After falling to defeat in the North London derby and news that Manchester City escaped serious punishment for violations of UEFA’s fair play rules, the Arseblagger is depressed about the future of Arsenal and the Premier League. He is convinced the Gunners will descend to mid-table mediocrity. Tune-in to this podcast.
We welcome your feedback and comments to this critical issue.
Positively Arsenal 
Misery loves company but George must be one of the loneliest Arsenal bloggers around. I wonder why.
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We are already in mid-table mediocrity.
This season is a dead loss and we need to forget about it and look towards working out how to stop the rot.
It will not be dealt with by selling a lot of our layers and buying others.
All that will do is, at best, delay the recovery by another season or more, if at all.
Our coaches need to train the players we have to make the improvements.
I believe we have the players, but do we have the coaches?
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In the current competitive environment with both UEFA and the Premier League unable to prevent clubs with super-rich owners from buying up almost all the most talented players, only a genius can keep Arsenal in the top-4. That genius is Arsene Wenger. In my response to George’s well-founded pessimism, my alternative is for the owners to get on their knees and beg Wenger to return in an executive position and help Arteta rebuild this club. Get rid of Don Raoul and his address book pronto!
I stand by it.
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I don’t dispute that Arsene would make a huge difference, I just believe he will never even consider it.
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David Ornstein reporting that Ainsley Maitland-Niles has decided that he has to leave Arsenal this summer, that he is not going to be first choice at AFC.
This brings me on to something that I was thinking about earlier, for me its clear Mikel Arteta just does not trust some of his players, AMN would be one of them, as would Holding, Sokratis, Torreira and Nelson. I think he is not sure of Pepe either. My reasoning for this, his team selections and how he uses the subs. MA would rather use Kolasinac as an emergency CB than select actual CB’s like Sokratis and Holding.
AMN has had some good performances under Arteta but not a start when everyone is fit
Every manager has some form of Hierarchy of selection, and Arteta is no different
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“I don’t dispute that Arsene would make a huge difference, I just believe he will never even consider it.”
It’s crazy he is still getting criticism from some of our so called own years after leaving and with almost none of his players still playing.
Arsenal online presence is seriously toxic and mostly increases the divide between fans, players, club. Don’t get me wrong the people running the club are not immune from criticism but respect and victory through harmony are dead concepts that Arsene championed
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well Gee when you consider its 2 years since Wenger left and he lives in London but has not been to any of our games, suggest that he has little truck with Raul and Co.
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Gee I’m not sure where you get the idea that almost none of Wenger’s players still playing, of our starting 11 on Sunday we had 7 starting and 5 or 6 in the subs
Martinez, Bellerin, Mustafi, Kolasinac, Xhaka, Aubameyang and Lacazette all starting and Macey, Holding, Willock, Maitland-Niles and Nelson on the bench, Saka too would have trained with first team under AW.
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getting old….. did not realise that many played oops..
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Good news,
Ozil in the training photos today
i had just been thinking that if we did not see him in training this week then he would not be seen as fit enough to play again this season with less than two weeks left, three if we get to FA Cup final
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can I just say that the photos of Ozil in training today have me a little concerned for him, he does not look well at all, looks thin, pale, a bit sickly.
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Will be a shame to lose AMN, sometimes his energy would be very useful. And he is versatile too, of reports are true Hector wants out, surely he can provide competition for Cedric, at the very least?
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I see wigan players are doing the best to avoid the adminstration forced relegation scenario, an 8-0 win today over relegation rivals Hull
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well Mandy the reports are that he wants out, wants to be a starter, not like club are dumping him against his will
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If this regime ever planned for Wenger to help out from upstairs one day, as it was reported Stan wanted, well ,they have blown their chances by siding with the noisy rather than our most successful manager. That, and appointing Raul to work over, alongside , underneath him , or wherever
They really screwed up on so many levels with Wenger, they should have let him see out this, and maybe another contract, maybe even with him maybe working with a successor. Then, if they were lucky, Wenger going upstairs.
I can think of nobody better to have at this or any club , especially in the current environment .
But doubt we will see Wenger unless KSE leave the building, too much there.
As many in the world will attest, if you are lucky enough to get hold of something precious, never let it go if that is in your power, especially for a bunch of hotheads influenced by the Sun, mesmerised by bitter ex players, and completely taken in by pundits whose agendas were with then, but sadly mno longer, rival clubs.
Those same forces will no doubt consume Arteta in time, before he goes on to become a top manager at some lucky team, while Raul picks another one of his mates to take over
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Mandy I don’t think we will ever see Wenger back at Arsenal in any role, having him on the board or even Chairman would be a waste of time, as we seen with Sir Chips when he tried to bring David O’Leary on to the Board so that they had a football man on the Board to better oversee Raul, Edu, Fahmy and co, those guys have Josh on their side so no one can be appointed to judge them.
