24 Jun 2020 10:20:15
I am really keen to get behind Mikkel Arteta and give him the time to re-build and I acknowledge and accept that he probably isn't solely responsible for squad signings etc but WHAT THE VERY FLIP is going on at our club when we re-sign the catastrophic clown that is David Luiz for another season, and are allegedly spending £15m on Mari, who is injured? Mari amy or may not come good I guess, but only Arsenal continue with this level of fiscal incompetence during a buyers market. Before anyone complains, why is that other clubs like Brighton can take chances by signing lower-league players and making them into excellent Premier League players and we cant? Before I get leapt on saying "but Cannon, we shouldn't be competing with the likes of Brighton" (a) I agree to an extent and (b) I disagree: I'd have Lewis Dunk, Shane Duffy or Dan Burn in my squad any day of the week.
So now we have:
Saliba
Holding
Sokratis
Mustafi
Luiz
Mari
Chambers
Mavropanos
Medley
Plus youngsters such as Harry Clarke and even the fool Kolasinac can play at centre back (he's not much cop at left back! ) .
So just the ten or eleven players for the position that needs four, perhaps five - at an absolute push six - players to cover: and not that many of them proven to be any good. In fact - Saliba aside who cannot be damned before he has even joined and does come with a fantastic reputation and promise - its fair to say that none of these eleven have proved themselves to be of top-level Premier league quality (yet, in some cases) .
WTVF is going on at our club?
24 Jun 2020 11:05:56
I wonder if there is an over-reaction with David Luis. According to stats I've just seen he is the 25th most error prone defender in the league, way below Cedric Soares and Skodran Mustai. Perhaps fans are just hurting after the double whammy against Man City?
24 Jun 2020 12:02:14
Lots of people don’t form their own opinion on players but will go by what commentators says and the likes of Carragher have nothing good to say about Luiz and the rest of the media. For every success story they will find an hero and every failure a fall guy. He seems have to bring some positivity to the squad and a mentality to win. Auba doesn’t get the stick because he’s clearly talented but he’s no captain.
24 Jun 2020 12:57:53
It appears he is a positive influence around the club YardGooner. It's just been suggested he could possibly be used in midfield, that sounds interesting to me.
{Ed047's Note - i think a few clubs tried and his national team but no one seems to have persevered with it.
I wouldn’t mind seeing him and Torreria in the midfield. I don’t think the latter has been given a real chance
24 Jun 2020 15:47:06
Sounds interesting but I think you need a someone else who sits and tidy up to cover and slow the traffic coming through to the defenders.
24 Jun 2020 16:37:46
I agree Ed047 Luis Torreira partnership has never been explored which is strange given our problems, also agree with you Sally his errors of which he has never been short of throughout his career have always received more publicity than his positive contributions. There is no getting away from it when he has a bad day it's usually pretty awful but Chelsea signed him twice and he's had a pretty illustrious career despite his failings.
For me Xhaka offers so little positive in return for his numerous goal costing mistakes while Luis offers more back at the same cost in goals against.
Ideally we would move on from both Xhaka and Luis but if it came to one or the other I'd keep Luis all day long.
{Ed047's Note - yep I agree with that and was so disappointed the way Emery used Torriera and he just never seemed to get a run in his preferred role and if were keeping Luiz then using him in midfield may be a much safer option.
What Arteta thinks is prob a million miles from that though! 🤣
24 Jun 2020 18:59:24
Agree mate its 100% down to what Mikel thinks that matters but whatever he does do needs to give people a reason to get involved or the stadium and TV audiences will steadily decline.
I don't think anyone expects him to wave a magic wand but simply do something different to what continues to fail.
24 Jun 2020 19:09:20
You are all entitled to your opinions of course, and by no means am I suggesting that my opinion is "right" but (a) Sallyjannine, my opinion is not formed by last weeks calamitous ball up by Sideshow Dave, it is formed over several years and many Chelsea mates who couldn't wait to see the back of DL first time round, let alone second time
and (b) anyone who thinks we should pay £130k per week and use up a squad space for someone who "brings positivity" to the club needs their bumps feeling in my view. £130,000? Per week?
Basic? that's £6.5m per annum, plus employment costs, plus add-ons (only God and the Arsenal board will know how much they paid David Luiz's Agent to "get him" to sign that contract) , so round that up to about TEN MILLION POUNDS - to "bring some positivity" - and lose us a load of games and points.
Someone's been in the sun too much today.
24 Jun 2020 20:35:42
like Mertersacker, brilliant in the changing room Max :-) and Mertersacker got a years extention as a player despite saying he never wanted to play again ;-)
25 Jun 2020 10:46:31
Only time will tell Cannon 😊🌈⚽.
25 Jun 2020 12:44:23
Spot on Max. Idiots to sign him in the first place ( before I knew the crazy price) , had to watch the clown play and help Chelsea Out more than us. So once bitten, we repeat the stupid error. ZERO accountability at the club and ZERO expectations.
Why would Chelsea sell him to us? To make them stronger. That’s when they had a transfer bloody ban at the time. He benefited from a disciplined Chelsea side. He was still a crap defender. Look how bad we made Cech look.
Beyond belief - so disappointed in Arteta and the club. Even if they push him into midfield - he’s still a liability just a little less. ClapðŸ‘ðŸ‘👠great strategy Arteta / board. We’ve wasted money on a poor player whether in CD or CDM.
I need to stop moaning - I know but I’m so frustrated with the crap Arteta is saying about Luiz and that he’s not playing AMN while still playing the ill disciplined Matteo.