It takes more than money
Money is not the problem, and it is very unlikely, it should be the solution.
No matter how many times it gets repeated, it is still a false myth Arsenal are a low spending club, as just 15-20 min. of research can show anyone willing to take serious look at it.
Arsenal have, both in the past 5 years and in the past 10 years, been a very high nett spender on transfers, only spending less than Man U and Man C. We are also one of the clubs paying most in player’s salaries. In this department only the 2 Manchester clubs and Chelsea spend more. So, if money spent over the past 10 years was the only decisive factor in how we finish in the league, we should on average be somewhere around third to fourth. Maybe we would some years finish lower, and other years we would then challenge for the title, but on average we really should be third to fourth, if money spent was the only factor.
I guess you could also add factors as training facilities, backroom staff etc. into the equation, and although I haven’t done any research into how our facilities are, and how much back room and supporting staff we and others have, I would be very surprised if we aren’t in fact also near the top of the pile in spending in these areas.
Brentford’s squad has cost somewhere around 15-20% of what our squad has cost us. Yet they managed to beat us. And convincingly too in my opinion. This in itself should open everybody’s eyes to looking beyond blaming our owner for not spending. We are spending plenty. Only, we don’t get a proper return on the investments. If we did, we wouldn’t be well beaten by a club like Brentford. With all respect.
Claiming Brentford have better players, is in my opinion pure nonsense. But they had the better team on the night:
– They were more motivated
– They had a clear and well prepared plan (I doubt we did)
– They had confidence in their plan and in their ability to follow it (our players clearly lack confidence)
– They were overall better prepared mentally (a recurring problem for at least 10 years)
……
I must admit, I am no expert in football systems and tactics, so I can’t comment much on those details.
But I know a lot about how sports people and business people prepare and compete, and I can guarantee you, those who achieve most success aren’t always those with the most talent and the best skills.
But it is very often, those who are best motivated, best prepared and who know exactly what they are capable of and have the confidence to do it under pressure.
We have now started a new season. In the past 5 seasons, we have not achieved a position in top 4, which our spending otherwise should produce if that was the only factor. On the contrary, we have 5 years in a row finished below clubs like Liverpool and Spurs, which we actually have outspent by quite a bit. We have also seen Arsenal finishing lower than other clubs with a much smaller budget.
So although I, of course, hope we get rid of some of the players we don’t need, and we maybe strengthen our squad with more new signings, I really think, we are mostly in need of something else.
We need to get the current squad of players into a set-up, which can make them perform to 100% of their ability. Not least mentally and as a team.
Before we get there, we can buy the likes of Messi and Ronaldo, and still get beaten by teams spending less than us.
The finger points at Arteta and his team, I am afraid. And if you want to criticize our owner, then criticizing him for not spending is missing the real issues. But I think, he can truly be criticized, if he allows our club and team to be run by people, who aren’t up for the job. I fear Arteta is not the right man. He has had plenty of time. Unless we see a drastic change in the coming couple of games, I really don’t see him being able to do the job, and I hope our owner will act quickly.
But maybe a miracle will happen, and we suddenly are competitive??
Med venlig hilsen/kind regards
AndersS
I couldn’t have put it better myself!
A really poorly run Club making matters worse by then using people to manage it who aren’t capable of fulfilling that particular function either…
They aren’t gonna sack him. Fabrizio Romano has said so.
BRING WENGER BACK !!!!
I agree in part but on the tactics, Brentford we’re very fortunate to get the 1 of the goals they had and not to concede a pen on the night. But they were good value for what the achieved on the night. But us having 70% possession and 20 goal attempts shows that our recruitment is poor and has been for years. When we got recruitment right, those players were/are pilfered away by city and Barca.
So going back to the 70% & 20 attempts, if that was a squad like Utd, City Chelsea or Liverpool it would have probably ended up 4-0 in their favour. You can’t point at the owners entirely but they are to blame for not getting a top level recruitment and scouting team.
Effectively they are pissing the money the do spend up the wall. Edu is incompetent he is letting the owners the fans and Arteta down, I mean Willian for god sake. We didn’t need him but Edu signed him anyway. Arteta is guilty of being inexperienced and that won’t improve in 2 years of management. You can see we have improved in dominating the possession and having more attempts on goal but our players are letting us down with better personnel that domination would utilised more efficiently.
