As the end of Arsene Wenger’s reign at Arsenal approached, there was a massive revamp in the management structure, and in Wenger’s last season we saw a massive exodus of Arsene-nurtured players from the club. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Theo Walcott, Kieran Gibbs,Alexis Sanchez, Wojciech Szczesny and Francis Coquelin made way for the first new arrivals and Lucas Perez, Jack Wilshere, David Ospina, Calum Chambers and Santi Cazorla were also taken off the wage bill this summer, while Per Mertesacker was moved upstairs.
Halfway through Emery’s first campaign we already know that Aaron Ramsey, Nacho Monreal, Lichtsteiner and Danny Welbeck are all out of contract this summer, and of course Petr Cech has also announced his retirement at the end of this campaign as well. I am sure there will be others also shipped out in the summer, but judging by the owners actions so far on the cost-cutting side, are we likely to be delving into the transfer market? Or will we just be replacing them with our up-and-coming academy products?
Much was made of promoting from within when Emery was announced as our new manager, and so far this season there have been many youngsters given run-outs this season. Reiss Nelson, for one is certain to be back with us next season, and Emile Smith-Rowe has had lots of chances. Maitland-Niles has already cemented his place in the squad, while Eddie Nketiah, Joe Willock, Zach Medley and Charlie Gilmour have all been nudging their way into contention.
For Cech’s replacement as backup keeper, we already have Emiliano Martinez in line, plus Matt Macey on loan, and Deyan Iliev waiting in the wings. What is the point of having so many keepers when we keep buying new ones?
As Dan pointed out earlier, if Kroenke’s plans are just to save on wages and transfer fees, then we can fully expect to see more of our youngsters to be promoted more than new arrivals. Don’t you think?
Admin
We ain’t getting in top four anyways??
So it’s even better to start using most of those youngsters now in EPL games to prepare them for next season. After all the senior players are sore losers and bunch of failures.. These youngsters won’t perform any worse than our senior players and for those who take out every little chance to always drag Ozil into discussions for criticism, y’all should continue, we are growing with it…
While we are clearing out old players and freeing wages, some of you want us to bring in Old age Banega as Ozil’s replacement to come do what at the EPL with his age? this is the la liga??, alongside one failed (Suarez who Sven doesnt believe is what we need) Player Barca can’t even give playing time despite looking for perfect replacements since Xavi, Iniesta left… oh not bad enough that these are the kind of players that you want to compete the title with, some of you still want old age Benatia to join the list, the way you guys criticise our players and point fingers at rubbish players we don’t need as replacements baffles me…
Are we running a retirement home? well you guys might as well say so since these days we don’t play like a football club anyways… it’s not even a surprise Sven wants to bring in young players and good ones and the club ain’t supporting him but want old age and closed to finished players for cut prices and free…
You guys are something else…
kick them all out, play the youngsters this season and let them experience the league before next season
I’m with you Eddie. Throw them in and see if they can swim .
Pat are you still in Perth, did you see my offer to meet up?
Hi Billy, no mate, I’ve been in Bali and am now on a jaunt around the islands. Phillipines next and then we’ll see if we have cash left to visit your wonderful expensive town! Right now I’m in Lembongan right with a great view of the Agung volcano which is actually smoking! Have been to Oz many times and seen the prison, Rottnest, Hilarys, etc and watched lots of Glory games when they made the playoffs. My sis (who i met up with in seminyak) is begging me to visit again so prob will. But I’m thinking about it….
Lucky you Pat. I’ve been to Bali many times but never done the islands. Mt Agung goes off a couple of times a year, my brother had to stay in Bali for an extra week a few years back, as all flights to Perth were cancelled due to smoke cloud, he was gutted. Seminyak is my favourite place to stay in Bali, did you go to Bossman burger? The best burgers in the world. A guy I work with has just come back from the Philippines, he loved it and said it was cheap too, mind you anything is cheap compared to Perth.
Kroenke OUT!!!!
Monreal’s contract got extended. It’s until 2020.
There are no indication that any of Macey, Martinez or Ilyev would be good enough to be 2nd choice. Therefore back up keeper probably have to be purchased.
Cech, Lichsteiner, Ramsey, Özil, Elneny and Koscielny all leaving would mean 750k a week would be freed. I’m into that.
I hope we can clear out Özil and maybe Elneny this month and bring in 2 new faces.
Yes, that will happen denis Suarez is done! and Banega is next.
every arsenal supporters should realise by now that our club is f**ked ,Kroenke need to be force to sell the club this guy is cancer
how can Liverpool spend more money then us is beyond me most expensive season ticket on planet and always no money before anyone say champion league we only missed 2 season from 22 . I’m done with the club won’t spend a penny till this regime all gone
“how can Liverpool spend more money then us is beyond me”
We have net spent more than Liverpool.
