Match Reaction v BATE Borisov (away).

[McNamara That Ghost...]

We're hopeless.

At least somebody was fucked today I guess.

[Chippy]

We're hopeless.

At least somebody was fucked today I guess.
Is it too early for "Emery out"?

[Master Splinter]

Hleb had the last laugh :bow:.

[Marc Overmars]

An absolutely pathetic result.

Spurs hammering Dortmund in the CL while we lose to some farmers in the EL, how fucking times change.

Sort it out Emery. :doh:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

An absolutely pathetic result.

Spurs hammering Dortmund in the CL while we lose to some farmers in the EL, how fucking times change.

Sort it out Emery. :doh:

Should be an absolute shame for the club that they're so much better than us.

[Marc Overmars]

Should be an absolute shame for the club that they're so much better than us.

The only Spurs Kroenke knows of are the ones from San Antonio.

[Ralpheroo72]

Should be an absolute shame for the club that they're so much better than us.

Stan doesn’t give a flying fuck

[Mac76]

The BATE boys' first win over an English side at home in European competition...

Arsenal :haha:

Emery :haha:

Lacazette :haha:

Winning the Europa league :haha:

Us :pal:

[Chippy]

The BATE boys' first win over an English side at home in European competition...

Arsenal :haha:

Emery :haha:

Lacazette :haha:

Winning the Europa league :haha:

Us :pal:

We can have a laugh at this but our club is in serious trouble. We are falling behind very quickly. Remember when we used to moan at getting fourth and scraping into the last 16 of the Champions league?

[Xhaka Can’t]

Not the biggest surprise when you consider we really were lucky to escape from Huddersfield with three points.

[Mac76]

We can have a laugh at this but our club is in serious trouble. We are falling behind very quickly. Remember when we used to moan at getting fourth and scraping into the last 16 of the Champions league?

Believe me i'm laughing in the most mirthless way possible but it's that or break up the furniture and i can't afford to replace that....

[Xhaka Can’t]

And here’s me thinking that making up the numbers with no hope of ever winning was depressing stuff in the Champions League.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

The BATE boys' first win over an English side at home in European competition...

Arsenal :haha:

Emery :haha:

Lacazette :haha:

Winning the Europa league :haha:

Us :pal:

Yeah the other was against Neverton.

Mustafi's debut. :haha:

[Letters]

Not the biggest surprise when you consider we really were lucky to escape from Huddersfield with three points.

Bit of an exaggeration, that.
We conceded our customary goal up there but late enough that we never really looked like dropping points.

Pleased I couldn’t find a stream for this one. Pretty sure we will progress in the second leg but losing to that lot is embarrassing

[Chippy]

Believe me i'm laughing in the most mirthless way possible but it's that or break up the furniture and i can't afford to replace that....
Ok, I forgive you. :tiphat:

[Özim]

Pretty pathetic, weren't Bate players aren't even fully fit as they haven't played since December, Emery needs to sort this out, it's just not good enough to be honest, he's not covering himself in glory at the moment.

[fakeyank]

Denis Suarez early signs are that he is absolute shit. Play Ozil.. and I dont even like the guy!

[Özim]

Denis Suarez early signs are that he is absolute shit. Play Ozil.. and I dont even like the guy!

As I said don't really understand signing him, didn't need anyone in his position, he's been a squad filler all his career and is really small as well so easy to brush off the ball. I hope we don't pay the 18-20 million fee and waste half our transfer budget on this guy.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

The only Spurs Kroenke knows of are the ones from San Antonio.


LA Rsenal. :bow:

[AFC Leveller]

It’s Valentine’s Day and Arsenal can’t even Master Bate.

[rodders]

A Wenger like performance at its best.

[Chippy]

A Wenger like performance at its best.
We have reached a new level of shitness.

[Marc Overmars]

We lost to Ostersunds last year. At home.

It’s the same level of shitness on repeat.

This club has no redeeming features, it’s just rancid on and off the pitch.

[SMatthews]

I forgot about that Ostersunds result. Jesus.

We won this game comfortably last year with our second string. There was more than enough on that pitch tonight to win the game. They looked like they thought they could just turn up and win in their sleep.

Laca was incredibly stupid. Would that be 3 games he misses now? We’ll go through, but can’t afford another game like that if we want to get to the end of this comp.

