Six recent examples of Arsenal’s ongoing foolish mismanagement

The continuation of the mismanagement at Arsenal by Beast mode.

FYI – This Article is NOT pro or against Wenger or Gazidis

When Gazidis left over two years ago, we all thought that the mismanagement we had at the club would be a thing of the past. However, as it stands it’s more of the same with different players at the helm. We have seen several bad decisions made that borders foolishness, if not craziness. Here are the memorable ones:

WillianThe 32 year old was signed for free to a 3 year contract. He came to Arsenal because his former club refused to give him the contract he got from the Gunners. Chelsea knew about Willian more than anyone, and refused to budge to his demand, but our smart management decided to sign him to a 3 freaking-year-long contract. Who gives that kind of contract to an aging 32 year old not named Ronaldo? Willian is a pensioner in footballing terms and he is not at the age that he needs to prove something. He has no motivation to be better than what he is now.

Ceballos, Mari and Soares – Normally loan players are used for stop gaps, and get re-evaluated at the end of the season. Whether to sign them again is mostly dependent on how their initial loan went. In the case of these three players, none of them proved that they are what is needed at Arsenal. Ceballos had more bad games than good. Mari and Soares never even had a chance to show us what they got, but were rewarded with new contracts. How will this motivate players to perform at a higher standard when they are rewarded for absolutely nothing?

Ozil and Sokratis – Why are these two still at Arsenal drawing higher wages without stepping foot on the playing field? If they are not being used, why didn’t the management make every effort to get something out of the situation? Maybe a loan-out where they pay a higher portion of the wage so that at least they can save something. It doesn’t make any sense to throw away 450K pound every week particularly for a club that is as frugal as Arsenal. Why will other players put in more effort when they can be on the sidelines and still earn all the dimes stipulated in their contract?

Center backs – Why the hell do Arsenal have eight (8) senior backs in the book? Most teams need about five CB’s at most, and fill the rest with the academy players. They have collected a bunch of highly paid useless CB’s that they can’t get rid of. Why sign Luiz and Mari when they already have six CB?

Lack of Creativity – We all knew that the team lacks creativity and it has been ongoing even during Emery’s time. They have tried to address this situation but with subpar players like Ceballos. Instead of going for the real deal, they went out in the most Arsenal way to get an aging player that is past his prime. Now, the team is dysfunctional and bereft of any creative ideas. Why leave it too late to get a creative midfielder if they already plan to go into the season without Ozil?

Ozil and Guendouzi saga – it doesn’t matter whether you are pro or against Ozil, but the way the club handled the situation was very poor and distasteful. It was handled wrong and shows bad faith from the club. This situation reminds me of the AVB saga with Nicolas Anelka at Chelsea, and we all know how that turned out for AVB. This club is bigger than this, and I believe it would have been handled differently with someone like Wenger at the helm. we need people who put the club ahead of their egos and not stoop to the level of amateurs.

Can you think of any more examples of Arsenal’s mismanagement?

Beastmode

109 Comments

  1. Arteta is a young coach, but he should learn man management skills quickly.
    He can not disagree with players and banish them while they draw salaries doing nothing but in essence blocking would be replacements cause of limited funds.

  2. Management or mismanagement, which ever situation you want to bring up for or against, the biggest factor for the position we are in now is the way we set up and the way we play. That is a coaching and management decision that cant be anyones fault but Artetas.

  3. I don’t understand why Soares gets such a hard time from everyone? I think he’s pretty solid and consistent.

    No he’s by no means the best RB but he’s pretty decent considering his fee

  4. I think real team building starts next summer. Yes, we’ve tried to build it already and have gotten some fantastic players (Partey, Gabriel, rejuvenated Elneny) and we have our own youth players to either step up to the starting XI (Saka, maybe AMN) or stay as squad players (Nketiah, Nelson, Willock, ESR).

    But (a latest) nextsummer we will ‘lose’:

    Özil 350k, Sokratis 90k, Mustafi 90k, Kolasinac 100k, Luiz 120k. These players are almost 100% certain to leave in January or next summer. That’s approx. 750k weekly wages saved.

    Its very likely we will depart ways with Lacazette 180k, Willian 120k and maybe even Pepe 140k. That would be over 400k saved again.

    Question is, how will our recruitment be? Will we get a gem like Gabriel, or a flop like Pepe? I think we shouldn’t pay over 40-50m for any player unless they have played several years on the highest level already, performing every season. We’ve had more success with players who weren’t costly: Martinelli, Gabriel.

    1. As we have all come to expect with Arsenal.. Expect the unexpected!

      That may be wishful thinking, McLovin. It’s quite likely we will have pretty much the same set up with Ozil being the only exception?

      With Arsenal you just know it’s managed so badly. Nothing would surprise me more than to see the same cr*p next year!