What they did well was maximising profits for want away players, look how much they have had from Barca for two of their players…
Silent stan isn’t the one negotiating the sale prices of players. I do not believe that was Wenger either… We seen Gazidis haggling nearly all Jan over the Auba deal which Wenger was excluded from so I think that kinda shows where the real issue has been. A CEO that was hired to oversee the sale of a club. Not to see the club grow into a giant powerhouse… but to be the guy to help us during the sale. People selling their shares wanted as much as they could get, selling the future for short term gains, that is what I believe Gazidis done to us.
exactly. The sold Suarez, Sterling, Coutinho for big bucks and invested it smartly. Not to mention they sell their deadwood for a lot of money too and dont let them run down their contracts. Overall, much better run club than us in recent years.
Liv’s net spend is deceiving. Over five years it is as you have it, slightly below AFC’s. But Liv under other managers before Klopp, done allot of big spending, when you look at the last ten years of net spend, Liverpool’s net spend is larger than Arsenal’s. Ours is poor because we let players contracts run down, and we don’t haggle as much when selling compared to buying. Liv’s is good because they made money back from players who arrived long before Klopp did. We had our stadium for allot longer, we made CL far more often. We should be blowing Liv out of the water with net spend and every other spend. It’s not the case though, not only are Liv spending allot more than us, they also have a four/five year net spend that puts them in profit, because it is not showing all the money Liv spent during previous seasons to it, it’s just showing what they made off those players. Go to ten year net spend and you get a better picture, and make sure it has everyone who arrived this season. Then next season too, watch and see Liv up the ante, while we’re still leaking and blundering away. It could be a Liv fan whom wrote the piece and chose the cut off times.
? Spot on, B-o-t. The management of transfers under the Gazidiz has been deplorable.
David Dein has been the greatest loss to the Arsenal; when he was forced out, the decline began.
For me, a successful second half of the season will mean a top six finish with;
1) A return to a back four and Mavraponas showing he is a long term partner for Holding
2) AMN showing he can play on the wing
3) A retirement Cup for Cech
4) Ozil sold or playing to his potential
5) Mhykirian sold or playing to his potential
6) No stop gap rentals brought in this window
7) Ramsey sold this window (I’m a fan but if he stays and plays well it’ll just be painful to watch and if he stays and plays rubbish it’s a loss of transfer kitty in the summer)
AMN is a CM, I hope Emery starts giving him gametime in the middle, playing him out of pos so much will create another Ox.
Please remember the game he had against UTD when he was trusted on a rare occasion in the middle, how Pogba seeked him out at the end because how impressed he was… If AMN has the ability to keep Pogba in his pocket then why not develop him into one of the best CM in the world?
He can tackle, he can dribble, he can pass, he has pace and power… If anyone can be built up to replace Vieira then I think AMN is that guy, he even looks calm and relaxed like Vieira used to 🙂
The Ox was never a cm, just because he wants to play there’s because of guerrard it doesn’t turn him a CM..hes best atrinute Is His power and speed so he needs to play on the wing. Because of that Klopp buy him…same as walcott when he was saying he wants to play as cf
Arsenal going,going, gone
Arsenal was gone when Kroenke took full control of the club.
No, I’ve just looked, stilll there…..
Just take Kroenke out of the equation for minute. For me, it’s obvious what’s going on, and we should be pleased.
As long as the club was turning a profit, and it’s share price was healthy, Kroenke let Wenger, Gazidis, and co, get on with the operational plan (the day to day running of the club). This is where we saw the chronic mismanagement, specifically of contract extensions, and player sales. To keep a long story short: to let your two star players, your two highest valued assets, get down to the last 6 months of their contracts, at the same time, is absolutely shocking! We lost £40 million in just 6 months on Sanchez alone!
The new regime are trying their best to rectify the mess they’ve been left, and they’re making positive steps so far. Ramsey isn’t a top player, is injury prone, and wasn’t worth the big wage, so they’re letting him go. No new contract for Welbeck. Looks like they’re trying to ship out Ozil. These are all positive steps.
The new regime will be much better at generating funds for transfers, than the previous regime, as Wenger, Gazidis and Co were quite possible the worst in Europe in that area. In fact, the previous regime have given all other clubs the perfect blueprint of what NOT to do, because of over a long period of time, we can see the consequences of constantly giving average players pay raise, after pay raise, devaluing your assets, and letting contracts run down.
And on Kroenke. Not a lot has changed. He’s not going to be investing any money, so the new regime will have to maximise their opportunities in regards to the selling of players. That is something the old regime never did, despite huge amounts of money on the market.
