Arsenal are worse this season without Ozil

84 comments

1. Insightful article Tim. Adds objective validation to the subjective emotions.

   Was there any detail/breakdown on KPs by area of the pitch?

   I am still surprised that Ivan would leave after finally becoming top dog at Arsenal. Maybe bringing Unai was not his choice either!

   Cheers.

   1. I’m also in the Boston area. Do you go to Lir for the games? I’ve only been 1-2x but have enjoyed it in the past.

2. And we have a stronger squad, until it got decimated by our general for insubordination. Yaay, we’re bringing back ancient traditions.

   On us being worse, I have some sympathy for Emery in that Bellerin was a key player for him. On the other hand, a RB getting injured shouldn’t cripple your attack so much when you have the players we do. Also I don’t really credit him with Bellerin and Kolasinac’s improvement. I think they’re still being themselves, just seeing more of the ball.

   But the stats basically bear out what we’re seeing. We’re worse. We have no business being worse than last season.

   I don’t know what the chain of command here is, but this batch of crazy decisions started only after Gazidis left. This also forced out out Sven. Not only are we wasting Ozil’s 18m salary, we’re also wasting the 110m we spent on Auba and Laca, and have already wasted 50m with Ramsey. All while destroying the post Wenger club structure, squad rebuild, and harmony in the team and among the fans.

   Arsenal, Y u lyk dis?

   1. Not only stronger but playing with two CMS, both of whom tackle. I’m convinced more than ever our problem is possession, we just don’t have the talent to keep the ball. That’s especially true without Ozil on the field.

      1. Wouldn’t it help to press the opposition then? Something he said he wanted to do, and I can understand if Ozil doesn’t fit the plan there.

         But we’re not a pressing team, we’re not a counter attacking team and don’t have the defensive capabilities to be that anyway, and we’re not a possession team. This shouldn’t be happening. Who are we? Who do we even want to be? Can you tell?

         1. Wingback FC with a touch of Over30 FC. .

            1. Sounds about right

3. I’m still not sure we’re worse. Our big game record certainly isn’t, and the collapse at the 2nd half of last season was awful. Not sure we’re there yet, but there certainly hasn’t been the trend of improvement that we hoped for.

4. You don’t need any stats to know Arsenal is worse without Ozil… Just need to watch them this season. They look awful

   1. That is a function of the fact that Emery doesn’t let Ozil start away games, since our away record is terrible. I never thought about how that could paint a rosy picture of Ozil in our minds but it makes complete sense. The stretch of home games that culminated in the Leicester and Liverpool home games were comfortably our best and Ozil completed 90 minutes regularly during that period.

      But you should watch back Wolverhampton vs Arsenal November 11th if you think Arsenal always look good with Ozil as well as the 5-1 against Fulham or the 2-0 against Chelsea if you think Arsenal never look good without him. Better yet, the Brighton game featured one half with Ozil and one half without. I’ll let you decide which was the better half.

5. Good post… please forgive this cut and paste from the dying embers of the last thread. It’s exactly on this subject.
   ______________________

   Nobody who’s criticising the club’s treatment of Ozil has said that he isn’t culpable to some degree. He has gone from sublime to rank awful (Wolves and Southampton, where he was directly complicit in losing the ball for the winning goal). But he doesn’t have a monopoly on playing badly. Aubameyang was terrible against City.

   Some stats, excluding Europe, cups…

   Mesut had 3 goals and 1 assist in the league in his limited minutes (14 apps)
   Mhki has 4 and 1 playing slightly fewer minutes (15 apps)
   Ramsey 1 and 6 in roughly the same playing time as Mhki (22 apps)
   Iwobi 3 and 4 playing about 30% more than Ozil (23 apps)
   Xhaka 3 and 1 (identical to Ozil) playing virtually every game, and far more minutes (22 apps)
   Bellerin 0 and 5 playing 50% more (19 apps)
   Kolasinac 0 and 4 (15 apps)
   Nacho 1 and 3 playing identical minutes to Ozil (13 apps)
   Torreira 2 and 2 (26 apps)
   Guendouzi 0 and 0 (23 apps)
   Koscielny 2 and 0 (same as Mustafi) in hardly any playing time (8 apps)

   Our strikers? Really good numbers (25 apps both)
   PEA 15 and 4
   Laca 10 and 5

   Not all appearances are created equal. Most of Ramsey’s have been off the bench. Minutes matter more.

   I had a look at pass accuracy as well. The back-field players tend to have better %ages, because the passes are comparatively low risk. Ozil, for an attacking player who’s not a sideways merchant, is the safest passer among forward players. He passes the ball better than Xhaka, Bellerin, Mustafi, Ramsey, Lichtsteiner, Mkhi, Iwobi and defenitely Kolasinac. (Our best passers ahead of Ozil, btw, in descending order are Koscielny, Sokratis, Monreal, Elneny (🙂), Torreira, Guendouzi and Holding). Mustafi and Kolasinac have low percentages for backfield players. And Monreal is a more efficient attacking player than the more eye-catching Kolasinac, but that’s another debate for another time.

   So despite Emery hardly playing him and playing him in a less adventurous system, Ramsey is our assist leader (Bellerin surely would have ended the season with these honours).

   Despite Emery throttling Ozil’s minutes and his assist numbers being waaaaay down, he’s still got 3 superbly taken goals to his name, and is an efficient passer of the ball in attacking areas. What the stats also don’t show is pre-assists, like an out of this world ball to Kolasinac on the overlap, who assisted Aubameyang… against Burnley, playing deep and compact.

   So yes, you can say that Mesut’s productivity is down… but so is Ramsey’s due to a combination of fewer minutes and a different system. But the stats do make a mockery of Emery’s decision to freeze Ozil out of his matchday SQUADS altogether. Whatever the reason is, it’s certainly not football related.

   To add, good percentage passing in the attacking third is absolute gold. With Ozil you lose pressing and D from the front, but he is more likely than not going to unlock tired defences, and find his man more efficiently than Iwobi, Mhki, Ramsey, the strikers or the overlapping full backs. So Emery is cutting off his own nose.

   Fun fact… Denis Suarez, in 38 minutes of playing for us, is our most accurate passer at 94%. I didnt include him, because 38 is no sample size at all. But baby steps…

6. Sorry but people want it both ways. If you want to change the cykture at the club then you have to address the roots of that and to me Ozil is part of that – wants special treatment unable to be consitant (that is what you need to challenge for the title).

   Ozil blackmailed the club into a huge contract (the club hierachy showing no spine or imagination by giving in) and hasn’t delivered on that massive pay rise.

   Ozil is Arsenal in a nutshell and if the club wants to progress he and his contract need to go.

   1. Negotiation exerting your maximum leverage isn’t blackmail.

      That, and the fact that it was a bad deal by Arsenal FC, can both be true. But they should honour it, or compensate the player accordingly if the want to shorten it.

