Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?

[Macho]

@Blood on the Tracks @Macho @yousif_arsenal

What did he say that was so wrong? We do look like a midtable team, he was optimistic for us and after watching us play doesn't think like that anymore. Unless you guys have been impressed by us this season?

Nothing wrong I just think Merson is a clown tbh (as a pundit and on purpose too not as a person).

We play worse than midtable, I've been campaigning it up and down the forum and you know more than most this isn't a new opinion of mine.

I've literally called it Emery ball and brexit ball from project restart. Unlike Merson.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

@Blood on the Tracks @Macho @yousif_arsenal

What did he say that was so wrong? We do look like a midtable team, he was optimistic for us and after watching us play doesn't think like that anymore. Unless you guys have been impressed by us this season?

I wasn't referring to his comments on this subject in particular, just him generally as a pundit.

Arteta was great up until the point he started losing a few matches. Okay, that's fine. Not exactly insightful punditry. It's nothing a random fan wouldn't say.

 

[GoonerJeeves]

I loved Merse as a player. He's an awful pundit though and seems a genuinely stupid person

Not many marbles to lose there I'm afraid.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

Nothing wrong I just think Merson is a clown tbh (as a pundit and on purpose too not as a person).

We play worse than midtable, I've been campaigning it up and down the forum and you know more than most this isn't a new opinion of mine.

I've literally called it Emery ball and brexit ball from project restart. Unlike Merson.

Fair enough, Merse is stupid but I think what he said here is fair enough.

 

[GDeep™]

Merson is saying what we’re all saying? What’s with you guys bashing pundits all the time? We finished mid table last season, we didn’t improve much in the summer, and now we’re 12th.

We did get battered by Leeds last week, he’s right about that too.

 

[Macho]

Merson is saying what we’re all saying? What’s with you guys bashing pundits all the time? We finished mid table last season, we didn’t improve much in the summer, and now we’re 12th.

We did get battered by Leeds last week, he’s right about that too.

He's a clown I'm sorry

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

Merson is saying what we’re all saying? What’s with you guys bashing pundits all the time? We finished mid table last season, we didn’t improve much in the summer, and now we’re 12th.

We did get battered by Leeds last week, he’s right about that too.

The fact Merson is saying what we're all saying is the problem. He gets payed to analyse the game from an ex pro's perspective not from arm chair fans perspective like us.

There's nothing he's saying that you or 90% of Arsenal supporters wouldn't say in his shoes. So what's he adding for the money Sky is paying him?

 

[GoonerJeeves]

Merson is saying what we’re all saying? What’s with you guys bashing pundits all the time? We finished mid table last season, we didn’t improve much in the summer, and now we’re 12th.

We did get battered by Leeds last week, he’s right about that too.

Mourinho was an excellent pundit. Merse should stick to "gambling responsibly".

 

[Makingtrax]

Because it firstly highlights the lack of quality we have had over the years due to terrible recruitment, and it secondly shows our inability to sell players when they should have been sold. Its a vicous circle tbh.

For example, we rejected 60million pounds for Sanchez to only get nothing for him 4 months later. The player we then replaced him with cost left on a free. You cant build a football team like that unless you are Man City.

Yes, our business in the transfer market has been diabolical and it's got a lot worse dealing with dodgy agents, giving long contracts to ageing players, buying extra players to cover those frozen out, and deliberating running contracts down.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

There's nothing wrong in Merson saying we're a mid-table club now, it's more the fact he flipped from saying we'd finish top 4 in the first place. Anyone with a working brain knows a team without a proper creative midfielders, with average players like Xhaka and Ceballos starting, with Luiz a starter and with Laca starting most games, would struggle to seriously compete for a CL spot. Especially looking at how much our rivals strengthened. It's now dawned on him, but he doesn't deserve credit for realising much later than everyone else

 

[GDeep™]

The fact Merson is saying what we're all saying is the problem. He gets payed to analyse the game from an ex pro's perspective not from arm chair fans perspective like us.

There's nothing he's saying that you or 90% of Arsenal supporters wouldn't say in his shoes. So what's he adding for the money Sky is paying him?

He’s bit of a straight talker, shoots off with his opinions, that’s his Sky gig. That’s what they pay him for.

I have never heard a pundit say anything that fans on here or on Twitter don’t already know. Fans watch more football than these ex pros.

 

[Macho]

The fact Merson is saying what we're all saying is the problem. He gets payed to analyse the game from an ex pro's perspective not from arm chair fans perspective.

There's nothing he's saying that you or 90% of Arsenal supporters wouldn't say in his shoes.

I am going to try and explain this one, I think it's kinda encouraged.

I saw Danny Murphy (another shocking pundit) kind of explain why his views are so crap.
These guys are capable of better breakdowns and more informed opinions but they instead do it in a way to make it more interesting for the audience.

This video was the Q&A section of an Opta event about the future of analytics and stats in football btw, I was shocked at how knowledgeable he was about the subject, but there you go.

I will post it if I ever find it. Anyways, I think it's a mistake to take what Merson says serious. You see it with Keane's hot takes as well, all over the place.

 

[GDeep™]

I am going to try and explain this one, I think it's kinda encouraged.

