In the midst of all the giddiness and joy among Arsenal fans at the prospect of a brand new, literally shiny, high profile manager taking over the reins of management from that wizened, grizzled old grand-dad we had all gotten used to, something just doesn’t ring true.
Don’t get me wrong. Although am a well known partisan for Arsene Wenger, I have nothing against Unai Emery and wholeheartedly welcome him to the club and truly wish for him all the success possible. He is young and handsome, a very telegenic face, around which the PR people at the club can only drool. Apparently, when unveiled to the media, he said all the right things which had the hacks in rapture as they pounded their keyboards, oiled their tongues for radio or were dabbed with makeup before video recording the usual clichéd segment for TV. Most of all he has a brilliant CV, starting in the boondocks of Spanish football taking a couple of clubs to promotion, excelling at Sevilla with 3 Europa League titles and, prior to Arsenal, managing one of the biggest-moneyed clubs in Europe ending with a quadruple of titles. Surely he is the perfect man for the job.
And that is what triggers my contrarian instinct. The script is just too perfectly written.
By the way, we all have a contrarian streak genetically coded into the deep reptilian recesses of our cranium, the one that tell us: “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is”. But too often, most of us get suckered by our emotions, based on narratives fomented by the mainstream media, and forget to listen to our brains, not our heart.
Something is “too good to be true” with the narrative we are now being sold. According to almost all the usual suspects Emery will save us from the washed-up, stupid, old fool who only managed an Invincible year as part of 3 league titles, 7 FA cups and kept us in the top-4 for 20 out of 22 years:
“Emery will get Arsenal more organised than they have been”. (BBC)
“What they will be getting is a coach who is fully committed and, in his approach to preparation, a startling break from what they have been used to. If Wenger’s twilight years at the club produced a team that often appeared under-coached, then the reign of Emery will be the exact opposite.” (Independent)
“Where Arsène Wenger’s teams may have descended into the painfully one-dimensional, Emery’s outlook is one of nuance and precision, which may well suit Arsenal’s developing team rather more than the entrenched, haughty collection of Parisian stars.” (Guardian)
Disorganized, Under-coached and One-dimensional
So less than two weeks after Wenger’s final game the football media takes off the gloves; no more of the hypocrisy, flattery and lofty odes to one of the greatest managers in English football. His teams, in their own words, were disorganized, under-coached and one-dimensional. Thus the need to hire Unai Emery who it is predicted will bring glory to north London, apparently the type experienced by Sevilla and PSG. Mark you Sevilla last won the Spanish league title in 1945-46 and PSG has not even made the Champions league final since gobbling up hundreds of millions of the best oil money the sheiks of Qatar could throw at the club over the past 7 years.
Apparently things were so bad under Wenger, Arsenal’s last trophy of worth was the FA cup as far back as May 2017. Moreover, things were so bad in the 17-18 season, they had a mere 14 home-wins, the second highest in the league.
This is the same media (as well as most bloggers and podcasters) who choose to ignore the fact that since 2005, Wenger has progressively been outspent by three clubs in the premier league. In fact one news media, in their effort to downplay the magnitude of the disparity, characterized Arsenal as the 3rd strongest club financially in England. In other words, this liar and misleader, was suggesting Arsene should be consistently averaging 3rd in the league because of the financial resources available.
Clearly the new manager, who is currently being feted and glad handled, is already being setup. He is expected to outperform Wenger’s average 4th place finish over the past 12 years at a time when United and Chelsea are desperate to make up the difference with City, there being a gap of 19 points between 1st and 2nd at the end of last season. Moreover as was reported in sputniknews.com, Abramovich recently had his Tier I visa held up by the UK government, a privilege to freely travel back and forth which is tied to volume of his investments in the country. It doesn’t take an expert to predict he will make another handy investment in Chelsea in the next transfer window to prove his bona-fides.
Why this elaborate set up?
