Pep to leave at the end of the season

twosips said:
I've just recorded a podcast with Jack Gaughan. We discussed Pep's exit. It answers pretty much any questions you may have on this.
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I enjoyed that, fair play to you, fair play to him too.

But... Everything he has said only reinforces my stance about them, as a collective.

So they have all known for months. They have also known City are trying to keep it under wraps. They knew Pep didn't want it brought up, or to distract from the season.

They supposedly have a job to report on what's going on (putting aside that it's bollocks, as that's not reporting on something going on, but turning valid enough rumours into stories) and have been desperate to report it.. sure.

So of all those months of knowing, and having a job to do and being desperate to report it - and they all chose the eve of the FA cup final, to grill pep every chance they got. To put words in his mouth. To try catch him out. To ask him immediately before the game. Immediately After the game. To sneak it in amongst other questions. To ask his players immediately after the game. To try catch Them out. To try get them contradicting him. Etc.

And then... when all that didn't work.. they just ran with it anyway! But! On the eve of a must win game to take it to the next day. When it was so clear at that point, that all Pep wanted to do was get to the last day, in a position to challenge, without distractions, and he would weather the storm himself if he had to.

What, they suddenly got new bits of information? No. JG actually says, Holt just decided to go for it. What, they suddenly had to do their job, that they had been sitting on for months? They couldn't wait another day, till after the game?

Bollocks. It was a calculated, maximum damage campaign, timed for that purpose alone. Not for their professional integrity, not in the interest of getting news out there, not even for reputational or financial gain. But to disrupt and interfere. With a club and manager trying so hard not to be interfered with. That has given them 10 years of solid gold for their jobs btw.

And THEN... even then.. they didn't stop to respect the game, but had to prod him on his reaction to it, the players' reaction. And obviously, continue after the game. And afterwards? Total silence! Sure, now they are happy to wait for the club to announce it.

They knew what they were doing. And when, and why they chose to do it.
 
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Coatigan said:
I enjoyed that, fair play to you, fair play to him too.

But... Everything he has said only reinforces my stance about them, as a collective.

So they have all known for months. They have also known City are trying to keep it under wraps. They knew Pep didn't want it brought up, or to distract from the season.

They supposedly have a job to report on what's going on (putting aside that it's bollocks, as that's not reporting on something going on, but turning valid enough rumours into stories) and have been desperate to report it.. sure.

So of all those months of knowing, and having a job to do and being desperate to report it - and they all chose the eve of the FA cup final, to grill pep every chance they got. To put words in his mouth. To try catch him out. To ask him immediately before the game. Immediately After the game. To sneak it in amongst other questions. To ask his players immediately after the game. To try catch Them out. To try get them contradicting him. Etc.

And then... when all that didn't work.. they just ran with it anyway! But! On the eve of a must win game to take it to the next day. When it was so clear at that point, that all Pep wanted to do was get to the last day, in a position to challenge, without distractions, and he would weather the storm himself if he had to.

What, they suddelny got new bits of information? No. JG actually says, Holt just decided to go for it. What, they suddenly had to do their job, that they had been sitting on for months? They couldn't wait another day, till after the game?

Bollocks. It was a calculated, maximum damage campaign, timed for that purpose alone. Not for their professional integrity, not in the interest of getting news out there, not even for reputational or financial gain. But to disrupt and interfere. With a club and manager trying so hard mot to be interfered with. That has given them 10 years of solid gold for their jobs btw.

And THEN... even then.. they didn't stop to respect the game, but hsd to prod on his reaction to it, the players' reaction. And obviously, continue after the game.

Manipulative, conniving hyenas.
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Stunning and accurate post
 
Coatigan said:
I enjoyed that, fair play to you, fair play to him too.

But... Everything he has said only reinforces my stance about them, as a collective.

So they have all known for months. They have also known City are trying to keep it under wraps. They knew Pep didn't want it brought up, or to distract from the season.

They supposedly have a job to report on what's going on (putting aside that it's bollocks, as that's not reporting on something going on, but turning valid enough rumours into stories) and have been desperate to report it.. sure.

So of all those months of knowing, and having a job to do and being desperate to report it - and they all chose the eve of the FA cup final, to grill pep every chance they got. To put words in his mouth. To try catch him out. To ask him immediately before the game. Immediately After the game. To sneak it in amongst other questions. To ask his players immediately after the game. To try catch Them out. To try get them contradicting him. Etc.

And then... when all that didn't work.. they just ran with it anyway! But! On the eve of a must win game to take it to the next day. When it was so clear at that point, that all Pep wanted to do was get to the last day, in a position to challenge, without distractions, and he would weather the storm himself if he had to.

What, they suddelny got new bits of information? No. JG actually says, Holt just decided to go for it. What, they suddenly had to do their job, that they had been sitting on for months? They couldn't wait another day, till after the game?

Bollocks. It was a calculated, maximum damage campaign, timed for that purpose alone. Not for their professional integrity, not in the interest of getting news out there, not even for reputational or financial gain. But to disrupt and interfere. With a club and manager trying so hard mot to be interfered with. That has given them 10 years of solid gold for their jobs btw.

