WE MUST BEAT NOTTINGHAM FOREST! | Uncomfortable Arteta conversations! FT ‪@SheKnowsArsenal‬

People deluded, I'm back again. Come on Ian man, come on. As the big man Ian Wright said, there people deluded, I'm back again. We've just finished a live stream on Jessie's channel, make sure you're checking out SheKnowsArsenal, but we're here again. How you doing? How's the international break treated you? Oh, I enjoyed my break from Arsenal. I was celebrating, I was like, thank you. International break, you came at just the right time. And I feel like I might be mentally stable enough to go back in. So yeah, let's see how it goes. Let's start there. Do you think we can win the league? Do you think the league's gone? Listen, call me Leigh-Anne Gunner if you want to. I don't give a shit. Y'all, I told y'all when the transfer window closed, I said, we have a very small chance of winning that Premier League. And then after a couple of the points we dropped, I was like, it's done. You just can't be dropping the points the way that we are. We're nine points off the pace now from Liverpool. And yes, there's this idea that they're just going to fall away magically. But, you know, nine points is a big gap at this stage. Only 11 games though. Do you think you're giving up prematurely? 27 more games to play. Well, I'll put it this way. I think the best team almost always wins the league. Leicester was an anomaly. It was a once in a lifetime type of situation where the best team didn't really win it, but it was magical for them. Most of the time, the best team over a 38 game period will win. You don't get luck in the Premier League. Everything evens itself out. All the unlucky moments and the lucky moments even themselves out over 30 game period, you will see who's the best team. Do I think we're the best team? No, I don't. And so yeah, for periods, we can look like the best team. Like last season, there were periods where we did, but over the 38 game period, we were not. So we feel worse now. So maybe it is giving up prematurely, but I just, I don't, I mean, what do you think? Do you think we could still win it? It's like you, I was called the man of doom and gloom and believing it's all done and things like that. I can only comment on what I see. Of course, there's 27 games. The narrative can change. It's down to the players and the gaffer to change that. And I hope it is the case, but from what I'm seeing, I can't see light at the end of the tunnel. I think we've engineered our own issues and it's another season where we shot ourselves in the foot. I do think there are valid claims in that, you know, we've had a tough start to the season, et cetera, et cetera. The next 10, 11 games could look different, but at the same time, always say to people, I hear that you're not wrong. What we've played Spurs away, Villa away, City away, played Liverpool, you know, Newcastle away. We've had some tough games, but I always say to people, everyone's got to play each other twice. And every fan base probably has that calendar of fixtures where they're like, Oh, this is where it goes left kind of thing, if I'm honest. So that's where I'm at. It's more hopeful, but we can't sit here and lie. We're third in the free horse race. It's like, my logic is telling me it's done. It's more 1% faith and you hope the footballing gods can allow us. So how do we salvage the season then Jess? If the league's gone, we're still in the champs, still in the league cup, still in the FA cup. Beyond the obvious, what's the best case scenario then? I think you'd turn, I think you muted your mic, you know. I sure did. I do that all the time. Mikel has to win a trophy. Like, it's just, and I know it's like, how could you, you know? Yeah, he must. He must. The season, last season, I let him off the hook. I was like, yeah, but you know, we started off slow and then we kind of caught up and we're playing some of the best football we've ever played under Mikel Arteta at the end of the season. Unlucky. We added new players in, blah, blah, blah. This season? Nah. You have to stop the bleeding at some point. And my biggest concern about this group is that they don't know how to win and they're becoming really good losers. And that's, don't nearly men. Yeah. They're nearly men. A lot of foreplay, no penetration. Yeah. We're such a good side and there's nothing about this team that makes me think that they can not win a trophy. Does that mean that they can, they're going to win the prem? No. But do I think that they could win a caribou key or a cup? Yeah. Hell yeah. We, we could, we won that shit when we were awful. You know, I went back and I watched that final between us and Chelsea. We were trash. We were awful. So you don't have to be the best team to win a cup. You have to be the best team to win the premier league. It's different. So I think just stopping the bleeding, you know, rehabilitating the season, making sure that you finish in that top four, Mikkel don't get stupid. Finish in that top four. That should be a sackable offense at the very minimum. You must, you must finish in that top four, salvage the season, get us back up the table a little bit more, get us consistent. And then don't put, you don't have to put all your eggs in that basket, but take those domestic cups. Seriously. I was around United fans when they won that stinking ass care about cup. They were, they rewrote history, mom. They were so happy. And I was like, yeah, I mean, second is fine. You know, second is fine. At the end of the season, the second is fine. We're on the right track. You need to start winning trophies. It'll, it'll, it won't change the whole narrative around the club. Cause I've heard people say like, well, what does it care about cup in the FA cup going to do to the narrative around the club? It's not about the narrative around the club until we win the premier league or a champions league, the narrative will not change. In fact, even when we do that, it still probably won't change because it was so long that we've done anything major. The, the whole thing about winning a trophy now is to get these players into a winning mindset to understand how to win. And I think that'll help them out. So yeah, I think just a trophy would, would really help to salvage the season. I think in terms of the champions league finishing that top eight we've made it difficult on ourselves in that competition as well, but finishing that top eight, try not to have those additional games and go as far as you can. We went to the quarterfinals last season. Let's try to get