Arsenal should not ‘build around’ Aubameyang and more…

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Amazing Aubameyang and the fourth-place trophy
As an Arsenal fan its been a great weekend. However can we cut the hyperbole and face some facts.

Aubameyang was great in the final as he has been all his career at Arsenal but can we stop with the ‘pay him what he wants’ and ‘build the team around him’ rubbish.

What do Alexis Sánchez, Ozil and Aubameyang all have in common? They have all played significant parts in Arsenal winning the FA Cup (Ozil and Sánchez multiple times) and they are all 31, meaning at best they have a couple of years left at the highest level.

Should we also be trying to resign Sánchez and give him what he wants? Ozil only has one more year left on his contract shall we build the team around him and pay him some more too?

Of course not.

And by the way we are in a global pandemic which will likely lead to a deep and long recession.

Aubameyang has one year left and will be 32 then, would it be the worst thing in the world to let him play one more year, blood in Martinelli and Nketiah and then see if we really need him and if so give him what we feel next year?

It strikes me as madness that the ‘experts’ saying we need to pay him whatever he wants are also the same people saying the Ozil situation was a mismanaged disaster.

The future of the club should not be built around a 31-year-old. Are Chelsea building around Willian who is also 31? Are they offering him whatever he wants bearing in mind he’s won a lot more? No.

In a mad world this is more madness.

Keep Aubameyang for a year, build around Saka, Martinelli, Martinez and lets see where we are next year. Yes Aubameyang will then be able to go for ‘free’, but how much would we get for him in the Covid impacted transfer window, £15-20m? According to google from the last transfer window that is how much West Ham paid for Jarrod Brown or Sheffield United paid for Sander Berge. Would we be better with Aubameyang for one year or one of these guys I’ve never even heard of? Also to be clear giving Aubameyang a new contract is an expense and does not guarantee any sort of transfer fee if we do want to ‘move him on’, don’t agents and players get multi million pound signing on fees? How much transfer fee are we going to get for Ozil or did Man U get for Rooney?

Artea has been great but Wenger was greater and we paid a massive contract to a younger more recognisably world-class player (Ozil) then Wenger moved and Ozil although still the same player is not right for the new manager. Giving Aubameyang a three or four-year contract is madness, statistically speaking chances are Artea won;t but there by the end of that contract (although we all hope he is).

And on Wenger, he really was ahead of his time. Eight years ago Wenger compared finishing in the top four as equivalent to winning a cup and got annihilated in the press.

I ask all Chelsea and Man U fans if they would swap our FA Cup for there Champions League spot? Also I note how much plaudits both managers have got by taking two of the four richest clubs in the league into the top four.

Yes I am very happy with the FA Cup, it’s great for Artea to break his duck however if you give me the choice right now, this time next year I would happily take a Champions League spot over winning either of the cups. Of course if I was a supporter of another big club that had been starved of success like Newcastle, Spurs or Everton I would probably prefer the cup. However, having watched nearly two decades of consecutive Champions League it pains me to think that if we don’t get in next season that will be half a decade out of the world’s biggest club competition. I firmly believe in years to come there will be some sort of trophy, medal or icon that will be used to denote how many times a player or manager has qualified for the Champions League.

Great to win the cup and hopefully this is the start of a long period of success with Artea but let’s be honest about not believing Aubameyang is going to be the future for the next ten years or that one domestic cup makes up for missing out on the Champions League, these days you need to win trophies and qualify for the Champions League.

I’m sure I’ll get the normal stick from the below the liners…
Paul K, London

Arsenal need four but have two-man resources
The alternative to Arsenal’s transfer plans would have been an unmitigated disaster. However, even with an FA Cup final win and a route back into the EL, there is plenty of work ahead. Arsenal arguably need new players in at least four positions (CB, DM, AM, winger) but likely only have the resources for two (especially if Aubameyang is convinced to stay). Perhaps it is high time for some famous ‘internal solutions’ (Emile Smith-Rowe at AM?) to drive the club forward. What Arsenal’s board provides Arteta with this summer will speak volumes.
Krishan (‘London is ******* red, Pepe knows’ – PEA #14)

Arsenal looking smooth…
Did anyone notice how confident Arsenal looked playing out from the back? They seemed very sure that they were going to outpass the Chelsea press, more confident than they ever looked under Emery.

