Mikel Arteta, success or failure? - Merged thread.

[Viv Andersons Tache]

I’m afraid to ask but who have people been advocating as logical replacements for Arteta on here ?

Are you drawing up a list ready for when he leaves us to join Man United in the summer, as per pig lips?

Yeah plug off the bash street kids was on a wind up with that one.


Just interested really. Replacing the manager isn’t a logical conversation within our fanbase at the moment so I found it interesting it was being contemplated here when nobody else is thinking this way.

Hmmm, I wouldn't get too carried away with what the supporters in the stadium are thinking. The vast majority in there were still backing Wenger as late as 2015/16 and I'd venture that at least half of them were still behind the Old Fraud when he was finally pushed in 2018.

Too many supporters can't see further than the last result and we're on a good run at the moment. Let's judge Arteta in May.

The wenger situation was different though, a decorated Arsenal manager the fans didn’t want to hound out. He was only booted when he lost the home fans and apathy had set in. I stopped going myself and there was loads of empty seats about the place. I think people were biting their tongue a bit. Just.an awful time, boredom no belief nothing just apathy.

Arteta situation is different he hasn’t got the titles to fall back on so if we were underperforming trust me he would be getting it both barrels but the truth is our fans see the positives. The truth is no matter what anyone says we aren’t underperforming, he’s getting the most out of our current group of players. To win titles you are probably going to need to get Nketiah, Nelson, Elneny and Cedric off our bench im afraid and bring in more quality.

2 points off top of the table ? No Arsenal manager is getting sacked for that even if the season ends like that nor should they.

[augie]

You make it sound like the cone boy has had nothing to work with and is over-achieving He has spent almost £700m and also inherited saka, saliba and martinelli who any top club in the world would want ffs

[Viv Andersons Tache]

You make it sound like the cone boy has had nothing to work with and is over-achieving He has spent almost £700m and also inherited saka, saliba and martinelli who any top club in the world would want ffs

And all those players are performing really well but it’s not those guys that are the issue and the 2 sides above us have spent more. I don’t really understand the screaming about the amount spent ? 700m blah blah blah football is big business and it’s not like we have been behaving like Chelsea. Also I’m assuming that doesn’t include deductions for sales.

The problems usually start when injuries start to hit or we encounter fatigue.

Cedric, elneny, Nketiah and Nelson ? None of those players get anywhere near the squads of the 2 sides above us let’s be honest,

Headed in the right direction but just need a bit more quality in certain areas and more options off the bench.

[augie]

You make it sound like the cone boy has had nothing to work with and is over-achieving He has spent almost £700m and also inherited saka, saliba and martinelli who any top club in the world would want ffs

And all those players are performing really well but it’s not those guys that are the issue and the 2 sides above us have spent more. I don’t really understand the screaming about the amount spent ? 700m blah blah blah football is big business and it’s not like we have been behaving like Chelsea. Also I’m assuming that doesn’t include deductions for sales.

The problems usually start when injuries start to hit or we encounter fatigue.

Cedric, elneny, Nketiah and Nelson ? None of those players get anywhere near the squads of the 2 sides above us let’s be honest,

Headed in the right direction but just need a bit more quality in certain areas and more options off the bench.

Klopp has spent £800m in NINE YEARS - the cone boy has spent £700m in FOUR YEARS. Do you want to revise that statement ?

Football is indeed a big business, but if you think it is ok to (incorrectly) point out that the two teams above us spent more, then I'm assuming you are saying that what you spend should translate into your league position (unless you are the chavs shit show), so then why wouldnt we finish above all the teams below us cos we spent more than them ?

[Viv Andersons Tache]

You make it sound like the cone boy has had nothing to work with and is over-achieving He has spent almost £700m and also inherited saka, saliba and martinelli who any top club in the world would want ffs

And all those players are performing really well but it’s not those guys that are the issue and the 2 sides above us have spent more. I don’t really understand the screaming about the amount spent ? 700m blah blah blah football is big business and it’s not like we have been behaving like Chelsea. Also I’m assuming that doesn’t include deductions for sales.

The problems usually start when injuries start to hit or we encounter fatigue.