to the semifinals, you know to me, that's progress in a competition where most of our players last season had never played in it before. You know, we had like one or two players that have played in it before. So I think that's kind of where I'm at. You know, what are like, what are you, what, what if Arteta doesn't, I don't want to do the, do you sack him if he doesn't, you know, but do you, I think let's, let's, let's do that. Let's do that. Let's do that. Like where, where do you stand if he doesn't do that? Doesn't win a trophy. Like, where do you stand? I mean, I've never felt like the conversation. So if he wins an FA cup, league cup or FA cup, these are the very things Wenger was killed for really. Yeah. I mean, but it all, to me, it all depends on the league because Arsene was finishing, scraping forth and getting a FA cup every once in a while. If we're still, if we can close the gap on, on Liverpool and at least be within a couple of points and be like remotely around it, I feel like that's the difference in the context. I feel like the context around banger was yeah. A couple of FA cups, but we were never in a title race. We weren't, we were getting forth this season, you know, maybe we are trying to get forth, but if we can close that gap, get second, the cities are horrendous right now. We don't know. Yeah. So if we can at least close the gap on Liverpool and be in the title race and you know, that's different. The context is different, but if he doesn't, I don't think the conversation around a managerial change should be so taboo. I don't know why the fan base feels like the discourse has already drawn up their battle lines. Yeah. To me, it shouldn't be, we should be able to have these conversations and it not feel like a attack on your, who you are as a person. Like, cause that's what it feels like. People are like, how dare you even, do you know where we were before Mikel? And I'm like, I get it. Which is great. One love for the rebuild. It's just about getting over the line now. Are you a winner? We're at the, can he be the guy that wins champions league primarily? Or are you Brendan Rogers? Yeah. Are you Brendan Rogers? Not even in a disingenuous way. Are you just the guy to set everything up for the next one to fly? Looking at Barcelona with Xavi? I was just about to make that example. Cause I feel like people don't want that maybe being a reality because they've bet their horse on this group and this manager to make it to the end. And I don't know after five, six years under this manager with the lack of trophies that you can justify not having the conversation. I just don't think so. So am I willing to wait for our Teta to mature into a world-class manager to get to where we want to go? I don't know because you know, I, I'm not trying to lose our better players. I'm already, it's just Saliba is leaving for Real Madrid. That's just, you know, so he's left when he's doing the summer with soccer and a couple of us at this moment in time. So that's kind of where I'm at with it. Now, all the, who would replace him? You know, all that kind of stuff, the Barcelona fans, you know, we're not, who's going to replace Xavi. They got Hansi Flick and they improved and Hansi Flick, his stocks were fucking low when they hired him. Everybody had, oh, he failed, Bayern Munich, he wasn't, and now look, I do think we're disingenuous about the coaching talent that's out there. And sometimes you just need a different voice. Take the women, the women and it was stale. It was rank. They were not happy. They were not playing with joy. And just with the interim manager, it's like a breath of fresh air. So I think it's something that we could be a little bit more open to talking about, at least as fans at the end of the season, if he doesn't win any trophies, if people are still acting like, you know, there's just no other avenue, but Mikel after this, then I just feel like they're just being so disingenuous, you know, but will I be out there saying, sack him? I don't know. I don't know if I have it in me. I might just hibernate for the summer and see what happens. You know, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a difficult one, Jess man, because on one hand I do think Mikel Arteta, maybe not so much now, cause we're not winning, but you're a very good coach. You're a bit of a genius in that regards. The many thing you've done for the rebuild where you've got Arsenal too, you're great. The issue is kind of what you alluded to. I don't want to wait for you to be great. I mean, we already are. I care about my football team. I don't want you to be here, kind of have a free ride and then we don't succeed. You go elsewhere because there's also that avenue where he gets obviously frustrated, but at the same time, you've been given a lot of money. You're the manager. You've been allowed to make unpopular decisions, which other people at the club haven't necessarily agreed with. And a lot of it has been backed up. But as I said, in line of the rebuild, if the club just want to get top four, that stuff is great. In terms of being a winner, Mikel Arteta, you were surrounded at City with winners. You know what it takes, but are you a winner in your own own bracket? And I think you touched on something great where you basically said that it shouldn't be taboo. Reality is we don't know if keeping, there was times where Arteta could have and should have been sacked back to back eight. In hindsight, that was the best thing to do. We could keep the guy and we go on to bigger and better days. And me and you look back at this live stream and say, Oh, what was we talking about? Likewise, we could get a lot worse. Sacking or keeping the manager doesn't guarantee success, but at the same time, what else are you supposed to do? There's other clubs, you've got Pep Guardiola and Klopp who were at their clubs for a while. I know Chelsea is a bit of a mad environment, but when Chelsea were Chelsea, like the big guys, it's known the manager didn't have too long there. Real Madrid, the same. So there isn't one singular path. Do you feel the club feel the same way like us though? Because they gave him a new deal before the ball was kicked this year. No, I don't. I think the Cronkies are very much so in love with McHale. I think McHale is the project. And to me, that's the problem. I feel like yes, Arteta should get time. He should get the resources. He should be able to build a squad in his image, but he's done that now. And now we're kind of doing the merry go round. And I just feel like there has to