    2. We could buy Grealish that would solve the problem we keep buying players from abroad and then loan them back. What the F**k is going on with Saliba do the management know what they are doing they might as well sell Saliba and how many centre backs do we need 10 No 5 max. We need to sort ourselves out and quickly. We cannot afford to lose to the spuds on Sunday. it is a hard month for us and Newcastle in the cup

  5. Arteta is inexperienced and out of his depth. The way he has treated Ozil, Saliba, Socratis and Guendouzi is born of being ‘ a grudge holder’. Not nice. That is a character defect…a non surmountable one. Arteta is inexperienced and squeezes the ‘dance’ and creativity out if players and is over-controlling. Obsession and OCD do not help in football. His PEP tribute act is not transferable and unsuitable for Arsenal’s players.

    1. I disagree, it’s the ruthlessness that’s been missing from this club for a long time and it should be the players who suit themselves to the manager, not the other way around.

      1. You contradict your own statement, you want club to be ruthless then Arteta should be sacked straight away. Why these double standards? Different rule for players and different for manager. He is the head of the team and like any where in world If the department you are heading is not performing then as responsible person you are always the one to go.

        1. Yes, but there is a hierarchy, right? The manager has full authority to pick out players and he’s going to be evaluated based on team’s performance. Fair and square.

          I understand fans’ frustration but even Emery was given a full season before he got sacked. Please give him time.

  6. No. 7 – Keeping Leno over Emi Martinez. We sold the wrong keeper…but AT LEAST we made money out of the problem.
    No. 8 – Whatever is going on with Saliba.
    No. 9- Rejecting £20M from Woves for Maitland-Niles.
    No. 10- Playing Tierney as a CB. Keep playing him out of position and he will turn into shit like Vermaelen once he started playing LB.

    1. My bro I think the mistake started from selling Emil, they could hv allowed both keepers to battle it out for supremacy

  7. The Willian contract. I thought he’d do better, but that aside he wasn’t free. Isn’t it just a crazy expression- signing someone on a free? Signing on fee of £10m and exorbitant wages until he is 35 is a stinker. But that’s the way it is

    Paying Auba so much more at his age. Whilst I was happy that he signed I remember years ago if you passed 30 the contract got shorter and the remuneration was less

    1. Yes SueP, under Wenger once you got to 30 he only offered a one year contract. I was hoping Partey and Elneny would resume their partnership soon to at least give us some steel and movement in midfield, but I’ve been reading we might not see that happen now until January. At least Elneny should play against spurs, hopefully.

      1. Yes Declan
        Hopefully so. 🙏
        Things had just started to gel then bosh a key player gets injured and without good enough back up

      2. Is partey out for the foreseeable Declan?
        Couldn’t find any info on that .
        If he is that just sums up our luck

    2. 👍 They went with older players because they decided they can win now.
      Also more money and resources should be allocated to junior players development. We can’t keep buying other teams discards.

    3. We should never have signed Auba on a new contract we could have sold him he is past is sell by date. Football is a young mans game has been and always will be. We have very good young players who will run their hearts out to win a game and do not cost the club a fortune We waste so much money it’s a joke

    4. Took the words out of my mouth SueP. I would just like to add that even the great Dennis Bergkamp had a yearly contract and a REDUCED salary once he reached 30.

      1. Agreed Andrew
        Such short term thinking for both players. Lcw made the point that both would provide an instant fix but so far the opposite is true. To think they will be in their mid 30’s still earning 100s of thousands of pounds per week and probably not even starting!😡. If it was good enough for Dennis…..

  8. The list is endless. We must change our style of play, be effective on the counters if we are comfortable with 343 system, have the right players at the right places and finally Arteta must change his attitude, allow players to express themselves freely on the football field and hopefully this all starts from Sunday against the Spuds at their den. Hers to hoping we start a new Chapter from Sunday!

  9. You are entirely justified in highlighting these examples of mismanagement, on and off the pitch.The lack of competence which was a feature of the Gazidis era has ,unfortunately continued.Whether this can be attributed to a lack of financial muscle, is debatable, but the errors of judgement are clearly evident and that is why we are no longer a team which is feared by others.As other sides have recruited well, with 2/3 exceptions, we have not.

  10. A lot of damages has already been done by Arteta and Edu and all those concerned in managing our club.The issue here is that Arsenal need to move forward cos we are drifting dangerously backward the way things are going at the present. Arteta needs to try and bring the best out of the players we have now before January where a surgical repair would be urgently done hopefully.

  11. We signed more experienced CB’s because we have been traumatised in the past by our main CB’s/players getting injured, replacing them with kids and losing games.

    I don’t think this was mismanagement, it was us trying to learn from past experience.

    -or us succumbing to trauma 😂

    But I was in support of buying ‘cheap’ seasoned CB’s.
    This apparent CB debacle we’re in is just another branch to the tree of all our problems. -; Our inability to buy the right players at the moment we need them most.

    All those CB’s needed at the time was/is a sensible midfield comprised of equal attacking and defensive components.

