At the moment Ainsley Maitland-Niles is almost guaranteed a spot in the first-team simply because there is no one to replace him but once Hector Bellerin is back you just know his days as a starter are numbered.
The biggest problem for the 22-year-old is that he is not a natural defender and dislikes the role he has been given but the options for him in midfield are limited.
He also has not helped himself by not trying to make the right wing-back spot his own, he has begrudgingly accepted it and truth be told, has never excelled in the position.
Which is strange because knowing that Bellerin would be out for so long you would have thought that he would have moved heaven and earth to become the best wing-back he could.
If Arsenal fans are honest and most are, then they will admit that the young man is not actually that good, he is kind of average, he never really frightens defenders when going forward, he is not the best crosser of the ball and tracking back appears to be very low down on his priority list.
Maitland-Niles has blown a great opportunity to secure a long term role in the Arsenal side and in just a few weeks time he will become a fringe player, he is not going to shift anyone out of midfield and you have to think that at some point the club will bring in a back-up for Bellerin that both wants to play in that position and is actually effective in it.
So, what to do with Maitland-Niles? Sell him next summer has to be a strong option I would suggest and he will only have himself to blame if that happens.
First and foremost , not really excelled ? that is a very questionable remark . Actually , it feels like something said from short term memory because I can name a few games in which he flourished. Also , still in defence of niles , between him and Bellarin ,we both know who is more likely to win an offensive dribble in a one on one situation , so I don’t understand your insistance that he is poor going forward . Just to throw in something else , he has 2 assists this season .From right back .
Looking at it from another perspective, how many right backs in this league can convincingly rate above hector bellarin ? put the pesmistic arsenal fan tendency to look down on our own players aside and tell me how many can actually dethrone him if signed at arsenal ?
To answer your question , the arsenal squad is bigger that 11 players .are they all meant to be starters ? Can niles honestly say that in every position he can play he is the best there is ?There’s a reason why some players are deputies to others ,and a player like niles is a very solid deputy to have for any team.Under arsene wenger ,we complained about a lack of strength in depth . Now we have more players ,and we think the deputies should all be sold . Pick a fight man
@Joe
Spot on Gooner… ??
Nice one Joe. AMN has been played out of position by two managers which shows that 1) we are weak in depth at both the full back positions and 2) the first man those two managers turn to when in trouble is AMN.
Emery fond of using video flashbacks so I’m hoping he’s given plenty of those showing Lee Dixon in action to Bellerin, who defends like a piccadilly tart.
Not be played at right back !
He should be used for other games and competition outside premier league games.He has done his bit committedly in the absence of Belerin he should not be sold. The coach can help him develop his potentials as a midfielder. He could be our promising defensive midfielder in years to come. Considering what D.Praiet, Benaccer and R.Adelaide are doing in their various clubs now.
You’ve said it as it is, Niles is an average player and I don’t have have anything against a player being average because truth be told most players today are average, what I don’t like about him is his attitude, he doesn’t seem to care, he always play like he’s Messi or Ronaldo, am sure he will be sold at some point because he doesn’t really seem like one who will make it at Arsenal. Am sure someone will say he had a good game against man united but the truth is if a young player like Niles who has been playing as a WB since he’s been promoted to the first team cannot adapt to that position he has been playing for more than a 2years then he should be sold.
“I’m not a defender so I do get a lot of stick about my defending being poor, but it’s something I’m learning and have been learning for a couple of years now,” he said.
“It’s not going to come overnight. If I was a defender as a kid, and my defending was poor, I would understand where the criticism is coming from, but I’m trying my best for the team and for the manager.
“It’s not where I would choose to put myself in the team, as I’m an attacking player by trade. That’s all I can try to bring to the team.
“I’m still learning the defensive side, so when players are running at me, and they’re throwing skills at me, I’m still learning how to deal with that.”
“”I’m a midfielder by trade, either central or on the wing,”
“It’s always nice to have one main position where you play, and everyone else gets to play in their main position, so hopefully it’s just a matter of time before I can do that too.”
But no, he’s a failure and bang avearage according to you guys because he’s being asked to do someone else’s job. I’m sure most of you with such belief actually never saw him play in the midfield for once. I’m very sure of that. But hey, let’s all judge him and cast him out before he gets a proper chance.
