I’ve done that before, though not 3 times, just the once! At Stratford train station. I reckon I styled it out though 
You said it would be a lot better than I feared last Summer Maverick!!! Now you look nearly as fed up as me.
player hires etc were good, i had high hopes for emery but he needs to be changed we are circling the drain with him…but looks like any decent manager is not gonna be able to be called on until summer
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you didn’t
I’m going to go the other way a bit compared to what most people feel about the current exec.
Firstly, there has been some really good, forward thinking / planning in terms of our recruitment. Saliba, Tierney, Martinelli and Pepe are all very positive signings. Pepe especially is a real marquee signing, a player that was regarded as well outside of our reach. People going on and on about the defence - well actually we signed 3 defenders in one window. 2 of which are very young players with potentially high ceilings. You can’t overhaul the entire defensive roster in one window. In addition to that, we tried very hard to sign another defender in Upamecano. Trying extremely hard to get rid of Mustafi. A lot of work has gone on to rectify what is obviously a clear area of weakness in the squad. Does that not deserve credit? Also, they did not plan on losing Koscielny. Bringing Luiz in was about as good as you were going to get for £8m and on short notice. He’s also one of the only proven winners we have in this squad, so from that point of view he was more than acceptable, and probably better than what I envisaged.
Looking back at last season, I still think Torreira is a really good signing. A player we have craved for so long - it’s not solely the fault of the exec that the cunt of a manager doesn’t utilise him correctly. Guendouzi another obviously good signing.
Moving on to the Emery situation, as much as I want the cunt sacked now, if we did that then there would be a huge upheaval to our current coaching staff. He brought in 5 people from what I’ve read. That would leave a huge hole, one which would be very difficult to fill unless you’ve got your next manager ready to come in. But looking around, which elite manager is available and ready to come in? Allegri is the only one and he’s not somebody who fits the style of football we are supposed to be famous for (not that Emery is but the next appointment needs to be correct). I can therefore understand the hesitancy in firing him if it means Ljungberg takes over with a vastly reduced support / coaching staff to help him. A guy like Arteta doesn’t bring his own coaching staff either, as they all belong to Guardiola. It takes time for us / him to identify the right people to also bring in as coaches.
They should have fired him in the summer after failing to reach our objectives (and failing miserably in the final month of the season), but again, what were the managerial options out there. Tbh, it’s impossible to know either way. Names like Nagelsmann, Rangnick etc. get thrown around but even Bayern haven’t been able to sign these guys. The Arsenal job is a huge job but timing is so important, you need a bit of luck with that to have the right man available when there is an opening.
Given the amount of positive work that has happened in terms of squad rejuvenation (as well as commercial things like signing up with Adidas) then I’m willing to give these guys a bit more leeway. Edu has been in the job 4 months lol, in a role that didn’t even exist at the club before he was hired.
The exec have another 7 weeks until the new year. Unfortunately, even if they haven’t identified a viable replacement, the fan unrest will be so bad that they will simply have to sack Emery if results like this continue. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt for now because they’ve done some good (but not perfect) work so far.
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Well that’s a credible well articulated post with some good points.
The point you make about nobody being out there now and in the summer primarily rankles a bit for me.
It’s to similar an argument that was put in for years on the Wenger years.
It’s a well structured post though and one deserving of some careful thinking.
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They’ll give Emery the next 4 games to turn it around. If after West Ham we don’t have close to 25-28 points, he will be gone. Because the next 6 fixtures would be incredibly tough for him to handle and might need a new coach with better tactics to get results and compensate for the previous dismal ones.
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This is a very good post that I think quite sensibly sums up our current situation.
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Very good take on the other side of things, and brings some of our criticism into perspective.
I also don’t want to write off the new guys too much yet (we already know what those that leaked to Ornstein are about though, because they’ve been doing and saying the same things for years).
I guess rightly or wrongly they want to let Emery fail before acting, and then bank on winning the EL with the new guy (this squad is by far the best squad of any in the EL, including any potential dropouts from the CL).
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That’s a great post.
