The only thing I'd day about that is that we've not had a single person making decisions at the club. In the last 4 years we've have Gazidis, Wenger, Sven, Emery, Raul, Vinai, Edu and Arteta all with a significant input into the direction we take in the transfer market. We've suffered massively on and off the pitch from all the turmoil.

It's why we desperately need some stability rather than another new vision for how to move forward.

Stability under Arteta means we're stably going down the table. I thought Chelsea proved that consistency nonsense wrong time and again.

And regardless - how is Arteta being allowed to completely revamp the squad in his image anything but the exact opposite of stability?

There is no stability without a vision. They aren't building towards anything. This summer is starting to really worry me.

Chelsea have had immense stability in Granovskaia. Managers come and go of course but she seems to drive a lot of the transfer decisions at the club.

She seems capable which is a lot more than you can say about almost every other CEO in the Premier League, but I don't think there's a whole lot that's changed since she took over.

jones wrote:

And regardless - how is Arteta being allowed to completely revamp the squad in his image anything but the exact opposite of stability?

You're talking about stability in the squad (which is basically another word for standing still), I'm talking about stability in running the club, building a squad, recruitment strategy etc. Keeping Xhaka, Bellerin, Kolasinac, Mustafi etc. is not my idea of stability and every manager will likely come in and find a group of players that isn't for him.

Secondly, it's Edu more than Arteta I'm referring to, at least that's the way it should be. The manager/head coach should have a big input, but it should be under the framework of the Technical Director or whatever you want to call them. 

Edu was around when we signed Saliba and made him one of the most expensive young defenders in the world, so it doesn't make sense on why he would now want to spend £50m on another CB who plays in the same position. Which to me suggests that it is Arteta calling the shots on transfers and Edu is just the negotiator.

If Arteta is gone in 6 months time, that's £100m+ wasted on transfers Arteta wanted, which the new manager probably won't want.

Complete lack of stability and know how in the transfer market, and it will cost us in the long run.

Edu joined literally days before Saliba and it's pretty clear Sanlehi was running the show back then anyway.

goon wrote:

Edu joined literally days before Saliba and it's pretty clear Sanlehi was running the show back then anyway.

More like weeks, either way he was on board with the transfer team, probably worked on it, and at the very least knew of the long term commitment being made on it.

Edu issue is just guesswork but Arteta being the one to not rate (probably the only one in Europe) and to banish Saliba is not up for debate.

goon wrote:

jones wrote:

And regardless - how is Arteta being allowed to completely revamp the squad in his image anything but the exact opposite of stability?

You're talking about stability in the squad (which is basically another word for standing still), I'm talking about stability in running the club, building a squad, recruitment strategy etc. Keeping Xhaka, Bellerin, Kolasinac, Mustafi etc. is not my idea of stability and every manager will likely come in and find a group of players that isn't for him.

We offered half of those guys new contracts. Also I was mostly talking about us signing Mari Gabriel and Saliba and resigning David Luiz (then trying to do it again ffs) in the time Arteta's been here and still looking to spend 50 fucking million on another centre back. That's not stability in the squad that's idiocy in charge.

The Saliba problem bothers me more because it feels personal rather than a footballing issue.

The caveat I have with Saliba is that he's been playing at LCB at Nice whereas we currently have both Gabriel and Mari for that role, and we are looking for someone at RCB.

He’s Im not worried yet about Saliba. He had the highest ball progression stats in Ligue 1 (metres per minute) across all players. It seems odd to me that Edu and Arteta would see this modern forward who can confortably okay any position in the back 2 or back 3 and want to dump him. Villa bidding for ESR, Marseilles bidding for Saliba - I’ll wait for the transfers to happdn

Rohit wrote:

The Saliba problem bothers me more because it feels personal rather than a footballing issue.

Or an agent issue.

Shady wrote:

Rohit wrote:

The Saliba problem bothers me more because it feels personal rather than a footballing issue.

Or an agent issue.

