Disclaimer: you’re probably not going to agree with me, that’s ok, let’s disagree like adults. No need for name calling, no personal attacks, and just at least try to see what the other person is saying. I will do the same. Ask my readers, people change my mind all the time. I admit when I’m wrong and this blog isn’t intended to be “The Answer” to anything but rather a discussion on concepts like loyalty and club.
Loyalty
You have probably already heard but in case you missed some of the facts, Laurent Koscielny has refused to travel to the USA with Arsenal, Arsenal have started disciplinary proceedings, and Arsenal made the unprecedented move of publicly denouncing Koscielny through the web site.
Before the ink was dry on the club’s statement the BBC’s David Ornstein published Laurent Koscielny’s response. Since the club aired its grievances, so too has Koz.
His first problem is that he was rushed back and his playing time wasn’t managed properly. In my piece yesterday I wrote that you could see he wasn’t 100% for the first month or so after his return to the first team in 2018/19.
But let’s step back even before that and remember why Koscielny was injured in the first place and the consequences. Arsenal knew about Koscielny’s achilles problems for a full year before the tendon snapped.
On 16 May 2017 Koscielny revealed publicly that he was suffering an achilles problem and needed daily treatment. He also stated that the club were taking precautions over his playing time. He probably should have had surgery that summer. We don’t know why he didn’t.
Arsenal reduced his schedule in 2017/18 and he went from playing 3675 minutes (41 full 90 equivalents) to 2790 minutes (31 full 90 equivalents). The club and player were managing the inflammation up to the day of the Europa League semi-final 2nd leg against Atletico Madrid. In the 10th minute of that match, Koscielny’s achilles ruptured.
I can tell you how painful an achilles rupture is: imagine you had an extra set of testicles in your calf and someone came along with a golf club and teed off on those balls Happy Gilmore style. That’s pretty close. It’s a gut level, steel cold, sharp pain that radiates throughout your entire body. I broke my back in a car accident and that was less painful than rupturing an achilles.
And worse than the physical pain, Wenger described Koscielny as “devastated” that he would miss out on the World Cup that summer. At 33 years old, that was Koscielny’s last chance at a World Cup. And in case you’ve forgotten, France won.
I’ve never been that close to something that large. So I have no idea what it feels like to have that ripped away from you. But it cannot be good and I think it changes you as a person.
So, in the context of what’s going on here with Koscielny, it’s important to remember that Koscielny gave everything for Arsenal Football Club. He gave up his body and he gave up the World Cup in order to try to win the Europa League for Arsenal Football Club. That, for me, is loyalty and everything he does after that has to be understood in the context of that loyalty.
What about the children?
Ian Wright posted a passionate video on his instagram feed this about this Koscielny situation. In it he implores Koz to think about the children, Smith-Rowe, Reiss Nelson, so on. What are they going to think when they see the captain of the club acting this way.
It’s an emotional appeal and he’s right: what will they think when they see this happening? But let’s flip this slightly and ask what people like Saliba, Nelson, Nketiah, and Smith-Rowe will think when they see how ARSENAL are acting?
Arsenal have publicly shamed Koscielny in order to force the 33 year old, 9 year club veteran, with an injury history, and man who has given everything to the club, to stay at the club. And they are doing this because they are a) broke (no money to sign players) and b) desperate for center backs. I keep hearing people say “Arsenal are a big club, no one is bigger than Arsenal” but Arsenal aren’t acting like a big club. They are acting like a club headed into bankruptcy and pinching every last penny.
At one level I get why this ruthlessness at Arsenal appeals to people. Arsenal have been described as a creche, Wenger was notorious for just letting players go (Fabregas, van Persie, etc) and said that he wouldn’t stand in a player’s way if they needed to leave the club. That was hugely frustrating to many supporters (myself included) and fans wanted the club to “let van Persie rot in the reserves”. So, this looks like Arsenal “finally putting their foot down.” It looks like a strong move from Arsenal. But it’s really not.
This isn’t like saying no to Cesc when he left us for almost nothing to go back to Barca. This is forcing a player who is well beyond his service date to stay. And they aren’t even doing it because they really want him to play, they are willing to let him go if there’s a “reasonable offer.” In other words, this is about money, end of.
You need to Stan behind Kroenke’s Arsenal
Wenger is gone. He left Arsenal in a mess, without a doubt. I think he went selfish at the end, wanted to win the European trophy that eluded him his entire career and the result was a very messy personnel situation at Arsenal, including contracts running down, giant pay packets for older players, a disastrous midfield and defense, and an academy system that hasn’t produced anywhere near what it should do.
