Tony Adams has been critical of Arsenal for a long time. Critique in Arsene Wenger’s last few years was dismissed as our ex-captain being bitter of not being invited to return to the club as a coach.
Yet our former defender has continued to question how the Gunners are being run behind the scenes, forcing Mikel Arteta to defend our recruitment policy. Essentially Adams has accused the current regime of making signings that haven’t been better then what we have.
Our manager does what he is particularly good at, speaking in a manner where it sounds like he’s making sense, but in actuality saying nothing with any substance.
To paraphrase, the Spaniard essentially said his priority was to find balance within the squad, and now that has been done, we can bring in talent of a certain level.
As I wrote in January, I have little interest in Stan Kroenke slashing the wage bill when we are finishing in our worst position in decades. It puts the pressure on for there to be serious investment in the summer.
How do you expect to compete with a Man United or Chelsea in the summer when they plan to outbid City for Haaland, while our ambition is hoping Real Madrid lend us a couple of their fringe players?
I maintain interest in Odegaard and Ceballos was not having to pay a fee, as finding value will be Edu’s main criteria. A big club shouldn’t be relying on another clubs cast offs to make their midfield better, an example that Adams could use.
As is Willian who hasn’t improved our creativity, signed purely because he was a free agent.
Being out of contract is the only reason we got in Cedric who is simply a body to make up the numbers.
Mari’s been mainly injured for a year.
The situation with Saliba leaves you wondering if we have all the facts. If the club are trying to simply protect the youngster then he either hasn’t been told or disagrees that he needs any help.
Gabriel started well but faded.
Yet Adams isn’t rating the likes of Gabriel, he is suggesting we purchase a finished article. Someone to take us to that next level. That’s why he was particular frustrated with the transfer of Martinez, feeling competition would have pushed Leno.
It seems already acknowledged that Runarsson isn’t ready to be our second choice keeper, which is why we loaned Matt Ryan as a cheap alternative.
Arteta proudly brings up how many youngsters he gives a chance to, but who cares if your giving youth a chance if you are not meeting your targets.
That is Adams’s point.
While an Arteta and Edu can speak eloquently to offer a defence, ultimately Adams is correct because the table doesn’t lie.
The aim at the start of the season was top 4. Every decision the club made should be made with that in mind, ‘will doing this give us the best chance of being in the top 4?’
Like any business who fail to meet their targets, that means the choices made have been bad. If at the start of term, a school had a huge staff turnover and a year later got one of their worst inspections, that means recruitment has been poor.
Adams failed in his own coaching career, but without question this is a man who was a winner. When he played for us, he set standards and demanded others to do the same. He loves the club and therefore it must be hard to see what we have become.
Worse, a Billionaire’s response is to make signings that those above us would never make, the priority always being finding value,
When you hear the links for certain players it hurts that we are not in the conversation. For example, you know we wouldn’t even try and get a Grealish.
There is a lot Adams that has said over the years which has come across as bitter.
Saying our recruitment has been poor is not one of them.
The table does not lie.
Who’s Correct, Adams or Arteta?
Be kind In The Comments
No doubting Adam’s as a player and captain absolutely top draw but don’t think hes in the best place to criticise managers transfer policy after all he has failed at the few attempts he has had as a manager and the fact hes not even mentioned as a candidate when managerial jobs become available tells you everything you need to know!!
By that logic fans shouldn’t have opinions
first ill say. i do not subscribe to Adam emotional comments and conclusions about our transfers. from what he wrote, he wants u throw money at the problem and not just that he want us buy build a galacticose. thats been so unreasonable due to the fact that we all know the financial situation of the club which is not changing soon, since KSE is still much in charge. i agree we have not been recruiting smartly and this didnt start last season, has been for a number of years now, from Gazidis era we have been wasting funds on useless transfers and mostly importantly our coaches man managements has been poor, thats why we couldnt sell players worthy of 50mill since our history, this is why our net spending is higher than the likes of chelsea who buy and sells superstars at right price.
to me the players we bought since Edu arrived are good enough and heh! dont ever talk about martinez, where in the world have you seen a goalies as good as martinez been a second choice or someone in leno caliber been a second choice the situation was decided the moment martinez showed his skill, it was impossible to keep 2 good goalkeepers and we sold the one that got bid and wanted out. holding too long unto player is one of the reason we couldnt sell Fabregas for far high price.
Moreso, when comparing transfer policies, we are running a model same as liverpool or leicester, not city and chelsea, maybe Adam forgot that part. And, buying fringe players from another big club doesnt mean we buy rubbish
If they are good enough why are we 9th?
You keep referencing that we are in
9th position
West Ham fought relegation last season, but this season are 5th and going strong, why didn’t the board sack manager.