And THEN... even then.. they didn't stop to respect the game, but hsd to prod on his reaction to it, the players' reaction. And obviously, continue after the game.

Manipulative, conniving hyenas.
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Your final sentence is right so your first sentence isn't. Should have called him out for being a ****. The rest of what he said was bollocks.
 
Nicholas van Whatsisface said:
Each to their own mate.

Like you say, football is entertainment - and if I were a season ticket holder at Arsenal, I know for a fact I wouldn’t be satisfied that the football I was paying all that money to see qualified as ‘entertainment’ in any logical, meaningful sense of the word.

Does it get results? This season it has, but there hasn’t been a lot to show for the previous six years, whilst Arteta worked his way towards finally settling on his title winning formula.

And I’m perfectly willing to accept when one of our rivals has a world class coach.

Klopp came across as an insufferable **** of a man - a raging, wildly unfettered ego gland, firing off arrogant, self-congratulatory tirades with scarcely a moment’s encouragement - but he was an exceptional coach, and his Liverpool team was hugely entertaining to watch. And if he hadn’t suffered the misfortune of being up against Pep’s City during his peak years, he’d have won a lot more trophies than he did.

So it’s not necessarily all about trophies. It’s as much about their approach to the game, the tactics they employ, and their capacity to innovate in the ideas they bring to their teams.

In my view, Arteta achieved very little of any note in six years before this season using ideas he’d learned under Pep, then decided he’d change tactics completely - and try to win by strangling the life out of the game, breaking up play constantly, abandoning any attempt to score from open play, and playing for set pieces, with the emphasis on focusing tactical fouls around the execution of those set pieces to improve their margins.

Pragmatic - I’d agree with that.

Cynical - absolutely.

Entertaining - not for me.

People talk about Allardyce and Pulis in reference to Arteta because the tactics he’s emphasised are essentially the same as theirs.

It may have been effective this year, but it’s hideous to watch - and it’s not an approach that’s built for the long term.

And even then, they came a whisker from losing it all to a pretty average City team by our own standards.

I’m not being tribal when I say I can’t see anything special in him as a coach. I’m happy to admit when we’re up against someone special, and this guy simply does not qualify into that category for me.
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sure, all things are subject to the taste as well. But its just incorrect when you say "it may have been effective this year" or "its not an approach that's built for the long term".

It was effective last year as well and previous year too. UCL semi final and second in the Premier League is superb achievement and is super effective in my book.

Arsenal progressed pretty much every year for 5/6 years now. They had to change everything, basically all players bar Saka.

Your take that its not for a long term is a pure speculation and wishful thinking. You do not know and You cannot know. My bet is Arsenal is going nowhere unfortunately.

To be clear i have zero joy about arguing here in favour of Arteta or Arsenal, its just so contrfactual what You are writting that bothers me. Im a bit oversensitive about any kind of propaganda.
 
twosips said:
I would guess some of the MEN fellas, Sam Lee, people like that. There are some that I feel get an absurd amount of abuse, mainly just for reporting negative news. I've seen people blame journos for City losing the title for breaking this story for example, which is absurd. As if anyone in an industry like this wouldnt go with a story this big
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You've had a chat with someone who has told you they knew long before they published it...so why did they announce it when they did?

I'm not here to give you grief but you're defending the indefensible here. They waited and waited and then, without any new information, decided to publish it right before a crunch tie in the PL. Did it have an impact, you feel like it didn't but it most certainly will have. How did we feel when it got announced? You expect the players, and Pep himself to be unaffected by news like that?
 
blueste41 said:
Yes you would, all you would care about is that you were winning a lot of matches. I don't really remember how we played under Mancini I just remember we won a lot more than we ever have before (in my lifetime). The notion that every single one of the 60,000 people that go to the emirates are somehow wired differently to City fans is ridiculous. No end of fans of opposing teams think Pep's teams "pass people to death" that isn't true either, but you already knew that.
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I actually have a lot of family members who are Arsenal fans despite being from Manchester, as my great grandad played for them back when they were called Woolwich Arsenal - and one of my very best mates is an Arsenal fan.

They are all delighted they’ve won the League again after over 20 years, and particularly delighted that they’ve beaten City to it in the process - of course they are - but each and every one of them have unprompted offered that they find the style in which they’ve achieved it, and all the dreary one-nils they’ve had to sit through in the process, frustrating and boring to watch.

There’s a bit of embarrassment behind it, and an acknowledgment that’s it’s not an easy watch - amongst the delight at the results it’s achieved this year.

For example, they all watched the Arsenal/Atletico CL legs in the context of the PSG/Bayern games, and ruefully acknowledged one set of games represented the very best entertainment football has to offer - whilst the other represented a desperately dull viewing spectacle.

I’ll leave you to work out which was which.

Now that’s a group of about seven or eight Arsenal fans, and not necessarily representative of the whole - admittedly - but I’m not just making this shit up from some sort of myopic City-purist perspective.

These are views held by genuine Arsenal fans.

Which was entirely my point.

