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After Edu’s Interview I Weep For Arsenal

Edu and Arteta make me weep for Arsenal

There was a time, as recent as last year, when Arsenal went into a season with the minimum expectation to qualify for Europe. Up to three years ago, the mantra in mainstream and social media and among a large section of the fanbase was ‘anybody but Wenger would have the existing squad challenge for the title.’ By that time the owners had bowed to the noise of the crowd and canned the old Geezer despite a record-breaking home season in 2017-18 of 15-Wins, 2-Losses, 2-Draws for 47 points or missing Champions League by one point the prior year. Arsenal in the previous 20 years had had always made the Champions League winning three PL titles in the process including an Invincible Year. For a generation Arsenal entered every season realistically thinking it was one of the title contenders and a shoe-in for Europe.

This is what makes Edu’s recent interview with Sky Sports so historic. Essentially the Technical Director, the highest football man in the club, to whom Arteta the manager reports, simply waved the white flag for 21-22 season.

“I don’t want to go for top four or top six or top eight or top 10. I’m just really looking forward to seeing this squad play together. I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone fit.”

Many have already poured over and parsed this this statement to death. What I found most interesting is how the agenda merchants who less than three months ago blithely assured us that ‘Arsenal should easily make top-4 without distractions of Europe’ have done a 180 and are now content not even making top-10.

Take Arseblog ,for example, who in reaction to that white flag moment noted:

“Whatever you think of the work Edu has been in charge of, it’s a positive that there is more transparency, more communication, and also we now know from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, what the club wants to do to develop this team. When we see them play, when we see team line-ups/selections etc, our reactions and opinions can be based off that framework, so that clarity is useful.”

Have you gotten up from the floor yet? This really big Arsenal blogger just told us Edu is doing a great job lowering expectations and making us comfortable with being a mid-table club whose ambition is to come 10th or less. Furthermore, we must trust the team of Arteta and Edu who took us to 8th because they will develop the team. This is the same duo that got rid of Arsenal’s best player Ozil and at the same time sidelining both Guendouzi and Saliba who, when they were signed, were regarded as stars of the future.

Like all those big accounts who paved the way for Arsenal’s surrender to mediocrity, Le-Grove is just as happy with the new direction of the club.

“Listen, say what you want about all the other bullshit, now the window is closed, we delivered on a new vision.”

Note the possessive “we”. Make no mistake about it, Le-Grove is fully in bed with the club’s direction. He was giving his full support to Vinai’s recent statement to the staff which Edu simply echoed:

“Our approach for this window was framed by fully recognising that we are not where we want to be on the pitch — finishing eighth last season, with no European football for the first time in many years,”

“Whilst we would love to jump from where we are to where we want to be in an instant, we need to be realistic that the gap is too large to do that. As such, our activity this window has been focused on youth.

“Our strategy is to fill our squad with some of Europe’s most exciting young talent, with players from both our academy and further afield, that can grow and develop together under Mikel to take us where we want to get to.

“Whilst this will not be overnight, we can make positive progress, and it gives us the best route to future success in a sustainable way.”

There are many Gooners who would love to believe that Edu and Vinai are doing what is in the best interest of the club and that they truly care about building the “foundation,” according to Edu:

In a one-year period, we signed 10 players and seven of the 10 are under 23. We renewed seven players in this period as well, just in the first team. Five of the seven are under 23 as well.

“Why did we do that? Because we have a reason to try again to create a good foundation and then, one day, maybe we are going to sign one or two players only. But after that, it’s impossible to sign one or two players only because we have a lot to do.

But these are the same guys who shipped out Guendouzi and Saliba, sent Willock and AMN on loan and eventually selling Joe to Newcastle and were desperate to sell the latter until it was apparent they needed cover at Right-Back. Imagine young U-23 homegrown, academy players sold off or loaned and Edu has the audacity to speak of building foundation.

Trust Le-Grove who is now in the tank with the new regime, to tell us what is really going on:

“We binned a lot of players, about £700k a week.”

It is austerity at Arsenal, boys and girls, no matter how Edu, Arseblog Le-Grove and the various other agenda-merchants want to spin it. The famous cash reserves are gone, European football is gone and its belt-tightening time. As anybody who has lived through austerity knows; without wise, honest, skillful leadership austerity becomes a one-way street as the body shrinks to the bone. Coincidentally, as in the wider society, a small parasitic minority, the agents, are getting fat at the club’s expense, wheeling and dealing in the transfer market giving fans the appearance of progress.

No wonder, I weep for the future of my football club.

10 Comments

  1. Shotta my friend you remember when Leeds Utd signed Seth Johnson for silly money after their high profile signing of Rio Ferdinand?