What makes you think this team won’t do better next season once they’ve become familiar with the coaches tactics and strategies
Some people really can’t see past their nose
I’ll gladly take 9th position this season if it means we can go on to compete subsequently
Son.
You make an excellent point, with one caveat.
Arteta must receive backing to bring additional quality to the squad., with those simply not up to it going.
Sure AJ
That’s exactly where this team will make or break.
The board has to back the manager by making top drawer recruitments to enable the manager fully express his tactics on the pitch.
If he’s left with the Same players at the core of his play(Xhaka, Luiz) it’ll end in premium tears for Arteta
I know West Ham is nowhere near Arsenal’s status, and in terms of ambitions they’ve probably overachieved, but if they had sacked their manager, they most likely won’t be where they are this season.
I just hope Arsenal goes all the way and wins the UEL, it’ll do us real good as a club
Sorry , I’m meant to be happy with our Leauge position because of West Ham?
Wow , how far have we fallen
Also Sheffield United finishe d top half and are now bottom so logic doesn’t work
Son West Ham are not Arsenal we were always up there. West Ham have not been this high for many many years
I will add we finished 8th last year so that shows there is no guarantee you improve the next season
The Premier League is so wealthy that signing highly expensive foreign players and paying them outrageous salaries has been the norm for 20 years. Even under Kroenkes winning is too expensive sustainable model we still signed Ozil Auba Laca Pepe for massive fees and pay players ridiculous sums. Mustafi 40 mill Socritis 30mill Saliba 27mill Torreira 27mill are more failed transfers. Yet Bellerin Saka Niles Willock ESR are all free while Holding cost 2 mill Ramsey and Walcott cost 6 mill and latterly Guendouzi and Martinelli cost less than 7 mill. Why can’t we build a team of free academy graduates and imports costing less than 10 mill?
It can be done but requires a smart resourceful innovative manager and the project to be skillfully marketed by a charismatic CEO to an entitled fan base living on Invincible memories and expectations. But change is slow because right now Arsenal has a slew of players on salaries they will not get any where else especially in this covid ravaged market. So no one will leave but instead they will run down their contract leave on a free to win a decent retirement package elsewhere.
Even winning the EL is unlikely
to change much in fact it will just raise expectations and the demand for expensive marque players will intensify.
Running a lean mean machine will take at least another 3 years.
Patience and endurance is needed.
That’s exactly what Leicester have done over the last few years. Recruited brilliantly with signings who were not that expensive (until last summer) and integrated In to the squad no problem and made them a better & players who value then goes up to make money like Mahrez.
Think their big signing was Teilemans after his loan deal.
We have signed average players for big fees and wages and still struggle? Then our young guns have been blossoming while the seniors just stroll about on their 150k+ wages a week while we have the worst league finishes in our Premier League tenure! Something doesnt add up.
We are Arsenal but acting like a mod table team for far too long and that even with injection of money for likes of Mustafi, pepe, laca, Auba, Mari… Frees like Luiz, Willian and Soares.
Yes we are in a pandemic but Arsneal have did this for years with bad recruitment and investments.
the have a good scouting system and a good negotiator to close the deals
look at Ajax and Leipzig…..their players dont cost much but they sold them for millions
the same can be said to Bayern ….they sign players on free transfer and spend wisely
How about Leicester also signed
fofana £31m
Perez £30m
Castagne £21m
Praet £17m
Adams think we have unlimited funds…
we can throw 200m here 500m there
he doesnt have a clue about managment and budgeting
he will be doing that if he was an Arsenal manager
the question is where is he going to get the money and whos going to approve the funds?
he will be behind bars if he used unauthorised funds
Show me a team -apart from ManU- that truly succeeds without the love of the owner or the owner’s ambition? I set them apart as they are a money bags club that can keep throwing money at the problem and even they have won virtually nothing since Ferguson left.
As Kroenke isn’t ambitious and doesn’t even fly over for the occasional home games to support his team I don’t see a very easy ride for any manager at Arsenal regardless of their pedigree.
Unless Kroenke has a change of heart I can’t see Arsenal regularly making top4.
Other hugely wealthy men/corporations are buying up premier league teams so our position becomes even more concerning if we have to make do with the loans and out of contract players
Sue I do not accept your premise that even Man Utd succeed without the lack of GLAZERS LOVE . IF, which they do not, the Glazers truly loved the club they own , they would have long ago got in a proper director of football who knew the game, not merely the business side.
But they have chosen not to do so for all those years. SIMPLY BECAUSE they do not love their club , BUT ONLY WHAT PROFIT IT MAKES. Exactly like Kroenke too.