      Dont have any issues about changing the culture either. Some of us simply think that theyre going about it in a cack-handed way

      1. How would you go about it? You’re Josh Kroenke. Your newly appointed coach doesn’t want to play your newly salaried “franchise player” Mesut Ozil. Whom do you back? Can you win either way? Answers on a post card.

7. Our football is boring this is not the Arsenal way we look shit in mf

8. What’s surprising isn’t that our performances look flatter than they did last year, it’s that in a massive transition year with wholesale changes at every level of the club, we’re actually slightly better off points-wise than we were last year. This isn’t to say everything’s rosy, but just that I’d like to temper the criticism of the manager with some bigger picture thinking.

   From what I could gather in yesterday’s comments, this community feels angry at Emery and/or the directors for the treatment of Ozil. This is interesting, given the player’s history. It wasn’t long ago that Ozil and Wenger were on the receiving end of some antipathy for the player’s kid-glove treatment. Ozil was occasionally dropped for domestic away games, and from the noises we heard from teammates it was as a result of both his own request and Wenger’s special favor. Do you think Ozil would have wanted to travel to Borisov, even if he was fit? Based on his attitude last season, I very much doubt it. So I find the leveraging of that loss to his own benefit, as he clearly did, a bit rich. I know some of you support him in that tweet and its rhetorical function, but I think it was a cheap way to capitalize on a loss to cast further aspersion on a manager who’s clearly having a tough time.

   Is Emery right to drop him, though? In other words, should Emery put aside whatever petulant behavior and personal animus is occurring in favor of what matters most (results)? That’s not as easy to answer as some suppose, in part because answering in the affirmative assumes results and performances, and I’d add that Ozil has not looked the club’s best player even when he has played this season. What seems clear, however, is that Emery isn’t going to indulge Ozil like Wenger did, and I think I’m fine with it. When Ozil was told that he would start against West Ham on the bench, he threw a tantrum and stormed out of training. I’m sure similar, if less sensational, episodes have attended his reaction to Emery’s decisions ever since. We don’t know, of course, but obviously Ozil’s not been playing, and it’s not always because of fitness reasons.

   Now, are we hard to watch this season? You bet. Does Emery shoulder some of that? You bet. Is this a massive transition year? Yes. Do I think Emery is dropping Ozil because Raul’s telling him to? Really doubt that, which isn’t to say that Ozil being dropped doesn’t suit the director’s agenda.

   I’m all for a change in culture at the club, one, I hasten to add, that is understandably going to look messy right now (and does). I think in the last decade especially, we indulged players, showed favoritism, rewarded players on the basis of potential rather than merit, bungled contracts, and set them up to play freeform jazz. That brought us down the league table and out of the Champions League.

   Time will tell whether this shift in culture will pay dividends, but I’m interested to find out.

   1. That’s how I feel too, Bun. Last year most people subscribed to the “anything but this” theory of improving Arsenal. Well, now we have something different and we are no happier, and Wenger’s Arsenal seems rosier by the minute.

      I will also add that existential discussions of the club’s direction are not best contextualized in the wake of an ugly 1-0 defeat to a Belorussian team in preseason…

      1. It has virtually nothing to do with that for me. We’ll win that tie anyway. We have too much talent.

         Also, if you’re going to change the culture, great. But you need to do it organically. Unless you are going to spend billions in rapidly turning the squad over constantly, in which case your culture becomes short termist, which is basically the same as a lack of culture. Like Chelsea. You can only destroy a culture with a forceful approach, not establish one.

         And this has nothing to do with Wenger either. I was fully on board with what we were doing in the Ivan, Raul and Sven era. Even after we went all self flagellant, I was on board with what I presumed would then be Project Youth 2. But this isn’t that either.

         Emery came in and we were told he would be an attacking manager, would coach the players better so as to get them defending and pressing better, would commit to playing youngsters and not need to rely on the transfer market, and would uphold our values. Even if the last bit isn’t important to you, what about the rest? Man’s done approximately the polar opposite of everything we were told he was brought in to do.

         1. I’m confused by this post, Shard. What about this process that Arsenal are undergoing is not “organic” to you? Also, I’m not following you on how Emery has failed to uphold our values or about not giving youngsters a chance, or any of that stuff really. I’ve read a lot of your writing on this lately and it’s just not meshing together for me.

   2. Really good post

   3. “he threw a tantrum and stormed out of training”

      Completely denied by Lord Emery who said “ask the doctor” when he was questioned about this. I mean, maybe it happened, circumstantial evidence suggests it did, sort of.

      I don’t mind the #CultureChange or #TheProcess, but I am deeply suspicious that Emery’s not the man.

      1. I missed this part of the drama.

         But Ozil is not a troublemaker by nature. It’s the manager’s job to get the best out of his players and adapt to their different natures. Was Ozil pandered to by Wenger? Maybe. Probably. But how does that matter if he’s performing on the pitch doing what he’s paid to do? Imagine not pandering to Bergkamp. He wouldn’t fly, wouldn’t play unless he was confident he was fit, and was miffed at his lack of playing time until Wenger showed him the data to convince him that he was slowing down.

         You can’t tell me Emery is doing a good job managing when he’s not man managing well. And the players know it, man. Now that the results have dried up, they aren’t fully on board.

         1. The point about Bergkamp is a good one. Not that Ozil and Bergkamp are analogous in most ways other than in the way that they were both coddled.

            1. Ozil would’ve been celebrated so much more if he played in Bergkamp’s era.

            2. Right, but this is the central issue with Özil!

               In modern football we don’t worship no10’s the way we used to during Bergkamp’s time. Look at James Rodriguez, another sublime talent who out on loan. Younger players who want play like 10s need to be adaptable two-way players and Özil, even at his best, is strictly a one-way player.

            3. Uhh.. Bergkamp was a fiesty defender. And can we also stop calling Ozil a “#10” because he’s not. He’s a forward player who has an almost unique talent for finding and using space. This causes problems with positional awareness of his teammates and – this is the real problem – with Emery’s rather staid attack patterns. Emery’s attack has some benefits – low crosses in the box are incredibly dangerous – and is a key component of Man City’s tactics but he lacks the multifaceted nature of City’s attacks.

               And I want to point out that Pep Guardiola had a similar problem with Aguero. People even said Agero would never make it at City because he doesn’t play “both ends”. And they were wrong. Pep was even wrong and admits it himself.

               And finally, if Emery is so big up on players playing both ends of the pitch why is he letting Kolasinac play? Or Auba? And why aren’t we a pressing team? Why are we so awful and disorganized on defense? This isn’t about injuries or personnel, this is about organization and pressing. We don’t even try it. I’m starting to think Emery is not as good as people thought.

            4. Very good points against the argument that Emery is not picking Özil because he doesn’t defend. Or maybe it becomes one too many with him on the pitch in addition to Kolasinac and Aubameyang.

