I think the turning point was reneging on the Ashley Cole deal, since then we got rid of our invincible team far too quickly.Originally Posted by Globalgunner
I think the turning point was reneging on the Ashley Cole deal, since then we got rid of our invincible team far too quickly.
Quite sad watching Auba’s interview. Must be feeling the pressure now of carrying this bunch of losers.
This club is going nowhere, we're destined to be a midtable club, none of the guys at the top care, everything we do is mediocre including our searches for managers, not sure there's anyway back for us now, not until an owner with ambition takes over which may be a very long time indeed.
I'm guessing our share value must be plummeting.
Last edited by Özim; 28-02-2020 at 10:01 AM.
But...but...anyone would be better than Wenger. You pwomised!
I don't think we're that bad, or that good. We lack creativity in midfield, we don't score enough and we are prone to mistakes at the back - fine lines in football, we were one mistake away from going through last night in which case the mood this morning would be very different. We were all cheered after the Everton result but we were very close to dropping 2 points in injury time there. We are just not solid enough. Last night they came for a smash and grab, it was defence vs attack for most of extra time and while we did score in the end it was only because of a moment of inspiration from Auba, not because we were creating clear chances. I'm not going to throw Leno under the bus for conceding the corner which led to the goal, he's the least of our problems, but we are just not good enough at defending these scenarios.
Last season we were close to a top 4 finish and we got to the Europa final, there's the makings of a decent team there. I'm not convinced we need a complete rebuild but there's definitely work to do. I'm going to give Arteta a free pass this season and I've pretty much written off the rest of the season but next year we need to push on.
I'll judge him at the end of the season ™. Next season.
As time goes on I’m really starting to appreciate what Wenger did during the early Emirates years. That Fabregas-led team may have choked when it mattered but the football we played week in, week out was still of a really high standard. Players who most would consider inferior to what we have now were playing great football, working seamlessly together and creating multiple chances a game.
Now it’s so disjointed and even creating one decent chance in a match feels like a chore.
i agree with a lot of that, we need to acknowledge it's a squad with a range of ability but teh good news is we have some very good and promising young players - if we can hold on to them
i am a bit concerned with team selection and some of the players Arteta's putting trust in. i'm hoping that he's just trying to keep the current squad thinking positively and getting as much out of them this season as he can, but i very much hope he has some marked down to shift out in the summer.
What Keown says below is spot on IMO:
Speaking on BT Sport, Keown said: "It was the first time I felt that the players were not responding to the manager and the manager did not know what changes to make.
"There were so many disappointments in that Arsenal performance. There were so many unprofessional performances from players. Such a poor game for Arsenal.
"If you break down the performance you could have looked at every single player and say that they could have all done more. Nicolas Pepe is going to have to improve. Gabriel Martinelli should have come on a lot earlier. Granit Xhaka was taking the easy way out. A lot of players were not playing their best."
Sort of - the Ashley Cole saga was a clear case of the board trying to limit David Dein who was arranging the Cole deal and they stopped him. (I remember Wenger saying how silly it was to lose a player over £5000 - then he said nothing more when he realised he had given away the fact that the board had interfered.)
I think the problems with/for Wenger and the club stemmed from 2 things - firstly the loss of David Dein and secondly the desire to build a new stadium and pay it off quickly at the expense of being able to afford top players for a few years.
Dein was the man who got us a lot of players that Wenger would not have bought. When Wenger would think a player good but too expensive, Dein would do a deal and get him anyway.
The years paying off the stadium meant not buying the players we needed to keep the quality squad we had. Wenger still did well with what we had - for years we were still in the top four - even second once - and that without the extra players that would have tipped the balance enough for a PL title. (I am still annoyed by the £40,000,001 offer we made to Liverpool for Suarez. Should have been £50,000,000 and get him as that might have given us the points to nick the title that year and would have been well worth the money).
I think that what then happened is a stagnation - a drop in expectation - so that when we did eventually pay off the stadium and start to spend again, the momentum was gone. Wenger needed to go, NOT because he was crap but because sometimes you just need a fresh start and you need to change the leader to make it happen.
Of course, the other thing is that with the loadsamoney owners of other clubs, the prices of players have gone insane. When Wenger started the new stadium idea to get more money in for the long term, the size of the future costs could not have been forseen.
So while I agree that Wenger should have gone a year or two earlier than he did, it was not because I think he was a bad manager, rather that his longer term plan was overtaken by big money ruining the game.
Blame the board, Sky, rich bastards. But not Wenger.
Interesting point made on the aresblog podcast about how unfair it is that the away goals rule favours the away side in the second leg - basically olympiacos got 120 mins to score away goals but we only had 90.
The rule should either cease after 90 mins or they should just scrap it altogether.
I've always thought that too.
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