It’s hard being a contrarian on Arsenal Twitter these days. Like any strict, self-regulated community, there is a stridency among a majority of posters that demands and enforces conformity. It punishes dissent via the block, unfollow and mute buttons for committing any of the following heresies:
- Not vocally supporting the new manager
- Criticizing any of the mooted new signings
Instead of summer hostilities between the former WOBs and AKBs, which usually reach boiling point during transfer season, both sides for their own reasons are currently wishing and hoping for the new manager, Unai Emery, to succeed, bigly. Obviously the ex-WOBs are delighted that their bête noir, the cheapskate, deluded, out of touch, omnipotent (choose your epithet) Arsene Wenger is now gone. Should Emery succeed, it will be a ringing endorsement of their long-held claim that the club was being held back by the former manager.
On the other hand, it seems to me, the so-called AKBs are on the defensive, not wanting to be seen as mindless acolytes of the old gaffer, fearing they will give credence to the years of repeated taunts by the anti-Wenger crowd that they support Arsene FC rather than Arsenal FC. They too are just as wishful and hopeful that the new manager, who seems to be as modern and progressive as the old, will be able to overcome all the external and internal obstacles that held the club back.
WOBs, AKBs and the Middle-Of-the-Roaders
Strange and as incongruous as it may seem, former WOBs and AKBs are now locked together, singing the same tune; leave Emery alone and he will succeed.
Let us not fool ourselves. While there appears to be two extremist camps in the Arsenal fanbase, there is definitely a large, if not larger, middle-of-the-road contingent which often takes one side or the other depending on results. It wasn’t that long ago, for example, we had the experience on the opening day of a new season at the Arsenal stadium, with the transfer window still open, that a majority were in uproar demanding the club spend some “facking” money as the club was losing to Aston Villa. The fact that Arsenal eventually came 3rd or 4th that year, qualifying for the Champion’s League, at a time when it was still struggling under the stadium-related austerity, stands in sharp contrast to the £200 million spent on transfers these past two years while coming 5th and lately 6th in the Premier League.
So conventional thinking has concluded that leaving Emery alone, rather than the relentless attention to the every move and statement made by Arsene Wenger, is now a guarantor of success. The underlying assumption is the belief that the Wenger years, particularly the most recent, were a failure which Emery must avoid. The problem is this hypothesis is not fully supported by the facts.
Note the “unbiased data”, on which we should rely, is diligently avoided by the mainstream media and most of its cohorts on twitter and in the blogsphere, who are now bloviating with optimism and goodwill towards Emery.
Take a gander, below, on some key performance metrics for the last 11 years of the Wenger era.
| Year | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | GF | GA | Win % | Loss % |
| 07/08 | 58 | 36 | 15 | 7 | 113 | 52 | 62.1% | 12% |
| 08/09 | 61 | 33 | 16 | 12 | 113 | 55 | 54.1% | 20% |
| 09/10 | 55 | 33 | 8 | 14 | 116 | 63 | 60.0% | 25% |
| 10/11 | 58 | 31 | 13 | 14 | 113 | 55 | 53.5% | 24% |
| 11/12 | 54 | 31 | 9 | 14 | 96 | 67 | 57.4% | 26% |
| 12/13 | 53 | 29 | 12 | 12 | 105 | 60 | 54.7% | 23% |
| 13/14 | 56 | 37 | 8 | 11 | 99 | 57 | 66.1% | 20% |
| 14/15 | 56 | 35 | 11 | 10 | 109 | 53 | 62.5% | 18% |
| 15/16 | 54 | 28 | 12 | 14 | 91 | 59 | 51.9% | 26% |
| 16/17 | 55 | 35 | 8 | 12 | 121 | 65 | 63.4% | 22% |
| 17/18 | 57 | 30 | 10 | 17 | 108 | 70 | 52.6% | 30% |
| Mean | 56 | 33 | 11 | 12 | 108 | 60 | 58.0% | 22% |
Main points:
- Wenger achieved an average win percentage of 58% across all competitions never falling below 51.9% and going as high as 66.1%.