Cedric, elneny, Nketiah and Nelson ? None of those players get anywhere near the squads of the 2 sides above us let’s be honest,

Headed in the right direction but just need a bit more quality in certain areas and more options off the bench.

Klopp has spent £800m in NINE YEARS - the cone boy has spent £700m in FOUR YEARS. Do you want to revise that statement ?

Football is indeed a big business, but if you think it is ok to (incorrectly) point out that the two teams above us spent more, then I'm assuming you are saying that what you spend should translate into your league position (unless you are the chavs shit show), so then why wouldnt we finish above all the teams below us cos we spent more than them ?

city are up on FFP charges for injecting so much money into the club and have spent over a billion on players since since 2016. They’ve curbed their recent spending as they don’t need to as much and have one eye on the FFP charges. If we had their budget since 2016 we would have won league titles.

Liverpool dunno I’ll take your word for it, but the truth is those clubs and their managers inherited more value in the playing staff when they joined than Arteta. I’m sure 120 million or whatever for a coutinho would have been useful for Mikel who inherited a combination of overpaid shod we couldn’t shift or aging pros like Aubameyang with little resale value. Wenger had run the club into the ground we had to invest.

[augie]

You make it sound like the cone boy has had nothing to work with and is over-achieving He has spent almost £700m and also inherited saka, saliba and martinelli who any top club in the world would want ffs

And all those players are performing really well but it’s not those guys that are the issue and the 2 sides above us have spent more. I don’t really understand the screaming about the amount spent ? 700m blah blah blah football is big business and it’s not like we have been behaving like Chelsea. Also I’m assuming that doesn’t include deductions for sales.

The problems usually start when injuries start to hit or we encounter fatigue.

Cedric, elneny, Nketiah and Nelson ? None of those players get anywhere near the squads of the 2 sides above us let’s be honest,

Headed in the right direction but just need a bit more quality in certain areas and more options off the bench.

Klopp has spent £800m in NINE YEARS - the cone boy has spent £700m in FOUR YEARS. Do you want to revise that statement ?

Football is indeed a big business, but if you think it is ok to (incorrectly) point out that the two teams above us spent more, then I'm assuming you are saying that what you spend should translate into your league position (unless you are the chavs shit show), so then why wouldnt we finish above all the teams below us cos we spent more than them ?

city are up on FFP charges for injecting so much money into the club and have spent over a billion on players since since 2016. They’ve curbed their recent spending as they don’t need to as much and have one eye on the FFP charges. If we had their budget since 2016 we would have won league titles.

Liverpool dunno I’ll take your word for it, but the truth is those clubs and their managers inherited more value in the playing staff when they joined than Arteta. I’m sure 120 million or whatever for a coutinho would have been useful for Mikel who inherited a combination of overpaid shod we couldn’t shift or aging pros like Aubameyang with little resale value. Wenger had run the club into the ground we had to invest.

More rubbish - in the season before klopp took over the victims they finished 6th in premier league, finished 3rd in champs league group stage, and got knocked out in last 32 round of europa league. Contrast that to last season under emery where we finished 5th and reached europa league final. If you really want to do a proper analysis you would also see that the ONLY trophy the cone boy has won he won with the "overpaid shod" he inherited from emery, and that the performances in cup competitions since have been nothing short of shambolic

[Viv Andersons Tache]

You make it sound like the cone boy has had nothing to work with and is over-achieving He has spent almost £700m and also inherited saka, saliba and martinelli who any top club in the world would want ffs

And all those players are performing really well but it’s not those guys that are the issue and the 2 sides above us have spent more. I don’t really understand the screaming about the amount spent ? 700m blah blah blah football is big business and it’s not like we have been behaving like Chelsea. Also I’m assuming that doesn’t include deductions for sales.

The problems usually start when injuries start to hit or we encounter fatigue.

Cedric, elneny, Nketiah and Nelson ? None of those players get anywhere near the squads of the 2 sides above us let’s be honest,

Headed in the right direction but just need a bit more quality in certain areas and more options off the bench.

