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.
Tony
I ‘will’ want him gone if we fail to win this season again, but for now, it’s just 2 nights for the football is back. I am keeping my hopes high, optimism running and let’s see how it goes.
#COYG
KP
I might have been to Flint on the 2-tone tour back in 79. Things are a bit blurry but the tour was a cool one. Madness, Specials and The Selector as ska become the scene in the UK 78 to 83 maybe as the New Romantics came to the fore.
Sounds like you guys are having fun on the road winning games. Winning always make the return trip more animated I imagine with your group.
What’s your hip flask tipple? Having the post virus check up my doctor asked me when I last drank alcohol and I honestly couldn’t remember. 2015 I thought when I was making the MC club videos. Drinking was compulsory.
Send links of the castles if you get any then can follow your exploits.
Ambarish
Sorry if you feel I’m negative for the season start. I would love to feel more positive. The same players came 2nd. Most of them did it twice. Rice was the only real addition.
If we’d bought Eze and VO I’d be ecstatic, and so amped up for the season.
It’s looking likely we get bargain basement Merino, and the decent Calafiori who we don’t need.
El B tried to get a 9, but no one wants the play for him. That’s fact or we’d have who we need, and not be starting Havertz at 9 with no real competition for him, so a guaranteed starter unless Jesus can work miracles. Eddie has hissy fits and few goals that mattered last season.
Currently, we are weaker not stronger because our key starters didn’t get the rest they needed, so expect soft tissue, muscle strain injuries earlier this season, and we still don’t have bench to change games.
You look at our competition and they are all strengthening in the right positions.
Obviously, I’ll be glued to every game wanting to win because I’ve loved my club for 60 years and counting and want us to win trophies from time to time.
Marc
It’s not a nice feeling I agree.I hope you get to enjoy the game and we should walk away with the 3 points at home and make a statement.
I’m looking forward to hearing the views of those around you with your own as I’m sure we all are.
Ambarish
I’m right behind you with that and really hope El B does the business. I’ll happily eat as much humble pie as you throw my way if he does. lol.
The case against City is likely to feature early in the new season. Will this affect the Citizens and Pep. Claims and counter claims could be a lengthy one – the Premier League is rich, City’s owners are richer.
This could be a positive for AFC but also others that will be targeting a top 4 finish. At 7PM Friday evening Arsenal will be top of the league table – by 10PM either Southampton, United will hold that position. Will we be top again before the end of the season.
Last season the likes of Chelsea, Spurs and United were still well below their normal standards – will they manage to make enough changes that will return them to challenger status.
Ambarish
Very neat site. Looks like you worked on the design in between growing your Saag / palak ( an Indian version of Popeye spinach ).
Norg
Looked at ESR in both Fulham pre-season . Looked sharp and definitely ” injury, what injury ? ” Got goals in both outings. But the rest of the team has still to anticipate his movement. Over at Arsenal there was telepathy with Saka and things looked explosive. Truly I say El B has earned his moniker. But expect the Portuguese Manager to work things out. Fulham should play around ESR, and doubters will realise that with the time and favoured position Odegaard got , ESR would definitely have been better of the two. Playing against better teams , explains things better , I guess , than flat track bullying, which ,of course looks pretty.
Hoopah
It will take time for players to anticipate the moves ESR makes – he and Saka had a decade together and their passing moves were second nature. I agree ESR by far the better player compared with MO.
