What Is The Realistic Ambition For Arsenal Next Season? by Goonerboy
Hello wonderful family, I am sure most of us are already missing the boys again, despite the underwhelming season we have just endured, we can’t help it can we?
Speaking of seasons, every club approaches the season with a set target, some targets are achieved while some are not, some overachieve (Leicester winning the league, Wolves qualifying for Europe) while others underachieve.
Now, the question is, how do you ascertain if a club has overachieved or underachieved? Let’s say City fail to make the Top 4 or qualify for Europe, that would be a massive underachievement by their standards and “these standards” we all know already. Therefore, for a club like City, they have two realistic targets for each season; win all the domestic trophies and the ever elusive Champions league, and you would consider these realistic targets realistic for them.
And if Liverpool sets out with the same targets you wouldn’t think they are being deluded, because they have means to do so but would you consider Arsenal in this conversation? It is an emphatic NO for me, so what should be Arsenal’s ambition next season?
Traditionally, the Top 4 teams would go into the season with the aim to win the title, and years back any of them could win it. But now only two teams are really capable of winning it while the rest battle for Champions league and Europa league, how times have changed huh?
Before, it used to be the CL, now you hear Europa which is a testament to how difficult it is to compete these days.
I have seen exciting transfer rumours where we have been linked with Onana, Buendia and Bissouma and in my opinion, these three alone would elevate us but despite that, it would still be an overachievement for us to make the Top 4 let alone compete for the title.
Ask 100 people to make predictions for next season’s top 4, 90% of them would say:
1. City (Pep)
2 Liverpool (Klopp)
3. Chelsea (Tuchel)
4. United (Ole)
1 and 2 may interchange but it would be a surprise if anyone but the first two wins the league and one of the 4 above fails to make the Top 4. You are sure because at least 3 if not all the clubs listed above would strengthen their clubs even more this summer.
So where does that leave Arsenal? We still have the small matter of Spurs and Leicester (who I believe are taking Arsenal’s position, because at our worst, we should be doing what Leicester is doing). The table, MOST TIMES would end up according to the QUALITY you have in your team, the manager is secondary in my opinion even though important.
Fr instance, I would not be surprised if Ole manages City and struggles to make the Top 4 as I don’t rate him at all.
Because of our history, our target should be to:
Compete for the league
Compete for, or win the FA cup
Compete for, or win the FA cup
Make the Top 4
But can we compete for the league? I don’t think so.
REALISTICALLY, the aim should be to compete for the FA cup and make the Top 4 which is going to be very difficult because THREE places are as good as gone, meaning we are 4 teams (Arsenal, Spurs, Leicester and United) that would battle for that last spot, what a fierce battle!
Expecting Arsenal to compete for the league next season is setting ourselves up for a massive disappointment. Some would argue we stand a better chance with an established manager and they wouldn’t be wrong, but this summer and next season presents the chance for Arteta to become a bit more established (of course he can’t become fully established this summer) as a manager.
He has the pre-season (his first) to perfect his tactics and enough time between games to improve and plan. I must add that no established manager would choose Arsenal IF there were no assurances he would be backed sufficiently, so why not back our manager with funds NOW?!
Ancelotti just left Everton for Madrid even though he was sacked by them before, he considered only himself and his career, not even James Rodriguez lol, my stupid jokes aside, I believe you got the point.
Mourinho would tell you he was not well backed financially at United and Spurs, that is because it is ultimately about the players and little about the coach. Mourinho could not get Spurs into the Top 4 and Everton still finished below us anyway and these were managers some wanted for a club like Arsenal that does not “spend”, established managers want the best players and the best teams or assurances that they would get it if not readily available.
I’m gonna end with this fun fact (or fun stat) Tuchel had never beaten Pep in any competition until he got to Chelsea where he has beaten him three times on the spin. Tuchel must be a magician right? What has changed? The TEAM!!!
What do you think the realistic targets for Arsenal’s team next season?
Goonerboy
Because of our bad transfer/ contract decisions in the last five years, our final position in this season and our small budget as compared to the big clubs’, top six will be the realistic target
Only 5 years??
Europa league spot
Realistically speaking, if we make the right transfers. Top 4 and the FA Cup or Arteta has to go.
But we have to recruit right and spend big.
For me that has to be;
Grealish,
Aaron’s,
Zaha,
Bissouma and maybe a striker depending on the future of Laca or Auba. We can save a lot of money through getting rid of the deadwood and recoup at least £160m in sales.
Goodluck with the post traumatic stress after the transfer window closes buddy
I don’t have any believe in the Kroenki ambition to see Arsenal at the top4. No clubs win trophies in England this days without recruiting well. Why should Aston Vila beat Arsenal to their last season target- Buenda? Arsenal should be among the first teams to buy quality players next season. But they have started sluggishly again.