Tch, no wonder Ox had to run for his life. What next? We’ll ask Saka to be our LB someday and brand him average when he fails to adapt?
Ox is by far Liverpool’s worst player and selling him was best thing we have done in years (besides selling Walcott and signing Auba and Laca).
He was played out of position because he wasn’t good enough in any position – we always had better midfielders and as a winger his crossing was shit most of the time.
Even with Liverpool this year – Klopp again tried to play him on the wing but he was horrible.
The next game he was a CM – even worse.
The next game already on the bench.
The problem with Ox and AMN is that they’re not brilliant in any position apparently. It’s true AMN might still be a good CM (box-to-box) as he does have more skill than Ox, but clearly neither Wenger nor Emery have seen that in training, and I bet they see more of him than any of us.
Selling him, however, I have reservations about. Unlike Nelson and Chambers, I think he’s good enough to be a long-term all-round backup — sort of like Sergi Roberto for Barca.
Well said Eddie. AMN must be sick to death of being played out of position but still does his best. I sense he has a feeling of injustice when he sees such as Willock given a chance, who always comes across as being a bit of a flimsy weakling to me. Smith Rowe was also given a game there last week and it took him half an hour to get his act together – totally useless to start with. My opinion is that given the chance AMN would be better than both of them. And yes, the Man Utd match proved it. Had a good battle with Pogba, earned his respect and was congratulated by Pogba after the match. Don’t see Willock or S Rowe getting such praise.
Spot on Lenohappy.
One might excuse his lack of ability as a LB. But there is absolutely no excuse for his lack of giving 100%. He is attitude is simply too relaxed, if not lazy, and he should be axed from the team. Then we will see, if he will start fighting, or if he is just another talent, who never will make it.
Here you go again Lenohappy with your attitude appraisal, as if that counts for anything.
Lichstenier was bought in at a cost in wages, of over £3,000,000 for one season, but this young man, playing out of position and not enjoying the experience, still kept his place in the team.
He doesn’t make excuses, just gets his head down (you know, the 100% sort of player) and gets on with it.
Yet another player that you are quite “happy” to let go partly because his body language makes it seem as if he doesn’t care…I would like to see him use the experience obtained playing premier league football and in the position that he was signed on as by the club, in the midfield.
Then, just maybe, the Messi / Ronaldo example, might blossom and become a reality…as long as he smiles, skips around, paints on a clowns face and dons a Mr Blobby outfit so we all know he cares, rather than taking time to explain to us, the fans, his feelings, as Eddie has detailed out below.
@Lenohappy – where on earth did you get the impression that “he doesn’t seem to care, he always play like he’s Messi or Ronaldo”. What does that even mean?
Yes he did have a good game against Man Utd – BECAUSE HE WAS PLAYED IN HIS BEST POSITION. Amazed that some people, like you and Admin, can’t see that. How about playing Auba or Pepe as full backs? Centre backs? Would they make a success of it? Don’t freakin’ think so!
you can’t give what you.don’t have….he loses co concentration, can’t defend…but he is trying..manage him till bellerin comes back.
simple
Bellerin can’t defend to save his life so there won’t be much of a change when he returns. And if he’s injured again who will Emery turn to YET AGAIN? Xhaka – hilarious! Torreira? Guendouzi? Ceballos? Ozil? Auba? Laca? Pepe? Now we begin to understand why it’s ALWAYS AMN.
From what we’ve got at the moment I think the much maligned Mustafi would do a far better job at DEFENDING than both AMN or Bellerin.
He’ll add to the squad, and try to push for a midfield spot. Selling him is not on the clubs mind or any of the fans. He’s not done anything wrong to warrant being sold. Also, his crossing is pretty decent, I disagree that it is “not the best”. Bellerin has never been the greatest crosser himself.
Wow dude, you’re really harsh on the young guy. His main problem has, to me,always been his right wing partner constantly leaving him in the lurch, no matter who it was. He’s been straddled with policing the right side virtually on his own. And according to him, the he never said he disliked defending, he said it was an ongoing learning process, but admitted he wasn’t that good at it, and but have taken up the challenge. Besides Hector, no other player has a better recovery time than him when tracking back. As for his crossing, he’s no worse than any other player. And he does have a keen eye for the pass, when needed.