As there is always a lot of comment on Kroenke not investing or giving money to the club. It would be nice if someone could, in light of all the stringent FFP rules for both Premier League and UAFA, explain exactly how this would be achieved.Also as regards the club being mega rich I am sure we have all heard the term asset rich cash poor.
ThurdmanJW, you say that kronkie was happy to let things stay as they were as long as a profit was being made.
What you always fail to answer is HOW was that profit being made?
Let’s have a look…. continued CL, top four and fa cup wins… they were bringing in the profits.
Yet this achievement was ridiculed by fans on here.
As a guide to what the CL knockout stage qualification meant to the spuds, they earnt£55,000,000 for doing just that and yet fans on here call the last ten years the “barren or forgotten years”!
What a joke they really are.
I’ve asked this question so many times and it’s never been answered, so let’s see if you will do the honours:
Let’s accept that everything you say is true about AW, Gazidis, poor players, money misspent etc etc…how can you explain the situation that, with all the above, kronkie was making a profit, the club was qualifying for CL, top four and winning trophies.
How was it achieved with the “dross, weedy, uncoached, unbalanced, terrible signing, favourite players always being picked and all done under kronkies transfer budgets?
What is happening now is just an extension of the parameters that AW had to work under, plus the gross mismanagement of the worst CEO ever to have been at our club.
So, I really would appreciate your explanation as to how the club achieved what you say they did (profit wise and on the field ) with such negative factors they are so consistently accused of.
Because this is what UE is now facing and even when he brings his own players in (as is so often quoted) the exact same scenario will be there…. kronkies required profits.
@Ken1945
See I fail to understand what exactly you feel motivates fans. Am sure you are aware of the hierachy of needs theory. Once you satisfy a need it siezes to motivate and you move up the pyramid to more challenging needs until you finally self actualize and become fully satisfied. So did you honestly expect fans to just finish 4th, keep finishing 4th and to be forever happy and motivated finishing 4th? Please Ken1956, we were not performing to our full potential and that was always the problem. Every start of season the manager stubbornly fails to make any signings, we start losing, then when it now becomes clear we cannot challenge for the title, that’s when he’s jolted into action and we sign a bunch of mediocre panic buys to get us into top 4. See that’s the logic we don’t understand. Why refuse to do the right thing at the right time only to later do it at the wrong time when it no longer matters? Why were we throwing away seasons before they even started? Wenger and that whole regime of his were disgustingly complacent and that was proven beyond doubt when he brought a whole season to a grinding halt with his own contract stand off and he later admitted his drama destabilized the team and it’s season. Did he care about the club and the fans when he did what he needed to do to get a bigger salary? What a snake that man was! Pretending how much he wants the team to succeed when he would throw a whole season away in a heart beat to get more money. Anyway, I digress. The point was you cannot expect the fans to be happy to finish 4th when they believe they can be finishing 1st. Don’t worry though, the way our club is heading you will soon get your wish and fans will start glorifying 4th like Everton or Tottenham. Already @Trudeau a few posts above feels FINISHING 6TH WOULD BE SUCCESS.
Stop mentioning Wenger. Your new regime did this as captured in this article on ESPN written 2 days ago:
“Emery says Arsenal can sign only loan players … and the reason should worry fans – Gabriele Marcotti, Senior Writer, ESPN FC”
“Put differently, in the time of a few days, Arsenal’s triumvirate (Gazidis, Sanllehi and Mislintat) committed more than $150 million over the next three-and-a-half years in wages to three players. Annually, these players’ deals represent roughly one-fifth of the club’s total wage bill. What’s more, the three players in question were 28, 29 and 29 years old at the time they signed, which means they would have very little resale value, particularly given their salaries.”
What happened to our £200m war chest?
Yea. We X2 it then X1.5 it and now new massive sponsership deals this summer add that on top there is your answer
All siting in investment somewhere untill Kroenke decides to sell the club then he will take all his money in one go untill then he won’t spend big
I gotta admit, I was really disappointed hearing the news about Sven’s possible departure and Emery coming out to say that no funds are going to be available in January. It shows a lot about the intentions of the board and how serious they are about the whole revamping project. Liverpool’s board gave Klopp the necessary funds because they finally understood, after 20 barren years, that you have to prioritize the “project” above all else. We seem to be more preoccupied by wage bills and bottom lines at the moment so until that changes I don’t see us really competing. A top four finish is still possible I think, with some good fortune and another run of consecutive results.
