12 hours ago, charierre said:

That was one thing Arsenal did well. It probably cost them top four last year with lack of squad quality in the run in. Now though they have players they wanted to keep with places for additions. I’d expect them to improve this year.

This was no grand masterplan from Arsenal. A year before the "youth project" started Arteta was signing Willian, extending Luiz and telling the former he will win the UCL in his second attempt at the most. Even last year they slapped 50 big ones on the table for Ben White when they had an objectively better CB in their system.

It was such an obvious PR attempt to buy him time. Bottled a 4 point lead to 4th with 3 to play "oh well young team can't blame Mikel".

How people can say we are no better off than last season is beyond me. Sterling and Koulibaly are better than what we have/had. Chilwell was injured for large parts of last season, now he's back fit again which is a major boost.

We won, super cup, club world cup, made two domestic finals and a CL quarter final last season. If that's a club in crisis, then bloody hell, I don't know what we'll do when we aren't in crisis. 

Steve Nichol being a moron. No idea how these people get paid for this nonsense. 

 

Edited July 27, 20223 yr by enigma

9 minutes ago, Argo said:

This was no grand masterplan from Arsenal. A year before the "youth project" started Arteta was signing Willian, extending Luiz and telling the former he will win the UCL in his second attempt at the most. Even last year they slapped 50 big ones on the table for Ben White when they had an objectively better CB in their system.

It was such an obvious PR attempt to buy him time. Bottled a 4 point lead to 4th with 3 to play "oh well young team can't blame Mikel".

Sure, but you have to applaud him & Edu for changing course, and correcting the situation. Their book was a mess also, but  they have managed to have gotten rid of all their underperforming high earners. Doing that with adding more high earners has allowed their youth players like Saka, Martinelli, & Rowe to flourish. The smart signings like Odegaard, Gabriel & Tomiyasu are also developing. Going forward now, they can now start adding key players like Jesus to the team. 
IMO that would have been a better course to chart than the haphazard one we are on.

1 hour ago, Argo said:

This was no grand masterplan from Arsenal. A year before the "youth project" started Arteta was signing Willian, extending Luiz and telling the former he will win the UCL in his second attempt at the most. Even last year they slapped 50 big ones on the table for Ben White when they had an objectively better CB in their system.

It was such an obvious PR attempt to buy him time. Bottled a 4 point lead to 4th with 3 to play "oh well young team can't blame Mikel".

That confused me for a second  

2 hours ago, enigma said:

How people can say we are no better off than last season is beyond me. Sterling and Koulibaly are better than what we have/had. Chilwell was injured for large parts of last season, now he's back fit again which is a major boost.

We won, super cup, club world cup, made two domestic finals and a CL quarter final last season. If that's a club in crisis, then bloody hell, I don't know what we'll do when we aren't in crisis. 

Sterling is only good as long as somebody is spotting his movement. If we are going to be doing more of this inching towards the oppositions box and then passing backwards sh*t that we were doing throughout most of last season, then we may as well have no bothered signing him at all. Sterling is at his best when he is playing direct, take that away from him and you will see the absolute worst of him, and there are many parts of Sterling's game that can be frustrating when exposed to the wrong system. He's not playing with De Bruyne or the two Silva's anymore.

People seem to be really confident on Koulibaly, but I am still on the fence. He's a 32 year old defender that is reliant on pace, if that goes, which could be anytime at this point in his career, then we will be in trouble. He also hasn't played 40 games in a season for 3 years now, which is something we need him to do for us.

Christensen still hasn't been replaced and I don't think Chalobah or Colwill are ready to play every week for us. This is why missing out on De Ligt and Kounde is such a big blow. We have 2 CB's reaching the end of their career and 2 still learning, we deseperately need that CB who hasn't quite reached their peak yet but is ready to come into the team now.

Chilwell is an unknown, we don't know what player we are going to see after such a serious injury. If he doesn't get back to his best, then who comes in to replace him? We have gotten everything we are going to get out of Alonso, and he is looking to leave and probably will leave, and I don't want us falling back on Emerson.