here’s the crux of the problem, when a few pundits/former players express their concerns regarding our need for a Striker, it’s not the end of the world, but when everyone and their brother are convinced that without a readymade talisman up top our chances of taking the next step are rather bleak and yet we don’t do everything within our power to remedy that situation, it’s beyond unacceptable…in fact, it’s very reminiscent of what transpired time and time again under our former manager, who, like our present manager, continually acted in a negligent and obtuse manner when it came to our positional requirements…ultimately this cost Wenger his job and left us on the outside looking in when it came to the procurement of titles
now we all know that earlier in the window MA sought to secure the services of Sesko, a promising young Striker, but when he was rather quickly and publicly rebuffed, he seemed to have taken that rejection rather personally and maybe just maybe he allowed his bruised ego to wrongly influence his future recruitment decisions…since that time we’ve spent vastly more time on targets who play in positions which are considerably less pressing, which has become an all-too-familar refrain during MA’s tenure…of course, there’s been rumours about some more second-rate options recently, especially when it seemed as if Eddie was on his way elsewhere, but that’s not what’s needed here, as we already have several of those types currently rostered
tbf the whole Sesko gig was always more ruse than a legit plan to solve what ailed us, as MA sought to bambozzle both what he thought was a naive young Striker, who would jump at the chance, and those within the fanbase who desperately desired more viable options up top…in reality, the Slovenian, or his inner circle, immediately spotted this wolf in sheep’s clothing attempt at deception and acted accordingly, as they realized this had far less to do with their client’s best interests and infinitely more to do with the whole Havertz/Jesus flawed experiment continuing unabated…MA knew full-well that Sesko wasn’t ready for the bright lights, which was obvious to anyone who watched the Euros, so this option, especially if available on the relative cheap, would appear like a savvy piece of business and give the impression that he was listening, when, in fact, he was only concerned about satisfying his own selfish inklings
TRVL
Nicely put.
The similarities between Wenger & MA are too many to ignore. If they continue, MA will be gone, and we will hopefully find an experienced manager with sound tactical nous and motivational abilities for the many, oft fragile, personalities he has to deal and keep them on song to win trophies.
A manager who learns by his mistakes.
2 days to the Wolves game, so poor incomings for the start of our season yet again (bar Rice & Timber). A decimated preseason due to the lack of incomings and our starters needing more recovery time after the Euros.
PL clubs who didn’t have their key players on Euro or Copa America duties, will be more advanced in their collective pre season preparations and season strategies’ tactics with far better incomings than us.
El B’s preseason was to use youth, and them put them back in their youth sides to be forgotten and probably sold to our competitors.
Arne Slott? He’s an all round manager who has blooded some young players who we will see during the season. Ten Hag is the same and always has done well with young players in Holland. Not so much in the PL yet, though even if he has given game time to the most PL club’s youths.
Spuds have added the following this TW:
Dominic Solanke Centre-Forward 26 €64.30m
Archie Gray Central Midfield 18 €41.25m
Lucas Bergvall Central Midfield 18 €10.00m
Min-hyeok Yang Right Winger 18 €4.00m
City as of 7 days ago incomings:
Player Nationality Previous club
Savinho Brazil Troyes
Kalvin Phillips England West Ham
Joao Cancelo Spain Barcelona
Emery has been busy shoring up his defence, MF and attack:
Amadou Onana (£50m, Everton) …
Ian Maatsen (£38m, Chelsea) …
Samuel Iling-Junior (£12m, Juventus) …
Lewis Dobbin (£9m, Everton) …
Enzo Barrachenea (£7m, Juventus) …
Ross Barkley (£5m, Luton Town) …
Cameron Archer (£14m, Sheffield United) …
Jaden Philogene (£13m, Hull City)
The Chavs are still adding to their incoming tally:
Player Nationality Fee
Aarón Anselmino Argentina £16.50m
Renato Veiga Portugal £14.00m
Caleb Wiley United States £10.10m
Marc Guiu Spain £6.00m
Pedro Neto Portugal £54m
Liverpool’s incomings under Arne Slott:
With Slott taking the reins from Klopp this season and inheriting a good squad is unlikely to make many new signings in the next 2 weeks. Slott has got Pool playing as a team now with Salah looking happy again.
I expect some movement by Slott this TW.
Manure’s incomings:
Player Nationality Previous club Fee
Leny Yoro France Lille £52m
Matthijs de Ligt Netherlands Bayern Munich £45m
Joshua Zirkzee Netherlands Bologna £36m
Noussair Mazraoui Morocco Bayern Munich £15m
The paltry Arsenal incomings:
Player Nationality Previous club
David Raya Spain Brentford
Lucas Nygaard Denmark Nordsjaelland
Tommy Setford England Ajax
Riccardo Calafiori Italy Bologna
Raya was made permeant, so hardly a new signing and still questionable for me.
