Arsenal 2018-19: Spanish David Moyes

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Sunny von Bulow
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If I’m a keeper of Cech’s pedigree, cup games aren’t enough to keep me around. There would be a club big enough to interest him somewhere where he could get good money and be the starter.
 

Time to Mo Vaughn

RIP Dernell
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If I’m a keeper of Cech’s pedigree, cup games aren’t enough to keep me around. There would be a club big enough to interest him somewhere where he could get good money and be the starter.
Sure, but I'm not exactly sure what leverage he has. In January, he announced he was retiring at the end of the season, so if he was stapled to the bench the only thing he could really do is just retire early or become a distraction to the team.
 

mikeford

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Yeah.. not sure what Cech did to be relegated to second.. probably just that Leno is the future for now.. Emery has made a number of stubborn will-imposing decisions for better or worse and this is one of them down the list.
Cech was pretty bad at the beginning of the year and then he got injured, IIRC. I know there was a lot of talk that Emery wanted a keeper who could play the ball from the back and Cech does not fit that mold.
 

mikeford

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Also of note: Sp*rs lose AGAIN and Son got a straight red, so his season is over. They play Everton on the final day, which is no slam dunk.

Take care of fucking business tomorrow, PLEASE.
 

lars10

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Cech was pretty bad at the beginning of the year and then he got injured, IIRC. I know there was a lot of talk that Emery wanted a keeper who could play the ball from the back and Cech does not fit that mold.
Makes sense. The injury probably did do him in.. that and his inability to save any pks or seem to make all that make quick reflex saves...or at least many.

Arse need to take care of business..win your two games and let the chips fall where they may..no excuses. Give yourself two chances to get into the CL.
 

mikeford

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Well it's been a slog and it would take a miracle to finish top 4 but

The wizard of Europa has Arsenal in the final.

Apparently each team is only getting 6k tickets for like a 60k stadium. So we're looking at a neutral base at best for the final.
 

shaggydog2000

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Off to beautiful Baku. Hope anyone making the trip stops to visit the wonders of the mud volcanoes!

Seriously, it was on all of the lists of things to do in Baku that I looked at.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mud-volcanoes-of-azerbaijan

I know the Europa league is the NIT of Euro soccer, but couldn't they find a better place than Azerbaijan to have the final? At least the NIT is in NYC.

After that, the final seems like a coin flip. But if Koscielny and Big Papa are healthy, and Mustafi is not starting, I think Arsenal has a pretty solid shot at this. When they put out their best players, Arsenal is a completely different team.
 

Mighty Joe Young

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Off to beautiful Baku. Hope anyone making the trip stops to visit the wonders of the mud volcanoes!

Seriously, it was on all of the lists of things to do in Baku that I looked at.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mud-volcanoes-of-azerbaijan

I know the Europa league is the NIT of Euro soccer, but couldn't they find a better place than Azerbaijan to have the final? At least the NIT is in NYC.

After that, the final seems like a coin flip. But if Koscielny and Big Papa are healthy, and Mustafi is not starting, I think Arsenal has a pretty solid shot at this. When they put out their best players, Arsenal is a completely different team.
Even Klopp was criticizing the choice of Baku for the final today - and Liverpool aren’t even in the competition.
 

shaggydog2000

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He didn't go when they played there earlier in the year. I heard that UEFA was going to pressure the government into allowing him in, but the safety concern is bigger for him.
 

mikeford

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He didn't go when they played there earlier in the year. I heard that UEFA was going to pressure the government into allowing him in, but the safety concern is bigger for him.
Yeah it was a group game, completely not worth any risk to him.

A final is different and moreover: WHY IS A FINAL HAPPENING SOMEWHERE THAT THIS IS EVEN A CONCERN?


the answer of course is money
 

InstaFace

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If money were the sole concern, they'd move the game between two London teams to Wembley, and charge 3x whatever they were going to ask for tickets (and they'd sell them), and give Azerbaijan a cut just to keep them happy.

The fact that this hasn't happened already either means everything I thought I knew about UEFA was wrong, or they're still running optimizations on how high to hike the price.
 

shaggydog2000

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If money were the sole concern, they'd move the game between two London teams to Wembley, and charge 3x whatever they were going to ask for tickets (and they'd sell them), and give Azerbaijan a cut just to keep them happy.