The midfield is still a massive concern. I have no confidence that Jorginho is capable of playing well for a full season anymore. In each of his 4 seasons with us, he has played well for half a season at best. I don't suddenly see Kante's injury issues disappearing over night, so it's likely that we will continue to see Tuchel manage his minutes which kills all of his momentum and also effects Kovacic's form. Kante at his best is amazing, but there has been times where we have put him back into the team when Kovacic has been the better player and in much better form. It hurts our momentum when we are constantly trying to fit in a player who is constantly battling to stay fit. We are also trying to fit in Gallagher and Loftus-Cheek.

As for our attack......yeah, I have little confidence in it. Outside of Mount, I don't see where the goals come from. Havertz is still unconvincing, Werner is sh*t, Hudson-Odoi is making no progress, Pulisic has gone completely flat, Ziyech is probably leaving, Broja is in unknown territory.

Last season we got off to a brilliant start, and without it, we don't finish top 4. I'm not expecting that this season. The team were riding a massive high from winning the Champions League and then the Super Cup, confidence was sky high. We ended last season with an F.A cup final defeat and struggling against relegated Watford. The levels we are at going into the new season is like a night and day difference compared to last season.

My biggest concern is that we have a lot of players either unhappy or pushing for a move out of the club. Werner, Ziyech, Azpilicueta, Alonso, Kepa, they all want to leave. Then there are players like Barkley, Emerson, Batshuayi and Kenedy that are sitting on their contracts and offering nothing to the squad, it must bring squad morale down having this many players inmotivated or looking to leave. We are also going into yet another season with the distraction of having two players who's contracts run out at the end of the season, Jorginho and Kante.

Our squad feels like a bit of mess to me.

Edited July 27, 20223 yr by Scott Harris

15 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Sterling is only good as long as somebody is spotting his movement. If we are going to be doing more of this inching towards the oppositions box and then passing backwards sh*t that we were doing throughout most of last season, then we may as well have no bothered signing him at all. Sterling is at his best when he is playing direct, take that away from him and you will see the absolute worst of him, and there are many parts of Sterling's game that can be frustrating when exposed to the wrong system. He's not playing with De Bruyne or the two Silva's anymore.

People seem to be really confident on Koulibaly, but I am still on the fence. He's a 32 year old defender that is reliant on pace, if that goes, which could be anytime at this point in his career, then we will be in trouble. He also hasn't played 40 games in a season for 3 years now, which is something we need him to do for us.

Christensen still hasn't been replaced and I don't think Chalobah or Colwill are ready to play every week for us. This is why missing out on De Ligt and Kounde is such a big blow. We have 2 CB's reaching the end of their career and 2 still learning, we deseperately need that CB who hasn't quite reached their peak yet but is ready to come into the team now.

Chilwell is an unknown, we don't know what player we are going to see after such a serious injury. If he doesn't get back to his best, then who comes in to replace him? We have gotten everything we are going to get out of Alonso, and he is looking to leave and probably will leave, and I don't want us falling back on Emerson.

The midfield is still a massive concern. I have no confidence that Jorginho is capable of playing well for a full season anymore. In each of his 4 seasons with us, he has played well for half a season at best. I don't suddenly see Kante's injury issues disappearing over night, so it's likely that we will continue to see Tuchel manage his minutes which kills all of his momentum and also effects Kovacic's form. Kante at his best is amazing, but there has been times where we have put him back into the team when Kovacic has been the better player and in much better form. It hurts our momentum when we are constantly trying to fit in a player who is constantly battling to stay fit. We are also trying to fit in Gallagher and Loftus-Cheek.

As for our attack......yeah, I have little confidence in it. Outside of Mount, I don't see where the goals come from. Havertz is still unconvincing, Werner is sh*t, Hudson-Odoi is making no progress, Pulisic has gone completely flat, Ziyech is probably leaving, Broja is in unknown territory.

