On Amaechi that was my comment, obviously it was slightly throwaway and not based on me watching 200 youth team games but based on the reports and reviews of people who do watch these games. Amaechi is meant to be one of our top talents, as Soc said, he’s been linked with Bayern, there are some on the tour who certainly haven’t been chased by big clubs. I’ve just heard a lot from level headed Srsenal writers who would be very frustrated if we lost him and that there was a cross roads with the contract and by him not going on the tour it could have been the tipping point for him not seeing a possibility to break through.

I mean if any young player is looking at the current quality of the first team squad and our lack of budget and still doesn’t think they can break through that certainly says a lot about something

For all the wrong reasons yes, hopefully KSE's asset value is affected badly by the desmise of AFC, then the parasites might bugger off.

Doubtful though, they will just drag the club down into the gutter.

I told you so.

Ran into the guy who writes this blog at a friendly in Barnet a few years back when he was taking snaps for his blogs (when they were all the rage)

Seemed a prick

His blogs would also suggest he’s a prick

..l remember Harlow stating he wanted to bash him because of his articles.

He works in media or marketing or something. Yeah I think he could be a prick

Vaguely recall sone of that. Yet still this piece not too far fetched actually.

Bought a new house today and my mum without seeing it phoned up to say it was a mistake and that we also needed to move our kids out of their school because of an ofsted report that wasn’t perfect.

You really can’t pick your family can you, aren’t they supposed to support you.

Read Kos considering buying out his contract to get his return back to France.

Has anyone heard a rumour about which French club it is that he wants to join? It’s probably me missing it, but I’ve not seen one mentioned.

It’s apparently Bordeaux

I read the article on the BBC website about it and there was a part were Ornstein said Emery and Kosielny had an argument and then Raul Sanelhi sent him a text saying he was in breach of contract.

Despite supporting Emery it just didn’t seem to read very arsenal ish in the process. We were always super professional, It sounds like Kosielny is bang out of order but we have no strength or savvy anymore. No Dein, even Gazidis would be better than our current lot.

I don’t blame him wanting to go then. Bordeaux is my favourite place in the world. Go there as often as possible.

Word on the street is that he was talking about leaving, and the contract we offered is partly appearance based. He, knowing that with the intensity of the EPL, he could do his calf again, is rather more attracted to a guaranteed 3 years in ligue un closer to home and in a league he can survive in more easily. Easy to see his point of view, but equally it shows how strong his feelings were last year when he talked about leaving at the same time as wenger - which had it not been for his injury, he may have done.

Can't help to see how far the club has slipped over the last few seasons.

Has taken Arsenal off his instagram apparently.

Very talented lad, but has had smoke blown up his arse by agents and overseas interest. For an 18 year old to be sulking because he wasn't on the bench for the Europa League final after half a season being injured in madness. The problem is, they've all seen Sancho and think they can be the next big thing in Germany. Forgetting of course that Sancho was an astounding talent that many thought Pep should have given game time to, who was comfortably the star at every age group for England.

Really ? I’ve never been. Must get there

I know their wine is excellent !

I take it you are talking about the cricket. I didn’t see any of the game because my wife was watching the tour de France. I may have mentioned it recently but I am pretty disconnected from cricket as the characters & players grit with me a fair bit. The fact Dave Warner was allowed to play for Australia again is a disgrace.

Met him a couple of times on blogging gigs at the club. In the flesh he was quite friendly and chipper, while simultaneously being a bit of a wanker. Couldn't fault him for being unpleasant or anything, but did think he would do my nut in no time at all. Gunnerblog was a bit of a miserable sod, but I think once he was dosed up on painkillers. Goonerholic I've encountered a couple of times too, and he is an absolute gent - very warm, welcoming and considerate guy.

Also worth saying Le Grove was verbally fellating Emery on his blog when the going was good, but as soon as things went the other way he's been slagging him off constantly.

Prob cost the same as we'd be willing to sell him for!

Let’s say Koscielny does get his move, or is frozen out. At the moment we start the season with a back 4 of AMN, Mustafi, Sokratis, Monreal
With only Kolasinac, Chambers and Mavropanos ready to step in.
We really need to buy an entire back 4 this summer. Every penny of that £45m needs to go in to the defence.