I think top 6 should be a target. We repeatedly hear “2nd best since January” so top 6 should be a minimum or Arteta and Edu get sacked.
If Arteta has improved us as some say, if he adds players to the 7 he hand picked, then he should deliver results.
My fear is the club doesn’t state clear objectives and targets; for December and end of season.
Kronke has excelled at moving goalposts and not having targets like Wenger and Emery had.
Durand, you like me, keep asking what are the targets and performance criteria for the manager and what are the Club’s given constraints (eg transfer budget) under which he is to operate? That is a plan.
Otherwise any discussion by us of goals or targets is based on pure conjecture.
Failure to plan, is planning to fail.
You can mention all the players you like but if he ain’t got the money or get the right players POP goes the weasel 8th or lower
I think we were unlucky many times with var and stupid mistakes at the wrong time,which cost us Europe !
We are still moving in the right direction ,so top four and a cup is achievable as we are not competing in Europe.
Neil, unfortunately your optimism does not inspire me.
– I genuinely think we’ll finish 7th next season. With Arteta as manager.
Totally dependant on the results of our summer window.
A good window bringing in a tangible uplift in quality in the positions currently lacking- total focus on top four.
👍 Common sense.
You’re so wrong.
I kept hearing we’re 2nd since January, so why can’t we make top 2 next year after additions?
I can’t believe people are saying top six. We comfortably achieved that under emery, people need to realize we can challenge for top 4.
Exactly Bobs…..using the exact same logic as the MA fans here, we should make top 2 then next season even without additions to the team, and thats with a misfiring Auba even.
Realistically with Arteta in charge I see us struggling for top 6 TBH .
We do not have the same pulling power as when Arsene was in charge ,imagine a player trying to be sold a project and Looking at us playing last season Arteta will not be a draw for a lot of players ,we already our seeing our supposedly big 6 neighbours pulling out the stops for players like Kane,Harland ,Sancho while he scour the championship for players that are well overpriced for what we will be getting but that’s the price we are paying because of the appointment of Arteta .
Wenger, and his pulling power? With our big names constantly jumping ship during his reign, tells us all that they knew we couldn’t do anything under his management, and everyone one of them was proven right. Cesc, Nasri, Henry, RVP, etc… So yet again, you got that one wrong Dan!
I would say huge credit for Arteta for convincing Auba to stay, and he also played a key role in promising youngster Balogun staying.
Agree T M J W
Personally I have read on more than one occasion how very adept Edu & Arteta are at selling the club & “project “.
There is not one single article that does not turn into an Arteta bash fest.
Give the man this window and let’s see.
Buendia & Bissouma for starters will do nicely. , followed by 2 or 3 more.
Then let’s take on the so called top four – no excuses.
@Aj
There are plenty of Articles that don’t turn into a Arteta bash fest plenty that do not even mention him .
The reason I mentioned Arteta was because the author posed a question in which I could not answer without adding Arteta to the discussion .
My opinion OFC but with him in charge we will not move forward I’m not sure how anybody with eyesight could even argue with that statement.
“Give this man this window”
Haha the good old statement we here every bloody summer ,he was given 4 great signings last season and everyone of them regressed under Arteta .
3 signings *
He also played a big role in convincing Willian, Runarson, Cebalos to sign. I like your way of always looking at the one side of the coin in slating the great Arsene and praising the mediocre Arteta for example yesterday saying Saka has been a good player for 1.5 years meaning since Arteta came and took Emery and Wenger out of the equation in development of Saka. Just like your hero Arteta saying the club has been in decline for the past 5 years meaning since he left as the player taking himself out of the equation of the so called decline.
And don’t fool yourself there is no player under the sun who will be convinced to sign because of Arteta even if they say so.
The 300k a week convinced Aubameyang to sign not Arteta. Given the facts of the case even my grandmother who don’t know a thing about football will reach the same verdict.
Of course they are going to come in public and say they were convinced by Arteta while laughing their way to the bank. Do you think any player will say they signed for the money publicly?
“I like your way of always looking at the one side of the coin”
“The 300k a week convinced Aubameyang to sign not Arteta”
Oh the irony.
Don’t get me wrong, Arteta hasn’t got every signing right, but find me a manager who has? Not possible!
Not only did Wenger sign a ton of deadwood, he consistently rewarded that deadwood with pay raises and extensions, keeping some of the trash at our club for the best part of a decade or more, and was a complete joke at selling players. Arteta will NEVER match that level of incompetence!
@HH
“Arteta will never match that lvl of incompetence “
It just did ,he finished 8th two years in a row .
Yes I don’t defend the great one bad signings. He signed Sylvester, there is no way to defend that. There were a lot of bad signings I agree with except for Chamakh. He was decent but had the misfortune we had the fit RVP, one of the best, complete and the deadliest striker in EPL history.