    But because we have plenty of defensive components at the moment that are a real asset to the defence, it is exposed because there isn’t a creative attack to keep the opponents busy, because we can’t afford it.

    -Balance.

    1. That’s right, at one point Wenger had to rely on Chambers and Holding because other defenders were injured and it was ugly. I agree with your other points as well, Johny Evans and Thiago Silva turned out to be good signings. So in my opinion price and age are not really the defining factors. The midfield is definitely the problem right now, in addition to their inability to sustain pressure and shield the defenders, it doesn’t help that they continuously lose the ball in our half.

      1. Yes yes thanks for pointing out.

        I couldn’t particularly remember the defender combinations. Only the misery😂.

        That is why Arteta I feel will come through with the next two transfer windows. Our model seems similar to Atletico Madrid’s, where all we’re gonna recruit now will be attackers and remove one or two inable midfielders.

        January will be interesting.

  12. I take on board much of what this astute article is arguing. Mistakes ARE still being made – as well as some consistently long time into the past too- and IMO the PRIME reason for this is that our owner is remote, uncaring and chooses not to take proper and “actually being there care”, as the much missed and dynamic David Dein did daily.

    Until that CATASTROPHIC DAY back in 2007, when Dein was forced out by treacherous board membrs of that time who SHAFTED the club they purported to love , for MONEY and denying power to the superb Dein.

    That black day back in 2007 was the start of our constant and regular drift away from our top rivals. Kroenke came in that very month and as they say, the rest is history. Sad history too!
    No sane fan can rationally think that Wenger changed overnight in 2007 from a magical manager into a poorer one . No of course not!
    WHAT HAPPENED was that he had his right arm, Dein cut off , metaphorically maybe BUT it happened overnight and suddenly he was a ship afloat without an engine. Together, Dein and Wenger were fish and chips, Morecambe and Wise, Ant and Dec, a fabulous double act that powered our club to glory.
    I could write far more on this theme but THAT treacherous act holed our ship below the water line and th cancer that is Kroenke cameon board to ensure we floundered still further.

    The solution my friends? Ditch the monster Kroenke and get an owner who cares. All the many mistakes in management and financial incompetence happened SINCE that black day. With Dein still there they would never have been let go unnoticed to be repeated , repeated, repeated , repeated, ad infinitum.

    So lets cut to the chase and admit to ourselves where the REAL problem lies! The actual CAUSE of ALL our ongoing problems that IMO will continue until, I pray, Dangote buys Kroenke out.

    When owners do not love their business and refuse to get personally involved, at least financially, but leave serial self serving incompetents to misrun things for year after year(yes, you GAZIDIS!!),then that business fails. Life teaches us that. At least those of us who keep our eyes and ears open!

    1. I’ll take Wenger & Dein as ‘fish & chips, Morecambe & Wise’ but definitely not those twats Ant & Dec.
      True that we have nobody with the expertise or charisma of Dein, and Edu may be a likeable ex player type bloke but what actually is his function other than boosting his agent’s players with long & expensive contracts?

      1. Jax I guess we are close in age and I WOULD APPRECIATE MORE ON THIS TOPIC FROM YOU. I CAN EASILY SEE YOU KNOW YOUR ONIONS SO CAN YOU EXPAND A BIT PLEASE?

      2. Spot on JJ.As fans we are all frustrated by the slump in the fortunes of our side which is no longer feared by other Clubs.For whatever reason, we are where we are, and until the debris is cleared we will not improve significantly, regardless of who is in charge on the playing side.We have a raft of players who are basically substandard, which is why we are unable to unload them in the transfer market.We as fans have to appreciate the poor quality of our squad and just how difficult it is for Arteta to bring about a miraculous change in our fortunes.In reality, we will have to work hard to stay in the EP L and I for one would gladly accept a mid table position at the end of this season when a number of players will leave as their lucrative contracts expire.There is absolutely no sense in sacking Arteta as there is not a Manager on the Planet who could turn water into wine.There are top quality bottles on the shelf , like Grealish 2020, but he, and others like him are unlikely to be within our budget, at least for the time being.

    2. I cannot believe I’m go3to say it but I totally agree with Jon Fox on the Dein situation and the effect he had on Wenger, he was accused of being a control freak but I’ve always disagreed after David Dein departure he didn’t trust many people to take the right decisions for the club sake and can you really blame, I would love to see a Dein type of person working with MA because I believe he has enough on his plate!

        1. Me too SueP MA really needs it and would benefit from someone with a lot experience, a proper director of football but I doubt it will happen I don’t think this is a position that is well looked upon in British football is it?

      1. Siamois, Good to see we agree for once. Not sure I have ever heard anyone at a game EVER descibe the mighty DD as control freak though! Though he did get involved in very many things, because he CARED, PASSIONATELY! Of course, I have no idea what some of the, ahem “thinkers” on this site will have called him.