The fact that this hasn't happened already either means everything I thought I knew about UEFA was wrong, or they're still running optimizations on how high to hike the price.
You're confusing money to uefa with money to the uefa officials. Wembley hasn't and won't be paying them off. Azerbaijan already did.
 

shaggydog2000

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If you don't keep the promise paid for by the bribe, people will stop bribing you
When it comes to soccer governing bodies, I really wouldn't put anything past them. It's just that autocratic states tend to bribe the best. Easier to hide the trail.
 

mikeford

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Well,

that sucks.

Aubameyang ends in a 3 way tie for the Golden Boot.... and he'd have won it... and we'd have finished ahead of Sp*rs... if he just slotted the penalty against them home instead of taking the shittiest penalty of all time.

fuck.
 

shaggydog2000

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He scored the most goals in the league. Sure he tied for it, but that's fine by me. Also, we won. Didn't mean much, but I'll take that too. Only thing that really matters is one last game two weeks from now.
 

67YAZ

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He scored the most goals in the league. Sure he tied for it, but that's fine by me. Also, we won. Didn't mean much, but I'll take that too. Only thing that really matters is one last game two weeks from now.
Preseason, I predicted Lacazette would win the Golden Boot, but Auba was the biggest beneficiary of Emery’s system. Auba just keeps putting up great seasons.
 

67YAZ

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Good write up in the Guardian that leaves the suggestion that the £2b Azerbaijani Laundromat scandal (or similar effort) may have swayed UEFA, too. No hard proof, but consider that Azerbaijan will also host 4 Euro 2020 matches, including a quarter final. How are such high profile matches going to Baku when UEFA already knows the situation is untenable between Azerbaijan and Armenia? Surely there's a smoking gun around somewhere if a government with subpoena powers wanted to find it.
 

blueline

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There are so many issues at Arsenal. It’s been a hapless, poorly managed team and organization for over a decade now. That being said, Emery isn’t a good manager, the collapse in the league was unacceptable, and the performance in the final was the cherry on top. He should be gone.
 

mikeford

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Wretched season. Just an ocean of misery. Keeping Emery is pure malpractice so it will of course happen because no one cares about anything that happens at Arsenal except the fans.
 

Time to Mo Vaughn

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Wretched season. Just an ocean of misery. Keeping Emery is pure malpractice so it will of course happen because no one cares about anything that happens at Arsenal except the fans.
There are so many issues at Arsenal. It’s been a hapless, poorly managed team and organization for over a decade now. That being said, Emery isn’t a good manager, the collapse in the league was unacceptable, and the performance in the final was the cherry on top. He should be gone.
What do you think are the problems with the current team? And who do you think they should bring in as coach?

Arsenal performed slightly better than last year with a very similar team. Not good enough for Champions League, but I'm not quite sure they're there as a squad. I certainly don't think one year is enough for a coach to fix a team as flawed as Arsenal is right now. Took Klopp a few years at Liverpool to really have success. My biggest concern is the lack of individual improvement by players that I was hoping to see more out of.

The defense is what really needs to be addressed and to me that starts with two center defenders getting rid of Mustafi as well as getting rid of Xhaka. I'm fine giving him another year and actually allowing him to blow up the squad.
 

mikeford

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You can't say they aren't top 4 caliber as a squad when they would've easily clinched it if not for the manager allowing the team to death spiral in the final 2 months.

I think Mustafi is an utter butcher and a complete clown but shit, look at what Big Sam does defensively when he takes over a team. And those back fours are likely way worse than Arsenals. There's just no excuse for how poorly Arsenal defended this year.

I'd like to see them hire Allegri for 2-3 years and at least get this going in the right direction. With Emery in charge, it's at best just stuck in neutral. Emery isn't Klopp.
 

Time to Mo Vaughn

RIP Dernell
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You can't say they aren't top 4 caliber as a squad when they would've easily clinched it if not for the manager allowing the team to death spiral in the final 2 months.

I think Mustafi is an utter butcher and a complete clown but shit, look at what Big Sam does defensively when he takes over a team. And those back fours are likely way worse than Arsenals. There's just no excuse for how poorly Arsenal defended this year.

I'd like to see them hire Allegri for 2-3 years and at least get this going in the right direction. With Emery in charge, it's at best just stuck in neutral. Emery isn't Klopp.
Or I could say that the only reason they were close to a top 4 is because Sarri and Pochettino allowed their teams to death spiral in the final two months.