At the end of the day this still isn’t Artetas squad so it’s harsh to judge him on it. He does need an experienced head in the dugout with him in my opinion someone like a Pat Rice but this squad was awful before arteta came along and will continue to be unless we spend the money properly
Arteta does have a say in transfers, he must agree to what is happening.
Thanks for some perspective and balance. There has obviously been poor recruitment much of which is historical.
There are many underperforming players that the club is clearly trying to move out. Those who want Arteta out are unwilling to concede that he has been dealt a bad (actually terrible) hand.
A point has been made today that of 9 players on city’s bench yesterday almost any would walk straight into Arsenal first team.
For Arsenal to be serious challengers again better recruitment is absolutely paramount.
In my view Arteta absolutely has to be backed properly.
But, can Arteta get the best out of our players?
Doesn’t look like it to me, sadly
How many of our players walk straight to Leicester, Tottenham or other teams above us, what to say about brendford first eleven. You will Say we were without our first team attacking options….man ud went with arguably 3 of his backup line at front and put 5 tí leeds, a team i would be happy if we get a 1-0 win at Home.
The chances created is artificial too, since there were only 3 or 4 real good chances…if we would convert a half, we would Lost eather or get a draw against a just promoted team. Just not good enought.
The fact that our publicated 22 chances were from crosses (i’m sure that fact is not accurate) talks a Lot about our attack being predictible.
Arteta is running out of ideas. When he start i saw táctics and a plan..today i only saw undangerous posession, like we are used to, and an obssesion from playing from the back, putting us in danger (se almost saw a new xhaka howler) without getting the spaces that a tactic like that should get us
There is no doubt that Arsenal had a bad game at the weekend but there there were some extenuating circumstances.
I maintain that Arsenal do not have a great squad; added to which the team is unbalanced.
There are a few great players but there are too many who are subpar or underperforming.
The chief sub-par performer is Fraudteta. That is more obvious than anything player-related.
David I am part way between your main point and that of Anders. I DO firmly believe that MA took over an already poisoned chalice. But he has failed to stem the damage the poison has done and is still doing.
However, I cannot dissent from the main thrust of Anders piece at all. My antipathy to Kroenke is that he HAS spent money, though not enough, given his wealth.
BUT I recognise he is not and never will be a supporter of our club and is only in it for personal wealth, power and the ability to use our club as borrowing collateral.
The iceberg that sunk our former healthy ship and which turned it into the Titanic, was when the old directors sold out to Kroenke. That was when our ship was fatally holed below the waterline. That financial betrayal from directors who were , WE FOOLISHLY THOUGHT, true supporters, was therefore a worse betrayal than Kroenke, who at least no one ever thought or thinks to be a supporter.
To conclude, to my mind it is clear that with MA, as far as our general fanbase is concerned, the point of no return has already been reached.
As a true supporter and one with no power to change anything, I will continue to NOT ACTIVELY call for his head.
But I am clear in my mind that we need a new manager. Though, until we can get the Kroenkes out, then even Pep Guardiola could not improve THIS squad.
You consider your self incompetent not edu those Man City’s bench when they arrive there are not better than some of our players by then but do to poor manager they have slump to our level such as Pepe xhaka auba laca and even Thomas so arteta is not the right person to take us any further
What the F are you talking about giving the excuse that’s not Arteta’s squad! How long should a manager be able to figure all this out 50 years? He’s been here for two years already man! Stop giving excuses when everything on the pitch shows that arteta lacks the management skills on and off the pitch
Does anybody here trust Arteta and Edu with 200million? My answer is a big NO. I can never trust the people that signed willian to a 3 year deal, giving Xhaka a new 4 year deal. These guys aren’t to be trusted with funds. The owners are still to take the most of the blame for always rewarding incompetent people with patience, rewarding failure with new deals.
I strongly believe that Edon’t focuses on players he can make an under-the-table deal that benefits HIM. Why else would we see these senseless decisions?
Completely agree!
The team is full of pampered underperformers. They don’t look interested most of the time. I’m not including every player we have but certainly 80% of them. It’s obvious there are motivational issues and definitely fitness issues. Is it our training system? Is the clubs lack of willingness to compete to win at all costs? The clubs inability to re-energise the squad mentally?
I bet if players were paid on performance you would see a massive difference in the next game! Especially if they were paid nothing at all if they lose a game!
