepers and its a long time since we’ve had one that I truly rated as top class.
Marc,
When Arteta’s reign is over, people will sit down and assess his( and Edu’s) performance in the transfer market. Personally I think it will make abysmal reading. The first wave of departures was akin to selling second hand condoms in a brothel,not only could they not generate any money from sales,it cost them a fortune to get rid of the players in the end.
People have forgiven/ overlooked this on the basis of some idea that these players were all toxic and the club was falling off a cliff.
The second wave is now coming when Arteta tries to sell the players he kept and gave new contracts to or players that he himself signed. What he gets for Eddie( we won’t be offering you a new contract,actually we do need you,100k a week sound alright?) AMN(£20 mil offer from Wolves rejected), Lokonga,Vieira,, Tierney etc will be very revealing.
But most importantly,the players who he bought and are ‘ successes’. Surely then their value has shot up? A couple of years under Arteta’s tutelage and part of a team that finished second,these young players should now easily be exceeding their purchase price. Yet who believes there are clubs out there who would pay more than £50 mil for Ben White right now? £35 mill for Ramsdale? £45mil for Jesus?
There is an argument that the only players whose values are rising, Saka, Martinelli, Saliba were not bought by Arteta.
I realise that this is only one way to gauge the success of a purchase. I also accept that this story isn’t finished yet and judgement must be reserved until it is. But I find it difficult to understand at this point in time where the confidence in our recruitment team is coming from. The idea that they have been doing well to date is something I really struggle with.
And i won’t even begin to consider what happens if the Kroenkes decide to end the sugar daddy approach. How many smaller clubs would pass us by if Artea was asked to operate on a budget similar to theirs? We have become so besotted by City’s spending power we have taken our eye off the squandering of precious resources closer to home. That’s how I see it after 4 years of Arteta anyway.
Bob-just want to preface my statement by saying that we can’t “sell” Nelson, as his contract is expiring
from a position by position basis the following could or should be sold:
Keeper-Turner should be sold and replaced, but not a high priority…he’s simply not good enough…so surprised that after the Leno mishandling we would actually sign someone who’s not good enough with the ball at their feet
Defenders-should sell= Holding & Tomi (not reliable enough due to injury prone nature)
could sell= Tierney, Gabs or Saliba (a lot depends on the latter’s re-upping)
-personally I would have simply replaced Holding and bought another RB, but it’s starting to feel like a bit of another overhaul, which speaks volumes about our manager’s inability to properly identify then coach-up players…in a perfect world I would replace White with a bona fide RB like Cancelo, just for example, which would allow White to be a cover piece for multiple backline positions, sell Tomi and Holding, add a younger depth CB, keep Tierney and recall both Nuno and Marquinos, for tactical flexibility purposes…including Kiwor, this would give us a total of 9 defenders
Midfielders-should sell=Xhaka, Lokonga, Vieira, Elneny, Jorginho-(this will never happen as no one would pay us a reasonable amount for any of these players, so unless we’re willing to take a sizeable loss on our more youthful pieces, most will be either here or out on loan)
could sell=Xhaka, Partey & ESR-(albeit regarding the former I’ll believe it when I see it)
this is indicative of our total mishandling of this position, in that those we should be eliminating from the equation will be difficult to move, like Lokonga, Elneny, Vieira, Jorginho and even Xhaka, and those we shouldn’t be moving on from, Partey & ESR, could likely be out the door…the sense is that this will be a positional reboot and rightly so in many regards…personally I would keep only ESR, Ode and Partey, then I would add 3 more pieces, two of whom should be of the seminal readymade variety, but I’m very skeptical this could happen in light of our contractual cock-ups
Forwards-should sell=Eddie & Trossard (plus Nelson on a free)-only said Tross because he can’t really compete with Marts out wide
-could sell=Balo
frankly we need to add in all 3 frontline positions, which will be a tough ask…as such, Trossard and Eddie are likely going nowhere…would rather we kept Balo, as he supplies us with something a little different, as Eddie is simply a poor man’s version of Jesus…still not sure Jesus can score enough to be the regular starter, but I doubt we’ll be investing in an upgrade this summer…I likewise wouldn’t be surprised if we paid well over the wage number to keep Nelson, much like Eddie, simply to avoid another transfer fee
the very fact that we need to make so many moves, both incoming and outgoing, simply to try and compete with the big boys should be a real indictment on our managerial duo, in light of the total monies which have already been spent on this project, but clearly that doesn’t appear to be a concern from ownership…one might even suggest if management felt we were truly a competitive force, as they’ve proclaimed, then why would so many moves be required…ultimately it will be difficult to move Lokonga, Vieira, Jorginho and Eddie, due to the monetary implications, so if we need to sell in order to buy, some big names are going to have to be sacrificed, which could result in a 2 steps forward 4 back scenario…should be an interesting off-season
Aluminiasaynomore-we’re definitely on the same page when it comes to MA/Eud’s bang average at best record when it comes to all things asset management related
TRVL,
We are. It’s one of the reasons I can’t get behind this management team. I genuinely don’t trust their ability to identify and purchase quality players. People have talked recently about the invincibles, unsurprisingly as they were the last Arsenal title winning team. But if the current team are to be mentioned in the same breath surely at this stage,4 yrs and hundreds of millions spent, he’d have brought even 1 player into the club that could get onto that team. Just 1. But no. And incredibly the story is he now needs another 4 or 5. I simply don’t accept that a world class manager/ coach operates at this pace and requires this much leniency and financial support. Its ‘ jam tomorrow ‘ all over again.
