just gonna sign a bunch of teenagers this year which will be fun, but none will be ready to contribute so let's all hope for another 5th-6th place finish.
The promise and uncertainty should be more fun than last year. Look forward to everyone being patient and understanding with our inconsistent teenage first teamers.
well I think the problem is not many are going to play regularly with the first team. hopefully some first team caliber players come out of nowhere. right now the only position I've seen us linked to guy who could step right into the team is on the wing.
I don't mind going young either, but it will be a battle for 6th and I don't know what the financial implications would be for missing Europe entirely.
I don’t mind going young but it’s all for naught if we just blow it all up in 2-3 years with new Mgr, DoF, etc
signing Saliba would be the first time in like 4 years where I felt optimistic about the direction of the club's transfer policy. He's a future superstar.
1. continue to skew young with high potential signings 2. give Emery 1 more year to try to win Europa 3. when he fails (or succeeds, either one), don't renew his contract, promote Freddie, go full youth movement with our new hotness 4. finish 5th in 2020-21
I would love to get in a cycle where we make champions league every year but get knocked down to europa after the group stage. this way we get the champions league money but we also have a competition to follow we actually have a chance to win.
Fuck that noise. If we don’t qualify for CL, it’s better to just fall down the table & out of Europa as well... leaving us to almost solely focus on Top 4 the following year
Yes, 110%. The reward for 5th / 6th is a shitty competition. Europa creates a logistical & scheduling nightmare, causing undue stress/strain on the squad. Without it, this past season, we're able to focus on our "Top 4 Trophy" & likely finish 3rd
I think you’re forgetting the positive experiences of a cup final and all those people we brought football to
Valid point. My counterpoint: I prefer our entire squad be available to play, without the threat of ethnic cleansing
I was thinking more about the 20M+ that was earned from it. also don't think I'd call it likely with finish third without Europa. Europa isn't the reason our away form in the league has been complete shit. I don't think Europa is to blame for that collapse.
Without the extra travel, extra games & the general hell Sunday-Thursday creates... some, if not all of our major players aren't completely run into the ground by season end. We were 1 point off: Torreira isn't a shadow of how he started the campaign, Ramsey's soft-tissue injuries are less likely to reemerge ( yeah right ) are the obvious, but every other player picking up even 10-15% get's us into the Top 4
see I have a hard time reading this and pointing the finger at Europa as if that was our one problem.
It’s not our lone problem, but it certainly contributed to our players crashing. A few years back, falling out of the top 6 the previous season, was a big reason why Chelsea won the following EPL title. They were playing 1 game per week for the last half of the season, while we were flying all over Eastern Europe. The EPL was their sole focus. We only need to finish Top 4, not with the damn thing. Financially, the CL payout is roughly double Europa. If we finish 7th, we can more than make up the difference by qualifying for CL the following year. Based on our current structure, we cannot afford a squad deep enough to effectively fight on all fronts. As our likely youth movement builds over the next 2-3 seasons we will hopefully develop some squad depth
I always want Arsenal to finish as high as possible, but 7th would likely be a blessing in disguise for the above mentioned reasons
I think our position in the league was due more to us getting results we didn't deserve early than it was to us falling off late due to Europa. I thought the performances were pretty steadily shit last year.
if we're going with a youth movement they should just use the Europa league as a chance to get young players first team experience. if it fails miserably then we get the benefit of the less congested fixture list later in the year. best of both worlds. I do agree with you that I thought Emery too often played stronger sides than he needed to in the group stages last season, but I think he was still trying to figure out the squad.
I also don't think you can compare us to Chelsea because finishing 7th wouldn't be some one off blip on the radar like it was for them. it would just be a continuing downward trend.
I think Torreira is the best example of a player running out of steam, due to Europa. He played more than double the games he played the previous year in Italy. Take out the Europa group & knockout stages (with 1 more round than CL) & he’s likely playing at no worse than 80-90%, instead of an empty tank.
By the way, we’ve come along way. 2-3 seasons ago we would’ve been at each other’s throat’s about dumb shit like this
Why it happened it doesn’t really matter. The truth is that it contributed greatly to them winning the league the following season... we don’t even need to win the league, just finish Top 4
he only started one match in the group stages and it was in September. he played in the knockout rounds but I think he lost his legs well before that.
from the quarterfinals on he played a ton, I was just saying I thought he was already a shell of himself before then.
Unclear if any despots made the wedding party. Ironic that the club should divorce themselves from the guys getting married this summer?
Gotta think Freddie is being brought up to the first team with an eye as a possible Emory replacement next year.
Hopefully Guendouzi/Reiss both start for the France/England U21 game tomorrow. He has mistakes in him but AMN is easily good enough for that team. Reiss is youngest player on the team.
Agree with Jorts 100%...7th place > 5th place. As I was listening to Arsecast today and they were talking about how much ground the team covered this season (Darren Burgess discussion), I was reminded again how we always laugh at Spurs for fading at the end of every season because of their high intensity training and thin squad. Same thing happened to us this season and Europa was a contributing factor. The Chelsea example works, as does the Leicester City title winning year. Best chance for CL football is Top 4, best chance for Top 4 is no Thursday-Sunday schedule.
The LC example works better because at this point if it doesn't cause a jump back up the table Arsenal would just be left as a mid-table side.
At least Reiss will be back for some of preseason We're still in a tough position with youths, none are really ready to make a big impact in the league and will the cups be enough? Not really sure how Reiss or ESR are more ready this year than last.
Pinning my hopes on everyone being a year older and Freddie being able to put them in a position to succeed. We taking Bielik on preseason or he still at the U-Euros?