Klopp has spent £800m in NINE YEARS - the cone boy has spent £700m in FOUR YEARS. Do you want to revise that statement ?

Football is indeed a big business, but if you think it is ok to (incorrectly) point out that the two teams above us spent more, then I'm assuming you are saying that what you spend should translate into your league position (unless you are the chavs shit show), so then why wouldnt we finish above all the teams below us cos we spent more than them ?

city are up on FFP charges for injecting so much money into the club and have spent over a billion on players since since 2016. They’ve curbed their recent spending as they don’t need to as much and have one eye on the FFP charges. If we had their budget since 2016 we would have won league titles.

Liverpool dunno I’ll take your word for it, but the truth is those clubs and their managers inherited more value in the playing staff when they joined than Arteta. I’m sure 120 million or whatever for a coutinho would have been useful for Mikel who inherited a combination of overpaid shod we couldn’t shift or aging pros like Aubameyang with little resale value. Wenger had run the club into the ground we had to invest.

More rubbish - in the season before klopp took over the victims they finished 6th in premier league, finished 3rd in champs league group stage, and got knocked out in last 32 round of europa league. Contrast that to last season under emery where we finished 5th and reached europa league final. If you really want to do a proper analysis you would also see that the ONLY trophy the cone boy has won he won with the "overpaid shod" he inherited from emery, and that the performances in cup competitions since have been nothing short of shambolic

When Emery was sacked we were sitting in 8th place in the Premier League in total free fall and ironically lost to Liverpool in the league cup who knocked us out. We were a total mess with players just going through the motions and not even running for each other. It had all fallen apart.

[augie]

Cosmetic it any way you want, the reality is that pep's cone boy won a cup with a team built by his predecessors, and when given a hefty budget to build a new team, he hasnt come anywhere close to winning a trophy - people like to have a pop at the squad he inherited but they won him a trophy whilst his chosen players have been disgraceful in every cup competition since

[Stuart L (2)]

Cosmetic it any way you want, the reality is that pep's cone boy won a cup with a team built by his predecessors, and when given a hefty budget to build a new team, he hasnt come anywhere close to winning a trophy - people like to have a pop at the squad he inherited but they won him a trophy whilst his chosen players have been disgraceful in every cup competition since

I thought coming second was as close as you can get to winning a trophy
My bad

[Retro Gunner]

And all those players are performing really well but it’s not those guys that are the issue and the 2 sides above us have spent more. I don’t really understand the screaming about the amount spent ? 700m blah blah blah football is big business and it’s not like we have been behaving like Chelsea. Also I’m assuming that doesn’t include deductions for sales.

The problems usually start when injuries start to hit or we encounter fatigue.

Cedric, elneny, Nketiah and Nelson ? None of those players get anywhere near the squads of the 2 sides above us let’s be honest,

Headed in the right direction but just need a bit more quality in certain areas and more options off the bench.

Klopp has spent £800m in NINE YEARS - the cone boy has spent £700m in FOUR YEARS. Do you want to revise that statement ?

Football is indeed a big business, but if you think it is ok to (incorrectly) point out that the two teams above us spent more, then I'm assuming you are saying that what you spend should translate into your league position (unless you are the chavs shit show), so then why wouldnt we finish above all the teams below us cos we spent more than them ?

city are up on FFP charges for injecting so much money into the club and have spent over a billion on players since since 2016. They’ve curbed their recent spending as they don’t need to as much and have one eye on the FFP charges. If we had their budget since 2016 we would have won league titles.

Liverpool dunno I’ll take your word for it, but the truth is those clubs and their managers inherited more value in the playing staff when they joined than Arteta. I’m sure 120 million or whatever for a coutinho would have been useful for Mikel who inherited a combination of overpaid shod we couldn’t shift or aging pros like Aubameyang with little resale value. Wenger had run the club into the ground we had to invest.

More rubbish - in the season before klopp took over the victims they finished 6th in premier league, finished 3rd in champs league group stage, and got knocked out in last 32 round of europa league. Contrast that to last season under emery where we finished 5th and reached europa league final. If you really want to do a proper analysis you would also see that the ONLY trophy the cone boy has won he won with the "overpaid shod" he inherited from emery, and that the performances in cup competitions since have been nothing short of shambolic

When Emery was sacked we were sitting in 8th place in the Premier League in total free fall and ironically lost to Liverpool in the league cup who knocked us out. We were a total mess with players just going through the motions and not even running for each other. It had all fallen apart.

