‘LEGENDARY MANAGER QUITTING’ BOUNCE. IS IT A THING?

Bit of a low interest weekend for Arsenal fans. We’re out of the FA Cup, so all we can do is watch on, hope that every game our rivals play is a slogfest, and wait out the season to see if fatigue hits their players.

Aston Villa vs Chelsea was interesting because it went to a draw which means a replay. Two hard running teams fighting it out in the 4th round. Perfection.

Spurs vs City was beautiful because the media darlings of 2023 were absolutely controlled by Manchester City. It was embarrassing how little Spurs offered. They managed 1 attempt at the City goal in an entire 95 minutes of football. It was a masterclass from Pep and a total shock that the score was only 1-0. What does this mean? It means there’s a long way to go before we can start considering Spurs as a future contender. They’re going to be sussed in the back half of the season, and I think the way they play might continue to impact their injury list. Not good from Big Ange. Also, MORE GAMES FOR CITY is a good thing at this point.

I did read a really good article on The Athletic about the failure of Kalvin Phillips. City bought him because they thought any player that could play in a Bielsa system could learn the ways of Pep. When he landed there, he wasn’t at the right level as a professional, he didn’t show up early, or stay late, and he had some weight issues. Pep and his guys just didn’t think he had what it took to play as a 6 in the City system, he wasn’t good enough in tight spaces, so he ended up exiting.

This is the prime difference between City and the rest. They can spend £50m on a midfielder, decide they don’t like them, and shift them on and no one notices. Arsenal would have to slug it out with that player. There’s also no way we’d be shifting them out at 28 on a £6m loan deal. The levels at the very top of the league are ridiculous, so when you have Arsenal fans suggesting we start more 18-year-olds, know that Kalvin Phillips was deemed not good enough after a few training sessions, and he played in an international final and starred for Leeds in the league.

Everything is building towards a mega game against Liverpool. There are two sides of this argument. The romanticists think Liverpool are going to pull together for Klopp and see out a glittering career, the realists think that’s a big ask and goes against the nature of leadership. Quitting is a weakness; elite athletes don’t need much to exploit those weaknesses.

I don’t want to get into that now; it’s a coin toss. What I am interested in is this: Is there such a thing as a BIG MANAGER QUITS, BOUNCE?

The first game since the announcement could see a massive reaction from the boys. Klopp wants to prove his decision to quite early won’t affect his season, the players will want to show the coach they are on side… is this game about to kick up two or three levels of spice?

I hope so. I want this game to be peak-Barclays. A show of force by both sides. If it’s a brilliant game and we win. That sets the tone for the changing of the guard. We will be ready to assume control over the next two seasons. The very best teams can overcome the emotion of the occasion and do the job. Our issue last season was we played too much into the emotion of the big games. This is now a HUGE game of significance to one of the best managers EVER. If we can control them like we did in the last game, the world is our lobster.

The good news is Thomas Partey is all over the Arsenal feed at the moment. They’re pumping him like he’s only just joined training, which if you believe that, I have the 2026 Arsenal home shirt to sell you if you send me a blank cheque. Having him on the bench for Forest will indicate that we could see him play a role for the Liverpool game. That excites me. When do we ever have our best players available for our biggest games? Almost never.

I want to see it. I can’t wait for that game. It’s going to be BLOCKBUSTER.

Right, see you in the comments. xxx