I agree, think we will come in 6th.

That's all very well after the event, but the reality is that Tottenham missed a crazy amount of chances.

If we are to beat Chelsea we need to do the far from revolutionary basics of football - defend properly and play through midfield.

Unfortunately, I think we will scrape 6th, which is no achievement considering how bad Man U were for most of the season.

Yeah we were terrible then only the cup winners cup sustained my interest at that time - just started university up in Derry. Got back into watching them a lot in Rioch's only season, we played some good football that year including a Bergkamp winner against Man Utd.

As far as the League went third in 1958/9 was the best it got until the famous double in 1971. Many years without a sniff of the title. The FA Cup was a regular disaster too - those of us of a certain age still shudder at the words Northampton, Rotherham and Peterborough. No wonder we fans hit the roof in 1970 when we finally ended our 17 year drought by beating Anderlect in the forerunner of the Europa League, the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. The best night of my footballing life.

It was tongue in cheek Zed ...... I'd like the Rams to lose every game , Walmart collapse owing billions ; Kroenke's wife to run off with not one but two 300lb linebackers , Stan's hair piece to blow off and land on the old Highbury clock .

A complete jerk off as an individual ; more's the pity Lady Nina and a few other priviledged dickstops didn't think a little more on who they sold their shares to .

Usmanov isn't short of cash why he handed Kroenke who he didn't like complete control is another mystery .

Rams looked good against the Cowboys but I can't see anyone beating the Patriots .

Funnily enough looking back I sorted of enjoyed all that turmoil of of what was it 1973 or 74 mired in pitched battles at the bottom with illustrious names like Sheffield Utd , Luton I loved Arsenal then even know we were sh***t . There was no player I didn't like

We couldn't afford a TV so I'd be glued to the radio commentary when we got beaten by Swindon however many replays it took to beat Leicester one year in the Cup .

Life seemed so much simpler , players earning a couple of hundred quid a week with win bonuses .

Chelsea , Man Utd , Spurs all getting relegated in quick succession.

Welcome back ...ever heard of this doodle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EjjZmBvslo ...does a great version of Peggy Sue

Have to disagree here, david. I back Emery on most of the decisions he has made, but Özil is clearly not being handled correctly. It’s one thing to not start him if you don’t think he’s the right player for that match, but to leave him out of the squad altogether is just plain wrong when you have the likes of Licthsteiner and Nketiah on there. One is a player who shouldn’t be on the pitch under any circumstances unless you’re desperately short on players, and the other is a youngster who should only be given 10-15 minutes in games that you’ve already won. We basically only had Ramsey to throw in in an attacking position.

As frustrating as Özil is, the fact is that he’s one of the best playmakers in the league. Since he arrived at Arsenal no other player has created as many chances per game as him, and we badly miss his playmaking ability. Behind our strikers Iwobi is our one creative player at the moment, and he’s more of a dribbler anyway. With the squad we have and our current injuries we can’t afford not to play someone with the talent of Özil in my opinion. Isolating your best players rarely lead to something positive – just look at United with Pogba benched and sulking vs United with Pogba firing on all cylinders.

To play through midfield we need to start with a 4-2-3-1 formation because with the 5 at the back and 2 holding mids there is no midfield to play it through. With no ball carrying CB the holding mids are dropping so deep to take it off them and it leaves our only 3 attacking players far to far away.

If 5 at the back is the system Emery wants to play (and I'm certain it isn't) then we simply don't have the right players for it. It seems that Emery has tried to shore up the defence by sticking an extra body in there - without any effect to our defensive ability but a huge detrimental affect to our attacking play

I read an article discussing our full back options, the basis of it was that our pairs of full backs on each side are very different from each other. One very attacking (Bellerin/Kolasinac) and one much more defensively minded and moving towards wide CB role in later years (Lichsteiner/Monreal). Having to chop and change when these full backs come in and out of the team is massively disruptive to the style of play.

I realise it isn't our biggest problem but I found it interesting that for 2 vital positions in the team the 'cover' player is the opposite style of player he's covering for.

Looking at the Wenger interview regarding the socialist wage policy it is one of our biggest problems. On AFTV one of the person interviewed said that Jenkinson was on 62k per week. I found it interesting that he named such a specific sum. I wondered if maybe he had some inside info. He went on to say that he got more than Torreira. In any case the whole idea was totally flawed & will continue to cost us until all the contracts expire.

The real issue to me what a hypocrite Wenger was. If he truly believed in this he would have looked at what all the other EPL managers earnt & negotiated an average wage for himself. However he was one of highest paid EPL managers of all time. Socialism his way. The chickens have come home to roost.