But still it is true players signed for us for the privilege of working under Wenger. The same cannot be said for Arteta. There is no player in the world right now who will come to Arsenal because Arteta is the manager unless they are his cousins or similar.
Which sane player will want the privilage of working under the manager who is 8th at best (proving it twice). His own players seem to not understand his tactics (if any)
I’m not putting half a season on Arteta, especially our relegation form on his arrival. Last season I put a lot more on him, but even then, we still had a lot of other major issues.
When Arteta goes 9 years straight without a trophy, or does nothing in the league 14 years straight, and leaves a club in a mess, I’ll agree with you Dan.
@HH
That’s a stupid argument, that could be put at the feet of most managers when starting out. Arteta is only 1.5yrs into management. Majority of rookie managers will not have huge pulling power, including Wenger when he started, and even when he joined Arsenal.
Oh dear! When Wenger kept delivering CL with the deadwood you refer to? Also here we are now declaring that 6th place will be good, not the 4th Wenger kept delivering and was slated for. I have supported this club since 1969, seen the good and the bad. MA is not bad simply mediocre.
TMJW
“I’m not putting half a season on Arteta, especially our relegation form on his arrival”
Don’t put the FA Cup win on him also. With some of Arteta supporters it is contradictions galore. Always.
“Majority of rookie managers will not have huge pulling power”
Then don’t say Aubameyang and Bologun stayed because of him.
The worst thing about Arteta as Arsenal manager is because he is a rookie and should not have been hired in the first place.
I find it very strange and puzzling that you are see that as a good excuse to defend him.
H H
We are told we are going to approach this window in a more robust fashion .
Maybe another false dawn / broken promises we shall see.
The players you continually cite were brought in under huge financial constraints – have a word with the real culprit there.
I don’t believe you are naive enough for one second to believe Arteta wanted Runarson for example.
Sometimes deals are done at a club for expediency. Runarson was recommended to the club by the keeper coach, and it was sanctioned.
Remember Emery wanted Zaha, he got Pepe … it happens.
Every single manager in history has had his nightmares.
Arsene for whom I could not have greater respect – Sanago, Stepanovos, Santos, Bischoff, Chamack etc etc are you serious.
Whether you me out anyone else agrees, Arteta has an excellent reputation out there.
He was brought in to sort out a pile of !hit at every level, which was always going to take over one season.
Next season – no excuses.
“He was brought in to sort out a pile of !hit at every level, which was always going to take over one season.”
Something which he clearly is not qualified to do. I do not agree with the reason of cleaning the pile. If he was a decent manager we would’ve seen something encouraging by now. But we have degressed.
He is not sorting out the pile he is adding to it for example Willian signing. The worst thing about Willian signing is that they signed him under those terms at the same time they were struggling with the Ozil situation.
They were trying to rid themselves of one problem while creating a similar problem at the same time. How can I have confidence in them?
@HH
The fact you have to twist every word to win an argument speaks volumes, but has completely backfired on you!
Because going on your own words, then Wenger never won anything! We’ve constantly been told that Wenger was never responsible for any of the club’s failures, so by your own words, he couldn’t have been responsible for any of our successes then.
Man, you walked right into that one didnt you Haha!
I think you have missed something.
Nasri was a disturbing influence and was sold to City when they came in for him, look at how his career curtailed with clubs and France
Cesc was always bound to leave for Barca, any fan would say the same.
Henry only left as we failed to win the UCL in 2006 , he left and won it, cant blame him for leaving.
RVP openly said on BT sport that the club didnt offer him a new deal, the guy had to think about his career, so he left and won the title that season.
Based on Last season, after Auba signed the contract extension, was it wise to give him so much considering his return of goals / performances since???
Wenger was a cut above MA, even in his ”poor” years after the 06 UCL final.
Some would argue that our current squad is better than any Wenger had since that time and yet 2 consecutive seasons finishing 8th
So what happened, did Wenger massively overachieve???
Or has MA drastically underachieved based on the squad of players at his disposal??
You also fail to see that in that time the amount of debt the club had to pay off the new stadium had a massive impact on our outgoing player sales and who we could afford to bring in during that time.
I’ll say this, if Wenger had the money that has been spent since he left during the lean periods during teh stadium pay off, i am 100% sure we would have won more and not brought in players like Welbeck, Santos etc
If we manage to be more consistent this coming season, win more home games for a start, we have every chance of getting top 4, even if we dont bring anyone else in, in the summer.
People are forgetting that we were literally 2 wins away from making it this season.
How many games did we give goals away on a silver platter by playing out from the back to in games we were in total control of with a captain and Laca who both had long periods of not scoring?
food for thought, right there
Completely agree Val and I am sure they know all that hence I like to discuss with them their way. They would not be cherry picking history and stats if they didn’t know what you are saying.
