Do you remember when every Gooner around the world were both sad and optimistic; sad because Arsene was leaving the building and optimistic because we needed a change. The club thought of a quick fix, appointed Unai Emery which didn’t turned out as expected. There were a lot of things to fix, and Emery was neither given the tools nor the time. I’m not sure what could have been had he got the favors from the owners but he surely lacked the diplomacy to buy himself some more time. The club thought to take a completely different path, build things from scratch and the first step to it was appointing Mikel Arteta as the manager.
Edu and Mikel fixed a lot of things. The culture is much better at the club, we have got a very cohesive team with players fighting for each other, players are tied down before they can do a Alexis Sanchez or Mesut Ozil and the best part is that we have young system. Having young players comes with a caveat that they are inexperienced and they learn as they go – we saw our inexperience against Bayern in Champions League – but they die for the shirt. You can’t expect Saka, Martinelli or the Gabriel(s) and Saliba not giving their 100% and fighting for everything every single game. They haven’t achieved anything (yet), and they have a career to build; it can only be done if they play and play well. If Saliba thinks he is the best CB in the world, there’s always a Harry Maguire who has a League title under his belt.
So, it’s been roughly 4 and a half years since Mikel took over. A lot of things are very positive at the club, and I like it personally. The only thing missing of this puzzle is the trophies! People praising the potential we have will soon forget about it if we win nothing. Winning a FA cup is no big feet, Arsene used to do it even with fringe players in his gone times. We have spent more than half a billion as a club. The fans have been with the team through thick and thins, and not-english fans contribute by spending 80 GBP on a tshirt which is a month’s expenditure. We need much more than that, much more than a FA cup or second place finishes.
Hence, the title. This is going to be a very crucial season for Mikel Arteta and the players. We have missed the title by points that can be counted on one hand, and with some of those ‘ifs and buts’, we could have made it. But we didn’t. And the reasons can become a characteristic if we fall again. I’m sure Mikel realises 5 years is a lot of time in football with more than half a billion dollar spent in building a complete new playing XI and bench, and not showing a trophy in return.
Don’t care about the ‘Pep is the best manager in the world’ bullshit. Klopp beat him, we were close twice and he has some disadvantages this season. Ederson is leaving, who wins him couple of games on his own every season. That’s 6 points, exactly what we need to win. We are in a much better situation than last season with Timber in the fold, Calafiori signed up if one of the CBs are out of form and every other player is fully fit. We would most probably not get a CF but hey, Mikel thinks it’s not important so he takes the blame of it. If we win without a CF, he gets the praise as well!
Right, we have missed football and it’s almost back. 3 more sleepless nights before we take on Wolves at home on Saturday afternoon British time. See you in the comments.
And we have a new final logo before the season begins!
Thanks all. Some formidable arborial discourse today.
NORG
I put a quercus in my garden this year. About 18 inches so a sapling I guess. I’m hoping it’ll produce acorns before it’s needed for my coffin…but I’m not holding my breath. It’s made a good start though.
Vieira
I’m envious of you living in the land of trees. Some pleasing imagery there.
And thanks for helping me avoid the day thinking about Williams, Gyokeres and Kadioglu.
Hi Ambarish
Good piece and a nice appetiser for the season. What do you think Arteta needs to do (or not do!) in order to get the sack? I worry that the Kroenkes are so naive that they imagine that keeping him in situ like they did with Wenger is the only recipe for success (and look how that worked out) , ie stick with the manager and it’ll eventually pay off, a bit like that metaphor about leaving a monkey in a locked room with a typewriter and hoping it’ll eventually produce a word-perfect Bible.
I maintain that Arteta’s the weak link – with these players and a proper manager we could get that important little bit further towards winning some trophies. More clarity, better coaching, a positive collective attitude.
I wonder what Timber’s favourite type of wood is? I imagine he’s a pine, eucalyptus or dutch elm sort of geezer. Or maybe he’s more into plaid shirts and chainsaws… He is one player I’m really looking forward to seeing felling the opposition this season.
