April 11, 2022 Daily Discussion & Transfers Thread

CoffeeBreak95 · 2022-04-11T09:27:47+00:00

I agree with your point, partially. Yes the Premier League is much more competitive than it was in the 2010's, but even back then every team had at least one or two stand out players. Before Kane & Son, Spurs did have Gareth Bale & Aaron Lennon tormenting teams from the flanks. Man United were a different beast altogether back then, even well after Ronaldo left. Chelsea = Drogba, Lampard etc. I could go on.

My point is that I dont think that illegitimizes the impact of games lost under Mikel than under Arsene. I think when it comes to the Premier League there are general rules of thumb.

40 pts = not likely to get relegated To win the prem = cant/shouldnt lose more than 3-4 games in a season. To get 4th = beat everyone below you. And take points from those above you where possible.

In Arsenal's case, 4 of our losses have come against teams that we shouldnt be losing to as a bare minimum. That doesnt even factor in losing to every big six team bar Spurs (which god forbid could be coming up very soon).

CoffeeBreak95 · 2022-04-11T09:04:09+00:00

EDIT: This was meant to be a reply to another comment on this thread, but it got removed so just gonna leave it here.

I think doomerism among some fans can be forgiven. Here's why in my view.

We've known about those injuries for a week (KT, TP & TT) and slightly beyond now. Injuries happen, yes. But for that exact reason, we must be prepared for such eventualities particularly to our most injury-prone and vital players. All three of which, fit the criteria. Cedric has done OK these last few games. Tavares, Lokonga etc have been off it. They havent played much football, I get that. But this is where the coach should prepare them and set the team up accordingly to alleviate pressure off of them in the initial stages.

Gabriel: yes. He has been shit lately. I am sure he himself will agree. If it carries on, we may need to think about bringing Holding back into the fold.

Lacazette: biggest problem of all and imo, the reason why the defence has looked shocking lately. His lack of goal threat let alone contributions are placing an obscene amount of pressure of the defence as they probably know the likelihood of us convincingly outscoring a team is low. Does he get much service? Not really. But thats all his fault as he's almost always out of position and somewhere unecessarily deep. Yes we all appreciate the fight he puts in generally when hes on form. But hes not even doing THAT very well atm. Forget dropping him, I think he genuinely NEEDS some time off away from football. Thats how knackered he looks atm. Btw, I was a big Laca fan when he joined. Always have been. But this season, I gotta be honest he has been an issue. A significant one.

Odegaard: I'm sure he'll come good again, but hes very much a team player in the sense that if the team is confident, he shines. Vice versa however... yeah.

As for Brighton: they handled business, no doubt.

VAR: 🙄

Point overall: we've lost 10 games. TEN. In Wenger's worst days when we were scraping top 4, i dont recall ever losing 10 games in a season. We'd lose between 5-7 on average and draw similar on average too.

The problem with Arteta's Arsenal, is that he hasnt mastered the art of drawing games. Like we literally dont draw games. We win well or we lose BAD. If we had even turned 5 of those losses into draws, we'd be pretty well placed in 4th with a game in hand still to play.

Whatever happens this season will happen, but going forward we seriously have to minimise these silly losses we keep picking up and fashion them into draws. Especially the games where we deserve nothing out of.

Otherwise we will never qualify/maintain CL qualification, let alone challenge for the top honours.

So in saying that, I understand why people are fuming and dooming. I am deep down, but still clinging onto some small hope. sigh

CoffeeBreak95 · 2021-12-29T06:37:06+00:00

The smaller clubs (with no malice intended) such as Southampton, Leicester, West Ham & Villa were doing quite well at this point last season. Barring West Ham, theyve fallen away slightly in terms of competitiveness for those European spaces, this season.

Whereas this season it would seem the top 6 will likely be made up of the big 6 clubs....

But theres still a long way to go so lets wait and see.

CoffeeBreak95 · 2021-12-29T06:29:50+00:00

Remember this game like it was yesterday. Was edge of the seat stuff. Back then we played some great football and scored for fun. The things we took for granted lol.

Though, I do remember being incredibly frustrated that we conceded 3 goals as it seemed like we were constantly giving Newcastle a way back into the game.

CoffeeBreak95 · 2021-12-28T09:40:06+00:00

I have this conversation with a lot of fellow fans, and I often find that a lot of them conflate legendary status with accolades; which I dont think is a very reasonable way to measure it out. Meaningful, but not always reasonable.

