Journalist Guillem Balague reacts to comments from Arsenal fans about the situation at the club.
Guillem Balague is a high profile journalist, some people despise him, some respect him. Basically he divides opinion. Well, that is what I have found anyway.
I have no doubts that comments to this video will show that to be the case. However, he does at least put across some good points and of course, strong opinions.
He touches on the upcoming games and what may or may not happen depending on results. I will let you judge the video yourselves and put no spoilers up. But I do ask that you watch it with a balanced view before leaving comments.
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I’m not buying this Unai Emery propaganda that they’re trying to feed us
1.they say he needs time like Klopp and Potch but Klopp and Potch had shown signs of progression in their second seasons Klopp and Potch had clear philosophy’s that their were instilling in their teams and it was very evident in their first season
2.What is Unai’s philosophy like the man chops and changes his starting line up,formation and so called tactics week in week out there is no default team shape within the team
3 it is very evident that with what ever set up he chooses be it home or away the teams mindset is to defend first which we are very poor at
4 the man is not playing to our strength which is attack because we have a world class team attacking wise but maybe our expectations are too high I mean the man flopped with Mbappe Neymar and Cavani Never mind the likes of Di Maria on the bench
In conclusion we have never looked vonbjng this season we have never outplayed any team to win a game this season in fact in every game that we have played there is a case for us losing all those games the man lacks so much from the way he appointed his captain to the way he sets up his team to the weird substations he makes
#Unaiout
I don’t get this ‘Emery Out’ campaign that the media are running with, so called Arsenal Supporters disrespecting our coach. Emery’s first Season, we got in an Europa League Final, and missed qualifying for the CL by ‘1’ point. He purchased some fantastic Players, and is still trying to clear out the Wenger brigade. So many changes must effect the team, and he is only a few points of CL qualification after a quarter of the Season. We are top of our Europa League Group, we have been knocked out of a domestic completion by the PL leaders, after scoring 9 goals in their back-yard, and we are still in the FA Cup. Do we want to be like Manure, Chelski etc. and change our manager every two seasons. There is money to improve, which he will. Emery has a 2 year contract which runs until the end of the season, subject to summer purchases, I hope it is extended – COYG!
Everyone has their opinion, and it’s nice to see someone positive regarding Emery, but I am not one of those. The Rose-colored glasses and burying head in the sand is just not me.
We needed a manager who could come in and accomplish 2 major issues at Arsenal; fix the leaky defense, and toughen up our weak mentality and approach to games. We have new management to handle contracts and transfers, Per at the academy, we needed someone to focus on strengthening the first team weak spots.
Instead, we got Emery. Who has self-appointed himself to try and reinvent the wheel at Arsenal FC. He has maimed the attacking style fans fell in love with over the last 2 decades, and spent the last 18 months doing his best “Dr. Frakenstein” to distort his “rebuild” into some monstrosity that no one recognizes or wants.
He claims his “tactics worked” during a 2-0 shutout we lost. He takes a solid DM in Torreira and tries to make him an AM, despite the players success as a DM at Arsenal and for his national team.
He has failed to fix the defense as he stated 18 months ago.
He doesn’t play to our strengths, but rather to counter opponents guessing their tactics. Killed the attacking, slick passing football we loved, and replaced it with a chop shop mish-mash of who knows what from week to week. Everyone seems dazed and confused; the players, the fans, the pundits, former legends of Arsenal, all except Emery.
He says his ideas are working. Who can argue, when his garbled broken English is nearly impossible to understand.
You can’t call me a so called supporter for expressing my opinion
given the position Unai found himself in after the Man United game at home last season we should have easily finished in the top 4but instead he sacrificed finishing in the top 4 yo win europa which was a bit crazy because anything can happen in knockout competitions
Its the way we play that hurts the most not the results or the table for me.
Omg Dave! That Liverpool loss was embarrassing!
Not long ago we were 1 point behind City, now look at the gap…
Clear out the Wenger brigade??? He’s bought in quite a few already.. and we’re worse off now than ever under Wenger.
