https://www.football365.com/news/opinio ... lah-arteta

As good a summary as I’ve read

How many of the current squad would you not entertain selling if an offer of 75% of their market value came in? I can only make a case for Tierney, Gabriel, Partey, Saka, Smith-Rowe, Martinelli and Leno. If you took 75% market value for every other player I think you could easily replace them with someone more effective for the same price

If all the eggs are now in Europa we need to rotate Aubameyang and Lacazette for games, they simply do not work together in the current formation.
I also yearn for strikers who fit the mould of the modern striker. Aubameyang is a pure finisher but doesn’t do much else, if we can’t build play with 10 men he’s redundant. I don’t think Aubameyang or Lacazette are the type of striker Arteta would sign if he was given the choice.
The frustrating thing is wherever you look in the squad there are huge holes to be plugged. With the current team it is central midfield and right back. But without Ødegaard it is also creative midfield, then you need to sell Lacazette and Nketiah in the summer and we desperately need strikers. There’s also a back up left back, back up GK and something more in central defence. Sigh

Remarkable stats on Ødegaard. Quite astonishing really.

And I had wondered where our shot came from in the first half as I simply could not recall it. So yes - the ‘effort’ that was originally offside anyway was as good as it got. I assume that our other one (in the second half) was the Cédric shot.

Me saying major survey is basing it on what needs to happen not what I think will happen. I agree I think there will be major outgoings, and yes I think a zero net spend might be the best we can hope for.
Plenty of clubs are not just strapped for cash but actively need to sell so there are things that can be taken advantage of in the market. Bargains and more and more players running down their deal.

Hi Bernard,

I tend to agree. All those who keep saying it will be alright in the summer when we ship out all the remaining deadwood and buy superior replacements are in the realms of wishful thinking.

Look how hard it was to offload players last summer and in January. We ended up either loaning them or giving them away for nothing. Our deadwood is not good enough to attract the monied teams and too highly paid to attract the less well-off, bar gifting them to them or paying half their salary on a loan deal.

I suspect we may have to sell before we buy and that never seems to work out well for us.

Bellerin, Nketiah, Chambers, Holding, Soares, Willock, Nelson, Maitland-Niles, El Nenny, ceballos,

Just really not good enough back up if you lose one of your main players. No strength in depth and it showed yesterday

then look at Liverpool’s bench

5Wijnaldum, Keita, Jota, Ox

Chalk and cheese. We just aren’t good enough. You won’t convince me these are world beaters underperforming

Hold on. Didn't you tell us recently that we just had to support our players no matter what. But obviously you have an exemption. Just start with a bloke we pay 300k per week to and he just can't be bothered to move around and do anything. And he is the captain. No use mentioning half these other names - they weren't on the pitch.

Painful but true from this article, particularly the last sentence.
One of the biggest victims in that regard was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, once the finisher of such flowing team moves and now the elite goalscorer wasted out on the left-hand side in the name of unnecessary sacrifice. He is not a winger. He never will be. Yet Arsenal have engineered a situation whereby he is their best-paid player and captain and has not disrupted the dressing room so has to be crowbarred in somewhere. If it isn’t as a centre-forward then it is not worth it. You almost have to admire the way they have lumbered themselves with another 30-something mega contract situation.

Your just a misery cuckold who enjoys it when we lose and get banged up. No point even addressing this

Both of you are absolutely correct. Then there is the additional factors : Do you trust Arteta to identify players that will succeed at the club and then the question is - can we buy them. On the first part of the question I have no faith in his ability to identify good future players. Willian, scuttled that as did some of the other players he retained at the club. No doubt Mr Mediocrity will add his views as soon as I post. But posters who accept mediocrity are part of the problem at the club and not part of the solution.

I don't think anyone has ever said they are worldbeaters. Better than they are showing both individually and collectively this season though.

I didn't think you would be able to reply Mr Mediocrity. Your hypocrisy is astounding.

As back up it’s nowhere near where you’d need to be if you have any aspiration of playing with the big boys let’s be honest. I have nothing againest those guys but quality wise it isn’t there and I’ll be shocked if many of them are around over the next few years.

The sheer excitement you get from us losing is ridiculous. Like

“ooh IM SO ANGRY... yet so EXCITED at the same time,,what shall I say. I’ll start with Aubameyang that’s it....”

You’ve talked so much nonsense it’s a reference point to try and reinforce it.

Is the problem Aubameyang who single handedly won us a trophy last year or that we sold Ramsey, Özil, cazorla and Ox and never replaced their creative input adequately.

But then I can never be said to accept players going thru the motions, lack of intent and generally not caring about the club. I will call these players and managers every time while you will accept it because you have backed yourself into the Areta camp and he is a long way from where he should be.

I really haven’t I’m far from convinced in him,

However Let’s get one thing straight, with that Collection of reserve players and back up Arsenal should be nowhere near top 4 regardless of manager. I think Arsenal fans need to understand how drastically Wenger harmed this club – some of us called it as far back as 2006.