You write about the honesty of most Gooners. Try being more honest in your assessments of the players/coach by viewing their performance on the whole first, instead of individually and with a myopic view to lay blame and or castigate… ✌?
I Think He Should be given a chance at midfield role ,once hector returns
Good idea Divine. Willock and Smith Rowe nothing special and Guendouzi, one of my favourites, unfortunately doesn’t seem to have come on from last season, often getting caught out hanging on to the ball far too long in dodgy positions. Hope AMN does eventually get the chance to play in his ‘proper’ position.
I know we’re no Man City, but we just drew to a team that is 5-0 down in 18 minutes… We made these guys look like Barca just last week.
Because our Manager is not good enough. He should have been sacked in the summer and replaced with Allegri.
watched the first half of Frankfurt game, a team no better than Watford, how many chances did we miss, how many times did Martinez spill the ball, a lot of our players are sometimes brilliant but in the same game they can be awful, and even indifferent,
There is something radically wrong at arsenal,why have we got a youth system if by the age of seventeen, they have to go out on loan to become better, have we no-one who can make them better players in the much vaunted :arsenal way:
I think emery will be judged at the end of the season, the club have delivered on signings, it is up to the manager now. Defensively we have never been worse, offensively we have huge talent but they seem to be disjointed and lacking ideas. Wenger always played with a system that maximised the skills we had at our disposal, that is clearly not happening now. Emery is a good cup competition manager , will he deliver a league I don’t think so, even if you gave him 500m to spend. Allegri for me would transform this team and compete with citys and pools, we will see.
Emery certainly will be judged at the end of the season, because the option to extend his contract into the third season rests with Arsenal.
You are right , we don’t have a good manager . He is not an epl top manager standard , he should go back to Spain
Allegri will not come to the EPL, let alone Arsenal, without a massive personal salary and player transfer budget.
Five different players scored for city: David Silva (1′)Sergio Agüero (7′ PEN)Riyad Mahrez (12′)Bernardo Silva (15′)Nicolás Otamendi (18)
What a team!
People referenced our Watford draw in contex to city’s loss.
Difference is you know city will respond to their loss the following week while it’s unsure with Arsenal.
City making Watford look bush league.
Agree Durand. With Arsenal, most of us are expecting another limp performance against Villa. Might result in a win, but it won’t be near the same type of commanding performances that Liverpool & City can put together. I really have trouble recalling the last time Arsenal looked ruthless against any side. It just seems like every single game in a messy struggle. And we have the players to be doing better than we currently are.
The last time we won convincingly was in Wenger’s time. I’ve wanted Wenger out for years but I have to admit, Emery is not the manager to take us where we want to be.
And Norwich made Man City look like, well, Watford
I’d love Arsenal’s performance to be written as a one-off like City’s will, but they’ve been all too common recently, Martin.
I agree about Arsenal performances but nothing Man City do impresses me when they spent £1 Billion, give even me or you the same money and we would beat Watford 8-0, in fact, I think City losing to Norwich is a worse result than anything Emery has ever been blamed for.
I blame Emery for Arsenal’s collapse the last 6 games last year.
His selections, tactics, and subs were poor and cost us valuable points and we finished 1 short of 4th.
I’d also add he gambled those 6 games away in favor of Europa final; which we lost badly to a departing manager and a team facing a transfer ban.
Admin Martin, that’s the point though isn’t it?
Do we really think city supporters care a hoot about what other fans think?
They are luving it, just luving it (as KK said) and who can blame them?
Years and years in the shadow of utd and now it’s their turn.
Must feel wonderful for their supporters!!!
Would I be luving it if this was The Arsenal? You bet I would and, be honest, so would you!!!
Mind you, what a game it would be against our Invincibles!! I believe we would win, simply because we wouldn’t be afraid of them and we would play exactly the way city wouldn’t like – as a complete team – predicted scoreline?
The Invincibles 3 – The Oilboys 1
I am sure they dont but that does not mean I should respect their achievements.
