Sunday, December 22, 2024

Arteta on summer recruitment and the importance of pre-season

Mikel Arteta has admitted that some of the plans for this summer will change depending on how the league season finishes and if the Gunners have European football or not.

There is still the outside chance that Arsenal could qualify for the Europa Conference League, but a first season without any continental competition looks likely at this point.

The Arsenal manager says he and Technical Director, Edu, are working on various scenarios, as well as the recruitment and player departures that need to happen before next season .

“There are so many things to do because we already have a lot of players on loan, a lot of players with contracts that we still have to have sort,” said the Spaniard.

“So a lot will depend on those players and what we are able to recruit to improve the team is going to determine where we are.

“We [He and Edu] have been in constant communication. Some things will change, other things will stick to the plan we already have, and some other things will come out, but we sit down very, very regularly to talk about those things.”

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Arteta was unable to enjoy a proper pre-season to prepare his team last summer, and that is something he thinks can make a difference before the new campaign.

“Well, I think having a pre-season is going to be really helpful because we haven’t had enough time to work together yet since we arrived,” he said. “After that let’s see where we finish this season and how many games we have to play.”

Asked whether free midweeks might be useful in terms of working with his players, Arteta continued, “Obviously in terms of the amount of game preparation and time to coach them, it’s much better to be in that position than not having any time between the games.”

The club are currently working on summer plans, with Arteta hopeful details of potential fixtures and tours would be announced shortly.

“We are trying to finalise everything,” he said. “With the Covid world it’s been a challenge to get any tours or game sorted out.

“Hopefully in the next week that will be confirmed and we can announce that, but this is what we are trying to do.

“Obviously the Euros os going to condition the return dates of the players in terms of what they do in the tournament, so there are still some question marks there.”

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Okester

Surely based on this season’s performances, not many of our players will be off on international duty for the Euros..

Hank Scorpio

A lot of them tend to play better in teams not managed by Arteta…

Futsboller

Relentless! 🙂

Hank Scorpio

As always. To be sure the squad is unbalanced and has gaps. Unfortunately despite the fact that Arteta has done little to deserve to keep his job I expect him to keep it. One of the best things that could happen in the off season is for Arteta to undertake some serious introspection about his approach to management. Not some tweak or refinement to his tactics or some such rubbish but looking at basics like team selections, rotation, substitutions, more freedom for the players on the pitch. All areas he needs to improve on.

Daveo

100% on all that I expect him to be here next year too. And while under normal circumstance I could probably handle it (despite like you say him not really warranting it), the thing that worries me is how poorly adaptable he is and how he relies on exactly the same things over and over expecting them to eventually just work by our “luck” (a perspective I just don’t buy – it’s an excuse should never be relied upon in hope) finally changing. Thus, I expect the start of the season next year to play out more or less the… Read more »

Heavenly Chapecoense

None of all that, Arteta needs to be sacked. This will happen at the end of the season. Does he even realize how he has failed completely?

A Gorilla

Tierney and Xhaka are probably the only first team that will go to Euros.

David

KT, Saka, Xhaka, Leno. Is four I can think of!

Daveo

Leno is a maybe at best:
Many German pundits aren’t picking him.
https://bulinews.com/news/6410/hamann-and-matth%C3%A4us-make-their-picks-for-germanys-euro-2021-squad
They have been picking 4 GKs in recent internationals, and Kevin Trapp is a quality keeper with almost as many internationals as Leno (5 v 8) and also not in poor form. Wouldn’t suprise me at all if Leno doesn’t make it. Either way him and Trapp are miles behind the top 2.

Biggles

Some reports are suggesting Leno may be sold in the summer so there’s a possibility he won’t be “one of ours” anyway.

Daveo

I’ve read that. This would be the most Arsenal thing ever. Sell the guy that was world class in his absence and has proven to be one of the league’s best GKs this season and then sell Leno because we’re disappointed with his quality… This would be right up there with sacking the scouting team and then hiring a recruiting firm to find some more scouts.

