Our man Shard has been thinking and writing
Since Sven Mislintat mysteriously decided to walk away, Arsenal have had no one in charge of strategically overseeing the recruitment at the club. This means not just identifying talent, but building a squad keeping in mind the club philosophy, administrative issues of age, homegrown status, and financial budgets, and long term plans.
Whether the (as good as) vacant position was the reason behind the January window fiasco or not, it’s hard to say from the outside. However, Arsenal certainly recognise the need of having someone in the role. It seems the rumour mill has turned full circle and is back to Edu – the former Invincible and current Brazilian national team coordinator – as the favourite to take over as Technical Director. Francis Cagigao will also be the Head of Recruitment. Honestly, I don’t know who does what in such a structure.
But regardless of who is calling the shots, this will be an important summer for Arsenal. With or without CL football, we need to up the quality of our play and of our squad, ensuring we’re strong enough to withstand the rigours of the season, and are flying high at the end of it. There’s a few ways of going about this, and I’ve taken the trouble to list 5 options below.
The Ostrich Option:
Do nothing. It’ll be alright. Problems tend to go away on their own. But lash out at the first target you spot and throw your weight around. The high wage bill must go! Sell the players you can, and stomp on those you can’t. You are an ostrich with razor sharp claws after all. May not be the most productive thing to do, but activity is good for keeping the blood flowing, and keep the remaining watchers entertained. Some might even bow their heads and pray for a miracle along with you.
The Crow Option:
Scavenge! Get the players you can find on the cheap. Send out your murder to bring you the chewed up carcasses of unwanted players hoping there’s enough meat on them. Work smart not hard! Take the easy pickings available from the agents’ own stables. Hopefully by the end you have a belly that is full, but not bloated by an unhealthy diet.
The Butterfly Option:
Store yourself away for a period of quiet contemplation and reflection. Don’t worry about the outside world. Take your time, grow, and when you’re ready, emerge, transformed into something more beautiful than you were. Fill the gaps primarily through the academy. Bring in players under 21 through the market, and get them all playing together. You may not get to zoom off into the stratosphere, but you will flutter your wings and fly.
The Peacock option:
Strut your stuff! Make it rain, baby. Make use of all the resources you have. The stats, scouts, agent contacts, and above all, the $$$. Use the treasure you’ve collected over the years. Cover yourself in fine jewellery. Redefine opulence. Fill all your squad needs by recruiting from among the best available players, and maybe even some that aren’t.
The Phoenix option:
Burn. Set yourself on fire. Let people mourn the loss of what is and what once was. But, and here’s the tricky part, re-emerge as the beautiful, mythical creature that you are. Find inspiration in the golden past. Reanimate, and radiate the joy, wonder, and warmth to all lucky enough to watch you. Clear house of those that don’t belong. Appoint a visionary coach that knows and plays the Arsenal way. Make signings that suit your philosophy. Aim to make it to the top within the next 3 years.
Positively Arsenal 
Excellent Shard,
We have of course seen clubs spend spend spend and end up with the Dodo effect.
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Just as long as we dont do the Chicken effect, and turn into our Middlesex neighbours!
Cheers Shard, a great piece.
Life always works out, usually?
COYG!
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I had hoped that other people would also bring up winged creatures to talk about the Arsenal. Going great so far!
Thanks Ian and Mills.
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We might sign 3 or 4 world class players and challenge for the league, The Flying Pig.
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I guess that When Arsene Wenger wasn’t kidding when he said that he was thinking of quitting when the Kronke-Targaryen dynasty flew in to begin their conquest.
Here be dragons.
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I opened the door to mythical creatures at the end, and what flies in? Pigs. Classic. The meerkat never disappoints.
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Lots of promising young players.
Nketiah’s nutmeg in the keeper to finish off Burnley was a great moment, and will be a big boost for the player in spite of his lack of minutes.
