Yeh bruh but I had three fids figured out two summers ago.
No disrespect or anything to @Kroenkeoutplease he’s top but credit to GodbouCuéllar where it’s due.
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Go on the Yankeeboy take the like then.
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I think he’ll jump ship once a better job comes along, he won’t want to take the heat or fall for this. He probably knows that this board won’t spend money to compete, and he can’t bullshit for too much longer before the fan’s give him shit for it as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if he resigns in the summer.
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He’s got the money to compete for 3rd/4th. We’re absolutely in the financial sphere of Chelsea, Spurs, Leicester, Wolves and potentially Liverpool.
If his players and coach aren’t cutting it then that’s tough. He’ll start getting the blame but he’s not going to leave.
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But can he attract the players that will make us better. The likes of Everton will get stronger, and with the teams you mentioned. Utd and Chelsea will go strong again, as will Spurs. If we start penny pinching and losing the likes of Auba, it could be a tough time for old Raul.
I think a lot of fans will give him the summer to prove that his exec team are capable of building the right kind of squad to get us back into the CL. I know many on here have given up hope and think he’s dead but there won’t be a huge backlash yet imo.
The next window is huge for us. We have an exciting young manager installed but the club need to maximise our resources and give him what he needs to make us step up. Another season of failure (like the current one) and there will be a really vocal and negative response to Sanllehi. I hope it doesn’t get to that.
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We have completely lost compass as a club since this guy left…
Come back David we need you! Bring Usmanov along too!
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Usmanov already owns a PL club.
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I still like his summer business. Pepe looks like a good player, as does Tierney, Ceballos, Saliba and Martinelli, and Luiz isn’t a disaster for a cheap buy.
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Yeah, this criticism of Raul is a little strange for me.
We needed a LB so he signed one of the better prospects. We needed an experienced CB and we upgraded on Koscielny whilst also securing one of the best young CB talents in Europe.
We needed a CM and we got Ceballos who came with a huge reputation. We signed one of the most exciting RW players in Europe in Pepe and an exciting prospect in Martinelli.
I think he had an excellent summer it’s just now building on that and probably hoping the Arteta gamble pays off.
I’m big on Raul and I’m happy to have him on board. And it’s funny to see all the criticism he’s getting, it’s all hindsight. At the time people were lauding his business.
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Hindsight is what matters in reality though.
Ceballos loan has been a failure, I’ll admit I was all for it.
Pepe I was all for, but ultimately he hasn’t lived up to price tag expectation thus far.
Tierney I was also all for, but he hasn’t really got on the park.
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This isn’t true though because he’s basically being criticised for making moves that we all (and most of the footballing world) thought were excellent transfers.
Tierney being injured, Pepe not settling in so quickly and Ceballos loan being a failure is not a reflection of Raul as a director.
The only thing he really deserved criticism for is holding onto Emery for as long as he did and not sacking him after the end of last season.
But his transfer business has been good. He’s shifted a lot of dead wood and actively tried to get rid of other players. He’s brought in younger players and made some good signings.
This team will click with better coaching and some more players in the summer.
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I really hope you’re right regarding the team clicking with some better coaching in the summer, I really do so fingers crossed.
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I’m certain we’ve got a good enough squad to push on but I’m starting to lean towards the idea of replacing Arteta in the summer. Although I don’t want to rush to judgement, there’s little about him that fills me with optimism so far.
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Yeah I was all for holding off on giving Arteta grief as he’s still settling into the role but after last night I’d probably be up for sacking him if another top European coach is available.
Last nights game showed some worrying indications about his character as a manager - that he’s more Emery than Wenger.
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I was hostile about Raul even before the summer signings.
My understanding is that he didn’t do a great job at Barca and he spent big and unwisely there. Always going to be a bad fit given the Kroenkes financial strategy for the club.
He’s been head of football at the club for about 2 years now and we’ve seen a big decline. I think 2 years was long enough to prove himself and given his record at Barca it leads me to conclude he’s not the man to lead us.
My source in the club is also very lukewarm about him compared with a David Devin or even a Wenger (an alleged lovely man although past his sell by date at the end).
As for the Summer signings:
-I couldn’t comprehend 72m on a winger as it was a huge slab of our cash reserve and not in the area we needed. Furthermore Pepe has had a very poor start - flashes of brilliance but too often going down dead ends so even as a right wing poor value. Maybe he’ll learn and get better and I enjoy watching him but he looks more like a 25m player than a 72m one so far.
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I didn’t want Tierney as he was crocked. We have a history of injury prone players and felt he was too much of a risk.
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David Luiz - sometimes good but he was not the steady and consistent defender the squad needed so I was bemused by this buy. Sure enough after a few good games it was hard to understand how he failed to attack the cross on the losing goal.
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Martinelli- a great find at that price - fair dues to those responsible on him
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Ceballos- not made much difference mostly and I was luke warm on this.
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Saliba - the need was a strong centreback now - not in a years time so I didn’t really understand it. Hope he’ll be good in the prem but who knows.
I appreciate others rate the signings better than I did and do. However for me results are all in the end and it’s been a horrible horrible season. I think Rauls been here long enough to be fully accountable for that and I’ve been calling for his P45 for quite a while now.
Not a popular view perhaps but my view nonetheless.
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I think Raul’s done well. You make signings for several seasons not 1 season. We became a mid team table under Emery and the state of our midfield and defense this was always going to be a long term rebuild.
If Arteta is a bad appointment then that’s a black mark against him. But I’m not judging Arteta yet, given Liverpool performed the same under Klopp for 6 months and Guardiola won nothing in his first season and finished joint 4th
Also the culture of the players not giving a shit isn’t going to change over night.
Also everyone is Lording Liverpool right now. Well guess what they’re owners and transfer comitee didn’t get it right for a long time. But they kept investing and kept re-building.
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I agree.
To spend 70m on a winger when we needed at least one experienced quality CB was a bit strange.
Tierney looks decent but, like you say, we have enough defensive crocks.
If Saliba had been bought from a top European club, I might be more convinced but coming fro the French league and being so young for a CB, I’m not sure if he can walk into such a poorly coached defence and make that much difference.
Luiz was adequate although only short term.
Cellabos started well but seems to have dropped down to the level of the team his playing in and Martinelli looks good when he has played and is a good prospect.
Not the worst window we’ve had but we really need something special in the next window to turn this mess around and I’m not sure the decision makers are taking us in the right direction.
In fact, I know they’re not.
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Which CB that moved last summer should we have got instead? We tapped up Saliba and tried to get Upamenco by all accounts.
Right now it sounds like Raul is tapping up Partey and triggering his release clause, which would be fantastic business
Would really like to see the following shifted:
Lacazette
Ozil
Xhaka
Toreira
Kola
Mustafi
Holding or Chambers (keep 1)
And then buy:
Upamenco (if we can pull it off)
Partey (50m Euro realse clause, which sounds like another Raul contact/inside knowledge - will add creativity in midfield)
Cellebos
Saliba
RB
DM
FW
That’s wishful thinking, I’m sure we can’t shift all those players or making all those signings but it’s what we need to work towards