Yeah. Bring Tony Adams in.
Martial, Eriksen, Van de Beek long term, Sancho missed a couple of months, Varane, Dalot shorter term and now Garnacho is out for 6 weeks. We’ve also had Casemiro banned for what will be 8 matches.
Quite remarkable really.
Arsenal 22/23 - go to new thread
- Thread starter horsechoker
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Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) discuss United's fantastic win away against Athletic Club in the semi-final of the Europa League.
They also pick out the positives of United's 4-3 loss away at Brentford, and Nik reviews a day out at Old Trafford watching Manchester United Women qualify for the Champions League.
Yeah. Bring Tony Adams in.
Martial, Eriksen, Van de Beek long term, Sancho missed a couple of months, Varane, Dalot shorter term and now Garnacho is out for 6 weeks. We’ve also had Casemiro banned for what will be 8 matches.
Quite remarkable really.
I am convinced he consulted some voodoo practitioner as a few days after he said that, we lose 2 defenders within 20 minutes vs Sporting.
And it looks like they'll be out for weeks rather than days. Tomi looks out for the season, Saliba not quite as bad but still a huge blow at this crucial stage.Yes I agree you've had it tougher overall with injuries. But I don't think Sanchos unexplained absence counts as an injury, there was something else going on. A weird situation nonetheless. And Casemiro suspended is not an injury.
Regarding Martial - he seems to be a perpetual sick note. Was he like this before he signed his latest contract?
We’ve had plenty of injuries Dalot , Varane , Eriksen , Donny , McTominay Antony , Martial and Sancho ( granted not an injury )
Sabitzer , Maguire and Lindelof have missed a few in the past few weeks.
Neither team picked and chose or prioritised. It’s how the season panned out. Had we been 16 points behind top spot we’d have played our best 11 both games against sporting. And had united been 5 clear ahead of city at this time of the season then they’d have rotated like we did in EL and other cups.
Also Whoever is saying that any team that’s well run for 3 years should expect to be ahead of this Man City team in the table with only 10 games of the season left, well then they must be championship manager veterans, real football is very different.
After 15 years of great teams and players seeing their potential wrecked by injuries, I couldn’t give a feck if we now have better injury ‘luck’ than other teams. Good for us.
Every team that wins the league gets ‘lucky’ with avoiding injuries to key players at key moments. No great team ever won the league missing their best players, I don’t think it’s much of a talking point to be honest. If it made no difference United wouldn’t be struggling with out Casemiro.
We don’t though, just another myth perpetuated by teams that are trying to find excuses for being miles behind us this season. The league games we lost to United and city didn’t have partey and we’ve been without our best player most of the season.
I mean Casemiro is arguably our best player, or most important, so having him unavailable for 8 games is quite significant no? Equivalent to you missing Partey in your set up.
I also forgot to mention we have lost Greenwood for over a season and counting.
Willian springs to mind. I think we tried to go down the route where we mix youngsters with experience for that balance but he was so bad in an Arsenal shirt. I have no idea why. That set us back a bit. Who knows what could have worked out though. Vlahovic?
Arteta also persisted with Auba A little too long after his renewal. It was clear he was done.
Oh, I'm not arguing he's not a big miss. Of course he is. But my point is it's not through injury - losing him through suspension is an entirely different matter. You can't really predict or avoid injuries for the most part, but red cards/suspensions, you can.
Ah Greenwood, another mess ETH has to deal with. Don't think he really counts though, as he wouldn't have featured in ETH's plans from the beginning of the season. So the ongoing saga with him doesn't make much difference, I think it's clear he probably won't be playing for you again.
Yeh Willian was so puzzling, I thougt he'd be at least decent for us but he was woeful. I was worried Jorginho would be another Chelsea pensioner we'd make a mistake with, though I've always liked him. And he's been a great addition for the price, thank goodness.
With Auba, he was on a big salary. It's not easy to offload a player in the middle of a big contract, so he had to persist with him longer than he probably would have wanted.
Thanks for that. I knew not being in CL for many years is a huge detriment, but when you hear terms like "negative revenue growth" it really hits home. I think the club have done very well to manage the situation and turn it around. It's very clear that the club had to spend big to rebuild the squad to get us back into CL.
The question is how sustainable is it? Commercial growth usually has a lag time vis a vis footballing success. There is also a wage creep once Arsenal gets into the CL.
A lot of balancing acts coming up.
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What great teams?
Sure, sure, I made a cheap point. Your post was just a bona fide example of mental gymnastics, as pointed out by another poster
However, I don't think I need to refute your points, because I largely agree. I don't see the reasons for all these comparisons, but undoubtedly Arteta has done a great job, coming into the job at a tough time for the club. And any manager who in three odd years gets a title for a team that hasn't won one in ages is obviously overachieving.
Yes, a necessary one. Only way to progress the club and return to what we were before, financially and otherwise. It would be ok as long as we consistently remain in CL moving forward. But surely at some point, the board can't continue with the spending they have in the last few years once the squad has been established.
Mental gymnastics is the only form of exercise i get these days.
Yes, a necessary one. Only way to progress the club and return to what we were before, financially and otherwise. It would be ok as long as we consistently remain in CL moving forward. But surely at some point, the board can't continue with the spending they have in the last few years once the squad has been established.
