Čech has officially announced he will retire at the end of this season.

With Ramsey and Welbeck off I make that the thick end of £300k per week off the wage bill. £15.6million for Stan to hide away

Article here : Petr Čech announces retirement from professional football

https://en.onefootball.com/petr-cech-an ... -football/

Some interesting numbers. You'd have thought in comparison that someone like Iwobi deserves more considering his first 1 involvement.

There are a lot of wages being cut off the books this summer, we need to go down the young up and coming player route (again), the wages should be less and they have a resale value.

What I’d do if I were Arsenal is to go to the City and Chelsea youth teams find the best players and offer them a deal to play first team for us. The kids at this level for these teams are very very good (we’ve got some good ones of our own), but they won’t be given a chance at these clubs. I think it is brilliant that Jadon Sancho has paved the way by not only moving from City but moving abroad…..to a big team….and starring! He’s probably worth 5-6 times the money Dortmund paid for him and all he needed was a chance. More youngsters at these clubs will want to move. Hudson Odoi subject to a £35m bid from Bayern – Chelsea may regret not giving him more opportunities.
You will have to pay big money for some of them but you could double or triple your return in no time

Some strong rumours that Sven Mislintat is going to quit this month. That would be very strange. Such a *%^@*** shambles.

Yeah read that on le grove.

Unfortunate situation for the club

Love the way le grove then says something like “oh Emery is a mediocre manager who will get us nowhere” . I mean how on Earth is supposed to get anywhere when he’s surrounded by boardroom uncertainty, no money, crazyiness in Ramsey and Özil and mediocre players.

We are just mess. *%^@ off Kroenke

Edu being mooted potentially as a Mislintat replacement

Edu isn't a talent spotter though, although he may have great links with Brazilian clubs that could be handy.

Wouldn't surprise me at all, Darren. Some of the players we are being linked with lately do not seem Mislintat types at all and if we haven't got any money to snap up the up-and-coming youngsters he was brought in to talent spot then he's probably questioning exactly what his role is now.

On the flip-side you'd have to question his input (if he had one) with regard to the Mika, Lichsteiner and Sokratis signings.

Surely, though, the calamitous mishandling of the clubs assets (poor buys, poor sales, poor squad building, poorly managed contract renewels etc) are just as much to blame as Kroenke's parsimony. We'd be around £200m better off had we handled things properly.

We are a mess but I'm not sure it's all Kroenke. Calamitous mismanagement of Company assets (buys, sells, new contracts and renewals etc) has left us having squandered the best part of £200m.

Mika and sokaratis were ex Dortmund so you would assume they came with his approval.

Might be over money and that we just don’t have enough available to justify having him.

I remember when the rumour was Allegri turned down the job because he wanted 150 milllion to invest in the team it seemed unreasonable, now it just seems realistic.

It isn't all Kroenke but then again it happened on his watch (obviously he wasn't watching..), his style of hands-off, aloof, zero investment ownership has certainly played a big part in creating the mess we're in.

Hopefully the story about Minislat turns out to be BS, no denial from the club yet though..

More depressing stuff. I have no idea what Arsenal are about any more.

Mislintat is nicknamed diamond-eye for his talent spotting prowess and it seemed in a period of austerity he was the answer to our prayers. However, if he is unearthing diamonds and we are simple refusing or unable to act on his recommendations then he must be asking himself what is the point.

When the club moved to the current stadium the fans were told that it was a ‘transition period’. It was to be a short term lean period in order to make huge strides forward. Even then there were mixed messages as to whether the club could afford to be competitive or not.

Well the transition period has proved to be anything but. The club seem to be on a very long snake in a game of snakes and ladders. It’s weird because we remain well placed without being competitive, and most clubs would love to be in that position. But I feel no great optimism for the short/medium term future. It somehow feels like the fans feel far more than the club officials. The mismanagement just seems to go on and on.

Kane out injured for at least 6 weeks. Spurs say he’ll be back training in march. Arsenal play spurs on March 2nd.

Good news. At least it will keep Kane out of the game against us. If he does return to training in early March, he won't be fit to play us on the 2nd.

