Arsenal Banter Archive December 31 2018

31 Dec 2018 21:25:41
Happy New Year to all the Gooners on this site and to all the Ed’s for the great retorts and info. My wife has given up and says you on the phone with your girlfriend again? Happy New Year to all posters and even Raver - is it POCH in or out today 😂😂 all have a fantastic 2019 COYG.

{Ed001's Note - Happy New Year to you and all the other posters and their loved ones. May 2019 be good to you and bring you all happiness and health.}

31 Dec 2018 22:14:35
Happy new year Sussex mate and all posters, Ed001 and all the Eds alike, thank you all for your hard work ( special mention to for Ed002 Ed025 Ed033 Ed0333 ) who all regularly interact on our page,
And big special shout out for Sagalout, hope things are improving for you Geeza, God bless mate.

01 Jan 2019 00:22:05
Happy New Year everyone - thanks for making me challenge how I think, great banter, rumours and loads of interaction with and work from the Eds.
Hope everyone has a great 2019 🍾🍺🍔.

01 Jan 2019 00:35:02
Happy new year SY mate, vote labour drink Becks in 2019 mate :-)

01 Jan 2019 08:43:22
Happy New Yesr 62 - you are asking a lot there! It was white wine, champagne but I did have a cheeky Peroni 👊

I always leave politics and religion off the table on New Years:)

Hope you and your friends and family ( and footbsllvteam! ) have a great 2019!

31 Dec 2018 16:35:18
I know this will cause a little melt down with some memeber, personally I think Stan Kroenke is to blame for arsenal demise nobody else hasn’t given us enough funds in my eyes.

31 Dec 2018 17:06:43
Perhaps, but I felt that Kroenke simply backed his manager, Wenger, who didn't want to spend. I also feel blame must lie with Gazidis and possibly Wenger, for the damaging contract situation, with so many players going out of contract or being sold cheaply as their contracts ran down.
Last summer, Arsenal having previously spent large sums on Aubameyang and Lacazette, the club provided Emery £70m to spend, This may have been in order to comply with financial regulations as well.
This summer we stand to lose and have to replace: Cech, Monreal, Ramsey, Welbeck and Lichsteiner. Hence, 5 more players are needed. Perhaps an older player on a free, such as Cahill and a clever purchaseof a young player.

31 Dec 2018 17:10:09
While i'm not a fan of kronk and i most definitely arent. You mean, not giving us the funds for 42mil ozil 39 mil sanchez, 35 mil xhaka, 35 mil mustaffi, 48 mil for lacca, 50 mil auba and 27 mil for torreira, among a few more.

{Ed0333's Note - complete fallacy that you’re owner don’t spend money. Apart from the above transfers you mention he also sanctioned a £350, 000 a week contract for Ozil. That’s not the work of a miser.

31 Dec 2018 17:23:38
I believe the financial situation was compounded by the fact that we rarely received much for players moving out in recent seasons. Liverpool spent heavily on a keeper and a CB, but sold Coutinho for a huge amount to finance these purchases.
This summer we will lose 5 players and not recieve a penny, whilst replacing them will cost a minimum of the £70m which we spent last season.
The blame that could be laid at Kroenke is that he allowed the situation to continue for too long, Then again we finished in second place to Leicester, less than 3 seasons ago and won 3 FA Cups on the trot, not too long ago.
In the first of a transition season, after 20 PL matches we sit one point and one place higher, as Emery starts to rebuild the poor squad he inherited and has had to contend with injuries to players that were clearly so poorly conditioned by Wenger. Interestingly, all 5 of Emery's signings are still fit.

31 Dec 2018 17:34:56
Agree Ed0333, the money either hasn't been spent wisely or its been spent at the wrong time, usually after the horse has bolted. Did we really need Ozil? Did we buy the right players in xhaka and mustaffi and how many of the buys were panic buys? To appease the fans. i'm not a fan of kronk at all but money has been spent, just not at the right time, in the right place.

{Ed0333's Note - Wenger had a real hard on for Ozil mate and Stan trusted Wengers judgement hence Ozil’s obscene contract. Under Wenger for whatever reason you’re scouting was scattergun to say the least but rest assured now it will be a lot more streamlined and fruitful, you’re in good hands.

31 Dec 2018 17:58:21
Yup our return on investment has been shocking
Sanchez Ozil Ramsey Welbeck brought in at around 100 million and with a resale value of 0 unless you count Miki
Chambers Xhaka Mustafi will all go for considerably less than we paid for them or see out thier contact and leave for free.
Hence the new management team of Emery Sven and others who have been brought in to improve us in every department.
It makes sense to have good people doing what they are good at in every department rather than one man doing his best in all departments but struggling equally in them all.

31 Dec 2018 20:28:13
Steve nearly all those signing were spaced out over 8 years whe should being singing players like that over two years not 8.

31 Dec 2018 20:32:04
Compared to the rest of the big clubs we don’t spend big looks that’s just how I feel we should be spending big to win, we can’t expext to have 50m every window when the rest have 150 there is no way we can keep up.

31 Dec 2018 18:28:13
You are right Ed0333, to think someone at this club would not buy virgil van dyke because he was too laid back for 10 mil and we bought mustaffi for 35 mil. Scatter gun is being kind.

{Ed0333's Note - we missed out on him for the same reason mate. Brendan Rogers strikes again.

31 Dec 2018 18:35:55
Ed 0333, the ozil contract is going to shackle us as a club going forward and will impact on our ability to spend money this january. We need a miracle and someone to take him off our hands to move forwards.