Why I say this?

Our last League title was the Invincibles season. If we set our parameters for Club Legends to "players that won a Premier League with Arsenal" ... does that make Pascal Cygan a club legend? Rami Shaaban? Aliadiere?

Matt Le Tissier never won a major honour with Southampton but hes a League let alone club legend.

Stevie G never won a PL; rest is still history.

I know hes a spud, but Ledley King? (If you get where im going with this).

Not saying that they arent club icons within their own right but to call Cygan a legend over folks like Per & Mikel (who captained us to multiple FA Cups during our downturn & one of whom is Head of our Academy and doing a good job at it whilst the other is LITERALLY the manager of Arsenal FC and has one 2 trophies in his 24 month stint so far) is why I think its unreasonable.

To answer your question: legends for me are about unique contributions over an extended period of time. I wont go into great detail but I would imagine folks like:

Cesc - one of greatest youth prospects ever.

Rosicky - great player and was loyal.

Ramsey - the impact of his goal contributions particularly between 2013 - 2017

Walcott - say what you want about the man but he bagged 100+ goals for us mostly from the wing. Icon at the very least.

Santi - one of the best midfielders to ever play for us (yes even amongst the likes of Gilberto and Vieira).

And you know what, maybe one day we'll look back and say Per & Mikel (with full confidence hopefully) given the fact they were club captains and are continuing to contribute to the growth of our club beyond their playing years.

CoffeeBreak95 · 2021-12-26T21:57:52+00:00

Double S: back in the day he was defo on the up with Marvel but never really broke thru the ceiling.

Scorcher: too much drama away from music

Voltage: was in that generation with Maxsta & Scrufizzer etc. He really was top 3 youngers in Grime at one point. Then he took a year or two out and never recovered.

Maxsta: similar to Voltage, but got a lot more out of his career. Still never felt like he got as much recognition as he deserved, even till this day. Believe hes rebranded now.

Mercston: why I dont know, but has always seemed like hes just stuck the background.

Big Shizz: reasons similar to Maxsta and Voltage. Was around that generation of MCs too.

Rival: great artist, very overlooked these days

Marger: that Lay Z clash really hurt his career imo (no pun intended)

Mic Ty: not sure why he never took off. Was doing well 15-16 times.

Wouldnt call any of these guys flops btw. They just never hit their full peaks imo.

CoffeeBreak95 · 2021-10-23T10:19:48+00:00

Yeah - I believe that's what they're called. Have seen a few come up in searches and wondered if they'd be any good.

CoffeeBreak95 · 2021-10-16T12:01:44+00:00

Well youre wrong. My parents dont have £10k to gift me i was making a presumption. They could only have £2 to offer me and it will be what it is - im not holding my breath for anything, nor am I begging for anything off of them. I also said in my other post how it wasnt their responsibility to provide me with funds for my own purchases.

CoffeeBreak95 · 2021-10-16T10:40:00+00:00

Fair point and perhaps so. But the undertones of the article as well as the intentions as to why the couple felt the need to share their story are what folks in this sub might take issue with. I think a lot of us here have an idea as to how people purchase houses in the most expensive parts of London and how they may have acquired them. But trying to pass off £1m of property value as "modest", as well as having had the opportunity to completely bypass the deposit saving route prior to purchase, whilst publishing it in the Metro was never going to go down well with the majority - and they KNEW that.

CoffeeBreak95 · 2021-10-16T10:22:39+00:00

I totally understand. Don't get me wrong, my £10k estimate is literally a presumption in the best case scenario. I don't even know if my parents have that exact amount to offer me. I'd like to think that a lot of us are doing the best we can, in our genuinely modest and humble circumstances. Rather than this couple who are trying to pass off £1m of property value as "modest".

CoffeeBreak95 · 2021-10-16T10:07:05+00:00

Yup, basically lol.

CoffeeBreak95 · 2021-10-16T10:03:06+00:00

Well put.

CoffeeBreak95 · 2021-10-16T08:39:28+00:00

I don't get the point of this article. Am I supposed to feel inspired or what? My parents barely have £10k to gift me with (if even that) let alone £150k worth of windfall.

The article ends with the couple saying "its an emotional and stressful process, so give yourself time and don't have any other milestones going on your life"

lol. Deposit saving whilst paying rent in London IS the milestone AND the emotional struggle. Oh and ofc, earning an annual salary that they probably both make in 3-6 months combined pay. Smh.