KP
Wenger had titles, invincible season and some FA cup here and there to show. He challenged the mightiest United with unlimited fund under Alex Fergusson and always kept the finances in check.
Arteta, on the other hand, believes in spending. Rightly so, you can’t fight these days without big money but every business needs returns on investments. Kroenke and Stan are businessmen. They can make money by restructuring loans, handing out new stadium contracts etc. but they are not here to just ‘even out’. Questions will be asked if we don’t do better than last season.
Anything less than one of the Champions League or Premier League titles and we should be looking forward to get better in the ‘manager’ position. I certainly hope that doesn’t happen.
Splinters are crap, I have one in my foot from when I was a kid and skin grew on top of it. Now, it’s trapped forever and there’s no way to get rid of it.
Gardening? It’s fun. I remember growing some potatoes, spinach and chillis in the Covid time in London. Tomatoes died due to cold. Here, I have some chilli, tomatoes, spinach, leafy greens (not sure what it’s called in english), green grams plants (almost ready) in balcony. Eh, my wife hates me for spending so much to get the soil, pots, seeds, and composts lol.
Ambarish—from the off, Kroenke’s sports-related portfolio was all about his financial advisors reading the tea leaves regarding the long-term benefits of the multi-franchise ownership model…his original blueprint relied heavily on 3 basic tenets: (1) take the least amount of risk, (2) build new taxpayer or fan-subsidized arenas/stadiums, and (3) leave the running of the teams to the supposed experts…these “experts” were then required to build through the draft(American model) or by filling out rosters by identifying and developing prospects on the relative cheap(self-sustaining UK model)…neither of these models aspired to win championships, as they intentionally avoided anything that would require ownership to take on any financial risks which may or may not payoff in the end…instead they intentionally sought out what could only be described as an economic sweet spot, where you inspire just enough hope that the fans remained engaged deep into their respective seasons, so as to maximize your profits, but not so much that the fans would demand substantially more
now this perpsective changed in more recent years for a variety of largely selfish reasons, like the rise of legacy vanity projects amongst the Billionaire classes, the enormous economic benefits that came with winning in the last decade or so, which far exceeded those of any previous age, and the role that winning championships played when determining organizational market values…in order to take advantage of this new reality, Kroenke started to make substantial investments in those clubs that appeared to be on the precipice, which ultimately led to a NFL, NHL and NBA championship…it’s important to note that the level of investment dropped quite significantly following those aforementioned title runs, as I’m sure his advisors informed him that potential benefits of running this model back didn’t make the best financial sense, especially considering the odds of repeating…in fact, what made infinitely more sense to these number-crunching fucks was to immediately reduce spending, then milk each respective fanbase through the raising of ticket/concession/parking prices
in our case, Kroenke was somehow convinced that Arteta, with the right backing, could do likewise, so he started to loosen the purse strings…when we landed in the 2-hole, the season before last, and seemed poised to make a title run, he went all in…of course, he overestimated MA capacity to both properly spend those monies and to go toe-to-toe with his former employer…the concern now is that maybe Kroenke has lost interest in our little project, as MA failed to meet the expectations that invariably come whenever Big Stan actually reaches into his own fucking pocket…let’s hope that’s not the case and we get one more kick at the can before he packs up his money tree and heads back to UK-sized ranch in Missouri
Let me get my head round your thoughts, Ambarish.
How are we better than last season? We need an 8 and 9 to stop being right play centric. We lost ESR who would have been a big asset this season after MOTM performances.
Timber is a right back, not a left back. We can’t sell our dross and non performers and Calafiori is a player we didn’t need when you consider the above.
We have a more difficult run in, and a group of players likely to be used so much that they will be in the red zone, where tiredness is the precursor to making mistakes that will cost us points.
Like us all I’ll start with a full level of hope for our season, blind hope, but hope nevertheless.
Then there is El B who elite players don’t want to play for and now has 16 days to find suitable replacements, which Merino isn’t.