Almunia
Agree even any signings that are deemed to be good signings were hardly strokes of genius – Ode is a good player but Madrid not only wanted to off load him but needed to sell him. I bet we paid asking price, the Ben White fee was ridiculous my big worry now is we’re going to sell Saliba due to his contract winding down and will only get £30 odd million for a player who’s going to be the next VVD or better.
“But no. And incredibly the story is he now needs another 4 or 5.”
Its the fan boy narrative – always push the goalposts to the next horizon and make excuses. The current squad is 99% Arteta’s but its not good enough but that isn’t Arteta’s fault it was the Butler in the Library or the man on the grassy knoll or whatever bullshit diverts attention that Arteta bottled it again.
minus Ode, not a single sellable asset has been brought into the fold by this management team…by this I mean someone who’s current value actually exceeds their original purchase price…what this team really needed was some readymade seminal players in their early to mid-20s to link with those who had already fallen into their proverbial laps…in the past this would never have happened because of our frugal spending practices under Wenger, but the fact that this script changed drastically under Arteta yet the kind of targets we opted for never really changed is inexcusable
btw Saliba’s current market value is lower than what we paid for White, which is an even tougher pill to swallow considering that White isn’t even playing in the position he was brought into play…this is another reason why I don’t believe whatsoever that Arteta had any intention of bringing back Saliba as a regular starter
fine if people think Mudryk wasn’t worth the monetary squeeze, but at least he was a like-for-like Marts cover/competition piece with a long runway and a huge up-side…instead we paid full price for a player put out on the curb and shopped around by his former club, who neither fits the positional script, unless Arteta was wiling to play him instead of Xhaka, nor the age-based narrative…as for our other winter move, we pursued Caicedo, but we were unwilling to go far enough to secure his services, even though he was always going to be even more expensive going forward…he was likewise a young player with positional flexibility, who fit both our current scripts and had proven himself in the PL…instead we took another Chelsea castaway who was about to lose his starting place to the returning Kante and gave him term to boot, which was undoubtedly going to create some problems down the road…these are just the most recent reasons why I wouldn’t trust this duo with another transfer window windfall
just as a follow-up to my previous post, once again I’m not suggesting that either Tross or Jorginho are hacks, as they both possess some valued skills, but they’re not the kind of difference makers who were going to lift us to a title and they were likewise always going to be more problematic purchases come the summer window
please keep in mind that Tross has only scored 1 goal for us, whereas he scored 7 with BHA…now to be fair, he was more of a regular starter for BHA, where he averaged about 25 more minutes per match, and he has produced more assists here, but he only made 1 statistical contribution against a top 8 side since arriving in North London
TRVL I think you may be missing the point. By replacing squad players with first team quality players, it allows Arteta to rotate without losing significant quality. This change of ‘depth’ would mean we ought to be able to compete on more than one front and enable us to absorb injuries in a way that was not possible this last season.
Afternoon all.
The way things seem to be looking is KSE is going have to financially dig deep to back some major changes. Stan will look foolish if he doesn’t after almost winning the league. If we can’t shift Jorginho, then he’ll be good for lesser cups organising our younger lads. Jorginho is an enabler type of player; it’s just a shame he’s in his footballing twilight years.
A good professional worth keeping if there are no takers.
If we’re going to mount another serious challenge, because I believe once we were in our stride this season we started to believe and put on a title assault. That can’t be denied where the milk has been spilt and the tears are now dry: just feelings of emptiness prevail.
Quite honestly sitting at my computer I don’t know what to think or worse write. Are we going to dance the Hokey Cokey with all the ins and outs? Will it fatally be more outs than ins? When will there be an end to the Arteta & Edu madness of blowing hot and cold?
The answers my friends are not blowing in the wind, but will come next season with somewhat of an overview to be obtained by the summer’s comings and goings. The focal targets have to be the title and CL cup in that order. 2nd is our current barometer, so first is the only move up!
By Arteta madness my thinking is simple; don’t make the same mistakes covers everything really.
Results will do Arteta’s talking for him where I don’t think he will be so easily forgiven if we’re 6th by Xmas and looking sad. However, if we’re neck and neck with City keeping Pool, Chavs, and Manure below us by Xmas, then it will be a very happy xmas for us Gooners.
I’m hoping for the latter as I’m sick of losing when we shouldn’t be.
All eyes on KSE, Arteta and Edu then for the next 12 weeks where I’m sure the LIR oversight committee will be highlighting observations from pre season to end August.
@Bob
In theory what you say is correct but you and I know that Arteta doesn’t rotate, the players on the bench are for in player management. Look at the graph that Pedro posted Arsenal is dead last in changes in the starting XI. In addition if you don’t rotate you get player fatigue as well as players that are not rotated in are rusty and need plating time.
In addition we all know with Arteta’s stubbornness this will not change. For me the summer TW will furthermore show up the inexperience of player recruitment. TRVL put is spot on that the value of the players bought by Arteta they have not increased with the exception of Ode.