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Standards

avenellroad

John Radford’s son

Just watching this video above, I've been reminded of how standards at the club have fallen significantly over the last 16 years. To think Thierry says here finishing 4th isn't acceptable for a club like Arsenal...and then everything that happened after this point.

Of course, the reasons are multi-factorial, not least the stadium which hamstrung the club for years but has also become an easy get out of jail card for the ownership and management.

Mentality is overlooked in our downfall. We have become a club which has settled and settled until we've reached the predicament that we're currently in. Can one player (a Bruno type) restore that mentality and drag this club up back to where it should be, or are wholesale changes needed at every level?

Obviously Arteta is still a work in progress and we have to accept where we are at present...but I guess just seeing the above video made me slightly emotional. What we were and what we've become...
 

avenellroad

John Radford’s son
Mentality has a massive part to play in how a team performs.

Completely agree that a Bruno type will make a huge difference, as the current group of players don’t have the ability to drag anyone out of a hole. Everyone is happy to shift responsibility onto the other. A mirror image of Arteta, looking for excuses rather than addressing problems that have been allowed to fester and develop.
 

OSBK

Established Member
A Bruno type player to disrupt things is critical

Totally agree but those players are rare now. Back then all the top teams had squads of elite mentality players. Not just utd, chelsea, arsenal but all the top european sides. Now in the modern game they are so rare, thats why you usually get 1 or maybe 2 a team. Even a team like barca, aside from messi then who is that standout elite mentality. It was only 8 years ago barca had 11 on the pitch every week.

Maybe alexis was our last one, insane mentality.

Maybe partey is the answer, if not then i dont know where we find it.
 

Big Poppa

Established Member
Trusted ⭐

Country: USA

Player:Saliba
Henry, Cole, Pires etc didn’t arrive here like that. They had lynchpin like Adams, Keown, Dixon etc who were like managers on the pitch to learn from.

Now we’ve got Bellerin as our Captain while David Luiz, Granit Xhaka and Holding are first names on the team sheet.

Standards indeed.
 

Riou

In The Winchester, Waiting For This To Blow Over

Country: Northern Ireland

Player:Gabriel
What a great day that was in 2006.

Finishing ahead of Sp**s on the last day, after a marvelous Champions League run when Arsenal could be spoken in the same breath as Real Madrid and Juventus...wonderful celebration afterwards, all our current and past legends ( will never forget that fan telling Cashley to **** off, when he was giving his boots away to a young kid :lol: ) tears in my eyes just thinking about it...was so confident going into that final, really bought in to the stadium move at the time...and thought winning the European Cup for the first time, was the send off Highbury deserved and would get.

But as that clip foreshadows, the Emirates move killed us more or less...wish we just stayed at Highbury, would it really have been any worse than what has happened to us since?

Don't dislike The Emirates, but it's not a patch on Highbury...absolutely beautiful stadium, was our soul...you can still feel the history of it even walking past it today.

Even if we still declined, I would rather have declined in a place I still feel is home, tbh.
 
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A_G

Rice Rice Baby 🎼🎵
A-M CL Draft Campeón 🏆
Mentality has a massive part to play in how a team performs.

Completely agree that a Bruno type will make a huge difference, as the current group of players don’t have the ability to drag anyone out of a hole. Everyone is happy to shift responsibility onto the other. A mirror image of Arteta, looking for excuses rather than addressing problems that have been allowed to fester and develop.

this spoke volumes
 

MikelHadADream

Established Member
Trusted ⭐
The standards are set from the top, and unfortunately the Kroenke's aren't committed to bringing this club back to the top level. There has been too much proof of that now.

We can blame the managers and players all we like, but they're the ones that ultimately make all of the decisions.
 

avenellroad

John Radford’s son
Think it was Ferdinand who said the Man Utd dressing rooms used to run themselves, and anyone bringing the standards down was told so in no uncertain times. It was probably similar for us around the 98 - 04 times.

We need players with character and fortitude along with talent. Talent is great but if you don't have the mental fortitude to pick things up or take a risk when things are low, we will never get to where we need to be.

Too many of these players are comfortable. Nice comfortable wage, living in London, and a directive to achieve the bare minimum in footballing terms. Where is the hunger there to take this club back to the top? There's none. Players are literally taking the piss when they join this football club....they couldn't give a **** about wanting to play here beyond the pay packet and all the other useless ****.
 

mirrorstare

Well-Known Member
The standards are set from the top, and unfortunately the Kroenke's aren't committed to bringing this club back to the top level. There has been too much proof of that now.

We can blame the managers and players all we like, but they're the ones that ultimately make all of the decisions.

Correct. It's his club and if he tells his employees there's no problem with a midtable finish. There won't be one. Even if the fans come back and revolt he can just ignore them if he wants, because it's his club, not the fans.

Squad wise, you can only hope a figure emerges like Yaya at City, who when they were building the project told those guys in explicit terms he was going to turn them into a top club and delivered. Now we laugh at vegan hipster Bellerin for not entirely fair reasons, but he seems on his way out anyway. Of our remaining players, none of our players has that kind of profile, you can tell in these recent games where instead of talking about improving they get to moan about the refs like children. It's sad to see.
 

Lidl_Reed

Wants a new name
Correct. It's his club and if he tells his employees there's no problem with a midtable finish. There won't be one. Even if the fans come back and revolt he can just ignore them if he wants, because it's his club, not the fans.