Last season we got off to a brilliant start, and without it, we don't finish top 4. I'm not expecting that this season. The team were riding a massive high from winning the Champions League and then the Super Cup, confidence was sky high. We ended last season with an F.A cup final defeat and struggling against relegated Watford. The levels we are at going into the new season is like a night and day difference compared to last season.

My biggest concern is that we have a lot of players either unhappy or pushing for a move out of the club. Werner, Ziyech, Azpilicueta, Alonso, Kepa, they all want to leave. Then there are players like Barkley, Emerson, Batshuayi and Kenedy that are sitting on their contracts and offering nothing to the squad, it must bring squad morale down having this many players inmotivated or looking to leave. We are also going into yet another season with the distraction of having two players who's contracts run out at the end of the season, Jorginho and Kante.

Our squad feels like a bit of mess to me.

Very prophetic Scott.

3 hours ago, Argo said:

This was no grand masterplan from Arsenal. A year before the "youth project" started Arteta was signing Willian, extending Luiz and telling the former he will win the UCL in his second attempt at the most. Even last year they slapped 50 big ones on the table for Ben White when they had an objectively better CB in their system.

It was such an obvious PR attempt to buy him time. Bottled a 4 point lead to 4th with 3 to play "oh well young team can't blame Mikel".

I know you don't like to give them any credit at all. Last year you had them being close to relegation before the season began and I said they would be nearer to us, due to less matches. Arteta's big mistake last year was to clear out the squad in January including Aubameyang with no incoming striker. When the injuries arrived with lack of depth plus the inconsistencies of young players they fell short, coupled with the tremendous finish by Spurs. They did actually get two more points in 2022 than us. In truth they weren't quite ready for Champions League football, the Europa League will give them two bites of the cherry this time around. This though has let them strengthen without having to balance the squad books first, something we urgently need to do! Jesus I expect to be a very good signing. I do expect them as it stands with squads today, to be close to us again. Of course, though we are still to strengthen, we can't rest on our laurels. 

43 minutes ago, charierre said:

I know you don't like to give them any credit at all. Last year you had them being close to relegation before the season began and I said they would be nearer to us, due to less matches. Arteta's big mistake last year was to clear out the squad in January including Aubameyang with no incoming striker. When the injuries arrived with lack of depth plus the inconsistencies of young players they fell short, coupled with the tremendous finish by Spurs. They did actually get two more points in 2022 than us. In truth they weren't quite ready for Champions League football, the Europa League will give them two bites of the cherry this time around. This though has let them strengthen without having to balance the squad books first, something we urgently need to do! Jesus I expect to be a very good signing. I do expect them as it stands with squads today, to be close to us again. Of course, though we are still to strengthen, we can't rest on our laurels. 

It's actually thanks to an Arsenal fan that I know a fair bit about how they've been bullsh*tiing their fanbase during the Arteta/Edu era. He hasn't even matched Emery's best efforts yet has the media and a significant portion of the fanbase (who wanted Emery out so badly they openly cheared a Frankfurt winner at The Emirates) eating out of the palm of his hands and blindly trusting everything he does.

Regarding relegation, I'm happy to be shown wrong but I think it was the lockdown season I felt it was a possibility for them, I admit I did genuinely think it was possible that season the way they were playing.

Given the troubles he has faced what are the odds Todd just goes "this whole transfer business is too tough, not more signings till I have a director of football on board to deal with it".?

1 hour ago, axman2526 said:

Given the troubles he has faced what are the odds Todd just goes "this whole transfer business is too tough, not more signings till I have a director of football on board to deal with it".?

0.0% 

4 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Sterling is only good as long as somebody is spotting his movement. If we are going to be doing more of this inching towards the oppositions box and then passing backwards sh*t that we were doing throughout most of last season, then we may as well have no bothered signing him at all. Sterling is at his best when he is playing direct, take that away from him and you will see the absolute worst of him, and there are many parts of Sterling's game that can be frustrating when exposed to the wrong system. He's not playing with De Bruyne or the two Silva's anymore.

People seem to be really confident on Koulibaly, but I am still on the fence. He's a 32 year old defender that is reliant on pace, if that goes, which could be anytime at this point in his career, then we will be in trouble. He also hasn't played 40 games in a season for 3 years now, which is something we need him to do for us.

