Are you Goonie's son borrowing the comp from your father?

I may have sounded pessimistic but I'm really cheering for Arteta to succeed. His not managing a club is worrisome as well as the fact Emery was chosen over him last time. They didn't choose Mikel for a reason. I'm not even sure if he was first runner up to Emery.

Is Arteta the answer .... of course I've no idea but ...

I've never seen him exhibit any sort of emotion . Smile , laugh , gesticulate , swear , curse ....anything at all on or off the field .

He seems a bit wooden to me .

When you see Sokratis spraying a ball back across the goal ; the one where Chambers got disposessed that would have led to a goal if Sterling had been a bit more assertive

.... you know our defenders are really really stupid that is such a basic No No .

Has Mikel the nous to turn that around I don't think so .

My son came in yesterday and said " I've just watched the highlights and I reckon the local high school team could defend better " He's not wrong .

G'day kiwi

I think Arteta's appointment is an exciting one, but not necessarily in a good way. It is possibly the biggest gamble managerially in the history of the PL, like throwing your life savings on a horse that has never entered a race before but looks great on the gallops.

Literally anything could happen over the next few months because he has no managerial experience whatsoever. In time it might be seen as an inspired choice, conversely it might be seen as a stupid decision that simply flouted common sense. He might take to management like a duck to water or he might quickly be shown to be way out of his depth.

Interesting and exciting times with a dash of trepidation.

Not at all sorry to be that guy, perhaps just steer clear completely mentioning the colour of people’s skin in relation to abilities, temperament or stereotypes? I know you don’t mean to or think you’re being objectionable but, and I might just be speaking for me here, I’d rather not have phrases like big black b****** thrown around the forum in jest.

You get a pass being Singaporean if any of us "white boys " had mentioned the word ' black ' the PC brigade on here would be frothing at the mouth .

I take your point though Sol Campbell looked the part ; more so than Adams and Bould ; as did Marcel Desailley ...and there was centre half played for Birmingham in the mid eighties think his name was Blake ...? he was a mean looking sucker

EDIT
Hold on .... the Alzheimers hasn't got such a grip after all ... it trickled back to me ...Noel Blake ... just googled him ... here he is ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=towCLUJ0ZCw

I like the way he talks ... was a ferocious defender .

Next Arsenal manager for me .

Morning Soc ... and as per normal you have all the bases covered . A twenty dollar bet on all eventualities .

I've said it before .. I lived in England ; the first time 1973 - 75 trundled up to Highbury when Arsenal were in that relegation dogfight .
Locked in 'bottom of the table' mortal combat with other strugglers Tottenham , Sheffield Utd , Luton Town , Birmingham City and CARLISLE UNITED ......... remember them .

They were as you say exciting times but it was mortal combat ; results didn't always go our way but we FOUGHT no matter who the opposition .

These days ...??? Well who can identify with this side .

Keep Martinelli , Leno , Tierney , Martinez , Pépé , Saka , Willots , Smith Rowe ...... sell the rest and build a side who are proud to wear the shirt

Almost like appointing the club physiotherapist as manager eh?

When coaching at City Arteta coached Sterling on his finishing, he’s the main reason Sterling went from very promising youngster to almost golden boot winner from the wing.
Sterling missed an open goal on his left foot v Burnley and was so angry with himself he said ‘I didn’t do what Mikel taught me’
If Arteta is willing to work on the detail of someone simply striking the ball better with their left foot then I’d hope he’d be able to do something with the absolute horror show we have in defence

Good coach maybe but how is he supposed to deal with the volume issues he lands the moment he joins.

Can’t sell Mustafi,

Özil situation is a mess

Xhaka situation a mess.

Our full back positions are ravaged by injury with little money for replacements

There’s not a midfielder at the club who can play free moving one touch football.

Both our competent strikers want out and will leave this summer

You have an absentee owner letting his son play pretend CEO

The crowd are already restless before he joined. I mean is he likely to get booed off if we lose this weekend


I mean I wish him all the best but what are people expecting from Arteta.

He could be the Ozzie Ardiles type of manager and be gone by Easter.

Let’s dream and pretend they go on and win a double. Say even a local boy scores a screamer in the cup final that you may remember even when you are very old.

No your dreaming.

Just watching the Everton Leicester game. Jeez Ferguson put some balls into these players. Can I say balls. Or is that sexist or something. Anyway pens in the game

Everton in league cup action tonight with pretty much a full strength team, we kick off against them in about 52 hours time. I know they’ve got a bit of a bounce from big dunc but we should be sharper and fitter....let’s see if the desire is there to out run and out work a team who’ve had 90 minutes in their legs 2.5 days ago when we’ve had 6 days off

Are Leeds and Milwall the most hated clubs traditionally?