With all due respect trying to find logic in some of Arteta supporters will bring same results as trying to crash water.
For example one just to give Arteta undeserved credit said yesterday that Saka have been playing solidly for 1. 5 years. Completely denying credit to Emery who I think was the one who gave Saka his chance.
I would ask the same to him what about Aubameyang who have been a golden Boot contender under Wenger and Emery, carrying the whole team on his shoulder suddenly turning less than average striker? Of course the problem will be said to be the player and not the manager lack of tactics.
H H.
Who are “THEY”.
Oh of course, fellow Arsenal fans.
A J – Arsenal supporter of over 60 years standing.
AJ I have nothing against anyone supporting Arteta but they should not twist facts and stats to glorify him when he is running the club to the ground while some slating the great Arsene in the process.
To twist stats and sing progress while the table shows 8th and out of Europe for the first time in my life as an Arsenal fan is some kind of a mockery.
Anyone can support Arteta how they want even if he takes us to the championship but they should not say there is progress.
First time in my life I am seeing this backward progress.
Top comment Val.
I am gonna rate that JA comment of the year. Couldn’t have said It any better.
Can I just add that AW made it clear he wanted Welbeck on loan but the hierarchy bought him without his says so… I think that was the beginning of this clubs downfall.
I’ve made it clear that I want MA out… not for the results but the monotonous way we play the beautiful game. So I have decided that I’m not saying anymore until everyone has their wish for him to have his 3rd transfer window. So I am giving him the MA luvers the benefit of the doubt but I already believe its gonna be another painful season even if he is given 9 billion pounds.
I just want this nightmare to end 😱🤬
VAL no sane Gooner can possibly agree with your preposterous statement that our current squad is superior to any under WENGER AFTER 2006. Palpably untrue and by a huge distance.
Jog on Jon
You obviously cant read
I said
Some would argue that our current squad is better than any Wenger had since that time and yet 2 consecutive seasons finishing 8th
I didnt say it was or wasnt
👍
If we cannot sign players over Aston villa and Leicester it says it all.
Our best hope is swap deals for the players that are wanted by other teams. Roma allegedly want xhaka, so throw in diawara and Under and we have a deal. Chelsea want Aubameyang and Willian, give us ziyech, Abraham and Emerson and we have a deal. Atletico want Bellerin give us tripper and cash to buy Onana
I think then along with onana we have addressed every position
In
Deputy GK – Onana
RB – Trippier
Deputy LB – Emerson
DM – Diawara
AM – Under
W – Ziyech
S – Abraham
Out
Iliev
Bellerin
Kolasinac
Xhaka
Willian
Aubameyang
For me that is improvement
Great pulling power there ,he couldn’t even bag a player from the championship
I know Dan, our club is now a total joke
Well maybe we’d have more money to spend, and a better squad if Wenger had done his job properly.
Hey Dan, have you managed to tally up how many of our top stars jumped ship because they knew Wenger was finished? Its actually quite a lot.
Wenger put the financial health of this club first, to the detriment of our trophy cabinet and even his own career. At a point he was actually stockpiling the millions to ensure our financial health going forward You usually put forth some good arguments, not one of your finest ones this one.
Money Talks ThirdManJW nothing to do with the manager agents and board
The fact that Lampard was struggling with the current Chelsea team and Tuchel made the same squad finish in the top 4 and win the Champions League is enough to show everyone that the manager and his tactics is more or as important as the quality of the team.
I wish people should stop saying the managers does not matter. What is the point of having one and pay him millions then?
👍👍👍
HH, I would stop wasting your breath… there is no point debating with the ignorant.🙄
Nice.
So far over recent weeks for purely having a different viewpoint;
Senile
A fool
And now ignorant!
There are many good people on here who would love to see Arteta gone.
There are equally those who want to see him in place next season.
Whatever happened to reasonable debate ?
Many of these people are not really here to debate. They simply want to present their personal opinions.
Anyone who disagrees is insulted. It is quite clear now that they are trying to humiliate, intimidate and bully any who have a different perspective. There are a number who want Arteta out who are particularly nasty in this respect.
Lord Bender they actually are very clever and know what they are doing. Sit back and observe all the creative ways they come up to defend the worst manager in the EPL (table position vs club status for two seasons in a row).
Just scroll up and see what Tmjw says. He cannot put our season before last position on Arteta but of course the FA Cup victory was all Arteta.
You might have seen the 2nd in the league since Christmas but next season expectations is top 6.
Contradictions after contradictions.