His admonition to hold true to the values of the club seems to have gone with him as well. Stripped of the old guard, what remains at Highbury House is Enos Kroenke’s Arsenal. And Enos Kroenke’s Arsenal is corporate Arsenal.
The danger here is that the history of the club is cynically co-opted by the corporation and used to keep supporters in line. The corporation needs brand ambassadors (the fans) and brand evangelists (us bloggers and yes, even the AFTV folks). We provide free advertisement for the club.
I think that happened already with the Adidas launch. It was a masterful bit of advertisement. Get in Ian Wright, show Rocky Rocastle, bring in some celebs, and deliver the message that Adidas is the brand that values the club and its history. Buy a shirt so that you too can prove that you “Remember Who You Are, What You Are, and Who You Represent” ™.
But the most important bit was a little blurb from an older supporter who delivered the message that supporters should just support, no matter what. Show up to the games, never moan, never complain, just support. It’s a common sentiment on Twitter. A thing I hear hurled back at me whenever I criticize Unai Emery, a player, or even Raul Sanllehi.
40 years ago, that was probably a good message. The club was a locally owned, locally run club, with local players. It was a place where friends would gather to escape the drudgery of everyday life in North London. Attendance was relatively inexpensive but the real draw was that Arsenal were a social club. You went to the Arsenal because your mates went to the Arsenal.
But that message of endless support becomes twisted in the modern world. What am I really supporting now? Am I “made a Londoner” by buying a shirt? Does Ozil lose his Turkish/German heritage and become a bad-boy yardie? What is Arsenal?
They are a multi-national football brand with an entertainment section, owned by a billionaire who is wholly disinterested in the sport, and who only cares about the bottom line. They are a corporation run for profit which happens to be located in North London.
There are club-like aspects that remain at Arsenal. I know people who still attend matches because of the social component. I know that for a lot of folks Arsenal is still a club. But that’s not the reason why Arsenal exist anymore. Arsenal exist to enrich one already extremely wealthy man (and his family).
In that context this blinkered cry for constant support and to never criticize the team is weird. You are being told not just to be a supporter, but to be a Stan. To be an “Uberfan”, to be a brand evangelist. To be like those Apple fanboys who stan* in line for 24 hours whenever Apple release a new phone charger that requires you to buy an entirely new $1000 phone.
You are told to preach the gospel of Arsenal. And to react with righteous indignation when anyone criticizes it. People who shout “get behind the club no matter what” are Arsenal fundamentalists.
And while you are doing that, Enos is going to pass around the collection plate, whispering “yes, support the Arsenal no matter what and make sure you give, give until it hurts. You won’t get into the kingdom of heaven** holding onto money. You need to give that to the Arsenal so that they can put it to good use. “
Koz
That’s why we need to keep Koz. There are no footballing reasons to keep him – he won’t play more than 22 games next season and I doubt he will be great in those matches. He’s not been even remotely disloyal to this club, so savaging him in the press is uncalled for. This is just about the last few ruddy cents that we can stuff into the collection plate to keep this dying corporate show on the road.
Hey, and when they keep him and he finally “squashes” the beef he has with Emery, the club and fans will rejoice. Koscielny will be reborn an Arsenal faithful, like a new signing.
*intentional
**the ever elusive “title challenge” all this money is going toward
Koscielny like Ramsey Wilshere and Welbeck was being paid big money while they were all injured. Those 3 players left for nothing all the money we paid them we didnt get a penny back when they left.Now Koscielny wants us to let him leave while he has one year to go so he can get another 3 year contract in France.Yes he can leave but buy out his contract.At last the board has woken up
To what end exactly? 2 Million? 3? To squeeze some games out of a 33 year old crooked centreback we aren’t able to replace?
Well, I guess I see it different. Those players were injured playing for Arsenal. The club has a responsibility to pay them because they were injured. They left for nothing because the club decided to let them go for nothing.
Sure, he could buy out his contract. But why would he do that if the club promised him he could go?
If there is a contract that says Kos can go for nothing, what’s keeping him from tendering it? I would be embarrassed that a player that big is talking about an undocumented understanding. He has a whole team feeding off him – agents, PR people, lawyers, etc. Did they all agree to the idea of “an understanding”?
I stand with Arsenal management on this. Let’s run the place like the serious business it is. Doesn’t matter if all we make from selling Kos is a million pounds. Wenger literally ran the place aground with sentiments. It’s time to try principles. And for me, that’s where the kids come in. They need to see that this is a setup where contracts are taken seriously. Where you cannot go on strike to press your demands. They need to be made to see that Kos is setting the wrong example.
