Mails: It should be Buvac for Arsenal, not Allegri

Daniel Storey

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Has to be Buvac, not Allegri
Interesting article by Sarah Winterburn this morning regarding the lack of fervor for an Allegri or an Enrique appointment. I will admit that neither Allegri nor Enrique give me goosebumps. I am loathe to give Enrique too much credit for his Champions League exploits when he was blessed with a forward trio of Suarez, Messi and Neymar – he also reminds me too much of Mourinho at times. And even the spectre of the shadow of a ghost that mildly looks like a distant cousin of Jose Mourinho is enough to give me the chills.

Allegri simply doesn’t excite me. I have no doubt that he would improve us, he would be a wonderful acquisition for the club – an intellect that would improve our fortunes greatly. As much as that enthuses me, I have little desire to follow in the footsteps of Chelsea or City – I want us to try something different.

Hence my excitement about Buvac. I am willing to dismiss the appointment of Arteta (too inexperienced), Faria (too abhorrent) and even Vieira (there is little to suggest any real tactical acumen as yet). But the man that Klopp refers to as ‘The Brain’ in his coaching team feels unmistakably like flint on steel – sparks are going to fly.

Yes – he hasn’t managed since 1998. But the Bosnian football coach has been with Jurgen Klopp for 17 years. He may not have led the team but you don’t keep an assistant manager or coach for that long if he is not worth his salt. Plus I’d imagine he’s picked up a few tips along the way.

Arsenal are in a peculiar predicament. There is reportedly little money to spend. The club has a batch of forward players that could prove devastating but a clear lack of strong defensive personnel. There is serious reconstruction needed in nets, at centre back and the centre of midfield. You don’t fill those 3 to 6 positions with $50million – whoever comes in will have to be someone with a strong eye for talent and an ability to raise individual player’s ability. Neither Enrique or Allegri are famed for such.

‘Neither is Buvac!’ I hear you shout… but I’m just going to ignore you for the sake of my argument.

The structure of Arsenal is changing. There is no room for an all-encompassing manager who takes control of transfers, scouting, coaching, contract renewals etc. Arsenal for too long stayed glued to this Wenger dictatorship that allowed too much of our resources to be squandered or neglected. With Gazidis and his two new hombres taking charge of scouting, transfers, contracts – the focus of the head coach is to improve the playing style and results of the squad.

You may still question why a club of Arsenal’s side would take such a major risk. The tried and tested path would appease the majority of the fans that have been at odds with the board for so long. But if the resources aren’t there for one of these elite managers to do what they do best, then new options need to be explored.

Given the manner the players, board and journalists around Liverpool have mourned Buvac’s resignation, there seems to be a very talented football man there. Whether or not that can be transferred from the number 2 role to head honcho remains to be seen but I’d imagine this is why clubs interview managers before they hire them.

Finally, I’ll leave you with a quote from Dortmund midfielder Nuri Sahin: “Zeljko Buvac is basically Klopp’s twin, and he’ll be on the bench. “Both of them see football in exactly the same way.”

I’d be willing to take the risk if Arsenal are.
JR

 

Get Vieira as Allegri’s assistant
It seems Allegri is the obvious choice but remember Arsenal aren’t just looking for a manager – they’ll need an assistant as well.

There is simply no way Steve Bould or indeed any of Wenger’s other merry men will retain their roles once our new manager comes in.

What’s interesting is that so many former Arsenal players have a Juve link and speak Italian so could one of them end up sitting next to Allegri?

There’s the obvious one Vieira, who does have first team management experience and spent a season with the Old Lady, then we have Henry, who is currently an assistant boss and played at Juve before signing for Arsenal and then we also have former Arsenal player and Juve alumni – David Platt. There’s even Liam Brady but I’m not sure we’ll go there.

So interesting times for the Arsenal – I’m hoping Allegri gets the nod, with Vieira alongside him.
Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London

 

Air conditioning to blame at Southampton
Wait, what? David Moore thinks that we should bin Hughes based on a couple of reports that actually , at any stage, point the finger at him specifically, despite that he has just (about, less some sort of footballing nightmare – wait, I really am setting us up for this to now happen!) kept us in the Premier League. Have a complete word with yourself.

I spoke about this a few weeks ago on an email I had published – some of our fans really have an unbalanced perception of ‘who we are’. We were arguably batting above our place for a couple of seasons under Pochettino and to a lesser degree under Koeman, and then despite the well-publicised 8th place finish and a Cup Final under Boring Puel (honestly, it really was eye wateringly bad, possession based, score one and shut up shop, borefest type of football) we have slowly gone backwards, and this season has been nothing short of rubbish.

