Morning all.
With the season over and just player and staff movement on the agenda, there’s not going to much to talk about so posts won’t be as frequent. If any of you who read HH have a topic you’d like discussed on here, please feel free to email me. It doesn’t have to be lengthy, just a question would suffice, just to get us talking.
Arsenal sacking Steve Bould is something I find not only strange in itself but the way Arsenal fans have heard about it. As yet, I’ve seen nothing official from the club, just a social media comment which kicked the whole sorry story off.
Being an under 23 manager/coach can’t be easy. Each season it’s likely to lose players as they go out on loan to gain experience. Also, with Arsenal having been in the Europa Cup for the last few years, the early group fixtures have often seen Mikel Arteta and Unai Emery before him, call upon some of the younger players to make up the squad. Great for them, not so great for Steve Bould who might then find himself without Two, three or four of his better players for the next under 23 fixture.
Imagine if a first team manager/coach, lets us Arteta as an example, had a Sunday fixture away at St Mary’s but couldn’t select Partey, Xhaka, Holding and Tierney because they’d played the day before. Even if they’d not actually played but had travelled to another country to sit on the bench, they’d still not be ready to play I’m sure.
But that’s the life for an under 23 manager/coach isn’t it? Ten under 23 players are out on loan, Daniel Ballard, Tyreece John-Jules, Mark McGuinness, Harry Clarke, Jordi Osei-Tutu, Zech Medley, Ben Sheaf, Matt Smith, James Olayinka and Joseph Olowu. Does anyone honestly believe Steve Bould and his players would have needed the right result on the final day of the season in order to avoid relegation had they been in the the team? Being without the likes of Folarin Balogun, Miguel Azeez and one or two others who were part of the Europa League campaign, certainly pre Christmas and it’s easy to understand how Steve Bould struggled this season.
Of course younger players need a loan to gain experience just like they need to be involved with the first team when they’re ready but sometimes, it’s not about who goes out of a squad, it’s who comes in to replace them.
It’s easy to sack a manager when things go wrong, but what about the person responsible for the academy? The person who swooped up a few freebies last summer, who thought it wise to deplete an under 23 squad to the extent he did. Is he not accountable for the under 23’s disappointing season too?
What are your thoughts?
Good morning Rico, no official announcement, but no official denial either. Looks like he’s gone to me.
Morning Cicero. Ditto, perhaps Merts should go too. How could he go from being a player one minute to head of our academy the next.
Merts – no experience
Arteta – no experience
Edu – no club experience
Arsenal seem to be a club for the retired or novice…
Seems it’s a no win situation, being an U-23’s coach.
Develop players.
Lose them to first team football or see them go out on loan.
Gain solid results despite all other factors.
Fail to achieve this and you’re out.
Perfect 🙂
Rico, you’re obviously not aware of the new govt devised modern day apprenticeships😊
Good morning by the way
Morning Wavy, that’s funny. 😆
Since the moment Enos Stanley Kroenke walked into the Arsenal boardroom the entire club, from the chairman down to the the mascot, has been in a constant state of flux. Board members come and go, CEOs, DOFs, MDs, managers, coaches, scouts, medics, statisticians, heads of this, directors of that sweep in and out through a constantly revolving door.
Collectively, they make it obvious that they couldn’t run the proverbial piss up in a brewery.
Is it any wonder that Arsenal Football Club has been in decline since the start of the Kroenke ownership era.
Or is it since Wenger left Cicero? We can’t forget the club is run by the board, not the Kroenke family. Josh told us that.
Here you go Potter,
https://www.espn.com.br/artigo/_/id/8675045/audios-mostram-comando-de-del-nero-na-cbf-apos-banimento-da-fifa-e-ok-para-renovacao-de-tite-caboclo-tentou-trocar-comissao-da-selecao
Cicero, Well said.
Lose Stan, the club will flourish.
No question at all…….well, unless we get someone like him in 😉
Hi Rico and all
Maybe this is how we are going to make money sack every one with experience and hire non experience people on a minimum pay.
Scott is your local club still moving
Geoff,
Everything’s gone quiet on that front so I really have no idea.
No Rico, the rot set in long before Wenger’s demise which was a direct result of the chaos created by Enos and his “run the club as a business” ethic together with his appointment of executives who knew sweet f**k all about Arsenal FC, it’s history, it’s fans and English football in general.
The day Dein was sacked probably Cicero, now there was a man who cared greatly about Arsenal.
My opinion is though, the decline set in before Kroenke took over. Post 2005/06, the decline has been steady. From the day Arsene Wenger put money before progress was the beginning of where we are now. Whilst I believe Arsenal could be owned by someone better than the Kroenke family, I don’t think they are wholly to blame for the changes we’ve seen. Blaming him though is the easy way out imo. That’s not a criticism of anyone who chooses to blame Kroenke, just my opinion.