Arteta walked in to not only find this lack of quality, but to find out he wouldn’t have money to spend on upgrades because some fraud opted to pay that rabble he inherited £200m a year in wages! Wow.

Until Arteta can clear out all the shockingly overpaid rubbish Wenger and sanelhi left behind, Arsenal will be shopping in the bargain bins. The process started in January and needs to continue this summer,

Nothing more to really say than that

That's unfair TG. Nobody is happy to see Arsenal lose, especially in such a dismal, farcical manner.

I'm not convinced by Arteta but I don't want us to lose just so I can say I told you so or that Arteta gets the boot. I'd certainly rather be talking about how good we were or what a breath of fresh air Arteta is and how his management is taking us to new heights but its just not the case at the moment.

I want us to win because I want us to get back to where we were and finishing in a european place is vital, both economically and as well from the point of view of giving youngsters invaluable game time if we are in the EL.

Being out of europe totally will hurt us on and off the pitch. It hurts the Arsenal brand across the globe.

Yes, we will have a week to prepare for games next season if we are out of europe but I'd rather see Arsenal play twice a week than once a week, notwithstanding the shitfest we saw yesterday.

I couldn’t give a *%^@ about Europe and I actually think it’s part of the problem.

We beat these European cannon fodder teams and believe we are better than we are. There should be no illusions. If it wasn’t for the finances I would be praying we finish where we are.

An no it’s not unfair he does enjoy it when we lose. You see it in his posts after a defeat he’s almost giddy. It’s pathetic

The really worrying thing about yesterday’s no show wasn’t that the players weren’t good enough, but they didn’t even compete. I would honestly expect a lower division team to have given Liverpool a harder game than we did. I just can’t figure it out. The manager is astute and honest enough to prepare his team, the starting 11 was more than good enough to compete, so where does such a lifeless performance come from? It was the sort of performance which was reminiscent of the pre Christmas nose dive, where I thought maybe Arsenal’s problems are much bigger than we all originally thought.

Liverpool are just better than us. Better keeper, fullbacks midfield and front 3 plus their whole bench. Every once in a while we will give them a bloody nose with our current lot but that’s as good as it gets for the time being.


Off to take the kid to his football. Try to enjoy your Sunday morning without slitting your wrists on resurrection Sunday it would be too ironic

It all comes down to what your expectations are as a fan right now. I would guess that most reasonable Arsenal fans would say we should be higher up the league than we are but we’re nowhere near top 4 with the squad we have no matter who the manager is. They would also accept that there has to be a collective sharing of responsibility from the players and the manager.
If there is an expectation that we all need to limit our expectations for the transfer market in the summer then where do we think is realistic to finish next season? 7th? So if we expect to finish well outside the top 4 with the current team we have to accept there will be some very up and down performances and we will lose at least 10 league games each season because that’s what teams who finish 7th do.

My biggest problem with Arteta is his misplaced loyalty to some senior players and picking unbalanced teams. It is something all coaches do, you are naturally going to place more trust in seasoned pros than youth team players. However, I think what Arteta is trying to do on a tactical level is somewhat revolutionary to arsenal players, so who does he think will pick up this new way of playing and attitudes on the pitch? It is no surprise that younger players buy in to this for 2 reasons. They’re more eager to impress and more susceptible to new ideas. The older pros will say ‘I’ve got where I am today playing how I have, why should I change now and risk my performance levels dropping’

We are at the point where I would happily get rid of all the old guard and bring in younger players who give 100% every game

The one thing that hasn't been discussed (or perhaps have and I haven't read it) is that Kroenke has other sporting concerns and they are ALL losing money because of Covid19.

The NFL was estimated to lose over 4 billion dollars from what I read last summer. The league took out over 3 billion dollar in debt bonds.

Kroenke has just built a huge 5 billion dollar stadia and entertainment complex. California, LA specifically has had some of the worst Covid19 cases and there are always on lockdown.

Bottom line is, we shouldn't expect much help. If anything money going the other direction. The Rams and the stadium are his primary concerns.

We are likely going to have to fund any new players of sales and my guess is we may sell players we would have normally kept, even a 'crown jewel' or two. The big boys 'financially' (City, PSG, BM) will do what billionaires and multi millionaires did after the 2008 crash. Come in and pick up assets at bargain prices.

I thought this from Arseblog this morning was brilliant.

I expect more from Arsenal Football Club, Rich. The promises and statements that were made from the powers that be since the stadium move came to fruition. The money we had, the position we were already in. It’s all come to nothing. I don’t blame Arteta and i whilst I think we’re seeing a rookie manager struggling somewhat, the real issues go beyond just him. I’m not saying he’s not made or continuing to make errors, but we have passive owners. Hopefully with the appointment of Tim Lewis and the new contracts guy - I forget his name - we’re seeing incremental improvements in our structure. It’ll be interesting to see how we adapt to UEFA killing off FFP as part of the COVID recovery plan.