As for the youngsters, I definitely agree with the author and Eddie that at this point, might as well throw them in the deep end and see what they have to offer. We have some really bright talents I think, and they’re hungry for minutes and to prove themselves, which can be a powerful motivator. It’s incredibly frustrating to see us scrambling to field a winger between so few bad options when it could’ve been a chance for ESR, Nelson, Bakayo Saka to get some much needed minutes and game day experience. I think another reason why we haven’t seen a lot of youngster action in the league this season is our recent form. It’s hard to gamble on young lads when you’re pressured to get results like we are at the moment. We should aim for a longer term project and be patient.
Until the summer at least 😛 If by then we still don’t have significant funds for transfers, then we’re being jerked around same as the Wenger days
? Good post, Pharoah. Even if the young players don’t prove to be good enough for a long term future at Arsenal, at least that is confirmed and the increased exposure may raise their transfer values.
If Ramsey only plays half an hour and Ozil doesn’t even make it on to the bus, who is supposed to create the goal scoring opportunities? I can’t understand why Emery is prepared to let either of these players go. Who is going to replace them?
Nelson – I guess
Spot on Eddie.Give our youngsters a chance.As you say they could not be worse than the dross produced by our over paid experienced players.As we cannot compete financially with Man City etc we must take risks by acquiring promising youngsters such as Clarke of Leeds and Kosma of Brentford to name but two.The likes of Mustafi, xhaka, kolasinac, Sokratis and Lichsteiner have proved to be poor to mediocre acquisitions.These errors of judgement cannot be repeated and the fact that Mislintat is apparently leaving is a real concern and obviously suggests a major fall out with Emery as to the type of player we should be targeting.Arsenal fans are more likely to encourage young up and coming players than has beens who are non productive and have no resale value.
OT
Miss Szczesny. He’s doing great at Juventus
Miss Cazorla too
Unfortunately Santi was an injury but selling Szczesny was one of Wengers biggest mistakes.. I’ve always said it, especially for smoking a cigarette in the showers. How futile.
It was a howler from Wenger.
To be fair, Wenger trusted his coaching staff too much and it backfired towards the end, his GK coach is the perfect example of it.
Not only Szcz but Fabianski. I did rate those two highly and was really upset when they left.
We’re rumored to be looking at the next GK from Liga Warsaw, they have provided us with two gems that we ruined, maybe this time around we can get it right? XD lol.
well…manager always listen to the advice of the coaching team…..he cant be everyone especially for a big club
Scz performance did drop badly at the time….
the same goes for Arshavin and Iwobi….both parties and the latter was called to be dropped and sacked by fans
I’m more annoyed about selling Gnabry!
With the Speculation of signing James Rodriguez, lets build our team with South Americans. They are without doubt the best value for money in the transfer market and as far as I’m concerned, in a lifetime of involvement in the game, the best players in World football.
And Kenny, because they often come from such deprived backgrounds, football success is a way out of poverty, not just for themselves, but also for their families.
They are driven to win and suceed.
I think promoting youngsters into the team is an excellent idea…….the game is less reliant on skill alone……it’s a really team sport now..,,,.,
I’d say it is a team game of individuals with skill.
A good manager who has the capability of understanding his players and picking the formation and tactics that succeed is a skill Emery lacks and we do pay for it.
Ignoring the Ozil fiasco, I think we have all asked what Emery is doing when he persists with a high line and slow defenders, why does he purposely set them up to fail time and time again?
Because, did you see the gap between the forwards and the defenders when we have forwards pressing or starting high, with defenders sitting back, the midfield looked like a deserted island. The passing game doesn’t work properly unless we have our players at certain distances to a teammate. That last game was a good example, the second half. Our defenders played very deep, and our forwards were right up the other end, when Xhaka went off, Guendouzi and Torriera found it very difficult to link the play.
You need to play high if the other team is camped in one half, but our team tried to play similarly to how they played in the first half, they weren’t getting anywhere. It was too easy for Wham to see who we wanted to find with a ball. You need the odd defender running into space at those times, it’s the only way to pull markers away. The fullback then might have a bit more room when he receives the ball, or a player behind the strikers might be able to turn and face goal. All our forwards could do was receive the ball into feet but were facing the wrong way. A high line – so our midfielders can also make the odd run, we needed that after we went one down, but our defenders looked too skittish – they were playing with the keeper – five minutes later, ball played back down to them, and they’d be at it again.
The only other way that I see – Counter attack game, but after they went one up, they weren’t going to commit men or be caught on a counter. Emery is not a counter attack enthusiast, he takes the initiative. Our defenders were really poor with positioning and playing it out, one of the worst I’ve seen in years.
Desperate times at do call for desperate
measures.
If the rumors circulating of Svens imminent
departure of the club due to power politicking
are in fact true and the billion dollar entity
known as AFC cant seem to scrounge up
pennies from the Emirates couches for a
possible CL run than what is the point of not
embracing a youth movement at the club.
