No mention of any sex pests though.
I am disappoint.
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I love this defending of Xhaka - cracks me upā¦ when you have to resort to ārecency biasā arguments to try to defend a terrible signing (factoring in price of course), then you know you are grasping.
OFC there is recency biasā¦ ofc there is an element of hyperboleā¦ but what is odd to me is that of all the things I could try to fight, to make points about, to use my mental and argumentative energies, you pick defending this guy?
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@ljungbergkamp , remember when it was just two of us who would hate on Xhaka.
Look at our community now. They grow up so fast
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I know you like little narcissistic delusions but Xhaka has practically always been universally hated both on here and by the rest of Arsenalās online following. In fact Iād go as far to say that this seasonās heās actually had the most supporters.
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I donāt think Xhaka was written off in his first season by our fan base
Torreira started off well, but it was basically downhill after we lost 3-nil or 4-nil away to Liverpool (one of the first games he started without Xhaka).
Sure itt didnāt help that we played him further forward a season later. The fact is, he didnāt have the passing range or passing reliability of a Xhaka. Although Mislintat saw comparable stats to the Kante, Torreira lacked Kanteās presence and his physical capabilities.
Didnāt do much at Atletico and weāll probably take a bigger net lose from his transfer. I thought we should have sold him back in the 2019. Ah well.
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Why does the decline require symbolism in the form of one individual? In that case you might as well talk about the Emirates or Kroenke or Wenger or a whole host of things or players that were in the picture.
Xhaka in place of Matic in Chelseaās last title winning team probably still wins the title. Many people were pleased with the clubās proactivity in signing Xhaka.
End of the day at the time of leaving Xhakaās still one of Arsenalās best midfielders so thereās so much more at play here which can easily lead to a net deficit from his departure. Until we actually have better players to replace him thereās no reason for excitement.
Another big scapegoat in a long line of scapegoats at this club.
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Thatās a crazy hypothetical. Matic is absolute levels above Xhaka in terms of their Premiere League careers and thereās absolutely no way Chelsea who are notoriously ruthless in cutting players and managers would persist with a lynchpin who was making a major mistake resulting in a goal, penalty or red card every 10 games or so.
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I saw a Neves and Xhaka blog the other day and they said Xhaka made 2 errors that led to goals this season which is poor and my first thought was wow thatās actually pretty good for him, thatās not poor.
They then went on to say neves hasnāt had 1 error leading to a goal in 3 yearsā¦
Canāt believe my brain thought it was okay for your midfielder to be at fault for conceding 2 goals this season.
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Xhaka > Torreira. Iād wager that Xhaka has the better next 5 years of their respective careers. Weāll see where Torreira ends up - iām guessing mid table Spain/Italy.
Torreira had a decent start for us, I wouldnāt say he was ever outstanding, and it quickly went south. He copped a rough deal from Emery being played out of position but there were also times during the middle of that season where Xhaka and Guen were outplaying him in the deeper positions.
Errors leading to goals is really a miniscule stat in the grand scheme of things. Xhaka probably has like 10 errors leading to goals in 10,000+ minutes of football, who cares. Itās also very subjective. You could put part of the Burnley error down to Leno too for example
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Just a rough look as I cba to argue this entirely. 9 errors 5 penalties and 3 reds I think. 17 times heās molested a game. He averages like 30 games a season so thatās 1 fuck up every 9 or so games. Incredible
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I think Iāll get excited about him going and the prospect of us signing a new, better midfielder this summer.
If we donāt sign a good midfielder to replace him I can quickly pivot from excitement to anger, no problem.
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Iām not going to defend Mustafi. But worse than Xhaka? Off the top of my head, Park, Squillaci, AndrĆ© Santos, Francis Jeffers, Gervinho, Stepanovs. Plenty of cheap or free transfers who have been atrocious too, players like Silvestre. Could probably list at least 50 or so players worse than Xhaka.
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Yeah I agree with this, however as others have pointed out the fee plays a massive part, in addition to that Xhaka was brought in as first team player and some of the others are back ups.
Not worse than Xhaka and Mustafi.
When he was fit, heād score goals. Injuries hampered him here.
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Yeah the distinction between āworst playersā and āworst signingsā is a large one, its two totally separate conversations.
Would agree with what Phoebica said just above, Xhaka doesnāt come close to a top five worst ever Arsenal players. When it comes to Arsenal players who were worse footballers than Xhaka, thereās so many, to the extent that Iāve probably forgotten at least as many as I could name.
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The thing is though.
We have never been this bad in my lifetime.
So itās hard for me to put players from an era when we were a better team ahead of many of the shitters we have now
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Captain
Leader
Talisman
Xhaka 
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