be some sort of, so what are you going to deliver? And Arteta can talk, he could probably talk, he could talk anybody down. It's Pep, it's hard to beat City, but once Pep goes, then we'll be, if Liverpool win this title, do you understand how crazy we're going to look? People can sit there to aid your point. People can sit there and say, they got Van Dijk, they got this, they got that, which is all true. They've got experienced players, but he's gone in and just worked a bit of magic. Now we can't draw too many conclusions on Liverpool, but they're flying at the moment. So this whole need in time thing, I do think it makes sense. But as you kind of said, how far does it go? Yeah. How, how far do we trust it where we're like, okay, we should be winning now, you know? And I wish I was privy to the- I'm not really getting in finals either, are we? Yeah, we're not. I want to see that, whatever the fucking roadmap that they were talking about, that they had, that said what the process was going to be, I want to see what that is. Because like, I thought it was like four years, and it's looking like you guys are really like patient with it. And like you said, it would be totally different if we were reaching finals, if we were, you know, improving in every single dimension. Right now, we just challenge City. First loser. And that's it. No finals, no other trophies, no nothing. You know, so we have to expect more of this club because really, where we're trying to get to is Champions League and Premier Leagues and also winning multiple trophies a season. That's where we're trying to get to. We're really far away from that. And yeah, and so, yeah. Our dog is called win. What we doing? Like, everything's geared up towards that. You hear they talk about winning just winning his trophies, obviously winning, we can do all of that self-help book stuff about winning is how you conduct and carry yourself, which is all true. But winning, I'm sure the players and Mikel Arteta want to win major honours. I can caveat that with Arteta is going the wrong way about it. I honestly think the club are complacent. Now we look at the Cronkies. I do think you've got to approach this Arsenal situation at many layers. I think whether you think the Cronkies should be proven winners or behave like Abramovich and that, great. But they've shown, they get people in place, they leave you to your own devices. So you could ask what's going on with the winning culture? Isolated to Mikel Arteta, he's done a lot of good, but has he squeezed every blood from every stone? Has he utilised every resource? Has his unpopular decisions always worked? Has he been shooting himself in the foot tactically? And is it anyone's fault but Arteta and the players as to why in the last two years in particular, fair enough the first year, I'll cut you a bly, we didn't win a league title and we've shot ourselves in the foot already. I personally, genuinely feel those above Mikel Arteta didn't expect Arsenal to be in these conversations when it started. That first year, I think that really started like the deterioration of like what we were seeing. Cause that first year when we finished, we finished fifth and then we turned around and led the league for damn near the whole thing. And that was not in the, that was not in the roadmap that happened too soon. But the fact that it happened to, it happened too soon is the problem is we weren't prepared to compete at a high level because we were going to walk. Yeah. We should, first of all, that season that we finished fifth, we should have easily finished in the top four. There was no reason why we shouldn't have finished in the top four and we didn't. And we crumbled next season. We crumble in the title race. You know, it's ever since then we've been kind of like teetering down and it's the slow methodical way of the way that they want to build the club and get back to winning ways. And I think it's too slow for a club that hasn't won anything in a long time. You know, I think they should try to expedite it. And that's why they're, you know, any club that has had in Kenya and Jesus and Kai Havertz has strikers should be dying to buy a striker. And they went another summer window and didn't do it that to me, that just says, we want to slow things down. We want to go at our pace. We're not quite ready to, you know, we want to be a consistent top four team first before we start challenging, but now we're, we're right there. And the one person that I've never heard really talk about titles and actually trophies is actually Mikel Arteta. Cause if you actually listen to the way that he speaks about winning, it's about doing the best that we can improving every day. I've never heard him once say, we're going to win trophies. I can't lie. I have, that's why I'm onto him. He does all of that. Like the last day of the season, him and Odegaard, even Josh Cronky, if you look at when we'll get onto Eddie, when Eddie left, you look at that last paragraph Cronky, Josh Cronky saying like, we want to win and win trophies and all of this. So what's going on now? I think every fan, if we saw the things we wanted to see, and we're not going to where we want to, what can you say? There's ambition, but as you touched on it, you know, you've given him a new deal collectively, not just Arteta. The summer is not a summer of, yeah, we're going to fight. See, even if we've got the Izaks, the Yokorez, everything everyone wanted, we still might be in this mess, but at least there's ambition. You can't come out and sign Raheem Sterling and say, we didn't plan to do it. You can't mess around scrambling on a deadline day for a goalie. Fair enough, big up Califuri. I'm not against that or Mikel Moreno, but some people could criticise not only the speed, but the need for those two profiles in which I think it's harsh, but I think it's very valid. Why do you think we're always the nearly men though? There's a lot of foreplay, as I keep saying, and not enough penetration. Why are we always the nearly men? Why do we always kiss success and not necessarily get it? I feel like with Real Madrid, no matter what they win, even when it seems very unlikely, I think there is a little bit of a magic thing. I think we have the opposite. I think this club, since they've been in the Emirates, the Emirates era, has always been a story of nearly. This isn't just an Arteta thing. This is a club thing. Like I said, it becomes a habit. Winning is a habit. Losing is a habit. I think the instant pressure of this team is not just winning a title. It's