Well, I took a week off from this excruciating heat and my hometown didn’t disappoint. For all the urbanization and industries, there is still some forest left and the breezes are better than the so called recycled, smell-nice air conditioners. We will survive but what about the next generation(s)?!
So, a lot has happened since I went missing. Man City has lifted the Premier League and will probably finish with 10+ points more than us. Newcastle has made it to the Champions League and the almighty Liverpool will most likely play in Europa. For Arsenal, we lost a golden chance to lift the trophy. Saka signed a much needed contract extension in the range of 15m / year, Martinelli, Zinchenko and Saliba were ruled out for the rest of this season due to injuries but are expected to join back before pre-season. There is a good possibility that Xhaka will leave this summer and The Athletic guys are linking us to Rice, Caicedo, Mason Mount and Gündoğan.
First thing first, after leading the table for almost all of this season, the season was ours to lose and we did exactly that. We threw away 2-0 lead against Liverpool and West Ham. We let Southampton score 3 against us at home and settled with one point. City beat us, which was expected, but these 3 draws proved very costly. Adding insult to the injury, we lost our last 2 games against Brighton at home and Forest away. It didn’t matter but the game against Forest was a prime example of brain fart from Arteta.
In a good news, Saka signed a 4-year contract extension that runs till 2027. He will be paid somewhere around 15million / year. Frankly, I don’t get the criticism of putting him into this salary bracket. He has been splendid for us whole season, had few rough games at the end but you can’t really blame the kid when he is being played every game and kicked and pushed throughout. My belief is that, if you buy a high profile player like Antony at United, pay a fee of 80m and then offer him another 300k/week, it’s not sustainable. We must understand that we are saving the need to find this 80m to buy a player of Saka’s calibre. This is also different to what we offered to Ozil. Ozil was past his prime, everyone knew he is only going to get regressed and it led to a situation where no one was happy. Saka’s case is different, so was Martinelli and if Saliba signs, I won’t mind if we offer him a 200k/week wage. These group of players are young, they can be the best player in their positions and winning ‘with’ them is more important than encashing them now and then bringing someone else hoping they turn out to be equally good.
We have some injury concerns, Zinchenko is out, Saliba’s back injury is taking time, Martinelli picked up a knock and is ruled out for the rest of this season. Not that it matters now, but hopefully they will all be back by next season.
It came out as a surprize to me when various media outlets linked Xhaka with Bayer Leverkusen. He is getting a 4 – year contract, and is almost a done deal. I don’t mind it, I have been asking for an upgrade to his position from god knows when, and if it’s ending in a happy way for both the parties, it’s a good thing. I must also applaud Xhaka for his service this season, he has made a lot of us eat a humble pie with his performance in lots of games. We mustn’t discredit him, he was part of a team that stayed at the top for more than 30 weeks against the likes of Manchester City.
So, whom are we getting? There’s been a lot of rumours, Rice, Caicedo, Mason Mount, Gundogan but I will keep this part for the next articles. Wrapping up for now, hope you are having a good week. If not, there’s a thing called mid-week beer and Wednesday qualifies for that.
Cheers!
Marc, Does that make you unreasonable?
Can I ask you the question,’Are we an improving team?’. You seem to be striving so hard to push a tarnished view of the season that most of us have just enjoyed.
‘We should have finished 1st’ – and finished unarguably above the best team in Europe?
Let’s see how we do next season. I hope that our improvement continues with the addition of some key CM upgrades and allows us to maintain the distance between us and the chasing pack and hopefully allows us to crucially take points off City.
Your argument that unreasonable people drive change in the world obviously supports your position on Arteta. I hope that your ideas are not dominated by the comfort of the thought ‘I told you so’ would generate if we do fall below expectations in a way that forces KSE to act.
Unreasonable people can often be motivated by their own personal gain, decide that ‘experts’ should be ignored and do not consider how their behaviour can adversely affect other people. They can also have a tendency to proverbially ‘stick their fingers in their ears’ when they don’t want to hear a message that is unattractive to them. In my opinion, unreasonable people allow populist right wing politicians like Trump and to an extent Johnson into office. Rant over!
Bob
If it gets rid of Arteta then brilliant. You need to prepare yourself for a season of excuses next season – the only question is will you be making them or dismissing them.
Rumours this morning that Saka wanted a release clause in his new contract which we refused but settled on a shorter deal as a compromise. Saliba still hasn’t signed on so maybe the players don’t believe in Arteta quite as much as many believe.
“Can I ask you the question,’Are we an improving team?’”
After spending so many hundreds of millions is that a serious question?