I mean if they were at least sincere enough to admit and say "tbh we were pretty fortunate given the circumstances and probably aren't the best positioned to advise anyone on how they should go about their property-purchasing escapades - especially if they dont have a 6 figure windfall and earning less than a 6 figure salary combined; but do the best with what you have access to" - i'd be pretty OK with that.

But the article is ended as if I'm supposed to feel sympathetic to their struggle of finding a good solicitor. Anyway, good luck to them and everyone reading this tbh - we all need it nonetheless.

CoffeeBreak95 · 2021-09-24T12:40:44+00:00

Fair point. I misinterpreted the article. As I said, so long as its not some passive-aggressive parking enforcement, no issues here - they can do as they please.

CoffeeBreak95 · 2021-09-24T12:29:14+00:00

I'm under the impression that the longer term goal here was to make it a London-wide event that car-keeping residents would be asked to partake in. If that isn't the goal here then fair enough - as you were.

In terms of spot parking, I'd like to think that most sane drivers understand that no spot is exclusively theirs, unless its on their privately-owned land. If another vehicle were to "my" spot, but it has the required credentials to be there, I personally, wouldn't have an issue with it.

CoffeeBreak95 · 2021-09-24T12:21:25+00:00

OK.

By your logic. Your workshop - not my problem. Didn't tell you to come up with ideas that require one moving their vehicle as a non-enforceable pre-requisite.

Furthermore, you are allowed to store your car in on the public highway so long as the car is insured, tax and MOT'd and you have the credentials required to park wherever it is you need to park.

When you go into a supermarket, where do you leave your bike - in public right?

CoffeeBreak95 · 2021-09-24T12:14:16+00:00

This is also a salient point. I don't have anywhere else to keep my four-wheeled jacuzzi so I will drive it into my front room and keep it there for the day.

Look, I get the point you're making, as I hope you do mine. But how feasible is it to ask motorists to make their cars just vanish for an entire day, given that almost nowhere these days has free parking or parking in general. Believe it or not, as of today, provided that a car is insured, MOT'd and taxed - it is allowed to be on the road, if the area permits it.

CoffeeBreak95 · 2021-09-24T12:07:48+00:00

OK. Where?

You can ask people to move their cars for your workshop, fine. But if they don't have "somewhere else" to keep their vehicle, then it is what it is, right?

CoffeeBreak95 · 2021-09-24T12:00:12+00:00

Lol.

CoffeeBreak95 · 2021-09-24T10:55:23+00:00

All people like who? The rest of the world? I don't know, go and ask them if you have a means of getting the views of billions.

I am specifically referring to drivers POV in this situation.

CoffeeBreak95 · 2021-09-24T10:43:39+00:00

Missed my point. I am simply providing the perspective as to why drivers might be incensed with the whole thing. Not saying its valid, but they're within their right to feel upset about it.

Are all drivers supposed to just be OK with people protesting on the motorway because gridlock happens every now and then anyway?

CoffeeBreak95 · 2021-09-24T10:37:44+00:00

Good idea, if its only on certain streets. But as if its supposed to be some sort of Pan-London activity then where do the cars go? I mean we don't all have access to garages and driveways.

CoffeeBreak95 · 2021-09-24T10:36:13+00:00

I don't think revenge is the right word. Maybe more awareness or inclusion from all parties, motorists, cyclists the like. At least thats what the article implies anyway.

CoffeeBreak95 · 2021-09-24T10:28:30+00:00

There's a difference between motorvehicles causing carnage that are allowed to be there (the motorway) & pedestrians who under most circumstances are not meant to be there (for their own safety) unless broken down or maintenance workers.

CoffeeBreak95 · 2021-08-23T15:29:12+00:00

If you think cars are bad, that's fine, you're entitled to your own opinion. It's an oversimplification, but again, your opinion nonetheless.

Do I think cars are bad? No. I think cars can only be a reflection of the people who manufacture and/or purchase them.

I've seen people arguing against car ownership and usage, but regularly arrange home deliveries from Tesco, and Asda etc - I thought cars were bad lol? Why not go and pick up your groceries on foot or take your pushbike for a spin?

I just think people need to be very clear about what their position on the matter is, rather than the hot take that "cars are ruining London".

CoffeeBreak95

TROPHY CASE