All absent, uninterested owners are poison and GLAZERS AND KROENKE ARE BOTH PRIME EXAMPLES OF SUCH FAILURES.
Get your point. Badly written by me. The Glazers love is money as you do correctly point out and they have paid themselves fortunes in the process
Apart from the notable exceptions of Martinelli and Tierney, our recruitment has been poor during the past 5/6 years, starting from Mustafi and Xhaka and culminating in Pepe and Willian.Latterly our policy has been dictated by a lack of funds and unfortunately this is likely to continue for the next season or two until the financial impact of the Pandemic eases.Like many other ex Arsenal players, Adams was much better on the pitch than he is as a punter but I do sympathise with his frustrations which I think are aimed at the Club rather than Arteta personally.
“Essentially Adams has accused the current regime of making signings that haven’t been better then what we have”
The pundits and the fans surely know that signing players is always a gamble. Arsenal are trying to minimize it by replacing their scouts with data-driven approaches like StatDNA
In a nutshell, nobody is right and just let Arsenal try to catch up with Liverpool’s Moneyball recruitment system
Stats don’t give you the whole picture.. If you want to implement stats and data good but that doesn’t mean you should get rid of your scouts! How can you scout for youngsters? With stats? Stats and scouting should complement each other not the opposite
Liverpool have proven that data analytics are more important than human scouts, as proven by their astute recruitment
Thing is Dan despite knowing the truth, you keep acting as though we’re an oil rich club that can splash out any amount we want when trying to get new players.. you constantly complain about this when you’ve known the truth for years.
Over the years there’s something I’ve always told myself which helped saved me a whole lotta kroenke stress. Mostly I used to say it a lot to Jon Fox.
Now I see someone else with the same belief and always making the same statement. That person is SueP.
BASICALLY DAN SINCE THERE’S FVCK ALL YOU AND I WITH THE REST OG THE FANBASE CAN DO ABOUT HOW THE CLUB SPENDS AND HOW KROENKE HANDLES HIS CLUB, DO YOU EXPECT US TO ALWAYS LIVE IN THIS CONSTANT CYCLE OF CRITICISM OF THE CLUB? man I don’t have the energy for that, I can’t channel my energy towards that as nothing I say will change Kroenke. Only person that’ll change Kroenke is Kroenke himself.
I’d rather use that energy and support the manager and team no matter who it is, as long as they put on our jersey.
Sorry I can’t focus my energy on constantly complaining about how a man chooses to run his own business
In reply Eddie
Another foolish idiot trying to impose his layman’s view to explain the functioning of the universe. Try to read the article properly before writing your six pence analysis.
Lol
Just another stupid idiot trying to make others become stupid as he is.
Oh I did read the article, if only you read articles here a lot, you’d know Dan supports Adam and his garbage talk about how the club is being rimmed.
So you don’t look like a cool next time, Try to gain more knowledge about writers and their views on the club before writing your two pence garbage of a comment.
Bloody new phone and autocorrect!!
But I’m sure you get it.. now that I think of it, I doubt a foolish idiot like you got the message
Eddie, as you rightly say Arsenal FC is owned lock, stock and barrel by Kroenke Sports & Entertainment. With 100% ownership Kroenke can do with the Club whatever he sees fit, within the requirements of the FA and the laws of the UK.
Unless someone comes up with a spare £2 billion plus, there is nothing that can be done.
Ozziegunner that’s how simple it is..
If there’s anyone with the amount you mentioned. Let them get the club and run it properly. If not let’s just hope things get better and support the club as nothing we say or do will change the owners approach.
Me I’ll be glad to see the back of Kroenke if we’ll get a rich generous owner.
If our cycle of complaining would’ve done anything, a lot would’ve changed during the last 15 years.
Hell Adams been doing this thing since Arsene Wenger’s days yet not a single thing has changed, he doesn’t get tired? Move on and support the club then FFS!
For someone who hasn’t got the energy why engage in a topic about him ?
I know we are not an oil rich club but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to when the club were in 10th in Jan to expect more then loans and slashing the wage bill
Your logic is correct , I can’t change anything about Stan Koronke but by that logic we wouldn’t wrote opinions about anything would we ?
To clarify I don’t pretend to have any sources / links , I simply give my opinion on the relevant news
I didn’t ask Adams to do the interview
Once again some are allowed to use abusive words like foolish idiot&stupid idiot here while calling someone a hypocrite got me banned…perhaps we are all not being treated equally,which is quite unfair
You would not be banned purely for calling someone a hypocrite. I have often said on here that all people are hypocrites, myself included, it being a natural part of our shared human condition. If you, Matthew, can HONESTLY claim you personally are NEVER hypocritical, you will be an almost unique human being.