If you want sone semi-entertaining reading before the dead rubber game against Wolves, you could do worse than check these fan critiques from the various PL team supporters. The Spurs, Everton and Leicester ones are priceless. Enjoy…
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/may/28/premier-league-2022-23-fans-verdicts-part-one-arsenal-to-leeds
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/may/28/premier-league-2022-23-fans-verdicts-part-two-leicester-to-wolves
Call it an end of season gift from Uncle Kroenkephobe to all my LiR mates. Xxx
Marc, you’re convinced Arteta will fail and will need to be removed. I’m not so sure, I hope that Arsenal have another great season and progress further. If not, I’ll want changes and the easiest change to make is to replace the manager.
Cheers Kroenke…..and some of you think we have serious issues…..
Great article by Tim Stillman on Arseblog. Great because I agree with every word!
https://arseblog.com/2023/05/thank-you-for-the-good-times-before-the-good-times-fly-away/
Cheers Kroenke…..and some of you think we have serious issues…..
Hi Bob
It’s the longevity of our malaise and the consistent nature of our problems, season after season, that concern me and convince me that after 3/4 years the present incumbent is not the answer. The lack of fight, leadership and innovation (plan B) seem to haunt us now – we really need to dispell this image (however accurate or inaccurate) that we choke at the business end of league campaigns. In Wengo’s time, it was a slightly different problem – ie the tendency to go on arse-wipingly terrible and lengthy runs of defeats.
Anyway, to you and Marc, I hope you both have a great afternoon whatever happens. I attended my last professional game 2 weeks ago (at Turf Moor) and I hate to say I already have withdrawal symptoms. Same to Tony, TRVL, Killroy and the growing LiR Gooner fanbase in India.
Thanks for sharing that Stillman article. Philosophical, self-aware and balanced, almost Bob N16-esque in style and outlook.😊
We’re all offering personalised, subjective views on a club about which we all care deeply. None is going to be the same as the next person so disagreement is inevitable. My criticism of Tim’s piece is the inherent assumption that we just need to go again with Arteta and we’ll eventually get there. I’m not sure. THE most successful modern manager is, we have to admit, Old Bulb nose Ferguson. I know, deep within myself, that if his Manure had just had 2 seasons like our’s, he’d be sweeping out the backroom team at the very least, and looking to change the players/formation before going again.
Standards eh Kroenke! Off to a traditional end of season pre match beers at a mates, will report back!
TP chosen at right back… Sounds like a brilliant idea. I’m delighted that our manager is soooo much more clever than anyone else. He makes Professeur Wenger look like Keith Chegwin
PS
Team unchanged from that glorious display at Forest last week. Unfuckingchanged! Let that sink in. All those players, and he keeps the same XI. Breathtaking…
this is a clear statement of off-season intent, so Tierney, Partey, Nelson and likely ESR are on their way out…it likewise allows our seed planting manager to open the door to the possibility of deploying a DM with pace at RB, which could be the case if we somehow secure Caicedo…otherwise why would anyone run-back the same lineup that played like shit last week…just imagine if our skipper had some plans of his own, instead of always playing the role of karaoke manager in training
please allow that to be Xhaka’s final contribution to the club…must be nice when no one ever marks you
based on recent form (last 6 matches) this should have been a rather tight affair, as we’re 11th and 12th respectively
At times this, I’m always reminded of that awful Johnny Mathis (feat. Deniece Williams!) tune ‘too much too little too late’.
Classic pyrhhic victory incoming!
this one’s over, as I don’t think the Wolves even know what scoring 3 goals in a match feels like…this reminds me of when BHA ripped 6 past this oft-times sleeping walking Wolves side…certainly hope that ESR, Tierney and others who need a little valuation boost see the pitch come the start of the second half…that said, I would suspect that this might not happen for fear of an injury occurring
https://youtu.be/a8QlAMcaOBI
Here it is in its full glory. Tony – get into your sound suite and have a go at belting this out Karaoke jam style. To be fair, they do both have beautiful voices – it’s just that I always link this song with Arsenal (late Wengo through to the present).
KP-on the soundtrack for Mahogany he sung another very apropos track, “Do you know where you’re going to” Cheers
TRVL
Quite. Arteta is such a team selecting cretin, it’s not worth bothering to predict what he’ll do. The only guarantee is that it’ll be fucking inane and illogical.
TRVL
Do we know where we’re going to?
do you like the football Tets is showing you?
Where’s Arsenal going to?
if you think about it, our season has been largely defined by the amount of matches we won in this fashion against relatively uninterested opponents