The only part of interest to me was that Edu was trying to change culture of disclosure in the club. Good management practice but how they can see this as not be disruptive in the club is just a way of them having a pop at other bloggers. Just tell me which other clubs have these type of problems and are big clubs.

Emery must be looking at his contract and counting down the days until he can leave.

Might not be quite so easy

You and a few others rightly lamenting the fact we seem to be floundering with club mangement transfers etc etc

while we the " little people " think how can this happen . Idiot decisions do and don't happen .

Sanchez not bering sold to Utd for 60 mill cash , no fee for Ramsay , sky high wages for Özil .......

Now I'm here to tell you why ......

I've observed in life .............you get some glib talking incompetent **&%%$# who slimes his way into a position of power ...

...... then he tends to hire other incompetents because IF they weren to hire real sharp cookies [a] their own position comes under threat and [b] being icompetent himself he hasn't a decent handle on who to hire .

Another downfall of having a d*ck in charge ........is any real sharp cookie who does stumble into the fold ; quickly gets disillusioned with the inept way things are done and thinks bollocks to this and leaves for greener pastures

...... hence you end up with a logjam of dickstops ; either going through the motions or making p*ss poor decisions .

This is absolutely bang on and is totally true to life. I see the same bollocks like this in every day of my business life and I have no doubt what so ever it’s the same at Arsenal now. Idiots running the place and hire incompetents beneath them.

We hired Edu this week and our fans are claiming it’s some kind of return to the old arsenal. Now I’m not saying he will be bad and may be ok but my hunch is it seems like a Kroenke enablement thing where actually nobody is running arsenal anymore, you have a bunch of directors running sporting affairs on probably huge salary’s sitting under a de facto and absent American owner only interested in it share price and investment value. It’s nonsense, I can see through this stuff in a second

While I love the city, do go to the wine producing appellations. It’s those that really make it special.

Lots of those we hope would go are in the US tour. With that lot still here, the kids will have to step up in the new season.

Those clowns were slating Usmanov I seem to remember a few years back, preaching the virtues of FFP and our glorious self-sustaining model, I'd take anything they say with a big pinch of salt, they could be right about it being Edu of course though, it kind of makes sense, I still don't see the point of it all though, why are we so bothered about a 33yr old has-been when we should be getting him off the wage bill and getting in younger and better defenders?, we don't have time to start making examples or p*ssing about with PR stuff.

This is the experience that most of us seen repeated time & again. If I was Emery I would be shaking my head at the sheer ineptitude pervading across the whole club.

Well actually 2 years ago I suggested we buy up the central defenders so that they would be well bedded in for this coming season. But no Wenger was happy with the players he had. Plus we would have purchased at reasonable rates. Financially responsibility is a name only at our club.

Under wenger we always seemed short in defence, often having to plug round holes with square pegs. It is a situation he never let happen with the midfield for instance.
If we go in to the new season without having had a major squad overhaul then I think we’re looking at 6-8th place. Everton and Leicester have teams that are better balanced and know exactly what they are trying to achieve, and all pull in the same direction with enthusiasm and confidence. Wolves also but their Europa League efforts may distract them.
If we go with pretty much the same team then I can see the same set of results, why wouldn’t it be? We’ll generally beat the 12 worst teams at home, beat the 6 worst teams away. Lose to the top 8 away, lose to the top 3 at home and draw the rest - somewhere in the mid 60’s for total points

With the team currently available then it would not shock me if we were even further down the table. It is a lottery from here unless we get some really decent players in.

Alternatives

We play some youngsters from the start and they gel & put a few good wins together and maybe we dream of 6th.

Or we play the same old tired team and get some results but when it starts souring we integrate the young ones 5th is on.

Or no matter what team we play we start putting together really poor results - we have to fight for 7th

Or everyone gels - we do a Leicester and Mustafi is named as a gooners legend and we start a subscription online to build his statue outside the Emirates.