This in itself is proof that there is something to Arteta’s methods that we should be excited about in the future. Of course this all depends on whether they can keep Ceballos or not as this kind of a system needs confident players who can turn quickly even on the edge of their own box, and not players like Pogba who gets turned over frequently (as a Man Utd fan, it hurts to even type that line).

As someone pointed out in an earlier mailbox, that Arsenal back line with the pace and tenacity of Tierney, the leadership and passing of Luiz and the addition of a third able CB should see Arsenal challenge for the top four next season.

Of course, it might instead very well turn out to showcase the lack of aerial ability and rashness of Tierney, the calamities and brainfarts of Luiz and the other such adjectives of whatever CB partners them both, in which case, it will be hilarious for all of us. So, a win-win I guess.
Ferventfootballer

But Auba cheated…
I am amazed more has not been made about Arsenal’s penalty in the final.

Aubameyang literally had a hand on his shoulder, and wasn’t being pulled back at all, yet went to ground like someone had shot him. It was blatant dive and cheating. The hand was on the shoulder from outside the box to in and nothing really changed, except Aubameyang waited until he was in the area to fling himself to the floor.

Anyone really think a hand on the shoulder is enough for that action? It was a clear dive. There was no pulling back at all, it was a literal hand on the shoulder.

I don’t support either team and enjoyed the game overall, but Arsenal sure had a lot of help from certain decisions, and Lampard’s incredibly poor game management.
RL

Ref stuff and more
As expected plenty of Chelsea fans moaning about the ref and relating it back to the same ref at the 2017 cup final. So, it’s worth just setting the record straight.

Starting with the Moses sending off in the 2017 cup final. 1st yellow taking out Welbeck near the touchline on a decent break, an obvious yellow. 2nd yellow a clear and desperate dive in the box. The red was well deserved.

Before I come to yesterday I would point out to Chelsea fans that in the league match at the Emirates Jorginho got away with a second yellow for the clearest shirt pull on Guendouzi in a break through the middle – a yellow in every game. That was at 1-0 to Arsenal, Jorginho scores the equaliser and Chelsea go on to win 2-1. That’s what you call a game changing decision not yesterday’s red.

So on to yesterday, yes I think we can all agree the 2nd yellow was very harsh, but remember it wasn’t Kovacic’s first foul after he’d been booked, he was already walking a tightrope. Really Chelsea were fortunate not to be playing with 10 men since the penalty, as F365 pointed out it was a red card under the rules and we’ve seen Luiz sent off for identical situations. Even more bizarre is the official line at half time was that Azpilicueta was deemed to have made a genuine attempt to play the ball! If the argument had been it wasn’t a clear goal scoring chance at least there could have been a debate. My view on that would be, without Azpilicueta pulling his shoulder would Aubameyang had a clear shot at goal from 12 yards? Yes is the answer. Rudiger was in the vicinity but Aubameyang wouldn’t have had to beat him to get his shot away. It was a clear goal scoring opportunity and he was fouled by a pull to the shoulder. Count yourselves lucky you didn’t have 10 men for longer.

Arteta clearly has something going on. To take that group of players from where they were, disparate, rock bottom, Defensive calamity, captain at odds with the fans and stripped of the armband, and not have any proper investment and turn that group in to FA Cup winners is pretty amazing. Managers often moan about a lack of investment in the team but a managers fundamental job is to coach the players and made them individually and collectively better. Let’s start judging managers by that, not what lovely new £50m player they bring in.
Rich AFC

..In response to Double Eph, I’d like to know, other than the second yellow to Kovacic – which was an appalling decision and VAR really should be able to look at those – what decisions he had an issue with?

The first big one was the penalty, for which Azpilicueta was lucky not to be sent off. In January, at Stamford Bridge, David Luiz made no attempt to play the ball and gave away a penalty. He was also sent off – the whole double jeopardy rubbish seemingly not counting. If you’ll remember, Mustafi was between the Chelsea player (I forget who) and the goal. I failed to understand here why Azpi wasn’t treated the same way?

