Did we do good business last summer?

[BigPoppaPump]

You bum squaders are just p!ssed that you're never right.

Weren't right about what would happen when you forced Wenger out, weren't right about Emery, weren't right about last years transfer window, aren't right about buying Kia's 'has beens'.

Must be a miserable existance.

People never cut Arsène as much slack as they cut these current guys.

Arteta didn’t even improve us in the league but people going on like he’s been some revelation. Really the players been performing at the same level under Arsène, Emery and Arteta.

 

[Trilly]

You bum squaders are just p!ssed that you're never right.

Weren't right about what would happen when you forced Wenger out, weren't right about Emery, weren't right about last years transfer window, aren't right about buying Kia's 'has beens'.

Must be a miserable existance.

I doubt you know my opinion on each thing you just listed, you’re just assuming.

I definitely didn’t force Wenger out though, his own ineptitude and decline as a manager did that.

 

[Trilly]

Really the players been performing at the same level under Arsène, Emery and Arteta.

All I can do is laugh at this one.

You’ve gone full agenda. Never go full agenda bro.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

All I can do is laugh at this one.

You’ve gone full agenda. Never go full agenda bro.

Why did all 3 revert to 3 at the back? Arteta took us from 10th to 8th compare that to how Mourinho improved Sp**s.

The mood has been better with Arteta around but the results in the league been similar to Emery’s results. I don’t think we been that impressive.

 

[Rex Stone]

We had this exact debate last summer . . we needed a quality midfielder to replace Ramsey, and two better CBs. Not a loanee and yet another rash CB.

What would you have done?

No I don’t think we did. Pretty sure at the time I said how much we needed a midfielder because losing Iwobi, Mkhitaryan, Ramsey and Özil falling off meant there was no creativity or energy in the midfield.

I think you took offence that I used the word “myopic” in saying that we had other areas in the squad we needed to invest in beyond the defence where we had 6 senior CBs at the start of the season.

 

[Makingtrax]

No I don’t think we did. Pretty sure at the time I said how much we needed a midfielder because losing Iwobi, Mkhitaryan, Ramsey and Özil falling off meant there was no creativity or energy in the midfield.

I think you took offence that I used the word “myopic” in saying that we had other areas in the squad we needed to invest in beyond the defence where we had 6 senior CBs at the start of the season.

I think you used word myopic when you gave me a lecture about not understanding how a winger/midfielder would improve our current defence, when I suggested we'd be better off addressing the CB situation.

"Because it’s extremely myopic to attribute a poor defensive record solely on defenders."

So we bought Pepe and got in Ceballos to replace Ramsey. How well did they improve Mustafi/Sokratis and Luiz's blunders overall?

To some extent I think you're right if the problems with the defence is caused just by excessive pressure. But I've watched this guys do crazy things for long enough, particularly Mustafi, even when not under pressure.

 

[Makingtrax]

I doubt you know my opinion on each thing you just listed, you’re just assuming.

I definitely didn’t force Wenger out though, his own ineptitude and decline as a manager did that.

Very hard not to know your opinions as you've been posing them almost daily for years. It's not like I'm guessing or anything.

And you're still wrong about Wenger. His decline was orchestrated by people who thought top 4 was a big yawn.

 

[Trilly]

Why did all 3 revert to 3 at the back? Arteta took us from 10th to 8th compare that to how Mourinho improved Sp**s.

The mood has been better with Arteta around but the results in the league been similar to Emery’s results. I don’t think we been that impressive.

I’ll leave Wenger out of it for now.

But to say Arteta is getting the same out of this set of players as Emery is madness. Ignore league positions and just look at what he’s done.

 

[Trilly]

Very hard not to know your opinions as you've been posing them almost daily for years. It's not like I'm guessing or anything.

And you're still wrong about Wenger. His decline was orchestrated by people who thought top 4 was a big yawn.

Of course ‘we’ were right about Wenger. He had clearly declined, the club was in free fall. Emery being a bad appointment doesn’t in any way vindicate Wenger you know?

I don’t think I had any strong opinions on Emery until he bottled the run-in and the Europa final.

I still think we had a good window last year, no team has the divine right to have every signing they make come off but Tierney alone makes that a good window for me, if Pepe builds on what he’s shown then it’s an excellent one. Four players we signed this summer played a big part in our FA Cup. That’s a relatively good window for me.

 

[Iceman10]

We weren’t supposed to fall behind United and Chelsea based on where we were last summer. I guess some of that can be dumped on Emery, rightly, more than the transfer strategy but Pepe and Ceballos were not great first half of the season and we lacked a CB with the Saliba gambit.

Yes, we won the FA Cup, but that doesn’t magically make Luiz a success. At best we can probably call Luiz an ok signing for a smallish fee and stop-gap due to Kos leaving us in the lurch.

Martinelli was a great signing. Tierney coming off injury didn’t help much for the PL, but we can still say he looks to be a great value signing.