If we get an 8 & 9 I will be far more genuinely positive than now, with belief we can pull off the seemingly impossible for El B.
Currently, I see the season ending like this:
Liverpool
City
Villa
Arsenal/Spuds/Newcastle and one other surprise team in the mix.
Buying a quality 8 & 9 offers us a better chance to do better than maybe 4th.
I would love to be singing the is our time from the rafters, but things need to happen to be in full voice.
Villa have tightened up defensively and improved in other areas after a good season for Emery.
Given the players he wanted for us instead of Raul and Diamond Eye fighting the power vacuum, he would have got CL and we would never had seen El B’s face at Arsenal.
Emery was the right choice, we never backed him. The rookie comes in and gets to spend £600m. Imagine what enemy would have done with that?
To be fair Emery has been more cup winner than league, but he’s settled at Villa quickly, and made good improvements El B couldn’t with us in his first or 2nd season.
It’s going to be an interesting season. I feel we will start well with the squad fit and no injuries but how long it’s going to last for is anyone’s guess.
It will depend on how well the top 6 improve on last season. For me I see 4 from 6 improving greatly where we will drop points. Then there is Fulham, Palace, Brentford and Spuds navigate. Can we get 6 points from these games?
I think not, but time will tell, as will the first 10 games.
Hi Ambarish
I had a feeling you’d be pretty handy in a garden given your skill at just about everything else and your Zen-like calm. I find it a pleasing way to spend time out of the house although I’m better at destroying things like weeds and overgrown foliage than actually producing anything, oak sapling notwithstanding . 🌿
That splinter incident sounded nasty. Slightly different but related is the fact that I still have fragments of weird oily sand in and around my knee after slide – tackling too often while playing on local pitches in Nigeria back in the 80s.
Anyway, I digress. Your vegetable patch in London sounds great. A plentiful supply of ingredients for Sag Aloo. One of my favourite dishes.
Looks like Merino could be the only incoming player, which is completely underwhelming. We want to pay 21.9m over 3 years and RS want 29m with most payable up front.
Supposed to be in his prime at 28 with a year left.
I’m not seeing it at all. Let’s hope I’m totally wrong and he turns out to be a dynamic 6/8 once he’s PL acclimatised.
No more drawn lines for VAR with multi cameras pinpointing and recording player data where it should only take 30 seconds to be accurate.
Hi Tony
Agreed. The little hand-rubbing genius will be taking a serious gamble by going into the season without a target man and goalscorer. Teams will be working us out based on last season and with nothing radically different, we could be found out.
Ever been to Flint? In the NE corner of Wales adjacent to Liverpool? County beat Connah’s Quay 1-0 on Sunday, another great away win up north. Typical early season game – beautiful weather, both teams giving it their all (CQ are probably the second best team in the league), nice friendly atmosphere with the home fans and a fantastic result. And a wicked pint of Tetley’s pre-game in the club house of the ground they share with Flint. Thinking of going on another saga this weekend back up to Caernarfon. Real football and castle sightseeing has resumed!
Come on guys. A new season is starting and nothing has changed from last season when we finished second.
Tony,
ESR was mostly injured, I have been his big fan but unfortunately, we are at a stage where we can’t develop or fix players.. not the starting XI. Keeping him benched wasn’t doing any justice.
Also, by improvement I meant we have still the same playing XI that finished 2nd twice in last 2 seasons. There are some challenges – a CB back up, Saka’s back up, a CF. Remember the panic when Gabriel was out for few games? Calafiori is here to fix that. Timber may be a RB in his past but he is here to play at LB, and he would be an improvement to Zinchenko.
Not getting a CF isn’t affecting us more than it did last season. So, we are not worse than last season, only slightly better :))
TRVL,
Makes sense what you say about their investment principal and over believing in Arteta. I’m hoping they are smart enough to see that it’s 5th full season for Mikel with no big trophies in the cabinet.
KP,
Scoring wasn’t a problem for us last season. We scored 91 goals, only 5 less than City with a giant. Saka had 16, Havertz 13, Trossard 12, Odegaard 8, Rice 7 and Martinelli 6.
