When will Arteta be sacked by

[Shaqiri Is Boss]

Indeed. We were shitting ourselves when they got to the final in 2019

I was anyway!

You're welcome

[IBK]

We are not being outspent by Liverpool or Chelsea (Chelsea have been constrained for at least 3 seasons now). We just waste our money. We did not improve our midfield or attack and instead spent on areas we were already stocked like in defence. Has Ramsdale improved us significantly, has Ben White?. Gabriel has been our most dependable defender and he scores goals too. Would Saliba a French international not have been a better addition this season instead of the 50m spent on White that could have given us more bodies in midfield where we are weakest. We spent 75m on Pepe a player not wanted by Emery at the time and discarded by Arteta almost since he arrived. What the other teams like City and Chelsea do is offer higher wages than we generally do but then again we had our 350kpw man (Ozil)for over 4 years until last year and promptly replaced him with Auba. We comfortably outspend the Spuds. Arsenal have no business pleading poverty.


We are a badly run business enterprise saved only by the fact that despite fiscal recklessness we are still a money spinner thanks to the captive addicted fanbase prepared to leverage themselves to keep supporting the club. It is a dwindling fanbase mind you as the new generation outside the UK shores are not keen to line up behind a never do well entity. We will lose the next generation as surely as the previous generation were lured to Arsenal by the exploits of Bergkamp, Henry and Vieira.

First, in terms of player purchases we have been outspent by Chelsea over the past 5 seasons. Also (FWIW) the teams above us have all spent significantly more on managers during this period.

Second, you reference Liverpool - who have managed to hit the motherload with a generational manager who has been a perfect fit for that club (a bit like early Wenger for us) and is therefore IMO an unrealistic comparison - unless you assume that Arsenal should have achieved perfection - and Sp*rs, who despite spending ridiculous amounts on different managers (up to 2021 they had paid £90M in payouts to sacked managers over the previous 10 years and this figure has increased since) have won precisely nothing and despite scraping CL football this season will finish a maximum of 4 points above us.

That said, I don't think anyone would argue that in terms of how the club is run we haven't been a shambles for most of this period. Our net spend figures have been poor because yes we have made some bad player investments, and in particular have taken big losses on outgoing players rather than this being a source of income as it has been for Liverpool.

But I think we need to see this in context. The very reason for many of our most eye catching transfer disasters has been the quick fix - hoping that spunking cash on 'star' names will bring success. So in many ways your legitimate criticism of our transfer policy up until last year is a compelling argument for the change in approach that we are now seeing at Arsenal - trying to recruit young talent to build medium term success in a new project. Unfortunately, because of mistakes at executive and at football level we were in a mess, and our losses on players who did not fit the Areta project is a result of this.

Finally, none of the most critical analysis of the club acknowledges the massively damaging effect of losing a generational manager whose influence over the club was total. The convulsions of this have taken years to address - not least because Wenger was coach, manager director of football and effectively part chief executive at our club. We can criticise the lack of planning at board level - the further destabilising effect of Gazidis jumping ship; the inexperience of our owners - all we like, but it doesn;t change the fact that we are having to come back from a situation of near total chaos.

Your criticisms of individual players may be valid in some ways, but in others ignore the fact that in many cases they were bought for their potential; can be expected to improve and are part of a development project that for me at least is the sensible way to try to progress.

We have been a badly run business enterprise, but it's unfair to ignore the improved direction of travel over the past year, and too soon IMO to write the current regime off...or for doom-mongery regarding the future.

[Chippy]

You're welcome

[Chippy]

Possibly arrogant/dismissive of me, but whilst I was deflated when they turned the game around in Amsterdam at no point did I ever believe they would ever win in the final even when they were on top of Liverpool in big parts of that game.
I celebrated when Origi got the second goal but it wasn’t relief it was just confirmation of what I expected to happen

The Ajax game was on my birthday and my son told me Ajax were 2-0 up. A premature extra celebratory drink turned to despair when his face said it all at 2-3. Talk about ruining one's Birthday

[Mac76]

I think that there are 2 problems with those Gooners who are most vocal about Arteta's regime being a failure. First while its easy to be critical, there is often far less offered regarding what they would do differently, within the constraints of the club.

what I would have done differently:

1. not alienate/dismiss some squad members, e.g. Pepe, so that when they're called upon they can't give their best
2. have more than Eddie and Laca to rely upon up front since Jan (yes Eddie's come good on occasions but he's not consistent enough to rely upon all the time) - instead of buying Taveres we coul d have signed a striker - also we should not have loaned Balogun out
3. not sold a highly useful utility player like Chambers which means we've been stuck with Cedric
4. not have made Xhaka first on the team sheet, when he's cost us a lot of points this season through sendings off and goal-creating errors
5. not have run players like Saka into the ground
6. adopted more sensible formations for certain games, e.g. he should have played a back five away at Spuds
7. not have sanctioned introducing stupid godawful anthems which have just put more pressure on the players and made us look really patehtic Liverpool wannabes
8. kept Saliba here instead of putting him out to loan again

enough for you?

[Letters]

The Ajax game was on my birthday and my son told me Ajax were 2-0 up. A premature extra celebratory drink turned to despair when his face said it all at 2-3. Talk about ruining one's Birthday

I was travelling to a jolly/very important business trip to Edinburgh.
I flew, which was fun. When i took off it was 2-0 and I thought "Phew! Well at least that's one thing I don't need to worry about".
We landed, I turned my phone on and...

