Despite beating Liverpool in midweek, the Arsenal manager made it clear that there is a massive gulf in quality between Klopp’s Champions and lowly Arsenal, who are barely fighting to get into the Europa League.
The Gunners boss challenged Stan Kroenke to invest when the Mail asked him how hard it would be for Arsenal to get back into the Top Four: “Harder and harder” he said. “because that’s obviously something that has to feed each other. If you are not in the Champions League and you say “OK, I don’t invest because I don’t have the financial ability to do it”, but the other clubs invest, then the gap becomes bigger.
‘If I do want to invest and risk, and then I don’t reach it, what happens? So at some stage you have to make a decision, whether I want to aim to make that gap closer and go for it, or I stay where I am.
‘You see many good examples of teams that have done it [risked] and they have come back to their habit [of being in the Champions League].
‘While I am sitting in this chair I’m not [stopping seeing Arsenal as a Champions League club], because that’s the only thing that I think of this football club.’
Despite that the Boss has admitted he doesn’t know if funds will be available, but Ray Parlour is insistent that if Arteta isn’t backed this summer, like Frank Lampard at Chelsea, then the Gunners can forget about returning to the top table.
He told Talksport: “They’ve got gamble if they think they have the right manager.”
“Look at Lampard at Chelsea! They have given him funds.”
“If they don’t spend then they are not going to get into the top 4.”
He may be right if we want continual success, but as sides like Sheff United and Wolves (and of course Leicester when they won the title) have shown that it is not totally neccessary to spend to have success.
Do you think Parlour is right?
Sorry to go OT… Boris has said fans could be back in October!
🙂 🙂 🙂
Hope so, Sue!
👍
We didn’t really beat Liverpool. They made 2 mistakes which led to our 2 goal which were the only 2 attempts on target out of 3 shots. Compared to Liverpool’s 23 shots and poor performance!?
I would say we need address a few issues..
You can guarantee that all the “big, “ambitious” and serious clubs at the top of the EPL will be strengthening with challenge in mind!
Yeah we did beat them both we defeated them and took all the point
They gifted us the goals. Liverpool were poor and on another day we would have been demolished by an inform Liverpool with our performance. We were dominated and rarely threatened them in their own half!
The result shown in the Sports Pages of the newspaper says Arsenal 2 Liverpool 1 doesn’t lie.
How many goals and accordingly points we gave to our opponents eho pressed us high while were trying to play from the back. Goals are goals, they dominated us but we some how managed to keep our lead. That is football.
We spent money and we ain’t going to qualify. One can say we are not spending enough to qualify but several teams have spent way more than what we spend and still don’t qualify in the past. Imo, you need more than money to make top4 . Everything just have to work in your favour. Besides which club isn’t spending money at the beginning of every new season. One club didn’t and still make top and got to CL final. There was a season we bought just a goalie and finished in second place. Chelsea didn’t sign a single player last season and they are in third presently. Pepe’s fee alone is more than what Leicester spent ( I stand to be corrected) and is in 4th. All these pundits and our explayers need to put their emotions in check when discussing arsenal otherwise they will embarrass themselves.
Correct, Mobella, this has always been my opinion too.We need determination and passion to win.We need coaching for set pieces either to defend or to take them properly. We need to stop this back and side passing. We need proper tactics. These are all down to the coach. Do not try to save yourself by asking for funds etc.We do need better players but first the coach got to get his act right. Do not hide behind a mask to hide your incompetence in your coaching skills Mikel. Does Rodgers or Nuno cry about investment? They show their skills on the pitch. Talk is cheap Mikel. We have a team of internationals, coach them to our standard.If you cannot, you may walk.
Sorry, this might come harsh and insulting but this is the dumbest comment I’ve seen since covid era.
Who are you trying to coach?
Coach Mustafi to be Van Djik? Torreira to be Kante? Ceballos to be Santo? Or Ozil to be his younger self? Bellerin to Dani Alves?
You think even Pep or Klopp will get top four with these weak players?
Eddie you have the liberty to wite any language but if you read my comment you would understand that most of our losses and draws have been due to misplaced passes and the like. Even VVD did a mistake last game. The coach has to convert this back and side passing into a more pressing high tempo game. See the coaching of Nuno or Rodgers, more entertaining. We need that type of play.Don’t tell me that our players cannot do even that for the wage their paid.
Come on man, even you watch our games! These guys are not good enough to press for 70 minutes. You do see them get tired and burn out under 60 minutes, it’s been like that even under Emery.
It’s the reason everyone kept saying coaches need their type of players in the first place.
Also there’s nothing wrong in playing from the back, individual mistakes is not down to the tactics of the coach.