        But few of them, due to being so young, will have even been following Arsenal when DD was there, let alone know very much about how dynamic and vital to our ongoing success he was at that time. Only older fans fully know the whole truth from personal experience.

        Anyone CAN educate themself of course on social media about things that happened before their time but few do so, IMO, to judge from many laughably ignorant comments some make. Seeemingly that does not include you, I am pleased to see.

        If you work through love of the club rather than for a wage you are far more likely to do it well. Dein was the best example of that!

    3. I agree with Jon.The clubs drift downwards began when David Dein left the club.We now have a boardof directors who are clueless and toothless with an inexperienced manager trying to organise an averge bunch of players.Thers a big difference between being an assistant manager to being a manager.I cant see Kroenke looking to sell his shareholding.

  13. I agree with the write up and I like to add the key reason Ozil is being left out.
    The reason is, players hav all sorts of bonus inserted in their contract so ozil was inline to get massive payout sometimes next yr after he might hav hit the number of games agreed in his contract, most players hav this kind of clauses in their contract, I don’t kno if anyone reading here remember how arsenal were whinging about the bonus paid out to ozil few months ago
    I also want to add that, the key reason why arsenal is not doing well today is just down to very poor recruitment strategy and of course seeing how the club give out contract to players that don’t worth it which is stil same as poor recruitment and that can’t be any sorts of motivation is it? how can a team like arsenal get beat 0-3 at home to Aston Villa, 1-2 to wolves consecutively?? What’s is it? Do they hv better players or better manager?? What is it??

    when they

    1. That makes sense, but I still wonder if Ozil is not needed and there is no hope in shipping him out, then why didn’t the club terminate and pay the rest of his contract? As of now, he’s being a dividing figure among fans and a distruption considering how the media keeps mentioning his name whenever we lose games.

  14. Why was Arteta ruthless and vanished torreira, guendozi, saliba and ozil, but keep supporting and giving chances to inconsistant players like xhaka, bellerin and loanee ceballos….the assistant coach has made a mess

    1. Totally agree with just those four in the team we would have won all our home games and be 9 points better off.

    2. torreira, guend, and ozil are also not very good. THeres a case for missing Ozil, who hasnt been good in years so i dont think deserves benefit of the doubt, but rest of the players also are not good except Saliba who is a victim of horrible, horrible mismanagement and has been let down by the club.

    3. I strongly believe their are clauses in their contract of these players that have some financial implications for the arsenal , I swear!

  15. After 70 years as a Gunner I thought I had seen it all. It was a Nightmare for 18 years without a sniff and being known as the pushovers of London. Now we have a squad that are overpaid and have no motivation because of being given contracts without targets before they get paid. Also, I would mlove to see Arteta show some real man management and play Ozil and Sokratis in every U23 game and very crappy cup game to at least earn a fraction of their over the top pay. We are on a slope I have seen before but with much worse squad of players. I conclude that Mickel is not the subtle man I thought he was and he does not seems to have learned anything from the master AW aboutr quality football. In fact we are now playing like a Stoke or Burnley side.

    1. Don’t blame Sokratis and Mesut they didn’t drop themselves. It is more than obvious now the ones who refused pay cut are Mesut, Sokratis and Guendouzi.

      1. Arteta said I will clean the slate and everybody get another chance. He is a LIAR he never gave Guendouzi a second chance everybody makes a mistake in life and you learn from it but Arteta decided NO Ozil too he never got a second chance has Arteta never made a mistake in his life you can bet your bottom dollar he has

        1. towny, Whatever planet are you on to say that Ozil never got a second chance? OZIL had hundreds of chances over many seasons and all he showed was a refusal to work. Get real man! As for Guendouzi he needs a second character more than a second chance. Trouble is you only ever get ONE character; a rotten one in his case!

      2. PSG made a move for Sokratis during the last 2 days of the window albeit a free transfer but were turned, looking this was a mistake Sok getting paid for training at least it would have freed money and one more spot!

  16. The foolish decisions that have been made are nothing less than self interest and personal gain for those who made such decisions.

    I am not afraid to say the Willian and Pepe deals have made some of the people at the clubs richer. And the worse thing is that they will continue to do so if they are not stopped.

    I don’t think they care the direction the club is going. Their motto must be get as much as you can while it lasts.

    Arsenal is a retirement home nowadays.

    1. 👍👍 And look how generous we are with wages… no wonder players opt to come here – mega bucks for not even breaking into a sweat!!
      And you’re so right about them not caring which direction the club is heading… as long as the money’s still there, hey?!!

      1. It will come to the end eventually. If it continue like this the money will go down for sure and maybe that will make the owner keep a close eye on the ongoings.

  17. Too many foreign imports with zero guts or motivation and worse still far too many rich friends in senior management. Please go back to the George Graham era and use Uk staff who know our ways.

    1. This has nothing to do with players being foreign look at Pool, City, Wolves, Leeds, Villa, Leicester, Spuds, Chelsky.. How many Pl teams have a majority of British players in their squad? barely any may be Burnley, Sheffield, West Brom basically the bottom teams It’s just poor recruitment from our club party ou need to move on with the times!