    It was over for Leeds after that boondangle, and it was over for the Arsenal as soon as Josh supported world class footballers being booted out the club so his mates could make Pepe Le Who the club record signing. After Ozil and Sanchez has been the marquee benchmarks for the club!

    The people running the club can: do one.
    The question for Arsenal fans, fans of this once great English institution is:

    What kind of hollow shell will these jokers leave behind them as they suck out the remaining assets?

    Reply
  2. Rosicky@ArsenalSeptember 6, 2021 at 1:52 pm

    Great blog shotta.
    Good that you are finally exposing the visionary blogtettas at Arseblog,AFTV,Legroan etc.
    Isn’t it surprising that these idiots hound out our greatest ever manager for making and keeping Arsenal top 10 club in Europe for 20 years and now are happy seeing us at the bottom of EPl. What kind of jokers are these clickbaiters and their cult followers. Just to get their daily click bait they destroyed our beloved club.
    We should keep on exposing them and their agenda which has brought Afc at this low point.
    Shameless idiots.

    Reply
    • AFTV at 1.3 million followers on You Tube are now in a different league from these sorry bloggers who sowed the seeds for the destruction of our great club. AFTV like them are appealing to the lowest common denominator. I can’t see a good future for our club in the short to medium term.

      Reply
  3. Arsenal’s statements are all circular logic. We did this, therefore this is the strategy. Our position outside of Europe is not acceptable, but here we are so we must accept it. Oh and we’ll have a good season, but we don’t want to say what would be a good season. Presumably, whatever the hell kind of season we have will be deemed a good season, because that’s just how it is.

    And it still wouldn’t be all that much of a tragedy if these people had any respect for the club that had been built up for them to take over. They constantly display contempt for it and pretend we must be grateful to them for whatever they do because they are ‘laying foundations’.

    By the way, during last season Arteta had said that the job of laying foundations had been completed. Now Edu says laying foundations takes time. They’re, Arseblog included, just gaslighting us.

    Reply
    • The management together with feckless Josh are just making it up as they go along and hoping good PR will keep the plebs in line. Just like what recently happened to the US and NATO in Afghanistan, when the shit his the fan no amount of PR can hide the truth when Arsenal go bust at this rate.

      Reply
  4. Read it and weep!
    A sharp piece Shotts-there was a film years ago called Regeneration, concerning the psychological help given to officers in WW1 and one bloke who had been flung up into a dead corpse and inhaled as he landed was so destroyed mentally that he summarised the war as “one big joke, only its not funny.”
    The hatred towards Wenger and all he did, seems to indicate how the fake experts really wanted to take control and dictate to the club, which of course has been happening for years. They screamed and slandered endlessly to prove they were right.
    Yet here we all are sitting at the bottom of the league anti goals with speculation galore about Conté ( is he really what we’re after?)…what does that show about the imposition by these people on the club? They dont even seem to have any shame. for what theye done! They probably still blame Wenger!
    Ive never understood the whole ” europe is a distraction from the league” kack. Eh? Its more a sign that your side is pants if it cant deal with all levels of competition?
    fins was always right: they know nix about football.
    cheers and keep on keepin on!
    COYG!

    Reply
    • Thanks as always Mills. Seems to me we are entering another interesting phase in the post-Wenger era. The choices made to date by the Kroenkes particularly feckless Josh, have proven disastrous to the club and damaging to their investment.

      Reply
  5. Rosicky@ArsenalSeptember 7, 2021 at 5:55 pm

    It is going to be a long tireless season for the WOBS as Arsenal struggles under Arteta. Remember Shotta they said Arsenal will win the league in a canter once Arsene leaves.Now these idiots advocating us to give time to this regime. Even if we wait for another couple of seasons I believe we may not be able to finish top 4 for some time now.Winning the league is another story. A false dawn,a fairytale these idiots promised us.Reap what you sow idiots.

    Reply
  6. Certainly its as oddball as can be, and my least favourite time ever. The nightmare we all fought against is now totally apparent.The club seem only just in control of things?Sometimes I look around see so much deterioration most of which wasnt even necessary; loss of dignity, loss of heroes, the myopic nature of the Wobs and now we swim in that legacy ( we are bottom of the league, say we are bottom of the league), the sophisticated nature of the game reduced to simplistic criticism, the endless agendas that put football last. Sugar daddies on the horizon ( the Wobs fantasy)…

    Still, there are some sanctuaries like here and PA to wander around.

    For shard: just wanted to say how smart your match previews are, you deserve a big audience. I personally love to read them, always full of great insights.

    Cheers lads.

    Reply

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