Thierry Henry is in news for what he said at the Overlap podcast hosted primarily by Gary Neville. Before we talk about it, here’s an excerpts from it that has riled some of the Arsenal fans.
The last three years, we have been in a situation where should at least bring a cup or be in a final. Man Utd played five finals in their last five years – the United that everyone laughs at. In the last three years of building, Arsenal didn’t reach a final. This year we didn’t compete with Liverpool. I don’t know what people think, but we didn’t compete, not once. I’m not saying this season was a disappointment, but it’s normal that people are raising questions now about what the team is doing.
source : TH14 via the Overlap Stick to Football podcast
Well, some of the fans are calling him naïve for it. Some of us feel that Henry said so to please the hosts, got carried away with the propaganda Neville and Carragher spits and that he shouldn’t have questioned the manager of the Arsenal football club who took us back into the Champions League, made it to the semi finals this season, competed for the title thrice in a row and is doing his best to get us to where we belong.
Let me start by pointing out a very big difference between you, me and Thierry Henry. He is a legend, has played for the shirt and won titles for us, arguably the best player in Premier League history, was part of the team under the best manager of that time, has got a fucking statue outside the fucking stadium and is as big a supporter of the club as rest of us. He has lived it, given his blood and sweat, played alongside the greats – Vieira, DB10, Ljungberg and there could not a better fan to speak about the progress of the club.
Now, everyone’s entitled to an opinion and everyone else is entitled to agree or disagree to it. But calling it a blasphemy because a legend of the club feels we could have done better only means that you have got sub-standard expectation in an elite, competitive sport. If you are happy with 2nd place finishes and Champions League semi-finals, go fuck yourself, please.
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Ok, lets put the emotions aside and break up what he said.
He told in his discussions that he understood the first 3 years because any manager that comes in, will need at least 4-5 transfer windows to bring in players to suit his style of play. Sounds good, we won a FA cup as well with a team that we had to de-assemble and let go. We spent heavily and Mikel go the players he needed to start delivering on the promises he made. We reached second in 2022-23 and everyone felt we are couple of signings away from winning the league. Man City were at their best and challenging them for the title was good enough at that point. Last season, we reached second again and it was blamed on the lack of depth on bench and the missing piece of a CF. Mikel did fuck all to address both the cases, we got Havertz and Merino playing up front, neither of them are a full fledged #9. With Gabriel’s injury in defence, we had to switch to Kiwior whom we were trying to sell in the summer window and failed.
So, we spent money but addressed none of the problems. We brought in a LB while our academy product in MLS played 21 of those 38 games this season, and could have played more if we have picked him up early in the season. We spent 65m on Havertz to fix the attacking midfielder problem, shifted him to the striker position and spent some more money to get Merino when it’s Declan Rice playing most of the time in that position. What in the actual fuck did we spent money on then?
Next, Legend wants us to compete and at least reach finals. Finals are nervy, anything can happen and it’s all about who gave their most on that day. It can go either way, so the legend says we should at least make it to the finals which we didn’t do. Anything wrong with that statement? None at all. He sees us finishing 2nd as not competing with Liverpool because we didn’t do. We competed with Man City last season, last 5 games decided who would lift the trophy, but this year, Liverpool were way beyond our reach in what, 30th week of the season? Again, you can call it a great job at competing if you are as mid as a Spud.
He is not saying season is a disappointment – because we still finished 2nd and we made it to Champions League semi-finals. But how many of you believe we could have done better? Every fucking one. We could have at least tried to bridge the gap by getting Watkins on cheap in January, or by trying Martinelli in the middle early on. We didn’t address it because we thought we will do it next year now. We were in the Champions League and either Mikel or the club prioritised the revenue from there.
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With recent revenue sharing stats from Premier League, we saw that finishing 2nd and 6th have about 10m revenue generating differences. That’s not a lot when you buy a player in 35m (Fabio Vieira) and not use him for exactly the position he was brought in. Champions League money increases a lot if you make it to the next round, and we were making that money before we could spend it. Fine if didn’t have some to waste it on Havertz who won’t have a place in the team once we get Sesko or Gyokeres.
I don’t see a tiny bit of wrongs in what Thierry Henry said. It doesn’t matter if he was amongst Gary Neville or Caragher while he was saying that, for all I care is, he is asking that we should have done better, and we should do better. We are not Tottenham for fuck sake.