As I say, the next call was Kovacic and that was wrong, but sometimes in football that happens. Jorginho was very lucky not to go against us back in December at the Emirates for a certain second booking type foul. Guess who scored the equaliser that day before Chelsea won the game?

The only other controversial call was the Martinez ‘did he/didn’t he?’ handball. It should’ve gone to VAR but, although it was really bloody tight, was not outside the box.

Sometimes, decisions go your way and sometimes they don’t. There is no conspiracy theories or agendas, sometimes you just get lucky or you don’t. Just recently we saw Nketiah get sent off (correctly) for an accidental foul, but Trent get away with one against Arsenal for exactly the same. There’s a consistency issue with refereeing no doubt, but I think in the Azpi case it worked in Chelsea’s favour this weekend.

Oh and Moses’ red wasn’t controversial in 2017 either – he was 1-0 down and cheated/dived in an attempt to con the ref into giving a pen. He failed.
Joe, AFC, East Sussex

Lampard needs defensive help
This urge for fans to constantly feel the need to compare and defend their managers or clubs is getting out of hand and leads to a lot of motivated reasoning. Though I must agree that the language used by some media *cough* F365 *cough cough* does tend to elicit defensive responses; which I think is deliberate so as to get more engagement, fans need to accept some truths though.

I am a Chelsea fan and I clearly realize that Lampard needs to sort out the defensive structure before getting some defensive personnel in. This whole narrative that some few world class defenders will solve our issues is flawed in my opinion. These defenders did not just get incompetent over night. Zouma, Christensen and Rudiger in a few seasons past were seen as good and full of top class potential. Zouma came from a great defensive showing in Everton last season and Rudiger was really good last season, while Christensen was being hailed as the next John Terry in Conte’s Chelsea.

I love Lampard he’s brought up a really nice Chelsea, but he should accept that he is short in the defensive side, he’s in his second season of management so it’s acceptable. In my opinion he should outsource the help, accept his shortcoming and bring in a specialist to help him out and grow as a coach.

Though Kepa should be shipped out, I’m fed up as a fan to watch someone just look at shots getting in and not even making an effort at it, even though the result would be the same I’d somehow feel better to know he made an effort.
Vashow, Kenya

Chelsea are not bottlers
I don’t often ‘bite the bait’ as they call it on the Mailbox, but seeing a comment along the lines of ‘Chelsea are playing Arsenal Bingo, bottling finals’, it made me look back at all the cup finals Chelsea have appeared in over the last 10 years and see how we have done, naturally I will not include any UEFA Super Cups or Community Shields as you make that final by default for winning another competition, so bit cheeky to include those.

Well, I thought I had read everything till that ridiculous comment, in the last 10 years Chelsea have reached 10 cup finals, five FA Cup Finals, winning three, two EFL Cup Finals, winning one, two Europa League Finals, winning both and of course the Champions League Final, winning that on penalties against Bayern Munich.

So that results in Chelsea winning seven of the 10 Finals they have appeared in over the recent years, that is not bad going at all.
Mikey, CFC (Curious on our Community Shield record? it is hilariously bad)

Sancho Sancho Sancho
Jadon Sancho’s protracted move to United is set to be the transfer saga of the summer/early autumn.

‘Dortmund want £100million for the 20-year-old, and United believe if they stump up the cash it doesn’t matter when they place the bid.’

Ed Woodward is a f**king clown, no point mincing words. But, if true, he’s right in this instance. If we believe the transfer rumours (I know, I know, but what else do we have?) and go back to only a week or so Dortmund were talking about 120 mil. Then 100. Now it’s 60 with add-ons, and we all know how Ed likes to structure his add-ons. In addition to the Champions League and Ballon D’Or, Sancho will also be required to win the World Cup for United and land on the moon to get the full amount.

The truth is that United can pay the money any time and it’s likely Dortmund will accept. Sancho is young, English, wants to come home (apparently), he’s had some questionable disciplinary issues, there’s no one else seriously in for him and his contract is running down.

It’s clear Dortmund want to sell and they’re not getting 100 mil in this market. I’m sick of seeing United having their pants pulled down in negotiations. This is one time that we look to be doing it properly. United will get Sancho and I’m fairly confident it will be after 10th August and for less than 100 mil.
William Douglas Foster, Stretford