Biggles

Yes, I was a bit surprised. Top keepers retain their market value better than most and the thought of selling him and shelling out for an expensive replacement may not be the best use of what are likely to be scarce resources. Just speculation at this stage though.

Daveo

At this point I’d almost rather we just turned it over to Ryan, Hein and Okonkwo. Blood the two young guys in the cups. They’ve shown enough to deserve a chane and both have the potential to be future #1s. But, yeah Leno? I’d be happy for us to sell him. He’s just an above average Goalie that we could generate some cash from. The embarrassment of selling Emi is already done. A guy that bled Arsenal tossed aside for a excelllent shot stopper with poor decision making, average abilities with the ball and average command of his area.

atom

Supposedly Leno has said he won’t sign a new contract. Looks like Hector is off as well. Laca needs to leave – there is no way we should be offering him a new deal.

We might have a signing or two but with no European football (that might actually be better than the Euro conference league) I expect most of the business this summer will be outgoings. With only the league next year we don’t need a big squad & realistically should be challenging for the top 4 given that.

Biggles

I think we’ll bring in far fewer that we hope we will offload, if only to ensure the wage bill is trimmed further. That said, bringing in potential targets could be more difficult with the absence of European football. The prospect of, at best, a possible domestic cup run doesn’t seem that enticing.

Biggles

If Leno did leave I’ve a feeling that we’d bring in a replacement rather than move everyone else up one place. It’s the thought of his departure leading to a possible £30 million (or whatever) shelled out on a replacement on top of the rest of the “rebuilding” needed that is a tad worrying.

Qwaliteee

Bad News Biggles.

He loves it.

Bleeding gums murphy

Martinez was picked by carragher in his premier team of year. Had a great season. We stuck with bag of nerves Leno 😂

eboue

Lacazette?

Viv The 🐐

Leno as maybe 3rd choice
Xhaka
Maybe Bellerin if they are desperate
Tierney if fit
Maybe Saka
Cedric
I think we should be able to deal with that.

Reality check

Euros is not an issue, AFCON is

A Different George

Aubameyang, Pepe, Partey, Elneny.

Santi's Little Helper

Neither is really an issue. Amid all the hate for Arteta (a good deal of it justified) we don’t really even have a team of internationals anymore. 3 players going to the euros – two of them not even guaranteed to get off the bench (saka and Cedric). Even if it was a world Cup we would hardly have an issue and certainly less of one than most of our rivals. The team used to have 12-15 first team players away on international duty and we’d be left with some kids and maybe a few guys who had retired from… Read more »

atom

The squad has some holes but it’s not that bad – certainly not mid table PL bad. Attack – Auba has consistently averaged 25-30 goals a year. We don’t play to his strengths at all. Saka- one of most exciting young players in Europe. Pepe – performs decently well but we don’t play to his strengths either. Mid – ESR is very promising. Odeegard is going to be a big loss for us. Partey – one of the best mids in La Liga. Defense – KT looks like a captain. We have 70m of center halves in Saliba & Gabriel.… Read more »

Santi's Little Helper

I mean you make my point a bit. Auba was great, been average all year. ESR is extremely promising (biggest highlight of the season for me). When you reference our CBs you have their transfer value not that anyone better than us would be dying to have them (didn’t watch saliba this year so this is in reference to Gabriel). In the biggest game of the season we picked a solid journeyman over him…says a lot. I also like Pepe, some very impressive moments. Partey was the 3rd best midfielder on his own team (they have a great midfield to… Read more »

Carll

I used to enjoy Mikel’s communication skills. It just makes me sad now, really feels like he is clutching at straws. One day it’s that we will be ruthless and the club will back him. Then it’s warning that if we don’t make Europe we won’t be able to. We are not making Europe!

FMT

Glad somebody caught that too!