[hobson's choice]

A Wenger like performance at its best.

A Wenger team will still manage a draw in this situation.

Please by the grace of all things good, just sack em all. The whole of the Spanish brigade. Darker times ahead with these clowns in charge.

[hobson's choice]

We lost to Ostersunds last year. At home.

It’s the same level of shitness on repeat.

This club has no redeeming features, it’s just rancid on and off the pitch.

When your manager decides that Kola and Niles(who has no business at RB) are gonna be your creative hubs. What do you expect:ilt:

[Letters]

Be Careful What You Wish For...

[Letters]

We lost to Ostersunds last year. At home.

It’s the same level of shitness on repeat.

This club has no redeeming features, it’s just rancid on and off the pitch.

Not sure that's an entirely fair comparison. We lost having won the first away leg 3-0 so it was pretty much job done.
Although I do remember we went 2-0 down before sorting ourselves out.
Not good enough to lose that game but a bit of complacency was perhaps understandable.

Last night though...I don't even know if we will turn this around. We should do but...our defence. We are likely to concede a goal and that means we need 3.
We really have bolloxed this right up and made the 2nd leg far trickier and more pressured than it should be.

[Özim]

Emerys reaction.


Arsenal head coach Unai Emery: "Next week we are going to play another 90 minutes and I am sure it is going to be different. Today the first half was a good performance for us, we had chances to score, sometimes last week our chances brought a goal and today they did not.
"We worked. I am happy with the players as we worked and we tried. They struggled also defensively when they were 1-0 up - and they are organised and a competitive team.


"Our big chance, our big opportunity and challenge is next week. I trust in our players and I trust in our stadium and supporters."



This isn't exactly going to endear him to fans, Bate hadn't played since December, it was a terrible performance with a lack of effort and desire.

[Özim]

Be Careful What You Wish For...

I think people are happy Wenger left, make no mistake what we're seeing now is in no small part down to him, however there was always going to be the issue that always exists at this club, which is whether they ever do anything properly.

From the candidates we had in the running, none were truly outstanding elite managers based on their records, but that's what we wanted and we got it, at least Emery is better than Arteta.

The way I see it, Emery does need some time, I am a bit concerned by his errors right now, but then the squad is awful, next season however he won't be getting any byes, he needs get rid of the right players and bring some decent players in in the summer, if he doesn't manage that and sticks to rubbish like Mustafi, Xhaka, Mhiki etc he'll be in trouble.

If I had to rate our season so far under him it would be a 5 or 6 out of 10, one thing I'm not liking is his stubborness regarding the Ozil situation, managers that tend to get into disagreements with players like this have a tendency of failing because they choose pride/stubborness over the good of the team and that's never good, I'd understand it more if Ozil was a disruptive influence, but he's not that kind of player to be honest.

[Xhaka Can’t]

He should be spitting fire after that embarrassment.

I’d call for a managerial change, but this “Club” is a mess from top to bottom and all points in between.

If the owner doesn’t care, no one else will. Anybody who does care has only one option to maintain their sanity: to leave.

[Özim]

I agree, that kind of display shouldn't be getting any kind of credit for trying hard etc.

Agree about the managerial change, you can't trust this club to do it properly, it'll just be another shot in the dark, we're still trying to replace Mislintat anyway.

As for the owner, yeah we know he doesn't care, Usmanov selling his shares to him was terrible news for us, he's not interested in football (not the one with the round ball anyway), we're just a business, a business which by all intents and purposes he's quite happy to leave to run itself and perhaps use to fund his other ventures in time.

It is what it is, hey ho.

[Letters]

I think people are happy Wenger left, make no mistake what we're seeing now is in no small part down to him
Some of what we are seeing this season, sure. But last night? I call bullshit on that, that was pure Emery.
And I call bullshit on us having an "awful" squad. They're basically all international players. Outside of the top 4 our squad is better than anyone in the PL.
The players are plenty good enough to beat BATE. The accepted "wisdom" from people like you was that Wenger was so incompetent that anyone would do better.
Well we've got anyone now. Wasn't quite as simple, was it?
Emery IS better than Arteta and he won the Europa League 3 times so he's no mug but what was that shit last night? Or against Huddersfield where we scraped past the worst team in the league. You can't blame that on the squad Wenger left him.
People like you were complaining that Wenger couldn't motivate them, that he stuck with players who weren't performing, that he played people out of position, that he was poor tactically, that he didn't care about the defence.
These criticisms were actually valid, but while I do think Emery needs time I expected better than this - we've seen at Utd how a different manager can make a massive difference immediately by getting the best out of the players. I don't expect any manager to come in and have us challenging, the squad is nowhere near good enough for that. But scraping past Huddersfield? Losing to pub teams. What is this shit?
There is so much fucking incompetence running throughout the club. We definitely needed to move on from Wenger but there are so many bigger problems.
Right now all the positivity I felt at the start of the season is gone.

