Granit Xhaka

I think those things generally go hand in hand.

I think what we need to do is to load up Football Manager and remove Xhaka as captain to see how it impacts the squad. Do this multiple times to sim every possible outcome.

If you’ve got mutts like Mustafi who are the only ones who are unhappy, we all good.

Should have appointed Bellerin or Auba as captain in the first place.

Xhaka has to be one of the most universally disliked players by Arsenal fans over the past 20 years. Absolute fucking clown show to then appoint this guy as captain. Was only going to end badly, and Emery deserves all the shit for allowing this to happen. Piss poor awareness and piss poor management.

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I love Mustafi compared to Xhaka

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As a way of venting my frustration it would be great if we could have a poll on our most hated player. I think Xhaka’s a nose ahead of Mustafi right now.

If we added coaching staff to the polling list I think Emery would top the poll out of all of them.

Xhaka atleast has a spell of 3 good months each season where he plays out of his skin.
Mustafi is consistently shit.

Xhaka wins that contest for me.

I don’t know about that. I don’t think Xhaka has that much of a spell of playing well that makes you stand up and take notice. The only game I can remember him playing excellent in was that 1-1 last with Liverpool at home, he was MOTM in that game. But he’s never for me had a impact that made you think he warrants a place in the team.

He has his fans but I just have never been impressed by Xhaka and losing him wouldn’t be a blow for Arsenal imo.

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I just don’t know just can’t see him coming back from this. The fan’s will always be on his back. I think a clean break for both him and this club might be best for all concerned.

I do feel bad for him. Human shield for smalldicking

Heirarchy of abuse: Gazidis -> Whatever dumb as fuck directors wanted to extend Emery -> Emery himself -> Xhaka

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Serious?

Someone (or everyone) is lying then. One source said he doesn’t want to come out and apologise the other says he’s regretted his actions straight away.

What’s clear is nobody actually know what is going on and everybody is trying to generate traffic to their page with conjecture.

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Yeah, on a human level he’s obviously going through some shit. He lost his temper (not for the first time on the pitch) and it’s the end of the road for him at Arsenal. He can still go somewhere else and have a productive career, probably in Italy.

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I thought after a day of being able to reflect on the incident that I’d calm down and be a bit more coldly objective.

On the contrary, I think my rage and beffudlement has only increased.

Thinking back to the original appointment of Xhaka as captain…I mean wtf? It is arguably the single worst decision made by Emery in his error-strewn managerial reign.

If you were literally trying to sabotage the club, it’s the best possible deicison you could have ever made. Or if you were desperate to get sacked, this is what you would do.

Heads fucking gone here gents

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I think most of us can agree Xhaka was a terrible choice for a captain.

I don’t put a lot of stock in what I consider to be a very British idea of what a captain is (i.e.: Adams, Keane on the successful end and Noble, Cattermole on the laughable end).

But at the end of the day the captain should be someone who is able to successfully transmit the manager’s ideas to the players on the pitch, set a good example for the other players off the pitch and generally keep their head.

Xhaka does not check any of those boxes. We all knew it in August, we knew it in September when someone leaked the decision Emery made to have players vote and we know it now.

I’m not sure what Emery sees in Xhaka and frankly I’m not sure Xhaka knows what Emery sees in him. One minute Emery is naming him captain and the next he’s hauling him off at 69 (nice) minutes and 60 minutes. It’s man management whiplash and speaks to how bad of a decision it was in the first place.

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Choosing a Captain should be the decision of the manager not the players. Just shows how little Emery has authority over the players that he asked them what player should be Captain!
No wonder we look disfuctional as a team no leadership from the manager.

Unpopular opinion - He shouldn’t apologise.

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Why is he giving so much power to the players regarding such decisions?
Allowing this to happen sets a terrible example to the players. Not only do the players feel empowered about club decisions but they also condemn Xhaka’s actions as acceptable behaviour.

I honestly don’t give a fuck whether he apologises or not the cunts got to go either way. What he said to the fans doesn’t really bother me at all, his fucking nose picking while we get dicked in midfield triggers me to no end. Would rather play a traffic cone in the centre of the park.

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The captain’s voice his the manager’s voice on the pitch maybe we’ve seen from Xhaka how inept Emery really is at commanding and encouraging a team

I’m sure Ivan can offer him a place at Milan :smiley:

Here we go

on how Xhaka is after the events of Sunday…
Good afternoon. It’s not easy for him and for the team. He is now devastated, devastated and sad. We spoke yesterday and on Sunday night I also spoke. This morning, he trained as normal with the group but he is devastated and he is sad about the situation. His commitment with the club is a great commitment every time. He wants to help. His behaviour was perfect in training, with the group and with the club. He knows he was wrong. He was wrong and he feels it inside very deeply. But that is normal as a human. You need – and every player needs - the supporters’ support. Support them, support the team. We spoke and I spoke a lot with him also about that. We need to learn and when we are having good matches and good moments, they applaud us and we are happy. But when we are in one difficult moment or we are receiving some criticism, we need to also be strong and to know and to learn to play under that pressure. It’s our work, it’s our job and the supporters, they are the most important in our life. Because if there aren’t supporters, there aren’t fans and there aren’t people behind us, there is no reason to play professional football without our fans. Now, he is down. He is down and the most important thing now is that we look after him, his family. Look after him, the club, the team and also recover our best Granit Xhaka. After that wrong situation on Sunday, I have one challenge every time, for myself and also for the team and every and each player. When the supporters - our followers - are unhappy with us because maybe now we need to play, now we need to control the matches better and improve things to be stronger, we need them. But first it’s for us and we need to take one step ahead. Individual circumstances like Sunday, they are coming because as a team we need to improve and we need to be more comfortable and transmit to the supporters and show better performances and the results for them. When we will do that, they are going to support us collectively and individually.

on if he is still the right person to be the captain of Arsenal…
I explained why I decided that. He has the values, he has the respect in the dressing room, he has experience and he is captain of his national team. He has the conditions to be the captain. I decided that and the players respect that. He was wrong on Sunday and he also got wrong the response on Sunday, as a captain.

on if that means Xhaka is still the captain of Arsenal…
We need to go step-by-step, step-by-step. First is to recover him, as a human, as a player. And then we are going to continue speaking about how we can improve, how we can continue in that way with him, with the team and with everybody.

:thinking:

Also

https://twitter.com/GrimandiTweets_/status/1189197194437509120