Viv, I honestly don’t know, but I strongly suspect that we’ve spent more as a club than Liverpool have during Klopp’s nine years and although that’s not all on Arteta, he’s been backed to the tune of 700 million in 4 yrs as augie says.

You’re right about the squad not being strong enough and that we lack quality in certain areas, but it’s Arteta that has wasted bundles on the likes of Havertz, Vieira, Cedric, Zinchenko, Mari, Tavares, Matt Turner and Runarsson and I’m far from convinced by White, Partey, Jesus, Ramsdale and Raya.

He’s had all the financial backing he should need, so no excuses if we come up short and the lack of quality and depth is a result of the money wasted on those signings above.

I do, however, agree with you that we were in free fall at the end of Emery’s reign. Mind you, whoever had replaced the old French fucker didn’t have a prayer.

[Viv Andersons Tache]

Klopp has spent £800m in NINE YEARS - the cone boy has spent £700m in FOUR YEARS. Do you want to revise that statement ?

Football is indeed a big business, but if you think it is ok to (incorrectly) point out that the two teams above us spent more, then I'm assuming you are saying that what you spend should translate into your league position (unless you are the chavs shit show), so then why wouldnt we finish above all the teams below us cos we spent more than them ?

city are up on FFP charges for injecting so much money into the club and have spent over a billion on players since since 2016. They’ve curbed their recent spending as they don’t need to as much and have one eye on the FFP charges. If we had their budget since 2016 we would have won league titles.

Liverpool dunno I’ll take your word for it, but the truth is those clubs and their managers inherited more value in the playing staff when they joined than Arteta. I’m sure 120 million or whatever for a coutinho would have been useful for Mikel who inherited a combination of overpaid shod we couldn’t shift or aging pros like Aubameyang with little resale value. Wenger had run the club into the ground we had to invest.

More rubbish - in the season before klopp took over the victims they finished 6th in premier league, finished 3rd in champs league group stage, and got knocked out in last 32 round of europa league. Contrast that to last season under emery where we finished 5th and reached europa league final. If you really want to do a proper analysis you would also see that the ONLY trophy the cone boy has won he won with the "overpaid shod" he inherited from emery, and that the performances in cup competitions since have been nothing short of shambolic

When Emery was sacked we were sitting in 8th place in the Premier League in total free fall and ironically lost to Liverpool in the league cup who knocked us out. We were a total mess with players just going through the motions and not even running for each other. It had all fallen apart.

Viv, I honestly don’t know, but I strongly suspect that we’ve spent more as a club than Liverpool have during Klopp’s nine years and although that’s not all on Arteta, he’s been backed to the tune of 700 million in 4 yrs as augie says.

You’re right about the squad not being strong enough and that we lack quality in certain areas, but it’s Arteta that has wasted bundles on the likes of Havertz, Vieira, Cedric, Zinchenko, Mari, Tavares, Matt Turner and Runarsson and I’m far from convinced by White, Partey, Jesus, Ramsdale and Raya.

He’s had all the financial backing he should need, so no excuses if we come up short and the lack of quality and depth is a result of the money wasted on those signings above.

I do, however, agree with you that we were in free fall at the end of Emery’s reign. Mind you, whoever had replaced the old French fucker didn’t have a prayer.

He hasn’t wasted bundles though let’s be honest,

I mean citing bad transfer policy on Runnarson Cedric (free), Tavares 8 million and we will get our money back seen pretty absurd. They cost next to nothing. Turner we actually sold for a profit. Some of those signings were made when we had no choice as the squad was so short we had to bring in less than preferable options. We aren’t in that situation anymore and we are getting close and closer to having a squad that can compete.

I’ll have to disagree with you on Havertz and Zinchenko who are useful experienced players in the premier league and decent acquisitions , Vieira the jury is still out but you can see he does have some promising technical ability just needs a bit of consistency and to stay injury free.