I saw Danny Murphy (another shocking pundit) kind of explain why his views are so crap.
These guys are capable of better breakdowns and more informed opinions but they instead do it in a way to make it more interesting for the audience.

This video was the Q&A section of an Opta event about the future of analytics and stats in football btw, I was shocked at how knowledgeable he was about the subject, but there you go.

I will post it if I ever find it. Anyways, I think it's a mistake to take what Merson says serious. You see it with Keane's hot takes as well, all over the place.

They don’t have time on Sky and BT for deep breakdowns of the game, and they know what gets the hits and numbers on social media are the various hot takes like you say, from Keane, Carra, Merson, Souness etc.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

I am going to try and explain this one, I think it's kinda encouraged.

I saw Danny Murphy (another shocking pundit) kind of explain why his views are so crap.
These guys are capable of better breakdowns and more informed opinions but they instead do it in a way to make it more interesting for the audience.

This video was the Q&A section of an Opta event about the future of analytics and stats in football btw, I was shocked at how knowledgeable he was about the subject, but there you go.

I will post it if I ever find it. Anyways, I think it's a mistake to take what Merson says serious. You see it with Keane's hot takes as well, all over the place.

I guess it make sense that pundits are told to dumb it down for TV. I'm sure they're told by management that what they say needs to be understandable to kids and people with a pretty basic knowledge of football.

I can live with that, it's more the sort of pundits that like to say outrageous and really critical things that get to me. I'm sure they mean at least some of what they say but you know in the back of their minds they're thinking 'This criticism will get me on the back page of The Sun tomorrow'

In my eyes the best pundits are usually the ones that have retired relatively recently, they have a better understanding of how the modern game works. Souness, Keane etc veer well into old man yells at clouds territory too often for my liking.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

@Blood on the Tracks @Macho @yousif_arsenal

What did he say that was so wrong? We do look like a midtable team, he was optimistic for us and after watching us play doesn't think like that anymore. Unless you guys have been impressed by us this season?

Nothing wrong but nobody said we are top 4 team with this group of players i mean they the once who finished 8th Partey and Gabriel woudn't suddenly make us top4 team there so much to improve i think we are 6-8th quality team nothing will improve until few of our players we have improve too Like Laca hitting 20 goals in league Xhaka become very good midfielder Tierney Bellerin became AWB and Robertson we all know these things won't happen.

 

[Trilly]

You keep repeating that, but it's grossly unjust. The life of a football manager is tough, tough, tough. Witness, Emery and Arteta. Wenger had the full weight of the fans around his neck, the other two managers had full support. And in fact Klopp had Michael Edwards making some stunning decisions in the transfer market to help him succeed whilst Wenger, Gazidis and the board were panicking about the fan rants and making stupid decisions like Perez and Mustafi.

To bring down Wenger with a sustained campaign and when he finally drops out of the top 4 after 20 years (and only by 1 point at first) and then say, "See, told he was declining", is sick.

Your entire argument is based on the belief that the fans made Wenger a worse manager. You’ll never be able to prove that.

My point is that Wenger failed to compete with Klopp and Poch. The league table proves that. Simple really.

 

[2Smokeyy]

They don’t have time on Sky and BT for deep breakdowns of the game, and they know what gets the hits and numbers on social media are the various hot takes like you say, from Keane, Carra, Merson, Souness etc.

Pretty much every successful channel/football show does exactly the same thing now too. It sounds pretty obvious but like you said it’s the recipe to attracting a lot of attention/views through YouTube, Twitter etc in 2020.

Take AFTV for example, the straight talkers get the views. The likes of Claude, DT, Troopz have the majority of the views on there. Sky have had similar success with Souness, Keane, Evra, Merson etc even though I’m sure they don’t even believe the trash they say most of the time.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

the fa cup win last season did raise the expectations a bit nothing wrong with that but we really bit far from a top 4 team again. we either go to 5-10 games winning run and some of our average players became elite suddenly, difficult to predict but Arteta won't do miracle to make finish top 4 you need everyone effort to achieve that.

 

[Makingtrax]

There's nothing wrong in Merson saying we're a mid-table club now, it's more the fact he flipped from saying we'd finish top 4 in the first place. Anyone with a working brain knows a team without a proper creative midfielders, with average players like Xhaka and Ceballos starting, with Luiz a starter and with Laca starting most games, would struggle to seriously compete for a CL spot. Especially looking at how much our rivals strengthened. It's now dawned on him, but he doesn't deserve credit for realising much later than everyone else

The trouble is football punditry is easy if it’s all hindsight stuff. Most pundits and posters on here follow the crowd. It’s a 9/10 transfer window for me, then later, we haven’t addressed obvious problems with the squad . The best pundits and posters see the problems in advance.

 

[Pyres7]

I wasn't referring to his comments on this subject in particular, just him generally as a pundit.

Arteta was great up until the point he started losing a few matches. Okay, that's fine. Not exactly insightful punditry. It's nothing a random fan wouldn't say.

It's also how he keeps changing his mind all the time and acting like that has been his opinion all along. He's the kind of person who would be calling for Özil to rot in the reserves and then when it actually happens he'll say that's stupid, Özil should be playing every week.