Against lower teams, Wolves do play from the back.
Even Liverpool with high press do play from the back, every top team in Europe do play from the back.
The only problem is individual mistakes that keeps happening, it’s why you see new coaches try to bring in their own choice of players at various clubs.
Come on are you really pinning individual mistakes on the tactics of the coach?
Will you say Klopp was at fault they lost against us?
Are you not being too harsh and expecting too much from Arteta with this poor squad?
Dumbing at its best😄😄. Guy, you need football education before your next comments, please!
We didn’t spend the money correctly, Mobella. Everyone knows we didn’t need Pepe. That could have been much better spent. Kolasinac, Sokratis, Mustafi, Xhaka and few more are simply NOT GOOD ENOUGH and as Sue rightly states, “are prone to too many brain farts”!!
Fact is, the club has made some really bad decisions. They allowed contracts to run down, been late to move in transfer markets and generally miss-managed the squad. How was Ozil ever worth £300,000 per week?
Sorry but your name is appropriate – loose cannon – how can you say the coach needs to get the right tactics do you know what tactics are discussed before and during a match, the players need to follow actual tactics set which I am sure doesn’t include defending like Sunday league players – I believe that each player is paid enough to do there jobs in a professional manner
Actual I believe Ozil is on £350k but might be wrong
Yes we did spend money but we loaned 1 of the players out – Salina and obviously bought Pepe who has had a tough baptism to the premier league, even though I am not sure we needed him.
We need to strengthen our defence as we all know and also our midfield so that we can properly build from the back going forward but also that we defend in a proper manner
So we need to spend on a couple of players but also need to get out the dead wood of the team
Pat you deleted my comment simply because I said your final question was unnecessary and pointless though I praised your fine article yOU ARE VERY TOUCHY TO DELETE SO HARMLESS A COMMENT GIVING CUSTOMER FEEDBACK. Are you personally above ANY critical comments at all and if so, why?
CUSTOMER.. LOL 🙂
What comment? I have deleted none today, and there are none of yours in the bin my Lord
Well someone did delete it . MARTIN PERHAPS?
No not Martin. Maybe it was just you Jon once again. Like last time when you accused us of all sorts and threatening to leave the site when all the time it was you that put in the wrong email address. Pat has already told you there was none of yours in the bin so why use capital letters to suggest it was me I do not know.
Martin, A mystery then. But why the beef with capitals? I have free choice to use them, so I do. No one else ever pulls me up on othere sites for excercising my free choice. Why do they bother you? Another mystery to me.
You say it is for emphasis and you emphasise the part about me. In future, I suggest, you ask simple questions and we will provide simple answers. Going with accusatory questions and making threats and emphasising them in capitals does not go down well. You are free to use your capitals because you said they are for emphasis, so I would kindly ask that you at least use them appropriately.
Mypost certainly originally appeared and i saw it myself. But a little later it had gone. So my email addrees was clearly used correctly. Your explanation cannot be correct then. I saw it here . But later it was gone. Your explanation makes no sense therefore. You also cannot deny that a number of my posts HAVE been deleted, so it is fair of me to suppose that this was yet another deliberate Admin deletion. But I WILL LEAVE IT THERE AND CONSIDER IT A MYSTERY. Though i do believe you did not , this time, delete it.
With regards to the email address, I was referring to a previous incident where you levelled all sorts of accusation and threats and it was ultimately your own doing for putting in the wrong email address as you were informed by Pat at the time. So my explanation is not only correct but wholly accurate. Pat has told you, I have told you that on this occasion no one has deleted your post, it is no mystery, it simply was not deleted. You are indeed correct that in the past a number of your posts have been deleted and we have been very open about that. Not once, with any member have me and Pat denied deleting a post when we have done so. It really is up to you what you want to believe or not Jon, but I reiterate, no one has deleted your post today, the reason we know this as an absolute fact is it is not in the bin which currently contains 354 deleted posts and I have checked the core logs and there is no log of a post of yours being deleted. Now, I ask that you accept the full explanation and drop it now because I do not want this thread being distracted any more and then me being forced into doing the exact thing we have been discussing, which is to delete comments.
I don’t think it is a money issue as much as player selections. Look at Pepe for instance, who could predict that he won’t be able to perform as he did back in France?
Moreover, keep in mind the lack of real CB’s all around the world right now which makes it even impossible to pay more than 70 million to get a “Big name”!
My advice is to pay less on young players, recruit and build a team with keeping Auba in front and the addition of Mid “creator” player will make us get back to the 4s and CL!
New news about Coutinho linking to us .. let’s see what MA thinks of this player.
