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Mikel Arteta: Top Of The Klopps

AberGooner

Established Member
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Country: Scotland

Player:Gabriel
Ok great, so Arteta should have sold Xhaka and Elneny this summer and not loaned Ceballos.

Who would you have been starting in midfield this season? Bearing in mind we had to get a loan from our owner just to sign Partey.

Fill in the CM gaps for me:
Option 1 - Partey (injured most of the season)
Option 2 - ?
Option 3 - ?
Option 4 - ?
Use the wages spent on both Ceballos and Willian to get a better option 2.

A year ago we could have had £26m from Berlin for Xhaka so use that money for your option 3.

Option 4 figure out which one of Willock/AMN/Guendouzi you like best and give them the minutes Elneny and Ceballos have received. You can't convince me that at least one of them isn't better than those 2. If they turn out to be not good enough at least they've been in the shop window to move along this summer.
 

<<reed>>

Lidl Tir Na Nog
Nah, we appointed an experienced coach in Emery, he turned out to be a terrible fit in the end.

Think we got lucky with Arsène having managed somehwere else before and also being good, don't normally get both of those in one person really...best from now to just appoint rookies imo!
Emery is a good experienced coach, but he failed because of the language barrier, being too defensive and Raul not signing a single player he wanted (and even then he could have won the EL and finished in Top 4). After sacking Emery all they have to do was follow the damn train replace him with a good more attacking English speaking manager, but instead they decided to go full YOLO with Arteta.
 

say yes

forum master baiter
Use the wages spent on both Ceballos and Willian to get a better option 2.

A year ago we could have had £26m from Berlin for Xhaka so use that money for your option 3.

Option 4 figure out which one of Willock/AMN/Guendouzi you like best and give them the minutes Elneny and Ceballos have received. You can't convince me that at least one of them isn't better than those 2. If they turn out to be not good enough at least they've been in the shop window to move along this summer.
Who's the "better options 2"? With those wages you're talking about a player worth under £10m, who of course can't then be on any decent wages themselves.

And we're not getting £26m for Xhaka from Hertha Berlin ffs. Hate to break it to you but there's this virus bouncing around which has affected football finance slightly. Bit late to accept that offer.

Try again; I've filled in your work so far:
Option 1 - Partey (injured most of the season)
Option 2 - Unnamed upgrade on our current options who costs <£10m and will preferably play without a wage
Option 3 - ?
Option 4 - Willock / AMN / Guendouzi
 

AberGooner

Established Member
Trusted ⭐

Country: Scotland

Player:Gabriel
Who's the "better options 2"? With those wages you're talking about a player worth under £10m, who of course can't then be on any decent wages themselves.

And we're not getting £26m for Xhaka from Hertha Berlin ffs. Hate to break it to you but there's this virus bouncing around which has affected football finance slightly.

Try again I've filled in your work so far:
Option 1 - Partey (injured most of the season)
Option 2 - Unnamed upgrade on our current options who costs <£10m and will preferably play without a wage
Option 3 - ?
Option 4 - Willock / AMN / Guendouzi
No of course we're not getting £26m for Xhaka now but January last year he was practically signed for that fee until Arteta convinced him to stay. That's decent cash that could have been used to buy a replacement. No chance of getting anything like that for him now.

I'm sure the wages of Willian and Ceballos put together is enough to get a better player than Elneny.
 

say yes

forum master baiter
No of course we're not getting £26m for Xhaka now but January last year he was practically signed for that fee until Arteta convinced him to stay. That's decent cash that could have been used to buy a replacement. No chance of getting anything like that for him now.
And give up on any chance of a decent end to the season?

I want us to upgrade on Xhaka / Elneny / Ceballos too, but it's pretty easy to just say "replace X!!" without coming up with any affordable replacements we could sign. Pretty harsh on Arteta too given that these players have been here for ages and he's only had one (incredibly difficult) summer transfer window to improve the squad.

And I'll bet whatever you want that any Xhaka replacement we sign will cost more than the transfer fee we receive for him?
 