Hope to see most of them break through. Guendouzi, Iwobi & AMN will all develop and kick on next season. Next season there’ll be no Ramsey to make the selections of less experienced point sapping options in CM seem insane whilst the senior pro waltzed in the Europa group games etc., fingers crossed in the absence of Sven for no Suarez’s or Litchensteiner’s coming into midfield I’d enjoy AMN getting some time in midfield next season.
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And dragons.. Kind of like Reverse, or Dark Phoenix.. Burn it down.
AMN playing in midfield would be good but it won’t happen because we’re not going to sign a RB, and we’re not going to promote Osei-Tutu to a regular slot.
I maintain that Emery has no interest in being a developmental manager. Which is why it’s so strange that he would be placed in charge of a team wanting to cut costs. It’s not like his system was geared to getting the best out of the players already there either.
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Far as outgoings go, feel there’s a good chance another youngster or two may try luck abroad.
Still waiting to see if that report young Yunus Musah was joining Juve was a year premature or total fiction. Daley-Campbell looks very likely to be off. Talk with Amaechi,too, and then the ones which come as total surprise.
Don’t think any of our English lads who left have had serious success yet, but still time I suppose, and I think the mega success of Sancho is enough on its own to keep all parties- clubs, agents, players- on alert for early moves abroad
Noted with interest talk Chris Willock will leave Benfica in summer. Pretty sure I watched him have a great game against also great Alexander-Arnold in an FA youth cup tie. Anyway, would like to see what he can do with first team football. i thought he looked a special talent.
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there is little mystery in why Mislintat walked away, there was a position open at the club, still is by the way, as we wait for Edu to finish with Brazil, and Sven wanted to be promoted from his Head of Recruitment position to the Director role, when he didn’t get it, he left and got the Sporting Director role he wanted here, at Stuttgart
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well Shard, it was clear from all the PR and interviews when Emery was appointed that he led the board or at least Ivan, to believe that he is a development coach, that he wants to play attacking football, and that he would coach improvement in our players, and that he was very willing to work within our budgets and pay structures.
Now either Ivan lied about all this, or Emery has so far been unable to do much of what his PowerPoint presentation said he would.
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“he was very willing to work within our budgets” In a nutshell Eddy.
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yes George but he was to develop the players already here, and bring through the youth, of course there is still time for him to bring through the youth, but apart from Guendouzi he was very unwilling to give any of our teens game time.
Seen a stat that Eddie Nketiah has been named a sub 30 times by Arsenal but has not played 90 minutes of first team football for us yet. We seen in a recent game when we were chasing a goal, Eddie on the bench but we did not bring him on in our triple sub, Emery time and again would bring on any of Mkhitaryan, Iwobi or Guendouzi ahead of him, even when taking off a striker.
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God I miss Arsene
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so today was the final day at Arsenal Training Centre today as an Arsenal players for Aaron Ramsey, sad, sad, sad
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ed
I don’t know if Ivan was misled or was just putting forward the club’s spin. He seemed excited at the time at having full control, hogging the limelight, grabbing Ramsey’s arm to indicate he’d be captain if he signed on. While he was a master of corporate speak, I think he was genuine about the direction he thought Emery would take Arsenal in.
But something changed behind the scenes, and he ended up moving. Being charitable, expectations from Emery changed at this point. But honestly, I think Emery is the sort of character who will promise anything he thinks you want to hear, whether he can or even intends to deliver.
I also think he uses his lack of fluency in English to his advantage sometimes. I don’t know, a lot of the times I hear him speak I come away with the feeling he’s being insincere.
Speaking of which, even the club statement on Baku and Uefa seemed insincere to me. Empty pandering to the fans, trying to get in their good books, rather than offering solutions and helping.
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Or theres always the bird of paradise option: Wengerball, silky moves, flashy stuff etc
COYG!
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Or the Emery bird, where players run until their faces are red and go bob bob bobbing around.
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Great read Shard
As for Ivan, misled, spin, very hard to say with him. As someone who believe he,along with perhaps JK were major forces in pushing wenger out over time, surprising he left when he did, very surprising but doubt if we will ever know the full facts.
