Out with the old... Jan 2019 transfer thread

I was probably one of them, lol. It was a valid point but a little early And harsh at the time I thought. We’ve done okay under his watch, but I don’t think it’s any reason to get our panties in a wad if he leaves.

I just want to get through a full season post AW with the fans united behind the club for a change. If we don’t get 4th or win CL it’s not the end of the world. New managers can be hired, new players signed, new execs recruited.

 

You gotta be kidding me. This is the opposite of a Sam Allardyce team. Sam Allardyce managing Arsenal would not be giving up 35 goals in the League or how ever many we've conceded so far.

 

I'm willing to give Sven the benefit of the doubt... that he's been a net positive in signings.

If he's leaving that doesn't seem to bode well. There's either some sort of power struggle or a lack of funds for him to do his "magic". Actually probably a bit of both. And if he leaves now, it jives with the whole "loans only" comment by Emery this week.

The big question I have is what's our transfer booty for the summer gonna be? If it's highly restricted like January, that would totally suck. And if your head of recruiting sensed this, I can see why he'd want out.

And the fans will grow restless if not angry very quickly. So the club better get on top of this by:

a) Getting their plan in order (if they haven't)

b) Getting a senior manager on the podium to explain what's going on

c) Resolve the Ozil situation... one way or the other

 

Yeah, that's the $64000 question.

For everything that is bad with Arsenal, I blame Arsene Wenger. Since Wenger left, I blame Josh Kroenke over anyone else. If there's tension between Raul and Sven, defuse it, referee whatever the cause of the problem is, get everyone on the same page.

 

Josh Kroenke? Isn't he at home, rootin on his Rams?

 

Josh Kroenke (and everyone between him and Emery in the org chart) should also be involved the Ozil situation. It reminds me a little bit of Antonio Brown and the Steelers. It's not that any one thing that Tomlin or Emery did was bad or unjustifiable, you just have to make sure that the whole organization is speaking with one voice, instead of one guy being petulant about the situation.

 

Also:

Ornstein: Sanllehi, Mislintat and Emery - have not been collaborating as effectively as they did previously. For example, the interest in Barcelona midfielder Denis Suarez is being driven by Sanllehi and Emery, while Mislintat has targets of his own.

— Z (@ZRAFC) January 15, 2019

If this report is true, this is the kind of thing competent ownership is supposed to fix.

 

That's Stan. Josh is supposed to be here.

 

Right, if the problem is with every single person in our organization being either incompetent or incompatible professionally, the problem is with ownership. Stan gave Josh the club this year, or so we were informed. He had a significant hand in the hiring of Emery and we were told he would help fill the vacuum left by Gazidis and take up some of his role. Obviously, Josh is even more of a "two rows of teeth" inbred dullard Hapsburg prince than previously thought, and the only prescription worth giving to him for his incurable malignant tumor of a head is the slicey boy.

 

I figured it was all in the family. Are you saying that Josh has nothing to do with the Rams? (I follow NFL 0.5%)

 

Did KSE ever explicitly say this? Josh was given the club? He would step into Gazidis's vacuum?

Or did we all just presume this. That's how I felt anyway. I certainly never saw any pressers or releases about Josh.

 

The story was, around the time Emery was hired, that Josh was going to be based out of London and was going to be more active regarding the management of the club. In fact, there was some idea that he was going to take over the CEO title from Ivan (I was in favor of it, most of this forum wasn't).

He was also palling around with Thierry Henry at the time and there was also talk that Josh would be putting him in as manager (obviously that one didn't come to fruition).

 

I knew all of that about Josh way back then. But that doesn't answer my question.

Edit: Not to mention that was all just hearsay at the time

 

I guess not. There's not very much that comes directly out of Arsenal or KSE (including any events of today). Doesn't mean they're not real.

 

With the revelation that there is no money for transfers this window, which almost certainly came from the top, it's possible that Sven has become disenchanted with the way the club is run, i.e., with the owner.

 

Yeah. But man it sure would be nice to hear some clear public info about Arsenal rather than all the speculation that's swirling around these days!

That's clearly a management thing, and if they're not careful they might lose control of public perception, not to mention staff morale.

 

Yeah, that's what I was postulating above.

 

Yeah, I gotta channel my inner bigman here and blame the Yanks. Really, Stan should have never bought the minority interest from Alisher Usmanov.

The reality is, Stan has owned a rapidly appreciating asset which has not created any meaningful cash flow. If you're money-centric like Stan is, you always have this nagging feeling that you own $2 billion worth of stock in pets.com. That's not likely to change any time soon. So bank a win, get the money and let some Middle Eastern, UK, Russian, or other USA ownership group have a chance.

The bottom line is, the Kroenkes are trying to get away with outsourcing things that can't be outsourced, and the club is suffering the consequences.

 

I was so hopeful on Jan.1, with all sorts of apparently unrealistic expectations of us signing someone (especially a defender or two) or at least bringing in a loan. And doing it early in the window.

Now we're halfway through and nada. Not to mention the news from the club this week about "only loans" and our chief scout about to split.

But if it's any solace, there have been precious few incoming deals by EPL clubs. I'm discounting Chelsea/Pulisic because that's deferred. Then you're left with Bournemouth & Huddersfield having brought in a few bodies. But that's it for now.

Plus, our defensive injury woes have just started to look better, so maybe this dismal January window isn't all so bad?

He says trying to convince, rationalize, cheer himself up.

 

This sven news... holy shit

 

Im biting Arsenal Vision podcast, but what if "only loans" meant the club not wanting to fund Banega and Suarez transfers?

What if Emery and Raul want those two in and Sven was like "hell nah?"

What if Sven was like, "I can't work with these clowns. They want too much control and want to sign trash players. Let me goto Bayern."?

To me, this all feels like a power play by Raul.

Wenger saved us from this effery the last 2-3 years. No plan on the pitch or off.

 

I don’t like the possible narrative the Sven departure brings either. But a possible alternative is this.

When gazza and AW leave he thinks he will now have power which he didn’t have with AW. Instead, Emery and Raúl are now spending his meager xfer budget and he is pissed. Has the smell of a turf war to me.

 

It does fee like a power play, but don’t think Sven can dictate spending. This would come from Raúl (josh). More likely it’s the other way around. Sven has a few promising targets, Josh and Raúl have the purse strings tight and only allowing Suarez on loan so he is threatening to leave and using his targets as bait for Bayern to come get him (I assume he has a contract).