The Unpopular Opinion Thread

[progman07]

Probably unpopular opinion, but the Xhaka booing incident made damage to the Club which cannot be solved short-term.

Regardless of the context, it must be hard to see your teammate (and friend) booed off like that, especially after some of the abuse they receive on the internet. How can you recover and give 110% to the Club, after seeing that?

Put yourself the question - would you willingly play for the fanbase in the Emirates? They even used to boo Ramsey as well, FFS. The guy who never gave less than his best.

(it's not personal, I know not everyone is negative in the stadium, I know people who spend X money, are entitled to their opinion, but if you are there and you want to express it, why not just leave the game? Is booing really necessary?)

 

[Riou]

Probably unpopular opinion, but the Xhaka booing incident made damage to the Club which cannot be solved short-term.

Regardless of the context, it must be hard to see your teammate (and friend) booed off like that, especially after some of the abuse they receive on the internet. How can you recover and give 110% to the Club, after seeing that?

Put yourself the question - would you willingly play for the fanbase in the Emirates? They even used to boo Ramsey as well, FFS. The guy who never gave less than his best.

(it's not personal, I know not everyone is negative in the stadium, I know people who spend X money, are entitled to their opinion, but if you are there and you want to express it, why not just leave the game? Is booing really necessary?)

Don’t like booing...but if you walk of the pitch very slowly when we aren’t winning a game, after consistently poor performances, you open that possibility up...plus Eboue got booed in 2009, and we recovered together to get top four that season.

Also, almost all of our players who aren’t teenagers leaving, will help the club massively in the long term anyway

 

[Bloodbather]

Pep Guardiola is the most influential manager of all time.

The masterminds behind his football philosophy are the most influential managers of all-time. Johan Cruyff and Rinus Michels.

 

[freeglennhelder2]

Probably unpopular opinion, but the Xhaka booing incident made damage to the Club which cannot be solved short-term.

Regardless of the context, it must be hard to see your teammate (and friend) booed off like that, especially after some of the abuse they receive on the internet. How can you recover and give 110% to the Club, after seeing that?

Put yourself the question - would you willingly play for the fanbase in the Emirates? They even used to boo Ramsey as well, FFS. The guy who never gave less than his best.

(it's not personal, I know not everyone is negative in the stadium, I know people who spend X money, are entitled to their opinion, but if you are there and you want to express it, why not just leave the game? Is booing really necessary?)

? We were 1000 feet deep in the sh1t before this incident. Let’s say it pushed us down to 1100 feet. Maybe slightly damaging but not even a blip the grand mire.

Can I just say a similar thing happened to Özil in the last game - although he didnt throw all his toys out the pram. Just one or two

Maybe best approach is players don’t trudge off slowly? It’s not that difficult. If you have a grievance take it up in the manager’s office after the game. It just looks like you have an abject disregard for the paying fans when you do it.

 

[Pepes blue pill]

Arsenal fans are the worst in the prem along with west hams

 

[UpTheGunnerz]

Eriksen is way better than özil

 

[Pepes blue pill]

Eriksen is way better than özil

Both are overrated, Özil miles better at his best though

 

[Eaststander74]

Probably unpopular opinion, but the Xhaka booing incident made damage to the Club which cannot be solved short-term.

Regardless of the context, it must be hard to see your teammate (and friend) booed off like that, especially after some of the abuse they receive on the internet. How can you recover and give 110% to the Club, after seeing that?

Put yourself the question - would you willingly play for the fanbase in the Emirates? They even used to boo Ramsey as well, FFS. The guy who never gave less than his best.

(it's not personal, I know not everyone is negative in the stadium, I know people who spend X money, are entitled to their opinion, but if you are there and you want to express it, why not just leave the game? Is booing really necessary?)

That's not an unpopular opinion, that's just a bit of weep about Xhaka getting boo'd, a stance against the effects of booing and a dig at our fans. Post belongs in the Xhaka thread tbh.

 

[irishgunnerz]

It's fine here. Have seen many (far too many) try to justify booing one of our own without even stopping to consider the impact on the rest of the squad. Xhaka wasn't the only one impacted but the number of 'fans' who seen nothing wrong with making a bad situation worse was depressing. Not to mention the fact quite a few of those booing dismissed fans who did not as sheep.

Personally think you can protest all you want after the game but booing your own players just creates a toxic environment that's counterproductive and has an impact way beyond the individual player.

Maybe an unpopular opinion is that some of our fans ( vocal minrotiy) have contributed to an environment where some of our players don't seem to give a **** anymore. Hard to feel motivated for a cause if you see team mates being abused on twitter and booed from the stands.

 

[boyinneedofhumor]

The recent few managers we had were classy/dignified. (Emery included).
When separating the results from the individual...

 

[OmegaOs]

The masterminds behind his football philosophy are the most influential managers of all-time. Johan Cruyff and Rinus Michels.

