The College Dropout

SJP is falling into Goodison Park territory. A heritage English stadium not compatible with stated ambition.

About to have the 8th largest stadium in the league. We are falling behind. If PIF / Reuben ambition is real I’m also looking for them to build supporting infrastructure. SOL gets the big stadium tours from Taylor Swift, Beyoncé etc. and the like no? Why is that? Surely that’s easy food for PIF and Reuben’s?

Why have commentators stopped calling out dives? That was an awful dive. Looked a dive in real time. Confirmed dive on replay. Like one of those shit Longstaff dives.

I find Arsenal's fanbase hilarious. Highly emotional. They've not won the league in 20 years. I don't know any Arsenal fans that think they should in the league. And they know they won't win the CL. I hate them as a cartel club but other than that - probably one of the teams I like the most in the pyramid. A part of it is that you know they will never dominate the league..

I Don't agree that's a major problem. Joelinton and Willock are/were great at breaking lines through ball carrying.. Willock is nice on the half turn too. But can seemingly only do it consistently from the left rather than the right. Joe has stopped trying to dribble in the main which is a problem. But players that are really good at playing in the pockets are playmaker types that we don't have. Likewise Livra when he first played for us broke lines on the dribble too.

don’t know where I got this from (maybe here?) but an interesting thread. Traditionally Schar has been good at being aggressive with his man in deeper areas. we’ve never been a team to have loads of touches in that middle final third. I don’t know why he’s comparing us to Villa. Villa start with essentially 4 CMs/CAM. Joelinton plays LCM as a LW/LM in attack. Wr have no natural 10, Villa often play with 2.

Agreed my ultimate concern is that PIF are not as invested as they need to be for us to be successful. And I think I already have the answer. Chelsea was Roman’s football interest. City are at the heart of Anu Dhabi’s footballing ambitions. The shenanigans with the Saudi league and the lack of movement of players between the clubs shows us we aren’t the centre of their footballing ambition.

Doesn’t change that we need a new stadium to realise our existing potential. Man U have shared some plans for some regeneration within months. Where are we with this? The training ground? When Ashley took over we had the second biggest club stadium in the country. We are about to become the 8th. We are being left behind.

I don’t really have any feelings towards Arteta. Man City as a club are boring and soulless. Agree them winning it is like nobody winning it. That was cool the first 5 times. Also I don’t have any illwill towards Arsenal either.

It’s not painting him as the villain. Howe is a club builder and he wants to keep building. It just may not be approach for our leadership team. To add to Kaka’s excellent post. Remember the rumours that Eddie was pissed off with Ashworth for not getting Joelinton a new contract? I always thought selling a Joelinton at peak value was a good idea. I think Ashworth had multiple FFP exit strategies including selling Joelinton. That’s sensible. Howe being a coach doesn’t prioritise that. Joelinton is key in the short term so give him that new contract. We do need other people at the club to prioritise the clubs medium term health. Staveley was great at getting deals done. But financial and football judiciary isn’t her specialty.

Same.

Yeh but he wants a DOF to get him British based players in the main. TBF Freedman has done that at Palace. But again - those signings need time to develop. Targeting Europe makes it difficult to prioritise player development.

That UCL schedule will catchup to Villa imo. They’ve a good squad and manager mind. They lost a bit of steam towards the end of last season too.

That’s the fault of Eales and co. not communicating with Howe. Also we can’t demand Europe then give him talent that needs to be developed. Our first choice full backs need development. Our star CM needs to bed into the team.

Despise Man City personally. Want Arsenal to win the league.

Agree Mitchell has had a piss poor start.

The constant ‘we are looking at a small group of players’ and only publicly bidding for Osulu, Tosin, Kelly, Palace winger, Guehi kinda proves that’s true. And we all knew Howe’s Bournemouth side was heavy on the British. The longer Eddie’s been here the more we’ve gone towards his style until this January imo.

I mean, we’ve had a good start though. Good post Kaka. I still support Howe but it sounds like he needs to change his mindset a bit.

They’ve also strengthen. And have better depth than us anyway. We could finish higher because of those reasons. But 7th can’t be below par that’s exactly where we should finish.

7th or 8th is par. Any better is a really good job. i don’t understand how the 7/8 most funded squad can expect to finish in Europe though. But that seems to be the way. At some point we may need to take a step back. You can’t do that with a couple £60m signings though.

Bayern have been doing classic Serie A / Real managerial merry-go-round and they’ve struggled to compete in the CL and even lost the league. All that chopping and changing has hurt them.

Aye. But Arteta in particular would’ve been sacked by most owners. In his first full season they finished 8th. And he wanted to bin off the star players. And Ancelotti got sacked by Real the first time for finishing 2nd/3rd and getting to CL semi. He did that again in his second term and was nowhere near getting sacked. He also Got sacked from Chelsea for finishing 2nd. it’s a different era now. Managerial requirements are so specific these days. It helps that there’s a dearth of elite managers that deliver in the short term. And the 2 I can think of - Tuchel and Conte - are notoriously tough to work with.

That Chelsea model is a dying one. Even Real Madrid have had the same 2 managers for most of the last 10 years. Winning 6 CLs. Guardiola, Klopp, Arteta - the best managers are getting longer tenures. Going back to Madrid - this will be Ancelotti’s longest job in about 20 years. It will be interesting to see how PIF move with managers. FSG are patient. Arsenal have Shown patience. Levy and Chelsea have been trigger happy. I hope PIF are the type of owners that give managers the season. Even Roman liked to give managers the full season.

Btw the future of our club is ultimately dependent on the investment, commitment and competency of PIF. Relatively speaking Mitchell and Howe are small fry.

Longstaff can’t play 6. He can’t get on the ball and progress it. Bad under pressure. A modern 6 needs to be able to play and progress under pressure.