Ozil free kick delivery into Welbeck wasn’t it
Yep I was there and absolutely lost my shit thinking we’d won it. Welbeck came right into the crowd, unreal moment and still one of the best I’ve experienced.
Just checked and that actually put us 2 behind them and tied with spurs. A week or so later we gave birth to trashford and then followed up losing at home to Swansea.
Disgraceful.
I remember watching the game on telly, I lived near the Emirates at the time so I heard the stadium exploding before the goal went in on the broadcast.
Oooh great memory!!
So, next season, if we burn out in the PL towards the end and go the same distance in the CL as we have at this point, but we won the milk cup, you would leave your banners in your cupboard?
Yeah I think I will tbh. Mikel needs to win something. Even if its something small; especially something we haven’t won in 30+ years.
If he comes away with feck all again, then I think we may need someone else who can get us over the line.
#thanksforthememories etc
—-—Trossard - Sterling - ?————
————————Nwaneri—————
————-MLS —————-Partey -—-
Zinchenko - Kiwior - Saliba - White
————————- Raya ——————-
- Don’t play Odegaard
- Play Nwaneri in a spot where he can succeed
- Play Sterling up top
- MLS in midfield
- Have Merino and Rice on ice
- Encourage play through the middle of the pitch
Nonsense.
We have a manager that’s got us competing for league titles again and going to the pointy of the the CL…
Who you want to replace him with ETH ? So we can jag a domestic cup and finish bottom half ?
Carlo Ancelotti who looked tactically clueless against us and we just beat home and away 5-1 on aggregate despite being substantially depleted ?
So you are back to writing off Arteta
We have a manager who has us in the top 2 (allbeit 2nd place) for what looks to be the last 3 years and in the semi finals of the CL since 2009 and you want to send him packing
Again, this season has been riddled with injuries, some poor officiating and Arsenal (some players like Ode) not anywhere near their best but still doing better than we have in over a decade prior to Arteta’s arrival.
So how many years of 2nd place finishes, trophyless seasons, poor recruitment and wasted funds is acceptable before a conversation is allowed to be had about potentially changing the manager?
Who’s writing him off?
For what it’s worth, I think any manager that has spent £1 billion across 6-7 years and wins fuck all, should be held to extreme scrutiny and yes, potentially moved on for someone who can get the team over the line.
I’m not saying we should get rid of him now? My personal target for him this season was to either win a trophy or go deep in the UCL.
He’s done that, and I think regardless of what happens from now till end of season, he deserves another season.
But if he spends another £250-£300m in the summer and wins nothing again next year, you think he should stay?
I don’t think any high performing organisation that wants to win championships will settle for 7 years of no trophies.
It’s like any other form of employment, the team that got you here isn’t necessarily going to be the team that’s going to get you where you want to be.
And imo that should apply to everyone, not just the players.
FWIW, I do want him to succeed here. I always have, as it doesn’t benefit anybody if he fails - but I have to be mindful of the fact that time is ticking.
I hate the money spending argument, I get that we’ve spent a fair bit now but in my view our squad value was next to £0 when emery left. Saka was the only truly valuable asset at that stage.
Add to that the market inflation that’s happened over the last 5 years and we’ve probably spent around the bare minimum. Plenty of other clubs have thrown huge money around too and not been as good as us.
United
Chelsea
Villa
Newcastle
Everyone is spending hundreds of millions so we had to spend more coming from a worse position and to be ahead of them.
For me it’s a non factor in assessing the manager. Not unless we go buy wirtz and isak this season, maybe then I’d say we bought the title, if we managed it.
Whilst we are continually fighting to win the CL and PL I won’t want him replaced, does that answer your question ?
BTW we’ve barely spent any money in the last 18 months and 700 odd mill spent in 5.5 years isn’t the huge amount you make it out to be for a club that wants to consistently fight for the CL and PL.
BTW who would you want to replace him with ? What manager due to think could do better than consistent top 2 and going deep in CL with Arsenal out of curiosity?
It’s the shittest argument and I’m tired of seeing people act like Mikel has spent an unholy amount of money and accomplished nothing.
People act like he’s spent £200-300m every year since arriving and given us nothing
As I said 700 odd mill spend over 5.5 years really is nothing extraordinary for a top club, yeah it’s a bit, but not really an amount you’d demand CL and PL or bust from a management perspective.
God I hope you’re right @SuperArsenal1886 250-300 mill spend in the summer would be great, probably due tbh given we’ve only spent 80-100 mill over the last 3 windows btw.
Yep.
You could definitely name a few transfers that weren’t very effective, but overall he has used the money very well. To build a strong squad and first XI structure he did isn’t easy. I don’t even need to name a ton of examples of monster spendings where it all went to waste…
Just needs to finish the work now with a few right signings and finish a super team.
We had quite a few sellable assets tbf, Saka, Martinez, Saliba (loaned out), ESR, Joe Willock. But yeah the rest of the squad was crusty af.
I agree, but they all won trophies bar Chelsea. If there was no Ukraine war, Roman doesn’t sell and they likely compete again.
Yes, I get where you’re coming from here. I’m the same but the caveat that I want him to win something, anything.. no matter how small just bring us something so we can lock down half of North London for a night.
Perhaps, but we’ve spent almost £300m in the last two seasons according to Transfermarkt. Some of it has just been spent poorly.
I’m happy for him to stay, but I do think another £300m this summer and nothing to show for it next year, would be failure imo. At least show you can get the team over the line in something.
As for who to replace him with…maybe the PSG or Barcelona manager? We could likely pay them better wages. Or perhaps find someone relatively unknown to most like Slot?
Never heard of him before last summer.
All in all, I want him to stay and succeed. And I don’t even mind if we don’t win the UCL/PL.
My concern, is the idea that we should be content year after year with no trophies whatsoever.
Wednesday can’t come soon enough man.
I think we just have a little different perspective in what we want which is fine, no real right or wrong.
You want to see some sort of trophies whatever they might be which is understandable
I’m content with consistently competing for the top trophies ( PL & CL) my thought process is keep doing that, your time will come.
Newcastle just won a carabao crapper
Villa won what?
Chelsea won what? They likely get the ECL this year with a 2 billion squad. If Roman stays they spend even more, just on new managers.
United won 2 cups and went backwards overall.
I’d be happy if we had a cup or two to show for our efforts but the money spend in particular is not a slight on the manager for me.