      1. all these teams have a talented groups of brits though, with many being leaders in the squad. Arsenal have… Rob Holding? and Saka who is a teenager. How many years have we been saying Arsenal have NO LEADERS, and we are STILL saying the same thing today! Auba has never been captain material. There isn’t a single player on squad who is captain material.

        1. You’re right they have a core of solid and not expensive British players, old schools CB’s, midfielders not afraid of doing the dirty work or getting physical /stuck in, we also have British players too but like I said it is our recruitment that doesn’t work, we need to find the right balance we should go for British like Coady from Wolves, Kalvin Phillips… look at Leicester Leeds City even West Ham went for championship players in Benrhama, Bowen.. Why can’t we do it against Wolves had we had a big target mam we would have won the game I wouldn’t mind having Giroud back with us, 6 months left on his contract he would be a bargain even at his age!

  18. Agree with Jon.

    We are in such as mess from top to bottom, surely we now have to look at the very top level and the COMPLETE lack of direction / guidance.

    Circa July 2019 (?), Josh Kroenke told us all to “be excited” with specific regards to our dealings within the coming transfer window.

    Personally, I took this statement in it’s widest sense to also mean we were at least building to better times ahead generally.

    How wrong could one be !

    We currently sit 14th in the league.

    To cut a long post short, I believe we desperately need an owner that actually cares about Arsenal football club, and has a passion and pride in his club to at least drive us forward and strive for success.

    For me personally, from where I stand the message sent down from the top is very much that of “remote ownership” – cold, aloof and uncaring.

    Does silent Stan even know the basic rules of out national game ? (and that is a serious point, I am not joshing (no pun intended).

    Now the next point may be inaccurate, and I except I should check facts before citing them.

    Regarding Kroenke.

    Before people come on saying “what more can the guy do” (Pepe, Partey etc).

    A recent report (which was seen as factually robust enough to air / publish) shows KSE’s net spend at Arsenal as being precisely ZERO !

    However, an “advisory” fee of approx’ 1.6 M a year is taken out of the club by guess who ?

    A caveat – I’ve been around long enough to know I could very well stand to be corrected on the above, and this would be totally in order.

    The winning mentality at our great club, is totally lacking.

    A renown journalist upon being shown ’round London Colney said “It has the air of a health spa, there is a complete lack of that winning mentality about the place”.

    I suspect this to be true.

    We have long needed a complete “drains up” from top to bottom.

    Please Mr Kroenke if you still see Arsenal Football club, that wonderful institution, as simply a cash cow …… sell up.

    Move on, and focus solely (which I suspect is the case anyway) on your NFL team.

    A driven owner would not preside over this current shambles.

    Of course we can argue the players, manager are not good enough (I certainly subscribe to the first group), but we are riddled with incompetency from TOP to bottom !

    1. Kroenke is not running he is just the figurehead it the Twats that are managing the club and doing a shit job at it may I say

        1. @AJ
          If you say Kroenke sees this club as a cash-cow then you should at the very least state how Kroenke has taken money out of the club. Is he paying himself dividends? Nope. Is he awarding himself director loans and making the club forgive them? Nope. Is paying himself a fat director’s fee? Nope. The truth is contrary to popular belief, Kroenke has never taken money out of this club. You say KSE was paid £1.6M for advisory services in a year? That’s freaking peanuts bro, just afraction of what our average player lounging on the bench earns in a year. Is £1.6M what is standing in the way of us and success?

          1. Hi Quantic Dream.

            My MAIN point was that in my opinion (yes that old chestnut) Kreonke is not the owner for us.

            We better get ourselves up to companies house.

            “Over the last decade, up until the latest financial information available on the Gunners and their accounts, not a penny has been put into the team by their owner, either in debt or equity financing.

            Instead, the club has been subsisted entirely off of its own cash flows – earned through Arsenal’s three main revenue streams: match days, broadcasting and commercial activities.

            It has become a great frustration to Arsenal fans that Kroenke, with a net worth today of around £7.71billion according to reports and the latest currency rates, has so far been unwilling to help even the playing field for his own club.

            Since taking up a position on the board at the beginning of the 2008/09 season, the American has been paid at least £25,000 per year in the form of flat directors’ emoluments for each full season worked. He joined the board late in his first season so was only entitled to £17,000.

            In December 2013, his son Josh Kroenke took up his own seat on the board and has also been able to take out at least £25,000 for himself for each full season in his post.

            This figure is the base level of payments they receive without any bonuses or additional benefit payments attached to the payouts.

            The Gunners have paid out millions to Kroenke for so-called “strategic and advisory services.”

            So, there may be some “chicken feed” figures mentioned above, but my main point remains in my humble opinion we have an unambitious owner with motives that do not align with the fans vision for the club (and after all, he should be exactly that …… a fan).

