Daily Bits and Bobs

Why do you bother with Arsenal now?

Posted on by rico

Morning all.

Regulars here on Highbury House would have seen the comment Adam left a couple of days ago but I thought I’d throw it out to a wider audience. So here it is.

Somebody asked me yesterday evening why I still bothered watching Arsenal. It was a few hours after the latest horror-show performance from Unai Emery and his team. I realised that the reasons that I still put myself through such purgatory on what has become a weekly basis, are complex and personally deep. It has to do with family, history, friends plus an accident of birth that saw me spring to life all those years ago within walking distance of the old ground. It has to do with playing football on a daily basis on Highbury Fields and of stacks of old programmes accumulated by my dad and older brother that I would pore over when I was a kid. But, thinking further than that, I could come up with no rational reason why, given the mess the club finds itself in, to bother at all. Arsenal of today shares the name of the Arsenal of yesteryear but that’s about it really.

Looking around the PL and its avarice it’s hard to see how it could be anything else really. The Arsenal of my boyhood never won much either. It languished around mid-table which is where this Arsenal could well end up unless the powers that be start to face up to some stark realities. I doubt they will actually do that until it starts to hit them in the pocket, unless.. Unless they, in Raul and Edu (the accepted men on the ground with some clout) start to display awareness, leadership and power. These are traits, rare enough in themselves, (but pitifully scarce together) that must be wielded now, as a matter of urgency to halt this nightmare descent path that Unai Emery has become associated with and seemingly fixed upon. Like a nutter at the controls of an aeroplane with the stick thrust forward and a maniacal look on his face, the situation and the reasons are far, far more nuanced than that, as we realise. But the the stark reality is that they rolled the dice with Emery hoping for a pair of sixes and they ended up with a one and a two.

Most of us could see it last season where he blew a top four opportunity that almost any other manager would have gobbled up and then topped it off with a defeat in the Europa League final that has become the dictionary definition of the word Humiliating. It was dreadful, the players were dreadful but it gave, or should have given, the board all the information they needed for this season. He should have been sacked.

Before any of you start on the tedious road of the club not wanting to pay the money for the remainder of his contract, let me say that I think this is nonsense and little more than a stick to beat the Kroenkes with. If you’re paying Ozil £36 million for the remaining 2 years of his contract and leaving him out of the squad so the manager can flex his non-existent muscles, then a few million to get Emery out, is inconsequential.

Wenger shielded the Kroenke’s from the harsh realities of the PL in so many ways and Emery has bought them vividly face to face with them. He had an OK period last season but has shown virtually zero since then. He has done nothing to sort the defence, has alienated his midfield and his strikers seem all at sea. He has some good players and some average to decent ones but, critically, he has no team. There is so little joined-up play that Unai’s Arsenal are frightful to behold. They have been known to reduce supporters to tears with the wretchedness of their displays and their lack of interest in the badge they wear on their chests.

What happens next is anyone’s guess but I imagine the big sponsors are on the phone as I write. If it is Josh’s baby’s then he must act to remove Emery now and if Raul and/or Edu can’t plot a forward course, then they should go too. There’s no shame in appointing the wrong man after the length of Arsene’s tenure. It’s much easier to appoint the wrong man I would say. But what the fans won’t forgive and what will drive them away in their thousands, is this crass period of inactivity that the club seem prepared to indulge while Unai spouts his usual stuff.

I don’t know who the next manager should be. I don’t necessarily think it needs to be an Arsenal man either. All I know is that it cannot be Unai Emery because I have seen what he can do.

By Adam.

 

 

rico

47 thoughts on “Why do you bother with Arsenal now?”

  2. Le Coq Monster says:

    Good to be back ! 😆

    Yes, that was a great comment by Adam and I cant add anything.
    So I will just go back to the past post as there was mention about the…….. #WeCareDoYou………….It will be interesting to see Kroenke`s publicity department…..#ImFilthyRichFcukYou…..reply !

    I suppose I could add my analogy to Adam`s post………………………………….This is how I see the current predicament……………RMS Titanic Arsenal are leisurely sailing along to the drop zone and the on board owners see Ice Cubes in the distance whereas the passenger fans see a massive Iceberg !

    Who`s looking forward to the escapism of Thursday night`s game ? 😆

  6. Le Coq Monster says:

    It`s only a matter of time, Rico………..it will happen quicker than Adrian Durham giving Arsenal a compliment on Talksport. 🙂

  7. ScottfromOz says:

    Rico, as a non-local fan, I’ve found myself getting up at the wee hours we less and less often.
    Not because we are not getting results so much as we are playing rubbish football.
    I want to be entertained if I’m up at 3am Monday morning and atm, that’s not the case.
    As we’ve all said, there is no light at the end of the tunnel with Emery at the helm.
    Morning all.