Lol that one always gets me. We’re the 2nd best team in England since December but we wanna settle for top6 next season? Stats ey…
Aside tactics, I think one thing that has been affecting Arsenal right from Wenger’s later years (which has now gotten worse) is the fact the Club itself and to some extent the coaches do not place high expection (in terms of performance) on every player. The standard the club and the coaches set for these players is low (or at best average) and is getting lower. As a result players no longer see the need to die on the pitch in order to get a good result. They feel anything in and around the low standard the club has set will be accepted and there will be no consequence.
👍 Strong mentality, tough physicality, personal and professional pride!
I keep hearing how great we are since Jan…2nd best!
Using the exact same logic as the MA fans here, we should make top 2 then next season even without additions to the team, and that’s with a misfiring Auba even.
A good quality squad matters more than the coach, because they execute the coach’s plan practically on the pitch.
Pep had a good quality squad in Barcelona that was assembled from their youth team, added with some quality signings too and he won the champions league with them.
He has struggled to win the champions league with Bayern and Man City. Perhaps that Barcelona squad has more quality than the ones he has coached with Bayern and Man City.
My realistic goal for Arsenal is finish 5th and win the FA Cup to extend our great FA Cup legacy.
Anything more than that will be over achieving, and anything lesser than that will be under achieving.
Why did Man city hire Pep one of the biggest names in world football? If the quality of the squad matters more they could go with any coach since they have probably the most quality squad in the world.
We have been given examples here on JA how Pep needed time to win things in defense of Arteta. Why did he need time when he has the one of the best squads and the manager matters less than the squad?
And they wanted the Champions league from him ??????
If the squad matters more than the manager then they should have 2 or 3 CL by now.
Maybe you should give Pepe Leeds team and ask him to win the league, by then you will realise the quality of a team is more important that input of coaches.
Mourinho said about Pep and I coat ‘ he was lucky to have Messi that’s why he won ucl, anyone would win ucl with Messi’ .
The Chelsea team you were referring to , no one knows how Lampard would have ended the season, Even with Tuchel it was obvious Chelsea still lacking , they narrowly finished 4th on the last day, winning ucl couldn’t have just overrule the reality, see what happens next season, see if they can compete with city for the title, Tuchel or not, even with the quality of Chelsea team they still struggle
Messi have been at Barcelona senior team for 18 years. Have Barcelona won Champions League for 18 years in a row?
Goonerboy this is a brilliant article and a wake up call to those fools setting us to compete for the league because we are not in any European competition.
On the question, I think we should first aim at getting a better position which is 7th and above, if we are lucky With fixtures probably we should compete for cups winning any cup will be an icing on the cake, however am still not sure what team we will be playing next season, I need to first see how far we go in this summer window before deciding what target to set.
On transfer, I don’t know much about our targets but if we could get a reliable CAM different from ESR and can give long passes and pinpoint croses , an upgrade and younger CF to push Auba, a replacement for Xhaka (I mean DM, not the Bissoum because we can’t afford to lose 3/4 established players to AFCON by January/feb) , an upgrade on Bellerin, and backup to KT we should compete well with those, if the players settled quickly
Those you call fools are not happy to see their big and capable club lost in the mid table. Based on your comment and comment history you are very satisfied being in 8th two seasons in a row and your expected improvement is 7th.
This squad even without additions should be challenging for the trophy, with proper manager that is.
Read the article again, what has been arsenal position on the table in the past 5yrs? Expecting them to compete after such run is foolishness, when Wenger was consistently in top 4 we expected him to compete for tittle, if arsenal has been consistently in top 6 then we can raise expectations to top 4 then to competition has for title but to expect a team that finish 6,5,8,8 in the last 4 seasons consistently to now compete for top is foolhardy
Adajim
You really sound like the name you call people who want higher ceiling for the club.
I read one of your comment saying, were 2nd in the league behind Man City. Which shows we’re going to improve next season.
Please tell me, what happened to the improvement if we’re fighting for 7th?
You guys can go extra miles to protect your God Arteta.
I know what you guys are doing, if eventually Arteta came 3rd or 4th next season, you guys will give credit to the coach for punching over his weight for making 3rd with the dross players he possess in his team.
None of you gave credit to this players except Auba when they won FA cup.
All I hear is that, Arteta did a very good job for winning the FA cup with dross players.
So why blaming the players if Arteta can impact them to win the cup but can’t do that to qualify for just Conference League?
Now you want 7th
What happened to been 2nd in the league since January?
Well I do not remember posted anything regarding those articles on 2nd most in-form team. That’s by the way.
You and I know we do not have the squad capable of competing for the title (except you have other agenda you will agree with that). You are right about hoping based on the form since Xmas but the reality is, the season is access from august and not January that’s why the form from Xmas didn’t make us 3rd and more reality is this squad is no where near Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool and city squad, even spur and Leicester squad are slightly better,
Let’s assume we many to get all our summer target and offload the unwanted, it will take us sometimes to get the team click unlike the aforementioned teams that has been playing together
And on that note I’ll like you and HH to tell me how you feel this squad is better than the 6teams I mentioned.