All told, I would lean no. If Pepe is breakout next season we may be able to revisit, but a 70m fee, even if payments were spread, arguably could have been spent on a more ready player, and that could have given us up to 40m more transfer budget this summer if the alternative helped secure a higher PL placing

 

[Makingtrax]

Of course ‘we’ were right about Wenger. He had clearly declined, the club was in free fall. Emery

Wrong again. The club was 2nd in 2015/16 until the campaign to take him out started in earnest. That's not free fall, it was consistency and you said as much yourself in 2016.
'I'm convinced that any good manager (Koeman for example) could come in and improve Arsenal but taking that risk is something I couldn't do. I'm willing to stick with his consistency but I also think we won't be winning a PL/CL under him.'
I agree with the last part. But that won't happen under anybody with our spend, we need a much better squad and the last window certainly did us few favours in the short term.

 

[Macho]

Arteta didn’t even improve us in the league but people going on like he’s been some revelation. Really the players been performing at the same level under Arsène, Emery and Arteta.

I actually wholeheartedly agree with this.

Even statistically, it seems to be the case.

The improvement of Arsenal’s defence under Arteta is superficial
https://theathletic.com/1945591/202...-defensive-record/?source=user_shared_article

That run Arteta has been on though, Pool, City, FA cup final makes it out as things are better than they are though. Even he himself knows.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Probably in the long term most of the signings will turn out to be good. But for the short term we didn't really address the immediate issues in the squad. We went into the season without an LW, midfield was still a bit weak, defence definitely weak and lets not forget Tierney and Bellerin were both injured. So in that sense we started the season with a lot of issues so in that respect can you really say the business we did was sufficient? Absolutely not. It doesn't mean that the signings were bad per se but we simply didn't do enough for what we needed. Finishing 8th proves that as much as Emery and the unwillingness the sack him when we needed to contributed also.

 

[Riou]

Wrong again. The club was 2nd in 2015/16 until the campaign to take him out started in earnest. That's not free fall, it was consistency and you said as much yourself in 2016.
'I'm convinced that any good manager (Koeman for example) could come in and improve Arsenal but taking that risk is something I couldn't do. I'm willing to stick with his consistency but I also think we won't be winning a PL/CL under him.'
I agree with the last part. But that won't happen under anybody with our spend, we need a much better squad.

Klopp has spent around £380.5 million at Liverpool, but made £299.5 million back...that's amazing to win the Champions League and Premier League at just a £81 million loss on transfers.

Goes to show how terrible we have been in selling the last decade or so, hopefully that's something we can improve under Arteta as it could be a way to succeed.

 

[Oxeki]

Last summer was a solid 7/10. Only mistake was sticking with Emery

 

[Makingtrax]

Klopp has spent around £380.5 million at Liverpool, but made £299.5 million back...that's amazing to win the Champions League and Premier League at just a £81 million loss on transfers.

Goes to show how terrible we have been in selling the last decade or so, hopefully that's something we can improve under Arteta as it could be a way to succeed.

This. They've had a much bigger turn over of players and a mountain of loans. Their sales in the last decade was around £650m, ours only £385m. They struck gold with Suarez and Coutinho though, which bumps their figures up.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

I actually wholeheartedly agree with this.

Even statistically, it seems to be the case.

The improvement of Arsenal’s defence under Arteta is superficial
https://theathletic.com/1945591/202...-defensive-record/?source=user_shared_article

That run Arteta has been on though, Pool, City, FA cup final makes it out as things are better than they are though. Even he himself knows.

@Trilly

 

[Trilly]

Wrong again. The club was 2nd in 2015/16 until the campaign to take him out started in earnest. That's not free fall, it was consistency and you said as much yourself in 2016.
'I'm convinced that any good manager (Koeman for example) could come in and improve Arsenal but taking that risk is something I couldn't do. I'm willing to stick with his consistency but I also think we won't be winning a PL/CL under him.'
I agree with the last part. But that won't happen under anybody with our spend, we need a much better squad and the last window certainly did us few favours in the short term.

So you think us finishing 5th and 6th in Wenger’s final season was due to fans? I mean it’s a bit of stretch...also that second place finish is the same year Leicester won. Something you’ve always agreed was an anomaly year.

I think that quote from me in 2016 sums it up though. He was consistent up to that point, when the consistency dropped he was pushed out of the CL by Poch and Klopp. Two managers on the rise who at the time were also outperforming their squad cost.

 

[Trilly]

@Trilly

One of the reasons why I’m not 100% on the Arteta bandwagon yet.

There are some logical defences that were made for him though that I can’t remember. Something to do with penalties and individual errors.

This is a case of the eye test not supporting the stats though. Emery would never have been able to shut down City (one shot on target in the semi) and Chelsea (no shots on target after the 10th minute) like Arteta did.

Let’s see what happens next season but any one thinking Emery = Arteta is in the minority atm.

 

[Trilly]

Goes to show how terrible we have been in selling the last decade or so, hopefully that's something we can improve under Arteta as it could be a way to succeed.

Everyone on here starts crying at the slightest hint of selling a non-contributing asset so I don’t know what they really want.