               As for Özil being a #10 or not, he did wonders playing more on the right-hand side of the pitch for Madrid back in the day. I’ve thought for a few years that Özil and Müller are two sides of the Ramdeuter coin, one assist-oriented and the other more goals-oriented. They both have exceptional talent to read and find space no-one else sees. I’d be interested to see a comparative analysis as both seem to have struggled for form in the last few years. Maybe the game has evolved in subtle ways that hinders their play style (as a completely different theory than the one stated above that Özil is forced to play deeper since a couple years and Cazorla’s injury).

            5. Yes Bergkamp was an active, elbow-y defender. And he stayed on his feet at all costs. Özil could learn from that. And Aguero is not analagous to Özil. Part of what’s made poor Mesut so vulnerable is he’s an assists guy, which means he’s at the mercy of his teammates finishing, and he’s never scored enough goals.

               No-one thought Aguero would ever fail at City, even Pep. Sorry I’m not buying that. I think it was Aguero’s last season at Atletico when he scored a hat-trick against Messi’s Barca. It was one of the most sensational performances of the entire European season – confirmation that a young phenom could do it against the best.

               Was Guardiola playing multi-faceted attacking football in his first season? Not really, that style crystallised after he bought super talents like Sane and some 50m pound fullbacks.

               I agree with you 100% that we need to be much better in all aspects of the game. But our performances don’t surprise me after last season’s calamity. Sarri, with a far better base squad and some big-money signings, has also struggled in his first season. 7 months into Wenger’s tenure, lots of people had written him off.

               And errr… why shouldn’t we factor in how injuries or personnel (quality and availablility) affect our performances? Huh? No, we are not going to press effectively in every game (we did it so well against Chelsea that MOTD devoted most of the game analysis to how well we pressed in packs). It’s a process you can’t teach easily in 6 months or Klopp would have done it in his first season.

      2. Don’t believe the “denied.” Just a bit too convenient.

         1. Ha! And the rumor isn’t?

            1. Tim Stillman convinced me. I don’t think he was motivated to denigrate Ozil.

   4. It’s narrative like this that cause uproar and you end up taking the higher ground by saying others are fanboys. The point of what people are saying is that the club is treating an employee in the manner that it is doing right now. The point is that as a club, we have values and yet we are going against those values.

      Then here you go making it about why Ozil deserves to be left out, why he should be treated this different way, how he was indulged, how much he is earning, how he got his contract and how he his performances have been bad.

      I think people who have had it in for Mesut all along are happy with this situation and how he is being treated without thinking about the perception that the club is painting for itself. I don’t care if we play him or not, but I do care that players play based on ability, performances, attitude and application. I hope that players of Mesut’s calibre are given the opportunity and structure to thrive, because this is not Sunday league.

      So all the problems you might have with Ozil, look at management who have been watching him play for this team for 5 seasons and thought that he deserves his wages. He is not Ice Cube, he didn’t pull up at the club’s offices with some gangsters and demand the money he got. Ozil didn’t hold up nude pics of anyone and demand his wages, he leveraged his talent, his popularity and his impact at the club to ASK for his wages, and they obliged.

      I also know that Mesut is one of our most played players in the his time at the club. The only players who have played more than him were probably Sanchez, maybe Giroud, Koscielny and maybe Cech. We complained about Sanchez never taking abreak and now he seems burned out, but Ozil took breaks and I applaud that. Even Cristiano had to be told to rest from time to time, Ozil though has missed fewer games than Ramsey since he arrived at Arsenal, since people are on this 100 games missed thing, Koscielny has missed 99, and none of them have been because he has been dropped by the manager. And those Europa League games last season, those where played by a B-side, so the whole first team didn’t play, not just Ozil.

      So the bigger picture is this, is this club respecting the values that Arsene stood for until the end? Is this treatment of an employee showing this club’s class? The Ozil bashing, please save that for an analysis of him as a player.

      1. And how is the employee treating the club? It works both ways. And what if the coddling under the old regime wasn’t good for the team? For a sense of collective fight and ruthlessness? What if it made the team individualistic instead of team-oriented?

         I think this Ozil situation is going to hurt us in the short-term, but I do think it’s part of a shift in values / culture, and one I’ve wanted to see for a number of years now. I’m only (genuinely) sorry that Ozil seems unable to fit into it.

         1. Please tell us how Ozil is treating the club, because you just said that and didn’t elaborate. I don’t see anything wrong that Ozil has done as an employee, if anything he has been an exemplary employee. Unless I am wrong and there are certain details I missed, I would really like to know what he has done.

            So what has he done or how has he treated the club?

            1. He leveraged a frankly ridiculous contract in the wake of our vulnerability, stormed out of training when the coach said he wasn’t an automatic starter, and then began a series of social media posts designed to undermine the manager, the latest of which was clearly capitalizing on an embarrassing loss to BATE Borisov.

               Maybe you think Ozil is being treated unfairly, but please don’t pretend that he’s innocent in this saga.

      2. For the record, I’ve been on this site for years saying Ozil is my favorite Arsenal player (well, he and Ramsey), so there’s no long-term hate-on hiding behind my comments!

         1. I will provide you with 3 points to show why your reasons are personal attacks rather than objective analysis of a situation.

            1. Every contract negotiated by every player is what they think they are worth. if you think Ozil is paying himself out of the club’s pockets, I would agree. Ozil is supposed to ask for as much as he can get. Your anger should be directed at the people who payed him the wage, not him. I didn’t hear anyone criticize Ramsey for looking for 400k, if anything he was praised for it as a footballer who is just trying to get as much as possible from his last big deal. The employer pays the employee what has been agreed, so the club agreed to pay him what he asked. he didn’t hold a gun to their heads.

            2. The training ground incident isn’t a certainty, it is a rumor and since it is a rumor, it can go both ways. Ozil might have left because he was doing more than iwobi, Mkhi and other attacking players and yet, is being told to do more or be left out. At that point of the season, Ozil was our highest chance creator for the season per 90 and was actually having a bad season by his standards. So if we are talking about a rumor, the coach could also be at fault. I mean his treatment of Ozil right now could be used to determine his treatment of talented players, just like Ben Arfa. If you treat players accordingly, then maybe they wont need to walk away. Ozil has played under many managers and never behaved this way, and I have to believe that at 30, he would all of a sudden just decide to do that? Based on Ozil and Emery’s histories in football, i know Ozil hasn’t shown petulence against any manager besides Mourinho, and Emery has had issues with players at every single club he has been at. Go and find out about Emery and Carlos Bacca.

