Rival watch

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BrunelGunner said:
Arteta's in a very difficult position. He knows a lot of these players aren't at the required level, he's alluded to this in several press conferences, but at the same time, he can't get rid of all of them in one go. Even if we had £300m to spend, they still would be very hard to shift because of their CL-level wages. So he has to try and get a tune out of them. The problem has been, he's alienated a lot of our most popular players in the dressing room which has had a knock-on effect all the others. He underestimated the power some of these players yield over everyone else. He's disintegrated a lot of the brotherhoods/bonds that developed on the training ground, and I think it's clear that they're losing belief in how he's dealt with it all. You have to manage these situations very carefully so as not to upset the morale in the camp.

Ozil, Sokratis and Luiz are popular figures. All have been banished to the sidelines.
Guendouzi was well-liked with the French counterparts, but he's been exiled.
Saliba, a player we spent £27m on, has come out and said he's ready to play, yet he's being told to go on loan again (or maybe even sold).
Pepe was contributing goals and assists (prior to the red card at Leeds), but he starts Willian every week, who has been a disaster of a signing.
Willock, Maitland-Niles, Balogun, Smith-Rowe have all been performing well in the Europa. Most of them barely get a spot on the bench. Yet we're seeing Holding, Xhaka, Lacazette, Willian and Bellerin start every league game, when they've been absolutely rubbish. And he talks about 'non-negotiables'.

This is our worst points tally since 1959. We can't score. Can't create. Can't defend. Have no discernible style of play. 7 red cards in less than a year of being at the club is shocking. But you have to ask yourself why it keeps happening - the reason is because the players aren't happy, so their frustration boils over easily.

A change of manager won't be the silver bullet to transform our fortunes in one go. We have critical problems throughout every level of the club - no-one is oblivious to that. We are faced with a dilemma where the longer Arteta stays, the worse things will get. If he's lost the dressing room, his position becomes untenable.

He clearly has potential to be a good head coach/manager. Look no further than the FA Cup win as evidence. However, we need a thorough, deep cleansing and he's never had to deal with a situation like this before. Someone with experience of getting out of these situations would have been more appropriate.
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You're currently making every mistake in the book and there doesn't seem to be any way back from here for Arteta. From the outside, it looks like getting him out of there should happen today. However, the car crash of an executive will probably let this drag on for a while longer.

Is Edu going to want a big ticket manager telling him about how to do his job? Is Vinai Venkatesham going to want to expose that he doesn't have a ****ing clue what he's doing, by sacking another manager so soon after appointing him and then upgrading his role? Does anyone at the club have any ****ing idea what's going on (and why?) and the best interests of the club at heart?

At the epicentre of the whole mess is the question of what sort of club is Arsenal? Currently, you're chucking around wages like you are guaranteed CL football. Giving Willian a 3 year deal on £250k p/w was absolutely ****ing nuts! It's said that Luiz's agents trousered £10m for negotiating a 1 year extension...ridiculous. You're not Chelsea or City but in an attempt to paper over the cracks, you're flinging around that level of money...only wasting nearly all of it.

If the Kroenke's aren't going to bankroll £300m+ next summer, it's time to rebuild sustainably in the model that Wenger established and stop chasing your losses. It won't be popular but it might actually work.
 
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What I find funny but also bemusing at Arsenal is just how many bad choices they’ve made in the last few years. Whether the board or managers are to blame it’s just been one bad (or risky) decision after another.

Giving Ozil £350k a week when there was no interest in him. Subsequently then begin dropping him and finally not even registering him despite being the team’s only high level playmaker.

Club record £72m spent on a 24 year old in Ligue 1 who’d only had about 18 months of good football. Mental. That £72m was also spent at a time they needed major defensive and midfield strengthening.

Giving Auba a 3 year deal on huge wages at 31. Great finisher no doubt (despite form) but history in football tells you players of his age will generally begin declining, so that was a huge risk. It may end up paying off in time but so far it’s not.

Same with Willian, even older than Auba, another 3 year deal on huge wages. Madness.

On the flip side, they didn’t do enough to keep Ramsey who was their best CM and with a good number of years ahead of him.

Selling Giroud to Chelsea. He’s better and offers something different to Lacazette. Letting him go to a fierce rival, stupid.

I’m sure there’s other things I could list if I delved a bit deeper but it just seems a real **** show of decisions at Arsenal that don’t seem to have too much logic behind their thought process.
 
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Dier Hard said:
What I find funny but also bemusing at Arsenal is just how many bad choices they’ve made in the last few years. Whether the board or managers are to blame it’s just been one bad (or risky) decision after another.

Giving Ozil £350k a week when there was no interest in him. Subsequently then begin dropping him and finally not even registering him despite being the team’s only high level playmaker.

Club record £72m spent on a 24 year old in Ligue 1 who’d only had about 18 months of good football. Mental. That £72m was also spent at a time they needed major defensive and midfield strengthening.