Man City 5-0 Watford
Just 17 minutes played.
These pundits see us (Arsenal) more than we see ourselves because of delusion.
Yes, same Watford that tore us apart having led 2-0 earlier on.
I know that Aston Villa will become Barcelona for us tomorrow. It is our tradition to make weakest team in the world look like the best.
Aston Villa will not cause us any problem, because we have the Gooners’ support at the Emirates
About Maitland-Niles, he is more suited to be a half-winger in 4-3-3 formation. Just like the Ox, he has courage and energy to run forward, but not a defender
Yes he is not a defender . And I like his courage to help arsenal manage that role since belerin was injured. He is a hard working young player and should be given a chance in his best position .
gotanidea, what on earth is a halfwinger
Can you name a winger who is actually a half winger, because I feel that the world is slipping me by and I always thought you wanted us to buy wingers, so where has the half winger come from?
Or is this another name for the inverted winger you talk about?
Please explain, I am losing track of it all!!!
Wicked city
And the Watford we were struggling with just last Sunday have been blown away by city, 18minuts and city are 4 goals up
Can I just put out there, ANM is 22 years of age.
In pro’ football terms no longer a “young” or “developing” player.
By his own admission he can’t defend, but is “learning”…….. in Arsenal’s first team !
@AJ
And yet, you’re one of those crying about a player not being played in his designated position…
And your point is ????
I don’t understand your post.
For what it’s worth (nothing), I have always maintained the same stance re’ ANM in very clear terms.
No to sold him,he is a super player and he has played out of position which was result to lack of right back while bellerin was injured.
So he deserve some parts but it is not his natural position.
So i just refer him to be PEPE’s reserve and i think he is really a perfect player,he can help us.
he should have been moved to midfield. Box to box or DM. We have better options for the right back role. Mustafi and Chambers. Our problem is we employed the wrong Manager to take over from Arsene. Till we replace him with a better manager, we will continue to mess around and be the near men.A laughing stock. Allegri, Enrique are available
AMN had his faults, but to say “sell him” is a bit too harsh. He has had his moments going forward and for someone who isn’t a natural defender, he is holding up as best as he could. Of course we have to critique him for not growing into the role as he should have, considering that he is almost two years in that role. I guess he needs to be looked at as a DM in future.
Okay, you’ll really be surprised at the numbers of people who don’t follow our academy players or watch their games but will always come out to write off how bad certain players are and blah blah blah.
The Maitland Niles we had coming was a composed midfielder better than Xhaka. The boy was clearly meant to be our B2B midfielder. A solid player who I’ve seen countless times for the youth before he got promoted.
Until Bellerin got injured and our coach decided to play Niles there instead of a proper RB from the academy.
Even at that Niles was doing okay at first, then he was asked to play Left Back a few times, he went ahead to put impressive displays even while playing LB. The boy never got his chance in the middle of the field, you’d think he’s a bad footballer just because our managers would rather stick to their favorite players and play others out of position.
A year later, the boy is still being used as a RB, RWB, and whenever he struggles, you see people branding him average, overall a bad footballer and all sorts of stuffs as if they’ve actually seen the boy play in his preferred position.
A new manager came, could’ve gotten a RB, but also decided to stick with Niles as a RB and right now the boy seems lost, I don’t even think he’ll easily find his feet back in the midfield because of all this crap he’s been handed to do.
Look not all players can be a jack of all trade, not all players can adapt to different positions, not all players will end up bossing different positions, you don’t expect Ozil to be a striker because he’s a midfielder, u don’t expect Mhki to be a striker, both understandably because y’all believe they are not the type of players who can master different positions but y’all expect Niles to forcefully be a solid RB when he’s a better midfielder compared to some of our midfield dross.
Okay Mr. Academy Manager, he prefers to be a B2B midfielder I agree with that, but your second statement I have to disagree. Are you implying that B2B midfielders are exempted from defensive duties? If he is crappy defending the right flank, would he perform on the center? The stake is higher there mind you.
It’s not about positional awareness, he is simply bad in one on one situations and get beaten too easily. And don’t use the victim card, he is deliberately included in the squad as a utility player. For a player whose redeeming quality is his utility, he has failed. Face it bro ?