Lucas is an 18 year old keeper and Tommy also an 18 year old keeper welcome lads hope you excel with us.
Edu and El B with our not so dynamic duo: Garlick & Lewes are looking in the bargain basement now with Merino it seems no other club wants.
We don’t know how new signings working unless they are from PL clubs. However, when you consider the above, we look weaker with the same players and still missing an 8 & 9 of at least high ceiling if not tailor made as Eze and VO are.
Every day I wake uploading for happy incoming news but like our coming season it’s blind hope hoping against hope for a title.
That’s a lot of fcuking hope to hang onto…………..
Cheers Tony
with Bobb now out for a couple months or so, it will be interesting to see what, if anything, City does before the window closes…as of right now they appear to be a tad weaker and thinner than last season, so Pep will need his brightest stars to remain healthy, his new addition, Savinho, to hit the ground running, and Grealish to rediscover his form from a few seasons back…none of which are a given…that said, as long as he has Rodri, DeBruyne and Haaland on the pitch good things will happen far more often than not…hopefully for our sake, the Keeper change will cost them at some point in the season…even so, if it comes down to the wire again, I would pick Pep to find a way to outmaneuver our weak link manager for a third consecutive season…on occasion Pep has tripped over his dick against other notable managers, like Klopp and Ancelotti, but he rarely puts his balls in his pocket against lesser light managers, like you know who
interestingly enough I think our season will be determined by 4 key factors:
(1) how many bottom-half teams will capitulate before even stepping on the pitch…far too often, in the last couple of seasons, we’ve been gifted 3 points by sides who either don’t have the necessary personnel to park the bus effectively or are “saving” themselves for matches where the possibility of securing points is infinitely more likely…I’m not complaining, but it’s difficult to hang your hat on this notion year-in and year-out…this happens far more often with us than City, which speaks to the value other teams place on getting a result from a team of their ilk
(2) what other team or teams enter the top 3 fray…if Slot can find a way to both reinvigorate some of the old heads and get the most out of a sizeable portion of his more youthful stars, Pool could be a tough out for any side…they seem to be the most credible threat, but stranger things have happened…if things get messy up top and this turns into a have vs. have nots fuckfest, where 4 or 5 sides have their respective ways with the rest of the field, then the advantage shifts to the side with the best manager, which certainly doesn’t favour us
(3) how the top sides navigate the end of this window…as of right now only Villa, Spurs and United have directly addressed their most pressing needs, to potentially mixed results, so whomever wins the period between now and the end of the month could ultimately win the day, especially now that the January window tends to be far less eventful
(4) Health—always difficult to predict, but vitally important…we have more depth on the backend, but what are the chances that we escape the long-term injury bug when it comes to our most important players in the midfield and up top again, especially considering our history in this regards…here’s hoping that we add in both areas before the window shuts
TRVL
I think you need to add our performances against the other top 5 teams I know I bang on about it but our points return last season was bordering on phenomenal the chances of doing that again are slim and every point we drop is a point or 3 in their favour.
You could easily see us lose anywhere between 4 and 8 points from those games compared to last season.
Marc—that’s what I was inferring when I spoke of how we didn’t have the managerial expertise to navigate a season where those at the top laid waste to the bottom-feeders…in that case, those top 5-6 match-ups would ultimately determine the final standings, which wouldn’t favour us…I guess I could have been more intentional with my choice of words…Cheers
It’s like a fucking ghost town out there in the rumour mill, minus chatter about the longest negotiation ever for a slightly above average Spanish midfielder…clearly MA cares more about winning “his” way than the most plausible way…sound familiar?!? the only thing working in our favour is the fact that City has gotten weaker over the last week, with Bobb out and Alvarez moving elsewhere
The reason why the incoming number of players is so poor, is because of our selling players. PSR has teeth and can bite us in the arse. Since 2020 we have accumulated a massive deficit and also so far in this TW. Before Merino can come in we need to sell according to Ornstein. In addition we have lightweight negotiators in Edu, Lewes and Garlick. So be prepared for AFC to do diddly squat this summer.