            3. Mesut Ozil has only put out positive tweets since the start of the season. How you interpret that is up to you, but judgment of his tweets says more about you than it does about him. Here is a player who is mistreated, he tweets that he loves the club, and then gets criticized for it? for all we know he might really love this club. even if he doesnt, its a positive messege. You are the one who chose for it to affect you in that way. I saw it, learned a new quote and moved on, you who has issues with Ozil, chose to overanalyse a simple tweet. what happened to freedom of speech, while showing the responsibility to not criticize, insult or discriminate. I love that tweet and I didn’t think of any circumstances or hidden meanings behind it. I think your anger at our loss has been projected at a Tweet by him, how husbands who don’t love their wives anymore, get angry at anything she does because he had a bad day at work.

            1. Yeah, like I said, no hate here. I don’t even hate him for that tweet, even if I’m not so naive to see it as innocent. Cheers, big-ears.

9. So I have a theory about Ozil’s performances but I don’t have the stats to prove this, I only have ,y observation and as many know, with Ozil, sometimes there is more/less than meets the eye.

   I remember his first 3 seasons with Arsenal and the type of assists he provided during those seasons. His first assist is an example of the kind of assist I am talking about. I have seen him play a more free role in the side when Arteta and later on Carzola were deployed behind him. Their safety in possession, ability to beat a press and playmaking ability, allowed Ozil to push up or drift into further spaces with the knowledge that the ball will be transitioned well.

   I think the combination of Arteta with Ramsey, where Ramsey put in defensive numbers of Coquelin, while adding numbers upfront helped provide him with movement and helped him receive the ball in positions where he can do the most damage. With the Coqzorla combination, the same applied.

   The injury to Carzola left us without a player to pick the ball up from the defence, beat a press by either dribbling or passing around them, as Arteta did. Granit Xhaka is a wonderful player who is good, when he is on the ball and has space to pass through the lines, which is what I thought he was signed for, to give the ball to Ozil in between the lines. What he does not have though is press resistance, and teams figured that out.

   Ramsey and Coquelin can play behind Ozil, if there is a player who we have missed, it is a player to transition the ball from defence, to the final third. Xhaka was targeted and most of his errors last season were in the few first few games where teams pressed the he’ll out of him, and he coughed up the ball e.g. Leicester, Everton, Stoke and Liverpool.

   Since we lost Arteta and Carzola, I have noticed Ozil dropping deeper and deeper, just to get on the ball. This season we have noticed Lacazette drop deep just to get on the ball. Matteo Guendouzi has helped in beating a press, but he still needs the playmaking ability that will help him decide not just when to and where to pass, but also when and where not to pass.

   I would like to see whether the stats show my observations which are:

   1. Mesut has been dropping deeper to make up for our inability to get the ball upfield safely, without goofing it upfront. I would like to see his average positions for each season.

   2. His key passes have turned from assists, to pre-assists because of his tendency to drop deeper. His number of key passes from outside the 18 in the last 2 seasons, compared to his first 3 seasons.

   I just think he has changed his way of playing to make up for our shortcomings in midfield. I do think we can play without him if we can be committed to a style of play that he does not fit into, but if we are to be pragmatic, Ozil and our two strikers must be played.

   1. Interesting take! I would really like to see an analysis on the points you raise.

10. If our results are great without Ozil, Emery is a genius. On the other hand if it’s a slump in performance and result without Ozil, Emery is a bungler. It’s pretty difficult to see it any other way.

    1. As a man, you are responsible for he outcome of your decisions.

11. Very interesting post today Tim. I think it’s easy to forget the scale of the task that is replacing a one man institution whose imprint on the club lasted decades. We aren’t going to see Arsenal flourish under new management in under a year, not after that type of transition. Is there any example of a sports team that was able to flourish after replacing a manager who was tenured so long? Not that I can think of. The club has to learn to crawl again. I am not surprised that we are struggling a bit, but I actually think all things considered he has done well to keep us within reach of the top 4 places.

    1. I think Emery has been lucky so far to even be in the top 6. He’s not a great manager. his record against other top managers is appalling, his teams tend to be error prone, and he’s got a weirdly bad away record. We got a 2nd tier coach at Arsenal, m8.

       1. It’s not that I think he’s the greatest coach ever, but I do think a lot of people are selling him short based on a very difficult situation at Arsenal which was not of his own making.

12. So…Shameless plug. I wrote a snarky, I hope funny, take on the whole Ozil hullabaloo, if anyone would care to check it out.

    https://positivelyarsenal.com/2019/02/17/mesut-ozil-my-hero-or-your-villain/

    1. Loved it! Captured well the absurdity of the “subversive” tweet

    2. Sorry, Shard, I think that’s terribly naive. That tweet, and in particular its timing, was not innocent.

       The reaction to the tweet is itself an indication that it has accomplished its aims perfectly. I think, however, Ozil, 31, badly misjudges his ability to accomplish what Pogba, 25, did to Mourinho. I believe over the last few months that he has been curating his social media to undermine a manager he does not like…including putting out a misty-eyed vision of loyalty and halcyon Bergkampesque days gone by after a particularly embarrassing result for Emery, a manager who is clearly dismissive of this player who embodies the Arsenal way and its loyal fanbase.

       I’m surprised you see that coincidence as unmotivated.

       1. I never claimed it was unmotivated. It’s clearly not. It also doesn’t deserve the sanctimonious uproar it caused about undermining the manager or whatever. If a statement of loyalty can be read universally as undermining the club that says more about the club than the player IMO..

          But thanks for your feedback. All of you. Claude, Jw1, and you Bun.

    3. Shard, reading through the comments, seems an audience there who understand your ‘peculiar’ sense of humor.

       Doubly pleased that Positively Arsenal is fed to News Now Arsenal– and that your effort may reach a much-wider audience.

       Definitely ‘The Onion’ -level piece of snark.
       Top shelf my friend.

       jw1

       1. If only it was Onion level.

          It isn’t. Sorry Shard.

13. Promised myself this season I’d make a (mental) point of stepping back from my usual immersion in the club/players and the results. That this season– this ‘transition season’– was going to be difficult to assess, except from a vantage that included a bigger picture attitude and perspective.

    Decided this for a few reasons.
    Was resigned to the state of the club and upcoming changes– in advance of most fans– back about this time last season. Convinced that AW was stepping down at season’s end? It was a part of my prepping emotionally for the break-up. With a new backroom team gelling, felt there was a chance it might take until this Summer’s TW (2019) to see effects of new methods and probably the means/funds. Then, thinking it was bound to be Mikel Arteta to follow Wenger; rationalized the overhaul of the roster would certainly take longer (than to our current juncture).

    Then! The rug got yanked from under Arteta’s appointment. Et voilà! Unai Emery — like some sleight-of-hand parlor trick appears from nowhere. Rationalized I could live with this. Highly disappointed. But determined to back the club in a time of transition.

    Until– the rumors of Ivan’s departure surfaced. All bets were then off. Though not a fan of Gazidis’ bunker-style leadership? His hand on the HMS Arsenal tiller was the only force keeping AFC on course. So began a seemingly directionless drift.