AMN has consistently proved he is NOT a ‘utility’ player.
It’s just that Emery doesn’t think we have ANYONE ELSE who could do a job for us in either of the Full Back positions so just thoughtlessly sticks AMN in there knowing that he’ll do his best.
350oz…description of AMN in the Official Handbook 2018/19:
Midfielder – signed a new long term contract in 2018.
Able to operate in the middle of the park and at full back.
Though primarily a midfielder, most of ainsley’s appearances in 2017/18 came on the left side of defence.
Has represented his country at various youth levels and was part of England youth levels and Under 20’s world cup winning team in 2017.
No mention of a “utility player”, rather a backing up of his own words that his best position is in midfield.
Also, to say he has failed, when winning a world cup medal, representing his country at all youth levels and playing regular football for The Arsenal in the premier league, speaks volumes for the man and makes your assesment of him, both as a failed utility player seem quite the opposite of what his club and country think of him…along with quite a few fans as well.
Ken1945, but how come AMN was used as right wide forward when we played against Liverpool? I’m sure you remember because he was on the scoresheet.
I’m not saying he failed completely, going forward he is good, but defensively he has failed. It would be hard to coach him because he lacks aggressiveness and he didn’t learn the basic of defending. Like in one on one situations, he often stays on his feet and not ready for the opponent’s maneuvers.
Just saw this on twitter of spurs fan
5 wins in 18 league games.
No away win for 8 months
More leads lost. More rotation.
Yet I will still be told I’m wrong and that Poch is a top manager.
Wake up. This is not a good team. This is not a unit with belief and the manager is average.
At least we are not the only top team in difficulty.
Man city leading 5-0 Vs Watford, the same team that we barely got a draw against
Is that the same Man City that lost to Norwich, you know, if you are doing comparisons
I bet everyone remembers the days when we Can laugh at spurs because we know we’ll win the next game. But now…?
AMN does not have the concentration needed for a disciplined defender. Defenders need mindfulness and concentration. We are one of the worst premier league teams I have seen when it comes to concentration. When, as Xhaka said, a team is ‘scared’ you have the worst scenario possible. Concentration and fear must be taken extremely seriously. AMN, Xhaka, Mustafi, Luiz, Ozil, and Nelson all suffer from one of them. Socratis just has lack of ability. Just noticed Man City are 5 up against Watford. That tells our story. Lack of mindfulness and the need for 90 minute concentration. Emery must demand better attention/mindfulness. At the top level that is a must. He can get a teacher to teach the players mindfulness and concentration meditation.
Sean – Because Emery does not have a clue what his best team is or the formation they should play or what his best tactics are I don’t think we should be surprised that half the team are running around like the famous ‘headless chickens’. Lack of mindfulness or concentration doesn’t come into it – they are if anything OVERTHINKING, trying to understand what Emery wants them to do.
Playing devils advocate here.
AMM is supposedly a good player, being played out of position.
Have too many actually seen him figure in our first teams midfield, where it seems he would excel.
I have a suspicion on the answer there.
A small part of me does feel for Ainsley, he is being played out of position.
But my problems are 1) ANM attitude projected, and more to the point 2) Why is a club of our stature having to play makeshift players out of position in the first place ?
Ainsley started life as a winger, was moved to midfield and now wanders around at right back for a while.
Jack of all trades, master of none – not a good position to find yourself in.
Suspect a year our two more, particularly under demanding management.
It is very delusional to make comparisons that are at best hypothetical. Last weekend Man City suffered an unexpected defeat to Norwich. Right now Norwich is 2 goals down to Burnley which we beat. How do you explain that kind of scenario? Any serious analyst should never ignore the power of home support. In all human endeavours surprise or chance is a great unexplainable. It defeats logic and human understanding. Thus it is illogical to correlate things which have no explainable link.
Man City won the league back to back.Liverpool is stronger because of Loop. We have every right to compare. We are Arsenal Football club. We have no business drawing against Watford after going two goals up. That is unacceptable. That deserves a sack. This is the third season we are in the Europa League. We are declining as a club. We need a very top manager to bring back the glory days. Have you forgotten how we performed towards the end of last season? Emery is not good enough. We should not be emotional. It is a result based job. If you are not performing, u should be sacked. We should replace Emery with Allegri or Enrique. That is the truth.