            Not entirely sure where your repeated “nopeing” comes from ?

            1. See that’s the thing, many fans believe it’s the owner’s job to provide money for the club to play with. A club financing it’s transfers on it’s own cashflows is what is actually NORMAL. Sugar daddies with bottomless pits of money financing a club’s transfee activities is ABNORMAL. Why should Kroenke even put his own money into the club? What does he gain out of it? Is he supposed to spend millions out of his fortune so that you can be entertained every weekend and occasional Wednesday or Thursday night? Even if he wanted to, what about FFP? This club is big on principles and values so would the club be willing to compromise on that to get extra, illegal money in?

              This club has money, we have been wasting it on rubbish signings like Xhaka, Mustafi, Pepe etc who tie up a lot of resources but give back very little. If I were Kroenke and saw this kind of wastage I’d just deduct £30-50M from every transfer budget and pay myself off as dividends.

              1. O.K. we beg to differ.

                1) So don’t waste the money on “rubbish signings”. Don’t forget, Stan employs the guys responsible for this … like he knows a decent player ? Edu over to you, and I would hope M. A.

                2) I actually believe in a “self sustaining model” – then I woke up.

                We may as well all go home and pack it in now, trying to live in our laudable but aging moral bubble.

                “Victory Through Harmony” ???

                Have you followed our club since the latter Wenger years – HARMONY ?

                We are currently 14th, and once again face the possibility of our league season being over come the new year.

                Our values and morals are wonderful, but not at the expense of appearing extremely naïve.

                As we are unable to cash in on our deadwood, and the plain fact is that yes to even begin on the road to recovery we are probably looking at circa £200m.

                Frightening isn’t it – welcome to “modern day football”.

                In it to win it mate – not make the numbers up.

                If you can’t stand the heat – get out of the kitchen (Stan).

                When Usmanov said ( in parting, now’s there’s a surprise) ” Arsenal, which could be the best football club in the world” do you think he meant mid table mediocrity – no.

                Do I believe the guy would have been hands on in ALL aspects – yes.

                And please don’t give me “many fans” thinks owner / money etc.

                I’ve been around the game at all levels for far too to take such a simplistic view, and think in such puerile terms.

                It’s taken much thought and grief to come ’round to the “money bailing us out” view.

                But believe me, this squad is flatlining !

                We are in a results driven game.

                Given we have trouble in the sell to buy department, we need a substantial injection of cash in order to truly represent this great club once more.

                Sad but true.

                On this one – we simply differ as to the way forward.

          2. QD, YOu completely miss the point , which is not what Kroenke has taken out of Arsenql BUT instead, what he has NOT put into us. Ask yourself if you seriously think it right for an owner to live thousands of miles away on a different continent and not even like the sport his club plays!

            You need far deeper real thought to see the actual problem as AJ and I SEE IT. PLEASE SEE MY LONG POST ABOVE TO WHICH AJ REPLIED, GIVING HIS OWN COMMON SENSE.

    2. AJ, It takes someone of mature outlook to see this truth as you and I, at least, can clearly see – CANT SPEAK FOR MANY OTHERE WHO SEEM NOT TO EVEN WANT TO NOTICE IT- the main reason for our plight.

      By “mature”, this does not exclude all younger people, as I refer to wisdom, not necessarily age. but older people do have the advantage of life experience and I (and I suspect you too) have much experience of seeing huge enterprises go under for lack of forward and present leadership from the owners.

      I contend that an owner who chooses not to get involved has no MORAL right to ownership at all.

  19. Seems to be some reluctance to face reality here. Once you give a player a contract you have to pay it, he doesn’t have to perform or move on. It happens at most clubs, Danny Rose is seeing out his contract at Spurs without playing or even training as we speak. The difference at Arsenal is the sheer number of players who are effectively seeing out contracts they should never have been given. There is very little Arteta or any other manager can do about it. The situation is what it is and unwinding it would tale time. Of course in order to unwind it transfer activity going forward needs to be more rational or the same problems will keep recurring. The question is who controls transfers ? If you are buying players the manager doesn’t want then he’s got no chance.

    1. Jod.

      Your last line is really telling for me ;

      ” If you are buying players the manager doesn’t want then he’s got no chance”

      Emery wanted Zaha ahead of Pepe.

      One player – yes.

      But I guarantee we would be a lot more potent than we are right now.

      Long term, Unai Emery had “no chance” at our place – and so it turned out.

      Who exactly is rendering our managers powerless, and making these half-arsed decisions ?

  20. So many of our problems come down to recruitment. Last summer we only sold one player and failed to sell Ozil, Sokratis, Torriera, Guendouzi, Mustafi and Kola. This made further recruitment nigh on impossible due to finance and squad size. Had we got shot of those players we may have had the chance to buy another decent midfielder or two. I agree with many who state Arteta hasn’t got the players to play the game the way he wants. However even if he changes things the limitations of this crop of players will soon be exposed.

