theHotHead wrote:Arsenal Tone wrote:theHotHead wrote:We never needed a big rebuild, like I stated umpteen times before, our only problem was our lack of defensive capability and that was due to Wenger not focusing on defending at all, offensively we were fine.
Had Emery and then Arteta not been arse clowns we could easily have improved our defensiveness which would automatically have made us top 4 competitive.
The Wenger holiday camp mentality was our biggest problem. Emery tried to sort it and the players downed tools. They tried to do the same to Arteta and he made an example of him. Then last January he let a lot of them go. That is my take of it.
No he didn't ! Emery came in and alienated Ozil while having no better creative options in the squad. He got rid of Ozil then begged for him to come back and save his arse.
Who are these "Wenger Holiday campers"?? When Emery came he released Wilshere, Cazorla, Perez and some fringe players, Only Wilshere of the 3 I named could be classed as a Wenger mentality player. the next season he let Ramsey, Mkhi, Iwobi, Ospina and Welbeck go, players not good enough, but not what I would call holiday campers.
There was no such thing as a holiday camp mentality, we had some poor players but we also had plenty of decent players. Mkhi left us and went on to contribute 14 goals in 22 games for Roma. What Emery did transfer wise was spot on when he joined, he identified our key weaknesses and addressed them - Goalkeeper, Centre Back, Defensive midfielder, box to box CM. He then proceeded to do worse than Wenger with a better team.
Here I can credit Arteta for getting rid of lots of deadwood, but even he was a massive doughnut in 2020/21 and kept loads of players that should've been sold/released.
I need to know who these Wenger Holiday Campers are that Emery had to sort out.
Wenger's entire squad for years had a crap mentality. Basic errors, lack of effort and consistency. We spoke many times about how we collapsed when things were going well and only put the effort in when things went to shit. It was a constant cycle and it has been happening for years.
It was nearly ALL his players that suffered from it and it came from Wenger.
The culture at the club was rotten to the core and that is why it needed a rebuild.
Here is the squad of players from 17/18 season - those that had more than 5 starts - that you are saying did not need a rebuild? Are you serious??
In red, the ones already gone
In Amber - the ones all but gone and have shown they don't have the right mentality at all.
In green - the ones that actually are contributing but also are more or less on the way out.
Left in black the only player that actually has a future with us - and even that is short term.
Tell me which of these players did not/do not need replacing?????
The required overhaul was huge because the squad was getting old and stagnant and the attitude of many of those players was rotten.
Granit Xhaka
Héctor BellerínPetr ČechAlexandre LacazetteNacho MonrealShkodran MustafiSead KolašinacLaurent KoscielnyMesut ÖzilAlex Iwobi
Aaron Ramsey Alexis Sánchez (gone by the end of the season)
Danny Welbeck
Jack WilsherePierre-Emerick AubameyangMohamed ElnenyHenrikh MkhitaryanCalum Chambers Rob Holding Ainsley Maitland-NilesI actually feel sorry for Emery because of the job he was asked to do. That squad he inherited was simply not good enough, getting older and in free fall. Wenger had let it slip badly and to an extent, knowing he was near the end of his reign, I can understand the lack of motivation there to rebuild again. Emery needed to totally rip it up and start again, but as the first manager post Wenger he just didn't have the balls to do it.
Arteta has. He - and Edu - have done an absolutely phenomenal job of rebuilding our squad in a relatively short space of time.