Arsenal urged to forfeit to avoid ‘humiliation’ v Bayern or PSG | OneFootball

Everybody loved PSG v Bayern Munich and now the gauntlet is thrown to Mikel Arteta and Arsenal. Should they just bow out now?

We also have loads on Michael Carrick but we start with that classic. Send your thoughts to theeditor@footbal365.com

Arsenal could ruin these players

Watching that madness in Paris I am totally convinced that Arteta can turn Olise and Kvaratskhelia into ineffective wingers. Ariston Aweries

PSG v Bayern is why we moan about Arsenal

You know how I keep moaning about Arteta’s Regimented Robots? That game was why. F*** me that was spectacularly good. Logic-defyingly beautiful football played at light speed on a high wire in THE FIRST LEG OF A CL SEMI FINAL. Not even like the respective keepers & defences had a bad game. 9!!! All time business that was. RHT/TS x

(Had to watch it on a moody channel and I didn’t even get the usual rage at the sight of Richard f***ing Keys – that’s how good it was)

Accept your fate, Arsenal

If I was Arsenal I would play the reserves against Atletico and focus on the league.

Absolutely no way they aren’t getting humiliated if they get to the final, and if Bayern get through, humiliated by Harry Kane. Paul, TUFC

PSG v Bayern was best match of the season

Lord have mercy. What an utterly unhinged game of association football. It had everything: Bayern’s defensive line pushed higher than my receding hairline, PSG’s wingers tearing through space like Omni-Man, Manuel Neuer rooted like a museum piece for one of the goals, and Harry Kane briefly moonlighting as a quarterback to tee up Luis Díaz for a ridiculous finish. Then Olise turned up and decided the “starboy” crown needed a new owner.

It felt less like a Champions League tie and more like two elite players on FIFA with the sliders jammed to “All-Out Attack.” Proper chaos. Proper entertainment. I’m not sure I’ve seen a better game all season.

Over to you, Arsenal and Atlético Madrid—good luck topping that. Gaptoothfreak, Man Utd, New York (If the Premier League has been a lullaby this year, that was football mainlined on Charlie Sheen’s tiger blood)

…What an astonishing game of football. I’m sure Arteta is thinking: How can I set up my team to top that! Tom K

…Watching this epic of a match PSG v Bayern and, what’s even more beautiful than the open, impulsive, careless football that I am witnessing right now…what’s more beautiful than that?

Is the fact that no EPL team right now nor ever is playing like this. This is glorious. I feel a very dep envy for whoever responsible for what I am watching right now.

This is two teams and two managers making the mutual, telepathic decision to just…ball.

And nobody in the EPL can even come close to this level.

And…That’s tragic. Beautiful, but tragic. How else shall we see this kind of football?

I’m fkn lovin it! Who even cares who wins here?! Paddy G, MUFC, Mombasa, Kenya (Hey look, it’s Al Shabaab Taliban terrorist dark arts football tomorrow, gladly, I won’t be watching, fk em both)

…One of life’s great disappointments is when a high profile, keenly-hyped game of football simply doesn’t live up to expectation when all is said and done.

What a shame to have had to sit through that bore-fest of a semi final in the games’ prestige continental competition.

I want my money back, Harold Erving Hooler

(Yes, this mail was bought to you by The Sarcastics Authority)

…Follow that Arsenal, defending may be an art but WGAF when the game can be this good! Howard (of course the officials ruined it) Jones

…People. Can we just appreciate the utter joy this game between PSG and Bayern is. The attacking play from both teams is stunning and what I’m sure every fan (or at least every neutral) wants to be entertained with!

Now. Onto the most anti football of all anti football matches for the second tie to bring us crashing back down from football heaven with a big bump. Yay. Matt (why can’t every game be like this?!)