    1. Farhad Moshiri.

      Moshiri is a close friend and business partner of Alisher Usmanov, an ex Arsenal board member.

      Usmanov tried to buy Kroenke out , but was constantly knocked back.

      Usmanov felt increasingly marginalised at our place, sold up and left.

      Apparently “we didn’t want his type on our board” !!!!

      Usmanov quote – read the last line ;

      Usmanov has confirmed he has agreed to part with his 30% stake in the club. “I have decided to sell my shares in Arsenal, which could be the best football club in the world,” he said.

      He’ll end up at Everton with his old mucker !

      Still, we got Stan !!!!!!!!!!

      By the way – Usmanov was an avowed Gooner.

  21. Willian’s performances so far may be underwhelming but I don’t think it has much to do with his age. It is even ridiculous to bring Chelsea into the debate as they signed a much older player in Silva and are planning to offer him an extension.
    Because of various reasons, players now play at the top level well into their late thirties and “35 is the new 30”.I could cite examples like Ramos, Benzema, Modric for Real Madrid; Lewandoski and Muller who seem to be hitting their peak for Bayern. Times have changed and being 32 shouldn’t be a problem anymore. We should instead ask ourselves if Willian is out form,not motivated enough, not fit or doesn’t fit our current playing style because he is definitely a quality player.

    1. Maybe his age or current form are not the issue but the position he plays. Everyone knew we needed help in the midfield and defense before he was signed. Pepe, Nelson, Saka and Martinelli could all play his position.

      1. Icw I don’t think Arteta considers Nelson to be ready for a starting role yet and he doesn’t seem to trust Pepe for some reason . Martinelli is a long term absentee and signs are that he’ll be played at Cf while Saka plays better on the left. The conclusion was that acquring Willian was a sensible decision at the time with his experience.It hasn’t worked out so far and that situation is not unique to Arsenal.
        Finally, I don’t think the purchase of Willian stood in the way of a creative midfielder. It is not a secret that we were after Aouar until the final stretch and the deal didn’t materialise because our bid fell below their valuation of the player

        1. Well the excuse about Nelson, Pepe and Martinelli are not viable because these players are on the team. They were chosen and certified as part of the squad by no other than the manager himself. If they have deficiencies it is his job to fix them. If they have problems it is his job to solve them. Still buying Willian instead of midfield players was a mistake. Our results and his performance attest to that.

  22. We are in our rightful place what do we epxect with players like willian, and the likes of dani at number 10 am sure 2. I dont understand why arsenal keeps trying to forcefully change our young talents positions. If someone can perfom out of position what if given his natural position where he is comfortable. We are making AMN Look cluelless, I Think we should consider niles playing in the midfield( his prefered position) and saka given a more attacking role. We should never play back 3. Willian should be dropped. Ozils form started to decline when managers started demanding him to improve his defensive abilities i believe he can still tick if allowed to do what he is good at, with the steal we have currently from position 8 backwards i dont think we need another physical playmaker we need brain,

  23. When you have only one player in your starting eleven, Bukayo Saka, who could actually face up a defender, beat him and get pass him, then you have problems, all the better teams in the league have about four or five such players. We’ve three strikers in regular rotation who can’t run at defenders, shake them, nutmeg, turn them or do whatever it takes to get pass them. The only effective style you can hope to play with this collective of players is tiki taka, intricate passing and moving to unsettle the opposition, and they do not even possess the composure, or the quality to do that at a high standard.

  24. Arteta and Edu making up the core of the brains trust is a major problem . Both very inexperienced and ex players, they would still have the I used to play like this syndrome rather than experience fueled decision making . One could not question the other without running into ego . Arteta has reacted with grudge and spite . How Saliva wasn’t good enough for Europa is above along with Ozil and Socrates. This at its worst would have allowed him to keep them ready for cups and possible EPL games in the new year as wellm
    as resting some guys in a very packed season . Add to it loaning out Douzi and you see no alternative but to bet against both s long term suitability

  25. If you watched Willian last season, you would’ve seen how poor he was. Only in the last third of season he turned up for Chelsea.

    Our forward line is a joke with overrated players, high wages and lazy attitudes. Auba Laca and Pepe have all lost their valuations.

    Partey’s passing range makes him look world class compared to rest of squad, even Luiz has better passes then most of our attackng players in the team.

    I don’t get why Niles doesn’t get in this team. The only reason I can think of is he probably already has pre agreement with another club in January.

  26. This is a mans game. Wild wishing by Arteta that the boys will take over. AMN, Nelson, Willock, Nketiah simply not good enough for this league. They need a a gradual and on loan experience before taking on a mans duty. MA and Edu should have known this.

  27. Oh yeah let’s not forget that sleepy player willock. That guy is garbage as well, he caught the forward lines lazy attitude, thinking he is already a big player.

  28. One of the most unfit squad go into the North London Derby against one of the most fittest squad and powerful midfield.