    We know the rest of it. Or most of it. Raul Sanllehi won the arm twisting contest. Sven has split. We fans are now faced with a form of ruthlessness expressed by both Raul and Unai. As they wish. Whatever their motivations? Whatever we surmise from their actions?
    It’s the current reality– for the present at least. This is the ruthlessness that was bellowed-for by the majority of Gooners in the run-up to Wenger’s demise. Well, the media played them off as a majority anyway (what a contrived sh^storm that was!).

    So circling back? Won’t bring myself to be critical of what’s occurring at a granular level within Arsenal– until this season’s through.

    Very much enjoyed what I saw into November. Some of what I saw in December. And little since.
    Will sit perched here on a parapet– at distance– waiting to assess what can be measured. When it can be. And it’s not time yet.

    jw1

    1. Fantastic comment. This is also much of what I felt, except after initial disappointment at his announcement, I was very excited for the new season under Unai Emery.

       I expected the football to get better. There were even flashes there, we played out from the back. And even when we messed it up, at least there was a philosophy there. The half time subs were weird but fine the manager is getting to know his players in different stuations. Now though, he doesn’t sub at halftime even if we need it. Man’s a weirdo. And I like weirdos, but he’s a weirdo in an indecipherable way.

       You know what, play Ozil, don’t play Ozil, no longer treat players – even ‘difficult’ players – with respect, I don’t really care anymore. If the new Arsenal has an identity and personality I feel a sense of belonging to, I’ll be cheering for them loudly, if not, I’ll probably end up a little more distant.

       I still think the club has underestimated the appeal of its ‘values’ to the fans around the world. But we’ll see I suppose.

       1. Spot-on IMO with the underestimation of the global-fan and appeal. (Other than oiligarchies?) No secret where the money comes from allowing most PL clubs to pay exorbitant transfer fees. Being obscene-level TV rights fees. Those channels are branching too. When I can pay $2.99 to watch Arsenal play BATE online (Bleacher Report)? We’ve hit the sweet-spot of true cafeteria-style programming. Choose the fare– and only the fare you want. That $2.99 is a bit inflated for a single slice of Arsenal. But that it isn’t glommed with sh^t I don’t want for a $19.99 monthly recurring tab? Boy– am I all-in on that!

          Start multiplying $2.99 (even $1.99 or $0.99 at some point soon) — per match? From global fanbase multipliers? Holy Bejeezus– now we’re talking real money. That– is the value of maintaining AFC’s pristine brand outside of the UK/Europe. Will come a time where domestic income to the club will be exceeded by this stream.

          New World Order-On-Demand. 😉

          jw1

    2. Of all the things that have happened at Arsenal recently, Arteta becoming a great coach in the eyes of some fans before he’s ever managed a game is the weirdest.

       Just want to make a quick point about “values” as well, because some folks on here have decided to use it as their new rhetorical stick to beat Emery with.

       Wenger was extremely vocal about people who criticised him and the club. Right up to his last season he would get very animated at pressers when fan unrest was at boiling point, and insist that fans back the club until the end of the season. “Judge us in the summer”.

       So when people talk about the values left at the club, don’t just cherry-pick the ones that help you criticise Emery. Because what Prof would have told all of you criticising Emery non-stop for dropping Özil, or for not playing jazz football in his first 6 months is: ease up on the frenzied criticism, support the club and judge us at the end of the season. To Wenger, loyalty to the club even in tough circumstances was very much a club value.

       Personally I think on the subject of Arsenal, Gooners have a right to be vocal. We just don’t have the right to make up situational “values” just to hammer the new coach with. When Wenger first arrived at the club and told guys like Lee Dixon and Paul Merson to go easy on the booze and kebabs, I wonder if they replied “but boss why are you trampling on Arsenal’s values?”

       1. Agree with you on Arteta. Emery was a good, sound and rational pick.

          One out of three ain’t bad.

       2. Kaius– not certain if your comment is meant to reply to mine or perhaps mostly Shard’s — but will rebut a couple of items as if at mine.

          Have never expressed here or on other threads that I felt Mikel Arteta might end up a ‘great’ manager. Very, very few do. Do I feel he might have exceeded whatever Unai Emery may accomplish at AFC? Yes, I do. Whatever level of success he attains.

          Am in no fashion criticizing Emery. Yes, characterizing his methods when I use the term ‘ruthless’. That he and Raul Sanllehi have opted to cut– contracts, minutes, and player’s public utterings off-at-the-knees? Isn’t different than other clubs’ tactics. But does differ from those I’ve come to expect at AFC.

          Am trying to enjoy the positive aspects of this season’s on-pitch performances– without getting twisted-knickers when it doesn’t pan out. The BATE performance was a bitter pill– but I washed that down with a few cold Coronas.

          My opinion on the hiring of Emery? He was a safe choice when we were poised to go BIG. The new backroom team brought an impressive set of skills among accomplished individuals. We were going to go with Gazidis gut-call and bring in a Gunner to maintain a continuum of tradition and character. One with a hint of AW. Then– effing-Ivan got outvoted and weak at the knees– refused to fight for his choice, and decided to bail. Leaving us in the lurch we find ourselves.

          Thinking sooner than later– we’re going to see we’ve traded our Dortmund pipeline for the Sevilla one. And I’m not sure were going to find the quality required to even approach BIG in the near-term.

          So– please. Know I’m not kicking anyone’s shins by stating I was disappointed with the selection of Emery (weird or not! Pretty weird myself TBH.) But simply saw his selection as a compromise that may take Arsenal much longer to retake ground-zero– and begin a true rebuild.

          Mikel Arteta? May have flamed out. We’ll never know.
          But I have a gut-hunch of my own– that his ceiling is much higher than Emery’s could ever be.

          jw1

          1. jw, sorry about the confusion – I really appreciate your comment, especially saying Emery needs the season before we pass judgement. Seems to be an increasingly rare sentiment on here.

             My thing about Arteta is, he’s not a “Gunner”. He spent most of his career at Rangers and Everton. If he’s such a Gunner why did he leave for City the minute they came knocking? He practically ran up there. It’s so weird how we laud some people who leave us for rival clubs and demonise others for doing the same thing.

             This is typical of the revisionism around Arteta, the myth that he’s a pure Arsenal man, the pure tabloid speculation that Gazidis had already decided on him and some quirk of fate meant we had to make do with lowly Emery. It’s bonkers.

             For what it’s worth, I see the attraction in a very young hip manager with no pedigree making the chance to make his name at Arsenal. In that case logic says you champion Tedesco or Nagelsmann or someone with the bare minimum top-level experience right? On closer examination, there really isn’t much that ties Arteta to us. Certainly not enough for us to see him as a huge lost opportunity.

             1. Agree to disagree.
                My perspective on Arteta to City was that it may well have been with both AW’s blessing and urging. Likely Wenger gauged the value of what the apprenticeship under Pep would one day be worth.

