Now I read somewhere that the board wanted to sell before we bought Cala. Then Madrid was in, and the board green lighted this purchase. Like WTF. Does it take convincing the board Madrid Barca City's are in for said player for them to say yes buy him now??? ! I guess
"Edu and Arteta have always enjoyed an excellent personal relationship but, in recent windows, members of Arsenal’s coaching staff have exerted an increasing influence over first-team recruitment.
That came to a head late this summer, when the club found themselves embroiled in a convoluted deal for Joan Garcia, a goalkeeper at Espanyol in Spain’s La Liga. In the final 48 hours of the window, an exasperated Edu had to extricate Arsenal from that negotiation and pivot to signing Bournemouth’s Neto on loan."
One thing that has crossed my mind is whether the shit transfer window we had was deliberate.
Knowing that we were not going to topple Cheaty (how defeatist I know) this season, we decided to keep money warm to make us more competitive next season with the players we buy next season (Sesko).
Sounds daft when writing it but I can't for the life of me understand why we were not bolder if the "plan" was to win the league this year.
Maybe Pedro was right with the idea that we are waiting until next season to win it once Pep leaves Cheaty.
Sounds even dafter when we have a resurgent Chelski and 'pool to be wary of who can very quickly become a competitive outfit next season.
not getting a striker and chasing Merino all summer was stupid. We panic loaned Sterling on the last day when its was obvious we were short in attack. The lack of planning and fixation on plan A at all costs is a serious structural issue. The lack of flexibility in transfer targets is alarming as well as our slow pace
we need to sell prospects on the idea of the project. That takes work. Given that the project is a bit unclear at times. Yes there is the draw of EPL and London but Wenger had the AURA of attracting talent from anywhere. Players respected him and his fatherly approach. Also nice pay. But without Edu we need someone dynamic to sell this project to new players. We need new players
Guardian - "The Premier League’s refereeing body has said it is aware of footage allegedly showing David Coote sniffing white powder.
The video emerged after Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL) and the Football Association launched investigations into Coote after remarks he made about Jürgen Klopp in a video that surfaced online this week.
On Wednesday evening the Sun published a video that it said showed Coote sniffing white powder during the summer’s European Championship in Germany, where he was officiating."
More shit coming out about ref Coote. Hope the PGMOL look after him, he just strikes me as someone who the pressure gets to from time to time and as such, deserves a degree pf sympathy and chance of rehab whatever he has or hasn’t done.
I don’t think Coote is the worst or most ref by a long shot , though the mousers might disagree.
Just heard Jarred Gillette on the microphone on the recent Saliba sending off, he left no stone unturned to get Saliba off, made assumptions that were wrong IMO about Ben Whites pace to defend that, looked into all sort of angles, and went way beyond what was needed to go against a perfectly reasonable decision by the on field ref, ie a yellow card. What Gillett raised was far from clear and obvious. Now that is a biased ref.
Also, I know it’s the sun and it’s a bag of shite but have we seen the reporting that coote also filmed himself on the beak at the euros 😂 and there’s people out here defending these clowns. Deserves to lose his career just for being a complete moron let alone the bias and poor performance
Ornstein - "Real Sociedad director of football Roberto Olabe is to leave his post at the end of this season, in a surprise development that will place some of the game’s leading clubs on high alert."
FA - "If you want to qualify as a referee, you will need to be at least 14-years-old, live in England and successfully complete the FA Referee Course."
Those are the requirements that FA published on requirements to become a referee - the only requirement is you have to be 14 and understand the basic rules of game which makes referee a very easy profession to enter because very little skill required.
I was googling for a bit and found a story about increasing violence against referees from the '90s and it mentions Paul Alcock who worked as a manager of shopping mall during week while reffing on weekends for a generous stipend.
This idea referees are highly talented individuals who deserve to paid like they in 1% is for the birds.
Watched the last 30mins of Brighton 2-1 City last night. City are out of answers right now-- overly reliant on Haaland to outscore the oppo. Some days he will, not this time. Almost sympathetic to the olds KDB, Walker, Ederson. Looking around and wondering how they're chasing a game they'd led-- with Rico Lewis, Mattheus Nunes and Jamhai Simpson-Pusey on the pitch.
FA needs to take over as the organizing body. Start fresh. Existing refs re-apply for a job. VAR officials need to be technical types, testing with high marks for rules application. Then start grading everyone. Reviewed by a board comprised of ex-refs, ex-coaches, and ex-players. FA grades the board.
Once the foundation is in place-- match officials begin to accrue experience. With bonuses for achieving higher grades. More when an official maintains their level season over season.
Maybe an anonymous survey of match officials at end-of-season-- by players, coaches, and managers?
The very least you'd expect, building a high-functioning officiating organization from the ground up.
Are we still talking about paying refs more when they continually fuck up and then have themselves recorded calling managers c u next Tuesdays?
