I still say the majority of the blame rests with Fiszman. Dein enabled Fiszman to acquire a direct link to the club, but it was Fiszman who gave Kroenke direct control over the club. What’s worse, giving him a link or direct control? For me it has to be giving him direct control.

For me it’s almost like blaming a player who lost possession up the other end of the pitch for a goal that came from a massive error by a defender or keeper as much as the keeper or defender. For example, Palace’s goal at the Emirates when Mustafi did that huge balls up. I see him as more to blame than whatever Arsenal player lost possession to Palace before they launched that attack.

Different ways of looking at it, I guess.

Kroenke's only sporting passion was his alma mater, the University of Missouri, nicknamed 'Mizzou', a state of which is he is a native. He's never shown the same passion for the teams he owns. They were a basketball power in a league that was known for American football. He donated a lot of money to build the football program.

When David Dein invited him to buy into The Arsenal he had mediocre teams and was never known as an owner passionate about winning. I recall some discussion on here by a few people on this forum saying he wasn't a bad owner and tried to say there were extenuating reasons his teams didn't win. BS in hindsight.

When he wanted to move his home town side, the St. Louis Rams to Los Angeles, he screwed over his own home state. There were a couple other sides petitioning the league to move to LA, the 2nd biggest media market of which the NFL was desperately trying to find a team to move in there because of the potential revenue.

The league granted Kroenke the right to move to LA if he would make a good faith effort to build a championship side. Surprisingly, the Rams who didn't have a winning season for years were all of a sudden a winning side, culminating in going to the Super Bowl last season.

This proves he can build a winning side if he wants to. He just doesn't feel the need to spend to build a winning side with us. Dein brought him in I'm guessing because Kroenke was never known as a hands on owner and Dein would be the de facto head of Arsenal and run it the way he wants to. Dein also knew he knew nothing about the sport. That is my guess as to why Dein brought him in. Dein brought in Usmanov for similar reasons. He sold Usmanov his shares so that he in turn would leave the day to day operations to him. Dein was more concerned about Dein than The Arsenal. The board had no choice but to choose one or the other because of the shares each had because of Dein.

If anyone thinks they made the right choice still, then don't complain about what's going with the squad. Usmanov would at least tried to build a winning side. Kroenke had no proclivity to if it meant spending money.

Makes little use complaining. Nothing will be done. He has no incentive to sell the club. The only bit of hope for the future is if Josh, his son, tries to build a winning side when Stan dies. Expect the Kroenke's to have decades of ownership. Thank you David Dein.

Our decline is years in the making and please remember its not purely ownership related.

Wenger was responsible for 10 years of decline, no fresh thinking, complacency, no change in methods

Gazidis was brought in to supposedly bring an entire new revenue stream of commercial revenue to us but instead became a Kroenke mouthpiece. At least he sussed Arsenes decline out though.

our own fans are even responsible to a certain extent. They made excuse after excuse for Arsene for 10 years, I mean we literally heard every excuse under the sun as he lurched from one cock up to another.

Now we are in the total shite

We have zero money to spend, little world class talent in the squad and the new bizarre phenomenon where we sell our young players now for peanuts and they go on to forge better careers like Bennacer, Rene Adelaide, Gnabry, Chesney.

What i'm saying is that its not just Kroenke's ownership as he delegates football decisions. This is a multi-faceted shitshow of the highest order.

While you’re right in implying there are various factors affecting the club’s decline and that one of them was Wenger, it was Kroenke who had the power to sack Wenger and he chose not to.

yes thats his major mistake, however to be fair to Mr Syrup it was only really the last couple of seasons where the fans started being vocal enough to suggest firing Wenger could be considered. Remember the protest where about 5 thousand fans holding white cards were drowned out by our other fans singing "theres only one Arsene Wenger" en masse. How can you fire someone when theres that much visible support. Some of our supporters must be on day release and spend all day sniffing glue and eating crayons.

The one major issue I also have with Kroenke and Gazidis was that these guys were supposed to be slick MLS and US type businessmen and negotiators who would transform our commercial income from where it was to make us a powerhouse. They renegotiated the emirates and kit deals when they were due to expire but any fecker could do that and increase the money.

I mean you'd pay the 10 million quid ourselves NOT to have "Visit Rwanda" on our shirts.

Total pair of spanners, then chuck in Wengers ego and you have the perfect cocktail of Feckwittery

I think I've got about a year or max 2 left in me. After missing all of Wengers last season I've become more and more detached. Emery lit a bit of hope at the start but that was entirely gone by seasons end. Kroenke is a total cancer and it will take long periods of empty seats to get rid of that *%^@. Arsenal are dying and noone seems to know what to do.

Arsenal have a very big and very loyal fan base. That can only be seen as a positive. Sadly, it also means that there are unlikely to be enough empty seats over a long enough period to make Kroenke sell up. I can see it getting managers the sack. Indeed, I firmly believe the empty seats contributed to getting Wenger the sack. But the extent to which it would have to happen to make Kroenke sell up is, I suspect, on a completely different level.