                Where does one find a pedigree such as Arteta’s? Nowhere. OK, Zidane maybe (hmm, very good example actually). MA’s exposure to so many top-level aspects of the game, academies, managers, and importantly– statistical analysis and technological methodologies? Possibly positioning Mikel Arteta as one of the few of a new breed of manager soon to be sought in football.

                We’ve had a spate of this in both US football and especially in baseball the last 3-4 years. Where old-guard managers that would normally be recycled into jobs with lesser clubs– are binned for younger managers who are versed in statistical analysis and application (I’ve had the good fortune of having a front-row seat being in Houston and watching the Astros go from worst to champs in 5 years time).

                I’ve mentioned on previous threads here that I’ve taken some flak for some beliefs I’ve become wed to. One is how StatDNA (video-driven stat analysis) has been integrated into the decision-making process of the club.

                I’ll use the following excerpt from David Ornstein’s recent podcast with Arseblog to express just how intertwined StatDNA and stat analysis are with Arsenal’s evaluation process:

                ===
                “One person I spoke to in the game felt that if Arsenal appointed a Spaniard as their head coach, even though Mislintat was closely involved –

                **…he was on what they said was a three-man panel, but was actually a four-man panel due to the involvement of Jaeson Rosenfeld [from Stat DNA] …**

                – that it would spell the end for Mislintat because a Spanish nucleus would form at the club and not include him. Mislintat was in favour of Emery’s appointment, so he was thinking in Arsenal’s best interests on that front.”
                ===

                I’ve done some research on the history of Arsenal’s involvement (2010), then outright purchase– of Chicago-based StatDNA (2012). But the name Jaeson Rosenfeld is news to me. As well as his inclusion on any executive-level panel of decision-makers.

                That said? Viewing the Arteta non-hiring through this additional lens– manages to add to the disappointment I had last June.

                jw1

14. “Arsenal are worse this season without Ozil”
    So?
    If you accept this is a rebuilding process Arsenal are in , then it makes perfect sense to not build a new team around a player like Ozil.
    Moody,” sickly” , disappears in too many games against tough teams and conditions.
    I don’t hate Ozil in the least, nor do I begrudge him his wages.
    That said, how many top clubs would stake their future on his fitness and willingness to fight for the shirt?
    The answer came in the last TW he was available for a move.
    I’m with Bun on this one.

    1. +1!

    2. Very well summed up Tom

15. There’s a massive gulf between teacher’s pet and disruptive influence. One is fairly benign, the other is pure poison. I’m not sure that Bunburyist has acknowledged the difference. And so Ozil becomes a figure of evil. We state as certain fact, things we are, at best, guessing at. There’s absolutely no evidence that Ozil is a cancer that Emery needs to excise. But there’s plenty of reporting on the contract coming to be seen as a millstone, and the club wants to free up funds. It’s the same mistake that Andrew and James made… starting with the notion that management is justified, and working backwards from there.

    No one’s hit Ozil harder than I have. it wasn’t that long ago that I was fighting Doc, insisting that his workfare was unacceptable, something Doc disagreed with. And lll say for the umpteenth time that it’s the right of the coach and management to decide that he doesn’t fit, and to go in another direction.

    But I’ll say again… if Ozil isn’t making your 18, it’s not a footballing decision, and you’re cutting your nose to spite your face. As Tim’s analysis here shows.

    Ozil is an Arsenal employee, irrespective of the size of his wages. And his treatment has been unacceptable. So we expect the club to ruthlessly brief against him, while his personal stock plummets. Surprise, guys. He bleeds red just like you. And the case for dressing room cancer seems a mite contrived and convenient.

    1. Claude, you don’t seriously think it’s as simple as plug and play Ozil and get goals and champagne football, do you? Every single player on the pitch brings something positive but there is a drawback on the other side of that as well except among the elite players. Ozil is elite in his own way but the drawback of how his presence on the pitch affects the team must be measured not just today or so far this season but also as an opportunity cost for the team’s development as envisioned by its current coach. This is his team now, a team whose ethos is principally founded upon graft, and Ozil just doesn’t fit into that anywhere at all. It’s not necessary to explain us or to his manager that Ozil finds good passes in the final 3rd. He has weighted that skill against the requirements of the team across the rest of the pitch and found it wanting, as is his prerogative as the coach of the team. Now, maybe he’s wrong about that and we will never know because the season won’t be replayed in an alternate universe. I don’t really care if you disagree with his decision, that is your prerogative. But this is no grand injustice or unfair persecution. Quite simply we have a player who doesn’t at all mesh with the preferences of his coach.

       And does he really make Arsenal better, on balance, when he plays? Well sure, because Emery only lets him start home games. Don’t you think that’s a bit of a confounder when you assess Arsenal points or goals with/without Ozil? (Hint: YES!)

       1. That is a good nuanced take, and honesty very little to disagree with. And to to the plug and play question.

          All I can do is marvel at how far you’ve traveled on Ozil. I think is the difference is the establishment. My main beef is with the club, which I think is acting dishonourably

          1. Yes and the change of establishment is exactly why I’m looking at Ozil so differently. None of this is meant to be a diss to the player, rather it’s a reflection of how the landscape around him has changed. Under Wenger he was an absolutely crucial piece to playing that type of football and the constant prattling about his defensive lapses missed that point. Wenger always wanted to play attacking football at all costs, he seemed more obsessed with that as his reign drew longer, and we needed Ozil to have any chance of that working. Ironically I think we also needed Pierre Emerick Aubameyang or someone very much like him to make it really tick. I would’ve loved to see Wenger given more of a chance work with him and Ozil in the same team. That version of Arsenal is for the history books and memoirs now, and as a consequence, Ozil is no longer a necessity.

             As for his little social media post, I could care less. This is getting into the realms of people analyzing Ariana Grande’s tattoos or trying to read the tea leaves on the latest public utterance of Anthony Davis as to his future intentions. We don’t know what Ozil meant, if he meant anything at all beyond the literal encouragement of perseverance. The rest is speculation at this point.

    2. I went to bat for Ozil countless times during the Wenger Years because he was the most pure epitome of the type of football we were trying to play back then and for that type of football to work at the highest level we truly, madly, deeply needed Ozil to be his best self in the biggest moments. It didn’t happen often enough, but the club still won 3 FA cups during his time here and that’s not too shabby.

    3. There’s a massive gulf between teacher’s pet and disruptive influence.

       ===

       I’m surprised to see this statement. There is no such gulf. In fact, “teacher’s pet” is always available to be read as “disruptive.”

       1. Huh? What an odd thing to say. It has the potential to devolve into a disruptive influence, but it’s not the same thing.

          1. Hence that key word in my post: “available.” Next!

             1. But if it was key, it goes against your argument that there is no such gulf, except in how they may be perceived.

             2. Ok, let me paraphrase: no gulf is given here. There is no assuming a gulf if the determining binary is “teacher’s pet” and “disruptive.” That binary always has within it its own self-immolation; there is no inherent disqualifying of the other term. No such gulf. The Gulf of Mexico, however, does exist.