    Spurs can play this game two ways. Let us have the ball and do easy counter attacks or just dominate the midfield battle for majority of game and Arsenal will crack. We will be the ones to park the bus.

  29. For anyone who is unclear on what motivates our absentee landlord, do a little research and you will discover why this rather unremarkable man has amassed an incredibly lucrative sporting empire…in the early 70s, following his marriage to Ann Walton, heiress to the Wal-Mart fortune, Stan simply used her considerable leverage so that he could make a fortune by developing the lands, for commercial purposes, that surrounded the ever-growing amount of Wal-Marts that were being built throughout America…this would be the first of many silver platter investments that simply typify the low to no risk, high reward opportunities that our uninspiring and entitled owner has been privy to for the better part of a half century…during this same time period he parleyed his windfall into approximately 2 million acres of ranch land, at a time when most were too consumed by short-term concerns regarding high mortgage rates, instead of focusing on the long game and how this finite commodity would inevitably increase in value with little to no invest needed…this is likely when he, or those within his employ, had first toyed with the idea of purchasing professional sports teams…in the years that followed he purchased the Avalanche(NHL), Nuggets(NBA) and their arena, plus the Rams(NFL) for roughly 1.15 Billion, right before most speculated that the lack of expansion would lead to large spikes in valuations for most major sports organizations, and, as of 2019, before the new Rams stadium was built, they were worth a combined 5.7 Billion…much like what has transpired at our club, as his investment was a pittance compared to it’s vastly appreciated worth some 13 years later…until he personally invested some monies into the building of SoFi Stadium, which was conveniently built on land that he already owned, Kroenke is known for never personally investing in his clubs…in fact, the Rams were in deep financial trouble when they were located in St. Louis, which is why this little leech got involved in the first place, and he used the fans love of the team to try and force the Missouri government into building a new stadium for him, but when they logically didn’t, he predictably took the team to the exact city where he had landowning interests…never has someone better exemplified the inherent problems of personal wealth accumulation at such an extreme level, especially when none of the traditional pitfalls, like financial risk, are assumed by the investor…instead it has allowed this miserly old man to toy with a myriad of fanbases without caring one iota for their obvious concerns or aspirations…winning is totally an afterthought in this equation

    1. vieiralynn- Very insightful opinion. To add to your point, all of his sport ventures were the bottom feeders of their respective sport. Even Rams just turned competitive just few years ago when they stumbled on McVay- a young dynamic and inventive coach. Silent Stan will always be a leech.

  30. the success of his investments aren’t intimately tied to team success, but market forces, which is why the rich get richer and why he hasn’t purchased another sports team since the substantial rise in valuations…as such, he’s part of the problem, not the solution

  31. I blame all the toffs on the board at that time who allowed the Kroenke deal to go through. They took the money and ran. So much for their love of the football club. They preferred his “clean ” money to the Russians and the deal was done. The start of an ongoing nightmare for Arsenal fans or at least the true believers. So now we are part of a souless franchise. Just a piece in a business empire owned by someone who doesn’t give a damn about football or Arsenal’s history. It’s hellishly frustrating for those of us who love the club because he has no interest in getting rid of his asset so what we have left is a kind of limbo where nothing seems to change, the same mistakes are repeatedly amplified and our old mate Ground Hog Day keeps coming back to taunt us

  32. This is by far the most interesting, informative, and thoughtful discussion thread I have ever read on this site.

  33. Sad to have someone that don’t care about arsenal owning the club, without disrespect to arteta, I think it’s just shows how unambitiouse arsenal is for engaging a rookie manager for club like our arsenal, morinho, allegrey, ancelloti etc were all available, typical arsenal to choose the poor option just to make things stagnant just like they go about getting players, always one or two short to make a proper team

  34. I for one will never blame Kroenke for his mismanagement as the only crime he and his family committed is being neglegient .
    However the old board is totally useless . The football management has been poor beyond words can describe .
    We needed a DM for 10 years .Let me know not drive too far into the past .
    WE have signed mediocrity for years .
    Ozil was chosen over Fabregas return a mistake , Xhaka was preferred over Kante , We had a whole summer to sign Hakim Ziyech for Peanuts . In which world is Bellerin better than Max Aarons ,Somehow people buy our dross for cheap to nothing and we spend the big bucks (except the Iwobi ,Chamberlain situation)
    Edu has no experience in European management why is he here ,, Raul was a cast off , Arteta even though loved didnt have a transition in another team ,
    Who drafts the contracts for these players , who negotiates Willian for 3 years .
    I can go on and on . Money has been spent just not wisely. How much has Leeds spent , How much has Aston villa spent and if you think these teams too low ,just remember you cant beat either .

  35. on a simpler note, i just think Arsenal does not have enough physical players. currently i believe only partey and Gabriel are players that capable to hold physical challenges required by the premier league for 90 minutes. for the rest i am always in wonder how skinny and small they look compared to opposition teams.

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