What is the biggest mistake the club made that has put us in our current situation?

[GDeep™]

Fair point. I was a bit hot on the trigger there. Which top managers were available? Allegri i guess. Pochettino a bit apponintmento-non-grata.

Could’ve given the job to Freddie and waited till this summer.

Ultimately I just don’t think the desire is there to hire a manager who will want to compete, as that will require massive funding.

 

[Garrincha]

Dont think the club ever accepted our role as an underdog again after the Emirates move.... even now.

Would love us to go either defensive / aggressive or the pace / power / counter route at some point. The club just seem to hung up on the fantasy of 'good football' when at our best we had dogs at the back & physical specimens in midfield that allowed the attack to flourish.

 

[Rex Stone]

Realistically hiring Gazidis. We’re still suffering with the contracts he gave out and from the shambolic top level structure he set up.

Apart from him, not refreshing the staff who worked under Wenger. Scouting and coaching had passed their prime by about 2010 but were allowed to carry on in their roles.

Clubs constantly have to be innovative and while we were in 2004 we drifted far from that by the early 2010s.

 

[Makingtrax]

Before Stan came here we were the most exciting club in Europe. Now we’re heading towards mid table.

Next season I’m pretty sure we won’t get top 6. Who will we blame then? Arteta?

No matter what thread you go in people are still blaming Wenger for stuff, two years after he left.

The fans who were desperate to force him out are left with a mid table club, despite repeatedly telling us that any manager could get this squad top 4.

Like the lonely man who thought the grass was greener with another woman and wonders why the whole family is now a total mess.

 

[Riou]

Also...not moving Arsène on in 2014 and trying to get Klopp, is a big a mistake as moving Arsène on in 2018 and getting Emery...we are a weird club

 

[GDeep™]

Also...not moving Arsène on in 2014 and trying to get Klopp, is a big a mistake as moving Arsène on in 2018 and getting Emery...we are a weird club

We don’t want a top manager who is ambitious. We’ve shown that twice now.

First thing a top manager does is ask “what’s the budget”. We want a manager who we can give a budget to and they’ll be happy no matter what.

 

[GDeep™]

It’s easier to blame Wenger I guess, as going after Stan and questioning him actually takes some work.

I still don’t know why he couldn’t throw 50M our way when we were desperately struggling for money back in the day. People keep talking about Özil or a striker etc, it didn’t have to be like that.

 

[Makingtrax]

Also...not moving Arsène on in 2014 and trying to get Klopp, is a big a mistake as moving Arsène on in 2018 and getting Emery...we are a weird club

Klopp needed well over £200m in one calendar year to buy quality defenders and midfielders to support his marauding attack. And he got it with some smart business. It plugged all the gaps in his side and enabled him to match City.

You think he would have got that here? Emery needed that sort of injection last year after our clear defensive problems in his first year . . . .and what did Arsenal do? Buy two more forwards, got a loanee midfielder, a Chelsea reject ageing CB, another CB for later. Hardly surprising he got in a mess. Klopp would have torn his hair out.

 

[GDeep™]

I reckon Klopp might have been tempted back then, had decent money then too.

Not happy with Arteta anymore?

Very happy with Arteta, wanted him after Wenger. But I’m realistic, he’s new and has no real money.

If he finishes top 6, that’s a good job for me and I’ll give him a pat on the back and congratulate him on executing his target.

 

[GDeep™]

We have had decent money since 2013 (not great but decent) we just haven't used it well.

Don’t forget we’ve made sales ourselves since then. 250M worth of sales.

 

[GDeep™]

Coquelin, RvP, Walcott, Ox, Song, Chesney etc, all Wenger signings all sold for very good to big profits just before he left.

 

[Makingtrax]

We have had decent money since 2013 (not great but decent) we just haven't used it well.

'Not great but decent' is about right. With a good manager that will get you top 4 at best.

 

[bingobob]

Only signing Cech and not buying an outfield player.

 

[hydrofluoric acid]

I don't think that Stan is the biggest reason that we've stayed uncompetitive all these years.

You can blame him for appointing the wrong people but you can't say we haven't spent.

We have more or less similar owners to Liverpool. Liverpool are where they are because they don't have clueless people in charge of their football.

It's not like FSG was the one that funded Liverpool's transfer splurge on VVD, Keita, Allison and Fabinho.

The club was smart in the transfer market.

We've been clueless in the transfer market. That's not Stan's fault.

We had a chance to sign Kante but messed it up and ended up signing a more inferior and more expensive player in Xhaka.

Those kind of decision is what has killed this club.
Or not replacing Giroud all those years

Liverpool owners are one of the owners that has put most funds into their club since they took over.

 

[GDeep™]

We still had the money, through sales on not, we just wasted it...the summer we wasted £90 million on zero useful players, Liverpool spent about £60 million on Mane, Gini and Matip which completely changed the directions of both clubs.

What? Matip changed the direction of the club? Or was it the 70M a piece on Allison, Fabinho, VVD etc.

Don’t forget they spent 100M plus on Keita and Ox, neither are first teamers.

 

[Riou]

What? Matip changed the direction of the club? Or was it the 70M a piece on Allison, Fabinho, VVD etc.

Don’t forget they spent 100M plus on Keita and Ox, neither are first teamers.

Matip on a free was significantly better business than Mustafi for 35 million...he was very good that season, they got Champions League, then were in a position to spend that kind of money in the future.

Liverpool have been great with their funds since Klopp went there.

 

[MutableEarth]

Realistically hiring Gazidis. We’re still suffering with the contracts he gave out and from the shambolic top level structure he set up.

Apart from him, not refreshing the staff who worked under Wenger. Scouting and coaching had passed their prime by about 2010 but were allowed to carry on in their roles.

Clubs constantly have to be innovative and while we were in 2004 we drifted far from that by the early 2010s.

This is basically it. We stopped innovating and just kept doing the same ****. There was no real revamp in terms of recruitment, coaching staff, no evolution on our footballing ideas - it was the same 3 guys with Wenger, Rice and Primorac. If Rice didn't retire, he'd have still been assistant, of that I'm sure. Even the academy suffered greatly from the lack of direction - perhaps one of the best things Gazidis did was sanction Jonker's move to becoming academy manager, as he was the catalyst that changed things around.

In terms of the football side of things, I definitely put it down to a reluctance to change things up.

Gazidis time at Arsenal was a complete shambles but he had some good ideas - he just wasn't the man to organize and structure them. The set-up we have now at least has some promise and Gazidis set that in motion. (I'm not quite as down on Raul Sanllehi+Edu as others).

 

[hydrofluoric acid]

Matip on a free was significantly better business than Mustafi for 35 million...he was very good that season, they got Champions League, then were in a position to spend that kind of money in the future.

Liverpool have been great with their funds since Klopp went there.

They got into Cl by one point and won us at home in the opener. We were one point behind them. Such a shame.

But that Liverpool team was nothing special. They weren't close until they start spending big money on Allison and Van Djik. Matip has no business being mentioned in the recent success.

 

[Riou]

They got into Cl by one point and won us at home in the opener. We were one point behind them. Such a shame.

But that Liverpool team was nothing special. They weren't close until they start spending big money on Allison and Van Djik. Matip has no business being mentioned in the recent success.

That one extra point is where their journey started, year after they bought Salah and Van Djik and really started to become a top side...a beginning isn't as exciting as an ending, but it's just as important.

 

[<<reed>>]

Poor transfers for a couple years in a row:
Cech
Mustafi/Xhaka/Perez
Lacazette/Mkhi

All these guys were downgrades, no wonder we started slipping down