Rumor mill saying Özil to Fanerbahce on a free. Kinda makes sense.

Sorry to hear that, Bernard. It is a great age and it must be comforting to know that he got to celebrate such a fine milestone.

I never wanted a dog in the Kroenke-Usmanov fight but when it came down to it I was marginally more enthusiastic about Stan. The day the oligarchs and petro-billionaires were allowed to launder their crooked money through English football was a sorry day. In some ways I admire Kroenke's unwillingness to fall completely for buying success on the pitch in the way that Chelsea,City and PSG have done.

For Fenerbache, yes...

Should've gone to LA Galaxy.

Bern, rather it be a City v Spurs final. Pep might just beat them.

Poch was probably lined up 2 weeks ago. If rumours of Tuchel falling afoul of his disagreements with Leonardo are to be true.

Never. Abromovich not without any stains, but has done more for Chelsea since 2003 than Stan has ever done for Arsenal since 2008. Let alone from full takeover.

Merry Christmas Granty. How's Kiwi?

Sorry on that about your uncle Bernard. Always have fond memories of hopefully. Reaching 100 is not that easy. Bless.

Merry Christmas everyone. Merry Christmas John & Judith.

I would keep Arteta. I would dump at least seven players.

Brexit deal done

Same to you and yours Happy Holidays.

Happy Holidays to the Gleiber family.

Merry Christmas H. Hope you're well

Merry Christmas to everyone linked to the forum in whatever capacity.

Also, thanks to dec and Zed for your kind words about my uncle.

My condolences too Bernard. That’s a good age for your uncle to reach.

Happy Christmas folks, enjoy the break

I’ve just knocked up a batch of egg nog that’s as bad as one of Granit Xhakas midfield displays. It’s going down the sink.

Don’t worry I’ve got feeling we will get ourselves out of our current pickle. If Arteta can hold on to his job after Chelsea I have a hunch we will see a return to form with Aubameyang shoving some of peoples criticisms back down their throats. I don’t think it ends like this.

Have a good break and my advice would be to indulge in a spot of carol singing or something rather than watch the game on Boxing Day.

Happy Christmas everyone.

Happy Christmas to all the forum. And a great New Year too.

Commiserations Bernard, may your Uncle RIP. A great innings.

Happy Christmas to the Gleiber family and everyone involved with forum. Let’s hope that 2021 will be a better year.

Merry Christmas to you and your family Judith and a great 2021.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year to everyone on this great forum.

Condolences Bernard.
100 is a great age.

Nice to see you on the forum, H.

Its been ages, we've missed you. I hope that you are keeping well.

Happy xmas and a prosperous new year to you and your loved ones.

Regards.....Soc

100 is a ripe old age, Bernard. He did very well.

Merry Christmas to all. A year we will always remember.

Anyone heard of him?

All going a bit nuts isn’t it?

Sunderland look like they will be sold to a 22 year old Frenchman who will then become their chairman. A very long way from their proud roots. Seems surreal to me.

https://www.skysports.com/share/12172355

Merry Christmas and in the words of tiny Tim "god bless us, every one".

Hi ltg,

Yes, apparently there's a 5 year old interested in taking over Arsenal.

Ever since seeing the documentary about them I feel for the club. Wish them the best. I'll publicly admit I am the secret owner of Bromley fc and will be renaming Hayes Lane.

I’m confident he’d do a better job than Kroenke.

I hope you've watched A Christmas Carol and have taken heed of the message to mend the error of your ways, Bernard.

So Kyle Walker and Gabriel Jesus have tested positive and they, along with two other of the club’s staff, will be in quarantine.

Given that we played them only a couple of days ago could this affect us too?

...and meanwhile in Spain, Emery has Villareal playing very well.

I mentioned a few weeks ago I got re-acquainted with a friend from my LA days who is a Man Utd fan from London. We got caught up on life and football. He and other MUFC fans he says want OGS out. However, I tell him that Man Utd is in the hunt for the title as speak. I can see his point that OGS is punching above his weight and keeps getting 'that win' when it looks like a good time to sack him.

As for us, he thinks we are much too good to go down. I just finished Robbie of AFTV on the Chelsea version and the Chelsea fans don't think we're in danger of going down.

Anyway, he said the Glazers are still not popular among the fans for a couple reasons. First, they pay themselves a dividend and he said Man Utd and another club are the only ones in the league that do that. He also said they have bankers in charge of the football operations and not true football men so Man Utd have no long term plan or vision and the managers they have had since Ferguson has showed a huge diversity of football strategy it has left the club a bit rudderless.

A very Merry Christmas to one and all. Hope you got what your heart's desired.

This is an excellent piece by Barney Ronay in the Guardian.

Interesting article. Thanks for posting it. One of my questions is, 'Does AFTV have that big of an influence?'
With regards to Kroenke. We can bang our heads against the wall all we want but he's not going anywhere. All we can do is look at mortality tables for billionaires of his age and find out how much longer he may have. Then his son takes over. I think he will be a much more hands on owner but still won't be ideal.

Water under the bridge but most fans on here preferred Kroenke over Usmanov. It's been time to live with it. I'm on record saying we should have held our noses and went with Usmanov. With him we would not only have had more money to invest in a squad, we'd also have Dein running things and he'd be hungry for trophies.

With Kroenke we lost both our identity and Dein. As much as I slated him for bringing both in,but never for his commitment to the club. He was very good in having a vision for the club and maybe...just maybe...the last several years of Wenger may have went differently with Dein and Wenger's partnership. It worked well and we were doing very well. It is noticeable things got considerable worse when the partnership ended.

At some point we will turn things around. It may be 1 year or 10 years but Arsenal will be back. The malaise can very well be a long time. Looking at the years after '71, the best we finished was 2nd once, 3rd once and 4th, three times. until the title in '89.

Anyway, we are stuck with Kroenke. As much as I like to complain about him, its really all for nothing. The only way he could be forced out is a fan boycott that is big enough to work. That won't happen. The only other thing I can think of is Kroenke's fortune takes a diver in a crash and he's forced to let go of assets. Save those two improbable scenarios we are stuck with that family for decades.

As everyone knows I lay the primary blame on Kroenke. As I’ve said in recent times we’ve had various ins and outs at all levels on the football side of the club. Changes in manager with Wenger and Emery going; changes in coaches with Bould and Ljungberg going; changes in the executive team with Gazidis and Sanllehi going; and too many changes in playing staff to bother listing any departures.

But the one constant factor over the period of the decline is the ownership regime. Kroenke hasn’t gone anywhere and looks unlikely to go anywhere? A coincidence? I think not.

But, and in my view it’s a big ‘but’, if we need to stay up this season, is Arteta the man to do it? After he took over last season there were noticeable improvements. Despite not everything going blindingly well over the second half of last season, we even won the FA Cup. But this season it’s all gone to pot. Appalling football mixed with dreadful results. That’s a frightening combination.

Sure, we’d all love to see better players but I still wonder if Arteta is getting as much as some other managers could from exactly the same group of players who are currently on Arsenal’s books. Added to which, there could be a very real danger of him losing any or all of Guendouzi, Saliba and Balogun in the not too distant future. To lose young prospects like that from the midfield, defence and attack is in my view a serious worry.

Losing tomorrow against Chelsea won’t be a shock. I’d even take a draw as a more than acceptable result. For me, the far more telling games are the four following that against potential relegation candidates (Brighton, West Brom, Palace and Newcastle). Disappointing results in those, certainly four points or less from them (maybe even five), and I think we’re really in a relegation dogfight. I would thus not only understand but possibly support calls for Arteta to go in order for his replacement to have enough time to hopefully save us from relegation.