I guess it’s nice to see someone sticking up for him, but I’ll be totally honest with you – I really don’t understand why! Our last few games have bored me… we’ve been awful… not enjoying things right now!
Well, I haven’t watched the video but I presume to have known what the talking in the video will be about on Arsenal. Since it is the Arsenal football club that I am passionately supporting and care about the club probably more than the club owner Stan Kroenke ever cared about his club of which I can say I know everything about the club as one of it’s fan that I should know and needed to know especially on the football side of things at the club.
But what I believe is more of a paramount to the club now at this stage into the season’s campaign in the PL and ELC is for Emery’s Arsenal coached team who are now unpleasantly on 6th position in the PL table but are 1st on their Europa League group table after playing 12 and 4 matches respectively in the 2 competitions so far this campaign, is for Arsenal to play to bounce back into contention to start contending with every seriousness that is needed for one of the juicy PL top-four places table finish by winning their next 4 Pl matches as a starting point in the long and difficult journey to the PL top-four table finish this season. And also play their next ELC 2 games and win them to allow Arsenal topping their group table to the end to qualify as group leaders to get the advantage that comes with being the table toppers.
Hmmm.
You’re in the minority Dave, 90% of Arsenal fans want the clueless one out and I’m one of them. Getting back to Balague, he along with the whole lot at Sky Sports have been anti Arsenal for years, don’t even bother to listen to them anymore. Goes back to to the Fergie / Wenger days when they backed their beloved Manchester United at all costs, I’ve always said the Invincibles were so good that if it was fair and an even playing field we’d have had at least three more Premier League titles than we got and now because of United’s demise their fully behind Klopp’s Liverpool. With Sky Sports it’s all about money and armchair viewers, they’ve got their data and whoever buys the most Sky packages is who they support. Look how Alan Smith and Paul Merson criticise Arsenal relentlessly even though they earn’t their living at our club, It’s sad but they fully well know it’s fundamental in keep their jobs with Sky Sports
Balague is quite right to highlight the need for physically strong,pacey ,energetic players in football today,and to point out the lack of this type of player at Arsenal.If this weakness is recognized by our Management, why then have we failed to sign a CB or midfielder with these attributes since Wenger departed?Evidently the Management do not entirely share the views of Balague or have a different set of priorities otherwise why would they commit 72m on a overpriced winger when the spine of the team is screaming for attention and has been for 6/7 years.This is what worries me about the current Management regime at the Club.I honestly do not believe they recognise our weaknesses , and unless they do and take steps to eradicate them,our decline will continue whilst others like Leicester improve.
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I have seldom heard such waffle trying and failing to defend taking no action. I have lost much of the respect I have held for Balague. He waffled about being patient but failed to explain in the slightest why Emery has done nothing, except make things worse than they were before he came. And that was from a very low base. We real fans who know the bitter truth all too well about the failure that Emery is, demand his removal now. After 18 months, EVERYTHING that Emery has touched or attempted has failed and failed big time. Time and tide wait for no man and those who refuse to keep up with necessary change always promote FAILURE. We(nearly all of us) know this is true!
First of all let’s not attack Sky or any journalist who justifiably slags our club because for the better part of 5 years they have been right and considering the lack of honest insight we’ve received from any of the pertinent members of our management team, both past and present(Wenger, Kroenke, Gazidis, Emery etc…)we should never discourage anyone from voicing some of “our” concerns in a public forum…the very fact that Emery made minimal demands regarding the term of his contract or the financial backing suggests that he would have taken any high profile gig to remain relevant considering what ultimately led to his sacking at PSG; poor man management skills, tactical ineptitude in big games(Barca debacle)etc…if we don’t make the move now we’re going to miss out again and this cycle of settling will continue to haunt this club
I’ve been a ‘so called’ supporter for 60+ years and I don’t think I’ve seen a more inept manager than Emery and I remember Rioch and Neil.
If we lose against Southampton (surely not) and he’s not sacked then we are doomed.