- 52% was good enough to qualify for the champions league up to 15/16. But in 16-17 a 63.4% win rate and a FA cup was apparently not good enough for some in the club hierarchy as evident in Wenger’s 2-year contract, which in retrospect was putting him on notice.
- In 17-18, the win percentage was 52.6, not the lowest historically, but it was marked by the highest ever GA, a total of 70, compared to an average of 60 GA over the 11-year period.
- Wenger’s loss percentage while averaging 22% increased by a dramatic 8 percentage points between 16-17 and 17-18 coinciding with the highest ever GA of 70 in the latter year.
The GA seems to be the key. As Finsbury, a long-standing and frequent contributor to Positively Arsenal has repeatedly argued, Wenger’s biggest challenge in 17/18 was maintaining or recreating the defensive stability he had achieved during the four year reign of Mertsacker-Koscielny, which was one of the premier central defensive partnerships in club football. The 2016-17 season-long loss of the BFG and his subsequent relegation in 17-18 to a mere squad player combined with Koscielny’s well publicized chronic Achilles injury coincided with a growth in GAs from 59 in 15-16 to an unheard of 70 last season and the dramatic increase in losses from the average of 22% to 30% over the last two seasons.
Based on the facts as presented, surely it is reasonable and necessary for us to ask Mr. Gazidis and his rising number of busy-bodies (Mislintat, Sanllehi and a Marcel Lucassen who is to become Director of Football Operations on August 1st) the following questions:
- How will the signing of Lichsteiner, a 34 year-old injury-prone right back, improve and stabilize Arsenal’s central defensive partnership?
- In a world where a Virgil Van Dijk costs £70 million, how do Arsenal plan to replace the retired Mertsacker and an ageing injury-prone Koscielny?
At a time when mainstream media, Twitter, Facebook and Google are doing their best to censor and block non-conforming points of view, it is frightening the level to which Arsenal-twitter has engaged in self-censorship to not rock the boat during this transition to new management. Apparently Ivan and his team are now omniscient and omnipotent. They have free reign, without any challenge by fans, to give Emery any players they deem necessary, because, to paraphrase managerial genius Tony Adams, coaching is over-rated, what matters is the director of football and those who do player recruitment.
So “keep schtum”. Don’t rock the boat. It will all work out in the end. Hmm.
Positively Arsenal 
Bernd Leno set to join Arsenal, BBC’ David Ornstein says deal almost complete, reports in Germany say he is set for a medical and deal could be completed tomorrow
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Shard
June 18, 2018 at 5:33 pm
100%
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Leno is a short sleeve wearing keeper
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Bernd Leno, 26 years old, 6ft 3in, with 6 caps for Germany, 304 games for Bayer Leverkusen after 7 seasons as their first choice keeper
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Shard, no that would be a different, blessed ballgame.
That’s the thing for me: everything is interpreted from my stance of feeling we have been screwed for years in a way that cannot be attributed to bad luck,etc.
One consequence is that even though I believe that in the best possible system with best refs on planet there will : (a) be you own natural bias in play and (b) refs are human and will make mistakes against you…in practice, as things are, I fume at any big decision against us (because of that iron belief we have been screwed so much by them previously)
I am much more willing to accept an unfavourable call against us in Europe for instance
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Pass
Yeah, don’t think he’s most likely to miss out and don’t think he should. Low has obviously and rightly had a different opinion of Mesut to the media haters to date.
Think there’s a chance it could happen but hope not.
Further point: I’ve always had weird feeling Kroos has an issue with Ozil, to detriment of Ozil’s game. Hard to describe, but it’s like former always checks first if he can to make sure there’s not a pass on which will make himself look good.
Definitely think Kroos believes he occupies a higher place in the hierarchy and though it’s typically subtle it makes things harder for Ozil in team.
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Martin Keown doiubts he could play in these times
I doubt it will affect the way he analysis the games
Because clearly the majority of the pundits, are speaking from the perspective of the era in which they played in.
All bets are off when asking Phil Neville any question including the weather .
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Jess Lingard is England best player
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Alli falls over, rolls around, no foul. Former Tottenham player penalised for a little bit elbow. Heh.
Yep it’s been a different and admirable standard from the refs in this WC.