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Mandy just to clarify my above point, Wenger is smart enough to know that if he became Chairman with the limited power Sir Chips had(imagine not being able to get Dave O onto the board despite having Lord Harris and Ken Friar’s backing), all Arsene would be is the target for blame for everything Raul, Edu and co, and even the manager does, it would be a totally no win situation for Wenger
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Sadly, I make you right Eduardo
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lots of quotes from Arteta in tomorrow’s media, he basically saying lots of quality players want to join Arsenal, and that the club must invest or get left behind others who do. Also says a way to fix our defense is to bring in a top notch CB as a focal point of the defense a la how VVD helped fix Liverpool’s error ridden defense
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Guardiola royally proving he’s the prick I’ve long suspected he is. Bringing us into it and claiming equivalency between our spending 20 years ago and City’s now. Shameless stuff. Football poles apart but him and Mourinho similar characters I reckon.
Dodgiest ones often have family in game as agents or like- Ferguson, Allardyce being two. Think Pep’s bro is both agent and owner of Spanish club who do plenty with City.
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Weird thing with Ains is that after what was apparently a very good cameo few games back (Wolves?) not sure he’s been used much since.
May be wrong, been plenty of games, and fair few I’ve not been able to watch.
If Arteta had him in mind as a real energy provider for latter periods in games, you’d think he’d have turned to him last 30 Spurs when we tired so visibly.
I hoped for a year more, with some good opportunities, before any call made, but understandable from both parties if they feel otherwise. Think it will have been a real blow to him after the good reviews etc, not to have got more minutes in period following.
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rich did you see Jose’s response to city getting off, he basically said if they are not guilty of it, then why were they fined £10M, and if they are guilty why are they not banned. Don’t like the guy, but I thought he has done this brilliantly
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Him leaving would continue a pretty weird trend we have where although we give many players opportunities from young, none make it to thirty.
Double shame in some ways as, ideally, later years bring payback, in form of maturity, from the cost, so to speak, of using inexperienced players; while later on, especially past 30, you might hope for some veteran stage benefits, in experience but also in players with very strong bond to club.
Some got pretty close to thirty mark- Ramsey, Gibbs, Walcott- but trend is more for leaving mid-20’s- Szczesny, Coq, Ox, Wilshere, even Clichy- and Iwobi represented something new- early-ish twenties, past 100 app mark.
Maybe something like 1,500 appearances for us there but none made that 30. Last who did, all the way through, must have been…nope, not a clue. Parlour!?
RVP half qualified but he didn’t make it either. Cesc and Cole,too
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Saw it but didn’t quite take it in. As you say, well played.
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Sounds a bit ominous of the truth is as reported, will be surprised if Arsenal splash out this summer, but guess you never know.
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rich the problem is that its AMN who seems to want out, not AFC forcing him out, we can’t blame the lad as it does not seem like he will ever be first choice here. there always comes a point where a player is at an age that they need to be first choice, have enough experience, but that final step is not completed, they then have to choose if its first choice somewhere else, or be a squad player and risk missing out. It of course can be easier for ones like John O’Shea at utd, or Parlour here, when its part of big success, but when first team is struggling and you still can’t make that full breakthrough, how must you feel
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Should bring clarity anyway Mandy. I don’t think I’ll hold it against Arteta if he doesn’t fancy idea of being asked to compete, as though equal, in eyes of media and many fans at least, while being miles from it.
Wenger was, in nicest possible way, a freak in football terms for doing that. It’s just not something managers do when they have good alternatives.
I believe Arteta is 100% committed, and the right man, but he’s laid it out pretty clearly what he expects. If nothing like that occurs I’m sure he’ll keep trying his best but probably with an eye already on next move. Hard to believe City aren’t watching him very closely, but old Pep may be going nowhere for a while as I’m sure he has no appetite for reduced spending power.
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Agree Rich, think Arteta is the man , and could be a bit special. It’s good that he cares enough to….perhaps….put out a bit of a warning so early in his career, but something slightly ominous about his….reported …..slant/ words as well. And I guess we do not know what Arteta was promised, in pre Covid days of course.
The club spent last summer, some might say wisely, others might differ in some cases, let’s see what they do this summer , as you say it will bring clarity.
Pressure on the club at a difficult time, a perceived lack of ambition could have wider implications with sponsors, players, and fans who may be getting used to not attending games, and perhaps some disillusioned with what city have got away with , after years of us being run within FFP, despite Peps recent reported little rant
It sounds like we could lose a name or two this summer, let’s hope it’s not one way traffic out of the club, I personally doubt it will be.
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As for Peps reduced spending power, may not happen with UEFA but the EPL could still have a say, reportedly still looking into city’s situation.
There are powers in the EPL that may be more threatening to City than anything in Europe, in this league at least, I can think of two of them immediately, the two who seem to control the PGMOL by whatever means, with perhaps a third to soon appear
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FFS
Jonathan Moss has been appointed as the referee for Saturdays FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City at Wembley.
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so remember when Raul and co said no player would be allowed into last year of their contract, or was it last two years of their contract, well
Aubameyang
Ozil
Mustafi
Sokratis
Macey
along with David Luiz who signed a one year deal a few weeks ago, are all into the last year of their contracts and into the last two years of their contract are
Lacazette
Guendouzi
Kolasinac
Chambers
Nketiah
Martinez
what was all that malarkey about never allowing the players to have the power over the club again, ha ha ha
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New post is up and running.
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