How many more times do Arsenal fans have
to watch underperforming, overrated players
like Ramsey, Mustai, Xhaka, Miki, Ozil, El Neny
stink up the pitch to realize that there time at
the club is finished and should be aggresively moved on. AFC will NEVER seriously challenge
in the EPL or qualify for CL futbol with these
players playing meaningful going forward, and
quite frankly there collective contribution to the ridiculously high wage bill makes them
justifiably expendable. Even if AFC took a considerable loss on there initial financial investments of each player there is still close
to £100M in possible sales and close to £1M
in weekly wages that the club could immediately invest in a number of quality, young players to supplement the sprinkling of academy players
into the first team. Players the likes of…
Fornals
Frankie Kessie
Frederico Chiesa
S. Bergwijn
A. Haidara
H. Aouar
F. De Jong
D. Neres
G. Fernandez
D. Zakaria
K. Tierney
B. Chillwell
D. Upamecano
S. N’Soki
Etc
Etc
This potential youth movement at the club
would more than likely see the likes of both
Laca and Auba leave the club for greener,
European pastures but considering the
current front office drama at the club and the
transparent realization of Kroenkes true
futboling ambitions would you blame either
of them far leaving AFC?
?
good read and great youth selection there mate, would love a few of those at the club for sure!!…de jong upa and chillwell top my list there and i’ll always add bailey and kai untill someone else sign’s them 🙂
who needs a scouting team this forum does it for free 😉
But, but he didn’t list the most talented young players in England, S Rowe, Nelson, Nketiah, J Willock, Saka, Amaechi, Mavropanos. Now, that’s a list!
Monaco v Nice…. Henry v Vieira….
Sue I read something somewhere about Ozil that caught my attention, and I had to go check it myself on YouTube to confirm it once again… watch the compilation of our goals this season on YouTube and at the start of the season Ozil was involved in a lot of them (not necessarily assists but definitely in terms of build up play) and he was scoring too, wasn’t he?? There’s only a few where he had a complete off-day ( the Southampton sub appearance) – even in the Brighton game he got subbed at half time but it was his flick that got the ball to Laca to assist Auba… what people want is him assisting in every game and running around the pitch like a headless chicken, some hate on him because of his wage, (How hypocritical, like they would reject a rise in their paycheck either) Ozil wasn’t having a particularly poor season until Emery started all of this tactical bullshít stuff..
Anyone who has the time should go back and watch all our goals during the start of the seasons.. Bitterness will kill some people faster than AIDS
I have to disagree on what you’ve said, and I suggest you re-watch Ozil’s performances in full. Youtube compilation videos are a complete joke, and I cannot believe you’re basing your argument on that! I remember watching one on Gervinho, and it made him look WC…enough said!
And Ozil does one little flick in a dreadful 45 minute performance at Brighton, and he deserves praise for it? And remind me what did Ozil do against Chelsea, City, and L’pool? Yet again, when we needed him the most, he disappears…as always!Remember how much better we looked without him against Utd, and Spurs, not to mention the fact we scored 6 in those two fixtures, and were much more creative without him.
Do you honestly think he’s had a good season? He’s only had one really good season since joining us 5 years ago.
now you’re trying to drive away from my point.. our goals during the starting of this season and games he played, he played important roles in the build ups or not? even though he didn’t get to make most of the final pass, he played a big role I’m the build ups or not?? it’s a simple question… it’s not enough for you? I never said he’s having a great season, I said he wasn’t having a terrible season either unlike how you all act like he was having one before Emery froze him out.. like we’ve said so many times on this forum, Goals win you games, if he’s important to our build ups and we score then he’s important to the team.. I don’t care if he doesn’t run as Kante or Torreira, what we need is goals..and I pointed out the most important part of the game when I said all our goals during the starting of the season, and even though he was scoring….
regarding the Chelsea and city game, don’t play all dumb and saint now, we all dreaded those two opening fixtures, we all knew it because it’s Emery’s first, but you guys keep pointing out those games as though because he’s on 350k a week, you expect him to score in every game, expect him to assist in evey game, expect him to play defense, hell even expect him to be our goalkeeper, because with you guys as long as Ozil is on the pitch and we lose a game, it’s Ozil’s fault we lose, regardless of how the rest of the team performs… Hypocritical I say, in our different places of work when we get a rise in salary then suddenly someone wants you to do the job of the clerk, be the janitor, be the technician, be the analyst, be the guard on watch, when someone expect all of this from you, I guess you’ll be okay and happy all your life when the printer gets spoilt, they say its your fault, robbers get in, it’s your fault… you guys should get over it!!
Man and hypocrisy is one of the biggest and deadliest pair the world has
Eddie, now that’s what I call a brilliant post if you don’t mind me saying.
