Fabio Paratici - Consultant

[Bishop]

We are as big a name as them in Europe
We have been in the CL final whilst the modern generation of players was growing* up
The key is they have paid some big fees even in dross like Pepe
I expect us to be willing to pay bigger fees once w have the stadium income

I don't think that's true. Arsenal have far bigger recognition in say France and I regularly work across Europe and honestly there are times ppl who are football fans haven't even heard of us whereas they usually have of arsenal.

We've been in one CL final 3 years ago that's too soon to impact the current crop of players, some of whom may have witnessed Arsenals unbeaten season or even their own CL final.

I'm not trying to big them up, but we have to be realistic. We don't have their fanbase and haven't won competitions to solidify ourselves in the elite. We need to keep doing it consistently to prove ourselves.

In the end though money trumps all of that as Emirates Marketing Project have shown. Pay the wages and the players will come.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

I don't think that's true. Arsenal have far bigger recognition in say France and I regularly work across Europe and honestly there are times ppl who are football fans haven't even heard of us whereas they usually have of arsenal.

We've been in one CL final 3 years ago that's too soon to impact the current crop of players, some of whom may have witnessed Arsenals unbeaten season or even their own CL final.

I'm not trying to big them up, but we have to be realistic. We don't have their fanbase and haven't won competitions to solidify ourselves in the elite. We need to keep doing it consistently to prove ourselves.

In the end though money trumps all of that as Emirates Marketing Project have shown. Pay the wages and the players will come.

Strange as when I work across the world we’re a very well known entity
In Africa arsenal are way ahead of us and most sides
But in most places there isn’t much in it form my genuine practical experience and that’s despite their better history
In Scandinavia when I’ve worked there I’ve not come across an arsenal fan yet
i agree in France their big ish for an English side and that’s due to wenger era
Im sure someone will quote Twitter figures a reference but that wouldn’t have a correlation on how a player sees a club
But the reason they have got who they recently got was all about £££
They paid a release fee for Partey
And record fee for Pepe (massively over priced) and big fees for the other cbs too

 

[parklane1]

Of course you can have doubts about Nuno, but honestly if you listened to this place sometimes and didn’t know where we was in the league you’d think we was facing a relegation fight.

We are 6th,2 points off 4th after 9 games. The football hasn’t been great granted, but we have a new coach finding his way with whatever anyone wants to say is a far from perfect squad. There are green shoots, since changing formation I think there are improvements even if small. Let’s wait and see where we are at at the half way stage. But right now, are things really that bad? I think not, we are doing ok - nothing more, nothing less….

Good to see there is still some realistic thoughts among our fan base, to many are knee jerking ( sign of the times i guess) but things are REALLY not as bad as some are trying to make out.imo. There are signs over the last couple of games that we are starting to look a better team and its far to early to hold up the white flag.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Good to see there is still some realistic thoughts among our fan base, to many are knee jerking ( sign of the times i guess) but things are REALLY not as bad as some are trying to make out.imo. There are signs over the last couple of games that we are starting to look a better team and its far to early to hold up the white flag.

What are the signs in your opinion?
Im interested as I’ve seen some big improvements myself but wondering if im a party of 1

 

[parklane1]

What are the signs in your opinion?
Im interested as I’ve seen some big improvements myself but wondering if im a party of 1

Well there is still work to be done but imo we seem to have decided what players we can start with, new manager with the same problems which has been there since Poch was here and he has to decide/ find out which players he can trust to play for him. Of course there is still away to go but imo over the last couple of games ( not including the game in Europe which was a big risk) he has seen a few of those players do a decent job.

We seem to have a better structure and players who are becoming more aware of their jobs and looking better for it. The defense is not looking as much a mess as it has been doing for a while and the new players are begining to find their feet. It always amazes me that there are fans who belive that new players, new systems with those players can be developed over night ( sadly is not as easy as playing p uter games) and it will always take time. As others have said we are still in the top six in league posistions( to hear some fans you would think we were in the bottom six).