The problem I see is that we lack a player up top with individual brilliance, who can win us 3 point in a very boring 0-0 game against the low blocks. Jesus, Saka, Trossard, Havertz are Arteta players who runs on instructions. Martinelli was an outlier but he played head-down, cutting on the edge and passing back – lack of confidence or fear of Mikel, I’m not sure. Haaland gives city 6 extra points, and that makes all the differences.
KP
Saag aloo – ah you know that. Exactly what I’m growing it for, it takes hardly 30 days to grow and doesn’t need much care. If you in London sometime, saag aloo, saag paneer at Tayyab’s is one of the best. Ask him to make extra spicy, he would triple confirm if you not Indian haha but worth it.
Ambarish
A while ago ESR was asked about his latest injury – his reply was ‘what injury’. El B didnt like ESR – simple.
NORG
May be / may be not. Odegaard does the job so it’s not a concern frankly at the moment. Mikel at some point didn’t like Saliba and Martinelli, but they kept fighting and are still playing. I think if ESR was fir after that 2021-22 campaign, he would be still playing for Arsenal every week.
So a couple of days until we kick off and the truth is I’ve never been so “couldn’t honestly give a shit” about an upcoming season.
The only reason I’m going on Saturday is because its a habit. We’re going into this season weaker than last for a number of reasons – 1) we haven’t strengthened the areas we actually needed to, 2) we’ve had both a Euro’s and a Copa America so we’ve got players who haven’t had a full summers break (other teams will cope better because their managers aren’t useless cunts), 3) we’ve got several players who have become more and more injury prone who are only going to contribute less going forward (Jesus and Partey being the obvious 2), 4) Arteta’s been lucky the last couple of seasons with Liverpool, Spud’s, ManU and Chelsea all being a shitshow some maybe all of them will improve – all teams are measured by what they’re up against if you stand still or go backwards and others improve you’re in trouble.
Sorry for the doom and gloom but the only positive I can find round Arsenal at the moment is maybe it’ll be so bad we can finally get rid of the cunt.
🔴🔵🩺 Brooke Norton-Cuffy leaves Arsenal as he’s undergoing medical tests at Genoa this morning.
€2m fixed fee, €2m add-ons and sell-on clause for #AFC.
-Fab Romano
Ambarish
I did say I’m hoping for the best, but send me a pair of the glasses you use as our purviews are very wide apart. I deal in realty not excuses vis stats. That was pedro’s mantra; all spin and no substance.
No matter how much you quote facts we came 2nd again. 88522 is reality.
Let’s just say I hope you are right, and I’m wrong. I’d happily be wrong and pick up a title.
I’ve nailed my colours to the mast in saying 4th/5th is our finishing position unless we buy a quality 8 and 9 in the next 2 weeks.
ESR got a couple of games and was MOTM for one, then benched. I hope the lad pulls up trees at Fulham. He has a good manager to work with, but a club with small budget that would never suit El B.
Here’s a thought If ESR was injured, why then was he on the bench for most of the 60+ games?
I support the club and the players, like Marc and TRVL, KP and others I see El B has been a failure. £600m spent and we are still short and trying to offload players. We need a 9 most and buy a LB. The 9’s we want don’t want El B.
Let’s see him turn that losing form round, and take the PL crown this season because after two seconds, surely 1st is next.
Again, here’s hoping.
“Let’s see him turn that losing form round, and take the PL crown this season because after two seconds, surely 1st is next.”
What is the narrative if City win the League again (people will say you can’t compete with Pep) but finish behind Liverpool (for example?)
I should warn everyone should that happen and whether it be Liverpool, ManU, Chelsea or even the Spud’s (OK unlikely!) I will not take lame excuses without giving people both barrels.
Marc
I have written this post specifically for that. If we don’t win, it’s time for an upgrade for the only position Mikel hasn’t done himself – the manager one.
We should beat City to the title, Mikel needs to figure out how in his 5th full season.