I will give whomever is the manager a lot of leeway. I'm good with any position that results in a Europa league qualification under certain circumstances. If the new manager has a total departure in tactics and its a very different XI. I want to see us competitive. I am looking primarily at how much fight and belief the squad has.

You may recall last year Mourinho holding up 3 fingers to signify he won the League Cup Europa and Charity Shield. So on that basis this year Wenger won more trophies (charity shield) than him and was sacked. I suggest a few journalist who are usually on their knees in front of him ask him about this. Before Kiwi misinterprets this I meant kissing his feet. What else could I have meant.

I really don’t know what the fan reaction in the stadium is going to be for Arteta. Not the reaction when he is introduced. I mean the reaction after poor performances. Arsenal fans have got so used to booing and protesting part of me feels that they are done with being patient, they wanted a proven winner, a guy who will shake things up.

Ateta will need time, and I don’t expect champions league next year. But what I won’t be patient with is a continuation of any of the easily solveable problems that wenger ignores for 10 years. Defensive calamities, lack of concentration, lack of effort, lack of tempo, lack of shots, endless sideways passing....and lack of any plan to counter an opponents strengths. Any manager showing that he is at least trying to solve these things gets my backing.

You could pretty much put out our best 11 players each week and we’d most likely win 14 Home games even without any tactics. I want to see improvements in tight games.

Sounds like Cazorla might be going back to Villarreal

got me beat ... a shoe shine maybe .

Kiwis 1 - 2 - 3 in the V8's

Right move for him and us. Marvelous player, who we've really missed in the last two seasons.

I think our fans will be right behind him. Nobody knows what to expect and whilst his appointment is unambitious we want the best for the club. What we don’t know is what the reaction would be if we went on a losing run early on and the media started to get on his back.

This year will be the first year I will pay more attention to the fixtures when they are announced. Whether we get an easy or difficult start will be key.

Agree. He’s my favourite player of the Wenger alzheimers years period where we drifted. We have missed him badly and that stunning free kick in the final will live long in the memory

Compare Moyes first few fixtures at Man U to Jose's. Moyes had a horrible run. He's also a far inferior manager but an easyish start would be most welcome. We always seem to get a big away game early on - usually with Wenger not having the team ready for the start of the season and we take a thumping.

Yep. A wonderfully gifted footballer. I just happened to ask my 12 year old son who is favourite Arsenal player is last week. Santi is still his favourite despite not having played in two years.

He is what you want a pro footballer to be. Perfect first touch and superb ball striker with both feet. Contrast that to Lukaku who has a worse first touch than half the U13s I coach.

An interesting take on our supposed £50m budget. Make of it what you will, but I'd be surprised if we didn't spend more than £50m this summer.

https://shewore.com/2018/05/19/arsenals ... explained/

I think with Per retiring and Cazorla off there is room for a further 5 non homegrown players over 21 years of age in our squad.

You have a maximum of 17 allowed and I think we only have 12.
Čech, Ospina, Monreal, Kolasinac, Koscielny, mustafi, elneny, Xhaka, Özil, mkhitayran, Lacazette, Aubameyang

Santi is a great guy, great player but it was obvious he was never going to play for us again and Wenger and Arsenal kept him on the payroll to give him an income. Its one of the things I admire the club about.

As for the new manager, whomever it is, Arteta or anyone (except fat Sam..haha), they will be greeted very well. The opening match they will be cheered. The first match in preseason if he is hired by then (I certainly hope so) he will be cheered wildly. Any manager that comes to us will get a very good reception, partially because he is not Wenger. Part of that reception will be because Wenger is no longer at the helm. Its a hard truth very few people will speak openly about.

My guess is in the beginning (first 5 to 10 matches) the manager will be expected the win the matches we are 'supposed' to. Meaning the home matches against clubs in the 2nd half of the table. He will be expected not to lose away to any club below the top 5. He can lose to the top 5 but we should be competitive.

The new manager will get the benefit of a doubt with respect to transfers coming in unless the person is just a known bad player. Wenger got the benefit of a doubt based on his finding hidden gems early in Anelka, Vieira, Fabregas, etc.

Saw the FA Cup final at the pub in LA and it was fun to hear the banter between the two fans with Chelsea doing most of the singing obviously. Because there are a number of expat Brits mixed in, they know the latest chants that are sung back in the UK.
They got in a few Tottenham and Arsenal chants as well. The more notable chants were about Wenger being a pedo. They have a Giroud song. Oliver..Oliver..Oliver Giroud, he used to be a wanker but now he's a blue. I never heard Lampard songs before that day. And other players. Like all songs, some are funny and interesting.

The one song that stung the most was a Chelsea song stating they were the only club in London with a European cup. Thanks Bayern Munich for being involved in two events of my football life that hurts to no end Man Utd and Chelsea's CL cups not sure which one was worse, maybe Chelsesa's since BM were home. How do you lose a CL final at home to a club there for the first time?

