Hector Bellerin, League Cup Final, Sergio Aguero & Emirates Deal

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Hector Bellerin

Are Arsenal fans really that sad that they have spent their last few days perfecting a Cockney-Spanish accent before recording themselves in a car pretending to be Hector Bellerin on the phone?

Has it come to it that some fans are so willing to destroy the club they apparently love, that they have gone into method acting and have self-produced a short film in the hope of winning an Oscar?

I might end up with mud on my face if the recordings to the round of Hector Bellerin in a car on his phone are real, but a bit like the Kieran Gibbs one that did the rounds this time last year, it is probably the work of some sad little weirdo.

The fall out to Bellerin’s comments at the Oxford University Q&A have been hilarious.

Some self-entitled saddos on Twitter have proper lost their mind over it. It has been mental break downs left, right and centre. I have half expected some to threaten to jump onto a motorway before disappearing  for a week.

There has been one idiot recording himself for 2 minutes in his car. Saying how he him are Bellerin are “done”. “Hector, that’s me and you done mate” was pretty much what he said. I am sure Bellerin is unbothered. In fact, he said in the Q&A that fans getting on his back is something that he has learnt to ignore over the years.

A very mature outlook for a 22 year old living in a different country. He is more mature and mentally stable than the 30-somethings who have spent the week abusing him.

It has even gotten to the point where some fans have declared “we need a new right back”. How odd. A player that would walk into the majority of first XI’s throughout Europe is suddenly deemed not good enough? Odd little fans proper throwing their toys out the pram.

Then you have this voice recording doing the round.

It is all getting a bit sad really isn’t it?

The fact is, on Thursday and again on Sunday, Bellerin’s name will be sang loud and proud by the majority of fans. You see, most normal, level headed fans, like myself and others, back the players, back the team, and want them to do well.

League Cup

On that note, I read something wierd recently.

You are not a real WOB if you want Arsenal to win on Sunday.

How odd. People that cry out “it’s Arsenal FD  not Arsene FC” then saying calling themselves something as sad as WOB and wanting Arsenal to be destroyed on Sunday because it suits an anti-Wenger, and ultimately anti-Arsenal agenda.

The rise of social media has been brilliantly. It has opened the world, made it a smaller place.

But it has also given idiots a voice. The type of plonker who would usually be found in a pub corner, on his own drinking his Holston Pills. A wet patch on his groin. Trying to speak to anyone they know about football and UFO’s. Proper sad folk.

Social media has given these idiots a louder voice. They are no longer standing in their pissy-pants talking to themselves.

Imagine wanting Arsenal to NOT win trophies, then saying if you want Arsenal to win trophies, you are not an Arsenal fan.

Odd.

Sergio Aguero

So Sergio Aguero hit a fan last night.

Let’s be honest, if it was an Arsenal player who had hit a Wigan fan after they tried to mug him off, we would be celebrating it.

Aguero will get a ban. I only want him to be banned because it means he is out of the League Cup Final, but I have no issue with what we did.

In fact, I wish what Aguero did, and what Bellerin has said last week, would happen more often.

Fans think they are untouchable. That they can say and do what they want. They need to realise they can not.

Emirates Deal

A small note on the Emirates Deal. I was going to write more on it but time today has caught up on me.

Emirates sponsor 6 European clubs. Arsenal are second when it comes to how much they pay to sponsor:

Real Madrid – £60m (Deal started in 2017) – This is also the worlds biggest deal
Arsenal – £40m (2018)
PSG – £22.25m (2014)
AC Milan – £15m (2014)
Benfica – £1.6m (2015)
Olympiakos – ???

The Arsenal deal is the second largest in the Premier League, level with Chelsea and below Manchester United.

You could question why we have signed a deal level to Chelsea, but Chelsea’s £40m a year includes sleeve sponsorship. Arsenal’s does not.

We are expected to do a deal for sleeve sponsors starting in 2018 for around £12m a year. This will take us to £52m a year from shirt sponsors. £22m  more than what we have at the minute. That works out at around £425k a week more.

 Keenos

Back to the football..

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I wish we could get back to talking about football was what a pal solemnly said last night.

He was fed up, we were all fed up. No game at the weekend had led to us having very little to talk about bar the fall-out from the Hector Bellerin comments. It had become dull and was giving hot hair to those that really do not deserve the attention.

So it is a new week, and with a new week brings new vigour. Bellerin’s comments are last weeks chip paper. The 3-0 victory away from home in Europe ended up a side note. Time to move on and concentrate on the next 7 days.

Beating Ostersunds so comfortably in Sweden means that the pressure is off for the first half of this week. The side can train with one eye on next Sunday’s game – the League Cup Final against Manchester City.

Whilst it is still important to take Ostersunds seriously, they showed nothing when playing in the sub-freezing climate of Scandinavia. We basically need to split the squad into two groups this week.

Those who are set to start Sunday. Those who are set to start Thursday.

The likes of David Ospina, Calum Chambers, Rob Holding, Per Mertesacker, Saed Kolasinac, Mohamed Elneny, Riess Nelson, Joe Wilock, Danny Welbeck, Henrikh Mkhitaryan (cup tied) and Eddie Nketiah should all get a run out on Thursday.

This leaves Mesut Ozil, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, , Laurent Koscielny and the rest of the strongest XI available free for the week to concentre on Manchester City.

Ostersunds should be comfortable. Get an early goal and it is done. It is probably done already. The Ostersunds players have the game of their life. A match against a big team from London, England. They will be star struck.

That brings us to Sunday.

I do not care what anyone says, the League Cup Final is important.

It might be 5th on the wish list behind Premier League, Champions League, Europa League and the FA Cup, but it is still a final, still a trophy.

