Fasten your seatbelts........ | Page 2 | Vital Football

Fasten your seatbelts........

80deg16minW said:
Arteta has been at Arsenal for 2 and half seasons. They have yet to make top 4. 8th, 8th and 5th.

Whereas over the same period we were 6th, 7th and 4th with zero stability.
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He had a huge job of clearing away some fantastically waged zero contribution top stars (supposedly) who were poisoning everything for the first two season or so, admittedly once done they spent big last summer (biggest spenders of PL then?) and it's lifted them from 8th to 5th - where he fell over was not getting in a couple of quality strikers, instead relying on one who is about to walk at the end of this season (probably) and one who is way past it...

I don't want to defend him, but he's been unlucky with injuries as he's rebuilt his squad - afraid I wouldn't write him off at all - if anything if they do get a decent striker or two, they could be a real problem...for all the current Top 4...
 
Nick Real Deal said:
We had 4th somewhat handed to us on a plate this season and still made hard work of it.
I can't see us getting in between City or Pool next season and Utd I would expect to improve unless its a rough ride with the rebuild and they implode even more !
If we do sign 6 to 8, they will need acclimatising and integrating without upsetting the balance we have built.

I am not expecting too much next season, 4th again on merit ( not gifted) would be commendable.
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It would be fecking amazing - we need to spend consistently probably for the next 3-4 windows and buy well to challenge those above us.
 
Gary Onedaysoon said:
I wasn't making a direct comparison with us. I was suggesting that Tuchel was wrong to leave them out of the equation.

Since Arteta joined the club they've been through a massive upheaval of staff on and off the pitch. They're only now beginning to see benefits of that turnover.

I don't know how good (or otherwise) Arteta will be. He did win an FA Cup in his first season though beating City in the semis and Chelsea in the final.

I've watched Arsenal a lot this season and in the main they've been good. At times very good. But like us they don't have squad depth. And they've made a few stupid decisions like going into the second half of the season with only 3 CBs. And not strengthening in the January window.

I think it would be a mistake to underestimate them.
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True. They are a very young team that made plenty of mistakes this season. Underestimating them would be a massive mistake.
 
Having reached the top four this season it will be a huge disappointment if we cannot at least repeat that next season. The difficulty of achieving that however should never be underestimated, it will become increasingly difficult. I don't see the top two falling off their perches anytime soon, United must surely improve, Arsenal are on an upward curve and have a young squad with plenty of potential, and Newcastle will be buying their way to success, which has worked handsomely for City and Chelsea previously. That's three teams we've finished ahead of this season, who we will do well to stay ahead of next year. The biggest question mark rests over Chelsea, it's difficult to see them remaining in the top three, and much will depend for us on the quality of our transfer activity in the summer.
 
Nick Real Deal said:
We had 4th somewhat handed to us on a plate this season and still made hard work of it.
I can't see us getting in between City or Pool next season and Utd I would expect to improve unless its a rough ride with the rebuild and they implode even more !
If we do sign 6 to 8, they will need acclimatising and integrating without upsetting the balance we have built.

I am not expecting too much next season, 4th again on merit ( not gifted) would be commendable.
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I don't agree with the handed to us on a plate statement at all. At the end of a 38 game season you are where you should be.
 
Well Tuchel knows that Rudiger and Christensen are walking whilst he is facing the instability of the sale of the club. Then you throw in the Lukaku mess. When you think City have already signed Haaland, Tuchel must be thinking he needs to make his excuses early. That's why he's bringing us into the narrative.

We all know how it works though. Until you see the squads that start the season how can you define a running order. At least we should go into the season with some stability at the top for a change.
 
What a difference a year makes.

This time last year we were managerless, rudderless and the situation seemed hopeless. And that's without the whole Kane saga that was to dominate the summer.

This time round there is a plan and a purpose. We have Champions League to look forward to and go into the summer full of hope and optimism.
 
Levy wont want to drop the bollock again and will back the Conte project.
If he does drop it and losses Conte we riot right???
 
Spursex said:
He had a huge job of clearing away some fantastically waged zero contribution top stars (supposedly) who were poisoning everything for the first two season or so, admittedly once done they spent big last summer (biggest spenders of PL then?) and it's lifted them from 8th to 5th - where he fell over was not getting in a couple of quality strikers, instead relying on one who is about to walk at the end of this season (probably) and one who is way past it...

I don't want to defend him, but he's been unlucky with injuries as he's rebuilt his squad - afraid I wouldn't write him off at all - if anything if they do get a decent striker or two, they could be a real problem...for all the current Top 4...
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Ex, they had no European football and their squad wasn't big enough to cope with injuries. Next season they are in Europa league, unless they bring in 5-6 quality players I really don't see them getting anywhere near us.
 