Squad wise, you can only hope a figure emerges like Yaya at City, who when they were building the project told those guys in explicit terms he was going to turn them into a top club and delivered. Now we laugh at vegan hipster Bellerin for not entirely fair reasons, but he seems on his way out anyway. Of our remaining players, none of our players has that kind of profile, you can tell in these recent games where instead of talking about improving they get to moan about the refs like children. It's sad to see.
It's sad that our big players like Bellerin are happy to just keep it to one goal against the big teams.
 

GDeep™

League is very weak

Just watching this video above, I've been reminded of how standards at the club have fallen significantly over the last 16 years. To think Thierry says here finishing 4th isn't acceptable for a club like Arsenal...and then everything that happened after this point.

Of course, the reasons are multi-factorial, not least the stadium which hamstrung the club for years but has also become an easy get out of jail card for the ownership and management.

Mentality is overlooked in our downfall. We have become a club which has settled and settled until we've reached the predicament that we're currently in. Can one player (a Bruno type) restore that mentality and drag this club up back to where it should be, or are wholesale changes needed at every level?

Obviously Arteta is still a work in progress and we have to accept where we are at present...but I guess just seeing the above video made me slightly emotional. What we were and what we've become...
A player drag the club? Football has changed. You mention Utd and Bruno but that is one of the most expensively assembled squads in Europe, no club in recent times have spent more.

Have said this for years but I’ll say it again, the culture comes from the up down, and under Stan we have been on a constant decline.

Those players in the video are winners and animals, but they were also playing for a club that was dynamic, ambitious, run well and doing all it could in its power to be the best. There is NOTHING more to it.

Since Wenger has left we have not signed a top player or manager, and changed the club structure many times.
 

avenellroad

John Radford’s son
The aftermath of this Villareal game has got me thinking about this. Standards is linked to accountability - and there is no accountability anymore at this club,

No one is held to any standard. At the start of the season the aim is to get top 4, which then becomes top 6, after which becomes top half of the table.

The amount of people at the club telling Arteta 'its ****ing unacceptable for Arsenal Football Club to be finishing 11th' is nada. Not the owners, not the CEO, no one. Everyone's happy to pay lip service with 'Trust the Process'.

Does anyone think this will wash at Man Utd or Liverpool? You are in European Semi Final and you put in one of the most wretched performances of the season. The press will be hammering these clubs and their managers will be under intense scrutiny.

Not at this club though. No one gives a ****, because no one in the club gives a **** about competing. It's all excuses - " Man City has more money, Chelsea had spent more than us this last summer so why should we expect to finish above them'.

A long time ago, Arsenal Football Club stood for something. Pride, not playing like pu**ies, playing to win. Not anymore.
 

Sapient Hawk

Can You Smell What The Hawk Is Cooking?
Trusted ⭐

Country: Saudi Arabia
The aftermath of this Villareal game has got me thinking about this. Standards is linked to accountability - and there is no accountability anymore at this club,

No one is held to any standard. At the start of the season the aim is to get top 4, which then becomes top 6, after which becomes top half of the table.

The amount of people at the club telling Arteta 'its ****ing unacceptable for Arsenal Football Club to be finishing 11th' is nada. Not the owners, not the CEO, no one. Everyone's happy to pay lip service with 'Trust the Process'.

Does anyone think this will wash at Man Utd or Liverpool? You are in European Semi Final and you put in one of the most wretched performances of the season. The press will be hammering these clubs and their managers will be under intense scrutiny.

Not at this club though. No one gives a ****, because no one in the club gives a **** about competing. It's all excuses - " Man City has more money, Chelsea had spent more than us this last summer so why should we expect to finish above them'.

A long time ago, Arsenal Football Club stood for something. Pride, not playing like pu**ies, playing to win. Not anymore.

A long time ago, Arsenal was a Football Club first & foremost. Now, sadly, football is an afterthought.
 

GoonerJay24

Well-Known Member
The aftermath of this Villareal game has got me thinking about this. Standards is linked to accountability - and there is no accountability anymore at this club,

No one is held to any standard. At the start of the season the aim is to get top 4, which then becomes top 6, after which becomes top half of the table.

The amount of people at the club telling Arteta 'its ****ing unacceptable for Arsenal Football Club to be finishing 11th' is nada. Not the owners, not the CEO, no one. Everyone's happy to pay lip service with 'Trust the Process'.

Does anyone think this will wash at Man Utd or Liverpool? You are in European Semi Final and you put in one of the most wretched performances of the season. The press will be hammering these clubs and their managers will be under intense scrutiny.

Not at this club though. No one gives a ****, because no one in the club gives a **** about competing. It's all excuses - " Man City has more money, Chelsea had spent more than us this last summer so why should we expect to finish above them'.

A long time ago, Arsenal Football Club stood for something. Pride, not playing like pu**ies, playing to win. Not anymore.

This is deliberate, from the press.

How many trophies have Man Utd won in the last five seasons?
 

avenellroad

John Radford’s son
This is deliberate, from the press.

How many trophies have Man Utd won in the last five seasons?
This sort of thinking is why we’re in the **** we’re in. Papering over cracks by winning the FA Cup. A good deal that’s done us.

Utd most likely will win the Europa this year and will be challenging for the league next year.

While we will be scrapping it out to finish in the top half of the table again. You’re happy with that I take it?
 

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