Yeah he really is just grasping for excuses. Mourinho(pre-sack), Tuchel and Ancelotti didn’t have a pre-season either. Each of their squads are currently above us in the table. He keeps waiting for this magical off-season break that just isn’t coming. Globally, there are many international football competitions coming up that might involve our first team between 2021-2022 summertime. There’s the Euros, Olympics, Copa America, AFCON, and Qatar 2022 qualification. He’s never going to have a break with whole team so what’s the point harping on about a pre-season. A proper manager with real emotional intelligence would look to fit the… Read more »

Canadagoon

“A proper manager with real emotional intelligence would look to fit the extra training into periods that no European football would provide.” …Arteta said this though, about the free midweeks. He does have his flaws but you’re trying to beat on him for a point he acknowledged further on in the article. IMO Tuchel’s squad is miles better than ours if we’re being realistic so that’s not a fair comparison. Sp*rs (who wouldn’t take Son or Kane, as much as I detest them) and Everton are both valid comparisons I’d agree, but we’re 3-4 points back, for me that’s one… Read more »

Chris

+100

goonshow

Thank you for some words of reason mate – far be it for Salibaba to let facts get in the way of a good rant!

Great points reading through and you correctly pointed out he alluded to having more time.

Maybe I AM overestimating our squad’s capabilities.

I just feel we’re better than the tenth best squad In the league and a more experienced would have us further up.

I am just really worried that we’ve regressed in our key performance metrics since Emery. Personally I’d be less worried about Arteta’s leadership if we added people like Emenalo, Overmars, Van der Sar etc to the executive level.

goonshow

Fair enough. And I completely agree about not leaving Arteta in the experience/leadership vacuum he’s been in. We’ve given the less experienced manager, far less support the Unai had (albeit far Raul and co!).
It would be crazy to fire Arteta – having hung him out to dry in an ‘upgraded’ level of responsibility with an eviscerated support staff. We would learn nothing about his true potential, whilst saying all the wrong things about how we value loyalty and support our managers.

Jack

Europa League has been amazing at the group stages for giving the younger players game time so it’s a real shame we won’t have it next season. We’ll literally have Carabao Cup and that’s it :/

Nainsley Aitland Miles

Without European football next season, we should be able to field pretty strong lineups in both the FA Cup and League Cup next season. I’m optimistically expecting good runs in both.

Mpls

I’ll wait and see the decimation of the squad this summer before predicting any success anywhere.

I think we’ll get what some have been saying they want for a few years now – back to Project Youth.

I’m not expecting us to pick up any marquee players this summer, and we could lose a few important players. Who would come, and why? The money won’t be there, nor will the opportunity to play on the big stages.

Daveo

Yup, and we know Arteta prefers to rely on experience than youth so there will be a max of 2-3 young guys (ESR, Saka, and the odd Martinelli and Gabriel games with Willock maybe on the fringes) and we’ll have another season of Luiz, Willian, Xhaka, Laca, Mari, and Auba delivering 6 out of 10s week in and week out. It is absolutely bollocks if any of those players get even a minute the rest of the way. There is NOTHING to play for so shut them down and get the young guys on the pitch. They need game time… Read more »

Futsboller

Relentless! 😉

Daveo

Well, why not? Mikel relentlessly overplays the guys that keep letting him and the team down. You really want to see Xhaka instead of Azeez, or Willian instead of Martinelli (or Nelson, or Balogun) or Mari instead of Gabriel or Luiz instead of Holding (or Chambers)?

goonshow

And Covid will flare to hitherto unimaginable proportions through 12 new variants and the glaciers will melt even faster and – fuck it – let’s have a freak asteroid hit the planet whilst we’re down here!
SUPPORT YOUR CLUB!