This team has been missing the passion for the badge for years. I find it difficult to identify with style of our game and with the type of players the club have gone for over the last decade. Players who could care less as long as the get their ridiculously large wage at the end on the month!
But then, if a club is run by businessmen who could care less about the history of the club, what do you really expect?
👍 Mediocrity is like a virus spreading from top to bottom of our beloved club
Reports say that Conte is likely coming soon (tuttosport). Not too sure how true but will be extremely glad it it’s true
dgr8xt, Conte would only ever come IF he truly believed he could turn any team under his control into serious title contenders within a year.
Do you seriously imagine he could possibly think that with THIS squad , and the virtual impossibility, through Covid and lack of all football finance – plus an owner who cares nothing, save for personal wealth- into real contenders ?
I am firmly convinced that he could NOT think such a thing and that therefore he would not come, EVEN IF ASKED!
I personally , i don’t agree with the decision of arteta bringing in the new faces to stat the game!! Players like niles,put him in the middle park ry o play with xhaka ,sedric put him in fulback 2 instead of chambers who’s is not even a fullback. Ateta has an ego which is disgusting.
Let him go or be sacked .
I myself if given chance i can tried arsenal and it wins!!!
Goal ben . leno
Centre backs. Holding ,b.white
Full backs . sedric,tierny
Midfield. . xhaka,nailes
Angers. Sana,martineli
Forwards. S.row ,laca,
Agree Arteta had plenty of options to not rely on new signings from the off, who certainly were not ready for the job.
I’m not saying you’re wrong Reggie by any stretch but on JA just before ko there was total excitement that Balogun and Martinelli were starting alongside our other less senior players.
I don’t know why he threw on every available one at the expense of more seasoned pros – your guess is as good as mine – but there were all of the newbies and young players on such a big night after so many months being starved of live football – it was an odd call
Too many on JA clamour for the youngsters though but IMO it has to be done sparingly. Against Brentford the emphasis was too much away from experience.
Sue, it wasn’t that he started Balogun and Martinlli, nothing wrong with that idea but to throw Balogun in at the deep end without giving him minutes last season was naive. Martinelli had just come back from the Olympics, so his preseason was non existent. Throw in Lokonga in midfield starting his first league game and White the same. A lot of unfamiliarity, a lot of hope it works and too many risks all at once. We had players on the benches that had won FA cups and played in EL finals and we start with so much unfamiliarity and immaturity. Pepe could have played striker, he has before at his previous club, Saka should have started or Martinelli at striker with ESR and Saka either side. Too many risks and too many mistakes in team selection. They looked like most hadn’t played together and that was because they hadn’t.
Would love to see conte and bring Laturo with him. It’s not pretty footy but footy that gets you into the big competitions
This is click bait don’t fall for it.
Conte wouldn’t come here unless I we change ownership
Agreed mate, why would a decent manager come to the gunners whilst the Kronkes are haplessley destroying and institution
I’m afraid the only solution to win EPL or UCL as soon as possible is following Chelsea’s ruthlessness, which is changing their managers and players like diapers every one or two years. This practice isn’t fair to smaller clubs as our competitors, but this policy will satisfy the glory hunters
It’s going to be very costly, but Kroenke must have enough financial power to do it. Mourinho and Conte have become very rich because of this practice
Arteta still has two EPL games to turn the table though
Gai
You don’t have to spend big and change coaches like diapers to achieve what Chelsea achieved😁
Kroenke seem a owner without top management skills in football and it reflects in the personnel recruited to run his Arsenal Football business. Any ambitious owner would not employ an inexperienced coach like Arteta to put incharged of a big club like Arsenal. They must be ready to exercise patience with him to get result. That patience the fans who pay hefty ticket prices won’t accept. And are the club owners really patient themselve?.
Arteta also as a coach need to learn quickly from his mistakes and know who he needs to buy to have a chance of even being in Top6.
I have said before if your CF don’t deliver the goods then don’t let in goals. Matin Keon said on Metro News that the problem against Brentford was that there was no steel in the midfield. This I agreed with. Did you watch Tottenham match against Man City? City had the possession but couldn’t break their DM.
Hope our coach Arteta is not too rigid in his ideas to his own detriment.
And he doesn’t have many experienced assistants around him.