I’ve just read an article where UE is explaining his treatment of Ozil and his man management beliefs.
By all accounts, it seems he does want Ozil to stay but believes his treatment of the man will make him give even more (general interpretation as I read it) to the cause when he’s selected…if it carries on much longer I can see Ozil reacting in the completely opposite way and
who could blame him?
Ken, I read that this afternoon already
. Emery saying the reason he’s been benching Ozil is to cause friction, shows he’s only a big douchëbag…sorry to use that word on him but I have so many reasons as to why using that method is so so wrong, Ozil had to endure the most difficult and upsetting summer of his career, been insulted and ripped to shreds by all and sundry, his country and partners, till he felt that he had to leave the national team that he loves, he saw Arsenal as his escape route and what Emery could’ve done is embrace him and show him he’s there for him, instead he freezes him out also, turn Ozil last place of peace into a complete nightmare, and he says it’s to motivate the player?? I’m sorry but reaching out to players doesn’t warrant different ways and personality check?? Who in his right mind will not be affected as Ozil has been and won’t have everything disrupted when the last place you saw as your place of comfort gets turned against you??
Friction my furry àss
Eddie, just remember it was only 2 weeks ago that Mezut Ozil was out injured and he hasn’t been consistently available to play due to injuries. Given these injuries, surely Unai Emery was wise to ensure that Ozil has trained strongly enough to be fit to play.
I read from the interview that Emery was considering Ozil for selection against Chelsea. It will be interesting to see if he plays.
I’m not saying Ozil hasn’t been involved in some of the build up for goals, but my point is, that just not enough to warrant a starting position anymore, and clearly Emery thinks the same. As I said the other day: Ozil doesn’t press, he doesn’t tackle, he doesn’t head, he doesn’t fight, he doesn’t defend, he hardly ever scores, and barely even sprints! So to make up for that huge shortfall, he needs to be devastating in the final third…which he isn’t on a consistent basis, and almost never in the big games. I wouldn’t expect a Ronaldinho, or an Iniesta to do any of those either, but they made up for it by delivering when it mattered the most, and they were consistent.
As I keep pointing out as well, Ozil has missed over half our games this season, and in games, we’ve scored plenty of goals, and we’ve hardly ever struggled to create. Emery has proven that we don’t need Ozil. Under Wenger, this discussion was always difficult because Ozil always played, but now we’ve had a really good look at Arsenal without him. I don’t expect Ozil to assist or score every game, no one does, but he just doesn’t do enough. The FACTS speak for themselves.
And you’re clearly not reading any posts from anyone if you think it’s only Ozil that gets criticism. The likes of Xhaka, Mustafi, Bellerin, Iwobi, etc, have been absolutely hammered by the fans. But the difference between them and Ozil, is that apparently Ozil is WC, and that’s he’s so important to the team (as people like you, keep telling people like me). I expect Xhaka, Mustafi, etc to make mistakes, because they are poor players, but if Ozil is so good, then why is he so inconsistent then?
To win this farcical debate once and for all, I’ll leave it on this. Have you ever known a so called WC player to go missing as much as Ozil does against the top teams, and on the big occasions? Have you ever known a so called WC player to divide opinion amongst pundits, journalist, fans, ex-pros, as much as Ozil does? Could you imagine Arsenal fans having this kind of debate about the likes of Henry, Bergkamp, Admas, etc? And finally, we have best piece of evidence to back up my case. If Ozil is so good, why did no one come in for with only 12 months left on his contract. Plenty of clubs wanted Sanchez, but there was no interest for Ozil. Then Ozil gets into the final 6 months, and foreign clubs can now sign him on a free…and still nothing no interest. Baffling isn’t it? You have a so called WC player available for very small fee in January, or on free just 6 months later. Yet no top club (or any club, as far as I’m aware) makes a move for him.
I wonder if there will be the same lack of interest in Hazard, whilst his contract is currently running down.
ThirmsnJW, you may not have seen my post at 10.42pm, asking for your views, hope you have the time to read and come back with your comments…thanks.
Ok, will do. On which post? I couldn’t see anything at 10:42pm on this thead.
Thirdman, sorry about typing your name wrong!
QD has sent a reply, but has failed to answer my questions as usual.
Hope you do, as it seems everyone drifts away from the actual questions!
It is at 10.42 with QDs reply at some ungodly 3.00s am!!
Value your opinion, that’s why I’m asking
@ken1945
I finally just found it! Haha
To hopefully answer your question clearly, I wasn’t talking about Wenger and Gazidis’ financial targets, which clearly they were meeting, via CL qualification, etc. I was focusing on the hundreds of millions missed out on through a lack of sales, and money consistently wasted on players that everyone could see, were not good enough.