So he put in 9 years of loyal service? Petr Cech put in more at Chelsea, and they still didn’t let him go for free. He cost us more than 10 million pounds. And that was after he had gone to Abramovich to appeal to be allowed to leave. He did not go on strike.
We all need to get used to the fact that club is going to run like a serious business going forward.
My perception is that the new Arsenal ownership & management will loot club resources and leave it in a shambles. I live in the U. S. In my opinion, based on what I’e seen/not seen re U S teams, Kronke only cares for his bank account and will do/say anything to pursue that goal. He has surrounded himself with like-minded & compliant individuals. Sven caught on quick. Koz, who has always said that he wanted to end his career in France, wants, in my opinion, to be treated fairly. Mark my words!!!
The Rams, Nuggets and Avalanche are all among the best teams going forward in their respective leagues. They all have young cores who are competitive now and going forward. The complete opposite of Arsenal.
The Rams got schooled in the Super Bowl. The Nuggets are a small-market backwater who haven’t legitimately challenged for ages…I didn’t hear Kawhi rushing to sign there. And, the Avalanche haven’t come near NHL glory.
Having peripherally witnessed Kroenke’s non-sports business dealings, Arsenal are in a whole heap of trouble.
I think there’s a bit of a lie in this.
Rams – got to the superbowl and lost (sound familiar) but did so because they drafted high and grabbed a QB. The logistics of why this is important are difficult to explain but it has to do with salary caps and young players, basically, they got themselves a Fabregas. But Kroenke doesn’t put any money into this team and they spend well under the salary cap. Further, this can’t be analogous to Arsenal because it’s a franchise, because of the draft system, and because they can (and just did) move the team to get massive corporate welfare from a new city.
Nuggets – Finally won their division after five seasons of absolutely poor basketball thanks to a career season by center Jokic. This season was a huge surprise to many, most pundits expected them to finish roughly the same as before. But again, like the Rams, these are monopolies with salary caps, trade deals, drafts, and systems that all benefit the wealthy. Nuggets are under the salary cap (like the Rams) and it will be a surprise to me if they make the playoffs again next season despite some folks saying they had an A+ offseason. Also, this is the sport that the Kroenke’s know BEST. Josh is president of the Nuggets and ran the club so poorly the last five years it’s almost considered a joke club.
Avalanche – I have to admit, you got me there, I see they made the playoffs (2nd time in a row) by finishing 5th in a division of 7 teams where there’s only 17 points difference between the teams after 82 games. Just looking at those facts I would guess that Hockey is a lot more unpredictable or egalitarian than other sports. Perhaps there’s less big money in hockey? Maybe something to do with the sport itself? In that no one wants to play it?
Reading this article made me feel like there’s nothing but sadness now. For the situation. For our plight in general with pretending to be broke. For our captain’s revolt. For the loss of our values. And most of all, for how quickly our fans turned on Koscielny after all he’s done for us. If we can’t respect that, then surely we’re not a club anymore.
The only defense I have against this sadness is anger. When I think about what last season could have been like if we weren’t trying to dismantle everything and just accepted the challenge, that makes me angry. Emery’s nonsense words about Ramsey’s injury and Wenger’s competitive spirit make me angry. Raul Sanllehi making us cheap versions of Barcelona makes me angry. The club statement on Kos makes me angry.
I can’t say I’m looking forward to the season. Whenever I try to find a positive the club throws out another negative. I might need a break from Arsenal. Other leagues are interesting, and the NBA season ought to be really good. Wimbledon was good today.
Cannot agree with you enough, mate. Not winning was okay, but losing our values along the way?
What is Arsenal anymore? It sure as hell doesn’t embody class, respect or victory through harmony.
The Juventus signings this season look like an ambitious club pushing for more, AND the lot of players looks to be entertaining.
Looks like I’ll have to at least ADD them to my “must watch” list.
Oh, and let the Kos go, he’s earned it (see Villa signing 3 CBs for our current budget and Arsenal total zippo).
I agree with most of your well-written piece. I think that Laurent has earned the right to go, especially given how he has put his body on the line to his own cost. I find it hard to disbelieve that Arsenal have reneged on an agreement given how we have become a fly-by-night city law firm but this is purely idle speculation on my part. He has been our only decent defender for a decade and clearly, he is broken. Kronke will need to spend for us to finish above Everton next season and it will need to be from his own pocket, given the Gazidis / Wenger mismanagement towards the end. I don’t share your view of Wenger, yes he stayed too long and yes he was naive for believing that FFP was any more that an advanced exercise in bullshit but he was Arsenal, he cared and tried to do the right thing for the right reasons. Maybe he failed in some of his endeavours but we are all fallible.