As I have said before.. You could stick with this team and fire Arteta. It won’t change a thing. Even if both Pep and Klopp were to manage this team next year we would still have the same situations .Mistakes, constant side and back passing and a general lack of inventive or creative football. It has been like this for nearly a decade and no manager can change it unless the team is dismantled and rebuilt. That will need money and I’m sure that is what Ray Parlour is referring to! Lampard is spending more at Chelsea now because he knows they will need to be much stronger next year to compete with Liverpool, Man C and Man U. Teams like Leicester, Spuds and Arsenal are runners up scrapping for what ever is left. Wolves and Sheffield U and Burnley look in a better position now because of the amount of points dropped this season but are closing the gap.
We need to spend, fair enough, but we need to spend wisely which sadly has not been the case during the past decade.If you consider centre backs for example, look no further than young Ben White, currently on loan to Leeds from Brighton.A tremendous young prospect who has everything you could look for in a CB including pace, something which is lacking in all our current group.Leeds will obviously be very keen to buy White who is attracting interest from Liverpool, but this is a guy who would not cost a fortune and who is a cut above the likes of Mustafi,Sokratis and Luis.This is the type of player we should be looking for rather than high risk types like Pepe, who at 72m is looking decidedly overpriced.
Grandad, you and I are kindred spirits, regarding the misma agement of Arsenal’s player and financial assets by past and present Boards and senior executives.
There are key areas which have been self evident for many seasons in need of addressing. Arsenal haven’t had a decent DM since Gilberto Silva left and as for CB’s enough said.
Arsenal needs to go all out for Thomas Partey, as the offer on the table from Atletico Madrid is £135k. Other available midfielders are Ceballos, Marc Roca from relegated Espanyol, Kai Havertz and Arsenal needs two.
Declan Rice from West Ham and Jack Grealish from Aston Villa may also be available. With regard to CB’s with Saliba coming in, Sarr the young French U21 International CB from Nice is available, Barcelona is looking to loan or sell Umtiti and Dayot Upamencano is running his contract down at Leipzig, but may want Champions League. Closer to home Dutch International Nathan Ake could be bought from Bournmouth should they be relegated and Lewis Dunk could be prised from Brighton and Hove Albion.
My view is like yours, its not the amount of transfer funds, but how wisely directed. Thomas Partey and a second quality midfielder, plus a quality CB like Dunk, Sarr or Upamecano, plus intergration of the youth coming through would greatly improve the Arsenal squad.
It’s about spending smartly and scouting properly. Arsenal have had poor scouts for years now and consistently buy players that are either looking for a final paycheck (the chelsea retirees), or players that will just take any nice paycheck (Ozil, Pepe,). You need players that understand the vision of the club (something that we also havent had in a while), and is willing to work hard to do it. We’ve had Cech say himself that Chelsea take themselves more seriously than Arsenal .You cannot have that. It comes down to more than quality. Arteta gets that. It’s a mix. You need the right attitude as well as the talent. This is why Guendouzi and Ozil have both disappeared.
Based on money you have to use it wisely.
Leno(20m)
Cedric..Sokratis(17m)..Mustafi(35m)..Tierney(25m)
Torreira(25m)..Xhaka(35m)..Ozil(40m)
Pepe(70m)…Lacazette(60m)…Aubameyang(60m)
This is what is called an unbalanced team through and through.
1. Constantly buying short defenders (both 1.92M
2. Defenders cannot pass!!!! Even the ones that try (Luiz), usually play at slow-motion pace.
3. Midfielders are not technical at all!!! Remember Wenger’s use of the word TECHNICAL.
4. Most expensive forward line in the league but is as unbalanced as you’ll ever get.
SUMMARY:
People will continue talking about need to spend money but its not about spending money,,,, but
(i) how you detect a need and address it with the right, TECHNICAL players and also
(ii) Picking right players for the formation
Arsenal went “technical” previously, without the important attributes of physical and mental strength. Arsenal’s so called technical midfielders have been bullied off the ball and run over, past and through for season after season.
Recruiting the best staff, specially players are important part of the game, and more investment means more choices and more proven player with better reputation, so money is important in building.
With that said, it is not the only factor, putting the money in its correct deal, playing the best combination of players with the most suitable tactics, who can run, fight, and play 90 mins and seeing potential and developing it are all important parts.
I see/saw clubs started with youngsters, developed them and correct low budget investment and climbed well and had better budget afterwards, and I saw clubs making stupid investments and failing. Both examples happened in Arsenal in different years, it happened in Man Utd, it happened in Spurs,…etc.
Bottom line, spending what you have carefully according to clear vision is the key, the more the merrier.