That makes you happy?.. I honestly think that's one of the biggest problems with modern British society. We appreciate cynicism/scepticsm more than optimism and enthusiasm. I remember reading a study a few years back where people in the street were asked which 'story was true and which was a lie'. Both fictional vsns of the same event. One had an optimistic take the other a negative take on the same story. 80% people believed the negative story to be true and only 20% believed the positive. Just sayin.
Couple questions for you: Do you think we need improvement in the squad? Do you think we can currently compete with Man City and Liverpool?
Yes. For sure we do. Particularly in defence. Koscielny has always been over-rated and is now past it. Mustafi is nowhere near the level. Bellerin may be out for a while - which is a big blow as I think he's one of our best players. I think its possible. We have seen weaker squads than ours win the league. We had a 22 game run last Season that wasnt far off the required level. We are capable of having a great run (free of major injuries) while our opposition has a meltdown - thats FAR from impossible. Why should we aim for mediocrity? Obviously I think its unlikely but if nobody believes it could happen it certainly won't.
OK. Now if you were a manager looking to get your higher up to get these deals done will you not let it be known the reality of things to force their hands? And you also have to think about what direction the club is going for. Youth. You don't want to set expectations too high to the fans and put pressure on these young players. Better to set realistic expectation and aim to overachieve.
Mate - this just isnt how you achieve success. Also its a terrible attitude to set limitations for young players. - they need to believe they can go all the way or they never will. I do the job I grew up wanting to do as child. I achieved that by believing it was going to happen and refusing to quit. That's how you reach your goals. Trust me if Sir Alex Ferguson had this squad he would be aiming for the league title nothing less. *Sorry for the 'motivational' talk... but that's just how I think.
You thinking is valid and I doubt he is telling his players they can't. My point is that he's probably tempering fan expectation knowing how fickle we are. Plus he's probably sending a message to the money men to invest.
We can afford to say it out loud and invite fan pressure to dive in the transfer market as Wenger made the money for the club to be where it is now so that we can spend like we have recently, during the banter era from 2005 to 2013 it was well known we were cash strapped now
Wenger WITH money in his last couple of years bought Welbeck, Xhaka, Mustafi, Perez, Chambers, Paulista. His only two good signings were Auba and Laca.
I think with hindsight though Gazidis appears to be the one who should carry the blame for this. Not Arsene. Every window we heard about the players we failed to sign. Pre-Gazadis our signings were great under Wenger now post Gazidis our signings have massively improved again. He was the problem.
From what I've heard the last couple years Wenger had less control over transfers the likes of Mustafi,Perez,Xhaka and lacazette was signed due to StatDNA which Wenger opposed
Wenger wanted kante gazidis wanted xhaka if only Wenger got his way. I believe we would have won the league that year over Chelsea
Been over a year of Emery as our head coach, so...What do you think is: - Unai Emery's biggest strength -Emery's biggest weakness -His best game for the club tactically -Worst match where he cost us the game tactically -Do you think he is the man to take Arsenal forward?
Biggest strength-tactical set up vs big teams Biggest weakness- not brave enough against small teams His best game for the club-spurs home last season Worst game for us- EL final Do i think he is the man to take us forward- no I don't he's not terrible but not great either
--Unai Emery's biggest strength He is not afraid to make changes at any time during a match --Emery's biggest weakness He is not afraid to make changes at any time during a season; that, along with his insistence to play out from the back at all times. --His best game for the club tactically Im not sure any game stands out for tactical reasons, but there have been good results. United at home, Valencia away, Napoli away, Spurs at home last season; but I would not say any of those were a tactical masterclass per se. --Worst match where he cost us the game tactically Palace at home last season where he rested half the team and totally underestimated the opposition. It cost us top 4. --Do you think he is the man to take Arsenal forward? No, I dont consider him a world class manager; I dont think we would ever win the title under him, but we are nowhere near that point so until we at least get back into the champions league, he'll do. I also slightly believe in continuity and stability, I think changing manager every season can be quite detrimental. (but obviously keeping Wenger 22 years can also be detrimental.)
I don't think he's great but also don't know who we'd get to replace him anyway. Other than Klopp I'm not convinced by almost any other manager in the world. Bit of a managerial dearth at the moment in my opinion. None of them are shining a light on themselves. And even Klopp has only managed to do something of note by relying on oil money. Granted it was PSGs oil money that he spent indirectly but he still wouldn't be anywhere without shelling out a **** ton which was only possible because PSG bought Neymar and Barca rebound bought Coutinho.
Decent coach with some good tactical nouse. He's also got a lot of passion and seems to be able to motivate his players. He's a bit of a tinker man though and I don't like the way he keeps chopping and changing formations. But that said, it could be because he's still trying to work out our best XI and experimenting whilst our fullbacks are out. When Bellerin and Tierney are in the team, I think we'll see a settled formation. But so far so good under Emery, his challenge this season is to get us back in the top 4 and that's what he'll be judged on.
To be honest I am already leaning towards the 'Emery Out' side of the argument. (and i'm normally overly optimistic) First game this Season Emery goes 4-2-3-1, next game we went 4-3-3 then a Diamond then back to a 4-3-3 and today with a more offensively shaped Diamond. There's seeminly no rhyme or reason as to why we changed things either. The squad is stronger, much of the dead wood has been shipped out but I dont see any improvements. Skysport reporters are tweeting about players seemingly having no idea what Emery whats from them. With guys like Allegri potentially available we need to start assessing wether Emery is really the guy to take us to the next level.