16. Doc.. aka DRG

    Organic change means evolution. Not whatever this is. You don’t throw away the prime strength of your team after you’ve spent 100m+ giving yourself a 2-3 year window of opportunity and spent another 70m or so supplementing that.

    He said he’d play attacking football, and that he had detailed plans on how to use all the players. What is implied is that part of his job is winning over the players and get them to believe. One player may be a troublemaker. Let’s say Ozil. Too set in his ways. But also your most talented player. How you handle him is down to you. But then you also have the situation with Ramsey. Both these guys were picked as your captains and they’re now both out? And among all this..your style of football falls apart? That is on the manager.

    Come on man, this isn’t working to a plan. It’s a guy saying whatever he thought was necessary to get the job. And he’s been given rope to go against it by the man who brought him in.

    On a more abstract note, this isn’t a change in culture. It’s an evisceration of everything that stood before. You’re presuming a new culture will follow. Whatever it is will not be a culture. It’ll just be a set of rules. Which implies lower self regulation with need for greater control based solely on force. We’ll be Chelsea without the same money.

    On youngsters. Apart from Guen in the first team, we’ve had more opportunity to play youngsters and haven’t. Even against the might of Blackpool and Vorskla, only ESR really got any sort of playing time. Around 400 something minutes. Welbeck gets injured, play Nketiah. Instead of playing Xhaka at CB play Medley or Sheaf.. That is IF you’re committed to playing the youth. I don’t think he is at all. Just like any of the other things he said. I don’t have faith in Emery because he’s done none of what he said he intended to.

    1. “Doc.. aka DRG”.

       Good spot. Of course. Hmmm. Not sure about sock puppetry, particularly when both make an appearance, but who I am to decry that? 🙂

       I wish that Doc would stop arguing the establishment position EVERY TIME.

       Right up to Feb 2018 Arsene was just great, and doing fine.

       When Emery was using Ozil, he was the best thing since sliced bread, and… look at his workrate, argued Doc…. It is much improved! Who was saying Ozil was bad on D? Me. Who was pushing back the hardest? Dr Notorious. Im not saying this to ad hom… Im saying this because the easiest thing to do always is take the establishment position and build your arguments, work backwards, from that.

       Be that as it may, this isnt complicated. It’s the right of the coach (and wider management) to say “Mesut isnt part of my present core, or my future plans”. That’s cool. We’re not arguing that.

       We are arguing how they’re going about it. And how they’re going about it is antithetical to the values of the club.

       Secondly, the approach is self-defeating. As ive said a million times, Mesut IS one of your best 18 players, period. If youre leaving him out of your squad, then youre not making a footballing decision. And the one uniquely talented to see the forest for the trees in the crowded final third. The stats tell us so, from both Tim and myself.

       So what do you do? You go smart, not hot.

       Taking the side of Arsenal management on this issue is predicated on making a few, helpful assumptions, one of which is that Ozil is poisonous, to the culture and the squad. It’s a suspiciously new and convenient formulation. And it doesnt wash. He is a popular member of the squad. Arsenal PR love and use him a lot. Torreira took his shirt number, he said, so he could sit next to him in the dressing room. Remember those Alexis goal celebrations by himself? Tell me what you see with Mesut and Hector and Laca and Auba and the rest of the bunch, when he’s involved in a goal.

       Im fine with looking to go in a different direction, but youre destroying (again) asset value through, what is for me, unconscionably bad treatment. This is not my Arsenal. And it’s not the Arsenal that a lot of you, our American friends especially, said you decided to support. You didnt have tribal ties, or area ties like me, a former resident of Stoke Newington, N16, who could lean out of his window and hear the roar as the goals went in. What attracted you was the club’s values.

       Can the Arsenal hierarchy do needed culture change without being disreputable? I believe they can.

       If they want Ozil gone, and have communicated that to him fine. Pay him off, play him when we need him, and treat him like’s a valued part of the setup. Which he is, to the players.

       1. Following on from my earlier comment on this “destroying Arsenal values” strain of criticism people are hammering…

          The major flaw in these arguments like “this is not our Arsenal” is actually, this is exactly what Arsenal is like as a new manager settles in. People just don’t remember, were too young, or not supporters at all the last time it happened. A lot of current Gooners believe that Wenger arrived fully formed and always made correct decisions that were a hit with the fans. Quite the opposite.

          During the 96-98 period, lots of people wanted Merse and Wrighty to start all the time and Wenger wanted to try different things and it caused a hell of a lot of friction. Bergkamp’s inability to travel caused a lot of mistrust as we pushed for a first European title. People understood why, but it still caused resentment. What’s happening now is not malpractice or disreputable behaviour from Emery or Arsenal. Far from being unconscionably bad treatment, it’s just what happens when clubs change coaches, except most of us have no recent memory of what that’s like.

          We don’t have an insight to what happens at the training ground. Even then, Emery is no more obliged to include or start Özil than he is Elneny. They’re all just squad players, no more, no less. And their salaries are irrelevant.

          Personally I wanted us to move on from Özil/Ramsey as our primary creators and look to the future. We should have blown up most of the squad that took part in last season’s collapse anyway. But this is how it’s done, because you can’t change players the way you change managers.

          Özil has no pre-ordained right to a place in the matchday squad. Even if you work tirelessly on the training ground (you don’t have to be poisonous), another player may just fit the coach’s plan better. You can criticise the coach for his choices, but it’s his prerogative. This isn’t even taking the management side, it’s just how it works. None of these players has won a title, they’re all expendable, and we need to stop acting like players die when they leave Arsenal. Arsenal pay their players enough to set them up for life. None will struggle to find new clubs if they moderate their salary demands.

          I mean, people are giving Emery hell over not playing youth players now? Emery has made a point of giving Torreira and Guendouzi loads of playing time and we’ll see the benefits of that next season. We’ve given more playing time to under 23s than any team except Leicester. Talk about values, how about the truth – is thst still a value? Or is it fair game to level any criticism you want at Emery because he hasn’t achieved everything he set out to in his first 7 months?

          1. No one would care who he selects if he was getting results and showing improvement on the pitch. That’s his entire remit. That’s what he’s failing at. We play hideous football. Worse than under Arsene Wenger.

             As for the values of the club, I think most of us just want the club to act honorably toward players. It goes both ways here. We bemoan players who get out of their contract in order to get a more lucrative contract elsewhere and then all the sudden the club hierarchy are doing the opposite to one of the most popular and talented players on the team. It feels like club management are scapegoating Ozil’s contract as the reason why we are in poverty, why we can’t rebuild, and why we aren’t playing well. I don’t seem to remember this sort of behaviour happening over the last 20 years.

          2. I’m not giving him hell. I’m pointing out that was one of the criteria given for his hire, which like the others, he has not met. I mean you’re counting two MFs we brought in for the first team and Iwobi as youth, which ok if that’s your definition, certainly isn’t mine.