:ilt:

[Marc Overmars]

Not sure that's an entirely fair comparison. We lost having won the first away leg 3-0 so it was pretty much job done.
Although I do remember we went 2-0 down before sorting ourselves out.
Not good enough to lose that game but a bit of complacency was perhaps understandable.

Last night though...I don't even know if we will turn this around. We should do but...our defence. We are likely to concede a goal and that means we need 3.
We really have bolloxed this right up and made the 2nd leg far trickier and more pressured than it should be.

Lets not debate over levels of shit, it's all shit regardless. In terms of complacency last night the players may have thought bollocks to this, we'll do them at home instead.

I'm sure we'll still go through but this squad is poor and the loser mentality that runs through this club is deep.

[Letters]

Lets not debate over levels of shit.

:lol:

Isn't that all we've got left to debate?

[Marc Overmars]

I suppose you're right. :rose:

[SMatthews]

Some of what we are seeing this season, sure. But last night? I call bullshit on that, that was pure Emery.
And I call bullshit on us having an "awful" squad. They're basically all international players. Outside of the top 4 our squad is better than anyone in the PL.
The players are plenty good enough to beat BATE. The accepted "wisdom" from people like you was that Wenger was so incompetent that anyone would do better.
Well we've got anyone now. Wasn't quite as simple, was it?
Emery IS better than Arteta and he won the Europa League 3 times so he's no mug but what was that shit last night? Or against Huddersfield where we scraped past the worst team in the league. You can't blame that on the squad Wenger left him.
People like you were complaining that Wenger couldn't motivate them, that he stuck with players who weren't performing, that he played people out of position, that he was poor tactically, that he didn't care about the defence.
These criticisms were actually valid, but while I do think Emery needs time I expected better than this - we've seen at Utd how a different manager can make a massive difference immediately by getting the best out of the players. I don't expect any manager to come in and have us challenging, the squad is nowhere near good enough for that. But scraping past Huddersfield? Losing to pub teams. What is this shit?
There is so much fucking incompetence running throughout the club. We definitely needed to move on from Wenger but there are so many bigger problems.
Right now all the positivity I felt at the start of the season is gone.

:ilt:

Which is why we are 5th and one point off fourth. Better than we were last season at this point. If you expected better, but we have the fifth best squad, what were the expectations?

Take a look at Utd to see what happens during these transitions. And don't throw in Solskjaer, who has taken over a squad with more talent, and who are just pleased to have anyone in charge other than the miserable fucker who dragged them down to 9th place. He's had all of 11 games in charge. Remember we went on a 22 game unbeaten run too - Solskjaer offers no example of what can happen across a season. Utd finished 2nd then the Mourinho effect came in - as usual.

On our part, we have mostly the same players, under two different managers, and while there is some improvement, many of the same flaws still exist. Many said before the season started defence would be the biggest problem and unsurprisingly, that has turned out to be the case.

You said earlier in the thread that we didn't scrape past Huddersfield? Not sure why that's changed either.

We could've put out any side and beaten that team (see our team against them last season). They didn't need telling what to do against a pub team. It's as much their fault as it Emery's we were embarrassed last night.

[Letters]

You said earlier in the thread that we didn't scrape past Huddersfield? Not sure why that's changed either.
I said we weren't lucky. We weren't, but it wasn't convincing.
You are making some sense, will reply more fully later.