I agree with you Rico, Dein did care about the club but he wasn’t sacked, when push came to shove, he sold out to Usmanov’s Red and White Holdings and walked away.
Money talks.
I’m pretty sure he was booted out Cicero, I’ll leave to google it but he certainly didn’t want to leave. It was he I’m sure who first brought Kroenke into the club. At that time though PHW rejected him.
Chelsea sack people all the time, but they’ve got some hard nosed operators running the club and that why if you fail you go, as Thomas Tuchel will find out in a years time.
A year Kev, that long? 😂
I am not sticking up for Kroenke but a lot of the blame for how we are now, should also go to the major share holders who chose to sell their shares to Kroenke
I agree Geoff and I think one or two of them have expressed their regret. I think Lady Nina has been quoted as saying she sold to the wrong guy. I take If from that she means she wishes she sold to Usmanov.
Dean according to google Dean left when Kroenke arrived due to Irreconcilable differences with the rest of the board
Rico was it Lady Nina who said she would sell her shares to Kroenke because she promised some one that she would never sell to Usmanov.
I guess she must be regretting that decision now
Yes Geoff.
David Dein was forced out by Danny Fiszman and Peter Hill wood. He wanted to take the club down a different route realising that with the Abramovic take over at Chelsea , Arsenal could not afford to stand still and his personal spat with Fiszman forced him to look for a means to oust Fiszman .
The rest is now under the bridge and it is what it is.
The article about Edu claims that whilst he was working for the Brazillian F.A he knowingly sought advice from a guy called De Nero who was banned for corruption .
more than that it’s down to our Portugese friend as it’s his language.
Thanks Potter, no big deal really then.
Ha ha Kev, about as lovely as Mourinho eh…
Sky Sports “Former Chelsea forward Willian is understood to be keen on a return to Stamford Bridge.”
Does he need a lift?
Well yeah Rico, I initially was going to say ‘the next few months’ but I was trying to be kind to Tuchel as he’s such a lovely guy. 😉
Yeah, we should make Chelsea pay a fee to cover the last year of his wages Rico
I’d just be glad to see him gone Kev.
About £6m would cover it.
Last year they offered him 2 years which he refused. If they are interested they may only offer 1 maybe that’s enough before he heads for the U.S
If we hadn’t signed Willian, would Reiss Nelson have been given a chance in the first team?
That is never going to happen but if it did Rico it would be beautiful.
The only way Chelsea will sign Willian is if they can buy him for fifty pounds give him a 2 year deal and then sell him to the a American club in six months for two million pounds.
Willian has been a total anti climax.
Such a shame.
I do think he’s tried, but it just hasn’t happened at all for a player I was damn happy to get.
Now, can’t wait to see the back of him lol
He can take Auba with him 🙂
Good morning Rico and all
I have just taken a look at the Villa results…..Martinez has kept 15 clean sheets. Villa have conceded 46 goals and finished 11th.
Leno has kept 12 clean sheets, Arsenal have conceded 39 goals.
Is Leno better than Martinez? Or is Martinez the best one. Each to his own conclusions.
The problem at Arsenal was the attack scored 55 goals. BANG AVERAGE. How much did the midfielders combined score? So defensively we were good. It’s midfield and attack who left a lot to be desired
Morning Devil, all.
New post up now
https://highbury-house.com/2021/05/26/are-arsenal-planning-to-sell-saliba/
DG with out knowing how many penalty’s or own goals I would still take Martinez our defenders looked better when leno was not playing
Geoff, personally I preferred Martinez and sometimes I feel that with him as GK we would have conceded even less. I too have noticed that defenders preferred MArtinez….it was evident even this season when Matty Ryan played. Maybe its a language thing, lack of basic communication??
Morning guys.
Our defence looked better as the season went on.
It was our wasteful ways in front of goals that killed us.
Exactly Scott. We wasted so much of the few chances we created.
Essentially we need to have an attack which gobbles up chances….but we also need a midfield which chips in with quite a few goals and also with creating them. Love him or loathe him, Pepe is up there at the top for chances created and goals scored. On the opposite wing Saka’s the same. So those two have contributed much more than anyone else for goals. Its only the wastefulness of Auba and Laca which let us down and lack of clear cut chances throughout the first part of the season which destroyed our chances of getting around 12 – 20 more points than we have.
Its only a small matter of 6 points which saw us in the place we are instead of 4th. And 20 more points would have seen us 2nd…a mere 6 points behind City.
Exactly, Devil.
Auba especially has been just awful this season but that’s staying the obvious.
Who do we replace him with?
Can we get rid of him?