• ! ! ! IMPORTANT MESSAGE ! ! !

    Discussions about police investigations

    In light of recent developments about a player from Premier League being arrested and until there is an official announcement, ALL users should refrain from discussing or speculating about situations around personal off-pitch matters related to any Arsenal player. This is to protect you and the forum.

    Users who disregard this reminder will be issued warnings and their posts will get deleted from public.

Mikel Arteta: Top Of The Klopps

2Smokeyy

5.0 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (49)
Trusted ⭐

Country: England
Willian is simply a poor signing that hasn’t worked out at all. Now you have a former Chelsea player picking up his retirement money at Arsenal. No point swimming around the issue.

Many predicted all this in the summer too. Horrendously bad transfer.

Whilst some believed he was Chelsea’s player of the season last year and would be a fantastic acquisition.

:lol:

Shambolic.
 

Iceman10

Established Member
Learnt my lesson. Guy was in the form of his life post lockdown.

Once he got that bag from us that was it. G was right all along. Should’ve seen it coming.

There was quite some spin supporting his signing pushed out by the club and journos in their pockets that he would add value for the first one and a half seasons not to care about him falling off a cliff for the rest of his contract. Yeah, many of us bought the BS, shouln't have, but it is really Mikel who hopefully needs to learn a lesson more than anyone else.
 

Rex Stone

Long live the fighters
Trusted ⭐

Country: Wales
There was quite some spin supporting his signing pushed out by the club and journos in their pockets that he would add value for the first one and a half seasons not to care about him falling off a cliff for the rest of his contract. Yeah, many of us bought the BS, shouln't have, but it is really Mikel who hopefully needs to learn a lesson more than anyone else.

Needs to stand up to Edu if he was the one who brought him this deal.

It’s only his neck on the chopping block if these signings don’t improve us.
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
Dusted 🔻

Country: England
The first few pages of the Willian thread is hilarious btw. This was so obviously a bad signing I am sure it was more than just football that brought him here.
 

mirrorstare

Well-Known Member
It would be relevant if you weren't pinning the same contract renewal shenanigans on Auba and Laca and whoever dares to ask a contract renewal next. It wasn't the case even with Özil but now is suddenly a constant at this club. Why? Because of course it can't be our rookie manager's fault.

This boring nonsene allows Arteta to walk scot free for ruining our attacking game and make every single player underperform, even those that aren't playing out of his skin for a new contract or got too comfortable with their recent extensions like Pepe or Nelson or Nketiah.

In the end it's just more of the same, a manager not competent enough to get the best of his players and a silly fanbase that believes having 2 managers not fit for the club in a row is completely impossible, so absurd excuses need to be made to protect him at all costs.
 

Blankety Blank

emoji merchant
Transition from what to what? Because while I don’t disagree. The question is where are we headed. Presently the transition seems to be 6th to 8th to 10th. Not exactly progressive.
Not the kind of transition that most would welcome either.
Sometimes you have to take stock and accept a step back before moving forward. I think people underestimate what a big job it is to totally change the culture and get the right squad balance. I also think people underestimate how good/competitive it is in the EPL . Im confident if we support & stick with the manager we will see improvement in consistency and in a couple of seasons be challenging top 4 again. The problem is nowadays many people have NO PATIENCE and lack the required insight or perhaps intelligence to see the bigger picture.
 

Anders Harbo

Angry Scandinavian #6
We are lucky to have him. Yes, he’s made some bad signings. But in general I see a lot of progress. There’s a ruthlessness about him, when players don’t follow the rules of conduct - Auba eg. That ruthlessness is absolutely imperative, if you want to build a winning mentality. We lacked that for so many years.
If you doubt, how the players feel about him, watch the Big interview with Tierney on the official website. There’s your answer.
 

Blood on the Tracks

AG's best friend, role model and mentor.
Trusted ⭐

Country: England

Player:Rice
I don’t think I’m going over the top, I just think we’ve shown that we don’t need him hence the money we’ve spent on him, is a waste. Let’s ignore the ratio of sign on fee vs weekly salary and say he’s costing us 31M over 3 years.

Again, since December when the team started playing football, he hasn’t been awful but he’s clearly looked a level below Pepe, ESR, Saka and Martinelli when played on the wing.

I was one of those who actually thought Willian was a decent signing this summer so I don’t take pride in saying he’s been an absolutely pointless transfer.

I was in the same boat as you in the summer in regards to signing Willian. Definitely hasn't panned out the way anyone was hoping overall.

As purely player I'm fine with him as a back up / rotation option. Though he definitely should be below ESR, Pepe, Saka, Martinelli in the pecking order next season if he stays.

I guess when you factor in wages you'd want to move Willian on in the summer. We can bring someone else in who can fill that role adequately for probably less than half of Willian's wages.

I'm in no way trying to defend Willian, he's definitely been disappointing considering what we thought we were getting. I just think some people ( Not you) have gone a bit overboard with it. It feels like some peoples judgements on him were set in stone by Christmas.
 

Iceman10

Established Member
Sometimes you have to take stock and accept a step back before moving forward. I think people underestimate what a big job it is to totally change the culture and get the right squad balance. I also think people underestimate how good/competitive it is in the EPL . Im confident if we support & stick with the manager we will see improvement in consistency and in a couple of seasons be challenging top 4 again. The problem is nowadays many people have NO PATIENCE and lack the required insight or perhaps intelligence to see the bigger picture.

There definitely has been a culture at Arsenal to fix, but the problem is it is fine for Pep or Mourinho at super-rich clubs that can throw hundreds of millions away here and there by marginalising big assets, flogging them off, and replacing them with expensive replacements in a compressed period of time. At other clubs, including ours, there is a pragmatic balance to be found. We can’t afford to depreciate assets through an aggressive pathway without consequences felt financially in a way City or United wouldn’t.

A lot of this I think is minimising depreciation of assets you want to get rid of mid-season. Quietly just get things done ruthlessly and efficiently during the transfer windows. You can see how Mourinho is struggling at Spuds because he would like to turnover around six players in his first team squad asap, but he can’t, and his lack of flexibility is resulting in a nightmare for Spuds where assets have been depreciated left rotting on the bench a lot. I’m not saying Arteta is as bad as Mourinho in terms of rigidity, but it is the subtlety of understanding Arsenal cannot do exactly the same things a club like City can.
 

Penn_

Established Member
Trusted ⭐
There’s definitely been improvements compared to late Emery, even Wenger who are think people forget just how poor we were in those last couple of seasons.

Not sure his matched the peak of Emery, as we did have some standout games.

Next season will be the one though. You have to learn fast in this business and another mid table finish won’t cut it, barring of course a CL win.
 

CaseUteinberger

Established Member

Country: Sweden
Sometimes you have to take stock and accept a step back before moving forward. I think people underestimate what a big job it is to totally change the culture and get the right squad balance. I also think people underestimate how good/competitive it is in the EPL . Im confident if we support & stick with the manager we will see improvement in consistency and in a couple of seasons be challenging top 4 again. The problem is nowadays many people have NO PATIENCE and lack the required insight or perhaps intelligence to see the bigger picture.
Agree + you should post more often! Member since 2004 and <100 posts. Just pulling your leg! 😉
 
Top Bottom