Perhaps it shows how spoilt Arsenal fans are that some are disregarding it. Saying they do not care – and in some cases saying that they want Manchester City to win. We should be excited about playing in yet another domestic final.

You never know when your next chance to play in a final is. Next time you have a chance to win a trophy. Look at the likes of Aston Villa & Everton. Back 30 years ago, they were big names in English football. It has now been over 20 years since either won a trophy.

Chuck in Newcastle as well. What ha sit been? 50 years without a trophy?

Liverpool have not won anything since 2012. Spurs 2008. You never know how long your side might go between trophies, so to write off a chance of winning one as unimportant, even if we have labelled it the Micky Mouse Cup in the past, is just silly.

I want us to win the League Cup. I want us to win the Europa League. I wants us to win the Premier League, the Champions League and the Super Bowl. A day out at Wembley without needing to hire it. A trophy lifted above the grey skies of North-West London. Not much get better than that in life.

It might be a low priority at the beginning of the season, but for this week, the League Cup is the priority.

For those saying Arsenal will not win. Well you probably said the same last season when we played Manchester City in the FA Cup, and the same again in the final against Chelsea. In recent years we have shown up in these games. There is no reason to not expect us to show up again.

I look back at 1993. Does anyone care that we finished 10th? No you do not. That year we won the domestic cup double. The first team to do so.

So we have football to look forward too this week. And I am buzzing for Sunday already.

Keenos

Could a new manager turn Arsenal around in a season?

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On the She Wore Facebook Page, GC recently asked the question:

Could a new manager turn us around in a season, or has too much damage been done?

It is an interesting question, and one which could take some exploring.

Factors that need to be taken into account are things such as:

  • What actually is “turning Arsenal around”? How do we define if a new manager has turned us around?
  • Is all a new manager all that Arsenal needs to “turn around”.

I think a good starting point is to look at other managers at top 6 clubs, as to whether we think they have actually turned things round.

We start with Pep Guardiola. He has certainly turned Manchester City around. They are winning the league title at a canter this season. When he took over, Man City had just finished 4th – 15 points off top.

There is no argument that Guardiola has turned City round, but it has taken until his second season – in his first, they once again finished 15 points behind the Champions.

Guardiola has also spent close to £400m in the 18 months he has been at Manchester City, and is managing a squad that cost nearly £800m.

So if we are setting the bar At Premeir League Champions as the KPI for turning the club around in a season, is this not a little unfair, taking into account it took Guardiola 2 years and the most expensively assembled squad in football history?

Then we have Antonio Conte. He did turn things round within a single season – romping to the league title in his first season. There is no doubt he turned around a Chelsea team that were mid-table under Jose Mourinho.

But roll on 6 months and they are once again off the pace in the league, losing at home to Bournemouth and Burnley. They look a shadow of the team they were last season, Conte is on the ropes and could be out of the door.

Conte might have won the league title, and turned the club around in the short term, but he seems to have done little to address the long term issues that have been at the club for some time.

Would a new manager coming in and winning the title signify a turnaround, if the off-field problems we have had for years are still there?

Has Jose Mourinho turned Manchester United around? Last season, they won two trophies – the Europa League and League Cup – and finished 6th. Arsenal could be on for an identical set of results this year, yet we would class that as not good enough. Therefore it is impossible to say the Mourinho turned Man U around if we as fans would not be happy with an identical success.

And a year on, are United really any better? They might have gone from 6th to 2nd, but they are no more competitive in the title race than Arsenal. They will not win the league.

He has spent big on Paul Pogba, on Romelu Lukaku, over £300m spent over 18 months, nearly the same of Pep Guardiola but without the title winning team.

Reading the press, you would think Jurgen Klopp has done a great job for Liverpool. But 3 years into his job, he has still yet to win a trophy. In his first season at Liverpool, he led the team to 8th. This would represent a step backwards if Arsenal’s new manager did the same.

His next season they were 4th. 17 points behind the title. Just 1 point ahead of Arsenal. Won nothing.

If last season, when Arsenal finished 5th and with the FA Cup, was deemed a failure, surely Liverpool’s was also a failure? This season, it looks like same old, Liverpool will finish between 3rd and 6th. He has turned nothing around at Liverpool – they finished 2nd 15 months before he took over.

There is no point even discussing Spurs. The media narrative on them is that Pochettino does not need to win trophies as a sign of success. Therefore the bar for what was needed to turn Spurs around is so low, he basically needs to save them from relegation to be seen as a success.

So would a new manager at Arsenal be able to turn the club around in a season? Again the answer comes in what you think him turning the club around would be?

If a new man takes over a club who has finished 6th, but has won a few cups over the last 5 years, takes the club to 3rd, winning nothing, would that be seen as turning the club around?

What if he takes the side back into the top 4, and wins the FA Cup, would that be turning the club round?

Would it be unreasonable to expect a new manager to come in and win the league title straight away in his first season, when Guardiola has taken 2 seasons and £400m?

Even if we say “we want to compete for the title.” Had a new manager came in during the summer of 2017, we would still have been well off the incredible pace of Manchester City and Guardiola’s £800m squad. No team is within 16 points of the league leader.

Is it just the team mentality that needs to turn around? The poor defeats to Swansea, Stoke and more. But then Chelsea lost to Burnley, Newcastle United and Huddersfield have beaten Manchester United. Liverpool recently lost to Swansea City.

We set the bar high in 2004 with an unbeaten season. We can not expect to repeat this. Defeats against teams we should not lose to happen. They are part of football. If you are saying to turn around Arsenal, we don’t want to lose to the likes of Stoke / Swansea / etc then you are perhaps being unrealistic.

So to answer GC’s question as to whether a manager can turn around Arsenal in a season, you have to ask another question.

What would you class as having successfully turned Arsenal around?

Keenos