Mental gymnastics is the only form of exercise i get these days.
I think that will be the most difficult and interesting question going forward. You can imagine that as the league becomes a Big 7/8 league for 4 slots, there will be yo-yo CL appearances for almost all of them.
Imagine trying to plan your financial budgets if you are the CFO of those clubs. You will be exposed to swings of £100-140 million each year possibly due to CL money available. That's potentially 20-25% revenue fluctuations each year. Thats huge.
You understand why they want to ESL!! It's just too difficult to plan financially every year for the Top 7-8 clubs.
I think the PL is getting a fifth spot from 2024 with the new CL reform. A bit more manageable but still very possible to miss out. City/United/Chelsea/Liverpool/Arsenal
Spurs's next season will be very important and Newcastle will have to evolve from their shithousery tactics to join in.
I’m not sure how you can predict red cards or plan for losing your best player but ultimately we haven’t had our best midfielder paring of Casemiro and Eriksen for the majority of the season.
In terms of Greenwood we’ve essentially lost a £80m player and not only that had to spend excessively to replace him. The knock on of this happening I think is quite understated and has had an impact on Ten Hag, as did the Ronaldo issue.
When you look at the amount of absences and issues he’s had to take on within such a short period it’s quite remarkable he’s won a trophy and got to two quarter finals, and stayed in the top 4 so far. He’s got no right to be fighting on so many different fronts.
Lastly I’ll be interested to see what happens with Greenwood now and don’t think it’s going to be a cut and dry as people think. We will find out in the summer.
It also needs taken into account those numbers are from a season without any European football. So a return to European football this season should provide an increase in revenue, a return to Champions League next season should see a significant increase.
One thing that has been clear for ages is how stagnant we've been commercially. Its something I think we took our eye off the ball with, and are just playing catch-up now really.
Think the Adidas sponsorship is now up there among the best in the league, need to try and get the Emirates deal to follow suit when that's up for renewal. Good time to really make a push commercially now the team is performing well.
Firstly I think what he did was clearly wrong. But he was 19-20 when it happened. Clearly very immature. But we should allow him to show some remorse and redeem himself.
He hasn't played for so long now. Best to send him out on loan - Portugal? and then see what happens.
I would bet my left testicle that they win today. It’s guaranteed.
Not sure you can count Casemiro. He was stupid enough to get 2 red cards - it was a lack of discipline rather than being being unfortunate. Same thing with Greenwood for obvious reasons.
Zinchenko was out for 2 months, Partey was out for the same number of games as Varane, Jesus was out for 4 months, Tomiyasu and Saliba now out, Nkietieh is out. We've been playing the last month without an actual striker.
Casemiro has missed 8 games due to bullshit VAR decisions.. decisions that since those games have happened countless times in league games without resulting in a red card.
It's fascinating that you bring that bellend Greenwood up when you still continue to play your very bellend when fit.
The perfect storm with the same core 13 players available week in week out. Critical late goals and no ongoing domestic cup distractions. Mix it all together with a very good coach three and a half years into a well planned project and you see the results.
All this said, they are well on track for 90+ points which by anyone’s level is a remarkable return.
All this said, they are well on track for 90+ points which by anyone’s level is a remarkable return.
Raj, I think you need to calm down a bit lad.
It feels very, very strange for Arsenal fans to try to score theoretical points regarding Greenwood. It's like the Twilight Zone.
I'm calm thanks lad, just point out that whilst we as a club suspended and will probably get rid of Greenwood, you lot are hailing someone who is accused of the same thing as a hero week in week out.
For 5 spots surely. Isn't the PL still the highest rated domestic league.
Put it this way, if we were 19 points behind Man Utd all their fans would be saying how much they miss our rivalry and how shitty it is that we are no longer their rivals.
Some would go as far as saying they wish we’d improve a bit to create some sort of rivalry, then laugh at how far behind them we are.
Some would go as far as saying they wish we’d improve a bit to create some sort of rivalry, then laugh at how far behind them we are.
Whilst I miss those days where we used to battle for league titles every season, I've certainly enjoyed your banter period more. I also wouldn't be found on an Arsenal forum win, draw or lose.
I'll bring this up one time only, but many players get accused. Ronaldo has been accused, De Gea back in 2012, Neymar, Giggs et al.
Accusations are typically followed up with a defence case. Should we remove everyone with an accusation?
I miss it too, I even hope you improve a bit so we could have this rivalry again next season.
I think it’s embarrassing for any Man Utd manager to be 19 points behind arsenal, no matter the circumstances.
It's a good question because I actually agree no, in the real world. We've all heard and seen how the recent Eleanor Williams case has ended this past week and how her false allegations ruined the lives of all those men involved. We've also seen the Greenwood case closed and as such his career in football probably ended with that
As a football club though, we took the stance that whilst a case was open we'd suspend him and effectively cut ties with him whilst you have done the compete opposite. I guess it just depends on who you think have done the right thing, morally.
We all know why we did that. The recording made it a very different matter in terms of public opinion.
That's true but as another one example, City suspended Mendy without any recordings in the public domain.
Just saying I think it's a bit naive to suggest we are on a higher moral ground, seeing as our hand was forced for obvious reasons.