  8. Wavy says:

    Good morning Rico and all. Glad to see you back again! I was reduced to skimming through News Now, it proved to be most disappointing. There’s no place like HH to be found. 😀

    Our present place in the world of football is precipitous to say the least. It seems the manager/coach is not up to the job, the players have ‘gone on strike’ on the field of play, viz they won’t play for the Spaniard. A little like Poch, down the road. The spuds have acted quickly although they may well live to regret it sooner rather than later.

    If the powers that be don’t act soon I think we will continue to free fall down the table to the point where we will be fighting against relegation. Not a happy thought. We will also see a flood of transfer requests, mostly from the star players thus losing the bulk of our talent and reduce the club to less than also rans, both during this season and probably countless seasons in the future. The league is littered with ‘big clubs’ languishing in the lower leagues as a result of poor results where players were just taking their inflated wage packets but doing little to earn their corn!

    Adam, your assessment of where we are is spot on. Emery is not for us, he probably never was, but someone else has to come in and pick up the pieces and very very soon. This state of affairs cannot be allowed to last much longer. Europa Cup will be an indication of the weekends who’s in charge bet. A loss and poor football should ensure a change of coach. A win might earn a short reprieve as long as sundays game, is it Norwich? Lose and that really has to be goodnight Vienna!

    Wenger had lost it, Emery has never had it and won’t ever find it! Accept the fact, take the medicine and move on. Just do it tout suite. Don’t let this situation fester until the club becomes toxic and metaphorically becomes infected by sepsis. And as we all know that is fatal.

    Lovely day again today. Cold, wet and miserable.

  10. rico says:

    That’s just it Scott and something perhaps the club don’t understand, it’s not the results, it’s how we get to those results.

    Morning Wavy. I had a nice day off though. 😂

  11. Adam says:

    Morning Rico, LC and all. Thanks for printing that comment. It was written from the depths of footballing despair really. I can remember that last few seasons of Arsene and thinking that things had ceased to make any sense and I am getting the same feelings with Unai. Actually, I have had it for a long, long time. One dull and freezing day last season I had the misfortune to watch us play Huddersfield at home. I was surprised at how awful it was. A nothing game full us 2-pass moves, turnovers, exposed defences and an electrifying sense of tension in the ground. I remember thinking “Is this the new world of Arsenal? Is this where we are going? Why does it look like we only have 10 men on the pitch?”
    The depressing drive home that evening was reminiscent of those latter Wenger days I mentioned. After decades of queuing and then season tickets, of friends and families and innumerable in-car post match drives home with all the raw analysis that is so much a part of the football fan experience, it seemed obvious that the feel-good factor hadn’t returned. In fact, as the season progressed I could only view Emery as the fabled naked Emperor but, even in those dark days I really could never have expected him to crash and burn so badly during the last months of the season.
    But there was a certain poetry in it. Emery had done the board’s job for them and failed perfectly on cue. I felt then, as I do now, that the club’s mistake had been made and that a new manager should have been recruited then and there. For reasons that seemed naive but (possibly) understandable, they decided that he hadn’t had enough time and that they wouldn’t judge him on his failures but would give him time. They cocked up. Nobody can doubt that surely. But we are here now. The results are shocking. The performances, I would suggest, are worse. They are literally throwing the season away now.
    If the board or Raul or whatever combination of men have the power to make the change are somehow frozen with fear about what might happen next then we have a really grave problem on our hands here.

  12. rico says:

    Morning Adam.

    I think it’s worse now than Wenger but perhaps that’s because with Wenger we could see the decline on a slow basis whereas with Emery, it’s just got worse instantly and with investment too.

    Arsene also has a history which kept people believing perhaps, Emery imo was employed to win the Europa Cup, return to CL football and then maybe leave. If that was the plan, it’s not worked and the board need a plan b.

  13. Adam says:

    Rico. I agree that it’s worse than late-Wenger and Unai has no well of prevIous achievements to draw on.
    The relationship between the club and the fans is tenuous and Arsenal fans, despite having a reputation for impatience etc have actually been very supportive to the team so far.
    Surely the delay must be down to the fact that there is no Plan B for succession in place. In itself this doesn’t really encourage much confidence in the club’s hierarchy for me.

  14. potter says:

    According to reports Freddie can only be employed as a manager for 12 weeks as he does not have the required certificates for Uefa . Perhaps we should ask Arsene to look at that ????????.
    Ou decline has been rapid although predictable . As if the way that we finished last season was not flashing like a neon light outside the boardroom it certainly was in my house and many of yours too I am sure.
    I have nothing personal against Emery it’s just that he is obviously out of his depth and prolonging the agony is doing neither us or him any good.
    He went above his station from Sevilla to PSG and found that he was unable to control the squad and felt the way to get control was to alienate Neymar , it all fell about and he was gone .
    For Neymar read Ozil and the outcome is very similar.
    He needs to return to his level where I am sure he will get back to doing what I believe he is good at , which is keeping an underdog in it’s respective hunt in a league which is less demanding.