Christensen still hasn't been replaced and I don't think Chalobah or Colwill are ready to play every week for us. This is why missing out on De Ligt and Kounde is such a big blow. We have 2 CB's reaching the end of their career and 2 still learning, we deseperately need that CB who hasn't quite reached their peak yet but is ready to come into the team now.

Chilwell is an unknown, we don't know what player we are going to see after such a serious injury. If he doesn't get back to his best, then who comes in to replace him? We have gotten everything we are going to get out of Alonso, and he is looking to leave and probably will leave, and I don't want us falling back on Emerson.

The midfield is still a massive concern. I have no confidence that Jorginho is capable of playing well for a full season anymore. In each of his 4 seasons with us, he has played well for half a season at best. I don't suddenly see Kante's injury issues disappearing over night, so it's likely that we will continue to see Tuchel manage his minutes which kills all of his momentum and also effects Kovacic's form. Kante at his best is amazing, but there has been times where we have put him back into the team when Kovacic has been the better player and in much better form. It hurts our momentum when we are constantly trying to fit in a player who is constantly battling to stay fit. We are also trying to fit in Gallagher and Loftus-Cheek.

As for our attack......yeah, I have little confidence in it. Outside of Mount, I don't see where the goals come from. Havertz is still unconvincing, Werner is sh*t, Hudson-Odoi is making no progress, Pulisic has gone completely flat, Ziyech is probably leaving, Broja is in unknown territory.

Last season we got off to a brilliant start, and without it, we don't finish top 4. I'm not expecting that this season. The team were riding a massive high from winning the Champions League and then the Super Cup, confidence was sky high. We ended last season with an F.A cup final defeat and struggling against relegated Watford. The levels we are at going into the new season is like a night and day difference compared to last season.

My biggest concern is that we have a lot of players either unhappy or pushing for a move out of the club. Werner, Ziyech, Azpilicueta, Alonso, Kepa, they all want to leave. Then there are players like Barkley, Emerson, Batshuayi and Kenedy that are sitting on their contracts and offering nothing to the squad, it must bring squad morale down having this many players inmotivated or looking to leave. We are also going into yet another season with the distraction of having two players who's contracts run out at the end of the season, Jorginho and Kante.

Our squad feels like a bit of mess to me.

I don't want add much more to this excellent post other than to say.........sobering

9 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

0.0% 

Well you say that but it's all going very quiet. I think Axman might be nearer the truth than we think. It looks like TB has been mugged off and may well be thinking twice about being visible in this market. A DOF may well happen before any signings. By then we could well be in Desperation Street, trying to sign Edison Cavani and Sergio Ramos

4 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

People seem to be really confident on Koulibaly, but I am still on the fence. He's a 32 year old defender that is reliant on pace, if that goes, which could be anytime at this point in his career, then we will be in trouble. 

Will you feel any more confident if someone suitably pedantic points out that Koulibaly has actually only just turned 31, on 20th June ? 🙂 

14 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Will you feel any more confident if someone suitably pedantic points out that Koulibaly has actually only just turned 31, on 20th June ? 🙂 

Sure, why not, I will take anything 😁

6 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Sterling is only good as long as somebody is spotting his movement. If we are going to be doing more of this inching towards the oppositions box and then passing backwards sh*t that we were doing throughout most of last season, then we may as well have no bothered signing him at all. Sterling is at his best when he is playing direct, take that away from him and you will see the absolute worst of him, and there are many parts of Sterling's game that can be frustrating when exposed to the wrong system. He's not playing with De Bruyne or the two Silva's anymore.

People seem to be really confident on Koulibaly, but I am still on the fence. He's a 32 year old defender that is reliant on pace, if that goes, which could be anytime at this point in his career, then we will be in trouble. He also hasn't played 40 games in a season for 3 years now, which is something we need him to do for us.