Aye I'd say it's the man himself we've had zero issues getting loans done. Then it comes to saliba and it's a ball ache getting him to play the French final, it's a ball ache securing a French loan. And he'd offered to championship clubs for the season 3 want him and none get over the line. And he's slagging us off on social media. He's a wonderful talent and a grade A dickhead. Every other loan in and out is no issue. 

What's the chances of he does manage one good season he kicks immediately for a move. 

speedy wrote:

Shady wrote:

Or an agent issue.

Aye I'd say it's the man himself we've had zero issues getting loans done. Then it comes to saliba and it's a ball ache getting him to play the French final, it's a ball ache securing a French loan.

Those things were entirely on the club.

Saliba issue is separate to the Ben White issue for me. The former has just turned 20 so I've no real issue with him being a 3rd choice/rotational centre back for the time being. But there is just no way he shouldn't be given a chance.

speedy wrote:

Shady wrote:

Or an agent issue.

. Every other loan in and out is no issue. 

AMN says otherwise.

Either way even if Saliba was a dickhead. He's a 20 year old dickhead who's played some 30 professional football matches in his life. Used to live with his parents until recently. On the other side you have 40+ year old professionals in charge of a world class club with full playing careers and loads of trophies and moves behind them. Even if you disregard that his coaches said he's mature beyond his years or that Arteta and Edu have evidently fucked up so much in the last two years and this is more likely part of that, they get paid to deal with the clubs assets and this is a clusterfuck start to finish.

this guy isn't an itk but has some kind of inside track and usually doesn't tweet nonsense

Lol. You guys should be stand up comics.

Don't you need to be funny to be a stand-up...?

No? Just to be a good one.

Top 5 most expensive defender of all time?

I think Poundland Pep is looking for his John Stones moment.

Interesting map. Has a lot of good attributes.
I’m trying to think of him with, say, Saliba next to him. They would both be good on the ball. Saliba would be able to go forward to overlap with the DM and fullbacks to build up play and leave White back.
But the heading ability between the two would be a glaring weakness on defense. The hope potentially with these profiles of defenders is that you have so much of the ball that you negate these weaknesses

Kind of a garbage graph in terms of datavis but I said I'd throw it up for the sake of discussion anyway.

What's pressures? Is it literally pressing? If so the two of them actually look like they'd compliment each other well.

Claudius wrote:

Interesting map. Has a lot of good attributes.
I’m trying to think of him with, say, Saliba next to him. They would both be good on the ball. Saliba would be able to go forward to overlap with the DM and fullbacks to build up play and leave White back.
But the hearing ability between the two would be a glaring weakness on defense.

The hope potentially with these profiles of defenders is that you have so much of the ball that you negate these weaknesses

I'd love to see Holding mapped over that chart too. I think these charts are terrible to look at as whole too as each spike is not comparable so they are ok for like for like comparissons of each stat equally but not for an overall look at a player.

Yeah some cumulative indexes for attack, defense would be helpful. I'd be interested to see Saliba's St. Etienne stats combined or showcased in comparison too.

I remember Holding being good on pass percentage and heading. And then sort of mediocre at the rest.

Claudius wrote:

Interesting map. Has a lot of good attributes.
I’m trying to think of him with, say, Saliba next to him. They would both be good on the ball. Saliba would be able to go forward to overlap with the DM and fullbacks to build up play and leave White back.
But the heading ability between the two would be a glaring weakness on defense. The hope potentially with these profiles of defenders is that you have so much of the ball that you negate these weaknesses

You honestly think there's room for Saliba and White? Remember Arteta's preference (some would say obsession) with a left-footed LCB, and it's hard to think we would keep two young promising RCBs at over 75M total. Think if White does come in that's the writing on the wall for Billie. Just don't think we'll get a good return on our investment, which is probably why they want to loan him next year, hoping he does well and increase his price (although he will then have only 2 years and don't see why he'd extend if he's not given a chance).

This will happen. I haven't been so sure of anything since we bid for Buendia.

£50m is crazy money for one season of PL football. Hope he's worth the hype, can't say I've seen enough to form any kind of an opinion.

Also hoping we haven't prioritised our summer spend here...time will tell.

He is Tier 1 for them, like Orny used to be for us