Daveo

So we just need to come on here and state “well they tried hard and I’m so glad Arteta keeps giving these lovely chaps like Willian, Xhaka, and Luiz chances to prove they can get better”.

goonshow

Not at all – but, as Futsboller says, the ceaseless banging on about the same few points, hijacking any and every comment others make to showcase that agenda… consider what that does to the overall energy and attitude on here – and possibly beyond. I have to say that you are generally polite in your comments Daveo – but others in the same camp not so. And there must be a ripple effect of all that rancour, bitterness, slagging off of players and staff. Make the point – have a discussion about it. But always remain focused on the team… Read more »

Reality check

Emery did a good job of that, Arteta, not so much. He didn’t give a proper breakthrough to any of the new youngsters, just played the ones who were there already thanks to Emery

goonshow

Yes – but in Daveo’s world of instant grat, anything pre-Arteta is long forgotten. It’s all – always – in the moment: sub this, change that, fire everyone who’s ever made a mistake. Spare a thought for the bigger picture – give the man a proper pre-season (or indeed any pre-season!), support in the market, managment that actually know something about football and who are appointed to strategically complement Mik’s areas of inexperience… That’s what a well-run, fair and reasonable club would do – direct your anger where it needs to be Dave: right back to Ivan the Terrible, Raul… Read more »

A Gorilla

Edu also has the task of finding a new coach

Hank Scorpio

We need to shift a load of players. Unfortunately I think the most urgent departure in Willian will not happen. Who’d take him? You’d need to find an equivalent dynamic duo to Arteta and Edu for that to happen. I see Nketiah, AMN, Guendouzi, Torreira, hopefully Luiz, Bellerin and Laca moving on and possibly Chambers too. I can’t see any takers for Soares and Elneny but hopefully they’re moved on also. Backup at LB, central midfield and attacking midfield, replacement RB, hopefully Ryan on the cheap as backup keeper. Also assuming Saliba is coming in but who knows on that… Read more »

Biggles

You’re right. As in comedy, timing is everything and we’ll be trying to offload players on a buyers market that’s likely to be flooded with players as many clubs will be trying to trim their squads/wage bills. Overall, we’ll need to cut our wage bill (again). It used to be styled as a CL bill on EL income, now it’s probably an EL bill on no European income. Something’s got to give. We may still be able to shift most of the players you’ve listed as they’re of reasonable quality. That said, the fees obtained may not be what we… Read more »

Winterburns right wand

I was just thinking. Could we get some other team together to create a third tier European competition, which all of the teams in it are guaranteed a place every season. Has that kind of thing ever been tried before?

Hank Scorpio

Like the ESL but for teams that are not Super? Ooh maybe we could all get participation trophies too.

Daveo

Surely a coaches choice award would be in the offing. Who’d get it this season? Willian, Xhaka, or Luiz? Maybe he’d just award three?

Hank Scorpio

I think that would be best. Wouldn’t want them thinking the coach has any favourites. Leave the rest to think that..

Prateek

You mean a never ending all season long emirates cup?

Yes it’s a pre-season tournament called the International Champions Cup.

Rich

Our squad is far too big with European football, without it, we could purge 8 players, and numerically we’d still be fine Nketiah £15-£20mill Torreira £15 – £20mill Guendouzi £15 – £20mil Luiz Free Bellerin £15 – £20mil Mavropanos £10 – £15mill Nelson £15 – £20mill Lacazette £12 – 15mill That would still leave 22 Leno, Runarsson Soares, Chambers Tierney, Kolasinac Saliba, Holding Gabriel, Mari Xhaka, Elneny Partey, Niles Smith-Rowe, Willock Saka, Pepe Martinelli, Willian Aubameyang, Balogun In no way am I making the argument for the quality of what’s left, but in terms of the amount of work we… Read more »

Biggles

We could do with offloading those players but, overall, I don’t think we’ll get the sort of money you’re hoping for. I hope I’m wrong for the club’s sake but it’s clearly a buyer’s market and many clubs will be looking to offload players to trim their squads/wage bills in the summer to reduce outgoing post-Covid (if it really is post-Covid of course). That’s going to force prices down overall – even the fees for the handful of “wonderkids” everyone’s talking about are likely to be reduced from their previous astronomical levels. I think we may make £50-60 million or… Read more »

