summer '22 transfer craziness and stupidity

[KSE Comedy Club]

One of Arteta's hobbies is ignoring good players, you know that - we'd be playing CL football this year if he'd not insisted Saliba "wasn't ready" for two seasons running - when he very clearly was

Massively true - sadly

[selassie]

Missing one key player, Partey.

Assuming Odegaard is fit.

Or are we now calling Elnonentity a key player? Because, if we are, we're in a much fuckin worse position than I ever thought, ffs.

Have you read press conference?

[HCZ_Reborn]

I hate to say it but he looked better than Smith Rowe.

His passes were absolutely spot on.

Oh he is better than Smith Rowe no doubt but I don’t rate either that highly

Unless someone can point out a big game in which Odegaard has been anything but anonymous.

And Skeet Ulrich I can’t put my faith in someone from the Portuguese league with the upper body strength of Bobby Sands

[HCZ_Reborn]

Have you read press conference?

Making a big assumption there

[HCZ_Reborn]

Extraordinary

Extraordinary? That because Odegaard has scored a few goals against bullshit opposition that he’s suddenly irreplaceable?

As I said in another reply, I can’t think of any big game where he has shown up

[I am invisible]

Some of the reaction might be OTT but I suspect it's partly based on the fact that we're already now just winning our games on sheer willpower, but once we drop points that bubble will be burst and without the ability to change things much, we'll struggle to find new ways of beating teams - Arteta's hero Pep rotates a lot but it's not something Arteta has learnt from him

I totally understand a bit of angst, but some of the carry-on you see online is just embarrassing - grown-ass adults throwing full-blown tantrums! Show a bit of dignity, ffs. Most children understand that if they write a letter to Santa they’re probably not going to get everything on their list - not online football fans, though. Absolute meltdown, every time.

Agree about the rotation - trusting his squad is the next big thing that Arteta needs to learn as a manager. Who knows, maybe the deadline day disappointment will turn out to be a good thing in the long run? He has no choice but to put his faith in guys like Sambi now, and if they take their chances then that might give him the confidence we need to do it more often.

Disagree that we’re getting through games on sheer willpower, though - the score lines and the order of the goals are making some of these games look close, but we’ve absolutely dominated 4.5 out of the 5 games we’ve played so far and we should have come away from the most recent 4 with much bigger margins. Need to sharpen up our finishing and decision-making in the box and cut out the stupid mistakes at the back (seriously, all of the goals we’ve conceded have been freak occurrences, completely against the run of play).

[HCZ_Reborn]

Oh I think we all know the Twitter reaction was going to be nothing but incontinent petulance

I was disappointed not to sign Luiz because I happen to rate the player otherwise wouldn’t have given that much of a fuck…for me if were going to take central midfield seriously we wouldn’t have given Xhaka or Elneny contract extensions…but there it is.

When I say I don’t think we’ve got a chance against United. To be without one decent midfielder by playing Partey and Xhaka would be bad enough to play without two is like trying to roll a cigarette with your arms tied behind your back. And I’m not saying that because I suddenly rate United I don’t they are shit. But they beat Liverpool comfortably who had Henderson and Milner in midfield and I’m sorry to say Xhaka and Lokonga is weaker than that (still could be worse could be Xhaka and Elneny) I would have sacked the game off if it was Brentford we were playing….in fact I’d say we’d have an easier time playing United than Brentford.

[mandela8]

Have you read press conference?

Huv I fuck

[mandela8]

Partey is "weeks, not months, hopefully less".

Going for Luiz stinks of even more panic, given that context.

Viera must be earmarked for a wide role as there's simply no way the club could have neglected that position. It baffles me that we know Raphinha was sought but when that fell through, what, the need for another attacking player dissipated? Just very strange, in terms of strategy.

You never know what is going on behind the scenes, I guess. Maybe they tried and someone isn't always better than no one, as we know from people like Willian coming in.

[I am invisible]

Surely Vieira should get some game time in this one?

He looked sharp in the under 21 game.

If we aren't going to play him then what was the point of buying him

His chances are coming - don’t forget he didn’t really get a preseason because of that injury so he’s still playing catch-up with fitness.

Also this is a bit of a freak season because of the World Cup that’s right in the middle of it - I have a sneaky feeling we may be holding certain players back for the second half of the season, when everyone else’s key players are coming back knackered. We don’t have too many advantages over the best clubs, but one of them is that we have some very good players who either won’t be going to Qatar or won’t be that involved because of their lack of seniority.