The truth is we have been very shrewd in the market acquiring well. 34 million for Odegaard is a snip. Trossard too. Jorginho very shrewd. We have bought well recently.

I agree with you on wengers replacement. I said at the time no matter who we appointed they were on a hiding to nothing and bound to get sacked themselves as we had been left in such a mess. It was always going to need several transfer windows to fix things. Emery wasn’t even in charge of transfer decisions and had to put up with Pepe when he wanted zaha and other choices like Torreira he had no control over.

[Retro Gunner]

city are up on FFP charges for injecting so much money into the club and have spent over a billion on players since since 2016. They’ve curbed their recent spending as they don’t need to as much and have one eye on the FFP charges. If we had their budget since 2016 we would have won league titles.

Liverpool dunno I’ll take your word for it, but the truth is those clubs and their managers inherited more value in the playing staff when they joined than Arteta. I’m sure 120 million or whatever for a coutinho would have been useful for Mikel who inherited a combination of overpaid shod we couldn’t shift or aging pros like Aubameyang with little resale value. Wenger had run the club into the ground we had to invest.

More rubbish - in the season before klopp took over the victims they finished 6th in premier league, finished 3rd in champs league group stage, and got knocked out in last 32 round of europa league. Contrast that to last season under emery where we finished 5th and reached europa league final. If you really want to do a proper analysis you would also see that the ONLY trophy the cone boy has won he won with the "overpaid shod" he inherited from emery, and that the performances in cup competitions since have been nothing short of shambolic

When Emery was sacked we were sitting in 8th place in the Premier League in total free fall and ironically lost to Liverpool in the league cup who knocked us out. We were a total mess with players just going through the motions and not even running for each other. It had all fallen apart.

Viv, I honestly don’t know, but I strongly suspect that we’ve spent more as a club than Liverpool have during Klopp’s nine years and although that’s not all on Arteta, he’s been backed to the tune of 700 million in 4 yrs as augie says.

You’re right about the squad not being strong enough and that we lack quality in certain areas, but it’s Arteta that has wasted bundles on the likes of Havertz, Vieira, Cedric, Zinchenko, Mari, Tavares, Matt Turner and Runarsson and I’m far from convinced by White, Partey, Jesus, Ramsdale and Raya.

He’s had all the financial backing he should need, so no excuses if we come up short and the lack of quality and depth is a result of the money wasted on those signings above.

I do, however, agree with you that we were in free fall at the end of Emery’s reign. Mind you, whoever had replaced the old French fucker didn’t have a prayer.

He hasn’t wasted bundles though let’s be honest,

I mean citing bad transfer policy on Runnarson Cedric (free), Tavares 8 million and we will get our money back seen pretty absurd. They cost next to nothing. Turner we actually sold for a profit. Some of those signings were made when we had no choice as the squad was so short we had to bring in less than preferable options. We aren’t in that situation anymore and we are getting close and closer to having a squad that can compete.

I’ll have to disagree with you on Havertz and Zinchenko who are useful experienced players in the premier league and decent acquisitions , Vieira the jury is still out but you can see he does have some promising technical ability just needs a bit of consistency and to stay injury free.

The truth is we have been very shrewd in the market acquiring well. 34 million for Odegaard is a snip. Trossard too. Jorginho very shrewd. We have bought well recently.

I agree with you on wengers replacement. I said at the time no matter who we appointed they were on a hiding to nothing and bound to get sacked themselves as we had been left in such a mess. It was always going to need several transfer windows to fix things. Emery wasn’t even in charge of transfer decisions and had to put up with Pepe when he wanted zaha and other choices like Torreira he had no control over.

Yep, agree about the state of things when Wenger left and that Emery unfairly had accountability, without free license to make decisions.

As for the signings made by Arteta, then we'll have to agree to disagree. Regardless of a couple being on a free and another reasonably cheap, they're all on wages and you've left quite a few names out of your appraisal and plenty of them weren't cheap. In fact, spending 700 million in 4 yrs says it all. Of course not every acquisition has been a flop, but the strike rate isn't good. Too many duds and too many disappointments in my opinion. As for Havertz, he's fucking useless. Another one who if he doesn't trip over his own feet has done well. The bar is set way too low and he ought to judged like any £65 million purchase who's on 300k per week.