Will Nuno manage to find a system which will take us forward? who know but to write off a manager after so few games is madness and show little awareness of the time it can takes to turn round a club that has been drifing for the last year or so.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Well there is still work to be done but imo we seem to have decided what players we can start with, new manager with the same problems which has been there since Poch was here and he has to decide/ find out which players he can trust to play for him. Of course there is still away to go but imo over the last couple of games ( not including the game in Europe which was a big risk) he has seen a few of those players do a decent job.

We seem to have a better structure and players who are becoming more aware of their jobs and looking better for it. The defense is not looking as much a mess as it has been doing for a while and the new players are begining to find their feet. It always amazes me that there are fans who belive that new players, new systems with those players can be developed over night ( sadly is not as easy as playing p uter games) and it will always take time. As others have said we are still in the top six in league posistions( to hear some fans you would think we were in the bottom six).

Will Nuno manage to find a system which will take us forward? who know but to write off a manager after so few games is madness and show little awareness of the time it can takes to turn round a club that has been drifing for the last year or so.

I think the defence has looked as good as as it had now since the peak Poch era. There are mistakes there but they all seem to know each other’s role which is key ( a great offside played at the weekend was testament to that)
I think that defence will now progress more with the ball and offer more attacking options
CM we have skipp who has improved the team. He keeps the ball moving but does the defensive basics well
We do have that creativity issue but that was against a low block 10 men behind the ball side. There aren’t as many of them as there used to be
The attack looked decent vs Villa and very vs Saudi Sportswashing Machine but poor at the weekend.
Lucas has been a solid player this season had a mare along with Kane and son had no room to run into
It was a game of missed half chances due to poor passing in the final third but it’s much better than what we saw 4 weeks ago
We have a decent run of fixtures now to build from starting with United. If they play against us like they have others and our fans get behind the team we have a great chance to prove a point. 6 wins from 10 would be a very solid start for Nuno in another period of transition

 

[parklane1]

I think the defence has looked as good as as it had now since the peak Poch era. There are mistakes there but they all seem to know each other’s role which is key ( a great offside played at the weekend was testament to that)
I think that defence will now progress more with the ball and offer more attacking options
CM we have skipp who has improved the team. He keeps the ball moving but does the defensive basics well
We do have that creativity issue but that was against a low block 10 men behind the ball side. There aren’t as many of them as there used to be
The attack looked decent vs Villa and very vs Saudi Sportswashing Machine but poor at the weekend.
Lucas has been a solid player this season had a mare along with Kane and son had no room to run into
It was a game of missed half chances due to poor passing in the final third but it’s much better than what we saw 4 weeks ago
We have a decent run of fixtures now to build from starting with United. If they play against us like they have others and our fans get behind the team we have a great chance to prove a point. 6 wins from 10 would be a very solid start for Nuno in another period of transition

Good to see there are at least a couple of us who can see a little progress.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Good to see there are at least a couple of us who can see a little progress.

I think there’s more than a couple
If the defeats hadn’t been in London derbies it may have a slightly different tone to it

 

[parklane1]

I think there’s more than a couple
If the defeats hadn’t been in London derbies it may have a slightly different tone to it

I am sure you are right, it just seems that way reading the doom and gloom on some forums.

 

[metalgear]

I think the defence has looked as good as as it had now since the peak Poch era. There are mistakes there but they all seem to know each other’s role which is key ( a great offside played at the weekend was testament to that)
I think that defence will now progress more with the ball and offer more attacking options
CM we have skipp who has improved the team. He keeps the ball moving but does the defensive basics well
We do have that creativity issue but that was against a low block 10 men behind the ball side. There aren’t as many of them as there used to be
The attack looked decent vs Villa and very vs Saudi Sportswashing Machine but poor at the weekend.
Lucas has been a solid player this season had a mare along with Kane and son had no room to run into
It was a game of missed half chances due to poor passing in the final third but it’s much better than what we saw 4 weeks ago
We have a decent run of fixtures now to build from starting with United. If they play against us like they have others and our fans get behind the team we have a great chance to prove a point. 6 wins from 10 would be a very solid start for Nuno in another period of transition

I think the defence is looking good, but at the expense of the midfield. I feel that the defence is often too deep and too slow to push up to support a quick attack play. Once the opponent has the ball you can see that we are dropping further and further back packing the box. The infrequency of the offside trap - verts and toby used to do it so well - is another sign that we don't attempt push the defence line but accept soaking the pressure. IMO not difficult to play defence in this team always having midfielders around you and squeezing space and just creating a human wall in front of goal.