I’m a pretty big Wenger Stan. I think he kind of gave in on his principles at the end. But hey, maybe not.
He said his concerns would be more short term after he signed his second last contract in 2014. That’s also what was asked of him. No one wanted to sell or save money on wages. I suppose it could be considered giving up on principles but mostly that’s just used now as an excuse for this club to plead poverty.
Agreed, the poverty pleading is becoming increasingly tiresome. As I obsessively read the same recycled articles consisting of ‘war chest’ and ’45 Million’ I despair. It’s also annoying that I still have hope, I really should grow up. I saw a wonderful graphic detailing how many of the PL clubs were truly self-sustaining and it was just us. I used to feel proud of this but I am beginning to question whether I’m happy that my principles will lead straight to seventh place. Football is becoming increasingly hard to love.
I’m a Wenger Stan with reservations like you. The biggest principle that he broke for me was originally winning the league with soldiers and a couple of artists and then believing that Cezanne andPicasso alone could win the league thereafter but Poundland PIcasso instead. For me Gazidis was a shadow snake but again this is possibly more my distrust of smooth, financial types rather than rational common sense.
Good article. I agree 100% and is a large reason that I really don’t give a toss about next season. Arsenal are slowly drifting into a club where only being on the Premiership gravy train matters. Only when that is threatened, will the owner act.
I have to be honest – there is a part of me that hopes that it crashes and burns for Kroenke. He deserves no less for his excessive greed.
I think that the plan is to have is continue what they have been doing as the club slides deeper into mid-table. They will hope that the frogs (paying fans) will grow used to the rising heat and not realize that they are being royally screwed. The good players will want to leave and they will try to blood in youth and cheaper alternatives. It will take some years and more pain before they hit rock bottom because there is still a ways to go for that to hit.
The faults in the club start and end with kroenke, he is only concerned about the bottom line at the end of the day, for a sports team in need of serious overhauling that can not cut it.. The coming season will bring more anguish and pain if money is not spent.. Blind loyalty cant work at all..
The future is what worries me.
We are not going to get in the top 4.
Next year we will have a small budget again.
The players we have don’t have much value in the Market.
Aub is getting old and Ozil also, as well as draining the club with his salary.
Our only hope is that our youngsters can turn out to be big players. We need 2 or 3 of them to become superstars.
If this doesn’t happen the old anecdote of mid table team might actually become a reality.
Some much for our Arsenal values and all the talk of Kronke wanting to keep them.
We are dying
.
What a bunch of fucking snowflakes.
This article is an opinion that I do not share in. Yes he has been a loyal servant and bla bla bla. Totally understand and agree, HOWEVER. Club has done its due diligence and contractual obligations to provide him med care, wages, contract extensions. The way I see it is that if I am a professional of any given field and I have been offered and accepted a contract, I should honour and uphold the conditions of that contract. Equally the club has every right to show compassion and let go early or as it seems in this case, stand by the original contractual agreement and require compliance from Koscielny. In case of refusal, such as this, club has every right to take action such as making public statements addressing the issue and or take any further disciplinary actions deemed necessary and appropriate to the situation. Regardless of past history of how the club has handled congrats of Fabregas, Van Persie and so on, we are in the here and now and with the new management in place, I support the manner in which this is being handled.
Hi new guy,
I’m guessing you’re the gentleman who said SNOWFLAKE SNOWFLAKE SNOWFLAKE at me on Twitter and have returned to yell snowflake at everyone some more. You know, the first person to call someone a snowflake was probably a really smart guy.
Anyway, this post was held in moderation for using blue language. Please feel free to disagree further, without resorting to base name calling. If you can’t keep it together, I can and will ban you. In the meantime I have gone ahead and approved this post despite the opening sentence because I think it’s hilarious when someone calls someone else a snowflake – typically it’s projection of the highest order.
Have a great day.
Alex, are you a Spurs fan in disguise? You sure don’t sound like an Arsenal fan. All that yelling, I can feel the IQ points dropping around here. Sheesh.
Don’t know why supporters just dont boycott matches, the only way Stan will feel it. Filling up the stadium week in and out then complaining his smiling all the way to the bank and doesn’t give a monkey! I’ve personally given up as my passion for the club hasn’t been matched by the club.
