(The not-so-temporary quite-official) Gooner Thread

What. The. F*ck.

lucky it was only 1-3

You'd think we were at rock bottom but have you seen the fixture list...

International break is a chance to regroup and regather. Wenger needs to get the guys heads right and get them back to where we were start of the season, likely without the support of Cazorla and Sanchez. Personally I thought Walcott played well today, didn't go missing anywhere as much as Welbeck did (header crashed onto cross bar aside).

Hopefully we can get a central midfield pairing working, while bringing Giroud back into the fold. Time to give Perez a chance too, still unsure why he's not getting game time.

Season feels like a never ending nightmare. Can't end soon enough. Fourth is gone now and I'm not sure I'd even miss the distraction that is the CL. I see the club has already anticipated this by arranging the annual pasting from Bayern in pre-season. There's clearly been no belief out there for weeks and the players have stopped playing for the manager. Got a bit lucky with the cup draw giving us 2 non-league teams for a brief break from the misery but looking like being a long end to the season.

We're sitting level with Everton, they're in cracking form, and we play each other at the end of the season.

Not ruling out a 7th placed finish and no europe at all next season. Blessing in disguise if that were to happen. Leicester and Chelsea have shown that is a huge advantage in the title race. 

Can the club afford it though?

The board won't care about the protests, but the continued losses surely hurt them. For years there has been fan anger at the lack of progress, eternal 4th place etc but that's never been a problem for the board, it's what they have wanted. But this time if the fan anger and protests are backed up by a 6th or 7th place finish and another humiliation in the FA Cup semi final then that's new territory.

Yes!

Club financials show that we are well primed to be able to handle a season without europe money. 

I would prefer champions league of course but at the moment I just can't see it. If we don't beat Man City next time out then I'd call us done in terms of top 4. 

Rumours have abounded since Wenger's post-game Presser. 

Initially talk of a one-year contract. Wenger usually signs for two so I speculated myself that perhaps this was us getting Allegri, but not until his Juve contract ends after next season. 

However in the last half hour the internet has exploded with Bild reporting that we've made an offer to Tuchel. 

According to arseblog Bild are usually reputable with this sort of thing, as opposed to Bild Sport (not sure of the difference tbh). 

But on the bright side in Goonersville...

Almost straight after this post the Mirror, Telegraph and Daily Mail simultaneously reported that Wenger will be signing a new contract and staying.

Still think it's been signed for a while and they are waiting for a run of 3 or 4 wins and 4th looking secure which they think will see the  protests die down before announcing.

I went looking for a highlights on arsenal.com and it wasn't mentioned on the home page! Then watched the ladies 5-3 win and that #9 is hitting them sweetly from distant! Haven't watched a lot of womans football but the keeping didn't seem up to scratch? Or am I setting too high expectations based on the mens game?

With regards to the keeping, I think an issue in the women's game may be that the goals are the same size, but the players tend to be smaller than their male counterparts so may not be able to cover every part of the goal. Male keepers at the top level are usually going to be around 6'5 whereas not many ladies are that size. So you tend to see shots going into the higher parts of the goal that would more often be saved in the men's game.

And they can't jump as high/far for the same size goal.

That's what I thought initially, at least it means it's high scoring!

wooowweee did you see Poldoski's strike against England this morning? what a stunner! 

Hammer of Thor comes to mind. I understand he came out of retirement for the game and was given the armband as a proper fair well. If that's the case it's nice he got to go out with that strike!

That was a real thunderbastard. What a way to go out. Couldn't happen to a better bloke.

Podolski is at it now. "Wenger built Arsenal from nothing." 

Saw good point on twitter

"Alexis body language gets super scrutinised at arsenal, but he's no different in a chile shirt"

so as I understand it, Wenger has signed a 1 year extension and the club is waiting for the right time to announce it. Any one heard to the contrarey?

I heard 2 years.

A ton of players have come out saying they want him to re-sign - Bellerin, Giroud, Monreal, Koscielny, Iwobi and others. 

Monreal has also claimed that Ozil and Sanchez will both re-sign when Wenger does.