Romero takes it to another level though, with his charges out and catching the opponents with the ball, basically the job of a CB and DM.. Pair him with a solid, positive CB - like Verts or Toby - and I think we will see the best of him and the midfield.

 

[Finney Is Back]

Possibly
But where does he go next?
Hence my guy feel/crystal ball

To a club where expectations and backing are aligned…. Bayern Munich, Leipzig, Dortmund, Juventus, Inter, Real Madrid, Man Utd, Atletico Madrid.

 

[Finney Is Back]

The DOF?
I said it during the window that his lack of experience on these shores will hurt us short term at least
He will not have been looking at the championship for signings for juve

One would hope that Hitchen has knowledge here (if not then he should probably be let go and replaced with somebody who does).

 

[Finney Is Back]

Levy wasn't impressed with him when they spoke

Or the other way round….

 

[Finney Is Back]

...which is why we're hired that guy from Everton. should compliment Paratici nicely

I think his job is to sign players for the youth groups not the first team group.

 

[Finney Is Back]

The interest in ten Hag predates Paratici coming in. It seems pretty clear that Paratici was the driving force behind recruiting a manager once he was appointed.

The way things went last spring and summer I can help but think that we brought in a DoF simply because all of our top choice managers rejected us.

 

[Finney Is Back]

If we're going to act sooner rather than later, then Marcelo Gallardo (out of contract when the Argentine season ends / 31 December 21) is absolutely the guy to go for.

It would be unfair on Nuno and that would be a shame but going out and going out and getting him would be the exact thing that Chelsea would do here. Will be even more money wasted by us sacking teams of coaching staff though. At some point Levy will realise the ‘painful rebuild’ would actually have been the cheaper option as well as being the better option as it always clearly was.

 

[Finney Is Back]

London derbies
That’s what creates the noise
I’ve heard people say we were awful yesterday abject
I mean we had almost 2/3 of the ball which means we can’t be that poor surely
Arsenal away - woeful
Chelsea home - good first half, done a number on us second half and squad quality was shown
Palace - still say the cards Nuno had for that game were very very limited and it turned in the red card

he has changed the system but if too many have an off day and they all happen to be in attack it does cause any manager issues

I agree with you that we were not abject on Sunday. We weren’t ‘good’ but weren’t that bad. It was a tight game where we would probably draw 4, lose 4 and win 2 if we played 10 games just like that. We are now a team at West Ham’s sort of level. Games against these teams are going to be battles that are hard to win. I think our approach to the game on Sunday was a “don’t lose” approach, hence a majority of our two thirds possession being very slow, safe, non penetrative football.

 

[Finney Is Back]

Yep
Dont disagree
But when we played like west ham with long ball counters our fans hated it
The key was Kane, moura and sonny were really poor by their standards
The alternatives don’t exist currently in the squad

We didn’t have a physical specimin up front to play long ball football like West Ham can with Antonio.

 

[Finney Is Back]

Which is sensible
No manager is joining a club that bins a manager off after 9 league games

I think binning off a manager who achieved 4 CL qualifications in a row and a CL final on the 6th biggest budget in the PL has already left us in that position mate. Sacking the next man in the week before the final of the only Cup we are actually likely to be able to win will only have compounded that.

I don’t think we can afford to sack any manager until after we’ve got his replacement signed on the dotted line otherwise we risk another situation like the farce we saw after sacking Mourinho.

 

[Finney Is Back]

Who was?
Those are shocking stats
Kane’s are awful too
If the ball goes foward their remit is to at least recycle the ball
It wasn’t like the attackers were trying clever high risk football

Who was the root cause? The manager’s tactics. Slow, safe possession just left us against a packed defence that was very difficult to create chances against.