winning the first title in 20-something years. I feel like that's much bigger than what the Liverpool team under Arne Slott is dealing with. It hasn't been 20 years since they've won a trophy. I think it's a little bit of that, but I also just think that we lack the things that most teams have that actually win major trophies. Is it cojones? Yeah. It's the audacity, the types of personalities that you build your team around, players that show up in those moments. That doesn't always manifest in a striker. Sometimes it's a winger. Sometimes it's a midfielder. It's different protagonists across the field. Gabriele Zinni used to do that for City in their owners. Yeah. Now we're in this. We have a really nice team with a lot of nice guys that do a lot of nice shit, but you need the odd bad guy. You need that player. I think he pisses me off mostly because some of the stuff that he says is true, but it's a hard truth to take, is Emmanuel Petit, he's always throwing jabs. I'm just like, shut the fuck up. He was like, Arsenal don't have the balls to sign somebody like Paul Pogba. Now, I'm not advocating for us to sign Paul Pogba, but he's right. We would never sign the type of player that- We like the nice guy thing too much, and nice guys finish last, man. There's a bunch of young lads out there that if I had a daughter, you wouldn't mind them being in a relationship with them, but you look at any team or any athlete, I'm not saying they're horrible to everyone, there's a collective sense of, like you're saying, nastiness. I think you're banging on the money. I think we're missing that. You need at least two, if not three of them type of players. I think you need more, Jack, I'll be real. I think you need a whole squad of it in their own way. Yeah. The only players that I think- I know you're going to say. I think the players that have shown me that they have a little bit of that, have the ability to be elite at that level are probably our defenders. I feel like they're the only ones that I look at, and I'm like, yeah, you'll go somewhere and go to the Etihad and get 0-0. You did your job. Clean sheet after clean sheet after clean sheet. You guys have showed me that you have that in you. In fact, our back line could probably look at our attackers last season and say, you lost elite, not us. You lost. That's true. I think it's on everyone, including Arteta, man. Speaking of that, do you think the injuries we've suffered in midfield are a reason for our lack of creativity, much less Odegaard being out, or do you think it merely highlights a lot of what Mikel Arteta has been doing? As you know, we spoke about it on your channel. There's been a lot of talk about Mikel Arteta being a bit pragmatic, overly pragmatic, which is- I don't want to say it's very un-Arsenal-like, because those older than us can remember Mitchell Graham days, but for people in and around our age group, you look at the Vengers and things like that, where we played with a swagger. And as I said on your platform personally, I think whatever you say about all of our attackers, I'm not saying we shouldn't have issues, but this shouldn't be a problem for Arsenal, if I'm honest with you. Yeah, I think it's not just about injuries. I think in general, we play in a way that doesn't promote consistent, fluid, creative football. I think it's very much like prescriptive, and at the beginning of last season, it was pretty much all set pieces. We did a lot of set pieces, papering over the cracks, then we scored a lot of goals in a very short period of time. And to me- that's not who we are. I feel like who we've been under Mikel Arteta, for the most part, is a lot of people complaining or questioning the attacking football, since he's been there. He's had one full season of consistent, fluid football, and then- But we were terrible in the second half of a lot of those games in the first year of the league. Yeah, and a piece of last season. But his first season, the second season, there's always been periods where we're like, where is the attack? And so I think it's- he's had Lacazette, he's had Aubameyang, he's had different types of strikers, and I think he struggles to coach effective attacking football most of the time. And I don't know if that's because he's trying to be pragmatic. I just think he's risk-adverse by nature. And he went one season of not being as risk-adverse, and he's damaged from that, and then so he's just fully been like, okay, no. But I don't think you can play good attacking football without taking risks. And if you spend this amount of money on- Yeah, and you have the likes of Saliba and Gabriel. You have to back them to do their job every once in a while. We should not be having 11 men behind the ball against the Southamptons and Leicesters when they're in possession. Fuck them. Leave your guys high. Why are you doing that? And you're still conceding goals. The way you play, you're still conceding goals. So- Bang on the money. Yeah, and you buy a Declan Rice, who's supposed to be somebody that helps you become more attacking because you can throw more men forward because now you have a triangle of Declan Rice and Saliba and Gabriel, and you lock us down even further. So I think- I don't think losing Odegaard means that how we looked this season makes any fucking sense. That's what I'll say. I don't think that those players are so bad that we shouldn't be able to conjure up a chance because a lot of teams don't have Odegaard. They don't have a player of that status in their team. Yeah, but they got odd little creative players out there. Look at Bournemouth. Respectfully, Bournemouth. Look at their players. They're playing ball. Forest even are in a bit of good form in that regards as well. Exactly. So yeah, I'm thinking it's more of a Mikel thing. And as time goes on, I'm starting to believe more and more, when I talk about this in group chat all the time, is that he got lucky with the 2022-2023 season and can't replicate it because how can you not replicate something that was working for you? I think you're a bang on the money, man. Are you confident about any signings in January? No. Come on. I thought you'd be a bit more optimistic. That's what I thought. I thought you might be. I don't know. I thought someone had to be. I'll tell you what I'm optimistic about or what I'm excited about. The most excited thing, the most excited I am about anything around Arsenal right now is the sporting director conversation. To me, that's all that matters to me. That's all I'm caring about. When I see something about the