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Rich
Is was interesting to me to see the slightly different roles Ozil played for Arsenal after 2014. Before that WC he was ahead of Ramsey & Arteta, and Arsenal were strong before injuries depleted the squad.
Then there was the Cazorla Coquelin combo, the Cazorla anyone combo…the without Cazorla three at the back combo (343) which worked well when Arsenal had delicious depth at CB and Ozil & Alexis (before the sulk set in) behind the striker, all these variations had exceptional even great form at times the latter peaking with the greatest cup victory for the club given the quality of the opponents and the matches in the semi-final and final.
Whatever the variations, looking at the fixtures in December I hope the new manager manages to convince JW to stay in the squad. After the trinity secure Ramsey!
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It’s unfortunate that Ryan Bertrand ran over the FA chairman’s cat. Nothing against Young but it’d be nice to see England’s best LB/LWB (started champions league final LM) on the pitch for England.
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I think Ryan Bertrand is better suited to Wing-Back more than Full-Back
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Yep and England are playing with wing backs!
Keown doing his best just now to describe how England are missing Wilshere (he’d have been fit after some warm up games) without mentioning him by name.
Still I wrote previously I expect England to do better, there’s still time for them to find a winner in this game.
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Arsenal are rumored to have signed or have deals agreed for Leno, Sokratis, Soyuncu, and Torreira, if that is the case then we would currently have 36 players aged 21 or over, meaning 11 of them can not be included in our 25 man squad for the upcoming season, that list of 36 includes Wilshere who rumor has it is leaving for free in the next couple of weeks, also Koscielny who will miss at least half the upcoming season, also young goalies Macey, Iliev and Martinez, also if Leno is signed, its almost certain to see either Cech or Ospina leave, maybe even both. Young players Pleguezuelo, Zelalem and Akpom, plus other guys who were out on loan last season like Jenkinson, Bramall, Campbell and Perez.
Basically most of those I list above going would not weaken us at all, and gives us lots of scope for reducing the squad to 25 senior players without seeing any of our better players or more experienced players leaving. But be in full time or on loan, we are bound to see a whole lot of departures this summer yet, especially if the rumors of agreed deals are true
The squad as it stands, including “reported agreed deals”, returning loan players and youths over the age of 21
Goalkeepers
1 Petr Cech
13 David Ospina
Bernd Leno, Matt Macey, Deyan Iliev, Emmi Martinez
Defenders
2 Hector Bellerin
6 Laurent Koscielny
12 Stephan Lichtsteiner
16 Rob Holding
18 Nacho Monreal
20 Shkodran Mustafi
21 Calum Chambers
27 Konstantinos Mavropanos
31 Sead Kolasinac
Carl Jenkinson, Cohen Bramall, Sokratis Papadopalus, Calgar Soyunco, Julio Pleguezuelo
Midfielders
4 Mohamed Elneny
7 Henrikh Mkhitaryan
8 Aaron Ramsey
10 Jack Wilshere
11 Mesut Ozil
15 Ainsley Maitland-Niles
34 Granit Xhaka
Lucas Torreira, Gedion Zelalem
Forwards
9 Alexandre Lacazette
14 Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
17 Alex Iwobi
23 Danny Welbeck
Chuba Akpom, Lucas Perez, Joel Campbell,
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Alli comes off, England win the game.
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I’m actually glad it was so tough for England
They have shown persistance which was good
Execution needs to be upped
But this is the first game no team should be at the best in the first game
Get a win move on it does not matter how ugly the performance , although this was not an ugly England performance.
There is a problem in deep midfield , but there are talented forwards just need to get the ball up to them.
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I am not concerned about the England attack, it is the defence that will let us down.
Play like that against a good team and they will slaughter us.
We were lucky to win and you could hear the commentators building up the pressure against Southgate.
There is also no midfield player who can pick out a good pass.
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England played well enough to win but technically the Tunisians were better than us. I fully expect England to get to the quarters but will we ever win a tournament if we keep turning up without being able to pass the ball on the deck. The shame for the Tunisians was if they had hoofed the ball out in the last couple of minutes rather than playing out then they wouldn’t of conversed the corner from which England scored.