The whole structure needs to change before any kind of pay raise is considered. Not only the structure but also the culture, given what has been unearthed in the last few days especially.
I do get all that honestly Rich and I like the financial figures you put there as well as performance related pay etc.
I just found the talk about paying them million pound salaries a bit much.
The biggest question is whether any change will ever happen and it’s highly unlikely, as someone pointed out yesterday (it may have been you) the powers that be have it all right at the sweet spot where not enough fuss is kicked up by those that matter/it generates interest and therefore traffic/no real incentive to change things from the ground up. Ie nothing to see here all is good.
I agree that nobody would come in the club and change Arteta, because the risk/reward ratio is just too high. Probability of finding someone who lift us a level is very low.
What I can also see: that despite all the positives described in the article Arteta has two weaknesses.
1) Trust issues in the second tier of the squad (beyond 15) which results in an incorrect motivation for players out of form and critical lack of rotation at times. This issue is being confirmed in the current season: we added another left back, but Kiwior, who was part of our February/March win streak is not trusted enough to come in and play as a left back role, as well as Zinchenko. So however many players Arteta he uses only primary option if available.
2) Overreliance on defending the current result this season, which is not how we won 16 out of 18 last season. It's also easily trackable - we lead against Liverpool, we roll back into our half, we lead against Chelsea (who didn't create much), we roll back, although we could try to press for the second. We are down to 10 men, we roll back. This tactics only worked against Tottenham this season. In all other occasions it ended up in conceded goals. And this is already a trend, while a Spurs game looks like an exception.
Agree with most of it apart from “Arteta is liked in the media” and “adding pieces to climb the table”. The media hate teta and Arsenal. We get no love from the northern lot on sky and the written press don’t like him either. Fans like me don’t think we’ll over turn the 9 points because I don’t think we’ve added successfully. The summer window hasn’t improved the team so if we fell short last year it’s likely to happen again. I’m not for moving on teta, he’s great but he has some areas that need urgent improvement. Like his lack of want to sign a forward and how he crashes value when he doesn’t fancy someone. That has to change
Now I read somewhere that the board wanted to sell before we bought Cala. Then Madrid was in, and the board green lighted this purchase. Like WTF. Does it take convincing the board Madrid Barca City's are in for said player for them to say yes buy him now??? ! I guess
This is inside story of Edu's departure and there are a few interesting anecdotes in here.
https://archive.ph/egEl1
"Edu and Arteta have always enjoyed an excellent personal relationship but, in recent windows, members of Arsenal’s coaching staff have exerted an increasing influence over first-team recruitment.
That came to a head late this summer, when the club found themselves embroiled in a convoluted deal for Joan Garcia, a goalkeeper at Espanyol in Spain’s La Liga. In the final 48 hours of the window, an exasperated Edu had to extricate Arsenal from that negotiation and pivot to signing Bournemouth’s Neto on loan."
One thing that has crossed my mind is whether the shit transfer window we had was deliberate.
Knowing that we were not going to topple Cheaty (how defeatist I know) this season, we decided to keep money warm to make us more competitive next season with the players we buy next season (Sesko).
Sounds daft when writing it but I can't for the life of me understand why we were not bolder if the "plan" was to win the league this year.
Maybe Pedro was right with the idea that we are waiting until next season to win it once Pep leaves Cheaty.
Sounds even dafter when we have a resurgent Chelski and 'pool to be wary of who can very quickly become a competitive outfit next season.
not getting a striker and chasing Merino all summer was stupid. We panic loaned Sterling on the last day when its was obvious we were short in attack. The lack of planning and fixation on plan A at all costs is a serious structural issue. The lack of flexibility in transfer targets is alarming as well as our slow pace
we need to sell prospects on the idea of the project. That takes work. Given that the project is a bit unclear at times. Yes there is the draw of EPL and London but Wenger had the AURA of attracting talent from anywhere. Players respected him and his fatherly approach. Also nice pay. But without Edu we need someone dynamic to sell this project to new players. We need new players
I guess we wanted Sesko, but were prepared to wait.
It's the only thing that makes sense.
sup
Good post, Pedro.
Guardian - "The Premier League’s refereeing body has said it is aware of footage allegedly showing David Coote sniffing white powder.
The video emerged after Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL) and the Football Association launched investigations into Coote after remarks he made about Jürgen Klopp in a video that surfaced online this week.
On Wednesday evening the Sun published a video that it said showed Coote sniffing white powder during the summer’s European Championship in Germany, where he was officiating."
More shit coming out about ref Coote. Hope the PGMOL look after him, he just strikes me as someone who the pressure gets to from time to time and as such, deserves a degree pf sympathy and chance of rehab whatever he has or hasn’t done.
I don’t think Coote is the worst or most ref by a long shot , though the mousers might disagree.