Someone mentioned to me that in order to really hit Arsenal, you would need to protest their sponsors. Boycotting games is well and fine but organized boycotts of Adidas, Emirates, and other sponsors would really hit them in the yarbles. That’s what brought down Blatter’s FIFA. Once Adidas realizes that the atmos around Arsenal is toxic they will pull out and the knock on effect will be that other sponsors won’t want to sign up until the problem is gone.
Arsenal’s mendacity and manipulation have hit trumpian (or borisian) levels. I have no desire to watch the “kit launch video” and be bamboozled. I have no desire to buy anymore “merch”. Not even sure about this season.
We are being outmaneuvered, out-planned, out-thought, out-gunned…and the club doesn’t give a fcuk.
Kos is legend. He deserves better.
Shame Arsenal. Shame.
Visible empty spaces on the terracing will soon hit what sponsors are willing to spend. They won’t want to see their name next to that.
Yes, and organized, visible protests against the sponsors will make that happen even faster.
Imagine if everyone who is dissatisfied with Arsenal right now had said on Twitter #NotBuyingAdidas or something similar and boycotted the new kits? Other sponsors, potential sponsors, would perk right up and be worried AF.
Getting right on it.
I think in order for me to enjoy an Arsenal match I have to at least be under the momentary illusion that the most important thing to everyone involved (fans, the club, ownership) is the team’s performance on the pitch. It doesn’t have to be true, and isn’t, because it’s obvious at this point Arsenal are a line-item in an investment portfolio, but if I can still suspend belief for 90 minutes every weekend, I get a nice little reprieve from all the messed up stuff that’s going down in the world.
Like you said Tim, there isn’t really a footballing reason to keep Kos. And if I have to watch him run out on the field next year against his will, it’s going to become really difficult to watch those matches.
One more point I’ll add: Even in Wenger’s darkest days, his love for the club was unquestionable. As a fan you at least knew he wanted what you wanted – to win. It made me an infinitely more patient as a result.
I have this niggling, uneasy feeling about this bizarre situation. It doesn’t make sense and doesn’t at all tally with the view that I have of Laurent the player. Yes he is paid and well-paid at that but I don’t think that he could ever be accused of having shirked responsibility. While some call in sick, he plays; while most are unreliable, he has been a rock, going about things in his own quiet, determined, unassuming way. He would have had better offers in his decade with us, but he chose not to jump ship; yes, speculation on my part but he’s been one of the few who would have been welcomed into most of the top four teams (maybe not now). It’s absurd of me to pretend that I understand him as a man but all his actions so far point to the opposite of ducking out of a contract. Clearly, none of us know what is going on behind the scenes but if I had to believe one version of events based on having a limited grip on the facts, I would be more likely to trust someone who has never let me down. Am I being precious or is this all rather un-Arsenal like? If he was made a promise, then I admire him but if not, then he had me fooled and I guess I back the club, even though I’m not sure exactly what it is any more.
I agree with this.
Yeah I guess another reason this is such a bummer is we don’t really know what’s going on. We can’t assume good intentions on the part of the club. We’re just left to wonder. That stinks!
Good point, I hadn’t thought about the spectre of Laurent playing against his will. I agree that it would tarnish this season and surely poison the dressing room (although I’m not having a dig at Laurent here). I’m looking for reasons to be cheerful and until a more buoyant life raft of hope appears, I too will cling to the notion that this may be a blessing, as we will now definitely have to buy a CD. Like you I like to harbour the illusion that everyone wants to play for Arsenal. I know it’s soft but hearing that Zaha was a childhood Arsenal fan means that I want him at any half-reasonable cost; 80 million is fine – a bargain given what we paid for Mustafi. I love the way in which Zaha can be a bit nasty and spiteful on the pitch like Bergkamp and Vieira; we miss players who genuinely hate losing. One of the AFTV characters described how he had met an Arsenal fan from Syria. The fan said that in spite of the bombing, killing and horror of day to day life in his country, supporting Arsenal was still the most stressful thing in his life.
You have echoed my thoughts on this pretty much exactly! (Although more articulately). Koz hasn’t put a pinkie toe wrong, in terms of his conduct, in nearly a decade at the club. For him to behave this way, something has to have gone seriously wrong with his relationship with the club.
I think the club’s behaviour here is shameful. And I get that they want to make a point of demonstrating their new policies with regards to players and contracts etc. and I’m all on board for that, but I think they’ve picked the wrong hill to die on here. Koz is the last player that deserves this, the club would be barely losing anything by letting him go, to me it seems like the equivalent of giving him an old fashioned testimonial, and if anyone has earned that, it’s this guy.
