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?

Yes. Every day I have to deal with the next muppet who is there sucking up oxygen because they've been there longer.

I wonder if this is true.....Spurs have outbid us for Saliba at the last minute

https://arseblog.news/2019/07/sprs-gazu ... or-saliba/

When we lost the Europa final there were perfectly sane minded people on this forum calling Emery a *%^@.

I just couldn’t see that happening if the manager was Thierry, Vieira or Freddie

This is kinda the problem with Emery. He may and probably is a very good football coach but he’s not one of us with a rapport with the fans, they won’t give him any time or benefit of doubt

Ornstein reporting this now too. We truly are a pathetic shambles. Hilarious.

We just don’t have any cash anymore

Wenger and Gazidis ran us into the ground financially

We should have stayed at Highbury.

How would that have improved anything?

So we built an ambitious stadium and it nearly broke us and we couldn't sign too many players for a while as we had restrictions financially. Ipso facto, how are Tottenham spending money having built a new stadium at over twice what ours cost? Something doesn't add up.

Encouraging....well not really. No surprise though if Spurs have done it.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.footba ... 576195.amp

What a shitshow of a club we have become.
How long have we been negotiating for Saliba.
Its been dragging on for weeks.
Why not get the *%^@*** deal done.
If Spurs nick him from under our noses I will be livid and will serve us *%^@*** right.
We are a bloody joke right now.
Embarrassing.

It really doesn't Darren.
They have just broken their transfer record as well.
We take dawdling to a new level.
If Saliba turns out to the next best thing with Spurs our fanbase will be furious

Tbf David, our fanbase are always furious, regardless of the Saliba deal.