If we’re lucky, we won’t have to spend big. Who would’ve thought Ancelotti and Mourinho failed to get any trophy
About Spurs vs Man City, Guardiola can’t always use De Bruyne or Torres as false nine. If they can’t score from open play, they need a tall target man like Kane or Lukaku to change their approach in the second half
If Arteta still insists on using similar philosophy, we’d likely struggle in the next two EPL games. But I predict he’d revert to a three-CB formation in the Chelsea game
Gai
There are not many tall CF available at the moment. Can you mention 2 or 3 that you know?
The CF is of Genk FC is very tall and also cheap
The CF of Brentford is tall too
The CF of Brighton
– Kelechi Iheanacho: Is decent in height, homegrown, left-footed and used to work with Arteta at Man City. However, he has three years left on his contract and Leicester City would likely set a 50+ M price tag
– Sasa Kalajdzic: Wasn’t impressive in Euro, but he was almost unbeatable aerially in that competition. Would likely be cheaper than Iheanacho, but I’m not sure whether Xhaka likes to have a Serbian-descent teammate or not
– Youssef En-Nesyri: Is continuing his last season’s excellent form, but his release clause is 52 M and he might want to play in UCL with Sevilla
– Dusan Vlahovic: Is another one who keeps scoring and assisting, but he’s going to be expensive and Xhaka would likely not want to work with a Serbian
– Matheus Cunha: Is Atletico Madrid’s and Leeds’ target. Not as tall as the abovementioned CFs though
– Luka Jovic: Isn’t as tall as the others, has failed at Real Madrid and wasn’t impressive in his second spell at Frankfurt. However, he’ll be available cheaply and we can also loan him, although Xhaka might have personal problems with Serbian players
Kroenke can’t do like Abrahamvic, so the system wouldn’t work here
Why can’t he? He is a billionaire and he’s spent more than 300 M in the last five years
he didn’t, he just authorized us to spend our own money, like when the Federal branch of government allocates taxpayer funds towards a particular governmental endeavour, except in this case there’s a zero tolerance policy regarding deficit spending…he’s actually “spent” less money than the average supporter, in the realest sense, yet someday he will be rewarded handsomely for having only spent our money and not his…that’s the very basis of the self-sustaining model, which is why someone looking for a sound investment, with no functional risk, entered this realm, as we all know he doesn’t give a flying f*** about this sport, let alone this actual club
Arsenal Holdings Limited have publicly announced their big loss two years in a row, as reported by the media:
theathletic.com/news/arsenal-financial-results-coronavirus/xK7Gi61zXdcf
With such huge loss and no profit in two years, we wouldn’t be able to spend 140+ M for new players without Kroenke’s money
We also borrowed 120 M in January, laid off many employees and tried to join ESL to stay afloat
sorry, but if you expect me to believe that the same Mr. Kroenke, who prays at the altar of low to no risk, high yield, long-term return investments, for some inconceivable reason, decided to scrap the very fundamental principles of the business model he holds dear, out of the kindest of his heart, would actually eat that sizeable sum, without expecting someone else to ultimately cover those costs, with considerably interest costs to boot, then I would love to hear your factual explanation in this regards…this is just the modern version of robbing Peter to pay Paul scenario, where we, the consumers/customers are always the Peter and the uber-rich are always the Paul
This kind of practice goes on in big business all the time. All you need is a stack of money to show people, the balls to lie to them that you are going to invest it, and the lack of a conscience or any moral standards. We’ve seen it before in English football, but never to such a big club, to this level or so brazenly. It’s heartbreaking because here football is an obsession rather than a pastime, and this type of legal robbery crushes whole communities. I’m just waiting for him to complete the asset stripping by selling the ground. Probably the only reason he hasn’t done so yet is because he needs it for collateral somewhere. How unlucky is this club – Kroenke AND Arteta (lets throw in Ozil for good measure). Really down atm TRVL. Got any good news?
TRVL, thank goodness that SOME Gooners have a grasp of how USA(mostly) business venture capitalists priorities lie and have the balls to spell it out loud and clear to those Gooners with little to zero business nous.
The huge problem that we who love football have, as a sport and who still stand for fair play and as level a playing field as possible, is the FORCED and incompatible marriage between such as we and the likes of KROENKE.
It can never work in the longer term, which is why those like myself, probably yourself, and others who have some life knowledge and a grasp of reality, have long campaigned to divorce top level fooball from the obscene salaries that attract these shark owners and the huge finance overall that has so impoverished the SPIRIT, of OUR game And it is OUR GAME, not theirs!