Our wages quite interesting

https://www.totalsportek.com/money/arse ... -salaries/

Not sure you can make this assumption that he’s not being handled correctly. For me he has to start every week as we have a poverty of options but don’t know what’s going on behind closed doors.

The fanzines have constantly hinted at rumours of his lack of application and throwing wild parties at his London home etc etc

It might be that Emery doesn’t fancy him however trying to sell him to get rid of his 350k a week salary seems ridiculous if your are paying Čech and Lichtsteiner 200k a week to sit on a bench.

Quite a bit coming off the books after the season. Ramsey is gone, probably Welbeck too. Even though I like Čech as a player, there’s obviously no reason to keep him around as a backup on that type of wage. Lichtsteiner should be able to secure a contract as a night club bouncer somewehere. Don’t think we would have much problem offloading Elneny, Chambers and Mustafi or Koscielny. Guess we’re stuck with Jenkinson and Perez. Özil is obviously a big issue if he’s not going to play, but I don’t think it would be difficult to sell him if we just decide to do that.

Definitely some room on the wage bill opening up in the near future though. Ramsey, Welbeck, Lichtsteiner and Čech all look like goners and they make up about two very good players worth of wages.

Then sell him. The transfer window is open, and if he’s not going to play there’s no reason to keep him or he would want to stay. He left Real Madrid when he had 50+ appearances every season because he wanted to be the main guy in his team, I don’t think he would be happy to just collect his wages and never play.

Lots of talk about how nobody would want him with the wage he’s on but I don’t buy that. People said no top clubs would want Ramsey, and he had some of the biggest clubs in the world competing to sign him and ended up with a five year contract at one of the best run clubs in Europé. Our players are more highly rated than fans seem to think.

I don’t think you can really describe it as a socialist policy as he has guys being paid twice and even 3 or times as much as others it’s just it’s more of a “stupid” policy. Paying a reserve keeper a hundred grand a week, 2 reserve right backs around 160k a week. Just doesn’t make sense

Isn’t the Barcelona model the opposite. They have a first 11 which they pay handsomely but their subs and squad players are on nowhere near as much so after 2 or 3 seasons they have to move to get more money. Ie essentially how we got Sanchez

The Ramsey thing is different as he’s free. If you attached a 40 million pound fee to him as well as his 140k a week salary I’m not convinced these clubs would be after him. It’s just a no brainier of a transfer

Juve can keep him on the bench for a season then sell him back to a UK club after 12 months for a decent fee.

That’s all speculation though. What we do know is that some very big clubs rate him highly enough to be willing to invest big money in him, in terms of wages over several years and probably a hefty sign on fee. He could get a big injury in year one and never really contribute to the club, and they’d be stuck with him. You don’t make that type of commitment to a player you don’t rate rather highly.

Think it would be the same with Özil. We wouldn’t get £100 million for him, but if the decision was made to get rid I would expect us to have many clubs lining up for him.

You might be right about Özil I think many teams will want him but on Ramsey it’s not the same. If Juve pay him 140k a week and give him a decent signing on fee it still pales into insignificance bearing in mind they can sell him 12 months later for 25-30 million minimum.

It’s like handing somebody a 30 grand Mercedes convertible for free and then suggesting they are making a big commitment paying its petrol and running costs. Basically free money and Juve must be cracking up at our expense.

They can't sell him on if he's injured, and he doesn't have the best track record in that regard. So even if it's a sweet deal for them because they don't have to pay a transfer fee it's still a big financial commitment for a club that isn't bankrolled by a billionaire.

If we had decided to sell him in the summer of 2018 (which we should have) then there would've been big clubs fighting for his signature. That much is obvious from the interest in him this winter.

Mate it’s just a no brainer admit it. It’s essentially a free player.

In the same way we probably wouldn’t have signed Kolasinac if he wasn’t free Juve wouldn’t have signed Ramsey if they had to pay a 40 million transfer fee.

Not read the whole article but does it give the source? If it's correct, how the hell can Monreal only earn 54% of Kolasinac's salary? Of the two, Monreal is the better defender by a pretty wide margin.

Kolasinac went on a free transfer sol Campbell style. Hence much bigger wages

It’s not free, it’s just cheaper. You’re still at risk of being stuck with him as one of your highest paid players in case of a big injury etc. Reports are suggesting he’ll become Juventus second-highest earner. That doesn’t happen unless they rate him highly. We can not on one hand say it’s problematic to have the likes of Jenkinson picking up wages without contributing much and on the other hand say it’s risk free to sign someone to a five-year contract with a very high salary.