This TW is starting to give off 2015 type vibes when Chihuahua Head only signed Petr Cech (on a free of course). Calafiori isn’t exactly getting my ducts flowing even though I hope he succeeds. Indeed, his signing is leading me to conclude that Saliba or Gabriel might be sold pretty soon.
I hope they don’t go for Gyokeres either. I simply don’t like the sound of his name when it’s vocalised in my mouth (I assume he’s ethnically Hungarian with that name) and he had many ordinary moments when he played for Coventry.
And on Eddie Unket.. Can it really be the case that there’s a nascent bidding war emerging? Fake news surely.
Killroy
Then why the fuck would you spend £40 million on a backup player when there are glaring holes that need filling in the squad?
Kroenke
Nketiah’s on £100k per week – outside of the PL and the top Euro clubs how many pay players that sort of money?
How many pay that sort of money to OKish strikers?
KP—agreed…I spoke at some length about the 2015 comparison, plus several other depressing connections between our now manager and the latter version of Wenger…my rant was likely a tad long so you probably ignored it altogether, which I certainly wouldn’t hold against you, as I tend to get a little carried away at times
Marc & Killroy—if you want to know why we aren’t properly redressing our concerns up top just have a fucking gander at our wage list below: (only includes those making 100,000/week)
Highest paid players at Arsenal for 2024/25
1. Kai Havertz – £280,000 per week
2. Gabriel Jesus – £265,000 per week
3. Declan Rice – £240,000 per week
3. Martin Odegaard – £240,000 per week
5. Thomas Partey – £200,000 per week
6. Bukayo Saka – £195,000 per week
7. William Saliba – £190,000 per week
8. Gabriel Martinelli – £180,000 per week
9. Oleksandr Zinchenko – £150,000 per week
9. Ben White – £150,000 per week
11. Aaron Ramsdale – £120,000 per week
11. Riccardo Calafiori – £120,000 per week
13. Kieran Tierney – £110,000 per week
13. Jorginho – £110,000 per week
15. Gabriel Magalhaes – £100,000 per week
15. Takehiro Tomiyasu – £100,000 per week
15. Eddie Nketiah – £100,000 per week
15. Reiss Nelson – £100,000 per week
it’s almost criminal that we’re shelling out over a half a million dollars, per week, on two substandard Striker options, while likewise paying a whole host of underwhelming/benchwarming fucks 6 figures
I would gladly give Palace Eddie for 15-17M, as part of a swap deal, if in return we paid somewhere in the neighbourhood of 45M for Eze…I think that would be a spectacular piece of business…unfortunately, I very much doubt our factory of administrative simpletons could ever navigate such a “complex” deal, at least not without a full window and then some…on top of that, they botched the Marseille negotiations so badly that in order to save face they likely can’t except anything less than they’re supposed best and final…they should have settled for a fee closer to 25 simply to get him out of their own backyard, which would have likewise matched the fee they were willing to pay for their 1B option, Wahi…at least then, even if he produced, they could have hid behind the very believable argument that it’s Ligue 1…after all, one needs to only look at Laca’s production, since he left on a free, to accept that premise
if nothing get done, we could actually start the season without having adressed what most everyone deemed as our most glaring weakness, which would have seemed like an almost ludicrous notion some 3 months earlier…the last thing we need is another monumental off-season cock-up to add to our already embarassing collection…should things go tits up again, this could easily rival some of our more recent fuck-ups, like replacing RVP with Giroud or ignoring the DM position post-Vieira or only signing Cech in 2015 or running Emi out of town or breaking the bank on Havertz or…
Ellis, El B & Edu are the problem plus Garlick overseeing the shit show. Tim Lewis is a corporate lawyer and reports to Stan. Garlick has a big team working on contracts – in the past this work was subcontracted to a highly efficient legal firm who used half the amount of staff.
Garlicks team consult with El B & Edu for contract renewals.
Tim is Stan’s information gatherer and also works on projects such as ESL. Could it be certain staff, by protecting their own positions are feeding somebody a length of rope.
TRVL
What’s just as bad is you have Gabriel who is in the context of a PL footballer underpaid – I’m amazed his agent hasn’t demanded an increase previously.