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Posted

between this ^^^, and this:

and this:

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i don’t give a shit what anyone else says, arteta has done an unbelievable job, he’s one of the five best managers in europe, and this club is and always has been headed in the right direction from the moment that arteta was hired. this club has so many goddamn toxic fans, so many people who are only happy when they’re unhappy. fuck all that. i could not love or support a club more than i support this club, and anyone who’s still bitching about the state of things can fuck off and go root for whatever dumbass mls team went and hired gregg.

just like arsene wenger, no one is doing more with less than mikel arteta. no one. it’s really cute that forest and brentford are in the top half of the table. holler at me when they finish second in the epl, thrash real madrid, go to the uefa semifinals, and go actual years without losing to any of the top 6 epl teams, all while missing 1/2 of their starting xi for 3+ months at a time. it’s been an unparalleled job by mikel arteta this year. no other manager does this much against those odds. none.

we are about to enter phase five of arteta’s five-phase plan, and it’s the phase where we establish ourselves as perennial contenders for every major trophy, a la man city, liverpool, barca, madrid, etc. we no longer look up to these teams, we square up with those teams. and this isn’t overly optimistic, homer-fan bluster; i’m the last guy who does that sunshine pumping crap. this is the natural next step based on the trajectory the club has been on for five years. this is exactly what we’ve been building for. the final pieces of the team are arriving soon, and the final pieces of the plan come next. i’m so pumped for the future of this club. the epl and uefa cl titles are now realistic goals for the foreseeable future. if you aren’t extremely hyped for the immediate future of this club then you might not have a pulse. we’re on the doorstep, and we’re kicking our way in. COYG. 🔴

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Posted

Will be an interesting offseason. Every point above 80 is more costly and the margins in improvement finer. We need to get the striker, whomever Berta & Arteta think is best, in soon. Get it done and settled. Another creative MF to take some load off Ødegaard would be nice. Martinelli… love the kid but his numbers aren’t the same without Xhaka behind him. Is LW a position we can upgrade? Big questions. Not easy answers. 
 

Arteta has some improvements to get us to that final step, too.

* Start trusting the squad. Kiwior has shown he can play CB at a really good level; maybe Gabi XL and Saliba don’t need to play every match. Ethan… kid has skills. Maybe Saka doesn’t need to play every single minute of every single match. MLS grew up a midfielder; maybe between him and Ethan, we don’t need to play Ødegaard every single match. 

* Everyone’s dog even knows a mid/low block gives us problems. Figure out a Plan B. 

* What is going on, either in training, with the medical/treatmeat/recovery staff, nutrition, etc that is causing everyone hamstrings to explode. So many injuries of the same type isn’t coincidence, and it needs to be solved.

Oh… and the new 25-26 home kit is WAAAAAAAAAY better than this past one. Watching the Newcastle match I thought to myself, “this is a proper kit. We look like Arsenal again.”

COYG

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Posted
1 hour ago, Dutch said:

We need to get the striker, whomever Berta & Arteta think is best, in soon.

was having this conversation with my mom yesterday, as she’s been a die hard for awhile now:

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and we agreed that this year has to be different. we can’t have gyokores (or whimever) showing up in august right before the season starts, we need our new no.9 to get as close a to full summer of training with the team as possible. this has been a big issue my entire time as a supporter, and i’m really hoping that this year it’s finally different. from what i’ve read, other clubs have already taken note at our allegedly much more aggressive approach under berta in contrast to edu. hopefully that’s true and we get our guys in early this year.

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Posted (edited)

No international tournament (and that neither we nor Sporting are in the CWC) should make it easier to get business done early and, as you said, get new signings integrated.

Oh, and that’s an awesome pic. First… it’s been too damn long since I’ve had Top Notch. Too. Damn. Long. Second…that your mom is a diehard Gunner and even got a Saliba kit.

COYG. 

Edited by Dutch
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Posted

Timber/White  -  Saliba/White-  Gabriel/Kiwior/Calafiore  -  MLS/Calafiore 

Zubamendi/Partey (sounds like he is resigning)

Odegard/New Signing  -   Rice/Merino

Saka/Nwaneri  -  New Signing/Kai  -  New Signing/Martinelli

Gone for sure, Tierney and Jorginho.   It sounds like Torssard and Z are gone, too.    Injured Jesus/Tomiyasu

Im hopeful they keep 1 if not both of Z and Trossard.

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Posted

yeah i’d love to keep trossard, and i feel like i heard recently that he and the club both had interest in an extension. hopefully that’s the case.

Posted

Crazy thing is Timber can play CB in a pinch. I heard (IIRC James on a recent Arsecast) say he spoke to some Italian media friends who think Calafiori’s best position is likely CB. Immense talents; now if they can only stay healthy. 

IIRC Gabriel Jesus’ ETR is ~ Jan 26; like a winter window signing. Tomi… wish him well but not expecting anything.

Trossard is damn good in our system, stays healthy, and can play all three forward positions. A damn bargain at only £20m. Someone in addition to Zinny (besides Reiss Nelson and Tavares) might have to be sold to fund upgrades, someone we’d rather not sell. Big decisions this summer. 

Posted (edited)

€80m… Two players. Gabriel Jesus and Trossard. And that is it. Even adding in Havartz (who arrived as a MF) we’re still behind Wolves  

Borderline miracle that we came so close in ‘22-23 and ‘23-24 with this (lack of) spending. 

Chelsea @  £800m? Lulz. Maybe KSE needs to sell something back to themselves. 