Losing Mislintat would be a huge blow. No leadership at the club at all

When can we just press the re-set button on our football club. From one of the best run to one of the worst in 10 years

if You had to lose 1 and keep 1. Emery v Sven?

Remember when we used to laugh at Daniel Levy. I’d take him at Arsenal in a heartbeat. Always gets decent fees for his players and is ruthless.

We are just a mess, that MD is younger than me. No Mislintat and just Sanelhi now.

We need a new chief executive

How can you make that call? It’s impossible. If your changing Emery your changing the entire coaching staff again.

In my view it needed two major steps Rich to sort things out for the better. Firstly, a new owner. Secondly, a new manager. The second has been achieved. However, the first hasn't and it doesn't look like happening anytime soon.

Furthermore, looking back on things now, I'm becoming more and more convinced that a new owner was the most important step of the two. Before Wenger went I may have said something different. But if I would, I'm fast changing my mind. I see Kroenke as a major threat and big danger to the future of Arsenal Football Club. I'm not saying him going would solve everything. In any organisation of the club's size, there will be various sources of difficulties.

Yet for me Kroenke is at the heart of our problems, primarily due to a damaging philosophy I see growing within the club. Tight financial restrictions alongside a lack of priority given to success on the pitch, by which I mean winning trophies. And it's success on the pitch that's central to Arsenal's future in terms of growing the fan base, merchanding income, sponsorship revenues and even maintaining gate receipts.

In short, a lack of ambition and a lack of money, and is the latter a result of countless millions being directed to paying off the loans Kroenke took on to buy all the shares? We don't know because public accounts no longer have to be produced. Is it possible? My guess is yes.

Look, Kroenke is a multi-billionnaire so has to be a good businessman. Maybe he doesn't fully understand what the club needs in terms of success on the pitch, maybe what worked for him in America doesn't work over here. I don't know. What I think I do know is that Kroenke isn't the right owner for Arsenal.

I remain to be convinced by Emery but without knowing who was actually responsible for which signings we've made it is hard to say whether Mislintat was living up to his diamond-eye reputation or not. Our signings have been a bit of a mixed bag really.

I can't imagine he is going anywhere anytime soon unless someone puts an offer on the table that is simply too good to refuse (maybe double the current worth) and there are very few people in the world who could afford such an offer. Perhaps a middle east consortium or such like but even the wealthiest ogliarchs would be hard pushed to afford us now.

Fan power is limited, an empty ground week-in week-out might irk him but, realistically, is that ever going to happen?

This is what I was mentioning the other week. We are stuck with Kroenke. He’d be crazy to sell on the basis that we are valued at 2.7 billion and so far our value has increased his profit in the club to 1.7 billion in the time of his ownership.

On the basis our value seems to increase 600-700 million every 5 years why on earth would he sell and imagine the offer it would take. Your right it would have to be something like double the value of the club. It’s not happening and we are stuck with wiggy

My one hope is that if we do continue to fall outside the top 4 and become seen like Everton our value will stagnate or even decline, then he might be tempted to sell before it falls further, this is a long shot, have to hope though because under Kroenke we'll just be stagnating in a cesspit of mediocrity for decades to come.

The "Dortmund model" will never work in the PL anyway, there is only Bayern to contend with in Germany, in the PL there are 3-4 teams with similar resources to Bayern.

I have no idea why Mislintat is leaving. But after delivering Guendouzi I doubt whether it is because he fell out with Emery. This is how I imagine it is & you are correct, I know f.. all about it but so do most of the media. So here does my imaginary question to Sven: me ‘ Why are you leaving us?’ he replies ‘ when I arrived here I was asked to identify talent to buy for the club. I am still doing that and now have been told we can’t purchase any of these players. The manager tells me we need new players & I have done my job & found them but you won’t buy. Stick your job up your arse & I will find a club who has ambition. F... Americans who know f... all about football.’

The big test is let us see if someone else snaps him up, and whether they are an ambitious club. First thing he does is put in a bid for gGiendouzi & Torreira from his new club.

Quite depressing that one of the only ways to get rid of Kroenke is to basically see our club go to ruin so he doesn’t see it as a decent investment anymore! How long would it take to recover from that?