Why are we being sold such a grand story of failure by Arsene, so much so that the club needs a savior, a metaphoric David to rescue Arsenal from the Philistines? Isn’t it amazing that in 2 years, Arsene moved from being the most powerful man at Arsenal to being a has-been. Be reminded that the 16-17 season started with great optimism, the club having acquired Mustafi, Xhaka and Lucas Perez to supplement the group who came 2nd to Leicester the prior year. But at the start of the season and Mertersacker, one of the cornerstones of the central defensive partnership, suffers a season-ending injury. The new Koscielny-Mustafi or Koscielny-Gabriel partnership is unable to replicate the level of the old-firm. In October, Santi Sazorla, the mastermind of prior year victories over United, City and Chelsea also suffers a season-ender. To this day the combined ‘expertiste’ of the media makes no connection between the injuries to two of Arsenal’s best players and the club coming 5th that season. Instead there is a massive blame-game on Wenger. When he was offered only a two year contract, it was self-evident his future was in doubt.
What is most striking is how this was the opening for the chief executive, Mr Gazidis, to seize power away from Mr. Wenger. In the summer of 2017 we are informed the CEO has moved his offices from Arsenal House to London Colney, the training ground. In relatively short order Mislintat becomes chief scout and Sanllehi as head of football relations. As a famous denizen of this blog tweeted there are now 5 people doing the job Wenger performed by himself.
But while the corporate office has grown bigger and surely more expensive, Arsenal suffered on the field with points lost not only due to player inconsistency (at least 8 first team players from 2016-17 are gone) but also from a pattern of poor and biased refereeing by the PGMO. If the CEO and his team were campaigning for VAR in the executive suites of the Premier League it was a “silence of the lambs”.
The Coup
What convinced me that the Emery appointment may be just one big show is a piece in the Guardian by one David Hynter which suggests he was ordered to do a PR piece on behalf of Mr Gazidis. They are quick to highlight the following:
- Gazidis is responsible for signing Ozil
- Gazidis is, first and foremost, a football lover.
- Gazidis has long advocated a management structure that does not rest on a single point or employee because, when it fails, there is the potential for the whole thing to collapse. He has wanted a broader coalition of talented specialists greater than the sum of its parts and, for so long, his efforts were frustrated by Wenger, to whom the club’s majority shareholder, Stan Kroenke, was in thrall. Wenger had a hotline to Kroenke and he could shape or veto Gazidis’s ideas.
- Gazidis wanted a director of football but Wenger pushed his friend Dick Law into a position of executive-level authority.
- Gazidis wanted greater expertise in data and contracts and hired Hendrik Almstadt only for Wenger to say he did not want him.
- Gazidis oversaw the purchase of the data analytics company, StatDNA, but Wenger was not a fan.
Hynter concludes with a flourish:
“It was a meticulously orchestrated coup and Gazidis carried it off while showing all the respect in the world to Wenger, who has watched virtually all of his people leave the club. It has felt like a plot-line from Gomorrah, the Neapolitan mafia drama. Gazidis was not always the favourite to outlast Wenger. Now, his position looks stronger than ever.”
I could not have said it better than Mr Hynter. The evidence clearly points to a coup. He says it in triumph but I am disgusted by the lowball tactics that have been employed.
As an aside, while I arrived at a similar conclusion, by taking the available facts to their logical conclusion, because yours truly does not write for a big mainstream newspaper, I would be accused by the charlatans in the media (as well as the bloggers and podcasters) of being a conspiracy theorist for calling out Mr Gazidis for being Wenger’s Brutus.
Unfortunately, most coups fail because they are based on lies and the golpistas (Spanish) rule without the consent of the people. That is why I fear for Emery. He may think he is a big-time Charlie but he is just a chump in a giant con being played on Arsenal fans. The new manager will find the Premier League is made up of several merciless sharks; mainly the three clubs with giant financial teeth whom he cannot compete in the transfer market, the other big one being the PGMO whose job is to protect the big boys from being upset as the PL needs the external money to keep flowing.
I wish Emery all the best but the signs aren’t good. He is on 2 year plus one contract suggesting he is a placeholder, a short-term appointment. Does this mean Arsenal has ended its tradition of managers being long-term appointees with time to build a team that can compete for titles without busting the bank?
Am not predicting the future, but as much as most fans are optimistic that under his management it could get better for Arsenal, I am duty bound to warn my readers that odds are even and it could get worse. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Positively Arsenal 
anicoll5 finsburyp
Going down the Pit
Does something to a man that words are not easy to describe ,The Heat,smell the dust.
It shapes you
My dad went down the stories , the mentality of the guys
Those were different times.