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Edited by Dutch
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Posted (edited)

 

feels like bringing in gyorkores and rodrygo would definitely go a long way towards turning some of those draws into victories. our defense is the best in the league. we simply still need the striker/goal threat we’ve been needing for years. let’s get it done.

Edited by Derka
Posted

Yup. Havartz is our top scorer with nine, and he hasn’t played since January. That’s just, well, Not. Great. Bob. 

We drew five last season, nine fewer than this year (so far). Let’s say we had a forward/striker who could have found nine more goals, turning nine draws into wins. We’d be on 89 points heading into the matchday.

Yeah I know “If ‘ifs’ and ‘but’s’ were candy and nuts and all that, but then again a lethal striker would go so long way make sure we’d have had a very merry season. 

Posted
10 minutes ago, The Maestro said:

Tierney you stud

 

1 minute ago, Ted Lange said:

Gonna miss him.  

Absolutely. 

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Posted (edited)

dude fuck all these fans of these other clubs on this forum. we’ve all been cordial for years, but these guys have been openly rooting against and shitting on arsenal all year this year, so fuck that, and fuck them. the gall to deny our injury record, to laugh at our pgmol misfortune, to celebrate everything bad or unfair that happened to arsenal this season, to say that our club and manager have done nothing impressive during his tenure, all while our club is doing better than 95% of the rest of the league is more lame than i can describe. fuck those guys. there is nothing more lame than people who deny reality based on pettiness and fanaticism. 

Edited by Derka
Posted

really interested to see what we do with max dowman this season. skill wise there’s little doubt that he’s epl-ready, but it will obviously take some time for him to adjust to the physicality and speed of the prem. it seems like we plan on keeping him here and playing him the cups and maybe even spot minutes in the league. i think i prefer for him to stay and train with the first team every day as opposed to going out on loan. really excited about his future though. he seems to have it all as an attacking midfielder.

Posted (edited)

let’s do an arteta check-in in this thread. as i recall, pretty much all of y’all wanted him fired after 18-24 months. i was the only one who still supported him and said that he just needed more time, and to get his own players in. since then, the “arteta out” talk has calmed down, but i haven’t exactly seen any real support or belief in arteta outside of my own posts in here.

so do y’all still believe in him, or are y’all on that bullshit that everyone else in this forum is on, where you’re unimpressed with what he’s done, and you think we should blow up the entire thing and start over if we don’t win the league this year?

i think it’s pretty obvious where i stand: we have one of the best managers in europe; he’s turned this club around from being old, poorly put together, and uncompetitive, to a young, world class roster that’s been super competitive, despite the board to this point not bringing in any of the strikers that arteta has wanted since gabi jesus. we’ve gone from getting blown the fuck out damn near every time we play the top teams, to being undefeated against the rest of the big six for 2-3 years in league play. only pep and klopp have been better than arteta during his time here, and only a fool would try to downplay or dismiss any of that.

thats where im at. where y’all at?

Edited by Derka
Posted

Im pretty sure we discussed that a bit ago in the 24/25 thread and everyone was still team Arteta.   Arsenal had a nice consistent climb going for 3 years until this season, see

The culprit is pretty clear for this season's drop, injuries and Arteta/Edu/The Board's absolute failure to sign attacking players.   Over 4 years the've signed Jesus, Trossard and a shitty 6 month loan for Sterling.   Unbelievable.  I cant imagine any top ~10 team has had worse/less additions up top.  Meanwhile, they stockpile LB/RB like you can play with 6 at a time.    The neglect and poor squad mgmt caught up to them this season.   

It sounds like this will finally be addressed this summer, 2 years too late, and assuming it is MA also has to trust his bench more.   Saka doesn't need to be playing 90 when they are up 5-1 on Sporting Lisbon or 4-0 at Southampton, or 3-0 vs Monaco or 4-1 vs Leicester City, etc... 

 

 

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Posted

OK, the signings are so bad I just had to go back and verify.   Transfermkt has a nice breakdown.  Might be able to add Vierra to the list of attackers, but I feel like when he played (and he sucked) it was more in a mid field role.

They had all last summer to address this, and our haul over 2 windows was a backup 8 Merino and a backup often injured LB, Calafiore and the Sterling loan.    Either Edu was handcuffed or completely inept.   Here is hoping the new guy is better at loosening the purse strings and signing some players that will help them score goals.

 

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Posted
15 hours ago, Ted Lange said:

 

It sounds like this will finally be addressed this summer, 2 years too late, and assuming it is MA also has to trust his bench more.   Saka doesn't need to be playing 90 when they are up 5-1 on Sporting Lisbon or 4-0 at Southampton, or 3-0 vs Monaco or 4-1 vs Leicester City, etc... 

Who is #ArtetaOut, other than SnapFace or InstantChat idiots farming for clicks? 

There are areas where Arteta needs to improve. One of which is trusting the squad.

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Posted

man this sesko news has been polarizing online. he’s either the next haaland or an absolute bust waiting to happen, depending on who you listen to. i don’t know enough about him or gyorkores to feel super strongly either way. regardless, it’ll be nice to have an actual striker who is dangerous from anywhere near the box. 6’5” with a great burst and large vertical isn’t bad either. 

Posted

I’m 95% sure whoever Arsenal sign, if healthy, Kai will be the 9 to start the season.   Sesko’s name is easier to spell, so he is my choice at this point.  I’ll be happy with either though.  

Posted
9 minutes ago, Derka said:

hmm, seems like we could have used a striker at some point over this past year.

Sign a striker and switch kit sponsor to Qatar Airways....profit.  

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