Another top post Tim. Thanks again.
I usually side with players in situations such as this because I understand the motivation. Kos knows Arsenal will not give him another contract and his main focus is to take care of his family as best he can and have as much money in the bank when he has to stop playing and the weekly paychecks end. . if he can get a 3 year deal in France he will probably have an couple extra million in his bank account when he retires which he can use to take care of his family. Call that greedy if you want but I suspect the majority of us would try to do the same thing if we were in his position. Like it or not football and all professional sports are about business and loyalty is a distant second place priority for both the players and the clubs.
With regard to the clubs response I think its a mistake to try to force a player who is not really going to help the team to stay against his wishes. Who wants a that sort of player in the locker room? The club doesn’t gain anything and we look a bit petty in doing it.
BTW, excellent article, Tim.
One, Olivier Giroud wasn’t playing enough for Arsenal to justify his world cup place, his coach said, so Olly needed to find a new club that gave him regular minutes.
Two, Giroud’s young family was settled in London, so Giroud preferred a local solution, like Chelsea, for example.
Astonishingly, Arsene signed off on a move to Chelsea. Who, with Giroud’s help finished third; and most directly with Giroud’s help defeated us in the Europa final, closing our last avenue to Champions League football. Of course, we were the architects of our own downfall in failing to qualify for CL… beat any bottom third side in our horror end of season run, and we’d have finished fourth. Not only that… Chelsea’s glaring problem was striker (Morata was a bust), and Wenger and Giroud helped them to solve it.
So the Giroud decision was a bad one. I can’t help feeling that that is informing how the club is acting with Koscielny. Of course the situations are different, and I believe that they should have let Kos go. But I think that the previous regime was too much of a soft touch (Ozil salary, letting Jack, Alexis, Ramsey and Ozil dawdle into last year of contracts), and the new regime may be over-compensating.
We should have told Giroud, “f*** you, you’re staying, or you can pick a club in France, Italy or China.” Instead, Wenger and Arsenal let him have his cake, eat it, and smear it in the club’s face.
This is what Arsene said at the time.
“Ideally, you don’t want him to go to a rival, but it was very difficult on the family side to leave London. We owe him a lot for his exceptional dedication and commitment to the club.”
We got 18m for Giroud, by the way. Not only did we help Chelsea solve their problem, qualify for the CL and win the Europa… we helped them to do so on the cheap.
No wonder Sanllehi is like, “f*** this shit.”
FYI: this comment was filtered for using “shit”.
While this is true, if we didn’t sell Giroud to Chelsea, we wouldn’t have been able to get Aubameyang. I think that was a big factor along with the human aspect.
The club didn’t make mistakes with these contracts claude. They knew what they were doing. It’s not that one day they woke up and thought, oh no, what have we done. It’s that since new management came in they changed their focus. It’s not a course correction as much as it is intentionally going down a new path.
They decided giroud wasn’t good enough, and the footballing gods proved them wrong. I’m happy for giroud as a person.
Hi Tim, please raise my comment out of the bin. It is not offensive or abusive.
Thank you.
Man you paint a depressing picture of the AFC. What’s worrying is that most of it is pretty close to the mark, especially about the owner. I do disagree with you re Kos. It regardless of his prior loyalty and service to the club, what he did was totally wrong. He is a paid professional and needs to behave as such. I don’t know what has happened between he and Arsenal, maybe his side of the story will be known when he released his autobiography but as things stand, from what little I know, he is in the wrong. If he wasn’t the team captain it would be bad enough but the captaincy takes it to a different level.
Kost Schoki is another one of those mismanaged injury situations. It basically took the club one and a half years to finally sign cover in Gabriel to alleviate the load on Koscielny. That is the other side of our failed transfer dealing of the last ten years, we didn’ just not sign better players but also didn’t or couldn’t manage the load on our players because we failed to find cover.
Damn it autocorrect, it’s supposed to say “Kos’ inflammated achilles”.
Kost Schoki is now a thing!
I just realised how you went the WWE Vince Mcmahon route of pointedly calling him Enos.
Hey Tim, good article as always.
I think the first thing that comes to mind after reading it is that the club’s management as it stands now had nothing to do with Kos’ injury and him playing through pain in the lead up to it, so these guys don’t feel responsible or grateful for his sacrifice.
I do agree that Emery played him too often and perhaps too soon last season but the same posters who now complain about that ,were some of the same people who said last season that the CL was a must and anything less than that would be a failure.