sporting director, I'm like, cool. Because if Mikel- What have you made of the names you've been linked with as well since you mentioned it? Yeah, I think the names are great, but we've been linked to good names in the past and ended up with internal signings and shit like that. And so until I see it, I won't go overboard. But I'm liking the names because they all have the same thing in common where limited resources, Luis Campos, people will be like, he's at PSG. Hold on. He was at Monaco and Lyon first. Bring him. Two very own players that, you know, with Nicolas Pepe and Gabriel, he helped find them. And Raquel Leal, a lot of people want him as well. Bring him. That's my first choice. I think this is such a good opportunity for Arsenal to go get the best person in the field in this one thing. I don't think we do that enough. Luis Campos, to me, is the best. He has the most experience, the most, you know, he has receipts. Yes, PSG has been a shit show at times. But that's a political game at PSG. But PSG is a shit show on a normal basis. Yeah, yeah. They're not all singing from the same hymn sheet. They've tried to do a bit of everything there. Yeah. But this is Edu leaving. The first time that I heard the link, which was a couple of My initial gut feeling was I kind of hope he takes it just because it forces Arsenal to go get someone else because they're not going to change the manager. So you can't change the manager and get a different coach and get a different coach and tactics. You can improve your recruitment and at least bring in better talent. And this is a good opportunity for us. The names are good. Even the ones below Luis Campos are good. The only way that Arsenal can eff it up is if they go out there and they go get, you know, say Perma to soccer. You're the guy for the job. You know, I don't want to see him on Rio or what? Sometimes position altogether and give our title more power. That would be suicide. We don't need that. So, yeah, I think that's all I'm really excited about, because one thing going into this next summer window because we ain't doing nothing in January. And to be honest, until a sporting director comes in, I don't want nothing. I don't want anything. No, I want until the sporting director is in. I don't really want to do anything about the contracts. If I'm honest with you, the contracts, but you don't need a sporting director to do that because you've got Tim Lewis and garlic in them. They can do that, you know, but like nobody's going to say no to giving Saliba and Saka a shit ton of money. That's what I'm excited about is the sporting director. You've been touching on it with the sporting director. Yeah, like indirect. I can't remember exactly word for word what you said, but you mentioned Mikel Arteta's power and things like that. Now, rightly or wrongly, some of these decisions have worked kind of what we're both in agreement on in that the Cronkies are rather fond of Arteta. Now we know on paper Edu is probably above Mikel Arteta in the structure. Reality is the opposite. Whether they've worked or not, he wanted Partey, he wanted Califuri, he wanted Raya, when at times it didn't seem clear, fair enough. He wanted Kai Havertz. Edu actually didn't want to get rid of Aubameyang, he did. Do you think if you get the Lewis Campos or all of these names, which if we went through it, they've all done good things. Do you think they're kind of damned if they do, damned if they don't? Because I'll be honest, I do think Edu made a lot of f-ups. I do think he weren't the guy like that. But I also have this feeling, and I've said it on your platform before, I think to a degree his voice is clouded out, rightly or wrongly, I think his voice is crowded out. So do you think that man who comes in needs to be able, obviously he's got to be able to puff out his chest, but do you think it has to be promoted in that? Because Arteta is left to his own devices, surely. I feel like you're spot on. I think two things can be true at the same time, that Edu didn't help himself and made mistakes on his own. He even tried to get an academy in Brazil as well, apparently I saw today, and they said forget it. Yeah, and they told him no. So he didn't have a loud voice in the room. And the reports that are coming out, whether you believe them or not, are not something that you can look at and say, that doesn't sound like it could happen. That Anaki Kanya and Mikel Arteta are running recruitment. And that's why we're constantly, I mean, Edu spent almost the entire summer window in Spain trying to get that backup goalkeeper instead of getting us a striker, instead of doing other stuff. So that needs to be sorted out. As much as they don't want Kia Giraption in the club, which I don't, because Edu and his agent connections is Kia Giraption, it's also a damaging influence for Anaki Kanya, because he's been making mistakes as well. So yeah, so we need a scouting or a scouting network, and also a recruitment team and somebody heading that up that can tell Mikel no, because some of his ideas are great, that he was recruited or saw Calafiore and knew that he was, that's fine. But somebody has to tell you no for Kai Havertz. And the reason for that is not because Kai Havertz has not played well for us, it's not that Kai Havertz is a bad guy. I will defend Kai Havertz. I think he's played good for us, but he didn't solve any of the problems that we had. Indirectly, he's made more for no fault of his own. Yeah, 100%. And so I think having somebody like Luis Campos, he could say no to Mikel, but are the Cronkies going to enable whoever comes in to have that power? They have to. They have to restructure and reshuffle things where Arteta has a say, but like Klopp, when he says he wants to bring in Anthony, he's told no. Or Julian Brownfield. When Klopp wants someone and they're not going to get, and they give him money, that's it. Because a lot of times coaches, they have good ideas and they got bad ideas. Facts. They have bad ideas. So it's not that Arteta's talent idea is awful. I think Arteta wanted Tomiyasu instead of Emerson. And he was right about that. The injuries aside. Thanks a lot for that, actually. Yeah. But I think the further you get up the pitch, though, Mikel's ideas are less exciting. And that's the problem. Let's talk about that. How do you feel about the striker thing? Obviously we want a striker that gets goals. We know the game's changed and whatnot, but we want a striker that gets goals. But we all know that playing up front for Mikel Arteta, it's a selfless act. If