PS, I have never been and never will be a socialist.
Wholeheartedly, I believe in a capitalist financial system as it is plainly the only system that works. But it only works for all and fairly, when the market is not allowed to run riot and untamed, as happened in Britain in the divisive Thatcher years. And when a coterie of obscenely and disgustingly rich people can make such VAST wealth at the expense of decent common folk.
Capitalism CAN and must be ethical but in top level football it has not been so for decades already. The spineless and corrupt European and global football authorities have much to answer for. But as most wiser fans know, they are also run by sharks and selfish people.
Sigh!
Spot on Jon…it’s incredibly frustrating when fans, many of whom are quite intelligent, are easily fooled by the all-too-common financial trickery of the wealthiest 1%…we presently exist in an entirely nonsensical realm where our exceedingly wealthy owner, holds “our” purse strings, never invests his own personal funds, yet he and only he will someday walk away, god willing, from this business venture, with likely more banked than the combined wealth of a full stadium of supporters…diabolical dynamics at work, by my estimation
Gai
Quite some details 👌
Well said, you can’t take someone who’s not tasted any Waters in football coaching, to be the gaffer. We obviously need a new coach. The likes of Mourinho, kloop, and even his mentor started somewhere before they were given bigger roles. Arsenal should bring in capable and proven hands to take us where we all want to be.
As you said we spend near the top of the pile. Then we may have to look at what makes the players in successful teams play well, regardless of financial outlay. One factor which I could think of is somehow their intrinsic motivation to play is greater than the extrinsic motivation of money. Here we have got players in the last 5 years who were/are near the top end of their careers. The way to convert their desire to play to an intrinsic motivation to play is a little more difficult. We somehow portray the money as the end goal I think while negotiating which is the main problem.
Excellent perspective Sid
Excellent points.
The problem isnt what we spend but who spends it and who we spend it on. The way we play and the tactics are by far the biggest problem. Paying 72 mil and 50 mil on two players, paying a player 250,000 and another 350,000 a week has not improved us one little bit, so it has to be what we do with the players that is the problem.
👌🤝
I think that being an Arsenal player has never been easier. There are no expectations, no sense of urgency or positive tensions. We are described as club with no ambition, whatsoever. So, if you want to secure your future, you sign for Arsenal and take it easy. Just look at Xhaka, he’s 28, he knows he’ll be secured until 32 on a good salary too, and he’ll retire in some Swiss club. Who could ask for better planned future!
I think the difference is buying mediocre players and placing them on good wages.
But still our coaches have not been doing well, and also we hold on too much unto our players, selling at the right time before they past their selling prime
Arteta has to be dynamic and inventive if he wants to succeed which I doubt judging by his rigid style. If we are going to use Xhaka, he should form part of a 3 man defense with Tieney and Tavares on the left side in a 3-4-3 formation using players on their natural right or left footed positions. With Smith-Row cutting in field most of the time to add more bite to the attacking threat from the middle and create scoring opportunities. With this line up, we have a good balance of defense and attack. Tavares and Smith-Rowe will add attacking threat to support the front 3. This means we will having 5 attacking and 5 defending at all times unlike the 4 attacking and with no supporting threat from midfield. Tavares can give that support with his explosive pace and dribbling ability.
————————–Leno————————
—-White———Holding/Gabriel————Xhaka
Smith-Rowe—–Lokonga—–Tavares——–Tieney
Aubamayang——–Lacazette———-Pepe/Saka
He has to put his foot down mate if he doesn’t want the chop. He must have said to Edu I need this I need that amd would like this. So with this remit what has Edu done, nowt and thanks to his lack of experience and authority he’s allowed him to put him in the shit
Are you the same guy that saw Wenger as not taking the club anywhere like 10-11yrs ago? A particular James was saying Wenger has to be sacked but we were all bashing him then. Are you that guy? If you are, I must commend you have great foresight.
Arteta can do well if he decides to stop the slow passing and ball joggling from the likes of Pepe. A direct football with pace is what is needed to ignite Arsenal back to life again. We cannot afford to have more than 1 slow thinking player on the Pitch anymore. We cannot focus solely on passing the ball around the opposition to score. We also cannot afford to play in such a way that it takes 45 minutes to actually test the opposition’s goal keeper. That for me is the most boring football ever and it is not the Arsenal way, not the Arsenal identity. We used to be among the highest scorers in the league and we need to bring that back.