Wenger bought Chambers, Holding and Bielik for precisely that reason. They are the type of purchases that most fans are now advocating - young players who have shone at underage level. The difficulty with that strategy is that many young players don't fulfil their potential for many reasons.

I guess anything can happen but as things stand I’ll be surprised if 2019/20 isn’t Emery’s last season at Arsenal. Where I may differ from you is that I’m not sure it will be his decision. If the lack of funds from KSE means a top four place is a pipe dream and we don’t win the Europa League, resulting in us not getting into the 2020/21 Champions League, I can see him being sacked.

I’m not saying Kroenke is bothered about fans’ opinions, but I see sacking managers as a way for him to divert blame away from his ownership. A sort of ‘What are you moaning about me for? I am doing my bit by dismissing an underperforming head coach.’ Ironic really, after Wenger was allowed to continue in post so long despite taking underperformance to new heights, as I think we could become a sacking club. Each head coach may be given a couple of years to get us back into the Champions League. If they fail to do so with the transfer budget being less than the cost of a bar of chocolate, they’re out.

I’m pretty sure I’ve made this point before.

I agree with this Bernard.

Notwithstanding injuries and the lack of quality but given the relative ease of the run-in and the opportunities we had against medicre opposition I actually think the last few weeks of the season were a management disasterclass from Emery. Surely, any half competent manager would have got a better return from the last few games than he did. Not to mention the nightmare Europa Final.

I agree with Socrates about the disastrous end to our season. It has really coloured my assessment of Emery, because of our TWO fantastic opportunities to get into the CL, the league attempt turned into a complete car crash, and the Europa League ended up being a no show despite the importance of the match.

If Emery is pissed off with the Arsenal situation as much as I am is it not inconceivable that he will walk. Staying in this *%^@ show any longer may well harm his own cv, he may decide to cut his losses, take the hit to his income and walk away

Don't think he is bothered at all . If Kroenke decided to sell up tomorrow he'd be inundated with offers from mega rich plonkers from all over the planet .

I'd doubt he sees investing a ton of cash chasing trophies a worthwhile proposition .

..... success or not he knows he has got his grubby little paws on a very saleable item ; all he has to do is sit on it he is guaranteed to double his initial outlay .

Arseblog suggested in a podcast a week or so back that perhaps the reason we only gave Emery two years was knowing we couldn't afford to sack him if it all went tits up and that's probably the reason he's still here now, we can get rid of him for nothing next May.

I didn’t know Emery only had a two year contract. Thought it was three. Probably makes it even more likely he’ll be on his bike next summer.

Emery was only ever a sacrificial bunny. The problems at Arsenal are too large to be rectified in 2 seasons and football fans are impatient. Would we have offered Guardiola a 2 year deal? I doubt it, I also doubt he would touch the job with a bargepole. Who would want to get involved in such a mess and damage your reputation.

Arteta came close to getting the job, I mean he has no *%^@*** experience at all.

I’ll place a cheeky bet that we will still have Mesut Ozils lethargic midfield displays under a new manager and that kind of highlights the problem.

Hopefully after Emery is gone we appoint an ex player talisman like Henry or Vieira who would at least be given more time by the fans

Two with an option for another.

I think this will be a likely scenario, unless someone truly outstanding becomes getable and willing to work for this shitshow of a club.

I think it could be a Freddie or Arteta type

The actual reality is when the interviews were conducted emery probably spoke to the board and impressed them with his knowledge of our whole squad and detail when a top class manager like Guardiola and Klopp would have whiteboarded a list of our current players not up to scratch and asked them how we planned to deal with it.

I'm not sure an ex-player talisman would be given any more time by the fans. Fans have endured a pretty underwhelming last few seasons and they have simply lost patience. Society as a whole wants instant gratification these days. If we have a bad start Emery will be under pressure from the fans by Christmas.

The only way I see things changing is if fans boycott games in their tens of thousands and Kroenke gets tired of all the negative publicity, not to mention lost revenues, and decides to sell-up.

Mind you I think stadium revenues are only a small percentage of overall revenues so even empty seats may not be enough. I reckon we need an empty stadium, but has that ever happened at any big club ever?