AberGooner

Established Member
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Country: Scotland

Player:Gabriel
And give up on any chance of a decent end to the season?

I want us to upgrade on Xhaka / Elneny / Ceballos too, but it's pretty easy to just say "replace X!!" without coming up with any affordable replacements we could sign. Pretty harsh on Arteta here given that these players have been here for ages and he's only had one (incredibly difficult) summer transfer window to improve the squad.

I'll bet whatever you want that any Xhaka replacement we sign will cost more than the transfer fee we receive for him?
Yeah I would have taken that Berlin fee definitely, I was shocked we got offered that at the time but what's done is done. A replacement will definitely cost more than we would get offered this summer for example.
 

<<reed>>

Lidl Tir Na Nog
Easier than answering the question :shivering:
I didn't say he should have sold Xhaka and the other usual suspects, I said that Arteta could have done it, but decided to keep them and now he & Edu should take responsibility when these players make mistakes, get red cards, etc. "Arteta good players bad" got old months ago, when we were 15th in December HairSpair was telling me that we had the worst squad in the league and Arteta was over-performing.
And it's not our job to scout a Xhaka replacement, but the club decided to sack our scout department, so I wish them luck to outsmart the market using the current set-up. Still you are acting like Xhaka is some top player and you need 50m to replace him.
My opinion: In our current financial/league situation the club shouldn't have waste 50m/250k a week on Partey and shouldn't have given Auba a new monster deal, instead of overpaing for an instant success try to find underrated players for reasonable fees/wages just like Liverpool/Leicester.
 
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say yes

forum master baiter
I didn't say he should have sold Xhaka and the other usual suspects, I said that Arteta could have done it, but decided to keep them and now he & Edu should take responsibility when these players make mistakes, get red cards, etc. "Arteta good players bad" got old months ago, when we were 15th in December HairSpair was telling me that we had the worst squad in the league and Arteta was over-performing.
And it's not our job to scout a Xhaka replacement, but the club decided to sack our scout department, so I wish them luck to outsmart the market using the current set-up. Still you are acting like Xhaka is some top player and you need 50m to replace him.
My opinion: In our current financial situation the club shouldn't have waste 50m/250k a week on Partey and shouldn't have given Auba a new monster deal, try to find underrated players for a reasonable fee just like Liverpool/Leicester.
Fair enough for actually suggesting something, although I don’t think many would agree with not signing Partey and not renewing Auba.

And I think you’re being a bit naive as to how much Arteta could have changed so far. He’s had one summer transfer window, the market was dead and we were literally having to pay players to leave. This isn’t football manager ffs.
 

Makingtrax

Worships in the house of Wenger 🙏
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Country: England

Player:Saliba
So to summarise the last few pages:

-The difference in spending between the top teams and lower teams has never been greater in the whole history of the prem . . . but apparently the lower teams are making the league harder for Arteta

-Wenger needed to go because he couldn't keep in the top 4, Emery needed to go in just a matter of months because he couldn't get top 4, but Arteta at 10th should be supported.

-Arsène and Emery were to blame for mistakes made by players, but Arteta is not, it's all the players fault, even though we've spent nearly £300m on players in just the last 3 years
 
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GDeep™

League is very weak
Moving into a rookie stadium, with no past experience of having a football team in it, killed us really.

Should have stayed at Highbury, it had the experience, it had the qualifications of winning titles...such a shame :(
Don’t know why you always post this? How would staying in a 30’000 stadium helped us when wages and transfer fees started going up and rival clubs got taken over by Arab, Russian and American sugar daddies?
 

Riou

In The Winchester, Waiting For This To Blow Over

Country: Northern Ireland

Player:Gabriel
I doubt it would have made us compete any better, I just wish we stayed in it as I loved Highbury.
 

scytheavatar

Established Member
Option 4 figure out which one of Willock/AMN/Guendouzi you like best and give them the minutes Elneny and Ceballos have received. You can't convince me that at least one of them isn't better than those 2. If they turn out to be not good enough at least they've been in the shop window to move along this summer.