The simple fact is that even half fit Kos makes for better option at the back than the “saboteur “ Mustafi , or the new Greek kid.
Are Arsenal a better club with Kos available for , perhaps, say, 20 games or so?
You bet they are.
I’m not taking sides on this one and I don’t know what was promised to him by the club.
However, I did say last season that Arsenal were a mess and top four expectations needed to be tempered mostly because we didn’t have the players good enough for it.
We came close but only because other clubs with better players imploded or almost imploded towards the end.
Emery is fighting for his Arsenal survival this season and I can see why he would want to keep Kos.
It’s very easy for fans who want Emery gone to side with Kos, but if you put yourself in his shoes , I’ll bet those extra pair of testies in my calve most would probably do the same thing re Kos that Emery and CO are doing.
“Ian Wright posted a passionate video on his instagram feed this about this Koscielny situation. In it he implores Koz to think about the children, Smith-Rowe, Reiss Nelson, so on.”
Actually, Koscielny has 2 children. I’m surprised not much is said about his family priorities in the current mess. Here’s what he said 3 years ago on the club’s website: “Everything I do between now and the future will be for my children. I don’t stop living my life, but I will live for my children. They will have the best life. They speak English so it will be better for them in their future. I want the best things for them.” (https://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20160706/koscielny-i-live-for-my-children-now)
Huh.. excellent comment.
Feel like drifting away from the Arsenalness, if ever there was one. We had class! Apathy grows ever stronger!
A compliant and board who put in zero effort for director’s fees, a genius of a man, who despite being the most successful manager in club history, may also have hugely contributed to it’s mediocrity and a distant owner who has no interest in raising the club’s sport ambition beyond what is required to be a profitable part of his portfolio. Welcome to the new Arsenal.
I am not planning on renewing my DAZN membership (the only way to legally watch the Premier League in my country) and have decided to follow the club more distantly this year because I really don’t like this entity (whatever it is).
Im familiar with that line of thought. As much as I’d love to entertain the idea that I’m a free agent and have no obligation to be held at ransom by Arsenal for my affection, I know I can’t stop supporting Arsenal and start supporting another club. The emotional investment and the way it’s infiltrated into my identity makes it impossible. And of course, I blame Wenger for it. 😄
As far as Kos is concerned, the man deserves better. This is no way to appear tough, no way to take a stand. As a club, you should know more than counting on an injured 33 year old, even if Kos was being held back for purely sporting or financial reasons.
This is rich. We have players that we need to sell but who don’t want to leave, and we can’t force them out. Then we have a player who we want to keep but who wants to leave and is trying to force his way out. So it’s ok for the players to hold firm but not the club?
Anyone who supports Koscielny in this is being a hypocrite when they complain that we can’t get rid of Mustafi and Ozil etc.
You don’t get it. The problem is having such an adversarial relationship between players and club.
In the longer run, what does it get us? We offer players decent wages but not the best. Some of them could even go to lower English clubs and earn more. We offer them a decent European club to play in (for the moment) but not great. We’re not even a great stepping stone for the big European clubs since we pretend to be among them. We don’t offer a great style of play or philosophy, and now we don’t stay true to our words. What do we offer them that they can’t find elsewhere?
It also damages the brand which used our values to separate us from the rest. Our fanbase kept growing even in the ‘trophy drought’ years. This was not because we have any claim to it by virtue of our name alone.
Legacy matters. None of this is worth it.
I wonder if Arsenal let Kos go and didn’t replace him, for obvious lack of funds, and ended up missing out on the top four by a point next season, would you and like minded folks say , well, at least Arsenal showed class when it mattered.
Though I think I know the answer ,Shard.
So a couple of mill is going to help them buy a new CB? Or they’re going to play a player who’s half injured and doesn’t want to be here? Apart from anything else, this should bother you.
If they didn’t tell Kos he could go, they shouldn’t have made this statement (it achieves nothing positive) If they did tell him he could go and reneged, that’s worse. They should let him go and work around it.
Ryno, I’m not disagreeing, but for me it depends on whether Arsenal have reneged on an agreement with Laurent. Ozil and Mustafi is a different issue but as far as Ozil is concerned, Arsenal fans were demanding that heaven and earth were moved to sign him at the time of his last contract. He’s not been appreciably worse since then, but suddenly he has become Satan, we are fickle, all of us.
Wesuck.U
I get that this adolescent, knee jerk stuff has little place here but it makes me feel better somehow
Until things improve, I’m going to keep randomly posting that “we suck” or Tim bans me.
