So Wenger says that we were 'very, very close' to signing Mbappe. Isn't it annoying

Perez is a very average player. He's about 28 and has only had one decent season as a goalscorer at the top level. If we'd bought Mustafi before him he'd never have been bought. It was simply a fan-placating measure.

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Originally Posted by SWv2

A little harsh no??

I for one think both Mustafi and Xhaka are very fine footballers who are simply struggling as part of a larger broken machine.

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I wasn't ripping on the players as much as the effect they've had. Squillaci was a decent footballer when he came to us.

Of course there have been many clubs before us who have spent a lot of money on players who did little to improve their team. For years AW outperformed higher spenders. Spurs and Leicester have shown over the last couple of years that combining the right profile of players who know what they are doing can reap success on the pitch. I watched Chelsea demolish Everton and Spurs demolish us and there were two teams where the players knew what they were supposed to be doing. Ours don't seem to have a clue what they are supposed to be doing as a team, so they end up trying to do it as individuals.

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Originally Posted by Ash

I wasn't ripping on the players as much as the effect they've had. Squillaci was a decent footballer when he came to us.

Of course there have been many clubs before us who have spent a lot of money on players who did little to improve their team. For years AW outperformed higher spenders. Spurs and Leicester have shown over the last couple of years that combining the right profile of players who know what they are doing can reap success on the pitch. I watched Chelsea demolish Everton and Spurs demolish us and there were two teams where the players knew what they were supposed to be doing. Ours don't seem to have a clue what they are supposed to be doing as a team, so they end up trying to do it as individuals.

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That's not some sort of glitsch in Wenger's system though; it *is* His system. Always has been, so far as I can see.

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Originally Posted by Ash

I wasn't ripping on the players as much as the effect they've had. Squillaci was a decent footballer when he came to us.

Of course there have been many clubs before us who have spent a lot of money on players who did little to improve their team. For years AW outperformed higher spenders. Spurs and Leicester have shown over the last couple of years that combining the right profile of players who know what they are doing can reap success on the pitch. I watched Chelsea demolish Everton and Spurs demolish us and there were two teams where the players knew what they were supposed to be doing. Ours don't seem to have a clue what they are supposed to be doing as a team, so they end up trying to do it as individuals.

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Spurs and Chelsea are two very good teams, well drilled and every player appearing to know their role within the larger unit, and this was Spurs without (imo) their most effective and best player this season in Dembele.

We of course are also a good team but increasingly the second part of my compliment above looks redundant as indeed you have said in your last sentence.

I thought Spurs were superb last Sunday and actually reminded me of our own team back over a decade ago.

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Originally Posted by redgunamo

That's not some sort of glitsch in Wenger's system though; it *is* His system. Always has been, so far as I can see.

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We haven't ever been quite as disjointed and disfunctional though. In previous AW eras we've played some good football and shot ourselves in the foot with poor defending. But now we're not even playing good football.

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Originally Posted by redgunamo

Of course it's helped; it's helped us spend bigger sums! It's true, you don't have to think like the bigger clubs, but equally you don't *have* to earn more money like them either. Point is though that we *want* to, that is the path we have chosen.

Wenger doesn't work for us for free and Özil doesn't play for us because he likes us; these people want paying.

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But that is earning the money, we are talking about spending it. When your manager is signing a striker that he clearly doesn't rate it suggests you have a problem.

Remember, of the four summers since we have had money to spend we had one where we didn't sign a single outfield player, another where we would have signed nobody is Ozil hadn't fallen into our lap at the last minute and then last summer where it almost happened again. We have been left short in midfield into two seasons and horribly short at centre back in another.

It hasn't been smooth sailing at all.

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Originally Posted by Ash

We haven't ever been quite as disjointed and disfunctional though. In previous AW eras we've played some good football and shot ourselves in the foot with poor defending. But now we're not even playing good football.

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Perhaps I should've said it's a natural consequence of Wenger's methods and philosophy? He has always insisted His players play with a certain freedom, hasn't He.

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Originally Posted by redgunamo

Perhaps I should've said it's a natural consequence of Wenger's methods and philosophy? He has always insisted His players play with a certain freedom, hasn't He.

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Yes, the jazz conductor, as I think Phillipe Auclair described it. Doesn't seem to work at the moment though, against contemporary systems of discipline and organisation.

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Originally Posted by Ash

Yes, the jazz conductor, as I think Phillipe Auclair described it. Doesn't seem to work at the moment though, against contemporary systems of discipline and organisation.

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Jazzer I think the term was.

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Originally Posted by Ash

Yes, the jazz conductor, as I think Phillipe Auclair described it. Doesn't seem to work at the moment though, against contemporary systems of discipline and organisation.

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I suppose Antonio Conte could win the league with this team though, just as Wenger could with Chelsea's current mob. Again, normally a squad is the fruit of several (often very different footballistically) managers' work. Rarely is it put together by just one bloke over such a long period of time. It's almost against football nature.