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Andy
I don’t mind Blatter actually. I agree that under his presidency football became a more global game. I do not, and never did doubt that he made money off of it. And I still didn’t mind it (too much) You can ascribe that to the Third World realism/cynicism if you like. Personally, I think it is human nature to look out for yourself first (motivations differ though)
I also don’t think corruption is restricted to money in brown envelopes or even secret swiss bank accounts. In fact I think that is the less pervasive/damaging kind of corruption. The worst corruption is institutionalised to such an extent that the institution loses its purpose and becomes ‘corrupted’. I fear that is what the status is with the Pgmol and its parent organisations.
The NFL abandoning video refs because they didn’t work well and fans were unhappy. I think that is better than not doing anything and ‘waiting’ for things to become better.
It’s not even so much the wrong ref or administrative decisions that I have a problem with. It’s the fact that they really do not seem to care. Their entire organisation is structured in a way so as to remain as closed as possible. This gives me no confidence of their intentions. Again, third world cynical realism if you like. But humans are the same everywhere.
VAR is inevitable by the way.
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BBC reporting that Arsenal are trying to sign Juventus right back, 34 year old swiss international Stephan Lichsteiner, on a Bosman
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Folks, after some arguing and whatnot in recent times here, I think we should all come together and say…please Madrid do the business tomorrow you swines.
Please!!!
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by the way Lichsteiner was at London Colney today having talks on the move.
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Arguing ARGUING?
A little light conversation on the nature of truth, the issue of physical proximity to phenomena and the capacity to take a decision and coal mining
Looks v exciting to me Rich
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It’s all part of the upheaval caused by Ivanicus Brutus Gazidus
(I may not have read Gibbon, but Asterix the Gaul was a childhood favourite)
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One of the more bizarre and futile moments in an earlier stage of my life was being asked to run a cricket session for about 80 mine workers in Welkom. It did not go particularly swimmingly but the payback was an official visit a few weeks later to a deep mine. Not too bad i thought as we descended in a cage to an area that seemed little different to a station on the Piccadilly line. But several hundred yards further on at the actual gold face saw a very different and nightmarish experience. If no one ever has to work down a pit again it will be too soon no matter how many fast bowlers or centre backs such work might spawn.
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Jack’s either off then or enjoys a bit of social media chatter about him.
I’d guess it’s probably former but who knows.
Lichtsteiner’s profile seems pretty sensible to me, given Hector’s age and the ages of the two quality right back prospects in youth ranks, Osei-Tutu and Daley-Campbell
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Lichsteiner is 34 years old for heaven’s sake and plagued by injuries. Please, please.
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Çağlar Söyüncü has confirmed talks with Arsenal and says things will become clearer after the International games.
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the new away shirt
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The injury is not funny at all..But…. my tendon has farted… is just such an amazingly awesome phrase.
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Lichtsteiner, if he comes, is only there as an experienced backup shotta. As Rich pointed out, we have young RBs in the ranks. AMN, Chambers and Holding can also cover there. So can Mustafi. But having him will help us. For me, the key word is Experienced. I think he’ll be good to have around the squad. He’s also Xhaka’s NT captain.
While leaving Juve he said that he wanted to play where he and his family would be happy, and that he didn’t need more money. He was ruling out China to be fair, but I think it might also mean that we don’t have to pay him too high a wage either.
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https://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/other-soccer/ewan-mackenna-murky-questions-surround-spanish-footballs-golden-era-and-people-might-not-like-the-answers-36943284.html
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Shard
Are you trying to tell me that if a sneer like an idiot in an interment comments section, if I laud my own reflection, if I click my ruby heels together three times that doping in football will not disappear?
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Shard, Cheers. Excellent article.
What on earth to make of it,eh? Nothing particularly new to me in there but shocking nonetheless and brilliantly presented.
The strangest part of it is that those facts and issues have been sitting there for a decade or so, and the vast majority of journalists go nowhere near them. Only I guess it’s not so strange as its exactly what I feel is likely or even guaranteed to happen.
The author mentions the main reasons why- too big to fail; too big a risk to journalists’ careers if they were tempted (characters of most of our lot, I don’t think they are) to go there.
It all fits into the same thing for me as pgmol and finances in football: with the journalists covering the sport as though they are covering the full reality, openly and with few restrictions; when in fact this isn’t the case.