Two of these players (AMN and Guendouzi) are struggling in teams that are fighting relegation. Willock is not even playing as a center mid, more as an attacking mid. So how can they replace Elneny and Ceballos?
 

Harz

Active Member
We do? He was a lazy waster who had 4 assists in his last two seasons here, and is now flopping badly in the Turkish league.

He’s absolutely finished as a player.
People like to think that he's standing for certain virtues and values, but he's just a dictator-backing oligarch-befriending neo-Ottoman backwards-thinking sleazy **** who should just go into politics already. He's an absolute laughing stock in Turkish football -- he almost derailed Fenerbahce's title push before getting injured.
 

AberGooner

Established Member
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Country: Scotland

Player:Gabriel
Two of these players (AMN and Guendouzi) are struggling in teams that are fighting relegation. Willock is not even playing as a center mid, more as an attacking mid. So how can they replace Elneny and Ceballos?
Willock has played both CM and AM for Newcastle but all his best work for them has been when coming from a deeper position. He's been their best player since he signed for them. AMN has had some good games for WBA in a poor side, they've certainly looked a lot more solid since he came into the side. I haven't watched Guendouzi at Hertha but know that when he played for us he looked a good talent with courage on the ball.

Knowing now that this season has been a write off in the league you don't think it would have been better to develop those 3 in the hope that they turn out to be something? If not fair enough, they're still young enough to try and sell on. It's better than persisting with Ceballos/Elneny who we knew last season are never going to be good enough.
 

<<reed>>

Lidl Tir Na Nog
Two of these players (AMN and Guendouzi) are struggling in teams that are fighting relegation. Willock is not even playing as a center mid, more as an attacking mid. So how can they replace Elneny and Ceballos?
At least Willock, AMN and Guendouzi are young players who belong to the club and might improve.
Elneny has been at Arsenal for 5 years and has done nothing, Ceballos and Ødegaard will leave in the summer.
We are making expensive short-term deals to get back into Top 4 and falling even further.
 
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dashsnow17

Doesn’t Rate Any Of Our Attackers
Trusted ⭐
I doubt it would have made us compete any better, I just wish we stayed in it as I loved Highbury.

Riou we'd all have loved to stay there, no one wanted to leave Highbury as such, but can you imagine if we were as bad as we are now and we were playing in an old-fashioned 38,000 seat stadium with no CL football? We might not forget, but trust me world football would soon forget we're a big club. The fact we play in a modern 60,000 seat stadium frankly helps keep us relevant.
 

A_G

Rice Rice Baby 🎼🎵
A-M CL Draft Campeón 🏆
Aren’t you saying they are spending more so the league is more competitive? Everybody is spending more. Our net spend is one of the highest in Europe since Wenger left.
I said in another post that Raul/Sven did a poor job of recruiting in 2018 and 2019.
 

Blood on the Tracks

AG's best friend, role model and mentor.
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Country: England

Player:Rice
I think it's fair to take Arteta to task for some of our squad issues. Not selling Xhaka for example. If Hertha were actually offering £26m for him then we could and should have upgraded.

Willian is a lot of captain hindsight. I along with most was okay with signing him at the time, he's a player of proven pedigree. The issue was the contract length. He's failed to live up to expectations so far but lets not forget he's our leading assist maker in the PL.

Selling Auba would have been ludicrous. He's a 25 goal a year striker. He's one of the best finishers in the world. Given our financial issues it would have been impossible to sign another striker at his level. If Arteta wanted to sell Auba when he was open to signing a new contract, Arteta should haven been sacked on the spot.

There's still some pretty major work to do in the summer. Probably 2 CM's. A starting RB upgrade. Back up striker if Laca goes. Back up LB. This is doable in normal times at a stretch, with the financial implications of Covid-19 we're going to be leaving ourselves short somewhere next season. I think we have to be realistic and prepare for that.
 

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