Rich

The price you can receive for a player isn’t just linked to the value of the player, it’s linked to the size of the contract Buying Lacazette for £12million on a 3yr deal, earning £7mill p/a, is a commitment of £33million over 3 years, which works out at £11mill p/a Buying Nelson for £20million, on a 5yr deal, earning £2million p/a, is a committee of £30million over 5 years, which works out at £6mill p/a But in 2024 where Lacazette will be out of contract, and hold no value Nelson will be 24, have 2 years remaining on his deal,… Read more »

goonshow

Troodat – there’s a Covid-fuelled global recession in every event-/experientially-based industry and football is not immune.
I forsee many, many surplus players being dumped into the market with the football equivalent of ‘jobless’ becoming a buzz-word for at least 1-3 seasons.
The market will be a very, very different animal come July.

A Different George

These numbers are just fantasy. No one has a clue what covid finances have done to the transfer market. Excluding the players who are, for all intents and purposes, already gone (Guendouzi, Torreira, Mavropanos), Maitland-Niles is the most likely player to be sold. And, now capped, proven over a full season (though in a relegated team), and still English, he’s probably worth the most–in a non-covid situation, he would get as much or more than Iwobi. Willock, I would expect, will also get a good price, probably to stay at Newcastle, though you never know with Ashley. I think we… Read more »

Eddy F

If we manage to offload ~10 players and sign 2-3 first XI players I’ll call it a good summer. A CM to partner Partey (Bissouma?), a first choice RB and then an AM (Buendia/Perreira) to rotate and a backup LB. The euros won’t effect us too much. Players who look likely to go are: Leno (Germany) Tierney (Scotland) Cedric (Portugal) Xhaka (Switzerland) Saka (England) We might lose more U24 players to the Olympics tbh! Then its a question of do we think this team is capable of securing top 4 football next season? Leno New RB – Holding – Gabriel… Read more »

JP2

When have we ever managed that much movement in OR out, even before Covid and when we had European competitions to attract players? I’d be surprised if we get 2 players coming in from that wish list. No idea who’s going to buy 8-10 of our castoffs either.

Biggles

It’s not likely we’ll get European football. The money from transfers will come from sales and the largesse of the owner (or, almost certainly additional loans). Until/unless we are sure of the money coming in I doubt we’ll move for too many players.

goonshow

Whilst we will defs find it more difficult than ever to offload less-than- top 25 percentile players in the Covid-depressed market, we may also find some decent bargains in that there will be plenty of players out there for the taking, some even half-decent.
If only we had a really established, astute scouting team with fingers in all the major Euro markets… oops.

Biggles

Yes that’s right of course. We’ll be competing with a host of other clubs, all of which (I assume) have established scouting systems in place. Still, with Arsenal it’s “out with the old system” and in with something pretty close to it from what I’ve read.

Didrik Plehn

It’s obvious that our problems is related to the past, state of club when Arteta arrived and lack of proper pre-season preparations. We started this season three weeks after the previous with lots of internal and external obstacles, and without proper preparations. This season we have been playing same number of games in a shorter time span, not particularly beneficial for a struggling club. From my point of view we could need a season without European tournaments. We should play in the Champions League and our main focus next season should be on ourselves and top four. COYG

JOELBMTH

The only useful pre-season for Arsenal Football Club would be one without Arteta at all…One that wouldn’t therefore involve confused team tactics…the playing of “favourites” in preference to those who are more deserving…A pre season involving new players who want to give their all for a coach and his coaching staff who they fully respect…A great thought!…but unfortunately one that won’t come to fruition as…unbelievably a man who has taken the team to a level of mediocrity not seen for over 30 years continues to be employed by Arsenal Football Club as “Manager”…A description which couldn’t be any less appropriate!

Biggles

Arteta may well be gone at the end of next summer if there’s no obvious improvement in the 2021-22 season but as for this coming season, he’s likely to be in charge.

