"The journey continues" - Mikel signs extension until 2025: Page 77 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

"The journey continues" - Mikel signs extension until 2025

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

RocktheCasbah been listening to AV exclusively for about 4 years now.

RocktheCasbah

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert yeah, I can understand why. 😊

Burnwinter

Sicario2 - Tier 1 Said what I said and I'll say the same until City stop winning five sixths of the trophies. You'll note I didn't deny Klopp had had successes and I didn't suggest Arteta doesn't need to go further.

banduan

Once said we'd taken a step back to take two forward earlier this season. We've clearly gotten past that initial step backward now. Remains to be seen how many steps we've taken forward though. Still skeptical of the quality of opposition, Liverpool aside. Onward to Newcastle at home!

lorddulaarsenal

Feel so comfortable watching us against anyone at the moment.

Also feels like we have decent scope for improvement. Mikel is just brilliant.

Sicario2 - Tier 1

lorddulaarsenal

Done well in league with uptick of form recently but just feel that Porto home game is critical for Mikel. Lose that then it will be a major black mark against his name as our KO European record under him has been shocking and I still think it’s our best chance of a trophy this season.

So Porto at home is almost career defining for MA. Needs to get it right.

Claudius

Burnwinter can’t disagree with this view more. I think sometimes fans underestimate hope big a task it is to overcome City. The Foden: Saka debate is a case in point. While it’s a stupid discussion, Foden is, at best, the 4th or 5th best player at City. Saka’s our best player. That makes a massive difference when you need to be the best over 38 games. That team could lose KDB the rest of the season and be unimpacted. We don’t have the same margins at all.

It’s also why I never understand the Arteta doesn’t sub debates. It’s immaterial. It’s the KDBs, Saka’s and Haalands that make a difference in game and over a season. And having them in reserve makes you pretty unbeatable.

QuincyAbeyie

Claudius I don't see how "their players are better" contradicts anything Burns says. Liverpool assembled a team that could rival them, although ultimately not for long. If we can't do the same, if this generation wins nothing, then that will be a huge disappointment.

Burnwinter

Claudius I'm just saying our efforts won't be well remembered in a decade or two if we don't win the title. It'll be like 07-08: we'll remember but the football world at large will not. It's a very difficult task to beat City (or Liverpool for that matter) but that is the true task and the true test for this Arsenal.

Claudius

QuincyAbeyie Liverpool didn’t though. That’s the point. The one season that Liverpool went ape shit, every key player did 35+ games. And those guys played most of each game. Pool had incredible players, but never had the depth.

The same way we collapsed end of last season without Saliba and Tomi; Pool went mid table because key players were out. This City depth has been such a difference maker these past five seasons that I can’t wait for them to finally get hit for their charges

QuincyAbeyie

Claudius "The one season" they went ape shit they got 2 more points than the season before. They've put in three 90+ point seasons. You do that, you're bound to get a title.

Claudius

QuincyAbeyie you’re making the point yourself then. Even when they came back and had a season that could’ve easily bested every season that Mourinho, Ancelotti, or Wenger had; City still won. Doesn’t really matter how good you are. This team has too much quality depth. And that’s why they are seemingly inevitable. Take away two superstars from City, and we have a much more level playing field.

awooga83

Yeah they went away from that nearly season and realised that you just cannot afford to drop those points where you should win. The Fulham and West ham games so far for us are those matches which could end up costing us and you can't drop those kinds of points in the league now.

QuincyAbeyie

Claudius I'm really not. Liverpool produced three potentially title-winning performances. One of them stuck. That's not luck. If you've looked at Liverpool under Klopp and your assessment is that they're lucky to have gotten a league title out of it, I don't know what to tell you.

We've produced zero so far, might produce one now if we keep our current form going for the remainder of the season. But no generation of players with zero trophies will be remembered by anyone other than us, who remember every generation.

Claudius

Sicario2 - Tier 1 dude, so many games are career defining for you. We haven’t gone past last 16 for 14 years. If we lose, I’m not sure how that defines him as a loser. If we win, we still have 5 more games to win it.

Sicario2 - Tier 1

Claudius

Mate if we lose to Porto it will look so, so bad on Mikel, almost embarrassing.

Even say we get to the semi-finals we can say it’s been a good first campaign back in the CL.

Porto at home is our biggest game of the season to date. 14 years since we have played in a quarter final of a CL! There is a lot riding on it esp optics wise for the club and in particular Mikel.

Claudius

QuincyAbeyie
Okay. We had our first proper season last year. We competed for the title. This is our second run. It’s looking good as well. I’m happy.

Clrnc

QuincyAbeyie We've produced zero so far, might produce one now if we keep our current form going for the remainder of the season. But no generation of players with zero trophies will be remembered by anyone other than us, who remember every generation.

If Mikel leaves Arsenal without a single league title in his name, he probably would consider it a failure as well, and not unlucky

Burnwinter

Claudius I haven't expected us to win major silverware this season and at the moment we're as close or perhaps closer to that than I expected. I'm fairly happy too on that basis. 🙌

I'll be a bit less happy if we lose from a leading position again as FFP is now impacting further recruitment. We can be somewhat patient, but equally we should hope for the best from the current group of players.

QuincyAbeyie

If you by "first proper season" mean "first season as title challengers" then yeah it wouldn't make sense if we didn't challenge for the title - that's just a tautology.

And I don't even know why you're going "it's only our second year" when I very clearly said that we need to have a title by the end of this generation, not that we already needed to have one.

Oh, and the whole "if you expect us to win the title you won't be as happy as me" shtick doesn't work for me either. Many were more positive than me about our chances this time last year, but that didn't make me any happier when we didn't win. Similarly, those who think we need a title to make this side truly memorable didn't fail to enjoy the Newcastle match just because of that opinion.

Claudius

QuincyAbeyie I don’t need you to be happy. I’m just telling you that I’m very happy with the team, and how I measure success. I want a team that competes. I want a team that makes every Saturday worthwhile. One that is constantly improving, and players are getting better. That’s what we have. And I’m happy. I’m true to myself. Be true to yourself.

Claudius

Burnwinter burns, I 100% agree with this. At the end of the day, people most fondly look back at the memories of celebrating a title. They remember the champions. Nobody cares that Spurs were actually quite decent under Pochettino because they won the square root of fuck all. So, like you, I really hope we win it all. We are in a good position this year, so my fingers are crossed for both trophies.

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