Big Arsenal Interview - BBC Sport

Yea you can learn a thing or two from being self aware, you should try it.

 

The football under Wenger was breathtaking and nearly every true football fan had Arsenal as their second team in their hearts.

Only when the fans took him down did things change.

I’m happy with Emery and accept that he’s a very different manager, much more meticulous and detailed . . a reactive manager that changes style to nullify the opposition. Wenger was more, ‘We play our way, they’ve got to beat us’.

I don’t understand this need to pitch one against the other. They’re both Arsenal managers both different, but both very good and deserve 100% support until they’re gone.

 

Wenger has gone, Traxxy

 

My only complaint about Emery is I can never understand a word he says. In the last match he was animatedly yelling in Kola’s ear for about a minute before he subbed him on, and Kola just kept nodding with a glazed look. You could just tell he hadn’t a clue what he was being told.

 

I also spotted that and said exactly the same thing at the time HAHAHA

 

We spent quite a lot of money in the last few transfer windows though. A brand new set of key personnel has been nominated. We changed the structure of the management and moved to employing a Director of Football. The new marketing contract with Adidas has produced quite successful results, popularity wise.

I mean, what else can you expect from an owner? For everything they did wrong, the last 1-2 years have been quite a change for good.

I think this summer transfer window has been key for the future of the Club - the on-pitch action has been absolutely awful in the last 3 years, and the signing of Pepe is probably a statement that we choose to remain as a top team rather than sink into mediocrity.
Someone like Ryan Fraser would have meant that we are happy to float around without any purpose as a football club, but we did much better.

 

Where have you been?

 

Actually reminds me of Wenger when he just threw a player in without instructions expecting him to express himself on the pitch and figure it out on his own.

 

rumour has it, though Ornstein says not confirmed, that Kroenke's outfit may have taken over the bank guarantees for the stadium, which means we don't have to sit on a pile of cash anymore

also expects Josh to be around a lot more, and become much more of a head honcho

the change in attitude, he says, as he has said before, is partly because the Kroenkes have sole ownership, and partly because they have a business team in place instead of dealing with just one man, which is much more what they are used to

 

podcast starts with interview with Josh, but after that Ornstein goes on to share his feelings about it

 

This is giving me vibes of 2012 when Gazidis came out and gave it all the big talk about becoming a European superpower.

I’m a lot more cynical now but the difference is they walked the walk this summer before talking the talk. Long may it continue.

I’m guessing the ‘one man’ is Wenger?

 

oh yes - Josh said Stan and Wenger used to decide things between the two of them, with no one else involved, or even present

I have a feeling that statue of Wenger may be some time in arriving

 

Hopefully the statue will be in place sooner rather than later. Whatever you think of his last few years and how big a role he played in our decline, he is our greatest ever manager and an absolute legend of the game.

 

He will definitely get a statue but I think she’s referring to the likelihood that there were people at Arsenal who probably weren’t best pleased at the autonomy and one-to-one relationship with Stan that Wenger had.

 

indeed - and I rather suspect Josh may be one of them, and he probably could block a statue if so minded

 

The hands off approach might have been a consequence of Wenger and Gazidis. They were here a long before the Kroenkes became controlling stakeholders. Both of them leaving in a short span with Sanllehi and Vinai in charge would bring about a change in how things were run. The downward spiral of the past few years would have forced the Kroenkes hand in keeping an active eye on how things are being run.

The last thing they want to see if a down valuation on their investment and these are business guys, they know they need to invest to reap rewards. I still doubt there was a cash injection from them, we still have significant cash reserves that were maybe freed up a little to help with cash flow for transfers and near term wages. The brass have basically filled big wholes in the squad in terms of the first 11 for the short term. The squad as a whole could use some trimming but the slowness on that front is a consequence of the previous regime.

If we make the top 4, which I'm pretty optimistic about, next summer will be very interesting in terms of recruitment. If they have a big window with a CB and CM, our squad will be effectively complete. Any youngster making a claim for first 11 will be huge bonus to reduce spending.

The progress of Saliba, Holding, ESR, Nelson, Willock will have a huge say in the next transfer window.

 

You must uhhhh play fast fast fast up down with mental protagonista uhhh push pull right timing with othar playars.

 

Josh doesn’t have anything to prove, he proved his worth running the Nuggets.

He has consistently hired executive talent -
Masai Ujiri was his first GM hire who took the Nuggets to a perennial 50 win consistent playoff team and went to the Raptors and delivered their first championship.
Tim Connolly who is the current president and has been garnering major interest from the league, recently the Wizards who has continued the Nuggets success despite concerns when Karl and Ujiri left.

The most important thing that I’m looking from the Kroenke’s is putting the right executives in place. All the other things will come with the right talent in place, which it appears we finally have now.

 

Except that only happened in your head.

 

For real, I don't think there was ever an instance where Wenger was like "look son, I'm not going to give you a position to play or tell you where to move just go out there and express yourself. Forget about defending, attacking or anything like that just express yourself"

Not sure what this narrative is all about, I can guarantee you each player had instructions from Wenger about what he wanted from him that went far and beyond "just express yourself".