Success is measured in different ways. You say, how did we keep qualifying for the CL with such poor players, and money miss spent, and so on one hand Wenger deserves credit for that, considering the money in the CL. On the flip side, we went from 3 league titles in 6 years, always challenging for the league, lots of cup wins, to never doing anything in the league ever again! And nothing in Europe since 2009.
If player sales were managed far better, Wenger could have had a much bigger budget most summers. Instead, he and Gazidis consistently devalued our assets. Many who Wenger knew didn’t even want to be at the club anymore. As I said, we lost £40 million in just 6 months on Sanchez. That’s a perfect example of the gross miss management, and it wasn’t an isolated case. Even if Kroenke kept back some of the money from player sales, we still would have been far better off, than what Wenger and Gazidis were doing anyway.
Clearly Wenger was meeting financial targets, but he wasn’t going beyond that, and he should have. There’s been huge money on the market for years, but Arsenal have been about the only club to not take advantage. I remember not too long ago we only brought in just under £50 million in player sales over about 6 transfer windows! That is a criminally low amount, especially when you consider how many players needed to be sold.
Things should improve even with Kroenke, because no club was performing as bad as we were in the two key financial areas of player sales, and contract extensions. If the new regime are doing what the previous regime didn’t do, and start selling players for huge sums, and not keeping players forever, and the budgets are still very low, then we know we’re truly f****d! Pardon my French! Until that starts happening, we just don’t know yet.
ThirdmanJW,
Thanks for your reply.
Hopefully I can be succinct in my reply.
First of all, I recognize the fact that you give AW credit for his success in CL qualification.
But then you say that we never did anything in the league after 2006.
What you are not taking into account is the way the PL changed with the introduction of oil and russian money.
Did we envisage city and chelsea as our rivals back in 2006? It was a powergame between us and utd and, even then, we were the poor relations when it came to spending power.
I also think that you are being very unfair with the statement that we didn’t do anything after 2006.
We finished 2nd on two occasions, third on three occasions and, of course, never out of the top four until two seasons ago.
I accept that we were never anywhere near competing for the title during many of those campaigns, but,as I said earlier, the dynamics of the teams involved had changed completely.
We were never going to be able to compete with the kind of money being used to buy the world class players that our opponents were literally throwing at the transfer market.
That inevitably meant that the club had to look for the next level of player with the budget available and the consequences of a sell on value of said player.
With that scenario also comes the risk that you don’t seem to recognise, that being a gamble.
The classic example is Lichstener, a free transfer with an excellent pedigree.
I suggest to you that no one thought he would be the disaster he has proven to be.
Now we all have our personal opinions regarding each individual player, the cost of signing them on and their possible transfer value.
It is very obvious that,as a club, we have been woefully inadequate in the valuation of both buying and selling of players since, say, 2006?
Why?
I believe it has been since Gazidis became CEO and, as you know, that title meant that he had the final say in these matters.
Why did we lose Griezmann, a AW target?
So many other identified targets that were ignored because Gazidis was the CEO.
You attach the blame for this on two people, both of whom have now left the club.
Let’s go with that for the purpose of this discussion.
On one hand you say we bought in low level players, then criticize the club for not selling them at high transfer fees and/or failing with contract negotiations
Yet it is still happening, as can be clearly seen with the Ramsey saga
. Not only that, but we can’t afford to bring back Chambers from Fulham or, it seems, permanently sign anyone.
That has never happened in the history of our club and it’s all down to kronkies money, not buying or selling a player surely?
With regards to Sanchez, he was similar to Judas RVP wasn’t he?
AW didn’t want to lose either of them, but both players made it clear that they wanted out.
The club made a stand, as they are doing with Ramsey and lost out as they are doing with Ramsey..
Which situation do you approve of?
The Ozil contract was agreed by Gazidis and kronkie because, by then we were told, the new regime had stripped AW of his so called complete power of the club. The signing of the contract was greeted with absolute relief by the fans as it proved “we were still a big club” and yet now history has re written itself, with AW being the man who did this dastardly act!!
.
Of the five signings made in the summer, I believe Torreria’s signature is the only one that we could make money on (a brilliant signing of course) and yet he’s on the never never. If we had to sell him in the next two years, we wouldn’t get the full value of the transfer.
Again, this has never happened in the history of the club.
I always hated the AKB and WOB titles because it meant a sensible discussion could never be had.
You were deemed as one or the other and never the twain shall meet.
The last two years (especially the final one) under AW were so painful to watch and he deserves criticism for that time.
But let’s not fail to recognise exactly what did occur during the “barren or lost” years and praise as well as criticise all those involved.
