Pep to leave at the end of the season

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.

Ok - in my opinion, the approach of playing to set pieces and tactical fouls with limited emphasis on creating opportunities from open play cannot sustain in the long term, as referees will ultimately get wise to it.

Again - in my opinion - teams need to be capable of creating a number of genuine scoring opportunities from open play in every game to win in the long term.

PGMOL tweaks its approach ahead of every season to respond to changes in the game, and the tactics Arsenal deploy - which are to a large part reliant on referees, as they emphasise creating opportunities from set plays - are at greater risk of being legislated against next season, limiting their effectiveness.

Thats why I’m saying I don’t think it’s an approach that will sustain in the long term.

Thats my opinion, and I may be proven wrong - but there’s logic to why I hold it.

It’s not just wishful thinking, like you say.
 
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the reaction of many on here to transfer rumours and reports is to believe them only when there is official confirmation. I don't want Pep to go, i don't know if he is going or staying. I won't believe either until there is an official club statement.
 
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.
Just to be clear, was about the media as a collective. The bbc ones, the sky ones, the lot of them, they all tried it. Holt went first on the Monday, but that was after two solid days of it already. If he hadn't, someone likely would have. They then all followed within seconds. I get it, nobody wants to go last.

I watched Pep aftet that. He took it well, but you could tell he was hurting. And raging. He continued to protect the players, continued to protect the club's timings. With a smile. With a hint of sarcasm. But you could tell the defeat, and disappointment. He didn't deserve that, not from the people that got so much out of 10 years of quotes, questions, jousting, jokes. It was so so low.
 
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.

That doesn't make any sense.
 
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.
Some fucking pinnacle if Oliver Holt is there
More a slippery slope of shit
 
Ok - in my opinion, the approach of playing to set pieces and tactical fouls with limited emphasis on creating opportunities from open play cannot sustain in the long term, as referees will ultimately get rise to it.

Again - in my opinion - trans need to be capable of creating a number of genuine scoring opportunities from open play in every game to win in the long term.

PGMOL tweaks its approach ahead of every season to respond to changes in the game, and the tactics Arsenal deploy - which are to a large part reliant on referees as they emphasise creating opportunities from set plays - are at greater risk of being legislated against next season, limiting their effectiveness.

Thats why I’m saying I don’t think it’s an approach that will sustain in the long term.

Thats my opinion, and I may be proven wrong - but there logic to why I hold it.

It’s not just wishful thinking, like you say.
There will be pressure to tighten the rules as the product has been awful this year. It has over rewarded physicality and it’s not that enjoyable to watch.

The coverage of arsenal’s good fortune in terms of refereeing decisions is widespread now too. People who would never have thought or said that the game might not be clean are openly pondering it now.

Outside of England football is struggling financially and if English football continues on the path of boring games influenced too much by the referees then that might change too.

The bubble may be about to burst
 
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.
Imho, that's naive mate.
 
That doesn't make any sense.
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 top of their profession; if a news story was enough to derail them, they wouldn’t be there in the first place. Most of us didn't need the Holt article to know he was going, we had already worked it out.

Any better?
 
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.
I wouldn’t want that but my point is if for whatever reason he did come he’d eventually play his own way like every other manager would.
 
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.

YouTube:

Spotify:

Apple:

I was expecting to dislike it but in truth I didn't. He came across reasonably well for one of the press pack and seemed to answer to the best of his belief and knowledge. It did give a little coherence to the clubs approach to this and it seems to ring of truth that Pep will have the final say about when an announcement is made. Some nice anecdotes as well. He isn't the worst by a long way and it would have been interesting for you to dig in to why we get the coverage we get but I can understand why you would avoid that. It was a good interview mate and I have to say you are good at it. Good luck with your channels.
 
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.
Hmmmm - so City legal department were all over it for months, but 'backed off' just before 3 of the biggest games of our season?
 
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?

It was a total win-win-win. Arsenal kicked-off already, just sets it all up for a blow to the gut. Even if we had managed to win that game, the chips had been pissed on already. The team And the fans. And the distraction and fallout then just rolls on onto the final game, and the questions etc.

Obviously, the news itself (or reports rather) would carry a negative reaction and disappointment, no matter when they ran with them. But they timed it for when the disappointment and impact would be the highest. It was deliberate, not a chance it wasn't, what he says there only reinforces that.
 
Hmmmm - so City legal department were all over it for months, but 'backed off' just before 3 of the biggest games of our season?
Two games, broke on Monday night at which point we had Bournemouth and Villa left.
Personally I think the season was over once we had won the FA Cup so I agree with City.
 
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 top of their profession; if a news story was enough to derail them, they wouldn’t be there in the first place. Most of us didn't need the Holt article to know he was going, we had already worked it out.

Any better?

Firstly, it wasn't news to Pep because it was his decision.

Secondly, the players clearly didn't know or it would have been in the press much sooner. Pep tells players, players tell agents, story breaks.

Thirdly, they're human beings not robots. They'll be deeply affected by that news, the same way we were and the same way the dippers were when Klopp's departure was announced.

We'll never know if it made any difference to the result, but it certainly would have been an unwelcome distraction.
 
Two games, broke on Monday night at which point we had Bournemouth and Villa left.
Personally I think the season was over once we had won the FA Cup so I agree with City.
Started the ahead of the FA cup game. And the insinuations persisted.

Semantics though, the idea that City managed to keep a lid on it then let it happen is fanciful.
 
There will be pressure to tighten the rules as the product has been awful this year. It has over rewarded physicality and it’s not that enjoyable to watch.

The coverage of arsenal’s good fortune in terms of refereeing decisions is widespread now too. People who would never have thought or said that the game might not be clean are openly pondering it now.

Outside of England football is struggling financially and if English football continues on the path of boring games influenced too much by the referees then that might change too.

The bubble may be about to burst

"The club have left no stone unturned in their attempts to find a competitive advantage at corner kicks. They have been proactive in dialogue with Howard Webb and the PGMO match officials’ body, road-testing ideas and trying to set, define and exploit the margins of what is permissible within the laws of the game."

Never believe what Webb tells you ....
 
Two games, broke on Monday night at which point we had Bournemouth and Villa left.
Personally I think the season was over once we had won the FA Cup so I agree with City.
Sorry - misread as before the FA cup final. Even or more so, WHY would City back off with only 2 games to go? This was leaked before we knew Arse had won the Burnley game. The league was still potentially there for us after the FA cup final
 
Firstly, it wasn't news to Pep because it was his decision.

Secondly, the players clearly didn't know or it would have been in the press much sooner. Pep tells players, players tell agents, story breaks.

Thirdly, they're human beings not robots. They'll be deeply affected by that news, the same way we were and the same way the dippers were when Klopp's departure was announced.

We'll never know if it made any difference to the result, but it certainly would have been an unwelcome distraction.
I completely disagree that the players didn’t know. If you watch the Bernardo and Guehi interviews after the FA Cup, their reactions aren’t remotely ‘what are you talking about?’ And they’d have seen the same Pep interviews we all did — it was obvious to a lot of us he was going, regardless of what he said publicly. So they can’t have been deeply affected by something they already knew. For me, the league was gone when we drew with Everton anyway. If someone really wanted to derail us, dropping the story before the FA Cup final would’ve made far more sense — they might’ve even got two for the price of one.

Assuming City does actually want to tell at some point before Sunday, what is the optimum time?
 

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