Christensen still hasn't been replaced and I don't think Chalobah or Colwill are ready to play every week for us. This is why missing out on De Ligt and Kounde is such a big blow. We have 2 CB's reaching the end of their career and 2 still learning, we deseperately need that CB who hasn't quite reached their peak yet but is ready to come into the team now.

Chilwell is an unknown, we don't know what player we are going to see after such a serious injury. If he doesn't get back to his best, then who comes in to replace him? We have gotten everything we are going to get out of Alonso, and he is looking to leave and probably will leave, and I don't want us falling back on Emerson.

The midfield is still a massive concern. I have no confidence that Jorginho is capable of playing well for a full season anymore. In each of his 4 seasons with us, he has played well for half a season at best. I don't suddenly see Kante's injury issues disappearing over night, so it's likely that we will continue to see Tuchel manage his minutes which kills all of his momentum and also effects Kovacic's form. Kante at his best is amazing, but there has been times where we have put him back into the team when Kovacic has been the better player and in much better form. It hurts our momentum when we are constantly trying to fit in a player who is constantly battling to stay fit. We are also trying to fit in Gallagher and Loftus-Cheek.

As for our attack......yeah, I have little confidence in it. Outside of Mount, I don't see where the goals come from. Havertz is still unconvincing, Werner is sh*t, Hudson-Odoi is making no progress, Pulisic has gone completely flat, Ziyech is probably leaving, Broja is in unknown territory.

Last season we got off to a brilliant start, and without it, we don't finish top 4. I'm not expecting that this season. The team were riding a massive high from winning the Champions League and then the Super Cup, confidence was sky high. We ended last season with an F.A cup final defeat and struggling against relegated Watford. The levels we are at going into the new season is like a night and day difference compared to last season.

My biggest concern is that we have a lot of players either unhappy or pushing for a move out of the club. Werner, Ziyech, Azpilicueta, Alonso, Kepa, they all want to leave. Then there are players like Barkley, Emerson, Batshuayi and Kenedy that are sitting on their contracts and offering nothing to the squad, it must bring squad morale down having this many players inmotivated or looking to leave. We are also going into yet another season with the distraction of having two players who's contracts run out at the end of the season, Jorginho and Kante.

Our squad feels like a bit of mess to me.

Hard to disagree with any of your post Scott. We knew at the start of the window we needed two centre backs, preferably early doors to make a cohesive unit. I agree Koulibaly will be an inspired choice or a liability. Goals have been a problem, yet we let Arsenal have a free run on Jesus who. I think will be a successful signing at a bargain price…Sterling was too. We still have no back up at wing back even though we all acknowledge this hampered last seasons effort. I continue though to be amazed we aren’t linked with a creative midfielder, something we’ve lacked since Fabregas left…Eriksen would have been perfect. A couple of signings , preferably three could change everything. From the outside, we’re surely not only working on one transfer at a time? A DoF can’t come fast enough. 

Well, it's just over 1 week until the new season starts and our squad is still all over the place. Lack of defenders. No improvements in midfield. Still tonnes of useless attackers. Still filled with deadwood no-one wants.

Gunna be a long old season.

We definitely need goalscorers. Tottenham have Kane, Son, Richarlison. City have just signed Haaland and Alvarez. Liverpool have just signed that Nunez, while already having Salah, Diaz, Jota. I mean it was obvious we needed a goalscorer, so what was going on there I don't know. Piss balling about trying to sign Kounde, when we need goals more than anthing. Sterling won't be able to do it all himself, that's for sure. 

On 27/07/2022 at 14:29, Scott Harris said:

Sterling is only good as long as somebody is spotting his movement. If we are going to be doing more of this inching towards the oppositions box and then passing backwards sh*t that we were doing throughout most of last season, then we may as well have no bothered signing him at all. Sterling is at his best when he is playing direct, take that away from him and you will see the absolute worst of him, and there are many parts of Sterling's game that can be frustrating when exposed to the wrong system. He's not playing with De Bruyne or the two Silva's anymore.

People seem to be really confident on Koulibaly, but I am still on the fence. He's a 32 year old defender that is reliant on pace, if that goes, which could be anytime at this point in his career, then we will be in trouble. He also hasn't played 40 games in a season for 3 years now, which is something we need him to do for us.