I agree with most of it but although we have made some good signings, they were too little, too late.
We have needed quality defenders for several seasons and Wenger chose to do very little about it, or the board refused to back him financially, or both.
Whatever the reason, we have watched the team fall further behind and only when it was desperate did we make those signings.
Like you say, the lack of decisiveness with the managers has also dragged us down and, again, this just shows the lack of direction and urgency from the board.
Emery is obviously not the way forward, neither was Wenger before him, and in both situations the board have dragged their feet which has left us in a precarious position.
Everything the board do is several seasons too late, from signing players we desperately need, to hanging on to managers that are dragging us down.
Compared to the board"s of Liverpool and Leicester, who were in similar positions to us a few seasons ago, we have dinosaurs running the club and as long as they are here nothing will change.
As for managers not being available at the right time, if a manager is that good he will be in work, and it doesn’t stop other big clubs from getting them, so if we can’t attract someone of top quality then we are not a big club anymore.
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The fact that after all this time shit just keeps on getting worse and even more unfathomable makes caring about Arsenal a nuisance really. I mean we still will regardless of what we say but it’s gotten to a stage where it’s mindbogglingly shit now.
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Best username ever
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Agree with a lot of what you have said, but still feel that there’s a large group of our fanbase holding onto this mythical idea that the only reason Torreira isn’t a superstar is because he isn’t playing in his favoured postion of DM.
The reality is that the modern DM does not play like Torreira, who ultimately lacks the passing range and variance to really be an option there. Most top modern DMs are also significantly bigger than Torreira, Lucas is always getting bumped around and pushed off.
I think part of the reason he plays further up is because he is playing more in that Kante role where play is broken up a bit further up and protection given to a deep-lying playmaker type player (Xhaka/Jorginho).
We hear that Emery wanted Steven NZonzi and that certainly makes more sense from a stylistic point of view.
I’ve said in the past I’d like Torreira to start at DM, but that is only due to the options available, I don’t believe he is a long-term solution if our aims are to be title challengers again.
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I was listening to Arseblog Extra and they pointed out something. We have to win 18 of the next 24 in order to get to 71 pts (4th place last year).
So, now that we’ve missed out on CL, I don’t really see a point in spending the money to replace Emery. The damage is done. Edu and Raul waited too long. May as well see out his contract and see what we can do in summer. That’s how low my expectations have gotten.
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Torreira is a good passer of the ball. He’s got a good range of passing for a DM and is, size aside, the archetypal modern defensive midfielder.
You could pick up any video on YouTube of his early Arsenal, Uruguay and Sampdoria games and watch him passing the ball very well c
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I don’t think he has the physical attributes and strength to be s starting CDM in a league as strong and physical as the EPL if you want to be a title contender.
It’s criminal what Unai Emery has been doing to him though.
Hahahahaha what a disgusting attitude by the club if true, yeah lots of us could see we should have sacked him earlier, but to keep him for another 7 months to avoid a payout is disgusting.
Look at the likes of Fabinho, Fernandinho, Rodri, all the DMs at top clubs and they have the build and the passing to recycle possession and build attacks as well as the size to not get pushed past and abused physcially like Lucas does.
I’m not sure how he’s the archetypal modern DM when he plays differently to the top ones at the top clubs.
I’ve seen enough of his passing now to be pretty confident he is average by comparison to the very best.
A lot of our fans get caught up in the toughness and eagerness which are both good traits, but you don’t see Fabinho or Fernandinho or those type of players running around the place like Torriera does. Modern DMs rely on positioning, poise and the overall team press, not so much individual toughness and keenness to get stuck in to anything that comes within 15 metres.
Like I’ve consistently said, he is our best option at DM currently and I don’t think he is shit, he just isn’t as good as some Arsenal fans make him out to be.
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That’s my opinion. Thanks for shitting on it.
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This is 100 % my way of thinking about Torreira also, couldn’t have said it any better.
When we first signed him I was hoping we were getting a top player, but I’ve seen a fair few flaws in his game last 10 months or so.
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