{Ed0333's Note - You’re really snookered there pal, I mean £350k a week and he doesn’t even play. Someone has to make a concession. Do you think Ozil will take a pay cut to go elsewhere? I wouldn’t. He has two years left on it will earn circa £36 million. He has to decide wether his career or money is more important? He could wait it out and see if there’s a new manager because it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that Emery doesn’t last that long. There’s a few permiatations in this drama.

01 Jan 2019 11:05:11
Welsh, you need a new battery in your watch, or an anti exaggerating pill. The time between ozil and auba 4 years 5 months.

31 Dec 2018 11:18:15
Have always been concerned that we are too similar under Dick versus Wenger and in particular the way we defend. We still hold far too high a line for too long, making us far too easy to be hit on the break, and don't attempt to stop teams crossing the ball, which just seems to help teams see us as a team that will always give them a golden chance, no matter how much of the ball we have. We also concede goals at bad times, such as just after scoring, or close to half time etc, which is a basic problem of concentration. What i am not so sure about though, is how much this is down to our individual defenders and recent injuries, or the way we play and set up to defend as a team. Although i suspect the former has hurt us more in recent games, i think its the latter that is causing us the same issues season upon season. I think it was Gabriel who made some comments about how we defended as a team didn't help him, and that no matter who plays in CD they would look poor due to the way we set up. A good example for me is our game against the Saints versus Man Citys yesterday. The saints always seemed up for it against us, knowing they would get chances, and played down the channels and put in crosses, which worked a treat, as we never tried to stop them. Yet yesterday, they were well beaten by Man City, who yes are a much better team then us, but who played a midfield 3 containing David and Bernado SIlva, and only 1 defensive player in Fernandiniho. This is not exactly a powerful and dominating trio you may want in a difficult away game, and yet they comfortably controlled the game whilst protecting their back 4 for most of the time. This for me shows its more important how you set up as a team to defend, and how your attacking players must be used as part of a pack to help protect your back 4. For me, unless we change our set up, i don't think we will see much of a change no matter who we sign as a CB.

31 Dec 2018 11:57:27
Playing with a high line depends on defending as a team. Aside from PEA, few of our forward players can do that effectively. This is the reason Ozil is conspicuous by his absence in tough games, the problem is what we have in his place is not much of an improvement. This does not absolve from blame a truly dreadful set of central defenders where surgery is most definitely needed in this window and the next, but it does indicate why Emery is looking at attacking forward players in the transfer window (if of course reports are to be believed) who can play that role.

I do think that this is a three year project to transform the style of play and who is playing it. It's worth noting that if we are not going to buy world class players, for reasons of parsimony or poverty, we might be better moulding the young talent into the team Emery wants, rather than buying second best; Toreirra style finds are likely to be less, rather than more, prevalent.

31 Dec 2018 12:00:50
I think it was pretty obvious before December and before all the defensive disruptions, that he was trying to change things. We had just gone three at the back and were playing bellerin and kol as wing backs. December has been a bit of a disaster in every way. I have a tendency to look back, to see where all these problems may stem from. One of the common themes is obvious but the other common denominator in all of this is Steve Bould. I may be barking up completely the wrong tree but does he (being an ex defender) have any input into the way we defend?
He is a coach, i doubt he is involved in the attacking side, he was involved before in our troubles at the back, is he part of the defensive coaching problem?

31 Dec 2018 12:24:56
Spot on Steve - Stevie was not accountable or given the authority to coach the defence (? ) and now we are still the same. why wasn’t he banging on the bosses door day 1 - Boss we need XYZ and make XYZ changes.

Get Keown in.

31 Dec 2018 13:00:33
Emery is the man and all and any coaches have to take thier direction from Dick if not there would be total confusion for the players, imagine Hector being told by Dick attack but Keowen defend?
Coaching meetings should be held by Emery where he and his assistants all speak freely and emerge with one clear plan that everyone sticks too.
Many voices is good in a private meeting but when presenting the plan of action all voice need to talk the same language and ultimately everyone has to pull thier Wight in Dicks direction.

31 Dec 2018 13:29:46
Very true but you have a defensive coach for a reason and his / her vision must tie into the managers overall strategy for the team. The goalie coach works with the goalies and the attackers with the attackers while working on specific areas but as you say they must all tie into Emery’s overall goal / direction.

31 Dec 2018 13:44:58
Yes correct, Emery is the boss and steve bould is one of his coaches. People are saying nothing has changed, a lot has changed but bould is still there. Emery will ultimately take the can for what goes on around him and quite right in the long run but he relies on things in his set up. Can he rely on bould?

31 Dec 2018 13:47:32
Gunner my question was, is he part of the defensive problem?
Or not.

31 Dec 2018 16:59:34
That's something only Dick can answer and sort out Steve mate.
All teams are only as strong as their weakest member.

31 Dec 2018 21:25:50
Hi Steve, I believe the problems stem from the Wenger era and still need addressing. In Emery's favoured 4-2-3-1 formation we simply have no players that can defend in the '3' of the formation. This leaves us vulnerable defensively . Hence why Ozil and Ramsey are playing less regularly even in an injury hit team. We clearly need to bring in players such as Ever Benega who can perform defensively as well as offensively. In addition, we need a RB that can defend and as I stated repeatedly last season, neither of our LB's are good enough and we reportedly tried to sign a LB late in the summer window.

The injury to Holding didn't help. The defence needs a rebuild. Koscielny is well past his best, Mustafi has been a disappointment. We need a couple of CB's. All 5 of the players signed by Emery were defensive, Leno has improved the goalkeeping situation, but Cech needs replacing in the summer, Lichtsteiner was clearly a stop gap and needs replacing. Torreira has been our best signing. Guendouzi is a fine young player. Sokratis is decent, but is now the best or our CB's. I expect a CB and a wide attacking player to arrive in January, p.