Arsenal

[muppetman]

I was thinking the same. Arteta and Poch are mates, Arteta has said many times how he looks up to Poch as an older brother type figure and IIRC Poch tried to get him to join his coaching staff at Tottenham before he went to Man City. Both have an authoritarian style and struggle with big name players/big egos in the squad but do well with young, hungry players that want to prove themselves. Just like Poch, Arteta's teams seem to do well in early to mid-season with an aggressive, high pressing style, but have a drop off in April when everyone runs out of steam.

Big difference between the two (at least when Poch was here) is that Arteta has had a far bigger budget and more expectation to perform. He's spent £650m+ and for all the good he's done, if they don't win anything next season then serious questions are going to be asked. Hardly any managers get five years in the Premier League without the sack these days, let alone those that have spent big with nothing to show for it.

I'm not sure about that, I think it depends on the owners expectations. Winning a league with City in it is always a tough ask, as they have infinite money and spend it well, plus one of the best managers in the world.

I think Arteta only gets the sack if he has lost the dressing room, he wants to move on or a better option comes along and at the moment, I'm not sure who'd be available and take the job.

 

[1882andallthat]

They're the ones who are mouthy and boastful.

Before we gloat too much the job is not done, whist the risk of us indirectly handing the initiative back to Arsenal remains present I will not rest easily, we still have all 3 to play. If we lost to Arsenal and took points off Man City and Liverpool it would do just that.

Clearly my first wish would be in gaining 9 points from all 3 but as optimism goes that is optimistic indeed.

 

[KirstyG]

Sound ON

You can almost see the begins of the limp at the end. He takes a little hop...lol

 

[ikky]

 

[rossdapep]

Not just the fans losing faith, but the players too. If they are being flogged to death in training, and seeing £200M spent every summer, but still choking in the final weeks of the season, and going out limply in the cups then senior players might start to conclude that the Lego Creature is a fraud and switch off. We had it with Poch after the CL final in 2019, although he never had the funds to spend that Arteta has.

Saw a really interesting point last night.

Every season Arteta uses more or less 14 players frequently.

The others hardly get a look in. That's not an issue when you are in your first seasons and building.

However, Arteta spends 200m per summer. Which means he signs players one summer and the following summer that player is suddenly a bit part player.

So will he spend another 200m this summer and then sideline players he bought last summer?

I mention this because he gets loads of excuses made for him but he makes all these choices that could probably make things easier on the squad.

Also, he is now banging on about signing a CF who can score 30 goals.

Well, it was your choice to bring in Jesus and Havertz for a combined 110m when neither fit that profile.

I honestly think Arteta would struggle at a lot of other clubs as he wouldn't get that support and patience

 

[olliec]

Honestly don’t care if we get EL only. We got more chance of us winning that then they do winning the CL ever. So I think we have a shot at 1% at Europa so that means they have a 0% chance for CL!

 

[thebenjamin]

Honestly don’t care if we get EL only. We got more chance of us winning that then they do winning the CL ever. So I think we have a shot at 1% at Europa so that means they have a 0% chance for CL!

If you take the money out of the equation it's surely better for this team's development to play EL next season. CL means you cannot rest anyone because every game is very hard sio it would inevitably batter our league form. We'd need to sign probably 6 or 7 players this summer who are as good as our current first 11 starters to be able to compete in both. That's not going to happen.

But obviously the vicious circle of EL is that we'll spend less this summer as a result.

 

[Trix]

View attachment 139670

You could easily swap a Spurs badge on to that.

 

[0-Tibsy-0]

If they had a competent striker they would be leading the league.

Can't see them not addressing that this summer.

 

[rossdapep]

I'm not sure about that, I think it depends on the owners expectations. Winning a league with City in it is always a tough ask, as they have infinite money and spend it well, plus one of the best managers in the world.

I think Arteta only gets the sack if he has lost the dressing room, he wants to move on or a better option comes along and at the moment, I'm not sure who'd be available and take the job.

Yeah by all accounts the Arsenal board, Edu and people around the club love him and have given him so much control.

He would have to seriously lose it there to be fired.

They will just keep backing him and letting him do squad overhauls

 

[Marty]

If they had a competent striker they would be leading the league.

Can't see them not addressing that this summer.

But at the same time, a competent striker for that level is probably the hardest thing to get hold of in the game right now.

 

[cliff jones]

I wonder whether Arsenal fans will start feeling like we did under Poch if they don’t win anything again this season. So if they don’t win the league.

There are certainly some parallels: an exciting young team playing great football under a progressive young coach. But for whatever reason not being able to make that final step to winning trophies.

True, Arsenal won the FA cup under Arteta. But that was during his first half season there. Before he really had time to put his own imprint on the team. And that was four years ago. Since then they haven’t won any major trophies - that’s their longest run without a trophy since 2004/5 - 13/14.

I don’t think winning trophies is everything and maybe they still believe Arteta will win trophies in the years ahead. But we know how frustration can set in even when things are going pretty damn well.

Some parallels. Yeah. But after narrowly missing out, they spent 200 big ones. And will probably go again in the summer market.

We didn’t.

It’s good to laugh at them but if only we’d gone for it…

 

[hughy]

But at the same time, a competent striker for that level is probably the hardest thing to get hold of in the game right now.

Exactly this. If it was that easy they'd have done it last season instead of spending £60m on Havertz.

Striker race is going to be intense this summer. Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and us are all in need of a pure goalscoring ST, and ETH has said they'll be in the market for one too. Definitely expecting a couple of clubs to pay over the odds for strikers who have had one or two decent seasons in a second rate European league, just hope we're smart with our money.

 

[cliff jones]

If they had a competent striker they would be leading the league.

Can't see them not addressing that this summer.

I keep seeing this but it’s far from certain. Such a striker would take the place of a false 9 or whatever who from that different position is instrumental in helping to knit the approach play together.

Never a point prover, I know, but City before Haaland were brilliantly fluid, and arguably even more effective

 

[ikky]

 

[southlondonyiddo]

Hopefully they sack Arteta at the end of the season after another trophyless campaign

Can’t see it happening though

The **** has been given license to spend about 700m in the last 5 seasons and I fear it’s about to bear fruit

#artetaout
#lightbulb
#fruitloop

 

[djhotspur]

Hopefully they sack Arteta at the end of the season after another trophyless campaign

Can’t see it happening though

The **** has been given license to spend about 700m in the last 5 seasons and I fear it’s about to bear fruit

#artetaout
#lightbulb
#fruitloop

I think theyd be silly to sack him personally. Hes challenging for titles now, they only really need 2-3 starting quality players to really be a very strong team and a couple of squad players.

 

[easley91]

Sacking him would be stupid. They've challenged for the league two seasons running and reached UCL QFs this year. Like it or not, they have improved, especially defensively.

 

[funkycoldmedina]

Maybe he's injured

 

[DJS]

Logged on just to ask:

Has Ben White always looked like that? What the fuck does he spray onto himself?

See my comments about him earlier in the thread when England stuff was kicking off again lol