anything, you've got more freedoms on the flanks. You've got to drop deep, work the channels, don't really get chances provided to you. Do you think we'll ever sign a striker? Because for me, I look at it like I look at Pep Guardiola in that we've seen him win leagues with a striker, no strikers, false nine, whatever have you. But when Haaland, and I don't know another Haaland, but when Haaland became available, Pep surely had to sit there and say, you know what? There are some minimum requirements I need you to do on a pitch for me, but you're a goal scorer. And I don't want to say Haaland's the difference between winning a league or not, because they've done it without him, but they want to treble with Haaland. Do you think Mikel Arteta has to sacrifice his principles? Because you mentioned it, you know, you've got, you've had Gabriel Jesus, Kai Havertz, Eddie Nketiah, they've not all necessarily been good enough, but they've not been terrible, but none of them are bagsmen. So I argue is, is it like, if he was prolific, well better yet, is being a prolific the main thing for a striker of Arteta? So it's like, how do you look at that? It's not. Arteta is very much so like set in his system and the way that he wants to play, which in some ways, especially when he was building at the beginning was good, but now he needs to be able to like grow from that. He needs to be able to play in different ways and be adaptable. And I think in some ways he is, in some ways he's really not. And when it comes to his attack, he really suffers from not being able to manoeuvre and change things up. Very rigid. Yeah, very rigid. And so Arsenal need a number nine. And here's one of my things about our recruitment processes. If we can't get the perfect player, we get no one or we get, we get a stopgap. And finally, as well, which again, I understand not going for a player, you know, because you know yourself, we used to sign players just for the sake of it. Then we took a different model, which I don't necessarily disagree with not signing players, but then the club kind of shoot themselves in the foot when you get Raheem Sterling. And I think fans fall for this crap of, we need it. Of course we need special players in this mythical stuff, but I always say, fair enough. I get that. And I'd more understand it if we was Real Madrid or City, at least you could say, Oh, but we're not winning them. Well, that's what I feel like most teams in our position have multiple options. In when they're recruiting, they have four or five names. And as you go down, they're probably less of what you want, but you're willing to take any of them. You know, we have one option and if we don't get it, we don't get anything but a Sterling. And when you look at the striker options on the market, they're all very different. Um, Yokaris and, and Isak are nothing alike. Sesco is not like them. You know, Ali Watkins is different if he was on the market. So it cannot be another summer of, if we can't get Isak, which is a suicide mission, the idea that we're going to get Alexander Isak with the off the field drama that we have against Newcastle, we're on one side, they're on the other, that cannot be undermined. Like that's not, yeah. And then they bought him for 70 million. This is a hundred million pounds signing. And then you look at your careers as well. I don't know where we're at for that. You know, these managers gone to United, he strikes me more as a Chelsea or a man United signing. So you can't just not sign anybody though. You have to sign someone. And this is where I'm I'm sorry. The sporting director has got to put his foot down and bring somebody in. But in terms of like Arteta needing a facilitator to be a center forward, that's all good and well and fine. If you have real goal scores in midfield and on your wings and you don't. And we only got Saka really getting those numbers. Really? The others have shown it on time because the only one that you bet your life with. Yeah. Pep would never have a creative list team that only relies on KDB. And if there's no KDB, there's no creativity. That's how Arteta has built his side. Yeah. He would never, Pep would never have a team that has a facilitator as his false nine where he doesn't have goals throughout the team and other places. He would never have a system that doesn't enable those players to get into good positions to do what they do best. That is the difference between Pep and Arteta. They have similar principles, but Pep never leaves his team creatorless, goalless, balanceless. He doesn't. Do you think that's an experience thing then? I think it's an experience thing, but I also think it's a I'm learning. I'm learning on the job and I can't not look like I know what I'm doing. I think Arteta has, you know, done the thing where it's like, I have to act like I'm the guy in order for people to respect me. So changing things up is almost like an admitting that I'm getting it wrong. And I think that's what his, the slowness to make changes sometimes is. It's like, I don't want to undermine my thoughts or my, how I want to do things. That's why Kai Havertz is in center forward right now. He wasn't good at left center mid, which was Arteta's galaxy brain. And he kind of got lucky that Jesus is not playing well. And then he's like, you know, so yeah. And I think that's where Arteta's like thing is it's he's been elevated. If he got to learn his trade at Sociedad, I think he would be more open to like change and making those mistakes. They both managed that, that, that kind of academy level. I do wonder where Arteta would be if he had that. Cause I think you make a good point there. But I think when you're at Arsenal and you started off your career with a lot of older, like older players that were looking at you like, bruh, I had a better career than you, or you're younger than me, you know, or we're the same age. I think you have to go with a heavy hand. Whether, you know, maybe you sit in the, you know, the dark of your living room and say, that wasn't right. You know, but you can't admit that. Yeah. Yeah. You've got, you've got, you have to puff out your chest. And I think there's a correlation. If I'm honest with, I'm not going to say there's no strong personalities in that dressing room, but you haven't really got the strong personalities per se. You've got the younger kind of players, players that are down on their luck, players that are more likely to buy into what you want to do, which is quite, it's quite mad. What do you feel of the Quddus links as well with