Giving Auba a 3 year deal on huge wages at 31. Great finisher no doubt (despite form) but history in football tells you players of his age will generally begin declining, so that was a huge risk. It may end up paying off in time but so far it’s not.

Same with Willian, even older than Auba, another 3 year deal on huge wages. Madness.

On the flip side, they didn’t do enough to keep Ramsey who was their best CM and with a good number of years ahead of him.

Selling Giroud to Chelsea. He’s better and offers something different to Lacazette. Letting him go to a fierce rival, stupid.

I’m sure there’s other things I could list if I delved a bit deeper but it just seems a real **** show of decisions at Arsenal that don’t seem to have too much logic behind their thought process.
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Wenger did everything. He even designed the stadium. Without him, there's nobody there who knows the first thing about how to run the thing. United have the same void, post-Ferguson, but have the money to throw at the problem.

Levy's not the most popular person at Spurs (with some) but when he goes, filling his tiny, little shoes will be a massive job.
 
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BrunelGunner said:
Arteta's in a very difficult position. He knows a lot of these players aren't at the required level, he's alluded to this in several press conferences, but at the same time, he can't get rid of all of them in one go. Even if we had £300m to spend, they still would be very hard to shift because of their CL-level wages. So he has to try and get a tune out of them. The problem has been, he's alienated a lot of our most popular players in the dressing room which has had a knock-on effect all the others. He underestimated the power some of these players yield over everyone else. He's disintegrated a lot of the brotherhoods/bonds that developed on the training ground, and I think it's clear that they're losing belief in how he's dealt with it all. You have to manage these situations very carefully so as not to upset the morale in the camp.

Ozil, Sokratis and Luiz are popular figures. All have been banished to the sidelines.
Guendouzi was well-liked with the French counterparts, but he's been exiled.
Saliba, a player we spent £27m on, has come out and said he's ready to play, yet he's being told to go on loan again (or maybe even sold).
Pepe was contributing goals and assists (prior to the red card at Leeds), but he starts Willian every week, who has been a disaster of a signing.
Willock, Maitland-Niles, Balogun, Smith-Rowe have all been performing well in the Europa. Most of them barely get a spot on the bench. Yet we're seeing Holding, Xhaka, Lacazette, Willian and Bellerin start every league game, when they've been absolutely rubbish. And he talks about 'non-negotiables'.

This is our worst points tally since 1959. We can't score. Can't create. Can't defend. Have no discernible style of play. 7 red cards in less than a year of being at the club is shocking. But you have to ask yourself why it keeps happening - the reason is because the players aren't happy, so their frustration boils over easily.

A change of manager won't be the silver bullet to transform our fortunes in one go. We have critical problems throughout every level of the club - no-one is oblivious to that. We are faced with a dilemma where the longer Arteta stays, the worse things will get. If he's lost the dressing room, his position becomes untenable.

He clearly has potential to be a good head coach/manager. Look no further than the FA Cup win as evidence. However, we need a thorough, deep cleansing and he's never had to deal with a situation like this before. Someone with experience of getting out of these situations would have been more appropriate.
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Not all bad. I saw a tweet from Frimpong saying he'd come back on a free. To replace Xhaka, which I thought was nice of him.
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And in a move to win over Arsenal fans
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Not offering Wenger a place on the board was probably a mistake but I suppose the Arsenal board have always acted like a medieval Laird and they managed to find an American to carry on that tradition. Just about as far away from a peoples club as you could get. Compared to that City is like the Prudential.
 
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Solid_Air 2 said:
well in that picture it looks like fabinho got the ball so that probably had something to do with it .
tbh stills can be incredibly deceptive and imo aren't a great guide to this sort of thing .
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The reference to taking the ball first in a tackle was deleted from the Laws many years ago. It's now a foul to tackle someone carelessly. Hardly surprising that no-one knows what that means.
 
PowerSpurs said:
The reference to taking the ball first in a tackle was deleted from the Laws many years ago. It's now a foul to tackle someone carelessly. Hardly surprising that no-one knows what that means.
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The tackle carelessly thing refers to clearing out a player in the follow through .

A huge number of laws are ignored or bent to make them workable for example technically Lo Celso should have been sent off within 10 mins of coming on for 2 yellows for stopping quick free kicks however i haven't seen anyone booked for that for years unless they kick the ball away which for reasons unknown to me is treated differently from picking up the ball and wandering off with it .
 
Solid_Air 2 said:
The tackle carelessly thing refers to clearing out a player in the follow through .

A huge number of laws are ignored or bent to make them workable for example technically Lo Celso should have been sent off within 10 mins of coming on for 2 yellows for stopping quick free kicks however i haven't seen anyone booked for that for years unless they kick the ball away which for reasons unknown to me is treated differently from picking up the ball and wandering off with it .
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That one always irritates me. Easy to enforce, just enforce it.
 
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Suckmyklopp said:
We all know var is bollocks mate, no team will be untouched by its ineptness this season, none. I actually agree it was pen btw


In other news.. don't say I never give you guise nuthin<whistle>
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Looks like that break did Claude a world of good.
 
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