If you could do that I’ll apologise to you guys
If the squad is nor better how come they are 2nd since Christmas. You can’t have it both ways.
You don’t need to apologise for having an opinion but if I don’t agree with it I will say so.
If the club manages to find a backup LB and get either Buendia, Bissouma, or Auar, I reckon it’s possible to win around 65 points, which should be enough to reach the top 5, top 6. If not, I suspect an even worse season.
Transfers will make or break 2021/2022. Especially since everyone around Arsynahl will strengthen.
It appears we are making the same mistakes as when we lost Ramsey without finding a replacement.
Now we are about to lose Xhaka,Maitland Niles,Matteo Guendouzi without being replaced by any credible players of proven PL quality.
If that is the case then we are going to find it hard finish even in the top six.
The squad and the manager are extremely important. But a better team will make a good coach’s work easier.
If Pep was the manager of Wolves, they will still not win the premier league.
The quality of the squad is just slightly important than the coach.
All I wish for is for our squad to be improved with good quality players this summer.
The window we have will determine how we finish the new season.
If Tuchel had of began the season with Chelski I doubt they’d have won that cup, and Tuchel would prob be a sack risk throughout just like Lampard was, probably. There was lot of new players on that team, things fell into place with a new manager lift under Tuchel and they had less pressure compared to city (because of first half season results) as well as German and other foreign imports likely understanding him clearer than Lampard’s English accent, and then you have players with more playing time together. Does Lampard not get a CL medal, how far did he take them.
will really depend on transfer business. If we have a good summer, Europa spot would be good along with serious effort in domestic cups.
If we don’t have a good summer then top half is the target and maybe we pull off FA cup magic!
Assuming current set-up, 8
Fair guess after the transfer window is closed
F A O H H
Let me run this by you.
You are the proprietor of a once top but fading restaurant.
You appoint a new head chef.
Upon arrival the new head chef tells you out of a team of 6 chef‘s under him 3 can’ t cook, and he’ll need time and money to sort this.
However there are limited funds for staff.
You immediately sack him, and bring in another head chef under the same financial constraints.
He also tells you 3 of the existing chefs can’t cook.
Repeat
Repeat
Repeat
Expecting different results.
No …. sack the 3 who can’t cook, and bring in one’s who can !!!
Doesn’t relate to Arsenal cos the last time I checked, we always sign players every season.
I believe the proprietor wasn’t the one who sign the bad cook Willian or Ceballos for him.
I believe Willian and Ceballos’s salary would have cover Buendia’s Sale and Salary last season.
So the Chef appointed might be a poor Chef himself
Bingo.
And who employed the Head chef………..KROENKE.
KROENKE OUT !!!!!!!!!!!
Nothing will change until then.
Can Arsenal reach Top four? If we were fortunate enough to get Emi Buendia, Yves Bissouma, André Onana, William Saliba back here ,and a decent right back…….teamwise…..yes. The real question is will Arteta micro manage, over control and be able to instil confidence in the team. I am 50/50 on this. Arteta has control issues to me. On the touch line he is over involved and looks crazy. If he could trust his players and give mental and emotional space….then maybe. We would definitely have the team to finish top four but will Arteta let the dance happen, the plant grow, the evolution take place….you know exactly what I mean. We have no choice but to hope so. 50/50.
How ironic when Wenger Year after year gave us top 4 with Mediocre team, yet we demanded change because we didn’t want settle on top 4 and now with Arteta we are okay with top 6
So funny
See here’s the thing in a nutshell.
Who says “we’re” O.K ???
Our current plight is nigh on killing me.
Some of just see that the Arsenal job was a poison challis, and definitely not a 15 month fix.
Next season – no excuses.
Sacking Wenger proves how bad decision it was
Fair point Break-on-through and a decent ironic comment about Lampard deserving a CL medal, I’m sure I read somewhere that Partey got a La Liga medal for his 3 appearances at Athletico in the season just gone!
As for the exam paper question I think top 4 is achievable next season
Admin.
Suggested article for you.
“Is Mikel Arteta’s hair style the real deal ?”.
Guaranteed bun fight !
A J – aka Fat Fingers
Confusing news reports going on online about Aston Villa leading the race for Buendia.
Oh, please. I hope this is not true. I will be so sad if we miss out on him. It will destroy my dream team.
We are a bigger club than Aston Villa. They should not beat us in a bidding war.
Hang in there S J- we’ll see.
I’ll be enraged if we miss out on Buendia over the sake of a few quid! Villa are supposedly now in ‘advanced talks’…
What with us having made a ‘very low offer’ for Onana already.. it’s not looking good!
Me too Sue.
And dare I say, herein lies one of the real problems we face season upon season.