Of course there is context involved in how you use language and I suspect , that as you say you were banned, there is rather more behind that outcome than merely saying somene was a hypocrite.
Didn’t u say if you ever met someone you slap them in the face ?
Yea,i said that to gotanidea,but i wasn’t banned for that,i was warned&i took correction&i was banned on a later date for calling someone a hypocrite.admin pat can speak up if am wrong
I’m a disciplined person&i don’t go about insulting/abusing people,so am not happy i got banned for trying to make a point/opinion
I was simply asking
You are banned I believe because you called Leno a disgrace or that was atleast one of the reasons
I think you was called a troll
minus the whole physical violence gig, which clearly crossed the line, no one should ever get banned for calling out GAI for his myriad of ludicrous hot-takes…like I’ve always said I’ve never encountered a more ironic namesake than GAI considering what he spews out on the reg
Surely just ask admin and they will tell you reason
TRVL
GAI a much loved contributor to JA… well by me at least. Certainly never obnoxious which I always find refreshing
I think it may be true what you said about GAI the other day when someone asked how he manage to be the first to comment every time. I kept thinking he and Sue are the only regular contributors who don’t go into confrontations even if one try to engage them plus what you said it all make sense.
Except for “that tactics comment” I think he is a likable fellow if one don’t take him too seriously on his what you call hot takes.
SueP…different strokes, for different folks, I guess…to me, it’s blatantly obvious that GAI is a plant or a troll…how could one individual be so quick to comment yet be so off-base the vast majority of the time…maybe Dan Kit has a burner account
Funny guy you vieira ..sides are splitting mate .
I’ll leave it that has I really don’t want to read a bloody essay from you again .
Talking of other accounts what’s your old one ,or you don’t wanna say else it will Show you up for the aggressive bully boy you seem to enjoy being on this one .
And before you come back with something which you think makes you look clever and edgy don’t bother buddy it just makes you look a Tool .
nice try little guy…don’t poke the bear again, unless you want to suffer the same fate as last go-round…stick to bullying the johnny-come-lately’s of the world, as per usual…when you only have a vocabulary that extends to about 50 words and 3 phrases, it’s imperative that you choose your opponents wisely…this ain’t no Good Will Hunting, Mutt Damon
Like I said Tool
Do you wonder why only about 3 people on here interact with you .
Think about it ….
Guess I’ll be standing in the corner all by my lonesome at the JA Prom…when you finally graduate from your overreliance on schoolboy chirps, maybe we can revisit this conversation, but until then don’t mess with the adults in the room…btw must be sad that you actually view this site as some sort of popularity contest, which probably explains why you never offer up anything of any substantive value; after all, you wouldn’t want to ruffle any feathers before everyone voted for JA Prom King
😂
What a tool
You decided to bring my name into it for some reason ,you wanted a reaction you got one ,stick to having conversations with your imaginary buddies on here and I’ll stick to my 50 words and 3 phrases ,there you go no need to cross swords again is there .
Bye bye little boy .
final word.
And why were you not banned for calling me a dickhead?..or is that more acceptable than being called a disgrace? Or perhaps the admin is a leno fan as well
Am refering to dan kit&i’m not a troll,i have been a regular contributor to JA for many years now,eventhough i don’t comment a lot but i definetely always make my unbiased opinion known whenever necessary
You was being a dickhead though mate ,I called it as I saw it .
Thats a contradiction in terms Matthew. An opinion cannot be unbiased I’m afraid.
Danny Great players don’t make good managers Jimmy Greaves Sir Bobby Moore SirBobby Charlton HENRY, just to mention a few so Adams is right we have not done well unless we win the Euro Cup
@HH,i guess everyone will keep on guessing until admin pat herself open up&state her reasons for banning me
If it were my site I have a zero tolerance on threats of violence so you were lucky to get another chance
Matthew I don’t think admins go around banning anyone without any good reason. I don’t remember if it was you but Pat replied on the comment to ban for saying you would slap GAI.
When I started commenting I too was warned that I will get banned for saying something but I changed my ways and they let me continue. The site has rules which are not hard to follow I think we should abide by them.
Danny Great players don’t make good managers Jimmy Greaves Sir Bobby Moore SirBobby Charlton HENRY, just to mention a few so Adams is right we have not done well unless we win the Euro Cup
I see you like trouble dan kit&it will better i stop having any conversation with you now or in the future
You see I like trouble ?
I keep to myself buddy until someone winds me up ,so yes no need to have any conversations with me in the future .
Justarsenal prom king sounds like a genius idea lol
Adams is right though. Arteta is recruiting for mid table and not too four. Whether you like it or not a European Super League is inevitable. At this moment Arsenal are not close.