Ah, I can’t describe it well. Best example I can give is the feeling I was left with when I used to use the Guardian website a lot and fell foul of the moderators a handful of times.
Felt sure I had not broken their stated terms- no swearing; careful to play the ball not the man, etc- but off the comments went into oblivion (they don’t even let you see what you had written once they cancel it), as did any subsequent comments making any reference whatsoever to being moderated.
And so, viewing the debate underneath, sans my input, I was left with a horrible sense that the whole thing was a sham: the illusion of completely open robust debate, with only those who break fair rules rightly excluded, masquerading as the real thing.
And that was the Guardian. Imagine the Mail!
Think the word simulacrum might cover it. Disturbing stuff anyway.
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I hope Madrid have a visit from Dr.Feelgood before they take the field against Liverpool.
Can’t be dealing with the radio after a Liverpool victory or even before the match. Every little helps!
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Long been stories about Spain and doping, I remember an article saying if exposed, it would be a who’s who of their sportsmen, and that Spain was making appeals to keep a lid on things as the country was in a dire recession, and it’s sporting prowess was pretty much all it had to raise public morale. Nadal is oft mentioned, strange how he declined, but guess the same could be said of Murray and Djokovic with injuries and personal issues in the last couple years.
I remember when we were drawn Barca year after year in the ECL, we would be wracked by injuries, they would field the same players in peak condition, year after year. Of course they play in a non competitive league, and it is suggested they may get more protection from refs than our players do.
But I also believe we need to look closer to home when it comes to doping. We have sides that high press for virtually the whole game, once considered virtually impossible. Players who have their ankle bent over but reappear after three weeks, not at their best but with gradual return to their best . I doubt if English clubs hit lance Armstrong levels of doping, but may well skirt around the fringes of what’s permitted, may explore substances not yet in the rule book, a bit like a certain cycling team. Then, wengers warning words.
Arsenal have a new regime, the old guard have been culled, it is vital as Wenger warns, that values are maintained and our club never goes down this route, not least for the health and safety of players, and if individuals transgress, they are severely dealt with. Fortunately, I doubt if our top brass have any appetite for such activities, not least for the negative brand impact this would cause, history teaches us that if Arsenal were carrying out some illegal activity , we would be the ones found out and made an example of
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Agree Finsbury, I despise Real, some of their players and all they stand for in the game , but the Liverpool love in is stomach churning as it is, without it going into overdrive.
I suspect Real, who really aren’t that great these days, might need some “help” from a twelfth man today, a little Barca got when we had them in trouble at the Nou Camp, and with their history and influence, they may well get it.
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It may just be that it doesn’t get reported, but to my knowledge Wenger is the ONLY high profile manager to make an issue of doping in football. He’s also suggested measures on how to improve controls (Blood passport) He’s said he’s had players join Arsenal whose blood-work showed suspicious history. He’s criticised the current measures as not enough. (3 players’ urine tested by Uefa out of a squad of 18. 2 Must be found guilty to invalidate a result)
No one else took it up. In a normally ‘sensationalist’ media these things should make front page news. At least in the sports papers. But nope. The only response was Uefa sending its doctors to Arsenal’s training ground, basically to terrorise.
The same goes for match fixing, or the process of buying clubs, or the power that agents have to ‘fix’ things. There have been serious enough questions raised on all these subjects. Never answered. Never even looked into as far as I can tell.
Mandy I am not so sure about Arsenal’s hierarchy protecting our values. Oh sure, they will try. But they will be a bit more ‘pragmatic’ than Wenger, who himself was also pragmatic in terms of at least not completely exposing what goes on. I am also not sure Arsenal will be exposed for wrongdoing. A player who gets caught doping might (and I would want that) but the organisation? No. Arsenal know the dirty secrets and can’t be pushed TOO far. In fact, this bullying is I think supposed to achieve the aim of Arsenal joining in with the shenanigans so that they are all in the same boat. Like in movies with dirty cops, or with gangsters making you kill someone to prove your loyalty. It’s a gang behind all the pomp, splendor and glamour. A Roman senate if you want to keep the theme going. With football as the circus. Transfers as the dole.
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Mark my words if we start doing what other clubs are likely doing (The erm pressing for 90 minutes thing) we will no doubt be the only club made an example of much in the same way Mr Graham carried the can for all his colleagues at other clubs. I expect this is a prime reason why it would appear we do not indulge in these practises.