Right, rant over. If Henry has same managerial aspirations to lead Arsenal at some point and he is spitting venom against Mikel to get him fired, I don’t give a damn because what he said was true. What he said is what we have been saying at London Is Red, and at this stage, after spending 800m and managing the club for 6+ years, if Mikel can’t get us a trophy, it’s perfectly fine to question his method, spendings and everything around him. It’s not entitlement, it’s calling the bullshit and setting a higher standard than finishing 2nd.
See you in the comments.
There’s little doubt that MA’s formation will be some version of.a 4-3-3, whether that includes an inverted backer and Zubi in Partey’s old spot on the right or a more advanced Skelly with Zubi playing in that deep-sitting Xhaka-like pivot role on the left…so if we were to get Zubi, Sesko or Sesko and a left-sided forward like Leao/Rodrygo/Rogers/Gordon etc, what will our starting 11 actually look like…the Keeper & backline appears to be a given, Ode has only been a healthy scratch once, Saka’s going nowhere and it seems to be a slam dunk that both Rice and Havertz will be deployed in more advanced positions, so how’s that exactly going to work??
Timber—Saliba—Gabs—Skelly
Ode—???—???
Saka—???—???
fill in the blanks, if you would, but make sure you don’t forget that two of those 4 spots will undoubtedly be occupied by Rice and Havertz…there’s simply not enough open spots on the pitch to bring in 3 starters unless one of Havertz or Ode are sacrificed, as we know full-well Rice is going to be in the first 11
It’s my contention that MA has no intention of bringing in bona fide starters, except maybe Zubi, who’s simply taking Partey’s spot…this is likely why he’s been banging on about the whole injury/lack of depth narrative that supposedly derailed our previous season
so here are my biggest concerns:
(1) I don’t trust MA’s ability to make the necessary tactical changes should we actual buy two world-class forwards to combine forces with Saka
(2) the alarming pace of our business practices—if the plan is to make 3 significant changes in the starting 11 and finally replace the sideways tactics with a more direct approach, we had better hurry the fuck up…that sort of reinvention won’t happen overnight and trying to do so in-season, especially with our jam-packed schedule, will be a tough ask, especially for our defence-first spineless manager who will be under considerable pressure to get some major silverware
(3) let’s remember to beat a low block, which we see on the regular, you need players who can (a) make effective runs beyond the backline, (2) provide the requisite anount of cutting edge passes and (3) those who can take full advantage of any 1 v. 1s…so you can’t bench Ode and have Havertz and Rice in the midfield, as they don’t excel at any of the above requirements, and if you put one of them out wide left, it’s back to a right-side dominant reboot with the same bully-ball, more cross dependent/set piece feel of last season
this is why I was so irate about the whole Havertx reach and the fact that we signed the 2nd best DM in the world for 100+M only to convert him into a 45M attacking midfielder…furthermore, what opportunities are going to there for Ethan if we sign Zubi and bring another MD in as a supposed replacement for Jorginho…he should be getting a shot in the midifeld and not just sitting behind Saka…not to mention what will happen with both Tross and Marts, plus whomever we appear to be bringing in as competition for Ode…sorry but the math isn’t mathing
I smell an insane amount of narrative massaging/overselling by MA’s PR minions and some readymade built-in excuses that will attempt to further extend his championship leash…food for thought
Nice anecdote Marc. I can imagine you’d be pretty formidable opposition in the workplace.
Kroenke
I live in Goa on the West coast . But a serene place with a sea and the place like Goa was in the eighties.
Lots of rain though .
Just do read the erudite posts which does not leave much to say.
Without a doubt LiR is the best site ,if you ignore the occasional wart.
Cheers and greetings to all the great guys on LiR.
Kroenke
It has been commented that I’m not shy in coming forward!
So we’re 3 weeks into the transfer window and is it me or do we seem further from signing anyone than when it started?
Both City and Liverpool are going to easily finish above us in the coming season, if any of Newcastle, Villa, Chelsea get their shit together and they’ll finish above us as well.
How fucking long will people put up with lame dickless excuses?
Christian Norgaard? can anyone see the parallels between this underwhelming potential move and the one Wenger mistakenly made when he brought Tets into the fold…both captains of their respective clubs, both too old to be effective from deeper-lying positions against better sides and both similarly well-coifed…surely this is the kind of bargain bin gig we weren’t looking for, especially considering his age profile…monkey see, monkey do
Only Captain Fuckwit would bring in a 31 year old as a replacement for the 32 year old.
