Mesut has had a good season

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Erdogan jails more journalists than any other nation — more than China, Russia and Egypt combined. Mesut loves him.

I'm skeptical about Arteta. I don't know to what degree is City's success owed to him. Another reason to hire him seems to be, well Pep thinks highly of him and City are fantastic, so he must be a good manager.

Ferguson had assistants who have become managers McClaren didn't set the word afire. Walter Smith as well. The highly regarded Queroz didn't do well either.

If we can get Rodgers in the summer, I'd prefer to wait for him and limp through the rest of the season. But if its Arteta, so it is. I will support him 100 percent and hope my fears are proven completely wrong.

Up the Arsenal.

The face of the NBA LeBron James supported the Chinese in the HK protests and has been under fire in Hong Kong.

Mixing sports and politics is delicate but I'd like to think Arsenal has enough morals to not stop someone from speaking out against oppression for the sake of money.

...Pompeo, in terms of his role as Sec State is abominable. But then again, its hard to find a rose in a pile of sh*t sycophants in the current regime.

Didn't look at the results and expected Liverpool to win no matter who they put out there and was shocked at the scoreline.

If Arteta takes over as is rumored and if its immediate, his first game will be at the club he's seen as a legend. Couldn't write a movie plot better.

So still no manager news I take it?

We've gone 9 league games without a clean sheet.......Man U have gone 12 league games without a clean sheet. I know we have seemingly much more glaring problems but surely there are some easy wins with this team on the training ground. When Wenger left I thought the next guy had an open goal in fixing so many problems; off the ball work, positioning, leaky defence, motivation, work rate because every single one comes out of the training ground rather than any natural talent or physical attribute like natural pace or height that can't really be changed. Emery made pretty much all of this worse.

The best start Arteta can do is watch the Everton match and the week's training and anyone not giving 100% is simply not in the squad for the next game. Then bring in younger players who will give 100%.

The next step is to drill in some basic off the ball work, anyone unwilling to do that work or who is unable to grasp it and improve is also not in the squad.

It feels like we're starting from rock bottom with this group of players and certain standards need to be set. Anyone who doesn't like it can leave as far as I'm concerned.

I also think we desperately need some fresh blood in January, find some funds from somewhere and bring in some hungry younger players who buy in to Arteta's methods and have shown they have pace, power, mobility, intelligence, desire, work rate.

Do all that and we'll be in an infinitely better place. It will take the rest of the season for Arteta to get across the principles of his way of playing, we can't 'write it off' as we're still in a precarious position in the league and still have the back door route in to the Champions League via Europa.

Quite frankly if I was Arteta I wouldn't take the job.

I wouldn’t either.

He’s on an absolute hiding. He’s going to have to find a way to get the fans on board and get the team built into a unit that is hard to beat rather than dynamic.

Then he needs 2 passing midfielders, 1 right back, a player for wide left, 1 centre back and deal with the problem of both our main strikers leaving this summer.

This will take a 3 year swing minimum. Emery and the board have wrecked us.

If you were already a millionaire living in a mansion in Manchester, married to Miss Spain, assistant coach for a team with endless money on a decent wage and likely to move into the managers hot seat when the current incumbent is likely to leave over the next 2 years.

Why on earth would you want to get involved in the absolute clusterfuck of epic proportions that is Arsenal. I’d rather take the England job and that shows how far we have fell.

All quite depressing isn't it. The fabled 'new manager bounce' usually relies on one thing only, effort. The players had stopped trying for the last guy so he got the boot and now they will try for the new guy. We couldn't even muster that, what does that say about our players?

Sam Fagbemi, City's youth scout expert is rumoured to be part of Arteta's staff. As is Domènec Torrent who was Pep's assistant at Barca and Bayern but is unemployed after a stint as head coach in New York following Vieira

Exactly Greeny, I am convinced that we will make a late run for the title under Arteta.

I am looking forward to seeing what Arteta's first moves are, that might tell us a lot about him as a manager. Will he be ballsy enough to implement his ideas and philosophy, change the team shape and personnel immediately or will he persist with the current playing style and set-up until the new year when he will have more time to work with the players.

I truly believe Mikel Arteta has the ability to resolve the plight of Uighurs in China and get Mesut Özil playing to his full potential.

Glory beckons

Mirror saying the deal is agreed

What I would say is that if he’s appointed let Freddie manage the side for the Everton game before taking charge and he can watch in the stands.

They are going to kick us all over the park and that match will be difficult

Ooh, first time I see some big words from you .... big black b...... you are right though, they have more guts
Oops, I might have started a controversy

Arteta said his philosophy is total commitment to the cause. Good luck with that. I and a few others have said the squad has been bereft of belief and commitment for a few years now. Probably several years. I don't know what he'll do to get it. Maybe play more hungry young players. Martinelli has the hunger. Pépé, despite not coming good yet does.

In the end, it starts at the top. The players know Kroenke is an absentee owner who cares more for the LA Rams than they do. If we know that, they know that. Even the Emerati Sheikhs are at many of the matches.

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.