You know where I’m going with this one !
Maybe we now get grealish 😂
I do indeed, AJ and I completely agree with you.
Well, here we go again – groundhog day! Only to be told ‘at least we tried’
Arghhhhh!!
Looks like Villa have got him! 35m! SMH
Sue, you must be “enraged”.
I’ll be enraged if Arsenal don’t get Yve Bissouma, because he is more critical to partner Thomas Partey in midfield.
Yep! Buendia was convinced by Villa’s ‘huge ambition and plans for the future’… it hurts, Ozzie 😔
Looks like Arsenal have lost out on Buendia. Too mean and rumour has it he’s going to Villa. What a bunch of losers.
If you take ten years off Sir Arsene Wenger age and give him this squad he will definitely finish in the top four.
Some fans have gotten old and I believe senile.
Top 4 possible, top 6 minimum requirement.
I’m quite perturbed that we have to mention Pep and Tuchel and the ‘what ifs’ on an ARSENAL website, but I’ll go along with it.
So what makes you think if Pep had Wolves and they wouldn’t win the league? Klopp having Liverpool a team that has underachieved for 30 years and not winning the champions league and the league, Ranieri winning the league with Leicester, Dyche & Burnley qualifying for the europa league… you get the point.
Yes, some of it was luck but the majority was down to consistent performance. Our consistent performance under Arteta is to disappoint.
People seem to forget is that these managers that we always compare against are managers that get rid of what they don’t need and bring in the players that they want to make them competitive and to perform the game in their own image. What you see are their teams! Yes, Money does help but how much money do we need to spend to be at least be competitive?Don’t get me started on Tuchel…
Serial winners will always be winners so I’m not falling for all this flannel about the team not being good enough. What they didn’t want, they got rid off and replaced with what they needed. We ended up with Willian, Soares, Mari, Runnarson and Ryan. All MA signings but I will give the benefit of the doubt to Gabrielle and Partey (who at the moment looks pretty average to me for a 27/28 year old)
Watching Arteta with money is like watching a goldfish doing a 1000 piece jigsaw. He has no idea of how to get the best out of what he has and what he wants to produce.
God help us!!
His target for last season was to compete for top four, win a trophy or at least qualify for the europa… he failed on all 3 counts and if he had any dignity should have resigned. But it is easier to blame circumstances… and all the tosh that “he” had that to ‘get rid of the bad eggs’ is just smoke and mirrors… that is Edu and Vinai’s job. He is solely employed to select a team and tactics. Yes he can suggest to get rid of players but he wasn’t solely responsible to do that. Then it was leaks… then Var… then the performance… then Manfred Mann and blinded by the light. Excuse after excuse. But yet we want to give him our next transfer budget to buy every African player who will be on Afcon next year. It begs belief.😱
My real expectation for the new season is if we don’t get 12 points from the first 5 games then he, Edu and Vinai need to go.
Otherwise we will be back here next year comparing mediocrity against deserved champions.
if we can avoid relegation next season i will see it as a good season. i think we are going nowhere really fast, what happens when our luck runs out ?. we are , and always have been a very lucky team, so things will change at some stage .
If you had written this article just before the beginning of league season, then we might have a clearer idea of what we can achieve. Additions to the squad can change our fortunes offcourse. For example- let’s say we sign players who can perfectly execute MA’s tactics, then we can perform well if MA’s tactics are good. Equally we may pass up on players who might be right for us, sign players who might not be good for us and decline even further.
Based on all the available info at the moment, considering other teams at the same state and tendencies as last 2 years and no player additions or managerial change I would say we might finish 4th or 6th/7th, semis of FA cup and maybe semi or final of the mickey mouse cup.
👍
Mid table with maybe a cup run most likely.
The transfer window has not even open officially, and I am getting disappointed.
Hope, they have other better options to sign. Let’s see how things go.
I see Aston Villa have agreed a fee for Buendia, don’t know if we were really in for him but it’s a disappointment as he’s a super player and I think would have suited us. I hope we haven’t lost out on him because we were doing the typical Arsenal thing with mucking around with low bids and letting another club come in and sign him.
Think it was confirmed that we bid 30 mil for him ,I’m not sure what to make of it TBH ,what I’ve seen of him it’s nothing I havent seen before we was told that we had identified our targets in advance so if we did bid that’s one gone already
Aston Villa offered £35M. I think they are spending the Grealish money in advance.
Isn’t good we don’t get him? As I’ve already noticed that some “fans” on here were already complaining about getting a championship player.
@Dan kit
Goonerboy, i want you to be optimistic that Arsenal will become successful in the campaign next season and also remained being optimistic the club will win the treble.
For, in football nothing is impossible as us often have heard it said. Arsenel are in the reinforcements process this summer to reinforced their first team squad in some key positions in the team that’re needed to be reinforced with top quality new signings.