Cryuff and Michels never won a world cup. Look at how in every country that Pep is in, that country wins a world cup or comes close to it. When he was in Barcelona, Spain dominated the international scene, when in Bayern, Germany won the world cup, when he came to City, England came closest to winning the world cup since 90. Obviously, its a simplistic view of looking at influence, maybe he's at the right place at the right time but I can't think of a manager that has influenced club and country football simultaneously like Pep has.

 

[Bloodbather]

Cryuff and Michels never won a world cup. Look at how in every country that Pep is in, that country wins a world cup or comes close to it. When he was in Barcelona, Spain dominated the international scene, when in Bayern, Germany won the world cup, when he came to City, England came closest to winning the world cup since 90. Obviously, its a simplistic view of looking at influence, maybe he's at the right place at the right time but I can't think of a manager that has influenced club and country football simultaneously like Pep has.

Michels reached a World Cup Final and won a European Championship. He did the former right after coaching Ajax to three consecutive European Cup titles and moving to Barcelona. It's pretty funny to give Guardiola credit for international titles won by teams he was not in charge of, while discrediting the great level of success Michels had in international tournaments actually coaching the team himself.

Guardiola obviously deserves credit for his influence on the dominance of the Spanish national team between 08-12, but it's laughable to give him credit for Germany winning the World Cup. Bayern München destroyed Barcelona the previous season, beating them 7-0 on aggregate in UCL Semis, and gegenpressing was shown to be the way to deal with tiki-taka. Guardiola was widely criticized in 13-14 for having taken the wind out of the sails of Heynckes' Bayern by replacing their counter-attack heavy football with possession play. Germany won that World Cup by playing anti-Guardiola football in a way, likewise Netherlands destroyed Spain employing a similar strategy. If you are going to point to someone for their influence on the Germans' victory, it should be Jupp Heynckes and Jürgen Klopp.

Lastly, I think you missed the point of my post. Guardiola's football philosophy originates in Michels and Cruyff. Michels and Cruyff both moved to Barcelona after dominating the European Cup with Ajax. Later down the road Cruyff took charge of Barcelona himself and rebuilt La Masia around his football philosophy. Both Rijkaard and Guardiola were handpicked by Cruyff himself despite not being Joan Laporta's desired candidates for the managing job.

 

[Camron]

Arteta will turn Mustafi into one of the best PL defenders.

 

[Riou]

Arsène Wenger’s best period was 1997-2006, not 2006-2015.

He did some very good work during the later period, but winning Doubles/European Finals/going Unbeaten, is just better...someone needs to tell Big Wengz this!

Weird that this feels like an unpopular opinion to me, but it really does

 

[Mrs Bergkamp]

Arsène Wenger’s best period was 1997-2006, not 2006-2015.

He did some very good work during the later period, but winning Doubles/European Finals/going Unbeaten, is just better...someone needs to tell Big Wengz this!

Weird that this feels like an unpopular opinion to me, but it really does

The first period was more successful in terms of trophies. The second period had arguably the better football style which gave us our Barca lite nickname. 2016-2018 is when lack of proper investment and Gazidis did us in.

 

[Riou]

The first period was more successful in terms of trophies. The second period had arguably the better football style which gave us our Barca lite nickname. 2016-2018 is when lack of proper investment and Gazidis did us in.

Not even joking, our recruitment from the summer of 2015 on, has been basically relegation level...some absolutely terrible players signed, while others weren't really at all what we needed!

Hoping this can be a turning point now, even if it's a long road back, as long as we are going in the right direction I will be happy.

 

[OmegaOs]

Tierney would be better off being developed into a CB. Yes, he's short for a CB but I believe he has a lot of tools to play there and become geniunely top class. I think all that intense running he does at fullback contributes to his long injury list. He needs to do a Monreal and keep his career going for as long as possible

 

[Garrincha]

I love the unhappy players, fractions in the squad, booing & general tension round the club at the mo.

When you are **** its exactly how it should be. Let them sink, swim or jump ship.

 

[scytheavatar]

It's fine here. Have seen many (far too many) try to justify booing one of our own without even stopping to consider the impact on the rest of the squad. Xhaka wasn't the only one impacted but the number of 'fans' who seen nothing wrong with making a bad situation worse was depressing. Not to mention the fact quite a few of those booing dismissed fans who did not as sheep.

Personally think you can protest all you want after the game but booing your own players just creates a toxic environment that's counterproductive and has an impact way beyond the individual player.

Maybe an unpopular opinion is that some of our fans ( vocal minrotiy) have contributed to an environment where some of our players don't seem to give a **** anymore. Hard to feel motivated for a cause if you see team mates being abused on twitter and booed from the stands.

Any player who sides with Xhaka rather than the fans can follow Xhaka to his midtable Bundersliga club, where he belongs. Rather than blame the fans perhaps the players should be asking themselves why Mr Hold The House Keys Xhaka needs to be protected as some precious snowflake, and whether he actually is a good role model for the players of a big club.

 

[Manberg]

I don’t think Cazorla would make a good coach. Love the player but he doesn’t seem like the coach type.