One more thing the hand to face incident from Walker once given surely has to be a sending off especially as the ball was not near when contact was made and so could be considered off the ball.
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We will only have 3 keepers in the first team squad and the majority if not all of the loan players will not be in it either.
That’s makes 26 players and so not much to muck around with
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the point is Ian that we have 11 players who need shipping out, at least on loan, as they are over 21 and can not be played in the BPL, what would they point be in keeping them,
as you mention the keepers, Martinez will be 26 in early September, and Macey will be 24 then too, Iliev is also 23, so with really only need for 3 senior keepers, we need to ship out 3 of our six keepers, loan or permanent
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Eduardo
From that list, the following are the Homegrown players.
Matt Macey, Deyan Iliev, Emmi Martinez, Hector Bellerin, Rob Holding, Calum Chambers, Carl Jenkinson, Cohen Bramall, Julio Pleguezuelo, Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Gedion Zelalem, Alex Iwobi, Danny Welbeck, Chuba Akpom, Joel Campbell,
Also, both AMN and Zelalem do not have to count as over 21s. They need to have turned 21 at the start of the year (0:00 AM 1st Jan), not before the start of the season. So anyone who turned/will turn 21 anytime in 2018, still counts as U21 for the 2018/19 season.
My guess is Ospina and two of the Iliev, Macey and Martinez will leave permanently. Pleguezelo and Jenkinson will be sold. Bramall might get some Europa league games to see how he does (because of Nacho’s age)
And in the first team, either Mustafi will be sold, or Holding will go on loan. Too many CBs otherwise.
Jack is going. Zelalem MIGHT get a chance.
Welbeck will need to extend his contract if he’s to stay. One of Lucas Perez, Chuba Akpom or Joel Campbell could be kept around for numbers, and in the case of the latter two, for HG quota.
The Squad as I predict it.
3 GKs: Cech, Leno, Macey*
2 LBs: Monreal, Kola,(Plus Bramall* for cup games)
2 RBs: Bellerin*, Licht
6 CBs: Kos (injured), Sokratis, Mavropanos, Chambers*, Soyuncu, Holding*
4 CMs: Xhaka, Ramsey*, Elneny, Torreira, (AMN*, Nwakali*, Willock*)
3 AMs: Ozil, Miki, Iwobi*, (Nelson*, Jeff*, Zelalem*)
4 FWs: Auba, Lacazette, Welbeck/Akpom/Campbell*, Perez, (Nketiah)
That’s 24, including 7 HG players. (If Bramall is left out)
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I basically can’t predict a damn thing about what will happen with squad but if we do sign another centre back, as well as Sokratis, seems very likely one of the English two will leave- if Calum will prob be permanent.
More controversially there could be an issue within a year with one of the real big guns in the forward position/ front three.
Four huge names for those slots, plus Welbeck, Iwobi, Nelson and Nketiah, and the likelihood is the new manager may well want to add a player of his own to those positions within a year.
I expect that one will just play out in time and isn’t really an immediate question.
In terms of any sales, and Perez springs to mind first, somehow, and I think it’s a question of luck, it feels like we are again not in the best position to get great value or get things resolved quickly. I think we’ll get some offers we can refuse and clubs will wait till late on to see if a bargain can be had.
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shard you will find that Joel Campbell is not homegrown, he misses out by about a month
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ed,
I know he was brought in a month late. But as I recall, he was to be considered HG because the club had supposedly done the deal except for some formalities and delays in documentation due to it being in some remote region of Costa Rica (and why Law was there for so long). I was surprised to hear that at the time and maybe it was wrong.
Doesn’t really matter because we’re probably going to sell him.
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In the middle of all the back-slapping and good vibes on England’s dramatic last minute win, hardly anyone has observed that English football has taken a giant step backward. Southgate and the football hierarchy didn’t even pretend; England does not believe in the importance of technicians to control the game. They are the only “big” football nation at the World Cup without a proper #10. SMH.
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Can’t like any comments. WTF is happening to my wordpress account?
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I missed the beginning of this game, so I didn’t see the handball/red card incident, but that free kick that led to the Colombia goal, was soft in the extreme!