My guess, and it is only that, if reports of a 70m operating loss coming up are true- i cannot verify the figures- I am guessing Ivan got a big offer but also saw the writing on the wall, and didnt want to be around as a self sustaining club had to rebalance things from his watch, and i suspect the Kroenkes et al didnt exactly get on their knees to beg ivan to stay either. I have long suspected there was an increasing Ivan Wenger undercurrent in the latter years, which if true, well,these things rarely help anyone, but cannot substantiate that.
Moving on, this summer and the following months are going to tell us so much about where the club and manager are going.
On a more cheerful note to bring us back to happier times,congratulations to Santi Cazorla on his recall to the Spain squad.
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Perhaps I am odd.
I am often wrong.
Yet the consideration that the club have not invited the greatest coach back for match day visit to the club once over the last season for me is:
– Indefensible
– disgusting
– deeply dissapointing
– deeply damaging to the club (objectively not subjectivly: only an idiot could disagree)
Hopefully the damage being done to the club isn’t too great.
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For me the nadir was the Ramsey saga as I had that fear gripping my gr*t as far back as the Chamberlain saga. Nope. It was Suarez coming on for Ozil during the fa cup game.
How many fa cups is Emery planning to compete in with the Arsenal? Two? Three? More of he’s lucky?
Not fooling anyone with that call. Except your average Billy Big Blagger? I note that certain big online accounts made very passive aggressive responses to the statement by Ozil’s agent’s Sports Communication, their own Sports Communications effort (PR or propaganda to ignorent plebs like you or me) demanding for the player to be sold is just he predictable response and opening salvo to Raul’s summer efforts.
Hopefully UE learnt his lesson with that publicly humiliating call (for himself) in that he made in that cup game, that diminished his standing amongst many? It’s all I can hope for, and not a repeatin the upcoming final. The situation with Miki’s safety may be a hidden boon!
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< Nadir was not the Ramsey saga..
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While I think dragons are just about acceptable flying pigs are not, George I expect you to try harder.
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The Sun….Yes, I know…are claiming Ivan Gazidis was on the UEFA panel that chose Baku.
If true, and it’s a big IF, but he can sue if it isn’t, he really is a politician to the last.
Might explain why he left so quickly!
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Fins. Arsenal decided that the best way to push Ozil out was to make him miserable. But he was probably laughing at Emery’s efforts to replace him with Denis Suarez. Ultimately the squad felt like the joke was on them and intervened.
And the STRONG, TACTICALLY BRILLIANT Emery…… capitulated. Which to me shows it was never about his beliefs. He should have been more accommodating of the talents at his disposal earlier, or he should have stuck to his guns no matter the cost. Except of course the cost was likely his job, so he relented.
I’m sorry. I just don’t like the man. I know he’s decent compared to someone like Jose. He says the right things. But I find him wanting in the ‘values’ department.
Plus, this was so stupid. Bring in a better player than Ozil, and force him to either rise to the occasion or become obsolete. Challenge him through football, not make it obvious you just want out of a deal he had based his life around. He’s not going to make it easy for you after that, and you’ll likely destroy whatever value he brings to the football, and that he has in the market. But as we know, sharks sometimes eat themselves up when they smell blood.
It’s a sign of a bad executive to not just get the decision so wrong, but to execute it so poorly. Gazidis was never my favourite dude, but he at least *got* Arsenal. Sanllehi doesn’t and never will.
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Those birds of paradise are really amazing. Sigh.. Now I miss Arsene Wenger. Although the bird he was most compared to was an eagle
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Havent read, but heard this morn (over ‘ere) that Man City might not be able to play in the CL next year. Anyone know how it would affect us if that be the case? And if the Orns pull it off today how will that also change things?
COYG!
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Wouldn’t underestimate City’s lawyers or what they will threaten UEFA with, especially as Infantini is rumoured to have helped advised city on ffp.
UEFA don’t like going too hard on the big fish, I would guess a fine, along with some very strange decisions even with VAR in the recent Spurs game to be their punishment rather than a ban, but who knows.