             Attacking, pressing, better defending, playing youth, improving players rather than relying on the transfer market. Those were the reasons he was brought in. Can you honestly say he’s delivered on any of them?

             And the results are fine. If he gets us top 4 or the EL. Great. Good on him and it will be good for Arsenal. It still doesn’t change that he’s not doing any of what he was apparently hired to.

             Wenger made changes. He didn’t come in with a wrecking ball. He kept around Rice as his right hand man, he changed training but won Adams and the rest over, and extended their careers. Those he replaced he first upgraded on.. and the players and fans saw improvements in their performances and results. That there was some resistance to that change does not mean it’s the same thing happening with Emery. It’s clearly not. Wenger didn’t sell Adams or bench Bergkamp, and didn’t confuse the players with a shifting philosophy.

             1. Your very last para is key. Absolutely key.

             2. Wrighty talks about Wenger with great reverence, even though he shifted him on to West Ham later. He also talks about Anelka, whom he played with briefly, with awe. Wenger upgraded on Wright AND played him at the same time. And Wrighty was smart enough to get it. He was a big cheese, record goalscorer and all. Anelka was a young Frenchman no one had heard of.

                Tony Adams was a boozer and an alcoholic, and drinking was part of the culture. What’s more toxic a culture than that? Another coach determined to show him the size of his cojones would have had him out in 2 minutes. Wenger made him the sort of player who could confidently continue a run upfield, and score one of the classic Arsenal goals against Everton.

                Arsene is not a particularly good example in this argument.

          3. On values, you’re confusing Arsene with Arsenal. I know that they sound alike, but they’re not. The club is a century old. That’s one.

             Two, well I stopped reading halfway, at this 👇🏽
             “We don’t have an insight to what happens at the training ground. Even then, Emery is no more obliged to include or start Özil than he is Elneny”.

             It’s not an obligation. It is, unfortunately for this argument, a statistical fact that Ozil is equipped to play a role in spicing up some of the dross that Emery has been serving up. There are good, empirical arguments, upthread, as to why. Engage them.

             1. Of course that’s where you stopped reading. You and others are firmly settled into your #narrative where the Özil situation is the only paradigm at play and we as fans have all the information we need to draw pretty far-reaching conclusions.

                Arseblog, in the blog post you commended for being much more measured, made a point of saying he thinks there’s some key info we’re not privy to that will come out in the end and help explain what’s happened.

                That seems reasonable to me. Stating that Arsenal are “constructively dismissing” Özil does not. If he’d left in the summer the consensus would’ve been “exquisitely talented player that gave us a shot at a title in 2015 but who’s been too inconsistent since to sustain that impact”.

                Some of you have decided that Emery hasn’t transformed Arsenal in 6 months and must be written off. Cool opinion, but you sound like the same people that wrote Wenger off after his first few months. And yes, in Wenger’s first year there was a total shift in philosophy which the players didn’t immediately take to under Wenger. It’s the entire narrative of his first twelve months at the club!

                It culminated in the make or break players-only meeting that spurred a title charge. How can anyone suggest Adams and co just smoothly accepted all of Wenger’s changes? Absolute rubbish.

                Tbh I can’t really blame anyone not wanting to give Emery time. This is why Wenger should’ve gone much sooner. Our fanbase used up every ounce of patience it had during the banter era and Wenger’s last two contracts. And now we have “fans” who think it’s perfectly fine to pass judgement on a new coach on a weekly basis. Maybe the next coach we appoint should be on a rolling six-month contract?

             2. Kaius– in all of the scores of column inches of comments being devoted to this post (and TBH– this has been a fairly amazing debate no matter who holds what positions)– I wanted to point out– that after Arteta-as -manager was negated? Once Emery was selected– I got in line to support he– and Arsenal. Further– I’ve also expressed I’m reserving judgment on his and the teams performance ‘until the Summer’ (like any good AW acolyte would!).

                Just felt this might have been lost in our exchanges upthread. 🙂

                jw1

             3. Noted jw. I said in an earlier post that I appreciate the level of nuance you bring to your viewpoints, and I respect anyone who’s willing to give the new coach time.

                We’re in the same boat in a way because Jardim was my first choice, but the club made a decision and the man in charge needs patience and support. No coach, even Arteta who I was vehemently against us hiring, deserves to be written off for not performing miracles in his first season.

17. I have only been able to read the Posts and comments recently – personal reasons – but I have been fascinated by the plethora of viewpoints from some top class fans, and very well reasoned and rationalised comments most of them are.

    As with all debates, misunderstandings can occur when words or phrases are used in an argument with an implied understanding that the definitions of these words or phrases are universally accepted.

    Take Shard’s last comment @ 1:04 a.m. I agree in principle with most of the sentiments expressed there. Using “organic change’ and defining it as an ‘evolutionary process’ (OK I have changed that slightly – but not the meaning) is very useful example of how English can be a tricky tool in written form, as it has so many nuances.

    In this instance, explaining that throwing away playing assets or their monetary value makes sense, but as that phrase is widely understood to mean that it refers to a gradual change, it can also be used as an indication of the time expected to accomplish a task.

    Emery has effectively only been in charge of the team for about 6/7 months and it is difficult to judge him on such a short ‘evolutionary timescale’, I would suggest.

    In addition, he was a given the role at a time when there has been a groundswell of change at Arsenal following the deposing of AW, a brilliant manager of 22 years, and the CE Gazidis who chose to leave for pastures new, as well as the changes in the corporate structure of the football management of the club, and the unexpectedly rapid departure of one of those key appointees, and that would tax even the best of managers.

    Use of the word ‘values’ is another expression that is potentially difficult to use in a discussion. Again it is usually defined as ‘principles or standards of behaviour’ but that is a somewhat esoteric, personalised and therefore subjective expression, and each fan may have their own view on what these are.

    I am just trying to rationalise the moot differences, and major ones too, that I have read over the past few days following the Bate bashing.

    For what it is worth, and leaving aside any judgemental matters concerning the club;

    1. I think any manager appointed at this time, needs to be a very strong character/personality to be able to bear the weight of outrageous fortune that inevitably strikes in such turbulent times, as well as being a technically excellent coach. [Not sure that Emery has both of those attributes, or either — to soon to judge?]

    2. I have loved Mesut Özil ever since I saw him play for Real Madrid. That has not changed — I want to keep him, so stop being silly please (Arsenal) and use his talents. Mesut, put in a shift in every game, and show the doubters you are top drawer.

    3. I also love, Rambo, and his amazing comeback from his career threatening leg injury., all those years ago. He is superb, even in a floundering team. He has effectively gone from Arsenal already– how the hell did that happen?

    4. The obvious boost to help overcome our current team struggles is to bring in some of the cream of the youth crop. It will lift both the team and the fans.

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