Who knows what to believe.

At least we won't drop any points this weekend :)

I don't mind 2 more years of Wenger if that means 2 more years of Ozil & Sanchez, plus hopefully more investment in the squad going forward. Hopefully a director of football too as we prepare for his exit.

Sounds like Real and Barca are ready to stump up huge bucks for Mbappe. 

Probably best we can hope for there is an Henry-esque career - big money move brings lots of bench time, played out of position, loss of confidence, sold for pennies in 2 years, at which point we can pick him up and turn him into a beast. 

Talk that we want Barkley.

Liverpool being linked with James Rodriguez, who I would love to have here. 

Does that mean we could get Coutinho though? ;)

i still rather have james

Same.

Call me crazy but I've just never rated Coutinho that highly. Good player, but not elite for me. 

Nah, I'm the same - similar to a lot of Liverpool players. Good players, great on their day, but not consistently so.

Of course that could describe most of our squad too.

Definitely agree with that. 

Re: Transfer business this off-season... man I would just love it if we didn't throw the baby out with the bath-water, and added one top class player rather than wholesale changes. 

Retain the bulk of the squad, get them fit, re-sign Sanchez and Ozil, and then pay BIG cash for someone awesome. 

I salivate at the thought of something like this...

                     Cech

Bellerin-Mustafi-Koscielny-Monreal

             Xhaka-Wilshere

        Walcott-Ozil-Sanchez

                Griezmann

Bench: Szczesny, Gibbs, Mertesacker, Elneny, Ramsey, Iwobi, Giroud

We're going to lose one of Ozil or Sanchez, if not both - reckon that is certain at this point. I also think we'll see a mini exodus with Wilshere and Ox permanently leaving

The chance of getting anyone 'big' next season is zilch if we do not finish top 4.

I'm not sold on this logic. While outside of top 4 United have landed Pogba, Zlatan, Martial. 

I don't think it's the be all and end all we think it is, especially if there is a vision at the club & belief from the player in the manager to achieve it.

I'd like to see us be a bit more ruthless with the squad. At times I've felt we've carried players whose form has really let them down. As much as I like him Ramsey has been that example for me, just not been in good form for us/regularly injured (leg break excluded). Same for Jack, Rosicky, and even Cazorla last couple of seasons (injuries, not form). We need to have quality & depth in the squad, and be willing to part ways more often with some of these players.

You do remember how much they paid for Pogba and Martial, right? Arsenal are not paying those prices. Zlatan only came because of Jose.

If you are out of the top 4 and in a downward spiral, it stands to reason that it would be far harder to attract top tier players. We found it difficult before even being in the CL every year.

But isn't part of the 'Weger Out' thinking that we're able to spend good money but he won't spend it? Ignore the overused 'war chest' analogy but we have the cash reserves to spend some serious coin on players if the manager is willing to. At least that's what I've interpreted things as :)

That used to be the thing. Now he does spend the money. But he's still not winning the league. 

Another point around the top 4 business, is the fact that in the premier league at least, the top 4 varies quite a lot year to year now. 

These days Arsenal are actually the only team that has been getting in it year after year. Man City have become fairly consistent, but the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea, ManU and Tottenham have not been regulars. For Spurs, never with regularity in their history, Liverpool, no regular spot for the last 10 years or so, Chelsea and ManU have been in and out for the last few seasons. 

No one is going to be able to guarantee you top four, year in, year out, any longer. 

In fact, a smart player might think he has a better chance at winning the league with a team that is not in europe... and then qualifying for the Champs League the following season as a result... that's what's happened this year and last year in the EPL...

Reckon that's a load of crap - the 'warchest'. Kroenke doesn't care as long as we're making money.

We've spent comparatively big money on guys like Mustafi and Xhaka (second-tier players on the world stage) but we got pretty lucky with both Ozil and Sanchez's situation and got them reasonably cheap all things considered.

Lack of CL combined with Arsenal slowly becoming more unattractive to prospective transfer targets..it doesn't look good to me.