Just heard Jarred Gillette on the microphone on the recent Saliba sending off, he left no stone unturned to get Saliba off, made assumptions that were wrong IMO about Ben Whites pace to defend that, looked into all sort of angles, and went way beyond what was needed to go against a perfectly reasonable decision by the on field ref, ie a yellow card. What Gillett raised was far from clear and obvious. Now that is a biased ref.
Zero sympathy. Fuck him.
Also, I know it’s the sun and it’s a bag of shite but have we seen the reporting that coote also filmed himself on the beak at the euros 😂 and there’s people out here defending these clowns. Deserves to lose his career just for being a complete moron let alone the bias and poor performance
Keeping tabs on the name Roberto Olabe.
Is this our next director of football?
Ornstein - "Real Sociedad director of football Roberto Olabe is to leave his post at the end of this season, in a surprise development that will place some of the game’s leading clubs on high alert."
https://archive.ph/DWvzx
He did think it was a good idea to sign kt though 😂
FA - "If you want to qualify as a referee, you will need to be at least 14-years-old, live in England and successfully complete the FA Referee Course."
Those are the requirements that FA published on requirements to become a referee - the only requirement is you have to be 14 and understand the basic rules of game which makes referee a very easy profession to enter because very little skill required.
I was googling for a bit and found a story about increasing violence against referees from the '90s and it mentions Paul Alcock who worked as a manager of shopping mall during week while reffing on weekends for a generous stipend.
This idea referees are highly talented individuals who deserve to paid like they in 1% is for the birds.
It all went wrong when league allowed referees to become "professional" and form a union to protect their incompetent members for past 20+ yrs.
In the stead of-- The Beautiful Game™, played in the best league on the planet...
... being run by a gaggle of chubby, middle-aged white dudes from Manchester? 😄
Yeah, defo some room for improvement!
Watched the last 30mins of Brighton 2-1 City last night. City are out of answers right now-- overly reliant on Haaland to outscore the oppo. Some days he will, not this time. Almost sympathetic to the olds KDB, Walker, Ederson. Looking around and wondering how they're chasing a game they'd led-- with Rico Lewis, Mattheus Nunes and Jamhai Simpson-Pusey on the pitch.
We'll overtake City.
FA needs to take over as the organizing body. Start fresh. Existing refs re-apply for a job. VAR officials need to be technical types, testing with high marks for rules application. Then start grading everyone. Reviewed by a board comprised of ex-refs, ex-coaches, and ex-players. FA grades the board.
Once the foundation is in place-- match officials begin to accrue experience. With bonuses for achieving higher grades. More when an official maintains their level season over season.
Maybe an anonymous survey of match officials at end-of-season-- by players, coaches, and managers?
The very least you'd expect, building a high-functioning officiating organization from the ground up.
Are we still talking about paying refs more when they continually fuck up and then have themselves recorded calling managers c u next Tuesdays?
The whole structure needs to change before any kind of pay raise is considered. Not only the structure but also the culture, given what has been unearthed in the last few days especially.
I do get all that honestly Rich and I like the financial figures you put there as well as performance related pay etc.
I just found the talk about paying them million pound salaries a bit much.
The biggest question is whether any change will ever happen and it’s highly unlikely, as someone pointed out yesterday (it may have been you) the powers that be have it all right at the sweet spot where not enough fuss is kicked up by those that matter/it generates interest and therefore traffic/no real incentive to change things from the ground up. Ie nothing to see here all is good.
I agree that nobody would come in the club and change Arteta, because the risk/reward ratio is just too high. Probability of finding someone who lift us a level is very low.
What I can also see: that despite all the positives described in the article Arteta has two weaknesses.
1) Trust issues in the second tier of the squad (beyond 15) which results in an incorrect motivation for players out of form and critical lack of rotation at times. This issue is being confirmed in the current season: we added another left back, but Kiwior, who was part of our February/March win streak is not trusted enough to come in and play as a left back role, as well as Zinchenko. So however many players Arteta he uses only primary option if available.
2) Overreliance on defending the current result this season, which is not how we won 16 out of 18 last season. It's also easily trackable - we lead against Liverpool, we roll back into our half, we lead against Chelsea (who didn't create much), we roll back, although we could try to press for the second. We are down to 10 men, we roll back. This tactics only worked against Tottenham this season. In all other occasions it ended up in conceded goals. And this is already a trend, while a Spurs game looks like an exception.
Yes mate! 😮💨 droppin’ 💣 💣 on this post
Agree with most of it apart from “Arteta is liked in the media” and “adding pieces to climb the table”. The media hate teta and Arsenal. We get no love from the northern lot on sky and the written press don’t like him either. Fans like me don’t think we’ll over turn the 9 points because I don’t think we’ve added successfully. The summer window hasn’t improved the team so if we fell short last year it’s likely to happen again. I’m not for moving on teta, he’s great but he has some areas that need urgent improvement. Like his lack of want to sign a forward and how he crashes value when he doesn’t fancy someone. That has to change