  16. rico says:

    There’s always Bould as an interim option. Him and Freddie, just to break the boredom until the board can get who they really need.

  17. Andrew Halling says:

    Afternoon rico, all. Very good post Adam that just about says it all.

    I’ll add one thing. I used to go regularly under Bruce Rioch, not the best praised Arsenal Manager, and the football was a far far better standard than now.

  19. Le Coq Monster says:

    I see Kroenke`s Rams got a battering last night so he probably doesn`t even have a thought about Arsenal sinking !

  20. Andrew Halling says:

    That will be interesting Rico. Even better if we had a new name added on it! Spurs managed to swop in 24 hours. But then dragging things out is an Arsenal speciality. No balls.

  21. allezkev says:

    Afternoon Rico, is that your long awaited post about George Morrell…?

    Nice work Adam, worth a 2nd and 3rd read, a post that’ll chime with many fans who started their supportership pre: Emirates.

    My son, who reminds me of me at his age told me that it’s so bad, so toxic that even he is losing the desire to go and he doesn’t give up easily.
    I asked him if he was thinking of giving up his season ticket and he said no, he enjoyed the social side too much, mixing with his Arsenal friends, have a laugh with his mates but the football itself seems to becoming secondary to the social side. And once the football is no longer the primary reason for going then the antipathy towards the club will only grow and gnaw away at fans’ enthusiasm until they do gradually jettison their tickets and leave the club clear to flog them to all the many Arsenal visitors who treat the club as a ‘day out’ and creat minimal atmosphere.

    I guess the future will be more US style razzmatazz, big flags behind the goal (pathetic), maniacal DJ’s shouting rubbish over the PA and maybe even dancing girls…

    Of course the manager of the Arsenal Shops will be delighted as more ‘day trippers’ will mean a healthy boost to his coffers as he sells more rubbish from his outlets.

  22. Cicero says:

    Good evening all, nice to be back.

    Has he been sacked yet?

    Andrew, I doubt very much that Levy managed the change in just twenty-four hours, he must have had Moanio’s contract sorted and signed before he sacked the Argentine.

  26. ScottfromOz says:

    I’ve never seen things so unanimously negatively on HH.
    Says it all, to be honest.
    I’d say we have enough diversity here to be a relatively accurate representation of Arsenal fans.
    Even the FB page I frequent, who generally is as positive a group as I’ve seen is just on a downer.
    There isn’t a fan anywhere out there whose commented Emery should stay, that I’ve seen.
    That’s never happened before that I’ve seen.

  28. Le Coq Monster says:

    Tell you what I`d take my neighbours cat over the pussy in charge now !…………..a cat will defend it`s territory and shit in your neighbours garden, so prospective managerial/ coach cat would give a team talk at The Emirates then go over to Totnumbs ground and have a shit on the pitch !

  37. Aussie Geoff says:

    Hi Rico I’m like Scott I get early hours in the morning to watch Arsenal and it not so much loosing the match that angers me it is more about how we loose. it’s feel like the club does not cares about us the fans both in England and over seas. I feel sorry for the fans that travel and pay a lot of money each week to watch this crap either at home or away matches, I can understand how you feel last season I got so angry watching them I threw my coffee cup at the tv and blew the tv up, The bang was so loud I woke the family up, down side big blue with the misses and kids good side I replaced my 48inch tv with a 55 inch and was give given a foam football for next time I guess she does not understand that Arsenal is in our blood that’s why I could never follow another club.

  38. ScottfromOz says:

    Love it, Geoff 🙂
    One know Adam on here for quite a few years now, and met him app. 5 years ago.
    For him to write this piece is a massive wake up call for the club, if they cared enough to read it!!!!
    I realise it’s not possible for the club to read everyone 1% of social media comments, but I’d love to see them going through this one!!
    If they do, we’ll make sure an invoice for the telly is attached 🙂

  39. rico says:

    Morning Geoff, Scott, all.

    I’d bet my last £1 that someone at the club has the task of scrolling through all Arsenal related social media etc.

    Have you tried anger management Geoff? 😂

  41. Cicero says:

    ‘ morning all.

    A new name emerges in the “Who will replace Emery” stakes, Nuno Espirito Santo, the Wolves manager. That’s according to The Mail.

  45. Cicero says:

    Scott, he’s currently manager of Brazilian side Flamengo. He’d be a good fit for us, while manager of Benfica he got them to two Europa League finals….but didn’t win either. Just what we don’t need. 😉

  46. ScottfromOz says:

    Oh what a night, Adam 🙂
    Cicero, i don’t know him so certainly won’t criticise the choice.
    Add him the list of possibles.

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