Well I am sure when we reach the Newcastle model the forum will not be a happy place

Morning socrates. I noticed in the paragraph of my previous post that you replied to I put: "Maybe he doesn't fully understand what the club needs in terms of success on the pitch, maybe what worked for him in America doesn't work over here."

Perhaps I should have asked if he even cares what is needed to bring success on the pitch to Arsenal. I wonder if a lack of ambition is at the heart of his ownership philosophy. Because while the LA Rams (or whatever they're called) have done well under Kroenke's ownership I'm sure I've read many of his American sports clubs haven't had much, if any, success under him. Also I've read the success of LA Rams is a consequence of him signing an agreement to make them successful when he took them over.

Sadly, Fiszman didn't put anything similar in the contract when Kroenke took over Arsenal by buying his shares.

Losing Mislintat is only a big deal IF he is the genius talent spotter that people claim.

If he is then we have *%^@** up big time because finding young emerging talents with massive potential and signing them before everyone else is the best way (and maybe the only way) back for us.

This sounds like a simplification of the relocation process. What it probably refers to is the negotiation between Kroenke and the NFL for the relocation. What these negotiations usually includes is that the owner of the franchise bidding for relocation has to produce a plan for a stadium where the team will play, and some sort of business plan showing they intend to attempt to make the team competitive, and I’m guessing it’s the last part people are referring to as the ’agreement’ to make them successful.

However with the way these leagues are run, with salary caps for teams etc, it’s not really comparable to European football where an owner has much more room to invest personally in the team. I would say it’s best not to compare these leagues too much at all, and not draw any conclusion about an owner based on his American teams. With Kroenke specifically I maintain the same position I’ve had since he arrived, with regards to his other teams; it’s not his fault when they have bad seasons, and it’s not thanks to him they’re now doing well. So much of it is just the natural cycle of American sports.

It’s almost impossible to make sense of the Mislintat rumours of course, as we have so little information available. If he does leave for Bayern I would at least assume something has happened behind the curtains, probably between him and Emery or him and Sanllehi. I don’t buy that this is all because he can’t sign players this transfer window. Last year we bought Aubameyang for big money, and brought in Mkhitaryan.

In the summer we signed at least two players who are ’Mislintat players’ in Guendozi and Sokratis. Wouldn’t be surprised if he had a hand in signing Leno and Torreira as well, so it’s not as if he hasn’t had any input. Might just be that an offer from Bayern is too good to refuse, or there is a disagreement about the power structure behind close doors. Obviously not good news if that’s already happening, considering how little time we’ve actually had with the new club structure.

Arsenal are in a head to head bake off with the UK government about who can make themselves look the most stupid.

The man who has managed to deliver a £400m stadium a year late at something approaching £900m

Going to be interesting to see what impact that has over the next 10 years with regard to his club's spending ability.

Does nobody else think Čech is resigning too early? He must have a value and could possibly have another 4/5 years at another club.

When does his contract run out?

Is he leaving because Emery isn't giving him game time or is it just a ply to walk into another job..................

I fully accept that 'agreement' was probably the wrong word for me to use if owners looking to relocate their teams simply have to produce a business plan explaining how their clubs will be made 'competitive' (if that's a more appropriate word than 'successful'). Maybe Kroenke's business plan for LA Rams was excellent. If so perhaps it's a shame if Fiszman didn't ask him for something similar when he sold his Arsenal shares to Kroenke?

My following of sport in America is almost non-existent. As well as the LA Rams I've heard of the Boston Celtics and New York Yankees, but couldn't even tell you what sports they play.

I accept a salary cap may equalise competitiveness between teams, but why else should the fortunes (success or failure) of clubs have little to do with the owner? Surely an owner who is ambitious for their team to win will look to employ the best coaches or players, even if they can't attract them through paying them more due to the salary cap. I'm simply asking because of my own lack of knowledge of American sports, which comes from a lack of interest in it. Not because I doubt what you say.

I think Čech said something like he’d achieved everything he wanted to and I’m pretty certain he’s a fair way along in his coaching badges and has desires to be a manager. I suppose some like to go out at the top level (if that’s still us) rather than drop down the league in search of playing time.
I saw someone say that if you can play for two big London rivals and have both sets of fans like you and wish you well you must be an alright bloke