We suck.
I’m with kos 1000 percent, enjoyed that a lot thank you.
now that we’re bidding for proper defenders finally I’m slightly curious as to what’s happening in midfield. is ceballos the guy?
a summer of say Martin, ceb, tierney, dias, saliba, malcolm, brahimi. with Joe, Nelson, Martinez, Eddie, saka and Emile integrated efficiently (I’m looking at you Freddie) and I’d be relatively pleased with that once holding and bells is back.
though on reflection we’re in need of a back up right and center back also.
so little time, ish load to to.
great (if dispiriting) article – thanks Tim.
Only things I can add are:
We know that Koscielny has been thinking of returning to France for a while (it was reported he’d thought of it when Wenger left) and it makes sense on sporting and family grounds.
How did the people dealing with Koscielny not see how determined he was to leave?
It seems this came out of the blue even to them, which means that they’re reading of him and his intentions were really off.
I get that Arsenal would be happy to see him stay, and maybe that was what they had in mind in the most recent negotiations – adding (yet) another year to his contract (so even when he did leave next summer he had some residual value??). But surely he must have told them he wasn’t happy.
Who was he dealing with? Did he speak with Emery or Fahmy’s team?
Did they think the other was dealing with it?
Just seems poor man-management as much as anything.
The other thing that will be terrible to see if we do force him to stay next season is when he isn’t available to play due to fitness (back, tendinitis etc). We know it will legitimately happen, but now when it does there will be rolling eyes and “oh really?” with some fans hanging him out to dry. Which could mean him wanting to play through pain and risking serious injury again.
I just don’t get Arsenal’s stance – I just don’t get what our ‘upside’ is by doing this all so publicly. We don’t look strong – we’d look stronger letting him go back to France. Instead we look weak as we can’t even recruit a CB.
There were light-hearted jokes about us being the English Barcelona back in their heyday.
But that was on the pitch.
We’re becoming Barca-lite off it.
Tom
I never had a chance to get back to you about the Alex Morgan penalty in the World Cup final. Most people would not go down with a baby in their arms unless they were shot with an elephant gun. That is an utterly ridiculous comment.
Call it diving if you want but if a player is going to lose a penalty because he/she makes an special effort to stay up then there is probably not a single football player in the world who will try to stay on their feet in that situation.
As I understand the rules of the game, when a player kicks an opponent high in the upper body with a raised boot its a foul no matter what part of the pitch and its a foul even if the player does not go down. I don’t think you can just suspend the rules of the game based on the situation or your view of whether or not Alex Morgan went down to easily.
See the NY Red Bulls -NY FC game from 7/14/19. Charnot tries to make a defensive play on a cross into the box and kicks the striker, Brian White in the chest and it’s a PK. Charnot argues that he didn’t see White who was behind him but that didn’t matter. Didn’t even need VAR to check it.
All the people saying only contract matters and not a personal relationship or promises, just remember that all it states in the player’s contract is that he turn up for practice and games. He doesn’t need to play through injury, he doesn’t need to play with passion or perform. Is that an acceptable relationship to you?
player power rules OK.
End of the day, Koscielny has earned my trust while the new management is still a question mark (generous way of putting it).
It is like a long term employee is more of a face of a company than the new corporate team.
So to me Koscielny, who spent 9 years of distinguished service, is more Arsenal than Raul and Emery, who is on their 2nd year in with no memory for me to cherish. whatsoever
Thank you.
Arsenal was once a club that used to value the player’s humanity. It did in Wenger’s day and that should still count for something. Here you have a loyal player who has given his all to the club and now this broken down player is trying for one last payday as he rides off into the sunset of his career. So now we have this club trying to be Jimmy Cagney tough with the wrong person and in the wrong circumstance. This is not Neymar, Griezmann, Pogba, Icardi or Rabiot. This a 33 yo defender who is still coming back from a horrific injury who we both know should not be playing a ton of minutes for you and if he does (because of your attempts at getting a suitable replacement fail) and gets reinjure, then he will be left holding the bag with an expiring contract. We’ve seen this club f**k
up injury management in the past and there is absolutely no chance that it will not happen in the future when competing goals (recovery vs wins, e.g. Kevin Durant) rears it’s the ugly head. I will be curious to see how many times Ramsey gets a hamstring reinjured in Italy.
Koscielny has earned the right to be granted an intelligent exception from this new management team who should have stayed in London to shepherd transfer deals rather than cavorting in Las Vegas.