Would I be satisfied as an Arsenal fan that Arteta’s approach was a pragmatic means to achieving success? Of course I would.

Would I also reflect that it represented an aesthetically high calibre of entertainment in the process? Not a fucking chance.
 
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Le Havre Oswald said:
But if he came We’d play how he wanted us to play?
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Would you want us to play counter attacking football close to our own goal looking to nip balls over the top? It'd certainly be a departure from recent years and would require in many ways very different players to the ones we have.
 
Coatigan said:
I enjoyed that, fair play to you, fair play to him too.

But... Everything he has said only reinforces my stance about them, as a collective.

So they have all known for months. They have also known City are trying to keep it under wraps. They knew Pep didn't want it brought up, or to distract from the season.

They supposedly have a job to report on what's going on (putting aside that it's bollocks, as that's not reporting on something going on, but turning valid enough rumours into stories) and have been desperate to report it.. sure.

So of all those months of knowing, and having a job to do and being desperate to report it - and they all chose the eve of the FA cup final, to grill pep every chance they got. To put words in his mouth. To try catch him out. To ask him immediately before the game. Immediately After the game. To sneak it in amongst other questions. To ask his players immediately after the game. To try catch Them out. To try get them contradicting him. Etc.

And then... when all that didn't work.. they just ran with it anyway! But! On the eve of a must win game to take it to the next day. When it was so clear at that point, that all Pep wanted to do was get to the last day, in a position to challenge, without distractions, and he would weather the storm himself if he had to.

What, they suddelny got new bits of information? No. JG actually says, Holt just decided to go for it. What, they suddenly had to do their job, that they had been sitting on for months? They couldn't wait another day, till after the game?

Bollocks. It was a calculated, maximum damage campaign, timed for that purpose alone. Not for their professional integrity, not in the interest of getting news out there, not even for reputational or financial gain. But to disrupt and interfere. With a club and manager trying so hard mot to be interfered with. That has given them 10 years of solid gold for their jobs btw.

And THEN... even then.. they didn't stop to respect the game, but hsd to prod on his reaction to it, the players' reaction. And obviously, continue after the game.

They knew what they were doing. And when, and why they chose to do it.
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That's not really how it works, though. Listen to the latest episode of Let Me Talk. Sam Lee explains how this has all come about. These stories about Pep leaving have been ready for weeks/months now, but City have been standing in the way so the legal departments at these various newspapers have advised their writers to hold off on publishing. After the FA Cup final it seems City backed off from a legal standpoint so the dam burst. Ollie Holt went first, then the likes of David Ornstein, Sam Lee, Jack Gaughan etc. had to hastily get everything together. They could have dropped the story before the Arsenal game to fuck us over, or the FA Cup final to fuck us over, or even the League Cup final. But they didn't because City have blocked the story from a legal point of view. After the FA Cup final City seemed to step aside so the button was pushed.
 
supercity88 said:
You've had a chat with someone who has told you they knew long before they published it...so why did they announce it when they did?

I'm not here to give you grief but you're defending the indefensible here. They waited and waited and then, without any new information, decided to publish it right before a crunch tie in the PL. Did it have an impact, you feel like it didn't but it most certainly will have. How did we feel when it got announced? You expect the players, and Pep himself to be unaffected by news like that?
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It wasn't news to Pep or the players, they already knew.
If you mean everyone else finding out, these are people at the absolute pinnacle of there profession if a news story stops them from doing it they wouldn't be there in the first place.
Besides, many of us already knew for certain he was going anyway.
 
IronsideKozuch said:
sure, all things are subject to the taste as well. But its just incorrect when you say "it may have been effective this year" or "its not an approach that's built for the long term".

It was effective last year as well and previous year too. UCL semi final and second in the Premier League is superb achievement and is super effective in my book.

Arsenal progressed pretty much every year for 5/6 years now. They had to change everything, basically all players bar Saka.

Your take that its not for a long term is a pure speculation and wishful thinking. You do not know and You cannot know. My bet is Arsenal is going nowhere unfortunately.

To be clear i have zero joy about arguing here in favour of Arteta or Arsenal, its just so contrfactual what You are writting that bothers me. Im a bit oversensitive about any kind of propaganda.
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If it distresses you so much, why do it ?

There are many on here who will disagree and you must have considered that before you posted, but you carried on anyway.

And if you are "oversensitive " might I suggest that you ignore football forums altogether ?
 
johnny crossan said:
"Media coverage of City is fair and balanced" can you believe these evil cockroaches can come on a Cityfan podcast and excrete sentences like that.

If you gave Jack an enema you could bury what's left in a matchbox.
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We have a self described hardcore United fan Shamoon Hafez as our designated reporter on BBC Sport and Sam Lee a known Rag as our reporter for the Athletic that tells you everything about how balanced our coverage is.
 
Colin Bells Boots said:
If it distresses you so much, why do it ?

There are many on here who will disagree and you must have considered that before you posted, but you carried on anyway.

And if you are "oversensitive " might I suggest that you ignore football forums altogether ?
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He said he was oversensitive to propaganda, I suspect that leads him to voicing against it.
 
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