Christensen still hasn't been replaced and I don't think Chalobah or Colwill are ready to play every week for us. This is why missing out on De Ligt and Kounde is such a big blow. We have 2 CB's reaching the end of their career and 2 still learning, we deseperately need that CB who hasn't quite reached their peak yet but is ready to come into the team now.

Chilwell is an unknown, we don't know what player we are going to see after such a serious injury. If he doesn't get back to his best, then who comes in to replace him? We have gotten everything we are going to get out of Alonso, and he is looking to leave and probably will leave, and I don't want us falling back on Emerson.

The midfield is still a massive concern. I have no confidence that Jorginho is capable of playing well for a full season anymore. In each of his 4 seasons with us, he has played well for half a season at best. I don't suddenly see Kante's injury issues disappearing over night, so it's likely that we will continue to see Tuchel manage his minutes which kills all of his momentum and also effects Kovacic's form. Kante at his best is amazing, but there has been times where we have put him back into the team when Kovacic has been the better player and in much better form. It hurts our momentum when we are constantly trying to fit in a player who is constantly battling to stay fit. We are also trying to fit in Gallagher and Loftus-Cheek.

As for our attack......yeah, I have little confidence in it. Outside of Mount, I don't see where the goals come from. Havertz is still unconvincing, Werner is sh*t, Hudson-Odoi is making no progress, Pulisic has gone completely flat, Ziyech is probably leaving, Broja is in unknown territory.

Last season we got off to a brilliant start, and without it, we don't finish top 4. I'm not expecting that this season. The team were riding a massive high from winning the Champions League and then the Super Cup, confidence was sky high. We ended last season with an F.A cup final defeat and struggling against relegated Watford. The levels we are at going into the new season is like a night and day difference compared to last season.

My biggest concern is that we have a lot of players either unhappy or pushing for a move out of the club. Werner, Ziyech, Azpilicueta, Alonso, Kepa, they all want to leave. Then there are players like Barkley, Emerson, Batshuayi and Kenedy that are sitting on their contracts and offering nothing to the squad, it must bring squad morale down having this many players inmotivated or looking to leave. We are also going into yet another season with the distraction of having two players who's contracts run out at the end of the season, Jorginho and Kante.

Our squad feels like a bit of mess to me.

Superb mate thank you

 

Jorgi needs the legs of Kant or Gallagher around him, and hopefully he'll be given the licence to come that Brazilian Cesc, we need

I reckon we'll lose our first 2 games.

I'm usually wrong, so just getting it in  , anything to help out.

We need 3-4 players still (central defender, attacking wingback cover, forward/striker). 

We will most likely add another central defender soon, so my worry is the other positions. I don't want another season with Alonso and Azpilicueta playing 50% of our games at wingback, two of the slowest players in the league. 

Central Defender is a must otherwise we have to rely on Ampadu, Colwill and Sarr much more than probably planned.

Central Midfielder for me is a maybe. We are not going after Rice so I really don't know what we are looking for there. My only concern is we don't have Kante who can play 65 games. We have one that can play probably half that. Ampadu, Chalobah and James can deputise there but these are subpar options.

If we lose Werner we need another attacker. I feel we should keep hold of Broja and give him a chance but we are short in the attack. I would also keep hold of Ziyech who gives us options.

 

On 27/07/2022 at 18:47, ducavis said:

Sure, but you have to applaud him & Edu for changing course, and correcting the situation. Their book was a mess also, but  they have managed to have gotten rid of all their underperforming high earners. Doing that with adding more high earners has allowed their youth players like Saka, Martinelli, & Rowe to flourish. The smart signings like Odegaard, Gabriel & Tomiyasu are also developing. Going forward now, they can now start adding key players like Jesus to the team. 
IMO that would have been a better course to chart than the haphazard one we are on.

This has to be the most Arsenal-positive post I've read online. None of my Arsenal mates and even those on Arsenal forums are praising Arteta and Edu to this extent.