Archive for the ‘Arsenal’ Category

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What do the following have in common;-

Arséne Wenger, David Moyes, Sam Allardyce, Marouane Fellaini and Claudio Bravo?

The answer is that they were all, at one stage or another, unwanted by the supporters of their club and some still are.

There are others too numerous to mention but these five are probably of the highest profile at present.

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Arséne Wenger is now at the point where he is tolerated by the fans and this only because he awarded himself a new two year contract recently. Most Arsenal fans would have preferred if he had left or moved upstairs at the end of last season but not Arséne. He is deluded enough to place his own self -importance above the wishes of the majority of the supporters and stay where he is. (more…)

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At last! We are now officially in the same month as the start of the new Premier League season.

It may have seemed like a long time coming but, in fact, it has only been three months during which time some clubs have spent a fortune, others not so much and some nothing at all.

Friendly games have been played around the globe to ensure that the wider audience got to see their heroes, warts and all, by attending games in places as diverse as Tanzania, America, China and Norway. (more…)

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At Manchester City it is Txiki Begiristain, at Chelsea it is Michael Emenalo, at Liverpool it is Michael Edwards and at Arsenal it is Arséne the Omnipotent.

These are the Directors of Football or Sporting Directors or Technical Directors or whatever other fancy name they have been given to justify a very large salary. A salary nobody would begrudge them providing they serve the club and the supporters well.

The two stand-out names here are the ones at Chelsea and City who have been responsible for some excellent signings at the two clubs. They seem to have adopted the attitude that if the manager wants the player enough, then they will pay the price. (more…)

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This question, of course, assumes that one of the three will be triumphant come next May and that the challenging pack, which may very well include Everton and West Ham, will remain exactly that, the challenging pack.

Arsenal, as we are used to saying by now, will do nothing as long as Wenger is performing his Dorian Gray impression. Having no Champion’s League football will be of no assistance as they will compete in the Europa League. Consequently, a top four place will be difficult for them to achieve next season, even if they manage to keep Alexis Sánchez. (more…)

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Once again, José Mourinho is using his press conferences to try and shame Ed Woodward into action.

Obviously the two don’t speak very often or this tactic would be unnecessary.

Mourinho has expressed his desire to add at least another player, preferably two, to his squad in at least three press conferences to date.

As the CEO or MD or whatever he is nowadays, Woodward will keep an eye on the goings-on with the media so that he is up-to-date with what his manager is saying, so it is a reasonably sure-fire way of getting his attention. (more…)

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Ed Woodward, apart from having the same name as a late actor who used to portray, amongst others, a character known as “The Equalizer“, (yes, it was an American series, although the actor was English), has nothing else whatsoever in common with that persona.

A man who spent his waking hours righting wrongs, looking after the poor people who couldn’t afford protection and didn’t trust the police, he was a mixture of Robin Hood and the A-Team and always came out on top. (more…)

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Poor Alvaro Morata. Fresh from dyeing his hair red and his wife following Manchester United on Instagram he now has to pretend that Chelsea was always his first choice.

He hasn’t actually said those words but, then again, his English isn’t too good yet.

On arrival at Heathrow airport the player and his wife were immediately hijacked by a Sky Sports reporter who wasted no time in asking those pertinent questions to which we all want an answer. (more…)

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PART TWO – JÜRGEN KLOPP, ARSÉNE WENGER AND JOSÉ MOURINHO

Continuing to answer our question from yesterday when, in part one, we focused on Antonio Conte, Mauricio Pochettino and Pep Guardiola, today in part two we look at the remaining three of the top six managers and assess the likelihood of them staying with their current clubs.

Jürgen Klopp – Liverpool

Seems to be as loyal as they come nowadays and only left Borussia Dortmund because he couldn’t really take them any further and had ambitions to manage in the Premier League. (more…)

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PART ONE – ANTONIO CONTE, MAURICIO POCHETTINO & PEP GUARDIOLA

Probably not as bad as you may think. In fact, of the six, only Antonio Conte is deemed to have the temperament to walk away from a club at the merest hint of disagreement.

Here is what is being said about them individually.

Antonio Conte – Chelsea

As with others on this list, he has a habit of leaving clubs when least expected to do so. The first time was with Bari in Italy. He had just got them promoted to Serie A and had also just signed a new contract when he decided not to continue in the job any longer. (more…)

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Firstly, we apologise to fans of Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool, Arsenal and even Everton.

Much as we admire the optimism of the supporters of these clubs we have to think that it is misguided.

With the exception of Arsenal, the other clubs which made up last season’s top seven will be expecting a more successful campaign next time out. Arsenal will just be hoping for one, without any real conviction.

However, judging by recent transfer market activity, only Chelsea, City and United have already improved or will significantly improve their squads and, in Chelsea’s case, not much improvement is necessary. (more…)