…I’m writing this at half time so I could be being a grumpy old git but I wish PSG and Bayern would open up and play football like my beloved Arsenal has been doing of late! Chris, Croydon

…Just watching the PSG v Bayern match as it becomes 5-2. I’ll happily bet my left testicle Arsenal can’t serve up anything close to half as entertaining as this tomorrow… Paul, Manchester

…It’s now 5-4…..I’ll happily now bet both testicles. Paul, Manchester

Support for Michael Carrick at Man Utd

It’s crystal clear the work Micheal Carrick has done at Manchester since he took over from Ruben Amorim as interim manager. He’s worked well with the same players who could hardly win consecutive matches during Amorim’s time and played badly.

In my view as a United fan who has suffered immensely during Amorim’s reign at United seeing United lose to mid-table teams, would prefer Carrick to be installed as the permanent manager come end of this campaign. The issue of inexperience should not come into question. Take for example great coaches like Pep Guardiola, Luis Enrique, Zinedine Zidane. They were given the opportunity to coach big teams like Barcelona and Real Madrid while they had not coached at a high level and they became successful. Another example is Kompany at Bayern Munich. After retiring as a player, he took over at Burnley, fared so badly and he is now doing a great job with Bayern Munich.

United should learn to groom one of their own, one who understands the team style of play. This is the right time to install Carrick as the permanent manager and fund him  well during the summer recruitment period. He has shown that he will do well with United once he is supported to recruit players who fit in United’s system of play.

Should the Management of Manchester decide not to go with Carrick, then they should find a manager who plays a similar formation to that of United. Personally have seen united play beautiful football during the era of two managers after Ferguson, that’s Ole Gunnar and Michael Carrick. Daniel Koyaa

…Adding a different 2 cents to the Michael Carrick as manager, or not, bandwagon.

Firstly, do I think he will win the league next season? No I don’t and nor would any other manager who took over. One of the things that is wrong with pundits, plastic fans and ‘neutrals’ is the minute United have a decent run a ridiculous expectation of challenging for the title is labelled against us. We have a decent first XI, we do not have much depth outside of that other than in defence and next season we will definitely need to play many more games than we did this season.

Utd are probably 2 or 3 seasons away from even thinking about challenging and only if recruitment is good in particular to improve the midfield and to strengthen the depth of the squad to be able to add European football to the mix.

Which brings me to the point I want to add. Utd have made such a shambles of player recruitment over the last 10 years or more and a lot of that has to do with high profile managers demanding the players they want which have too often also been expensive short term additions. Fast forward to their inevitable sackings and we’re left with more expensive dead wood to remove.

Last summer was one of our better windows and we need a few similarly successful windows to have a squad that might challenge for trophies. Carrick should get a chance for now with club recruitment managed by the club as they have long said they would be doing but haven’t really followed. A manager should have a voice in recruitment but the club must buy for the future of the club and not the manager. Jon, Cape Town (If Carrick had started the season as manager Bruno would have the assists record already)

…I saw the leap you made from Neville’s 4 word statement “How deep are United…?” to ‘… and that’s why Carrick should not get the job’. But I just want to add some qualifiers which I have seen afforded to almost every new manager over the past decade.

1. He took over mid-season – he hasn’t had a pre-season with this team (despite the longish breaks).

2. This is not his team and was being coached to play a different systems for 14 months.

3. United went to Chelsea without the top 4 central defenders and won. We played Brentford with 3 frontline defenders out, and lost Luke Shaw with a quarter of the game to go. Harry Maguire’s form has been a great mitigation, but we still faced a golden boot contender with a 19 year old and a 33 year old pairing, and (miraculously) kept him out.

4. We played Brentford with one of most potent ball carriers (Cunha) as well as our preferred left sided attacker under Carrick (Dorgu) both out, and Amad and Mbuemo both out of goal-scoring form.

5. Casemiro was immense, but in an ideal world Carrick would have given him the last 20 mins off with a job well done. Clearly that wasn’t the situation yesterday. That tells you how thin this squad is.