[DB10GOONER]

The low bar thing is a repeating pile of shit thrown around by some pro-whomever-the-manager-is sheep in our fanbase. We had supposed Gooners on twatter hailing Lobotomy Clive as a top rate footballer if he managed two passes in a game and managed to not get sent off.

I think these people need to remember who these players are playing for. If they are not good enough for the Arsenal them we should get rid pronto.

Havertz and Zinchenko are not good enough to play as first choice players for Arsenal.

[Viv Andersons Tache]

More rubbish - in the season before klopp took over the victims they finished 6th in premier league, finished 3rd in champs league group stage, and got knocked out in last 32 round of europa league. Contrast that to last season under emery where we finished 5th and reached europa league final. If you really want to do a proper analysis you would also see that the ONLY trophy the cone boy has won he won with the "overpaid shod" he inherited from emery, and that the performances in cup competitions since have been nothing short of shambolic

When Emery was sacked we were sitting in 8th place in the Premier League in total free fall and ironically lost to Liverpool in the league cup who knocked us out. We were a total mess with players just going through the motions and not even running for each other. It had all fallen apart.

Viv, I honestly don’t know, but I strongly suspect that we’ve spent more as a club than Liverpool have during Klopp’s nine years and although that’s not all on Arteta, he’s been backed to the tune of 700 million in 4 yrs as augie says.

You’re right about the squad not being strong enough and that we lack quality in certain areas, but it’s Arteta that has wasted bundles on the likes of Havertz, Vieira, Cedric, Zinchenko, Mari, Tavares, Matt Turner and Runarsson and I’m far from convinced by White, Partey, Jesus, Ramsdale and Raya.

He’s had all the financial backing he should need, so no excuses if we come up short and the lack of quality and depth is a result of the money wasted on those signings above.

I do, however, agree with you that we were in free fall at the end of Emery’s reign. Mind you, whoever had replaced the old French fucker didn’t have a prayer.

He hasn’t wasted bundles though let’s be honest,

I mean citing bad transfer policy on Runnarson Cedric (free), Tavares 8 million and we will get our money back seen pretty absurd. They cost next to nothing. Turner we actually sold for a profit. Some of those signings were made when we had no choice as the squad was so short we had to bring in less than preferable options. We aren’t in that situation anymore and we are getting close and closer to having a squad that can compete.

I’ll have to disagree with you on Havertz and Zinchenko who are useful experienced players in the premier league and decent acquisitions , Vieira the jury is still out but you can see he does have some promising technical ability just needs a bit of consistency and to stay injury free.

The truth is we have been very shrewd in the market acquiring well. 34 million for Odegaard is a snip. Trossard too. Jorginho very shrewd. We have bought well recently.

I agree with you on wengers replacement. I said at the time no matter who we appointed they were on a hiding to nothing and bound to get sacked themselves as we had been left in such a mess. It was always going to need several transfer windows to fix things. Emery wasn’t even in charge of transfer decisions and had to put up with Pepe when he wanted zaha and other choices like Torreira he had no control over.

Yep, agree about the state of things when Wenger left and that Emery unfairly had accountability, without free license to make decisions.

As for the signings made by Arteta, then we'll have to agree to disagree. Regardless of a couple being on a free and another reasonably cheap, they're all on wages and you've left quite a few names out of your appraisal and plenty of them weren't cheap. In fact, spending 700 million in 4 yrs says it all. Of course not every acquisition has been a flop, but the strike rate isn't good. Too many duds and too many disappointments in my opinion. As for Havertz, he's fucking useless. Another one who if he doesn't trip over his own feet has done well. The bar is set way too low and he ought to judged like any £65 million purchase who's on 300k per week.

It’s interesting to hear your thoughts really . I don’t agree on the transfer policy being bad really, I think the biggest signing you could be critical of was vieira really as for the money we spent we could have signed somebody proven like Tielemans or something.