If they can get Allegri, I'd move on from Emery in a second, but I don't think he'd be interested.
 

shaggydog2000

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Or I could say that the only reason they were close to a top 4 is because Sarri and Pochettino allowed their teams to death spiral in the final two months.

If they can get Allegri, I'd move on from Emery in a second, but I don't think he'd be interested.
If they could bring in a small number of very top coaches, I would dump Emery for them. But why would those top coaches come to a team with so many obvious holes and so little budget to fill them? Emery is probably the best they can get at this juncture, and they need to give him a functional defense and some wingers. Holding and Bellerin coming back will help, but they need at least one central defender and could use a fullback/wingback. They also need somebody who create in the final third and get it to the finishers.

I see Mustafi, Ozil, Mkhitaryan, Elneny, Koscielny and Monreal getting sold. It's a shame, but the last two guys just don't look like they can handle the Premier league week in and week out any more, as much as I loved them as players. Depending on what that nets the team, they could make some decent buys.
 

coremiller

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If they could bring in a small number of very top coaches, I would dump Emery for them. But why would those top coaches come to a team with so many obvious holes and so little budget to fill them? Emery is probably the best they can get at this juncture, and they need to give him a functional defense and some wingers. Holding and Bellerin coming back will help, but they need at least one central defender and could use a fullback/wingback. They also need somebody who create in the final third and get it to the finishers.

I see Mustafi, Ozil, Mkhitaryan, Elneny, Koscielny and Monreal getting sold. It's a shame, but the last two guys just don't look like they can handle the Premier league week in and week out any more, as much as I loved them as players. Depending on what that nets the team, they could make some decent buys.
Ozil's contract makes him basically unmovable unless he's willing to take a big pay cut or Arsenal loan him out while picking up a lot of his salary. Ozil is on 350k/week and nobody is going to match that for a player on the wrong side of 30 who's already started declining.
 

shaggydog2000

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Ozil's contract makes him basically unmovable unless he's willing to take a big pay cut or Arsenal loan him out while picking up a lot of his salary. Ozil is on 350k/week and nobody is going to match that for a player on the wrong side of 30 who's already started declining.
Yeah, they're definitely going to have to staple some money to him to make him go away. But it will be cheaper than paying him and putting up with him.
 

Time to Mo Vaughn

RIP Dernell
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If they could bring in a small number of very top coaches, I would dump Emery for them. But why would those top coaches come to a team with so many obvious holes and so little budget to fill them? Emery is probably the best they can get at this juncture, and they need to give him a functional defense and some wingers. Holding and Bellerin coming back will help, but they need at least one central defender and could use a fullback/wingback. They also need somebody who create in the final third and get it to the finishers.

I see Mustafi, Ozil, Mkhitaryan, Elneny, Koscielny and Monreal getting sold. It's a shame, but the last two guys just don't look like they can handle the Premier league week in and week out any more, as much as I loved them as players. Depending on what that nets the team, they could make some decent buys.
You and I are very much in sync on this.

Monreal is out of contract, so he can sign anywhere rather than be sold. I think that Koscielny was our best central defender this year though that certainly doesn't say much and he's definitely lost more than a step. I'd be happy to have him on for another year as depth with regular rest rather than a full time starter if he's willing to come back. Of those you mentioned, I'd be okay with them keeping Mkhi. I'm not a huge fan but he plays within the system and isn't a hindrance or distraction the way that Ozil is. We have enough players to replace that he's decent depth for this squad.
 

shaggydog2000

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You and I are very much in sync on this.

Monreal is out of contract, so he can sign anywhere rather than be sold. I think that Koscielny was our best central defender this year though that certainly doesn't say much and he's definitely lost more than a step. I'd be happy to have him on for another year as depth with regular rest rather than a full time starter if he's willing to come back. Of those you mentioned, I'd be okay with them keeping Mkhi. I'm not a huge fan but he plays within the system and isn't a hindrance or distraction the way that Ozil is. We have enough players to replace that he's decent depth for this squad.
Did not know Monreal was going to be out of contract. He's definitely gone then. Kos was good for stretches this year, but I just don't think his body can hold up to regular play on this level, and there are rumblings he wanted to leave last year. Mkhi is fine, just not a difference maker, and his salary is pretty high. I think they would want to move on from that. It's not a disaster if he stays, he could just open up some salary space to bring in a bigger player if he was moved.