[Chippy]

I was travelling to a jolly/very important business trip to Edinburgh.
I flew, which was fun. When i took off it was 2-0 and I thought "Phew! Well at least that's one thing I don't need to worry about".
We landed, I turned my phone on and...

Many Gooners shared the pain that night

Thankfully Liverpool stopped them

Please God let them get knocked out early next year I wouldn't fancy that again!

[Globalgunner]

First, in terms of player purchases we have been outspent by Chelsea over the past 5 seasons. Also (FWIW) the teams above us have all spent significantly more on managers during this period.

Second, you reference Liverpool - who have managed to hit the motherload with a generational manager who has been a perfect fit for that club (a bit like early Wenger for us) and is therefore IMO an unrealistic comparison - unless you assume that Arsenal should have achieved perfection - and Sp*rs, who despite spending ridiculous amounts on different managers (up to 2021 they had paid £90M in payouts to sacked managers over the previous 10 years and this figure has increased since) have won precisely nothing and despite scraping CL football this season will finish a maximum of 4 points above us.

That said, I don't think anyone would argue that in terms of how the club is run we haven't been a shambles for most of this period. Our net spend figures have been poor because yes we have made some bad player investments, and in particular have taken big losses on outgoing players rather than this being a source of income as it has been for Liverpool.

But I think we need to see this in context. The very reason for many of our most eye catching transfer disasters has been the quick fix - hoping that spunking cash on 'star' names will bring success. So in many ways your legitimate criticism of our transfer policy up until last year is a compelling argument for the change in approach that we are now seeing at Arsenal - trying to recruit young talent to build medium term success in a new project. Unfortunately, because of mistakes at executive and at football level we were in a mess, and our losses on players who did not fit the Areta project is a result of this.

Finally, none of the most critical analysis of the club acknowledges the massively damaging effect of losing a generational manager whose influence over the club was total. The convulsions of this have taken years to address - not least because Wenger was coach, manager director of football and effectively part chief executive at our club. We can criticise the lack of planning at board level - the further destabilising effect of Gazidis jumping ship; the inexperience of our owners - all we like, but it doesn;t change the fact that we are having to come back from a situation of near total chaos.

Your criticisms of individual players may be valid in some ways, but in others ignore the fact that in many cases they were bought for their potential; can be expected to improve and are part of a development project that for me at least is the sensible way to try to progress.

We have been a badly run business enterprise, but it's unfair to ignore the improved direction of travel over the past year, and too soon IMO to write the current regime off...or for doom-mongery regarding the future.

https://www.skysports.com/football/n...nd-over-decade

Net spend league for the last 10 seasons. No if and buts, we are way above Pool. Its nobodys fault but our own.

[IBK]

what I would have done differently:

1. not alienate/dismiss some squad members, e.g. Pepe, so that when they're called upon they can't give their best
2. have more than Eddie and Laca to rely upon up front since Jan (yes Eddie's come good on occasions but he's not consistent enough to rely upon all the time) - instead of buying Taveres we coul d have signed a striker - also we should not have loaned Balogun out
3. not sold a highly useful utility player like Chambers which means we've been stuck with Cedric
4. not have made Xhaka first on the team sheet, when he's cost us a lot of points this season through sendings off and goal-creating errors
5. not have run players like Saka into the ground
6. adopted more sensible formations for certain games, e.g. he should have played a back five away at Spuds
7. not have sanctioned introducing stupid godawful anthems which have just put more pressure on the players and made us look really patehtic Liverpool wannabes
8. kept Saliba here instead of putting him out to loan again

enough for you?

While there might be some legitimate complaints there re Arteta's team decisions, you are missing the bigger point, and ignoring the bigger picture. This is the fact that the team and the club needed stabilising big time after years of drift and executive level turmoil. We needed to re-discover an identity; a playing style and a cohesive strategy, and to a greater or lesser extent progress has undoubtedly been made on all three of these.

Had we made top 4, I think that most, if not all of your complaints would seem like obvious nit picking (there isn't a Gooner in the land who would have expected to achieve better than CL football this season). Does the fact that we will almost certainly fall short of this and end up in 5th by a very fine margin legitimise them? Possibly, but it's very easy to be wise after the event. The problem with focussing on individual player decisions is that there is no way of knowing what the alternative would have achieved. For example, Pepe has almost literally shown nothing when he has been given (albeit limited) opportunities this season, and our best player plays in his position. It's a fact of football life that back up players need to force their way into the side, and Pepe has singularly failed to do so (this must include the training pitch). IIRC Callum Chambers played poorly on occasion last season, while Cedric was OK for large parts of this one. You could argue that Saliba has developed way more on loan at Marseille than he would have done as a third/fourth choice CB at Arsenal . If you think that Eddie is not consistent enough, it is odd that you cite the loan of Balogun - who is miles behind him in terms of development - as a managerial mis-step. I'm not even going there with Xhaka who BTW has a single red this season - as he will always be a lightening rod for the team's defeiciencies.

I've always said that Arteta has made mistakes (unsurprising for a rookie), and his gamble with a small squad has ultimately fallen short, but I am yet to see a suggestion for a realistic alternative manager/general strategy for the club that would have given us more to build on at the present time.

[IBK]

https://www.skysports.com/football/n...nd-over-decade

Net spend league for the last 10 seasons. No if and buts, we are way above Pool. Its nobodys fault but our own.

...and the place I suggested that Liverpool has spent more than us is where, exactly?