Hi TG,

I think a prime Alex Ferguson, in the days when you could throw teacups around, and physically and verbally intimidate players, would struggle to sort this mess out.

How do you motivate a multi-millionaire to put his body on the line when he knows that whatever happens he can still drive home to his ten bedroom mansion in his top of the range Bentley and never have to work again.

The thing is others seem to be, the city players are making just as much as our lot.

It’s just the attitude that resides within the club top to bottom. Nobody challenges each other. Why we haven’t got people like Martin Keown and others working around the club is beyond me.

So obvious...

Mikel Arteta to manage his old club against his old club after his last game at his old club against his old club.

Yep, I remember my teacher / coach telling us that when I about 9.

I think that went over most people’s heads LTG!
He didn’t do too bad did he? And an absolute gentleman.I have a lovely photo somewhere of Billy Nicholson shaking his hand in congratulations after the Monday night game at WHL when Ray Kennedy scored to win the League. Great mutual respect.

Oh Mama Mia Goonie .... what on earth are you apologising for .... you weren't disrespecting black people you were actually praising them .

It's exactly what this team needs , a big hard arse black guy ... we already have enough pukey gay boy effeminate WHITE nancified snowflakes .

Someone who can not only kick seven shades of sh***t out of the opposition but also tell Özil , Sideshow Bob , Sokratis , Chambers , Bellerin , Mkhitaryan and Mustafi a few home truths .

I think you should be apologising Kiwi for that casual use of the phrase 'mama mia'. Gooners of Italian heritage could easily be traumatised by your reckless language.

Pete, for your sake, I hope you never run into Ian Roberts in the midst of spouting that pathetic, tragic, old-man, homophobic nonsense. Other than that, I trust you're keeping well...

Yes Kiwi, And what colour are Aubameyang, Lacazette, Pépé, Guendouzi, Saka etc? Get in the sea with that *%^@.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/more-s ... ar-BBY9iAQ

A club with values shows how tis done.

I am genuinely excited about the imminent arrival of Arteta.
I don't know what it is but this feels like a new dawn where the club has thought hard about this and realised it needs to go with a younger fresher man with hopefully new innovative ideas. Ancellotti its been reported was waiting for our call. Yes he is experienced and won many trophies but I wasn't keen on him and see him as yesterday's man.
I also just have a feeling that Arteta will do well given time and will have seen enough of us to know what needs to be done.
Anyone not on board can simply f@@k off. That includes Aubameyang and Lacazette if they don't fancy it.
More players like Martinelli please.

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foo ... 53511.html

Totally agree David re players getting behind Arteta. Anyone who's not happy knows where the door is. I hear Xhaka wants out too. Christmas has come early.

There’s at least 6 we know want to go.

There could be a massive changing of the guard this summer

Aubameyang, Lacazette, Xhaka, Özil (if someone pays his daft wages, Xhaka and Torreira (there’s too much smoke about him not to be true)

Totally agree David. Something feels right about this and I base that on nothing whatsoever.

I hope he does what George did when he came in and instilled discipline and restored a pride in the shirt.

This feels like a long term plan and I’m fully invested in it.

What makes you think Ancelotti is yesterday's man? Jup Hynkes was 66 when won the treble with Bayern.

It may feel like a long term plan but it isn’t. It’s Hobson’s choice

Ancelotti and Mourinho are on 10 million a year. Arteta half that. Need to accept the reality of why we chose Arteta.

We are left on the precipice of appointing a novice manager because we have few options. I wish him all the best and will get behind him but let’s be honest he’s here because Kroenke, Wenger and Emery have run us so adrift.

I hope he has self belief in abundance because he’s got a hell of a job ahead of him.

Definitely Keane and Vieira tough guys. Need a captain who's both menacing and swag.
Julio "the Beast" Baptista was a hulking, strong presence on the pitch back while he was on loan at the time.

There fixed it for you

Most want Xhaka gone but you want him gone twice!

I want to see a manager with similar attributes. That doesn’t necessarily mean jumping up and down on the touchline but someone who displays an intensity, attention to detail, innovation and relentless pursuit of something better.

I'm confused (a normal state according to some on here) as to why this is undertaken or possible. Aren't all the royals given titles or acquire titles by default? What makes Prince Harry and his wife different?

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/council ... 05415.html

It wouldn't shock me whatsoever if Liverpool won the treble and a mild surprise if they did it unbeaten in the league.

So no player put up a feed arguing for Catalan independence or a Scottish vote for independence?

Strange