However, which ‘top’ manager was really going to come in and take over? A lot of the usual names were banded about and shortly thereafter thrown into the bin, either we couldn’t afford them, or we were too small a club to suit their ambitions, which is understandable if you are on the up – why stain your career with a quick stint at a seemingly doomed team.

Whilst I agree that Hughes didn’t set the world on fire at Stoke (mind you, Lambert has done an amazingly equal if not sh*tter job – maybe it’s the players not the coach?…) he has come in and made us look fitter, defensively cohesive and suddenly we have managed to find the net again, I’m not sure what more Mr Moore wants? To then say that Hughes has a “reputation of lack of discipline, easy training methods, and appalling level of financial acumen” quite frankly is ridiculously stupid and, in my opinion, misguided.

The main problem with everything at St Marys is having a crap DoF thinking he can run the club from his air conditioned office; Puel and Pellegrino were ‘yes-men’ who did as they were told, i, for one, hope that Hughes stays, that Reed is shown the door, or explained in finite detail to keep his nose out of day to day running of the 1st team and we get behind Hughes, maybe he is the ideal fit for a team wanting to do well.
IK78 (COYR)

 

And the man himself is here (not Hughes)
Hughesy! Hughsey! Never said a bad word about him. …I love him, I want to boof him. Get him up here…

Never said a bad word about him, honest. Give him an 8yr contract right now.
David Moore

 

Why no 16 Conclusions?
Props to the Team at F365. I’m a newbie just started reading this year but you guys are my fav website.

So I was wondering that why haven’t there been any 16 Conclusions for Relegation Battles. Yes, 16 Conclusions isn’t easy to write but after a game with huge consequences like the recently concluded Swansea vs Southampton match, a 16 Conclusions article is something to sink my teeth into.
Glory (Nigeria)
(MC – We’ve included this email because it was the only one we got about the actual match. Which gives you the answer, sadly.)

 

On Fergie
Great feature on the Alex Ferguson stats. As a Liverpool fan this guy made my football childhood rather unpleasant indeed. On reflection, what I don’t fully understand is that despite the persistent domestic success, unique emergence of a golden generation of youth players and consistently breaking transfer records with eye-wateringly colossal sums of money (at the time) for the world’s premier talent, how did he only manage to win two Champions Leagues/European Cups? Essentially one every 13 years.

Genuinely interested in views on this.
Mark, LFC, Hong Kong

 

Managerial short-termism
Assuming my maths don’t fail me when Wenger leaves Arsenal Eddie Howe and Sean Dyche will be the league’s longest serving managers having both taken up the post in October 2012. The next ‘oldest’ is Spurs’ manager who took up his position in May 2014… Then comes Hughton, December ’14. In fact Der KloppMeister is in 5th I think having joined us in October ’15?
A bit bonkers really to be honest.
Gregory Whitehead, LFC

 

They really do have the most amazing breakfasts
Am I the only one worried about Wayne Rooney’s portion control should he move to MLS?
DC, BAC

 

Don’t forget about losing players
One further quick point about JN’s relegation rose tinted glasses. As a West Ham fan I have experienced relegation several times in the last few decades. And one point he doesn’t seem to take into account is the crushing loss of beloved players, particularly talented youngsters, that inevitably happens after a relegation.

I appreciate that the team must have been faulty in some way for relegation to have occurred, but that doesn’t make it any less heartbreaking to watch the likes of Joe Cole, Michael Carrick, Jermaine Defoe, Glen Johnson and other youngsters who you’ve followed from the youth team disappear overnight, usually at a criminal discount, due to relegation.

I understand that there are some clubs where there simply aren’t any players worth keeping around, and in that case in can be a cleansing experience, but in my experience it has usually been more of the “feel like you want to puke in your mouth gut-wrenching” type experience.

(See also: Freddie Kanoute, Trevor Sinclair, Paulo di Canio (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQO0fNzVgcg , David James, Demba Ba, Scott Parker and on and on and on…..).
Mike, Cayman

 

A lovely Swiss Tony reminder
Probably showing my age here (no I’m not telling), but Tom Derry must have went to the Swiss Tony (Fast Show for all you millennials) school of charm. Absolutely brilliant.
Col (OK I’m 47 and still using too many brackets) Kelly

 

‘Narrative’
Checking out your best attacking players of the year and I see Firmino is left out of yet another list.

Your “Firmino is underrated” narrative seems to be something you yourself are driving.
Niall, Denver
(MC – 1. It was attacking midfielders. 2. We will do strikers next week. 3. We’re including Firmino as a striker. 4. ‘Yet another list’. 5. We are not driving narratives. I don’t even have a driving licence)