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Shotta, suggestion at the moment is that England haven’t yet got through all the types of players required for their big ‘England DNA’ drive but they believe those players will be arriving before too long.
Youth team successes are certainly noticable. Even with them, and there’ve been a number of very good groups in last few years, I’ve felt like there’s something missing in the midfield play.
As for 10-ish types, keep an eye out for Chelsea youngster Mason Mount next year. Seriously impressive in youth teams, different to almost anything i have seen in English players (shades of Peter Beardsely maybe) and I believe had a storming 2nd half of season in Dutch top flight last year.
There’s our own Smith-Rowe, who looks one hell of a prospect.
Then City have Phil Foden who was apparently sensational in u17 world cup, but who I can’t for the life of me seeing get real game time at City when they have De Bruyne, Sane, Stirling and more importantly Silva, a 45 mill back up Silva, and then quite likely a 75 mill Mahrez, plus an extremely talented Spanish youngster they nabbed at 14 (how? Who knows?) who is after the exact same spot.
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Rich England have always had good players, problem is a lot of them keep getting ignored. Carrick? Even Milner.
Alli playing at ten at the last tournament was pure comedy. Now he’s at eight, and the joke is still on us English football fans. There are better footballers in England currently, we know one or two and they don’t get the protection or the hype.
On which note I was glad that I enjoyed that period where Kane’s most significant goal in his career was an own goal against Ghent in the round of sixteen of the Europa League, he’s reached Welbeck’s level now, though I’m not sure if he’s ticked a CL hatrick off the check list just yet heh (he may of? Doesn anyone care?).
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First-team coaching staff confirmed
Arsenal Media 19 Jun 2018
Unai Emery’s coaching team here at Arsenal has been confirmed.
Unai will be joined by First Team Assistant Head Coach, Juan Carlos Carcedo; First Team Assistant Head Coach, Steve Bould; First Team Coach, Pablo Villanueva; Director of High Performance, Darren Burgess; Strength and Conditioning Coach, Julen Masach; Goalkeeping Coach, Javi Garcia; Goalkeeping Coach, Sal Bibbo and Data/Video Analyst, Victor Manas.
Arsenal Chief Executive Ivan Gazidis said: “Unai has a very strong and talented team and I’m delighted that they are joining us. I’m also pleased that Steve Bould, Sal Bibbo and Darren Burgess will continue their work with us. As we go through this period of change, we need to retain some continuity and they have an important role to play.”
First team coaches Neil Banfield, Tony Colbert, Jens Lehmann, Gerry Peyton and Boro Primorac; Head of Medical Services, Colin Lewin; Physiotherapists Andy Rolls and Ben Ashworth; Osteopath Dr Philippe Boixel and Travel Manager Paul Johnson have left the club.
Ivan said: “All these people have played a huge part in the club’s success and development over many years. We thank them for all their hard work and wish them all the best for the future.”
Copyright 2018 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source.
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Conversely can’t understand the hatred many show towards Henderson. He’s not awful and has better technique then many, scored a nice goal in n5 once.
Be nice if someone with better passing ability was chosen to play alongside him, then England might start to have a midfield. Loftus cheek has got to be better then the overhyped diving clogger from tottenham but barring injury to the super star (LOL?) he wont get the start.
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Thanks Eddy.
So Bould stays. Quite a culling, but they didn’t go for the old harikari like Utd did.
Phew.
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no mention of Shad Forsyth, who is working with the German team at the world cup
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well fins what has been left in a coaching role is Bould as one of two assistant coaches, Bibbo as one of two goalkeeping coaches, it really is a cull, Burgess and maybe Forsyth as the only fitness/performance guys kept too
when Emery was appointed it was suggested that Lehmann was staying but he has been cut, as has Banfield.
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looks like Jens has not taken his departure well
Jens Lehmann
Verified account @jenslehmann
2m2 minutes ago
Dear #Arsenal Fans , I am sorry to leave the club after only one year again. It was a good experience working with the players as one of the assistant-coaches. But the attitude from our 2004-group is not needed there anymore.
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Never once had a coach associated with the club take a dig at the club during the entire AW reign. Unless I missed it?
