Brand new modern fitba 2018-19 thread!! SEE YOU!!

I think myself Wenger had to go. But not the way he did and certainly not without a "plan".

My criteria for firing has always been Tony Benn-esque.

Who hired you, what do you do, how do we get rid of you.

Who hired you, have you won/done anything, who do we replace you with.

If you can't answer any part in a satisfactory fashion, especially #3.....there's no point in firing.

In Wengers case, his appointment was real and justified, his achievements were real but the future was bleak......and the replacement was never likely to bring results due regard being had for the immense changes happening in football between the beginning of Wengers decline and his actual departure.

 

They got 16 of 18 points in the group stage - 5 wins and a draw - then absolutely breezed by French, Italian and Spanish sides. Theyve declined slightly relative to other top prem sides they clearly haven't declined in absolute terms whatsoever

Shit, feebes will come and shout at me but this is quite possibly the best arsenal side ever. Seriously.

 

So why show up and play so badly?

In fairness, the group stage mate.....please. Who is in that? FC Smog of Leipzig? Dynamo Trabant of Belgradia? Torpedo Murmansk?

 

Hut you don't have the power to FUDE me and Reed at the same time!!

 

Hut you need to get a bit of Thomas Hobbes in your life!! There are forces out there, acting on us!!

 

Well that's the thing now innit- country's from outwith the top 5 (and even german sides now it seems?) are a laughing stock to premiership fans. But thats because the whole world is getting shitter and you're staying the same....basically the whole footballing planet shifts around the eternal fixed star of the EPL, according to you and Feebes' inverted/false modesty!

 

Lol wut? Think you're on your own with that one mate.

 

Just me and the results.

 

The best Arsenal side of all time finished the season unbeaten with fewer points than the Liverpool side that finished 2nd this season.

This years Arsenal side finished like 30 points behind that Liverpool side.

The Arsenal side that got to the CL final in 2006 would batter this Arsenal side.

 

Refer to my previous post. You're still reasoning from that same premise

 

Of course they would, aside from their front two, the current Arsenal squad are the weakest since the start of the Premiership at least

 

...relative to the rest of the premiership.

 

Which Arsenal players from last night would replace any of the 2004 side? There's just no way they're better than a team which contained Henry, Bergkamp, Vieira, Pires, Campbell, Cole etc.

 

Hut's a good lad leave him be!!!

 

April., 1978, 2nd Division table reads like this:

16 Blackpool P42 37 points
17 Charlton P41 37 points
18 Millwall P41 36 "
19 Cardiff P40 36 "
20 Orient P40 35 "
21 Mansfield P41 31 "
22 Hull P42 28 "

 

Arsenal fans have lost sight of the fact that they have become a feeder club. They demanded the sacking of a man who was winning the FA Cup, season after season. That was probably the best they could hope for against state-sponsored competitors. They essentially hounded out the most successful manager in their history, because even though they were stilling winning trophies, they weren't winning the 'right' ones.

Fuck off.

MTF

 

Absolutely none of them. Arsenal now are a shadow of what they were. Still a 'good' side, but a good, top six PL and U|EFA Cup side, rather than an outstanding, CL final and PL winning side. But there was a more level playing field back then.

MTF

 

Fucking hell.

MTF

 

Not me. Arsene Wenger: Arsene Wenger: Ex-Arsenal boss 'might not return to management'

Basically, what I said...

MTF

 

I think the Venerable Hut is on his way down the hill, nowadays. Too many pills finally mushing his brain. A sad sight.

MTF

 

If they'd been in the CL this year they'd have had as fair a chance of reaching the final as spurs

 

On a strict technicality, yes, but on the facts, no, they wouldn't have gotten past City.

I agree, technically, you could be right....like Livepool in 2005, but even then, Benitez and his lot were far wilier than the ingenues of Arsenal FC. There simply is nobody at Arsenal today of the caliber of Gerrard, Dietmar Hamann, Finnan, Hyppia.

There's a collective failure of character at Arsenal, rather than mere talent.

 

I remember when Rafa finally ran out of gas at Liverpool and Hodgson was appointed. Old salts on the This is Anfield forum were saying explicitly that "oh well, now the Press will be kinder to us".

The papers do this to people. Unfortunately, you and I and Hut and Clogg and the rest of the boys might live in a world where we can just ignore bullshit......10,000 other guys can't.

The papers get to them, wear them down, tell them things.

Like look at this bellendry.........

 

On a strictly hypothetical/counter factual basis, spurs never get past city either. Arsenal absolutely breezed to the Europa final this year, right past Spanish Italian and French opposition. Breezy. A d we're only counting them since the rest of Europe is now so far behind the prem that beating them doesn't even count.

Take a step back and look at this thing again

 

I don't dispute that.

Jesus sometimes I wish that Liverpool hadn't gotten past Barcelona.

Very nervy and crotchety here. I've had two weeks of Romanian painters in the house, today the plumber was supposed to fix a shower and instead he broke the fucking water mains and Thames Water are coming and and and and and I got this fucking game on Saturday and my books and and and.....

 

Again, French' Spanish and Italian teams couldn't lay a glove on them this year. Absolutely waltzed by them. The group stages were a joke, a complete precession. They finished one point behind the champions league finalists in the league; 8 points ahead of last year's Europa winners and this year's CL quarter finalists.

Perspective/context. I haz it. Not just lists of players and my subjective feelings or memories of them.

Is this year's arsenal as good as 2006? No, probably not. But the difference is nowhere close to what you imagine

 

Learco Chindamo. Anyone recognize that name?

 

I've done an early relegation and promotion bet and I'll do another nearer to when the season starts, when I have more info to work with. Here's my current bet:

Promotion - Leeds, Sunderland and Mansfield.
Relegation - Brighton, Millwall, AFC Wimbledon and Grimsby Town.

 

Leeds should have gone up this season, they just can't beat the shitbees in Brentford, their season just plummeted from there.

 

Weird how some clubs just have this mental hex on you and you can't overcome it.