FRANKO. Massive lack of passing pace and quick back to front ball progression is the hallmark of all great teams. It was a constant in Wengers first decade plus teams. Though it started diminishing markedly around 2012 onwards.
Right now with such as Xhaka , YES XHAKA, a man who has , incredibly and astoundingly, been chosen as a regular by our last three managers but who is the main obstacle to pace and esp PASSING pace in our team, our chances of faster pace , with HIM in our team are zero. Sigh!
The calamitous MA decision to keep and extend his contact was the last straw for me , and was where my continuing defending of MA STOPPED.
I can NEVER accept THAT plain stupid decision!
It is still a money issue regarding their manager salary. I doubt they are paying Arteta what they would pay Conte or Allegri.
Maybe they should stop overpaying average players and pay for a world class manager…
We can spend all we want but with a manager who cant coach the players and an inexperienced Edu to handle transfers while they both make the final decision on who goes and stays we will continue to be in a complete mess. Money cant fix this.
Stan doesnt care we need an owner who is here and cares personally not another franchise to add to his portfolio of sports teams. He has people to run them for him and Arsenal is a business to those in charge.
We lost our soul to conman stan. Until he goes we will never get our Arsenal back…
There is no solution then to sack the manager and the two other useless ppl Edu and Venkat. It’s pretty clear under these three we are not going anywhere. It’s already late but perhaps new manager can still finish in top 6.
I am from Portsmouth and they used to have Harry Redknapp as a manager. He was a genius motivator but an awful trainer and not a particularly good tactician, yet he took us to great things.
I recall an interview when he was asked his secret. He admitted he didn’t train them or coach tactics. Indeed many of the squad were only seen at the ground on matchdays.
He did two things:
Other than defenders, he rarely kept players for more than three years. After that they lost motivation, became complacent, lazy, careless. For three years he could get them playing at their best. Then he sold them. Auba and Laca have both been here for between 3 and 4 years.
Other than tweaks during games, his team talks were as follows: Go out and express yourselves. Have fun, and show us how good you are. His teams played with total freedom, no fear, and were a joy to watch. Season after season he created a silk purse out of a sows ear.
Poor recruitment coupled with bad Management throughout the Club are the fundamental reasons for our decline On the recruitment side kicking off with Mustafi and Xhaka leading on to a number we cannot sell plus the outrageous money spent on Pepe Auba and Willian it does not need well versed professional to highlight these shocking errors of judgement
I gave Arteta the benefit of the doubt last season but events of the past two months has lost him my support and I shall tell you why Accepting that we were without four players who would probably have started had they been fit to go into the match against Brentford in the knowledge that on a very tight pitch we would be faced with aerial bombardment without our most dominant centre back in that area in Holding beggars belief To play Mari who is clearly not of Premier League standard amazed me and to rub salt into the wounds our most talented CB is on loan in France. I like Ben White as a player and on big pitches his speed and class will shine through. but to play him as the main ball winning CB when he is distinctly average aerially does not make sense and shows how much Arteta has to learn From the Brentford match I drew some optimism from the performances of ESR Sambi and in the second half KT That apart the most important thing I learned is that we badly need a top class dominant Goalkeeper Leno is simply not the answer and the quicker we upgrade him the better
You could add another 3 or 4 pages Grandad and it still wouldn’t cover every problem. When I sit to write a critique I just don’t know where to start. Arteta finally lost me when I saw his despair and lack of ideas during the Brentford game – he reminded me of Graham Taylor at that infamous 1994 Holland defeat. Every hour he is in charge is driving us down deeper. Each avoidable naiive disaster is followed by an even bigger one.
What to do Grandad? Where to start?
Yes and playing Mari cost us €1m.. every 10 games he plays we have to part with that amount.
Who agrees to these deals??!!
What is becoming clear is the players will not or cannot play for Arteta. No passion, no creativity, no intensity, no rhythm, no hunger, and I could go on and on in the negative. The ONLY positive are the fine young players coming through, but even they struggle to play for Arteta. If we changed manager tomorrow, either Conte in the shorter term or Eddie Howe for the longer term, the players will return from the shadow that Arteta casts, to become spirited and creative once again. Intense micro-management is draining the life and soul from the players.