[Özim]

Some of what we are seeing this season, sure. But last night? I call bullshit on that, that was pure Emery.
And I call bullshit on us having an "awful" squad. They're basically all international players. Outside of the top 4 our squad is better than anyone in the PL.
The players are plenty good enough to beat BATE. The accepted "wisdom" from people like you was that Wenger was so incompetent that anyone would do better.
Well we've got anyone now. Wasn't quite as simple, was it?
Emery IS better than Arteta and he won the Europa League 3 times so he's no mug but what was that shit last night? Or against Huddersfield where we scraped past the worst team in the league. You can't blame that on the squad Wenger left him.
People like you were complaining that Wenger couldn't motivate them, that he stuck with players who weren't performing, that he played people out of position, that he was poor tactically, that he didn't care about the defence.
These criticisms were actually valid, but while I do think Emery needs time I expected better than this - we've seen at Utd how a different manager can make a massive difference immediately by getting the best out of the players. I don't expect any manager to come in and have us challenging, the squad is nowhere near good enough for that. But scraping past Huddersfield? Losing to pub teams. What is this shit?
There is so much fucking incompetence running throughout the club. We definitely needed to move on from Wenger but there are so many bigger problems.
Right now all the positivity I felt at the start of the season is gone.

:ilt:

Last night was cold, lack of effort, the players didn't fancy it, but these are largely Wenger players to be fair, he's the guy that bought them, brought them through etc it's no surprise they have no fight in them, this was always a problem with the Wenger players of recent times.

You may say it's BS, but the proof is in the pudding, other than Auba, Lacazette, Torreira and Guendouzi who is really that good? We barely have any assets we can sell off which says a lot, this squad is awful, the defence is terrible, the midfield is average, it's only up front we are any good in reality, it needs rebuilding alost completely, no easy job.

As for doing better, it was always accepted it would take time, you don't come in after someone who has been there 22 years and controlled everything and suddenly turn it all around, but also Emery got very little money, the owner doesn't want to put any in and Wenger spent large parts of it before he was released.

Results are poor at the moment and there are things he could definitely do better, I'm not entirely sold on him, as mentioned he's not an elite coach, IMO the club didn't want to fork out on one so we didn't get one, but I think he needs another season to see if he can do better, he does need to make some serious changes next summer though, if he doesn't people won't be so forgiving.

I don't think it's been a great season and I do feel we should have sold more last summer and not kept hold of the likes of Mustafi/Xhaka etc it was clear to anyone they weren't good enough, Emery wanted to give them a chance so that's on him, as mentioned he's handled the Ozil situation terribly though and Ramsey should have been sold last summer, whether that's him, the club or both I don't know.

[SMatthews]

I said we weren't lucky. We weren't, but it wasn't convincing.
You are making some sense, will reply more fully later.

You said we never looked like dropping points, which sounds convincing. I didn't see the game for once, so can only go on what others say.

Will look out for your reply about the rest later.

[AFC Leveller]

BATE have defeated a English side only twice in the last 46 years.
Guess who has been on the losing side both times?

[Letters]

Last night was cold, lack of effort, the players didn't fancy it, but these are largely Wenger players to be fair, he's the guy that bought them, brought them through etc it's no surprise they have no fight in them, this was always a problem with the Wenger players of recent times.
That is just more bullshit. You can't possibly say these players are inherently flawed because Wenger bought them. Plenty of "Wenger players" have come from successful sides or gone on to success elsewhere.
Some of them aren't good enough to challenge, fine, but they're plenty good enough to be beating sides like BATE.
The accepted wisdom was that they had been allowed to underperform and Wenger wasn't able to motivate them, it's not unreasonable to expect a new manager to correct that and get more out of them.
Why does it take time? To challenge, sure. We're nowhere near that but if Wenger was as bad as you've claimed then surely any new manager would get more out of this lot.
There are plenty of examples of managers changing and not buying big and doing better than the previous incumbent.

[Marc Overmars]

Last night was the 100th game Ozil has missed for us.

So as good as 2 seasons worth of football.

[Globalgunner]

We should do everything we can to get the Wolves manager, Nuno. Pay off Emery and his gang in May, How much would it cost ? 8m tops. He is the best manager out of the top 6. Next level without having to look for Zidane's phone number. Even with his own players I cant see Emery pushing us back into top 4.