But I would imagine if they are banned, they won’t be replaced so we will just have four teams in the next CL
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thanks Mandy.
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Shard
Arsene Wenger was a bird of many faces. It is known.
My favourite incarnation was of course Arsene Vulture and that famous double swoop on the carcass of Pellegrini’s Malaga squad for Cazorla & Monreal.
Alas I don’t think City’s owners going to run from away any stains on their laundry that don’t come out in the wash, as with the Malaga petro-princling.
And it’s too late to give Pellegrini who took Villarreal and Malaga to CL SFs alongside his Guardiola marching record at City an Arsenal squad containing Ozil, Ramsey, Auba, Lacazette and yep Cazorla too.
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Positives: To add to the debate about the prospects for Arsenal, I took an unbiased look at the data “Charting The Decline Of Arsenal and United vs The Rise of City and Liverpool” at https://uniteforvar.com/?p=2009
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Beyond this season my hope is that Maitland-Niles, Bellerin, the other top top quality graduates, Lacazette & other success’ brought in do not all end up as a feast for crows.
What happens next season and beyond could all depend upon the result of a European club football match being played upon the shores of the inland sea deep in Central Asia.
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So Juventus manager Max Allegri has left, and some rumours Bayern will sack Kovac after today regardless of the result. Both clubs which could do with an infusion of Wenger style and belief to go with the talent they possess. Probably too much to wish for but I’d like to see Wenger manage a domestic powerhouse and legitimate CL contender.
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WENGER TO JUVE TO REUNITE WITH RAMSEY… would be so happy fort hem both
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Mills I think if Man City are thrown out of next season’s CL then Arsenal would get their spot, and if we win the EL then the 3rd place team in France would get a spot, there would only be four from England even if we win the EL.
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Cheers Ed.
City have the treble. Thats what money can buy you. Cant buy love or respect though.
If the Orns would have played us they would have dug in and ground out a result.
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Savage’s ‘people will say’ speech about City…bleurgh
Went a bit like ‘people will say City have spent a lot of money. But they’ve spent it very well. Guardiola has brought in top signings who have improved them. You can spend a lot of money and not spend it well, and be further down the table…blah, blah’
Couple of important things left out : isolating the recent spending, just Pep era say, is nonsense. He built on the spending of before, which built on spending of before etc. The big spending has to be contextualised : how long has it gone on for? What is it like relative to domestic level and then international level?
Over the longer term, their spending is not perfect, and never needed to be. Bad mistakes or underwhelming returns don’t damage them even a little in the bigger picture. And of course the longer it goes on, with the better base at each stage, the fewer mistakes there should be in the transfer market.
They’ve spent the most and over a long period. relentless, relentless spending. Where are these examples of clubs who do that and do not dominate their leagues?
Guess the job for me is to ignore them whenever possible and hope one day the spending stops.
For today, it really annoys me to see a club who have earned their rare shot at glory get destroyed this way by a team built that way.
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Savage’s ‘people will say’ speech about City…bleurgh
Went a bit like ‘people will say City have spent a lot of money. But they’ve spent it very well. Guardiola has brought in top signings who have improved them. You can spend a lot of money and not spend it well, and be further down the table…blah, blah’
Couple of important things left out : isolating the recent spending, just Pep era say, is nonsense. He built on the spending of before, which built on spending of before etc. The big spending has to be contextualised : how long has it gone on for? What is it like relative to domestic level and then international level?
Over the longer term, their spending is not perfect, and never needed to be. Bad mistakes or underwhelming returns don’t damage them even a little in the bigger picture. And of course the longer it goes on, with the better base at each stage, the fewer mistakes there should be in the transfer market.
They’ve spent the most and over a long period. relentless, relentless spending. Where are these examples of clubs who do that and do not dominate their leagues?
Guess the job for me is to ignore them whenever possible and hope one day the spending stops.
For today, it really annoys me to see a club who have earned their rare shot at glory get destroyed this way by a team built that way.