Bottom line is though, what we’ve seen far too often over the last few years is a football club initially unwilling to compete off the pitch and now unable to compete on the pitch. Indelibly linked.

I don’t expect us to win the league etc but I expect to see a club of our stature and standing far more able to compete than we’ve seen of late.

So many teams are facing financial crisis. I just read that Leeds lost £64m in the year when they gained promotion to the Prem which is meant to be the absolute guaranteed money bonanza.
Covid has effected everyone but those with the most stable playing squad and managed have been effected the least

Yep, it depends when you take the date from for setting expectations. From the point we were sold the new stadium we should expect a lot more than we’ve been given. From the point we moved wenger on we should expect much more than we’ve been given. From the point Arteta took over I expected a bit more in the league but not as much in trophies. From the point right now what do we all expect for the next 1-3 years?

I think the problem we have is that fans look at the summer and say well if we move 10 players out that would raise £150m+ and we can then buy 3 or 4 top players with that money.

The trouble is that football just doesn't work like that or every one would be offloading their deadwood at the start of each transfer window for big money and then re-investing the proceeds in better players.

Let's take Lacazette as an example, fans might think we can offload him quickly for £30m but factor in his wages, say £25m over 3 seasons, and few clubs can afford him, especially in the post-Covid envronment. Those that can have probably already got better players than him anyway. So, you are left with two options, drop the asking price dramatically so that the balance of transfer fee and wages becomes more enticing or keep him and give him a shiny new contract. Neither option is especially attractive.

The same can be said of almost every player we have, bar some of the kids who are on lower wages.

Either we take a financial hit in order to sell players quickly or we drag things out hoping to create a bidding war but run the risk of missing out on our top targets, if they would even want to come to a club with no european football at all.

That's the scale of the problem we have going forwards.

If Edu manages to raise £150m+ in the summer and reinvests that in 3 or 4 top players he deserves a statue

I's love to see him use his brazilian and south american connections to bring in some high potential kids like Martinelli.

You’re

Agree entirely Darren. The questions I posed here a few weeks back

1) do you believe Josh Kroenke has the necessary qualifications and experience to appoint a manager and technical director of a major European football club?

2) do you believe you will see Arsenal return to a position where we are competing for major trophies whilst Stanley Kroenke is owner ?

3) do you believe if Wenger was allowed to continue after 2018 we would have improved or got worse than our 6th place ?

4) considering your answers to points 1+2+3 do you believe the timing and content of Michael Artetas substitutions are having a major impact to our direction as a club?

I hope to see us competing for top 4 next season. Qualification not essential but I want us to have a proper stab at it. Top 6 in the league would be progress

Whilst Stanley Kroenke continues to be our owner I doubt we will see a day where we compete for a league title again.

My sons side got beat 6-2. naturally the manager screamed and berated his best player and laid into his keeper who is nearly always reliable because they lost. Completely understandable right

Well, the bad news. We have 8 games left, 4 points behind Everton and they have 2 games in hand. We are 6 points behind sperz, they have a game in hand. We aren't likely to catch either given our form.

If anything we need to wonder if Leeds or Villa don't finish ahead of us. This is the worse league run I've ever seen us as a fan. Many of you, especially those of you who have been around for decades have seen some dire seasons, worse than this.

We will turn it around. At some point. How long remains to be seen. This season may force us to do a revisionist account of Wenger's final years. I still think he needed to go. We'll wander in the proverbial wilderness for a few years and come out at some point back to a top club that is reflected in the table and in silverware.

If you feel a revisionist account of the Wenger period is needed go back in time on the forum to April 20th 2018 when Wenger resigned and see the jubilation in the posts here.

If people need a reminder why we are where we are and how bad it got review those posts

We finished 6th in the table in 2018 when Wenger left. Of last night's starting 11 only 4 played under Wenger. Since he left we have a net spend of £220m and now sit in 9th and likely to have our worst league campaign in over two decades. This isn't on Wenger.

Wrong, the hangover from that period still exists

In January we had to give away or loan out 4 players from the Wenger era on huge money not involved in the squad at all just to get their wages off the books. If you think this doesn’t affect the building of the squad your kidding yourself and if you think this doesn’t affect Arteta your in denial. We have had an albatross round our neck for some time.

Also Arteta hasn’t spent 200 million, he’s spent around 70 odd in Partey and Gabriel and chunks of that had been funded from players sales.

It’s working with an arm tied behind your back

I think to review how much wenger effects where we are now you could look at all the wenger signings who are now no longer with us and see how much money they were sold for and whether they have gone on to do well since they left.

There is a separate discussion on all the decisions on contracts and signings that have been made post wenger. But for me the last few years of the wenger era were going to cause us problems for 5-8 years because of the money lost, wasted and the huge contracts given. We’ve not necessarily learnt all the lessons from then.