O.T I want City to score 10 goals
AMN isn’t a RB & we’ve not giving him any reasonable runs in MF. He’ll do well playing the right side of a diamond, covering for the RB & also using pace to start attacks. He’s bein played in the wrong position.
City have 7 goals in 60 minutes without Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus, etc.
Can we (Arsenal) beat this City team if they play 9 men against our 11 men ?
I doubt it.
Or
Can we get a point from them if we are given 2 goals advantage before 10 minutes leaving them 80 minutes to play ?
No certainty.
Arsenal is making me to get older every minutes because of stress and tension on me every week.
Where is Dennis Berkamp ? My BEST Arsenal player of ALL TIME.
Unai should be sacked. Replace him with someone who has won things. Allegri or Enrique. Watford loosing by 7 goals against Man City. Pep pays attention to details. He demands a lot from his players. If you fail, he drops you. As for Unai, he decided to make Xhaka the captain. Xhaka cost us 3 points against Brighton last season. He cost us against Spurs with his rash challenge. He slows down our attack. Not quick enough. And Unai would still play him in Every match. Unai plays Guendouzi ahead of Torrera. A top team will always field the best 11 in every match. I have seen enough of Emery to know that he won’t lead us to success. Top 4 is no achievement. Winning the league should be the target. Aubameyang, Pepe and lacazette cost Almost 180m pounds. We have the team. But we don’t have the right Manager to win things.
Skilss1000, the point is Unai Emery has won things in his time as a coach.
A certain Leicester City manager had won nothing before he took them to the premiership title.
Top Four is most certainly an achievement, ask any of the top six sides what their first achievement must be…Champions League qualification and they have all said it time and time again.
Agree with most everything else yoy say about the player selections by the way and that UE will not bring us the premiership title.
Emery has ruined him.
Just watched Leic v spurs on hoofoot.com…..what a baller Maddison is.
We made Watford look like Barcelona last week and now Man City is Hammering the same Watford we struggled to beat after 2 goals lead .
The truth is we are not a Champion Team anymore that is a fact
Again you’re slightly gloating over the fact that city lost to Norwich last weekend- pep id’s a great manager, with a billion pound squad, but still loses too.
?
It is 8-0 in favour of manchester city and they keep playing as if they need more than 3 points from the game.
In our case, after leading watfort by 2 goals, we came back in the second half jogging roind the field without plan and purpose.
At the end, we gave away our 2 zero lead.
I hope emwry is watching…
That’s exactly the main difference between us and city/liverpool
City 8-0 Watford says more about city than Watford. City at home, being typical city. We’ll actually lose by more when we go to the Etihad, we are That spineless
If Emery puts up the tactics and line up he fielded against liverpool then we may conceed even more goals than watford at etihad stadium.
We are now 10th in the league so absolute must win tomorrow!
is anyone watching the Man city vs Watford match? We scream you can’t pass from the back. yet, city does it. We scream you need destroying midfield players yet City plays with only one defensive midfielder and 5 attacking players or what you call play makers — Mahrez, silva b, silva D, debruyne, aguero. Not even a sterling in that team.
This shows Emery is either out of his depth or the players we still have are not willing to be wise enough to know that you don’t allow so much spaces between the attack, midfield & defence. When wenger wanted very good technical players people screamed you need beasts in the midfield. Alas! guardiola.
Something is just not right with our team at the moment. |From wenger to emery, to the group of players. I really do not know what is it that we are missing.
Behind the scenes there must be a lot we are not seeing. The squad is not the problem anymore. There are enough pieces at the clubs disposal to be better than we are. We need to ask some very big questions about what is happening. The fact that any CB that comes to this club almost immediately becomes trash shows that this is more than just a personnel issue.
RSH, at last we completely agree on something.
We had it with Wenger, buying in decent defenders who just bombed out. It’s exactly the same with Emery and the players end up being called “dross”.
We have spent over £225,000,000 in two years and yet, the defence is worse now than before, simply because it doesn’t appear to be a priority.
