Are Arsenal a small club now because they havent won a trophy in 7 years? Thats nonsense! Your trophy haul is only part of what makes a club "BIG". Imo a big club is made up of a few factors: Fanbase, History (by history I mean how long the club has been running, not Liverpool type "Istoree" of winning a few European Cups when football was in its sh!ttest period), Recent success (Lets face it, some fans are glory hunters and flock to teams who are winning things, increasing their fanbase). Lets face it, Arsenal havent been good in the recent success stakes, but they still have a huge worldwide fanbase and have been operating for more than 100 years, so they are by no means a small club. Their main problem is what people above have already stated, their owners seem content to just plod along with minimum effort, spending as little as they can as long as they get into the Champions League every year. It seriously would need probably about 50 million pounds worth of investment for Arsenal to be title challengers, (this is on top of what they have already spent this year) but the owners, despite having one of the best profit margins in Europe, do not seem to want to dig in to their pockets. Which is a shame for the fans because they want to see their club win trophies, as all fans do. Winning Trophies also earns money!! I know Roman has spent a lot at our gaff, but we won the Champions League and because of that got more than £80 million in prize money, TV money and sponsorships, plus we get to play in the World Club cup which introduces our club to a whole new audience (ie Asia) and let me tell you, there are a lot of people in Asia who could be fans So it is worth it. Dont I think Roman has done everything right? No! Mistakes have been made (*cough* Veron, Shevchenko, sacking Mourinho and Ancelotti) but it is bearing fruit. Arsenals owners need to speculate to accumulate (forgive the cliche).
The empty seats were well documented last season, whether you sold the tickets or not, fans were not turning up. You've had to change your ticketing policy this season to adapt. You're not really making a point about your selling players because I already said you were forced to sell them. 10 years ago this wasn't the case, the odd player was sold but players weren't clamouring to leave for a new club with better chances of winning things. If being unable to keep your best players isn't an indication that your club stature has dropped I don't know what is.
The problem with empty seats is down to ST holders and not those who buy tickets on a match by match basis and consequently changing our ticketing policy should have no affect on this.It was published last season that 400 club level members attend one game or less a season
Sorry to say I have to agree with Yid, Arsenal are losing their best players because they are not paying as much wages as Chelsea, Utd, City, Barca, Real etc. This means that as soon as an Arsenal player is recognised as good, one of the above mentioned clubs swoops in and offers him double or even triple his salary at a club that has a bigger chance of winning trophies. This is in turn weakens Arsenal and strengthens their rivals, decreasing even further the chances Arsenal has of winning trophies, its a Yid vicious Circle.
That doesn't mean that Arsenal are a smaller club, it means that some clubs (who not so long ago were in the doldrums) are now being financed by rich investors. My definition of a big club is more than being bankrolled by a sugar daddy.
Read what I said. I dont think Arsenal are a small club at all, thats not the point I was making. I was just stating the reasons why i think Arsenals best players are leaving them and how it is exacerbating their trophyless run.
I did read what you'd written. You said that Arsenal are losing players because they don't pay as big wages as the City's and Chelsea's of this world. That is a direct result of those clubs being financed by rich investors. I'm glad that you see that Arsenal are not a small club because of this
Some of your fans make your situation seem a lot worse than it is I'm talking about the youngish generation of gooners. I know the other clubs around you (us included) like to have a bit of banter about the whole 7 years thing, but really 7 years is **** all really - try waiting 30 odd!
Well yes, to a degree, but not entirely, because Utd, Real and Barca dont have "Sugar Daddies" and they also pay more than Arsenal. My point was that Arsenal COULD pay their players more if they really wanted to and were serious about competing for Trophies, your current business model allows it because you are highly profitable, but you choose not to gamble on paying more money to win trophies and prize funds instead opting for the "playing it safe" model of keeping what you have already earned and keep the wage bill down to a minimum. Which may turn out more effective financially speaking, but will mean you come up short in the trophy stakes, which wont please the fans.
Exactly Nobody is happy going 7 years without a trophy, especially when we had got used to winning again. But there you go. Trying to compete with clubs who are willing to make a £195m loss each year is never going to be a level playing field. I'm happy Arsenal are doing things the right way. We are a club based on tradition and heritage and we've always sought to do things the 'Arsenal' way. I would hate to see us sell out to the Sugar Daddies simply to quell the tantrums of a few disgruntled fans.
It's a fine line between solvent, keeping some cash in reserves and upping wages to suit ever more greedy footballers and agents. I think the club have taken a different stance this year by trying to clear out players who were on generous wages, but who didn't really make the grade. I don't think we'll see 18-20 year olds again being on £50k-£60k wages. This was the main problem with our wage structure, we had a lot of younger players on large wages. I can see the reasoning behind it. Get them young, pay them well, develop them and keep them at the club. But it hasn't really worked out as well as we'd hoped. The last couple of seasons has seen us invest in more experienced players.
Arsenal are loosing players because with our socialist payment structure we overpay fringe players and underpay the stars. That was Wenger's idea, he thought that it will help the unity of the squad. I was really surprised that Wenger being an economist decided to define the market. Now with lots of players gone this idea is well and truly dead. But it needs a lot of time to amend. That included getting rid of high salary deadwood like Bendtner and Squillachi who can not find new clubs because of their huge salaries. But the problem is recognized and is being dealt with. We need some patience.