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Eds, fingers crossed Bould was not retained as a token gesture.
Jens was not impressed!
Was or is IG more worried about AW moving upstairs and taking his job (after the upcoing stint with France heh) then anything else?
As Shotta asks: has the Arsenal boot room which served the club so well for fourty years without the fanfare seen up at Anfield been thrown in the bin? And if so: is that a good thing for a football club?
It’s the theme of the modern game that so many lovers of the game/sport keep coming back to, seen in such works from such talented writers (not Barnay Ronay!) of the Damned Utd or Mike Basset England Manager.
If Arsenal haven’t reserved a place upstairs for AW that will be the greatest tragedy in the history of arsenal football club. Some of you clearly don’t agree but the writers mentioned above would, and that’s good enough for me.
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Ljunberg brought in as U23 boss, Ampadu is U18 manager, Per is head of the Academy, their are loads more former players throughout the academy. its only at first team level we have reduced the numbers, and that is by one, Mad Jens, as Bould is still there.
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that is some calamity goal Poland have let in, 2-0 down now.
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Maybe the departure of Szczesny makes a bit more sense now!
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Wow
Jermaine Jenas actually gives a little bit of love The Lion Elneny on BBC
Had to record the time and date
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I suppose if there is a time where they are not just ripping the wings of the Arsenal players, it feels like a positive review.
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So only 3 of 8 first team coaches from AW’s tenure have been retained. Is there any clearer evidence that Ivan, despite the pretensions of maintining Wenger’s legacy has basically cleaned house. As I observed in the blog Gazidis is doing everything to make this hisre regime. This is a typical corporate coup. I need convincing otherwise.
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shotta when does any club retain the coaching staff when they change manager, the new guy, especially if he has a coaching staff that move club with him, normally come in, room has to be made for Emery’s chosen staff. Its as simple as that.
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Bernd Leno to Arsenal has been confirmed by Bayer Leverkusen
Bayer 04 Leverkusen
Verified account @bayer04fussball
7m7 minutes ago
.@Bernd_Leno wechselt von #Bayer04 zum FC @Arsenal.
Wir danken dir für sieben unvergessliche Jahre #mitdemKreuzaufderBrust. 🙏 Mach’s gut, Bernd! 🖤❤️
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Bernd Leno to join Arsenal
Arsenal Media 19 Jun 2018
German goalkeeper Bernd Leno has agreed to join us from Bayer Leverkusen.
The highly-rated 26-year-old made more than 230 appearances for Leverkusen in more than seven seasons with the Bundesliga side.
Spending most of his youth career at Stuttgart, Leno signed for Leverkusen in 2011 and that September became the youngest goalkeeper to feature in a Champions League match at the age of just 19 years and 193 days, during Leverkusen’s group-stage game against Chelsea.
A Germany international, Bernd received his first senior international call-up in 2015 and has since won six caps for his country. Last year he was part of the Germany squad that won the 2017 Confederations Cup.
Head coach Unai Emery said: “We are very pleased that Bernd Leno will be joining us. Bernd is a goalkeeper of high quality and experience. He has been a top performer and regular number one goalkeeper with Leverkusen in the Bundesliga for the past seven years. We are all excited that Bernd has chosen Arsenal Football Club and look forward to start working with him in pre-season.”
Bernd’s shirt number will be announced in due course.
The deal is subject to the completion of regulatory processes.
Copyright 2018 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source.
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Russia 2-0 Egypt
as things stand Elneny will be back in time for most of the pre season games
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3-0 now
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I don’t know what has happened to Egypt tonight, or maybe the Russian support can carry them a lot further than I expected!
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Welcome Leno it seems.
Quite a clear out, of course some including Bould, glad about, but as ed says, backroom staff are usually cleared out with a new manager , in some cases eg Moyes coming to Utd, not to good effect.
Coup or no coup, Ivan and the holy trinity are certainly making their mark. Personally, will give them the benefit, perhaps they have their own good reasons for the cull. In fairness to Ivan, he is certainly placing himself a lot more in the firing line, but time and results will reveal all, except events in recent months the club don’t want revealed and Wenger for contractual and reasons of love for the club might not reveal either.
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