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Comments won’t post but that was ugly. Distortions of gargantuan amounts of unearned cash can rarely have been more evident in the beautiful game
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what money, is it not all down to Pep’s coaching
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If we can’t be in the FA cup final, nothing pleases me more than for Troy Deeney to be humiliated no matter who does it. That’s a decent Saturday morning.
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I think it was only UEFA intervention that possibly stopped them winning even more.
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Emery was at the Levante v Atletico game today
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Nick Harris
Verified account @sportingintel
35m35 minutes ago
Man City have now won more major trophies (10) in 11 years of Sheikh Mansour ownership than the 9 trophies in 114 years before that.
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Just saw article about Bergkamp looking to get back into football. I thought he was still at Ajax!!
I knew his great buddy Wim Jonk was removed couple years back but didn’t realise- or had forgot- Dennis went as well. Think they were the two truest believers in the Cruyff plan. Guess the story at Ajax had more twists and turns than i realised.
Looked up Jonk other day as well; he has gone to work for Cruyff foundation with Jordi Cruyff.
Bergkamp mentions his ideal role in article and boy it sounds like something that could benefit our young players. Particularly like idea of him doing individual skill work with them, something i read was part of his role with Ajax.
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Kompany off then. Do you reckon the managerial genius and the rest of their superior planners etc will settle for one very expensive replacement or go for more insurance with two?
I’m thinking two. They’ll want to try land one of the best 18-21 talents in world, in hope of paying half what that player will be worth in few more years if they fully make good on potential; and they’ll also want someone well established in prime years.
De Ligt obvious target for first category, and sure they’ll pay whatever the hell Raiola wants to make it happen, and can also see them being very interested in leipzig’s Konate, and of course paying whatever is required; for the experienced one expect Koulibaly and Maguire high on list. At least one of them will be immense physically to try replace that aspect of Kompany.
It sucks, but unless UEFA show balls for European ban, and CAS or whoever ratifies it, this is way it is for foreseeable future. Imagine an oily boot and all that.
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The 29th seems a long way away. Few rumours kicking around that Ramsey might be alright by then, but I also think that its click- bait- fiction just to wind everyone up. Would be great if he could be back though.
Watfords defending yesterday was some of the worst I can recall for a long time, and it was shocking to see them in the first half inviting City on, hanging back half way inside their half,no pressing game at all, if the tactic was to park the bus, then bloody well park it.
Kudos to their fans though, 5-0 down and they still sang and waved their hearts out, and didnt go off home early, that sthe way to get rid of the shame daemon.
There seemed to be something about the old Wembley that invited a chance for the underdog, it doesnt seem so now, its more razzmatazz and show biz-a really expensive day out and some of it seems environmentally bad (whats the point of the big sheets of plastic with the club logos on before the game to be pulled over the pitch only to be binned afterwards? Is it to remind everyone whose playing incase we forgot? Bung it in the sea, maybe the plastic can morph into fish, now that we scoffed the lot(nearly)? Do we need all the flame explosions (embarrassing)? Ok I dont want to go back to the old world, but much of contemporary society seems overplayed and shallow, hyped to a level it cant sustain, in that light Citys victory seemed hollow and worthless, despite knowing they are a great side I didnt feel respect for them.
Gee, know I sound like the old Kenny Everett character “angry of Mayfair”! I speak not the truth, just my perspective.
And next season Watford will put up a massive defence against us at Vicarage road, yet wtf happened yesterday? Having seen them against Wolves in the semi they do have something when they want.
COYG!
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Mills I see Ramsey is in Italy this weekend, its expected he may even be presented to the Juve fans at their match this evening
Ozil is in Turkey this weekend, Emery did state the players would be given a few days off before prep for the EL final starts in earnest
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Thanks Ed, then Im glad I didnt click on the articles about him. The Ö’s getting married this summer, already been complaints about who his best man is supposed to be. But then the press is mostly fiction!
COYG!
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Vincent Kompany has become the player-manager of Anderlecht.
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