[Letters]

Which is why we are 5th and one point off fourth. Better than we were last season at this point. If you expected better, but we have the fifth best squad, what were the expectations?
We are 5 points better off so far. I guess that is improvement, but over 26 games it's not much.
I was expecting a bit more, to be honest. I've not been enjoying the football the last few years. I expected with a new manager we'd be playing better football. For a time at the start of the season, I was.
There seemed to be real purpose while we were going forward, still a lot of wobbling at the back but remember the way we tore Leicester apart in the second half?
The idea of a manager who apparently actually studies the opposition and sets the team up to play against them and the way they play seemed like a step forward.
I agree about Solskjaer but a lot of people on here were claiming that it was Wenger dragging us down and "anyone" would do better. Anyone isn't doing that much better.
I think my main annoyance now is how similar recent games have been to last season. Expected pastings against big teams, embarrassing defeats, limping past sides we should be beating confidently.
And playing football I'm finding frustrating to watch.
Once we went 2-0 up I never felt we would lose to Huddersfield, we were certainly never hanging on. But it wasn't a convincing win like it could and should have been
We deserved to win but the gulf in class you should see between a team bottom of the league and one allegedly in the hunt for a top 4 finish wasn't really apparent.

Agree that the players don't get off scott free last night, I felt that under Wenger too. For all his failings the players have to take some responsibility.
It's not good enough all round and from the owner downwards there's so much incompetence in the club.
And, worse, Spurs are looking like we used to, going toe to toe with some of the best sides in Europe :sick:

[Globalgunner]

A manager can make a whole lot of difference. We havent yet got the right man.

[Marc Overmars]

It took Liverpool 3 goes to find someone that could make them competitive again after Rafa Benitez.

It could be a while for us too.

[Letters]

That may be the issue. Maybe we just haven't found our "Klopp" yet. But the rhetoric on here over the last year was that any idiot could do better.
Apology accepted, everyone :cool:

[Globalgunner]

That may be the issue. Maybe we just haven't found our "Klopp" yet. But the rhetoric on here over the last year was that any idiot could do better.
Apology accepted, everyone :cool:

Nah, Emery is still doing better than Wenger. 5 points, 5 fkg points:clap:

[SMatthews]

We are 5 points better off so far. I guess that is improvement, but over 26 games it's not much.
I was expecting a bit more, to be honest. I've not been enjoying the football the last few years. I expected with a new manager we'd be playing better football. For a time at the start of the season, I was.
There seemed to be real purpose while we were going forward, still a lot of wobbling at the back but remember the way we tore Leicester apart in the second half?
The idea of a manager who apparently actually studies the opposition and sets the team up to play against them and the way they play seemed like a step forward.
I agree about Solskjaer but a lot of people on here were claiming that it was Wenger dragging us down and "anyone" would do better. Anyone isn't doing that much better.
I think my main annoyance now is how similar recent games have been to last season. Expected pastings against big teams, embarrassing defeats, limping past sides we should be beating confidently.
And playing football I'm finding frustrating to watch.
Once we went 2-0 up I never felt we would lose to Huddersfield, we were certainly never hanging on. But it wasn't a convincing win like it could and should have been
We deserved to win but the gulf in class you should see between a team bottom of the league and one allegedly in the hunt for a top 4 finish wasn't really apparent.

Agree that the players don't get off scott free last night, I felt that under Wenger too. For all his failings the players have to take some responsibility.
It's not good enough all round and from the owner downwards there's so much incompetence in the club.
And, worse, Spurs are looking like we used to, going toe to toe with some of the best sides in Europe :sick:

Five points is significant if you believe we have the 5th best squad in the league, as it means we are in much closer contention with the top four than we were at this stage last season. Without significant investment, we aren’t going to jump above the top 3 (whether it’s City, Liverpool, Spurs, or City, Liverpool, Utd), so that leaves us chasing fourth spot – which was the most realistic goal for us at the start of the season. We’re on course for that so far.

We were also never going to transform from one ingrained style of play into another within a single season. When you try to course correct something that has been in place for years, it is going to happen in fits and starts – which is what we’ve seen. We have to be realistic about that. There’s been enough moments so far this season for me to see what Emery wants to do. Whether he has the players to do it, or has the ability to get into a squad he wants, remains to be seen.

I also think we have to look at the Premier League in general. Is the standard of play in many games that high? Or are we still clinging onto an outdated image? These-high pressing games don’t lead to the most aesthetically pleasing games to watch at the best of times. Spurs don’t play great football. I’d suggest only City and Liverpool probably do.

No-one was going to arrive at the club and wave a wand to make things better. That’s why our form has been up and down. Those who thought anyone could do better than Wenger didn’t give it much thought. Especially with the issues off the pitch thrown in.