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I wonder what the loveable Scouse chappys will get up to in Russia and what consequences there will be.
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Now getting prepped for the biggest match of the day. It will be a travesty if Fulham don’t win
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How Unai Emery thinks
http://www.getfootballnewsfrance.com/2018/unai-emery-what-am-i-missing-making-my-masterpieces-real-masterpieces-and-making-them-my-own/
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Fulham in the BPL next season, always had a soft spot for Fulham since I was in 1st year in secondary school and I became mates with a newly arrived English lad who supported them.
Also later on when Malcolm McDonald was their manager
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Liverpool slight favourites? I hope not!
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I think Ramos just knocked Egypt out of the World Cup
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Hard to have sympathy for Liverpool when you’ve seen them target Ramsey on more then one occasion under Klopp.
But wow what an error from the keeper in a final!
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Madrid switch off from the sequence of corners and Mane saves his keeper
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You just don’t save those!
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Bale finished em
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Has Marcelo controlled this game fromLeft-back?
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A good week has just got a whole lot better.
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Their back line held out till Ramos’ foul on Salah released the pressure and Modric and Benzema also impressed alongside Marcelo, not forgetting super sub Bale.
Klopp signed his keeper?
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Big moments by big players in Big games
Benzema
Zidane (Didn’t play but was influential as any player on the pitch)
Bale (Came on as a SUB!) difference maker
Karius this will either send him tumbling down the levels or turn him in to one of the best keepers in the world .
For a Keeper after those mistakes in the biggest game in the club game in football there is no middle ground.
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I think Ramos just wanted it more…..
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For me Madrid are a fantastic team.
No mindless passing around, or crazy intensity running and pressing. But the way they control games with their accuracy on the ball. The efficiency with which they operate is just fantastic.
Not to mention they have some fabulous players who can ‘Bale’ them out when needed.
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I forgot Sergio Ramos
What a player he is a giant in world football.
He is a machine.
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Winning just one Champions League title is hard as it is. Even just getting to the final is lauded.
These guys have 3 in a row. Three. Wow.
Even the supposedly best team ever in Pep’s Barcelona couldn’t do it twice. And shockingly there still people saying Zidane is not good tactically. I guess the are stupid people everywhere.
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Ronaldo did basically nothing the whole game. Almost like he thought that after Salah went off he thought I better disappear to make it an even contest.
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If anyone has read the thoughts of Unai Emery about the psychology behind Big players and Big clubs. How the value of Zidane to Real Madrid is unquantifiable.
If you have not read it yet read it with that game in mind, the differences between the two sides .
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However watching them play,. I feel that it is what Arsene was trying to achieve at Arsenal.
To be so comfortable in possession with the technical quality of the players that even heavy pressing doesn’t put them off their game. Like you can always move up a gear. And be efficient in the final third.
Either we didn’t have players good enough for it or we just didn’t have the confidence to pull it off. I feel it was more off the latter.
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Spot on wwwb.
Now the pundits will just blame the poor keeper for the loss.
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If it were an Arsenal keeper who made those errors, I would want his teammates to go over and console him after the final whistle. It was telling that the Real Madrid guys had to go over and pick him up. So much for Ynwa.. Values!
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That Emery article is fascinating. Ive said for years that had Wenger released an Arsene confidential, he would be instantly respected more. Coaches these days seem to be more willing to open up.
Much of what Emery says is not too far removed from some of Wenger’s ideas. The belief the players need. The weight of history and needing that one moment. The job being about winning over the players. Emery even references the handbrake.
But Emery also seems willing to learn. I’m more confident now that he wants to play attacking football. He even seems to like a player like Xhaka at DM. He does seem a bit less of an idealist and I suppose that is why we hired him.
The bit about Zidane was spot on. Also interesting was him saying coaches have to work harder at big clubs. Here’s to him making his masterpiece at Arsenal.
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If you could sign one player from Real Madrid who would it be? I’d be tempted by Isco, Casemiro and Sergio Ramos (though he’s a bastard) But i would choose Toni Kroos. Not since Cesc have we had a guy with such time on the ball.
Madrid never panic. Even under severe pressure. Even when they mess up. And of course they know they have players who can make a difference. But this is what winning does for you. They aren’t consistent. They dont even play that well. But they know how to win.
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