transfers? Cause we've gone over your career. We've gone over it. Is that you buy it at all? It's another suicide mission, 85 million release clause. We ain't got the, we ain't got the minerals for that. Let's be so real. But I was saying that, you know, I was saying this yesterday on a stream, I'm like, listen, we need to stop buying from the prem all the time. Cause you have to spend like Quddus as good as he is, he has not increased his value by like 40 million in like a season. I don't think, you know, I think that's just primarily tax. And so you're looking at the ESAC, you're looking at Quddus, that's all outside of what you can do. A good scouting network and a good sporting director gets you the next Quddus and you don't have to think about it anymore. I always banter you about the MLS, but he was scouted in the MLS. Yeah. So I think that, you know, some of these players that we're linked to, it doesn't just have to be these players, you know, they're not the one and only that can do what they do. And so we can look outside and find other things. Like I'm not that stressed out about not getting those players. So many of our players have come from the premier league, so many of them and the players that we've gotten from outside of the premier league, they've been very hit or miss. And I think maybe that's scared the club, but if you have somebody that you trust, that's done it before. You think the foreign ones, I think you're right. But do you think the foreign ones currently in the squad have probably been more hit than the prem? Well, Zinni, Jesus, they, they hit at a isolation to what he can do. All the gods been a hit on the other side. Part has been a hit to a degree, obviously not being fit. Same with Tommy. Fair enough. Raya's from the premier league. Ramsdale was premier league. Timber didn't come from the premier league. Benjamin white off the back of one season was premier league. Gabrielle wasn't silly, but wasn't. Yeah. Where do you like, which one do you think like, is it the foreign recruits I think the initial burn was having to deal with getting rid of Pepe. When this new regime first came in, I think that was the initial 72 million on somebody that didn't ever really like adapt to the league that started like the initial, like, then we've tried to do some low stakes ones like Sandy, you know, and like to Marsh, them two didn't work. So it was like, Oh, you know, then you do, um, Fabio Vieira. That didn't work. And so, yeah, the ones that are in the club right now on the team right now have worked out, you know, but they're also from like specific places as well. You know, we trust IACs as we should. Yeah. We trust IACs. We trust Bologna and we trust fucking sociodad, you know, and that's where the players came from. Back on the money, man. You mentioned sociodad there, yeah. Obviously to round up a couple of quick fire topics I want to go over, yeah. Mikel Moreno. Now I don't know about you, but I said in the summer, I think he's a level raiser. He's a floor raiser, not necessarily a level raiser. I feel there's been too much going both sides. There was, he's going to change our fortunes. His best thing since sliced bread. I think he was mis-profiled people looking at him to be a Xhaka replacement where he's almost like a, not a Spanish Declan Rice. He's a, I'm not buying him, but a water carrier. As you know, he's been injured. He needs to adapt. I think he's only been poor when the whole team's been poor. I think he looked good against Chelsea, but I feel because of that hype, people have kind of written him off already. Like what do you make of him? I'm not worried about Mikel Moreno because I feel like I'm very kind of in the midway with him where when we started off the transfer window, I said, you know, we needed a marquee, another marquee signing for the left center mid, you know, and we didn't get that. And so Marino doesn't solve that issue, but he solves the issue of balance and you can get balanced with a less talented player. So I'm not saying he lacks talent, but is he the upper echelon? No, he's not the top level that you could get. So I think I'm not worried about him. The cameo against Chelsea, his performance against Liverpool, those are fine. You know, those were good and he'll get better from there, especially when you start to play. Yeah, I thought like Marino is fine. Twenty eight years old. He's good. You know, I'm not really worried about him at all, to be honest. So, yeah, I'm relaxed about it. Actually, the signings. Underwhelming. But in the case of Calafiore and Marino, both of those players, I feel like I know what they're going to do for us. So I'm not really worried about them, if that makes sense. I think you're bang on the money. What do you make of the injury to Benjamin White? Like we've spoken about on your channel. Go and check that out, people like we all know we've got a lot of injuries. Ben White's out allegedly for the rest of the year. Trossart's got a knock as well. But what do you make of White? Because he was someone in the summer. Oh, my God, he's not going to play football, this, that and the other. He's now we now have to rely on Calafiore, Timber and probably Tommy Yasu and Partey, who, fair enough, has been fit. But it's quite techy where injuries are concerned. We've got a lot of games to come as well. So, yeah, man, where you at with that? I've seen people say, like, he couldn't have possibly gotten and got that that surgery in the summer because, you know, Timber was just coming back from ACL and Calafiore Fitness. And I'm just like, yeah, but it would have been better to miss two months of the summer in October than now miss the rest of the year. So I do think he should have got because I thought he was going to get it. I was like, and Ben White is going to get the surgery and Ben White's going to surgery. And he never did it. And now he needs to get it. I'm so sorry. But if you watch Ben White play, you always know when he's in the middle of an injury crisis because he don't play and he's one of our most consistent players, but he's been played into the ground for four years. And now it's like, you know, I hope he gets that agility and physicality and the athleticism back because that's one of the things I really liked about him when he first came in. If you watch old videos of him at Leeds, at Brighton and beginning at Arsenal, the player that we're watching now is not the same player. And I just think because he's always carrying something. So I wish him the best with his surgery and I hope everything goes