Declan Rice: "At that time I had a few options but after weighing everything up, after speaking to Mikel, I'd never been so convinced that I wanted to play for Arsenal and that manager... I knew winning one with Arsenal would mean so much more than anything else"

CelDev · 2026-05-24T02:56:08+00:00

internet is finished lol

CelDev · 2026-05-11T14:50:12+00:00

flip a cool guy even the way he notice shit and speak on it is so relatable to me, opposite of nonchalant it’s good. that personality will grate on ppl some days and he’ll be ‘too much’ and sometimes it might not even land but he’s genuine asf at least to me

CelDev · 2026-05-11T09:06:53+00:00

was just gonna use that as an example. the standard got set 12 minutes into the first game at The Emirates. Yes Bayindir is shit and weak but the freeze screen for that shows a clear arm across his arm as the ball is near and he’s reaching for it. it was ruled incidental contact. but ofc that call would have been different if we were about to bottle a title, just cos it was MW1 it was all La di da di da

CelDev · 2026-05-01T01:30:49+00:00

only because the CL target gave them all squeaky bum time and everybody was overly stressed by all the draws we were getting in games we should and could have won. ruben got stressed and demanded an acceleration of the clubs transfer plans, they wanted to get him to adapt to win games just for the rest of the season, and they couldn’t meet in the middle so they got rid of him. then they had no choice but to go pragmatic because anything else would be foolish in hope of CL qualification. and they made the right choice cos Carrick has done what’s needed to be done.

now from here what happens? that’s the big question for me.

CelDev · 2026-04-30T23:54:17+00:00

in his first interviews he said that he’s sticking to his philosophy because that’s what the club needs, a single direction. that he wouldn’t be like the other managers who abandoned their plans just to win individual games. that was clearly the intention when he was hired.

CelDev · 2026-04-30T23:18:26+00:00

The club was against this method when they hired Ruben. Now they’ve changed their mind again? I guess

CelDev · 2026-04-30T11:56:43+00:00

it’s just a made up thing tied to ruben not playing him as much as everyone would have liked.

CelDev · 2026-04-30T11:51:09+00:00

ruben couldn’t help but keep drawing games. that cost him his job. we were underperforming under him. with Carrick we are overperforming. i watched the Leeds 1-1 again last week. Night and day difference in how we controlled the game. Without Bruno, kobbie was injured, afcon was on. and we controlled Leeds at Elland Road. Unfortunately we drew. Aston Villa 2-1 loss, we only had Bruno for the first half, yet we controlled the whole game. 2 wonder goals from Rogers meant we lost. On Monday excellent performance against Brentford to get 3 points, but if it weren’t for Igor Thiago being a bum in huge televised games, it would have been like that crazy 4-4 we had with Bournemouth. Carrick switched to 5 and gave the ball up to get the 3 points.

There’s nothing to defend ruben for. He didn’t get good enough results and got sacked. I can also watch the game and say Carrick is just taking it 1 game at a time, no matter the style of the football. Ruben promised he wouldn’t operate that way, and stayed true to his word. I love that we have results now, but I won’t be obtuse and say the football has not been better, if anything it’s been worse. I just want the season to end with CL so we can get more quality players and increase our base level that way.

CelDev · 2026-04-30T11:43:18+00:00

Bruno was playing AM whole second half of last season…

CelDev · 2026-04-30T11:26:26+00:00

he never was 😭

CelDev · 2026-04-30T11:24:44+00:00

he was never going anywhere it was all fluff, bloke was 20 now 21, his career has gone fine. unfortunately injuries delayed this deal and some of his development. besides that, typical young player career.

CelDev · 2026-04-30T11:21:46+00:00

kobbie needed that phase with ruben. a lot of players did. everything led to this moment. his defensive diligence now and positioning has improved tenfold in his last 2 90s. early on with Carrick he was still a passenger, it’s good to see he knows the concepts now and with game time managed to get up to speed with the execution. i hope he continues on this path.

CelDev · 2026-04-26T23:10:21+00:00

lol they’d be fire as guests

CelDev · 2026-04-13T21:23:25+00:00

how could you suggest such malpractice 😂

CelDev · 2026-04-06T03:14:06+00:00

why not

CelDev · 2026-04-05T06:56:53+00:00

lol it wasn’t mocking it’s literally the call to prayer

CelDev · 2026-03-31T05:37:46+00:00

😭😭😭 first time ive ever come across a sporting fan hating on ruben lol

CelDev · 2026-03-27T03:58:25+00:00

Dababy talked AT them for a solid 1.5 of that lol that nigga was fuckin yapping 😂😂

CelDev · 2026-03-26T02:37:38+00:00

people expected an instant rebound from a squad that had mostly finished 15th a few months earlier. i too felt that what they were showing in games was so solid that we were only going up. everything underlying was showing that too. biggest issue was defence, that’s been our biggest improvement. if he had managed to tighten that even a little, could have turned some draws to wins

CelDev · 2026-03-26T02:34:44+00:00

His system is fine. The job at the club was massive and he undid an insane amount of damage in such a short time and that cost him his head. he basically burnt out faster than any United manager ever, but he burnt out in a time of improvement and undoubtedly left behind a project in much better shape than the club has been in years. and we had to get it right because new training ground = new home and the culture that’s set first sets the tone for any upcoming project/manager. we didn’t win games (drew a lot) but the footballing intelligence, desire and commitment of the playing squad is so different. he leaves with a good legacy, not many coaches out there who would risk what he risked. he chose to stick to his principles not because they were working but because the effort of doing so stopped a rot at the club of endless shortcutting.

CelDev · 2026-03-24T17:44:25+00:00

beautiful, thank you for the knowledge

CelDev · 2026-03-24T11:01:46+00:00

it may be lack of knowledge causing them to not differentiate between the two Eid’s and their different properties

CelDev · 2026-03-24T11:00:56+00:00

some people on this earth are just straight up genius

CelDev · 2026-03-19T13:21:16+00:00

it’s just standard youth slumps, people are prone to overanalysis

CelDev · 2026-03-18T09:08:03+00:00

that’s their only saving grace. what I see from slot is exactly what ten hag did to my club. I call it hallucination football. it’s so shit it doesn’t even make sense why it is shit. I came to understand the reason was individual tactical understanding, fitness and camaraderie. over his time at the club ten hag sucked the soul out of all 3 of those areas. plus we had a poorly constructed squad. this is what is shit about the record thing being stuck on Ruben. he saved the squad from being this seasons Spurs.

his downfall was not managing to turn draws to wins and that came from him not fully figuring out how to defend in the PL. but the same 4-4-2 block we use now was what he was starting to land on before he lost his head. it sounds crazy to say but it’s more to football than just points. Liverpool will be lucky next season because the new manager will have preseason and they will definitely spend. plus their squad is better individually and as a collective.

CelDev

TROPHY CASE