Beyond that what is his fucking obsession with defensive players? You just know he’ll sign a fullback at some point.
Not like we need a striker or anything.
it’s not as if I don’t think Noni Madueke has some tricks in his bag, but surely we wouldn’t pay Chelsea another boatload of cash to shoehorn him in on the left, a position he’s hardly ever played at the professional level…if you’re going to bench and/or sell Marts/Tross you had better make sure the player you bring in is head and shoulders above…I might be wrong but it appears as if MA’s dream job might be the typically revolving one at our crosstown rivals…come and get him Fat Todd
the. possibility of us buying both Sesko and VG is gaining some traction…surely neither of these players would knowingly sign on for that considering their respective desires to be the number 1 wherever they ultimately land…if I had that much to spend on the Striker position I think I might have a go for Isak instead, as it would be decidedly cheaper in the end and the odds of it producing the desired results, from an analytics standpoint, must be significantly higher
What we really need from a Striker is someone who can do some of the very things MA values so much from Havertz, but who isn’t such a “slow the play down” shit in front of goal fuckstick…this is why Isak would be by far the best option and likewise why Sesko makes infinitely more sense than VG
If we are to believe that Zubi’s in London, has had his medical and is officially over the line, why oh why is there no club-inspired fanfare to speak of…for a player who’s national side coach deemed as the 2nd best footballer in the world(cue the spit-take), why aren’t we spending more time and energy celebrating
maybe it has something to do with the disjointed manner in which this transfer was achieved, maybe it’s the fact that it feels as if we coerced him here totally against his will, or maybe it’s because we’re a fucking joke show when it comes to every aspect of the transfer process…regardless of the reason, MA’s seemingly constant need to act as if he’s some sort of wily genius, which couldn’t be further from the truth, is fucking tiresome…been there, done that, so fuck off with the totally transparent antics…at least Wenger had done something of consequence before he became a smug prick
Zubimendi, Merino and Odegaard. All ex Sociedad.
Fucking Sociedad players will not win you league championships or Champions Leagues.
That’s why these cunts play for Real Sociedad.
How about some fucking imagination , just for once and a transfer window that consists of no Chelsea rejects or Sociedad players.
Let’s compare to what Liverpool have bought.
There has been some thinking in their recruitment, because thats what happens when you employ world class people and not frauds.
Has Berta signed any attacking players yet?
Another cunt.
The really crazy thing (the whole Arteta episode will be looked back on as what the fuck? Took on Pep’s tea boy and surprise surprise he did fuck all) is that Arteta is not improving with experience he’s getting worse.
Which of the signings under his stewardship (and I mean really his) signings can be deemed as a major success?
Ode – a child prodigy who Madrid were looking to unload on the cheap. He’s a decent player but no genius there.
Rice – Everyone knew who he was and when you pay £100 million for a player being good is the minimum expectation. Trophies must follow.
Gabriel – Not an Arteta signing either Edu or info Arteta brought in from City.
Raya – actually a decent signing but how much did it cost to get there in the end?
Arteta’s performance in the transfer market is the same as his performance as a coach – fucking mediocre at best and really fucking expensive.
today’s highlights (lowlights)
(1) another rejection letter for MA, this time it was Guehi—why would we be wasting considerable funds on another defender before we got our far more pressing positional needs sorted…plus, why would a bona fide starting CB want to come here with Gabs re-upped and Saliba on the roster
(2) plenty of chatter today about a move for PSG’s Zaire-Emery—only MA would pay above the number for one of the only players who lost their starting gig in the second-half of the season…when are we going to take someone from a championship level starting 11…of course, he’s young and has ample runway, but wouldn’t it be fucking nice if we could lure someone with a winning first team CV…not to mention, what will become of Ethan’s pathway into the. midfield, as even MA declared that’s where he was best slotted
(3) if we re-upped Tross then sold off Marts, we had better be in for a readymade world-class replacement, otherwise that would fall squarely in the category of too stupid to live
(4) we could quite easily lose out on both Sesko and VG—the former is requiring better wages, an out-clause option and some assurances…now that might seem a bridge too for most managers, but considering MA’s inability to properly incorporate Striker’s into his tactical approach and his Havertz man crush, if I were Sesko I would want all that and maybe more…as for the latter, at some point he might finally realize that he’s just our side piece leverage play and he’ll move the fuck on
Cheers
New post.