So far this season there has been one pasting against Liverpool. Agreed, that shouldn’t happen even once, but on the flip side, we’ve been more competitive against the top four than in recent years. A draw at home against Liverpool no-one expected, beating Spurs at home, a draw away to Utd (which we would’ve won if it wasn’t for clown defending) and taking full points against Chelsea at home.

Spurs I’m really not worried about. They won’t win a thing. Two vitally important players are leaving in the summer for not much money. They don’t have much money to spend due to the stadium (:lol:) They won’t be able to keep this up for much longer without investment. It’s annoying, and I can’t wait to see them crumble, but they can enjoy their moment in the sun while it lasts.

We’ll get past BATE into the last 16 but can’t afford another one like this again. I never thought we’d finish top 4, and am pleasantly surprised that we are right in the mix for it with a third of the season left. That’s more than enough to be optimistic about right now – once the stink of last night’s result fades away, at least.

[SMatthews]

It took Liverpool 3 goes to find someone that could make them competitive again after Rafa Benitez.

It could be a while for us too.

Exactly - and look at Utd. Even when they found Klopp it took him ages to sort out the defence to make them title contenders. This is going to be a long, hard road. Especially with our owners.

[Letters]

Five points is significant if you believe we have the 5th best squad in the league, as it means we are in much closer contention with the top four than we were at this stage last season. Without significant investment, we aren’t going to jump above the top 3 (whether it’s City, Liverpool, Spurs, or City, Liverpool, Utd), so that leaves us chasing fourth spot – which was the most realistic goal for us at the start of the season. We’re on course for that so far.

You're way too sensible for this place.

I was hoping for a challenge for the top 4 and I guess you have to say that Emery is delivering that so far. It's just feeling a bit of a slog right now. I miss going into games confident we'd win. At home I'm still confident in most games, away we are all over the shop. There have been flashes of improvement - not counting the Chelsea game, they're a mess, but the ones against Spurs and Liverpool at home, we were good in those games and that looked like some real improvement. I've mentioned the Leicester game where we took them apart in the second half. As I like to say, let's judge things at the end of the season. Right now I'm not particularly impressed with how things are going though.

[SMatthews]

You're way too sensible for this place.

I was hoping for a challenge for the top 4 and I guess you have to say that Emery is delivering that so far. It's just feeling a bit of a slog right now. I miss going into games confident we'd win. At home I'm still confident in most games, away we are all over the shop. There have been flashes of improvement - not counting the Chelsea game, they're a mess, but the ones against Spurs and Liverpool at home, we were good in those games and that looked like some real improvement. I've mentioned the Leicester game where we took them apart in the second half. As I like to say, let's judge things at the end of the season. Right now I'm not particularly impressed with how things are going though.

I guess when you become an old bastard you just realise rarely do things go smoothly right away. It is a slog at times, but top four is all that matters right now. Home we're secure and while we're not exactly flying away from home, we're doing better than last season. We lost 11 times then, which was a joke. It's the small improvement we've made there that's probably kept us in touch with fourth, as our home form is probably pretty similar to last year.

I've no idea if Emery is the guy, but I don't think we can really tell until at least 18-24 months in. If we're still slogging it then, with a crap defence and generally treading water, then he'll have nowhere to hide.

I also think the fact there are 6 teams going for 4 spots opens the question up as to whether or not that is the minimum standard with which to judge a manager's performance. I mean, there are going to be two clubs a season missing out. Neither City or Utd will on a regular basis because of their money, so that leaves four going into two. Will that mean clubs regularly sacking managers every 2 years if they can't make it back in (including us)? It's a different landscape now compared to 5 years ago even. I'm not saying if that's right or wrong, but it feels pretty crazy if that turns out to be the case.

[AFC Leveller]

There is a picture of the Bate players getting stuck into burgers at Burker King at 8 am this morning.

We lost to a team who hasn’t played for 2 months and has burgers for breakfast.

[Özim]

We should have won yesterday, but the players weren't up for it, having said that Emery picked the wrong team again, Torreira should have been in (for the awful Xhaka who can't take a corner to save his life, his inability to take a corner and beat the first man is shocking) and Auba, we don't have a game at the weekend so there was no reason to save them. If we'd won this comfortably we could have rested a few in the return.

The Ozil situation continues as well, not that he would have made a difference yesterday.