If true, its what I suspected. The club is loathe to give any future manager the power Wenger had within the club. And I can certainly respect that. My fear is that they strip future managers of too much influence.

https://paininthearsenal.com/2018/05/21 ... el-arteta/

The report, as quoted by the Daily Star, is that Mikel Arteta is ‘playing hardball’ and wants to have the power to veto transfers. Now, we don’t know how valid this report is, but as we often do, let’s suspend our disbelief and talk big picture consequences from such a decision.

This would mean that he would be the ultimate power in the transfer market, and that the brain trust that had seemingly taken over control from Arsene Wenger (Sven Mislintat and company, with the newest, February addition of Raul Sanllehi) would be nothing more than an advising board to the main man, Mikel Arteta.

I remember watching this at the Fox and Hounds in LA. I recall us being hammered for 90 minutes plus and it was clearly obvious it was a matter of when not if we would lose it. Once they scored one, the flood gates would open.

Except we had other ideas...the key I think were one, we ha Lehman and two, Edo told the boss he wasn't confident in taking PKs and van Persie was put in instead. Edo was given a PK in a previous match that season and it barely got past the keeper and so he didn't have the nerve for a such a big match. I thank Edo for that.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiAD38djorY[/youtube]

AG is off his meds again

If true, it gives some credence to my suspicions that Gazidis doesn't want any manager who will have anything close to the same Wenger had within the club.

So, no Allegri, Ancelotti or such similar big names. Gazidis is making it his club on the football side where he controls pretty much all aspect of it. My guess is he found an ally in Josh who played a similar role to Gazidis in Denver for one of his father's sides.

Will this work? I am not confident long term or maybe even short term. You can't completely cut the knees off of a manager. He must have a say. Not as much as Wenger but some say.

Not so worried. Yes the manager must have input, ie make recommendations and/or reject players if not to his liking, or we will possibly land up with another AW.

Find the best available coach, that's what we always needed not a manager, there are enough of them at the Arsenal.

Good coach everything will follow...................

Arsenal decide against appointing Mikel Arteta as Gunners search for experienced manager

Mikel Arteta will not be the next Arsenal manager after the Gunners’ board decided to appoint a more experienced boss, according to reports in Spain.

https://metro.co.uk/2018/05/21/arsenal- ... r-7565846/

This from 3 weeks ago. Arteta's head turned since then. Now won't matter what he chooses to do.

http://www.ogtv.com.ng/why-mikel-arteta ... h-arsenal/

If he didn’t want the job he would have said so by now surely.

David Ornstein has tweeted Arsenal will appoint Emery as manager. Ornstein is rarely wrong with arsenal stuff

Ornstein now saying we'll appoint Emery. Good news, as I never believed Arteta could do a good job anyway.

BREAKING: Arsenal to appoint Unai Emery as new manager. Thorough process produced 46yo Spaniard as unanimous choice. Available after leaving #PSG (1 Lg1 title, 4 cups), previously Sevilla (3 EL wins), not fluent English. Announcement + press conference likely later this week #AFC

Arsenal dead set on winning the Europa League next season.

Yeah he's now 1/10 on so looks like he's the new 'head coach' of Arsenal

Great news. An experienced coach. Just what we needed.

All betting suspended. I happened to be on twitter as Ornstein tweeted and rushed to put a bet on, Emery was 1/3, within 30 seconds he was 1/7, then 1/10 then no more bets all within a minute of Ornstein tweet.

First reactions seem lukewarm at best. Don't really get that, Emery seems like a good compromise. Has the managerial experience some wanted, but isn't a dinosaur like Ancelotti or Van Gaal. Difficult to gauge managerial performance at PSG, but his record at Sevilla was excellent. Can't say I watched them play a lot, but three straight Europa League titles is nothing to scoff at.

Bellerin new number 2 shirt
Elneny new number 4 shirt
Čech new number 1 shirt

Xhaka switching to no 34 as well.

All rather odd. Suggestions Arteta withdrew due to a limited transfer budget among other things.

Not sure what to make of it really.

Emery is a proper manager but if we have a very limited budget then its hard to see how he can work miracles. Get the back four organised, instil some discipline and tactical nous and add a couple of Sven's diamond eye signings to the mix.

I agree, Haz, he's got decent managerial experience yet is still young enough to bring some energy and to stay a good while if things work out.

If it's going to be Emery, I hope he doesn't bring his brother.........

Emery makes sense with our new structure and should be able to work successfully with Mislintat and Sanllehi, in a similar structure he was part of in Sevilla. He is a proper coach which is just what we need. I wouldn't pay much attention to his time at PSG which looks from the outside as a bit of a madhouse.
Very optimistic.

Can we assume he will be bringing Neymar with him?

Europa League and last 16 of CL with a 'big' club... ah, the glory days of an annual lesson from Milan/Barcelona/Munich beckon again.

That would be the Milan who aren’t qualifying for the Champions League would it?