A young, experienced and at times immature squad- just where will they end up?
With only 17 games left of this Premier League season, it will be interesting to see where this young Arsenal squad ends up at the end.
There is no doubt that anything higher than eighth place this season will be seen as progress after last season. But not winning anything for the last two seasons is always a big worry especially given how Mikel Arteta started his reign at the club.
After winning the FA Cup in 2019-2020 and the Community Shield in 2020, things were looking up but it has all gone downhill since then. We finished in eighth place last year and have gone out of all competitions, where the only thing we are fighting for this season is a Champions League and Europa League place with at least three other clubs.
With no European football, the best chance we had of winning a trophy would have been this season, as we had only the cups and the league to focus on, but as always we fell at the first hurdle in the FA Cup and lost out in getting to the final of the Carabao Cup after losing to Liverpool in the semi-finals.
So where do we really go from here with the squad we have at our disposal?
There’s no denying that this squad is young and there is not really a high number of experienced players in the side, so where the balance is I struggle to see. Especially as two of our supposedly experienced players in Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey have discipline issues of their own and are prone to red cards. If that is the experience the young players will be looking up to, then we are in trouble in a few years’ time with the young squad we have coming through.
Mikel Arteta has been speaking to arsenal.com ahead of the run in though, and was talking about the squad, stating:
“We have lost points that sometimes show the lack of maturity we have in the squad, but at the same time we won a lot of games because of the enthusiasm, the passion and the energy they bring to the team. So we have to keep maintaining that balance right and give them confidence.”
At least he is acknowledging the immaturity at times in the squad but also the passion. But it doesn’t bode well that sometimes it is the most experienced players who have the lack of maturity and discipline, but there is no denying that at times there is passion and togetherness in this team and it can only get better given the right support.
If they could be more consistent with the passion and fight, then it surely will be a good end to the season. But as always with Arsenal from now until the end of the season there will be more ups and downs and bumps and bruises to come.
But if we end up in the highest place possible, then I for one won’t be complaining. Well not much anyway!
Shenel Osman
@sh3n3l_
” but as always we fell at the first hurdle in the FA Cup ” WTF?
What..!!! 8th place finished with so much money spent and out of all the other competitions… I never accept it.
Never spent so much money in a single transfer window for 20 years..yes 20 long years…and yet among Champions League Team.
4th place was not good enough for my old Arsenal. There is something wrong with this new Arsenal.
It is becoming a trend these days that in the world of sports, especially, in our beloved soccer, so many arguments are rising. Day by day, everyone seems to have his/her own personal opinion on how clubs should be run.
Most even go ahead to support a particular player, unknowingly or knowingly. This is the crux of the matter,
Is a player above the club or is the club above every player.
So many players singlehandedly carry the team and outperform others in the club, like our beloved, Aubameyang, Ozil, Aaron Ramsey, Alexis Sanchez, Van Persie and so many others. These all left at critical times when the club needed them the most, not to mention, the silly transfer fee the club received on their behalf.
Van Persie — £24M
Alexis Sanchez — Mkhitaryan
Aaron Ramsey —- free transfer
Mesut Ozil —- the mesut ozil saga
Aubameyang — mysterious
And guess who is next in line,
Pepe —- ??? maybe, free transfer
This has being a lasting trend at the Emirates, to let your best players walk away. These players were all match-winners, yet the club let them leave, some due to poor man management, not playing to the team’s pattern, other’s not willing to work hard enough and so on and so forth. Sure, every team needs stand out players, even in the days of the Invincibles, we had players who stood out. That is how trophies are won, that is how the ballon d’or is won, by outperforming others. Yet our beloved club would let our best players run their contracts out, terminate it or take meager fees for them.
Former Blackburn striker, Chris Sutton:
“Arsenal have let the situation get out of hand by letting players run their contracts down. In my day, once you got to two years left on your contract, if you were valued by the club you would be signed on again. Arsenal have made a rod for their own back in that sense.”
These players should have been put before the club, at dire times when the club needed them the most, at least, to fetch the fans a trophy, so Gunners can boast on the streets. Even when we have been on the verge of winning something, Arsenal would let their best players walk, when the club needed them the most.
Is it a crime for a player to stand out? I guess “The Process” will answer this.
Nevertheless, they say, no player is bigger than the club. The club must take decisions that will favour the management, not minding the players that gets in the way, no matter the circumstance, even, when dealing with the best payer in the world.
Joan Laporta stated at a press conference on Friday that Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi “wanted to stay” with the Spanish club and that “we wanted him to stay.”
Laporta, who was elected as club president for the second time in 2021, clarified that “in order to achieve this, Barcelona had to agree to an operation that implied mortgaging part of the club’s television rights for half a century.”
He added that “I wasn’t going to do that” since the club was “above any player. Including the best player in the world.”
Every player needs to work hard for the greater good of the club. Commitment and loyalty means putting the club’s needs first before your own, not flying to another country to push your transfer or refusing to run and mark the ball when you team looses possession or sitting on the bench and laughing when your team concedes a goal. These are all reckless attitudes displayed by some of these players, I wonder the orientation they were given when they first walked into the club.
“Tomorrow he plays. He is a player like the others,” said Mourinho on Friday.
“No player is bigger than the club. If I am happy with his work he plays, if I am not he doesn’t play. I am really happy with his work this week. He trained really well. The team needs good players. He is a good player.”
Arsenal football club is much more important than anything else. It is more important than a player or a manager.
Dejan Iliev (26 years) just left AFC this past January after spending 9 years at the club. 29 career appearances in total, all made up of injuries and loans, I guess this one was bigger than the club, maybe 🤔.
“No player can feel titular when he arrives at the club, the club is above all players,” Says Pochettino.
AFC is bigger than us all, the fans, manager, players, journalists, “The Process,” I think.
We must all join hands to push us forward, but we need some match-winning players, though, just thinking 🤔🤔.
When someone fly across continent they are supposed to have fatigue. When someone is fatigued their response and reaction time increases. Body will respond to your brain’s command with some delay and it could result in anything from loosing balance to accidents or a red card for that matter.
Partey has disciplinary issues SMH.