Although I think our problems can be traced back significantly further, I think around 2015 was where the wheels really began to come off, that summer where we only signed Čech while near £200M was sitting in the bank really has to go down as a disaster, a ruthless owner would have got rid of Wenger and allowed the new manager (structure) to invest the money, instead he stuck with Wenger out of some misplaced sentiment and I also think lack of other ideas, displaying here what a 'hands-off' unambitious, disinterested owner really is like.

A year later we panic bought the likes of Mustafi, Xhaka and Perez for near £100M, we might as well have set fire to the money for what it achieved, well we might get £20-30M of that back I suppose, now we have drained the cash reserves by over-paying average players and we are left with the double-whammy of not being able to shift them because no one else is silly enough to pay them double what they are worth, sorry I mean triple-whammy because they are average players they are no longer good enough to get us in the CL either!.

You can rightly blame Ivan and Arsene for this mess but ultimately it happened under Kroenke's watch (obvious by now he wasn't really 'watching') so it falls on him to sort it out, unfortunately I think his idea of sorting it out is handing it over to Josh and saying cut costs, that will get us back to being self-sustaining alright but we'll also be bang average in the process, just like all of KSE's portfolio of dross sports franchises.

You didn't need to be nostradamus to see this coming..

Guess how many direct free kicks arsenal had where the shot from that free kick was on target in the prem last season?


4

And we scored from 3 of them.

The idea of us holding back and keeping our powder dry is even more absurd when prices for players were and are still going up and up each year. £30m got you a Sanchez back in 2014-15, now it gets you Tyrone Mings.

We were caught sleeping for far too long with no one with enough balls to challenge or rock the boat. My view at the time (2014/15) was that every season we kept wenger was now doing 2 years worth of damage to the club when he eventually went. Somewhere in the region of 6-8 years to stabilise the club - I don’t think that is a dramatic guess

Lots of press saying we’ve tied up the Saliba deal. €25m, he’ll go back on loan to St Etienne and crucially the fee won’t come out of this seasons transfer budget - or only a very nominal amount. Makes total sense. Now to sign a proper CB for this season!

I’m never keen to overpay for a player but it seems Tierney is our primary LB target and we’re only about £5-6m short of their valuation.
For such a relatively small amount we should pay it to get the deal done.

If we were willing to bid £40m for Zaha I’m hopeful that we see in change in what we usually do if we can’t make that deal happen. Usually we ‘try’ all the way up to the deadline, being strung along by the selling club and end up not signing him or anyone else.
Without doubt there are a lot of good young, exciting wide players out there who would cost £40m or less. I’d love a real versatile young talent who is quick, direct, dribbles and scores and can play right left and central. No idea who that would be though

So now Man U and Arsenal are submitting signing enquiries for Gabon Southampton, 25 yr old midfield player, Mario Lemina. He came from Juve to Southampton 2 years ago. Quite possibly Aubameyang knows him.

This was the guy Wenger turned his nose up at to irritate the new regime at the time ..

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/footba ... 06371.html

Bernard the same comments about loyal supporters can be directed towards Sunderland, Newcastle, Portsmouth, Sheffield Wednesday. Sadly it means the owners get to hide while the slide continues.

We all share your total frustration. Still when we are on the overseas tour why would you want new players to actually meet their teammates and form some combinations. Much better to have a trolley dash just before the first game and it will take the new players until about October to intergrate. Just go with what you have always done despite the fact it has been a failure for 20 years.

True, people will keep turning up regardless and empty seats will probably just get the manager sacked. Which is even more depressing because how do you get rid of Kroenke? Mike Ashley has been universally hated for a while by the Geordies and yet he's still there.

Having all the national champions visit the White House is relatively new (80s). Prior it was sporadic depending on the President and his proclivities. That said, although there were individual players who declined a visit along with their team, not until Trump has the whole team in a variety of sports declined the visit.

Anyway, this is hilarious. Expat Americans and visiting fans chanting 'F*ck Trump' to the Fox News commentator. This was live as well. (PS: couldn't get the youtube preview to appear)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DEjfUHN4K8&t=329s

A similar situation at Newcastle - no funds for transfers; share value probably actually increases and total disconnect between owner and fans. At least Ashley knows he is despised - he just takes no notice of it.

Emile Smith Rowe joins Willock (28), Nketiah (30) and Nelson (24) in receiving a first-team number for next season. He’ll be number 32 this season.

Emery barely gave them a sniff last year so if he goes into this year hoping they'll become instant PL material then he's a bigger gambler than Wenger. They may do ok and it would be great to see it but it's very very rare for young players like that to be able to maintain any form over a season. Iwobi started well and regressed. Guendouzi started well and then got overplayed. Torreirra started well and then according to reports got homesick.