I’m afraid we just have to accept that our journey to mediocrity started back with Arsene and has certainly carried on since. That doesn’t excuse Arteta of course, but pretending that there was a sort of “golden age” prior to his arrival is daft – checkout our decline in the PL with the accompanying failure to qualify for the CL.

Hank Scorpio

Golden age or not, the decline has evidently accelerated under Arteta. Table position taking into account respective squad quality compared to the likes of Everton, West Ham, Leeds and Villa tell the tale…

Biggles

Yes, but the seeds were definitely sown under Wenger and we have certainly continued downwards since. If we’re honest, the real “golden days” of the club (excepting the odd cup win) were really back when we played at Highbury and expectations have been regularly dumbed down to accommodate the decline.

Hank Scorpio

Saying the seeds were sown implies to me that Arteta can be absolved to some degree of his responsibility for our current predicament and that he his ability to alter our course is limited. Looking at respective squad strengths, I’d suggest we should be between 5-6th. We’re underperforming and unless the manager changes the way he goes about things I don’t think we’ll spend our way out of this mess.

Biggles

It doesn’t to me as that’s not what I was saying. Arsenal have been in decline – a clear and obvious decline – for many seasons now. We have continued that under Arteta – no excuses for him at all – but “JOELBMTH” was obviously not right in suggesting somehow that the club was “OK” pre-Arteta and a disaster since he arrived. As to Arteta’s ability, or lack of it, I imagine that his total lack of any managerial experience prior to Arsenal may be a factor. He is literally learning on the job – unprecedented as far as I… Read more »

Didrik Plehn

I doubt there’s any managers that could have done a much better job with our current squad, during a very challenging time of the history. Our first eleven is decent, but our squad isn’t good enough. When some teams are doing better than expected and we are doing worse we could easily become 8 or 9 in the league. How many of our players are good enough for Man City, Man United, Chelsea or Liverpool? Not many, perhaps two or three.

goonshow

It’s a question of phrasing… I don’t feel Arteta can be fully ‘absolved’, nor should he be. But I also strongly feel he cannot be fully ‘judged’, at least until he has had a level playing field on which to prepare for a season. He is also bereft of any kind of mentoring experience or sounding board in the upper levels of the club. And that, certainly, is NOT his fault. We’ve hit a very low base now – we’re there. No point in recriminations and scapegoating. But what we do have is time – 1 or 2 seasons are… Read more »

Biggles

Excellent post in my opinion. If Arteta goes now his replacement will be the fourth manager since 2018. That’s not a recipe for any kind of stability, let alone success (unless you’re Chelsea of course).

He clearly won’t walk away as you say and although we don’t know for sure (and nobody does apart from Stan), it’s unlikely he’ll be replaced in the summer.

Hopefully, Arteta will learn from his first 18 months in management and, with the support from others in the management team, will begin to turn things around in 2021-22. Let’s see.

Hank Scorpio

Keeping Arteta on so we don’t have high manager turnover in the short term is simply being wedded to retaining him due to some sort of mental sunk cost. It is no reason to keep him on. It’s all a bit pointless debating the point as there is no indication he’ll be moved on. Here’s hoping then that the penny drops for him on multiple fronts so next season isn’t another wasted one. The likes of Saka and ESR will tire of the mediocrity at some stage.

Hank Scorpio

Take time for what exactly? The club does not exist to nurse Arteta until he’s hopefully capable. True the club’s issues are bigger than Arteta but he’s compounded them by his own inexperience and ego. At some point the club must cut its losses. I’m not sure what you mean by resources but he’s hired his people and has been backed financially. The question is does he get to start another season I’m sure he will but I don’t think he’s capable of making the changes to his approach to management that are required to see an uplift in our… Read more »

goonshow

We all agree on Arteta’s inexperience. I would also agree that the club does not revolve around Mik but rather – if anything, the other way round. Surely then, the club – as his employer, as one of the top 20 clubs in the world – should have recognised those areas where he is weaker and seek to insulate him there? Instead, Arteta inherited a corrupt sleaze-ball, a CEO with little football experience, a ‘technical’ director similarly bereft of experience, and absentee owners who then proceeded to gut what little experience and longevity of tenure remained in the club… even… Read more »

Qwaliteee

The obligatory pop at Wenger.