6. I see a frequent criticism of Carrick being that he doesn’t change things, and is too stubborn about his approach. He switched things around significantly last night in a clearly pragmatic move. Could have played the same way as the first half, and ended up with either 4-0 or 2-2, but given what was on balance, he did the smart thing. So was he not brave enough, or is he not pragmatic enough?

It’s starting to feel like some people (cough-Will Ford-cough) have decided that Carrick isn’t the right option and we’re not going to find all sorts of sticks to beat him with including quotes by Neville on a game state (by the way Neville was effusive about Carrick in his post match podcast).

I also want to point out that the list of successful ‘top manager imports’ is a ridiculously small one. It’s Klopp, Pep, Mancini, Pellegrini and Conte, across 35 years of Premier League football. Even Zidane is untested outside of Real Madrid. And Solksjaer remains our best post Ferguson manager in terms of league results and style of play.

The question Man United should be asking is not whether Carrick can win the league, but rather whether Carrick can deliver 3 seasons of consistent top end football with strong cup and Champions League runs, and build the foundations for a title push. We have been bungee jumping between league positions thanks to manager changes and squad inadequacies, and wasted fortunes on players and managers to end up in the same place (or worse). I would be perfectly happy if we had a period of consistent top 3 (worst case) finishes, strong Champions League performances and reestablished United as a top team, before we set ourselves any loftier goals. Needless to say that kind of run would also enable a significant squad upgrade with both opportunities and funds to support the new and improved player transfer process the club has demonstrated in the last window.

This is going to be one of the more frenetic managerial transfer windows with any number of clubs – Madrid, Chelsea, Liverpool (?), Newcastle (?), and many others looking for managers, and many top managers only becoming available after the world cup. This seems like the best time to stick rather than twist, and keep your powder dry, get decisions done early, enjoy a strong pre-season and sort out the squad early, rather than late in the transfer window.

I say this with gritted teeth, but whether or not he wins the league, Arteta has ensured that Arsenal are in the mix for the top spot and things like Champions League qualification has not been a worry for them for a while now. Arsenal fans would be foolish to miss the value of that.

That’s a much longer mail than the 2 liner I initially thought I was penning. But as a great man often says, thank you for your attention to this matter! Ved Sen, MUFC

Credit to Steve Holland

Michael Carrick has done everything he can realistically in order to get the job. I totally agree. What else can he possibly do to convince people.

But imo the very very best decision that he made was bringing in Steve Holland as his assistant. He is the magic that’s made this happen for me and gets no mention at all.

That’s my take for what its worth.

Carrick is the face but Holland is the brains. Al – LFC (so nothing to do with me really but think I would be happier with them getting rid of him rather than hoping it all goes to shit when they have to play 3 games a week next year as thats the only stick you can beat him with)

Replies to Tuesday’s Mailbox

Ahhh tube strikes yes that makes much more sense now. I didn’t write the fool headline but I feel the fool now myself. I have been away the last few weeks so that has all passed me by. Yeah, in that case taxi is probably the best way then. Maybe if you were daring you could have got the boat and walked but not sure if that is actually any cheaper. I hope you had a nice visit to our capital city.

… also, something football related to make this publishable. I find it very strange how everyone has started talking about what is the funniest outcome of things. I also find the counter reaction of no its not funny because x,y,z, strange. Why would any of this be funny? Who is watching football for laughs? Very odd era of ‘banter’ driven discussion. I am not sure where this is coming from but it has no resemblance to the reasons I am interested in football. James

…Hartley MCFC, sorry to rain on your parade but the etymology of ‘sincere’ is simply the Latin ‘sincerus’, meaning clean or pure.

Now, what’s the etymology of ‘sportswashing’? Ben

…I, for one, appreciated Sean, East Finchley’s mail — based on his experiences in the savage world of cycling fandom — explaining how Mailboxers should sign their missives. Obviously, no Mailbox reader would ever care to know where a writer is from. But I hope Sean will clarify for me how the existence of an actual supporters group called Toon Army DC would affect his pronouncements. Are we trying too hard to be part of the fan culture, whatever the hell that means?