And towards achieving this objective, us have heard incoming and outgoings transfer rumours linking Arsenal with them this summer window. Notably among them is the possibility of Arsenal signing Onana, Guendai and Bissouma to do an upgrade in their squad goalkepeer and midfield departments in redness for next season’s campaign.
Let us therefore hope the signings of these 3 top quality players by Arsenal this summer will come to fruition. More so, if Arsenal are actually interested to sign the trio players but not just a media summer transfers rumour linking Arsenal with them.
Besides the likelihood of Arsenal signing Onana, Guendai and Bissouma this summer, us Gooners are also glamouring to see the club do an upgrade in their team left back position and centreforward position too this summer. So as to have a comprehensive 5 upgrade in top quality new player signings done in their first team squad this summer.
But no top quality LB and striker signings have so far seriously been linked with Arsenal for signing this summer. But as the summer window pans on, let us hope the club will find a suitable top quality LB & ST whom they want to sign, have the means to sign them and sign them before the window closes. But the club have to do an offload this summer too for recouping to get some necessary funds to complete all the upgrades that they want to do this summer.
Nevertheless, the hopes are Arsenal will not be stuck this summer with the Gunners they want to offload to get funds. I understand Guendouzi deal at the club could be triggered for another year if the buying club fail to pay Arsenal their signing fee to take Guendouzi off the club’s hand. And Kolasinac too who should have gone to a German club permanently this summer has returned to Arsenal.
These are 2 setbacks that Arsenal are currently undergoing as of now. But us hopes are they’ll overcome all impediments to their transfer plan this summer.
Samuel, Guendai?
Buendia has gone to Aston Villa.
Guendouzi is already an Arsenal player.
We love Afc. But this club is gonna be the death of many fans in these coming years. We club is runned by idct’s. Always the same story why? Please buy patson Daka. Buy Biassouma. 6 players must be sold out. We can raise good money.
Under Rodgers without Europe Liverpool almost won the title now with so called great manager Arteta at club and us in same situation, top 4 is minimum with any trophy as bonus. I don’t agree with people calling top 6 as successful season for Arsenal because we finished in top 6 when Emery was sacked and Arteta came in so that was much bigger of a challenge than what we face today, plus this squad is not weak and if we are going to add to this then without Europe (no extra games), more preparation time and less injuries we should atleast make it in to top 4 easily. A lot of people have been wanting for Arsenal to be out of Europe for some time so we can concentrate and have a real go at EPL. So under Wenger for some people finishing in top 4 was not enough but now with Arsenal out of Europe and no extra games to play how are some fans only expecting us to just finish in top 6 to regard the season as successful.
Distressing news actually if Villa have beaten us to the signing of Guendai. But if it’s true us have been beaten by the Villains, who knows if it could be a killer bullet that us have luckily dodged. Let’s hope so.
But who so be the midfielder who Arsenal will sign this summer in place of them to have signed Guendai, let that midfielder that they’ll sign be better than Guendai whom they’ve reported miss out on him.
It’s Buendia!
Samuel, your other pick Yve Bissouma is more critical.
I dont do realistic. I start the season believing that arsenal will win the league no matter how poor the side is. I stand 100 percent hoping that the team can beat city and company and topple them for the league. How low the mighty arsenal have fallen. We need players that have winning mentality and not players that are pretty and just play pretty football. what I hate about arsenal is that the persons at the top keeps penny pinching and will not spend to get the right players with fight in them. Suarez,higuain,kluivert,kante,hazard,falcao just to name a few. we try to hold back and teams with real ambition got these players. players with fight in them. we got the pretty boys the nice guys nasri,pepe,vermaelen,cazorla,arshavin,hleb,denilson,bellerin just to name a few. We hardly have any players with strong characters. Cannot even think of 3. So sad how we have fallen by the wayside and let others usurped us. Time to find better baller and clear out this lot and the head if they cant find betters players with stronger characters.
Guys, our target next season should be to win the league. Yes. THE ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE. There are no European football distractions.
I have been an Asenal fan my whole life and I guarantee you one thing, Arsenal always delivers when NOTHING is expected of them! Most expect nothing from Arsenalnext season so believe me this, this is the year that they can actually WIN the league. Every team that has won the league in the past 10 years have based it on consistently playing the same team strong side. Arsenal’s problem has always been depth. We are paper thin. So we always start well enoug but once winter hits and we have to pay every 3 days we always peter off on the back of injuries. Arteta needs to come up with a strategy for the whole campaign. Beat every team which ranked below us and battle the 3 above us, when compete with the top 4. We need creativity and badly. Our goal is to score 3 goals per game and a 100point season. We can now focus on going all out every week and trust me Arsenal is always at its best when playing the ball at frantic speeds.