🥱

pedro

Some of these fools will still be blaming wenger in 10 years time.

goonshow

Whilst others will simply be satisfied with insulting their fellow fans.

Mentalista

The optimist in me hopes there’s a clause in his contact that allows the club to terminate it without compensation in case of falling to qualify to Europe, and the club is just waiting for it to be formally confirmed.

kasgood

Hope Willian has that clause also.

Arsenal’s Slow buildup

Its infuriating when people use the pandemic as an excuse for incompetence. It happened to every single team on the planet, yet some seem to still found ways succeed.

To his other excuse that he hasn’t had a preseason to express his ideas, he has been here for almost 2 years. What has he been doing since he has been in charge?

Once he has a full preseason and we’re still crap, he will say he needs 2 preseasons to get his ideas through. It’s always going to be something

Didrik Plehn

Been here for almost two years? Arsenal appointed Arteta 18. December 2019, it’s approximately 17 months ago. You do blatant ignore facts. How was our league results in 2017 and 2018? State of club when Emery left? Squad balance? Lockdown and Covid-19 three months after his appointment, how can that be beneficial for a struggling club with lots of internal and external obstacles? Do you believe it’s beneficial for a struggling club not to have summer break and proper preseason preparations? Do you believe it was beneficial to Arsenal, to start a new season three weeks after they finished a… Read more »

Didrik Plehn

Guardiola arrived to a much better Man City squad, but needed time. Klopp arrived to a better Liverpool squad, but needed time. Arteta arrived to a mediocre unbalanced squad with lots of conflicts, with a hostile environment and needed more time. Experts have said three or four years, not 17 months.

Santi's Little Helper

Klopp got TAA (internally), Robertson, VVD, Allison, Salah, Firmino and then “abra cadabra” he became a great coach (there was serious talk of sacking him after 1.5 – 2 yrs). Funny how coaches look great after they bring in world class players. As the great Charles Barkley said: “It ain’t about X’s and O’s, it’s and Jim’s and Joe’s “

Unknown

Arsenal is at true crossroads. If they keep Arteta and allow him and Edu to buy and sell players they want, next season will tell us the real Arteta – I’m not fan of this because I don’t believe in his ability to select teams or develop players at all. My preference would be to move on from Arteta and blow it up and bring in manager who can develop youth and integrate current home grown players and allow them to grow and allow that coach to build on his experience and youth and allow him to get new players.… Read more »

Qwaliteee

More LEGOball next season.

And. before you know it, idiots on here will be slagging off Saka and ESR and calling for them to be sold.

If they can slag off Auba, Pepe, Laca and Partey, they’ll blame anyone – except Arteta.

Hank Scorpio

Or worse, ESR and Saka will realise they need to move on or stay and wallow in mediocrity

Moxrex

I would prefer Arsenal to miss on all European engagements and focus on next season premier league alone. It hurts to state so, but this the only thing to be done. Ensure that we make it back to where we used to be. Top-4 is a trophy that we have come to realize now. It was always tough to make it to the top-4. It is worse to play ugly and still not make there.

UpNorth

The most important action in summer is Arteta examining himself and his decisions this season
Some bulletpoints absolutely free of charge from me
– the obvious choice is more often than not correct. ( Saka as left back)
– if you don’t train it, don’ t play it ( Villareal 1st leg)
– if your team selection don’t work, make subs fast ( most games)
– don’t play Willian
– don’t micromanage, it doesn’t work in business nor on the pitch.

Follow this and you be the greatest manager ever lived…

kasgood

Just what I was going to post – excellent

rob

Pre-season? He had a full squad for a full season…pre-season is only 1 month. If you can’t figure out what’s going wrong throughout 9 months of a football season, pre-season ain’t gonna be of much help!

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