I wonder what we're going to see in the first couple of months with Liverpool, Tottenham and Man U in the fixture list to October.

No guarantees with young players but I'd still rather see any of those 4 in the team rather than Xhaka and Mkhitaryan strolling around not giving a *%^@. Around £300k a week going out of the club to those two in wages. Laughable. Except it isn't.

Edu officially unveiled as Technical Director. Not exactly a surprise but good that it is confirmed. Knows Arsenal, young enough to have fresh ideas but still has decent experience from the Brazil role. Hopefully he can help us tap in to the South American market because there are bargains and money to be made there.

Since Mislintat left our transfer business has been very slow. Mislintat oversaw a huge turnaround in selling and buying players in his year or so at the club. Apparently at Stuttgart he’s already bought 4 and sold 11.
I’m not sure of our greater need, to sell the chaff in the squad or to buy some decent players

Selling the chaff is far more important but much harder because of the high wages they are on.
No one else will touch them because they are *%^@ and/or on a stupidly high wage.

What is hilarious ............... is that for all your continued raving you are going to have him for for another term .

Elizabeth Warren , Tim Ryan , Kamala Harris , Nancy Polosi in the opposition .... then there's his cohorts John Bolton , Mike Pompeo .....

what is the pre requisite for being a politician in the good ole Land of Apple Pie ............. being inherently stupid ...?

Hi Wirral. Is selling the chaff more important though? If we don’t sign any decent players, who else is there to put in the team that’s any better?

I think they are a drag on the team and they are holding us back. We both remember GG getting rid of the so called stars and bringing in young players. We need this again as there really is no alternative with our measly budget. £45 million on a couple of really strong defenders and if we get any money for the chaff invest that in some creative players e.g. midfield and winger.

This current team is not going to win much and they are costing us a fortune in wages. We may as well give some of the kids a go. They will not win either but it is the start of a rebuild that may take us somewhere better

Sadly it’s not inconceivable they could take us somewhere worse either. It’s very tempting to rate a player too highly just because he’s a teenager. Of the guys given squad numbers today I have more confidence in Nelson and Willock than Smith Rowe or Nketiah.

I would not disagree with you. We could end up worse. We also may end up worse with Özil, Mustafi, Kolasinac, Xkaka and Mhiki still in the team. I really do not see a future for these players at Arsenal. The only one I would keep would be Kolasinac and that is only if we do not get Tierney from Celtic.

Btw I would have Nelson and Willock as first choice at the moment. The so called stars are just not worth it anymore. Throw them in, give them a run in the team. Most of my favourite players started young. How old was Brady when he made his debut?

From memory 17. Came on as a fairly early sub against Birmingham. But even if he was that young, he may not be a fair comparator. Brady was one of the very best players to wear the shirt and in my view is actually the best home grown youngster. On a completely different level to the modern guys.

Fair enough-a bad example (or a very good example that no one will ever compare to). But if we do not give them a go then we will never know just how good they may be.

After that empty seats if it all goes wrong.

Massively off the topic of how excruciating this transfer window is, anyone wondering what happened to Dan Crowley - much vaunted Arsenal youngster player recruited from Villa or somebody from a couple of years ago - really interesting article on how he’s doing at Willem II.

I remember reports on him and really looked forward to seeing anything of him in Carling cup fixtures or what have you, but he went on loan and reports of bad attitude meant he was sent home early irrc. Hodd seemed to suggest the reports might have some truth to them and he was moved on.

Anyway if you’re interested the article’s here. https://worldfootballindex.com/2019/07/ ... i-arsenal/

Very limited appearances from all of them to judge whether I think they will make it. But, from what I have seen of Smith Rowe, he may be one of those players who is just in the right place at the right time. Maybe even right now, when there is no money in the transfer budget, he is in the right place to get game time. I don't know what it is with some players but they have the knack. At vital times even a deflection falls to them and it changes games. Time will tell but a lot will depend if they actually have the confidence in their abilities to play to the maximum. Whether they actually have the ability is a different question but if they have made the squad they should do.

However one area of concern is that having watched highlights of the Boreham Wood game, I didn't see much quality in the youth squads so these could be interesting times.

Whether fans will cut slack to young players I am not sure. You give them some lead in time but after that enough is enough. There are 2 players who really have had played get out of jail free card and need to deliver consistent performances this season- Iwobi and N-M.

I’d completely forgotten all about him. But now you’ve mentioned him, the name has come back to me. As you imply he was talked about as the next big thing a while back.

AC Milan allegedly interested in Bielik.

All I can say is if we are prepared to sell a young, promising talent who shone at Charlton and the Euro u21 tournament then let's get a transfer fee that reflects that potential. £15m ought to be a starting point not £5m or something stupid.

Yep. But why isn't he in our squad. Can play defensive midfield or in defensive roles. He had a better season that Chambers so I would put him ahead of him.