[Özim]

That is just more bullshit. You can't possibly say these players are inherently flawed because Wenger bought them. Plenty of "Wenger players" have come from successful sides or gone on to success elsewhere.
Some of them aren't good enough to challenge, fine, but they're plenty good enough to be beating sides like BATE.
The accepted wisdom was that they had been allowed to underperform and Wenger wasn't able to motivate them, it's not unreasonable to expect a new manager to correct that and get more out of them.
Why does it take time? To challenge, sure. We're nowhere near that but if Wenger was as bad as you've claimed then surely any new manager would get more out of this lot.
There are plenty of examples of managers changing and not buying big and doing better than the previous incumbent.

They're not flawed because Wenger bought them,they were nevber any good when he bought them, he should have never bought them in the 1st place, but as always he thought he knew better.

Yes of course they should be good enough to beat Bate, but a lot have got a critical flaw, lack of hunger/desire, these players have been around this environment where nothing is expected of them for years, they're been taught that it's OK not to be that bothered about losing, these aren't players who hate to lose, they're just not that bothered, Koscielny didn't event get the team to thank the away fans.

Perhaps Emerys strong point isn't motivating, but to be honest as I've said for years this bunch are a lost cause, we need a big clearout, I know you don't accept that but it's the truth, there's probably about 8 or 9 that should leave or be sold.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

There is a picture of the Bate players getting stuck into burgers at Burker King at 8 am this morning.

We lost to a team who hasn’t played for 2 months and has burgers for breakfast.

Hope they did the hippie crack and hoes after....

[McNamara That Ghost...]

There is a picture of the Bate players getting stuck into burgers at Burker King at 8 am this morning.

We lost to a team who hasn’t played for 2 months and has burgers for breakfast.

Eating the cows they were herding the day before.

[Mac76]

There is a picture of the Bate players getting stuck into burgers at Burker King at 8 am this morning.



is that the Islamic version of Burger King?

ok, i know... :getcoat:

[hobson's choice]

They're not flawed because Wenger bought them,they were nevber any good when he bought them, he should have never bought them in the 1st place, but as always he thought he knew better.

Yes of course they should be good enough to beat Bate, but a lot have got a critical flaw, lack of hunger/desire, these players have been around this environment where nothing is expected of them for years, they're been taught that it's OK not to be that bothered about losing, these aren't players who hate to lose, they're just not that bothered, Koscielny didn't event get the team to thank the away fans.

Perhaps Emerys strong point isn't motivating, but to be honest as I've said for years this bunch are a lost cause, we need a big clearout, I know you don't accept that but it's the truth, there's probably about 8 or 9 that should leave or be sold.

For fucks sakes, look at Emery's record. What about him screams great manager. He's coached long enough to know exactly what he is. Which is slightly above average.

And what I've learnt a lot of these signings in the past couple of signing were "Analysis" signings. Which Wenger like most old coaches detest. Why in the fukk did you think Wenger wanted to get rid of Mustafi last year. Or sold Gabriel and had no time for Perez. Those weren't his signings.

[Letters]

Yes of course they should be good enough to beat Bate, but a lot have got a critical flaw, lack of hunger/desire, these players have been around this environment where nothing is expected of them for years, they're been taught that it's OK not to be that bothered about losing, these aren't players who hate to lose, they're just not that bothered

There is something in that, but we have won 3 FA Cups in the last 6 years and while that trophy might not have the lustre it once did it's still a trophy worth winning.
These are players used to winning trophies and I don't believe that anyone gets to this level without being highly competitive.
And as I said above some of our players have come from successful teams and others have gone on to successful teams.
I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with them and even if Wenger did allow them to become a bit too comfortable being also-rans I don't believe it would take much to get them going again.


I've said for years this bunch are a lost cause, we need a big clearout, I know you don't accept that but it's the truth, there's probably about 8 or 9 that should leave or be sold.
If we're going to compete with City and Liverpool then yes, a lot of work needs to be done. But I don't believe that we need a big clearout to improve.
If Wenger was as bad as you claim then why can't a new manager get more out of them?
No-one gets rid of 9 players in a season, it would be stupid to - we don't have a sugar-daddy owner prepared to fund a huge spending-spree which would allow us to properly compete. Emery does need time to build a team and make this is own squad, but I am disappointed at how Wengery we've been looking recently.