I do t mean great from a point of view of i hate Arsenal, but it would be great to see a side who aren’t regarded as a side that could ever go down, go down.
EVERTON - I would fucking love to see them go down and I would love Rafa be the one to take them down.
Auba for free isn’t worth it. He represents exactly the sort of dilemma a club like Arsenal are in. His talent doesnt outweigh his lack of professionalism and so the really big clubs dont want him. The clubs the next level with some money to spend then look to him as their best shot of moving up the ladder and have to gamble on him keeping his shit together and not destablising things. Invariably it doesnt happen.
And similar to Barca pushing through the move for Coutinho, all moves were made more out of ego, out of a need to not be embarrassed in public, than out of football. For Arsenal, they felt that losing Ozil at that time would be the public marker of them no longer being a tip club and so overspent to keep him to avoid a PR hit despite it not being the move the team needed. For Utd it was concern over wanting to avoid the shame of losing a player to City, and for Barca it was a ego fueled response to losing Neymar.
You should judge your ego by what your players win and the pride they give you with their performances and the way they carry themselves in those years where they cannot give you a trophy. In all cases, those three clubs were still big enough with enough going for them that they would have got better footballing outcomes, leading to better PR and commercial footing, by focusing on a footballing decisions. Klopp’s clear eyed view on these issues is possibly my favourite thing about having him as our manager.