Hopefully Piskie, to try to second guess the future is futile, surely part of being a supporter is anticipation. we shall see.
Anticipation is always there Along with belief in my case. I don't think it's a case of trying to second guess the future, but if you give up before you've even started, you might as well not bother in the first place.
Aye, it was the birth of my Wee son that gave me such a perspective on life. Actually that's bollocks, I don't have a son. I just believe in the Arsenal
To be honest I dont know how you can say that? Savvy from a purely monetary perspective yes but in footballing terms we are just coasting. We are the least ambitious of the big clubs. We've been 2-3 TOP players short of a REALLY top squad for a good few years. Mainly through the selling of our top assets. (they get replaced with cheaper usually younger signings/youth graduates - which are nearly always good but it's fair to say our transfer strategies main objective is to consistantly make capital.)Whereas Man Utds strategy is to try and win the league year on year and bring in the players needed to achieve this. The whole World knows this (the press, the fans, even the foreign press) Arsenal fans like to think the whole world is picking on them but to some degree we bring it on ourselves. The club is very well run but is extremely conservative and values income over trophies.
Don't get me wrong, I'd still like to see us buy another 2-3 top quality players who could help us push for the title. But I don't want to see us go down the route of Utd (saddled with massive debts) or City and Chelsea (propped up by sugar daddies) If this is what it takes for Arsenal to remain solvent and still try and build a squad that can challenge, then so be it. I'm not upset that we didn't spend £25m on each of our summer signings and whilst it pained me to see RVP go (Song not so much) I'd rather the club broke even than simply posted a £75m spend.
Yeah but its football mate not Monoploy! The idea is to win trophies. Also it does't have to be one extreme or the other.
I have no particular love for UTD (well compared to City or Chelsea maybe a little). BUT will people stop going on about their DEBT. It is purely Owenrship debt they were and still are better run club than us. I mean we both have exemplary business practices but UTD blow us out of the water in terms of revenue due to phenomenal sponsorhip, match day income, player income, commercial revenue. They then reinvest that back into the club in terms of players and salary. If you ignore the Ownership debt Man Utd are the best run club in the world bar Bayern.
I agree. It's just that our club have decided to go down a different route from the big spenders. But I agree that it doens't have to be one extreme or the other.
Arsenal are eternally building. As players reach their prime, they leave, and new players come in who are a level below. Others step up, then leave, and repeat.
And the problem is the club are probably hoping that FFP will end this cycle. And I fear that their faith in FFP is misplaced.
It remains to be seen how effective FFP is. But the early signs (the lack of sanction over the Etihad naming rights) suggests that FFP might well turn out to be toothless.