well and he, you know, men's and all that kind of stuff. But it leaves us in a position where we're always like a scratch away from maybe seeing less ideal options at the back. We're very close to that. And you got two players in California and timber where it's like the injury lottery, you just never know who's going to be out for the next game. Both of them. Yeah. Yeah. So it's for me, it's just one of those things. Now, should we be able to still survive? Absolutely. Even if you get down to Zenchenko and Thomas party as your fullbacks, I still expect us to be winning games. I still expect us to be winning games. And we need to win games before it's coming up. It looks dark already. It could be I'm not going to be here and no, but you know, California is such a key cog to the wheel. That guy's been here for two seconds. He ain't no key to no cogs. Like he's nothing right now to do with winning games, man. Just win the game. There's people with less, man. This is why you have a squad. I said, we've got one of the smallest squads in February. I don't think much has changed on that as well. I've got two questions to ask. Well, a bit of a free questions in two. Should we have sold in mill Smith row? Like, you know, my boy is doing what my boy should be doing. And you could argue with Martin Ellis form, even though he's turned a corner, he could have done with Smith row on the left way. Way. Some people sold their stocks way. Oh, I think that was still a really good sale. It was, but to me, it's, it's a really good sale still like doing well. First of all, doing well at Bullen. That's not the same as doing well at Arsenal. Let's be serious. But we also don't play like you watch the way that full and play. I still think it's a good sale because our title wasn't even when I'm not seeing this Smith. Yeah. So I think he's doing really well and we'll see if like a better team than Fulham comes and picks them up in the next couple of years. That's still something that could happen. You know, if he maintains like the levels that he's playing now, but I still think it's a good sale based on Arteta and the way that he operates in midfield. No, the left-center mid position since Jack has been gone. It's always been an odd fit for anyone who's played there. Fabio long-term lock it down. Yeah. If I'm honest with you based on the last two years, the ones are tennis. Cause I remember there was one press conference where he said a meal's best position. Isn't left wing. And I was like, Oh shit. You know, cause that's where he played best for us. I think it's at left. Yeah. And I'm like, okay. So if he takes that away from him, what are his, his chances of playing in left center mid? Because we know that that's like a weird piece of the puzzle that doesn't really suit his skillset. So I'm happy for him. He's balling out, you know, but I told them cream was rises to the top, man. Certain people rate Smith row. Some people rate give me all mine. It's different. It's different. It's different. You have Jesus on your books and that's holding you down badly. We're not getting out the hood, man. If you can give me five goals this season, I know I'm bleeding. I'm all right. Gabriel Jesus. I'm giving up my last thing to you. Like, would you make it a forest game? And would you make a Sterling at this moment? Yeah, I think the forest game is just a good opportunity at home to reset and start looking more like ourselves. There's no excuse not to because we'll hopefully if nobody, everybody came out unscathed, the separate Rosshard, we should be able to play close to, if not our best 11. And so I'm expecting fluid football. I'm expecting guys to be energetic. I'm expecting, you know, a win a dub, you know, I'd love a clean sheet. Sterling. I think maybe even I've unfairly lumped him with Jesus. I think the situation's different, but he needs, you know, when he comes out there, I want to see him look like the Sterling. We know he is even at the age that he's at right now in the bad season at Chelsea. I still expect him to be a quality player. We see plenty of players in their thirties playing well on the Prem. So I know he's Mo Salah, Kevin De Bruyne. Yeah, it's about confidence and I think consistency. And so we'll see, you know, how that goes. But if we're up, because I expect Martinelli to start. If we are up a couple of goals scoring, he's got to score. Don't celebrate. Martinelli's begging. Maybe he's scoring against goals. Typically coming to you. My boy is back. All the heads who stocks are going into Nelly. Now I can't, I can't lose. You lot wonder you and Guna Lee. Cool. You won the Gabriel Jesus thing. Smith row is one. One obvious one. I couldn't believe that you were actually like, why would you sell them? I was like, why would you, this is one's Brazilian Smith row came from the academy. The logic is gone. Like I'm with you to the end. I can't forget the trenches, man. But it's easy to say that when my issue is like, not even letting Smith row go or Fabio go, it's just, and you said it on the, on your stream, go and check that out. People. It's like, we didn't replace them or upgrade on them. It's like, we were kind of in the same position in terms of depth, give or take, we look stronger in defense, but that's being tested. So it's like, we do five good things, five bad things. We go forward 10 steps, we go back 10 steps. So we're still in the same place, but hopefully against forest, we get our title challenge or what's left of it back on board, man. Just let them know where they can find you. I can't imagine they don't know, but it is customary versus you. Oh my goodness. Um, we do not mistreat you over on the, she knows our people go and watch the next, go and watch her stream that mistreated. It was a nice that you've been to me, but mistreatment. Um, you guys could just put in the search bar, YouTube, she knows our snow or Jessica black, and I'll pop up and you'll see, you know, the content in a stream with diluted, go watch how nice I was to him. So yeah, she's capping, but on that note, people, I'm sure you'll agree and disagree with a lot of what we've said. Don't forget to like comment and subscribe. And on that note, make sure you're following justice platform, go and check out the video we did on her platform because we actually covered indirectly a lot of what we spoke here, but again, very different. We spoke about not in the forest and we spoke about a lot of other factors. So yeah, man, hopefully the next time we do this, we've finally got a win, but yeah, on that note, people peace.