Contrast to wengers summer in 2016 when he wasted the best part of 100 million quid on Xhaka, Perez and mustafi. Some of our transfer business has been absolutely mental. Signing Pepe then selling him on a free. Just loopy.

[Retro Gunner]

When Emery was sacked we were sitting in 8th place in the Premier League in total free fall and ironically lost to Liverpool in the league cup who knocked us out. We were a total mess with players just going through the motions and not even running for each other. It had all fallen apart.

Viv, I honestly don’t know, but I strongly suspect that we’ve spent more as a club than Liverpool have during Klopp’s nine years and although that’s not all on Arteta, he’s been backed to the tune of 700 million in 4 yrs as augie says.

You’re right about the squad not being strong enough and that we lack quality in certain areas, but it’s Arteta that has wasted bundles on the likes of Havertz, Vieira, Cedric, Zinchenko, Mari, Tavares, Matt Turner and Runarsson and I’m far from convinced by White, Partey, Jesus, Ramsdale and Raya.

He’s had all the financial backing he should need, so no excuses if we come up short and the lack of quality and depth is a result of the money wasted on those signings above.

I do, however, agree with you that we were in free fall at the end of Emery’s reign. Mind you, whoever had replaced the old French fucker didn’t have a prayer.

He hasn’t wasted bundles though let’s be honest,

I mean citing bad transfer policy on Runnarson Cedric (free), Tavares 8 million and we will get our money back seen pretty absurd. They cost next to nothing. Turner we actually sold for a profit. Some of those signings were made when we had no choice as the squad was so short we had to bring in less than preferable options. We aren’t in that situation anymore and we are getting close and closer to having a squad that can compete.

I’ll have to disagree with you on Havertz and Zinchenko who are useful experienced players in the premier league and decent acquisitions , Vieira the jury is still out but you can see he does have some promising technical ability just needs a bit of consistency and to stay injury free.

The truth is we have been very shrewd in the market acquiring well. 34 million for Odegaard is a snip. Trossard too. Jorginho very shrewd. We have bought well recently.

I agree with you on wengers replacement. I said at the time no matter who we appointed they were on a hiding to nothing and bound to get sacked themselves as we had been left in such a mess. It was always going to need several transfer windows to fix things. Emery wasn’t even in charge of transfer decisions and had to put up with Pepe when he wanted zaha and other choices like Torreira he had no control over.

Yep, agree about the state of things when Wenger left and that Emery unfairly had accountability, without free license to make decisions.

As for the signings made by Arteta, then we'll have to agree to disagree. Regardless of a couple being on a free and another reasonably cheap, they're all on wages and you've left quite a few names out of your appraisal and plenty of them weren't cheap. In fact, spending 700 million in 4 yrs says it all. Of course not every acquisition has been a flop, but the strike rate isn't good. Too many duds and too many disappointments in my opinion. As for Havertz, he's fucking useless. Another one who if he doesn't trip over his own feet has done well. The bar is set way too low and he ought to judged like any £65 million purchase who's on 300k per week.

It’s interesting to hear your thoughts really . I don’t agree on the transfer policy being bad really, I think the biggest signing you could be critical of was vieira really as for the money we spent we could have signed somebody proven like Tielemans or something.

Contrast to wengers summer in 2016 when he wasted the best part of 100 million quid on Xhaka, Perez and mustafi. Some of our transfer business has been absolutely mental. Signing Pepe then selling him on a free. Just loopy.

Yes, we have wasted fortunes over the years and the final 10 yrs of Wenger saw not only poor signings, but long contracts on high wages, all compounded by lunatic contract extensions and renewals, for duds that then walked on a free, or that we paid to fuck off.

Funnily enough, I didn’t think Perez was a bad player and he scored goals, but he was another that Wenger didn’t really give a chance to.

You’re right about the Vieira signing, too much money when far better options available for that sum, but for me, Havertz is far and away the worst decision Arteta has made. I wouldn’t have wanted him for free and on ten bob a week, but the fee and the wages are bonkers for a total dud. I didn’t think we could do worse than Xhaka, but Arteta’s had a fucking good go at it.