I feel for UE because he is working under the same restraints and conditions and, as Emanuel Petit has said today, the CLUB hasn’t changed and not recognising that simple fact is not realistic.
How I wish we were still in the CL, top four contenders and able to actually go out and buy someone permanently.
Whatever we lost in the transfer market, the profits made by the squad of misfits, weedy and dross players certainly ensured that the club remained viable.
Yet another great post Eddie – you’re on a roll ?
Well you know how I feel about him!! He was involved in a lot of our goals & scored some too (mesmerizing ?)
Because of his wage, everything is on his shoulders.. if we win (he could have played better, done more) if we lose (he went awol) he cannot win no matter what he does!
I know there’s talk of him being sold to free up funds.. but if or when that does happen, it will be a very dark day indeed
indeed …the only negative about Ozil is he doesnt work hard…and can slack off easily….
hes a top playmaker and creator
Well John Ibrahim, if what your saying is true about slacking off and work rate, then I will gladly give my £100 to Jon Fox now.
How can you be a playmaker if you don’t work at it and create chances if you’re slacking off?
Don’t look for negatives, enjoy the positives.
in terms of marking and defending i mean….he can switch off very easily….but when hes serious hes top class
I’m not happy hearing about the head butting between Mislintat and the Raul, maybe Emery too. If it’s a difference of opinion over who to target, well we brought Mislintat in first, we brought him in to find a certain quality before they break through. I would hope we listen to Mislintat, and Emery just telling Mislintat, what qualities he needs most in his defenders etc etc. Emery wants certain types, and he has to play them, so his opinion on it does matter. But Mislintat knows how to find good young players, we cannot lose him, that would be an unbelievable blow to take. I also hear that it could be about the technical director position, I can’t imagine Mislintat threatening to leave because he wasn’t asked to fill it, unless that position relegates Mislintat to an ordinary scout. He’s supposed to be the head of our scouting, so he should have that role, or else why make him head of it, in the first place. This is bad business, the most positive thing from the AFC fans, has been Mislintat – I can’t imagine that the board would allow this to happen with the way that they’re already viewed by us.
BoT..I’ve read the issue about the technical role also, I guess the problem is once Edu takes the role, Sven’s won’t do his job fully without having to report to Edu first or something like that, and Sven wants to be allowed to do his job freely, and Sven’s data input and how he scouts his choice of players won’t be important, plus Edu will have a lot of say in what player we go for(Wish I could get the link back and post on here)… and Sven is generally happy with the club rejecting most of his choice of players..he’s not happy with how the club deal with transfers.. I hope they can sort it out please, he’s too important.. It’s being said that Sven prefer going for younger players who has higher chances to be world class..now that I think of it, The club must be crazy for turning down the chance yo sign Abdou Diallo who is 22!!!!.. Sven’s first choice, so they preferred Sokratis, and then Dortmund went on to get Diallo as Sokratis’s replacement, doesn’t it rate questions as to why Sven found him important, and Dortmund taking him as Sokratis’s replacement?
It begs the question though, it’s doing my head heavily
I didn’t know that about Diallo, why wouldn’t they listen to him, it’s always going to better to get one for the future. 22, he’s a good age, and Dortmund have a good record with young players. And we’re hearing that there is little money, if that’s the case, then Mislintat is the one we need to listen to. Rodriquez, Suarez, Carrasco, we have little money and we’re looking at expensive journeymen. We need to let Mislintat do his thing. We might’ve only gotten two players in the summer without Mislintat. He helped bring Auba for 50 odd mil, Liv would have gotten double that, had they sold him.
For all thos who blame Wenger night and day, please read this article
http://africa.espn.com/soccer/club/arsenal/359/blog/post/3751908/emery-says-arsenal-can-only-sign-loan-players-and-the-reason-why-should-worry-fans
This is about Kroenke buying out Usmanov and only that. I think we will be heading for another barren period of spending much like the years after the stadium – I hope I am wrong but have a feeling that’s the case.
Kroenke clearly must have taken out a massive loan to pay him off so it would follow he has to pay it back somehow. So fellow gooners I would not expect too much in the way of high end transfers for the foreseeable future and some disgruntled star players that we do have in the vein of how Van Percy felt when he left/
Just my opinion – could be wrong, hope I am!
The problem is Kroenke, who defines success purely in terms of business goals. Wenger worked within that large constraint, and while achieving much ultimately could not defend against the spending power of the Manchester teams, Chelsea and Liverpool. Emery is doing no better. The choice is between 6th to 10th on a permanent basis or forcing Kroenke out. Kroenke would not like the negative PR of constant anti-Kroenke banners and chanting in televised games. That would be the way to rid ourselves of him.