What made the club not prioritise our defence once the three musketeers came in?
It just doesn’t make sense to anyone.
It actually shows that when you spend £1 Billion you can beat teams 8-0. That is literally it
We’ve spent around £180 million on attacking players, yet struggled to score goals against Newcastle and Burnley.
How about 2 goals up at halftime, and manager can’t find the tactics to finish off Watford?
Thete were errors by Sokratis and Luiz to be fair, but who started them? He was aware of their lapses from the previous week right?
Who demands we play out from the back, despite struggling repeatedly over the last 16 months?
So why aren’t Real Madrid and ManU doing it?
They spent similar amounts on their squads…
Will City win 8-0 against anyone (plus hit the post 3 times) when Pep leaves?
Nope.
Respect where respect is due.
As a lover of the sport primarily I always watch City games and they are a joy to watch unlike say United who only spent about 10 percent less on their squad.
No, Man City are the very first team in history to spend a billion to totally distort the game. Nothing they do will I ever respect.
Admin Martin, it’s good to see that you, at least, recognise that the money city have bought into the game totally distorted the premiership.
I would add chelsea under Abramovitch to that to complete the picture.
That is why in 2005 (abramovitch) and 2008 (oilsheik) they completely skewed the situation for AW and The Arsenal, even as we were paying off the enormous Emirates.
Funny how some people never take the obvious into consideration…by the way, enjoy your roast tomorrow!!
You cannot beat a good Sunday roast Ken
First of all people have a short memory,also in the situation he finds himself there is no win win situation for him,true he has been inconsistent out it comes with age and maturity this is the curse of being an utility player but the fact that he is bring picked up ahead of other defender says it all,I,”,m sure he will improve greatly here it somewhere else!!
8-0… get in there!! MOTD will be extended tonight, just to fit that lot in ?
Niles reminds me of Mathieu Flamini.Like Niles,Flamini was meant to be a center mid fielder,but he ended up being a utility player,and did an amazing job at it.Niles too is doing an amazing job of being a utility player.You say he doesnt know how to cross?seriously?Anyway the day he gets his chance in his preffered position,and that day will,you will know how good he is.And anyone hoping that he will be sold,i say this:Not a chance.I remember when Flamini got his chance in the mid field,he benched a world cup winner in form of Gilberto
For some reason it seems my comment has been removed here- not sure why. I’ll repost:
Another day, another scapegoat. Absolutely ridiculous. AMN is a good player doing a decent enough job in difficult circumstances. Lets hope Mustafi gets back into the team so you’ll have someone else to criticize. I guess because Xhaka had a decent game on Thursday you need a new punching bag. AMN- he’s one of our own!
Well said Eddie .AMN will be successful as a box to box midfielder.
DELETED WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE – The thin ice you are on is now cracking badly, just a matter of time now -Admin Martin
Suspension now in place
Getting boring now.
In my opinion ANM not good enough for AFC, let alone being played at right back, harsh but there you go.
I know he’s being played out of position, that one’s been done to death, and I cannot understand how it’s come to that at a club of our standing.
My view is simply that going forward if our existing our any future manager plays him in midfield ( bearing in mind where we need to get back to) I’ll be amazed!
Offer him to Guardiola, Klopp, even the great Pochettino (who’s won precisely nothing) as a midfield player – no takers, you might get some interest mid / lower table if your lucky.
I think his last 18 or so games at Ipswich on loan we’re in their reserves so that also didn’ t
end too well either – and this in the advanced positions that people who know nothing of his past career are blabbing on about and want him moved to (positionally) at ARSENAL FOOTBALL CLUB !
Not for me.
Sorry folks, the above was meant to be in direct reply to an earlier post by NY-Gunner
I just wish AMN could be reconciled with his Mum and help her out with a pittance from his earnings ??.
Ozziegunner, your post prompted me to catch up with this story, hoping all was reconciled.
Christ, his mother lives in a storage container ! (allegedly).
I always try to keep players private lives out of the equation (unless it is irresponsible, and effecting performance), and bearing in mind there is always two sides to every story …….. but really.
I so hope this is no longer the case whatever their differences.