Artetas decision making is so poor, the calls he makes fall flat, the players look drained and it is only the first game. To put so many players together that were not used to playing in the prem together back fired just like his other decisions on players. He is stumbling from one mistake to another and is showing that he hasn’t got any ingenuity or foresight to make us better.
He’s a one trick pony, and that trick is bad
He is incapable of coming up with another plan
Tika taka out of the box is a disaster
He confuses players with new instructions throughout the game . micromanement confusing players, stifling any flair and sapping confidence.
His selections alternate betweenbeing over-cautious and incredibly naiive
His substitutions are poor and always too late
His teams press poorly and play slowly
His frequent selection changes are not allowing players to get to know each other
Players look confused and tired
Even the u23s are poor (lost 6-1 losing 4 goals being caught playing out from the back. Watch it people if want to see how poor our future players look right now. Rekik! AWFUL!
He is not learning. Same mistakes every game.
overpassing in defence losing us goals.
overpassing in attack costing us goals
No ideas except give it to Tierney
Worrying number of players off form. Cannot be a coincidence.
Leno and Mari are frighteningly poor
Auba and Laca called sick before kickoff with no other reason given. Do we really believe that? I know I don’t
How many players has Arteta fallen out with? We will have no team left soon
Suspect he has lost the dressing room
I no longer believe he tells the truth
Team looking worse than this time a year ago
Are the board seriously not aware that the whole player roster is falling apart?
No new GK/RB/CM/AM/CF. why? What ffs is Arteta waiting for??????
Maybe fans are starting to FINALLY see the truth!
Fans like myself, who wanted big changes around a decade ago before things got even worse, were laughed at, attacked and even spat at when protesting.
But we continued with AW and IG until 2018, and it was too late by then. Because for about the last ten years, those two created a culture of failure is acceptable and no accountability.
Money was never the issue. As I have said repeatedly since those two left, it will take many many years to sort out our problems. Changing managers is easy, changing a culture is extremely difficult.
For those delusional fans that felt Wenger left the club in a great state, and attacked those wanting to actually SAVE the club…shame on you!
Well you had AW for about an extra 10 more years, so you got your wish, and at huge cost to the club.
Of course mistakes have been made since 2018, but those in charge and playing for us have been doing so within this poisonous culture we have at the club.
You are right ThirdManJW.
Arteta and Edu are complete rookies. Appointing them has been a major mistake. We were left in a huge mess by Gazidis and Wenger, and the key staff hired after them has not been up to task.
1) Hiring Sanhllehi, huge mistake. In charge of the Pepe deal, in which we grossly overpaid and resigned right after the news of investigation on his involvement in the deal. Corrupt sack of s***.
2) Letting Sven go. Huge mistake again. This man has worked on tight resources and wanted to be our Sporting Director (what Edu is basically now). Mislintat was WAYYY more qualified for the job than Edu was. FFS Edu’s only experience beforehand was TEAM CORDINATOR FOR BRAZIL NATIONAL TEAM.
3) Hiring rookies Edu and Arteta. I don’t think I need to elaborate on this.
There are soooo many other mistakes made since. Oh, and ever since Gazidis took over at AC Milan, they have lost Calhanoglu and Donnarumma for free (almost 100 million worth), are about to lose Kessie (another 50 millions), and sold Andre Silva for £2.7m and Locatelli for £12m. These deals screams of incompetence.
TMJW – I fear you are right. It has become a culture of mediocrity, and the it strted years ago. But it will take new personnel to mke a cultural change, and the current state of affairs, doesn’t give any signs we are on the right track to recovery.
Couldn’t agree more with the pair of you.
I have been willing to give Edu and Arteta time, but even I am almost done with those two as well.
We have the terrible mix of an absent owner who just doesn’t care, and people in charge of the day-to-day operations who are so inexperienced, Josh Kroenke included.
Will Arsenal EVER recover?
thirdman, you are so correct in everything that you have said. some of on here are correct in blaming wenger for this awful mess. yet, i find, to this day, that, some people will defend wenger to the death.it is a laughable situation really that these fans of wenger will never change their tune. throw in ozil also and they have enough fodder to keep them going for their lifetime. well done to you.
350k a week
70m on a single player purchase
Wage structure AS promised when moving to Emirates
✅✅✅
Yet no doubt fans will complain about this
But I would add it’s there, we are able to be what we aimed for when the gates at highbury closed..