But leaving that aside, we seem stuck in the middle with Özil. Surely the way forward is either getting rid of him or making him a key figure in the team like his ability suggests he could be. We don’t seem to have commited to either position and I can’t see anything positive come from that.

So basically unless he suffers a career ending injury they could sell him in 2 seasons for 20 million quid and not only break even make a small profit out of the whole thing. It’s a zero risk transfer really.

How many players can a team sign where not only does it cost them nothing but at the end of the contract they make a profit. Few and far between.

Chuck a fat guy in the mix and it’s Christmas for Juve

And while they're trying to offload him, he takes up a big spot on their wage bill, effectively hindering their ability to strengthen the team.

It's obivously a great deal when you can get a good player at 28 on a free transfer, but it's quite frankly silly to suggest there's no risk involved, or that those who claimed he was destined for the likes of Everton weren't wrong in their assessment of how clubs rate Ramsey.

There is a fractional risk involved but more likely profitable but to suggest it’s a huge move for Juve is wrong. Not saying he’d sign for an Everton but there would be less interest but not from these big guns.

Real Madrid, Barcelona or Juve aren’t signing this guy if he’s not free. Simple as that, he can’t get in the arsenal team but Madrid drop Modric and play Ramsey instead? come off it.

Loved that Kiwi, so thanks. Different tricks but try this guy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ_pDcjICtw

http://dailycannon.com/2019/01/arsenal- ... -no-money/

Written very eloquently by our resident Lomekian I believe.

To sum up in my very simple manner - Wenger/Gazidis wasted a lot of money on average players who we then had to shift on the cheap because they were on high wages, that along with allowing 'star' players to run down their contracts and leave for nothing mean't we wasted £200M odd which we could not afford to do under our self-sustaining model.

Now we need investment to get ourselves back amongst the big players, can't see it happening though, we have an owner who just doesn't do that and is happy, or at least indifferent towards mediocrity. Boring boring Arsenal.

Quite the perfect (sh*t) storm

I read an article basically saying there is no such thing as a free transfer. The transfer fee is instead replaced by payments to player and agent that are much greater than a normal transfer, plus much higher wages. That’s obviously not to say Juve would have got a better deal by just giving us £40m for Ramsey but it certainly isn’t as free as it seems

Mavropanos starting for the U23 tonight.

Not sure if he’s the ball playing CB we need right now but good to get some depth back.

When I look at our results in the league I think the defeats to city, Chelsea and away to Liverpool could have been predicted no matter who the manager, tactics or players. We’re a long way behind those teams. Although it would have been nice not to have our pants pulled down again at Anfield.
The results that have frustrated me the most are defeat to Southampton and West Ham and throwing away the win away to palace with a stupid penalty in the last few minutes. Saints and West Ham have awful defences that we should be beating. Saints putting 3 past us was particularly embarrassing. That’s 8 points thrown away that would put us a point above spurs.

U23 beat Man City 5-1 tonight. Our team looked strong not sure about city but they generally boss it at most youth levels so a very good result.

Saka with a couple of goals and willock with another goal. Willock pushing hard for some more first team minutes at the moment

I get that I mean to provide an example we’re paying Kolasinac 120k a week because we didn’t have to pay a fee right but if we sold Kolasinac we could get anywhere around 25 million probably and that would pay his entire salary over his 4 year contract. There would be no cost at all.

However in the case of Ramsey you have a player easily worth 40 million on a 7 million per year deal. Even allowing for some agents fees and additional costs if you sell him 12 months later your still in for an absolute windfall. No wonder Juve jumped on it and they are always on point when it comes to free transfers. Look at Pogba, bagged him on a free sold him for 90 million.

I’m not saying throw him in the first 11 but look at Saka’s goal for the U23 tonight, gets the ball on the wide left corner of the box, faces his man up straight away and drives at him, shimmies and shakes and dummies all the while backing the defender up before shifting it on to his right foot rapidly and banging it across the gk in to the far corner.

Nothing that a lot of good wide forwards aren’t trying in most teams but the sort of play we desperately miss in the first team. Who was the last player we had in the first team who regularly had 1v1’s v a full back and drove at him and took him on with pace and skill?

Sanchez.

Or Pogba to Mourinho?

Wasn't me, Cookie.

Indeed. The Pogba v Mourinho stuff was hilarious while it lasted. Unlike Pogba, Özil has kept quiet, but it is farcical that our most talented player is dropped from the squad while we have kids in ahead of him. Also, worth pointing out that Ramsey has been thoroughly professional in all of this despite rarely being selected to start a game.