Another point, if we do not trophy in the next year, it's a near certainty that we will lose some of our top players. Saliba will have suitors, Gabriel also, and maybe even Saka will start having ice cream lunch conversations. That's the nature of the game. We aren't loyal to these players, once we've squeezed out their juice we are happy to dump em, so I don't expect them to be any different. Heck, even teams that win the top trophies lose their top players. We need to be prepared for that and begin to build that into our squad planning/development agenda.
So, yes, I'm in agreement with Sicario here. I know Arteta's not getting sacked or anything, but definitely last chance saloon for me. Let's have someone else at the helm of affairs and see what they can do. And before anyone asks me to give names, I don't have any. But I didn't know Arne Slot prior to the start of this season either, and it didn't take him 3 phases to bag the cat. And that's during a season of intense speculation about the futures of their best players. The opportunity was there, and they took it, we didn't.
Injuries to key players were a factor against us, yes. As well as those early season red cards - to a degree. However, in the final analysis we have to look ourselves in the mirror and take accountability for yet another season where we've ended up with nothing to show for our efforts, and if after addressing them (squad depth, top end quality, shriveling form as the season draws to an end), we still end up short, there can be no excuses. What if we have 100 points and city have 101 points? Whatever. Bye Felicia.