Spursex said:
The WC could disrupt absolutely everything; starting a week early, a near as 6 week break for the world cup starting end of November and then straight back into it on Dec 26th - it's a mad, bad schedule.

Injuries and fatigue could turn the 22-23 season upside down.

This season we effectively competed for half of it with a 14 man squad - next season everyone will be allowed 5 subs..

We will need a much bigger squad - buying quality to trump quantity will be a huge task...

Personally, I think for where we are squad-wise, unless we make 6 -8 spectacular signings (which I don't expect) we will be challenged more than our Top 4 competition, who in the main, already have bigger squads and deeper pockets to call upon...

Managing a CL campaign and getting to the knock-out rounds and fighting for a top 4 finish is a huge challenge, bigger than many think.
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So our players not involved in the WC will be very important?
Skipp, Kulu, Davies, Doherty, Sess, ?
Some of the young lads?
 
Topspur1 said:
Ex, they had no European football and their squad wasn't big enough to cope with injuries. Next season they are in Europa league, unless they bring in 5-6 quality players I really don't see them getting anywhere near us.
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It could go either way. They get to rotate and use their constant pipeline of talented youngsters in the EL against smaller sides. We're in the CL probably playing teams ranked higher than us. Whose squad looks more exposed to the fixture list?
 
muttley said:
It could go either way. They get to rotate and use their constant pipeline of talented youngsters in the EL against smaller sides. We're in the CL probably playing teams ranked higher than us. Whose squad looks more exposed to the fixture list?
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Doesn't matter.
They wont win it. United will be a different beast next season I think. UEFA cup is a good target for them. Le Arse can play as many kids as they like and it will be for UEFA cup peanuts. and still no trophy.
 
stupops said:
Doesn't matter.
They wont win it. United will be a different beast next season I think. UEFA cup is a good target for them. Le Arse can play as many kids as they like and it will be for UEFA cup peanuts. and still no trophy.
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It's not about winning EL though. It's about keeping their core fresh for the league by using the youngsters. We can't do that in CL.
 
muttley said:
It's not about winning EL though. It's about keeping their core fresh for the league by using the youngsters. We can't do that in CL.
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There are undoubtedly some games in the early stages where they will be able to do that, but their squad is very thin. You may recall mutley there was a debate on here regarding playing Thursday and Sunday, and how it affected results on Sunday. I just don't think they are anywhere near the level we are under Conte, we changed our manager 3 months into the season, we were in that awful conference league. And they still couldn't finish above us, I would put money on the likelihood that the quality of our signings will be better than theirs. So as long as Conte is with us, I don't see how they would finish above us.
 
Topspur1 said:
There are undoubtedly some games in the early stages where they will be able to do that, but their squad is very thin. You may recall mutley there was a debate on here regarding playing Thursday and Sunday, and how it affected results on Sunday. I just don't think they are anywhere near the level we are under Conte, we changed our manager 3 months into the season, we were in that awful conference league. And they still couldn't finish above us, I would put money on the likelihood that the quality of our signings will be better than theirs. So as long as Conte is with us, I don't see how they would finish above us.
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I'd still back us to finish above them, but I don't think they will be far behind. It's easy to say Arsenal came 5th in a season they didn't have any UEFA comps to play in. We have to remember that we were dumped out of the ECL and Carabao before Xmas. We had a massive chunk of the season with a clear run. I very much doubt we would have come 4th if we continued in the ECL.

Next season will be interesting. I'm intrigued to know whether we can hold our own in the CL and not get dumped into the EL, or even out altogether. We clearly won't be seeded and will be playing against the best non-English teams in the group stages. Perhaps we'll see Modric at WHL one more time.
 
muttley said:
I'd still back us to finish above them, but I don't think they will be far behind. It's easy to say Arsenal came 5th in a season they didn't have any UEFA comps to play in. We have to remember that we were dumped out of the ECL and Carabao before Xmas. We had a massive chunk of the season with a clear run. I very much doubt we would have come 4th if we continued in the ECL.

Next season will be interesting. I'm intrigued to know whether we can hold our own in the CL and not get dumped into the EL, or even out altogether. We clearly won't be seeded and will be playing against the best non-English teams in the group stages. Perhaps we'll see Modric at WHL one more time.
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All true, but by the same token would we have been that far behind leaders if we too had no European football?
 
I don't really get the destiny thing.

Everyone has to play each team twice. Every team has lower teams they struggle against. We made it hard on City and we actually prevented Liverpool from winning the title. Everyone said the Brighton and Brentford losses were catastrophic to us. Then those teams went on and beat a lot of other teams no one expected.

Until all teams have played those other 19 teams twice the actual level is unknown.

You play 38 games. You lose some you shouldn't, every team does that, and you see where you end up.

We were 4th. No one can tell me we were lucky. No one can tell me another team slipped up. No one can tell me we are better than 4th.

We are EXACTLY were we should be.
 
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