Firstly I want to make it very clear that I think we will qualify for the CL this is just throwing it out there. Would not qualifying be so bad? We have had 2 consecutive poor season in the Prem, 6th last year and far too many points behind the winners this. Would a season where we can put the Prem at the top of our list be so bad? I will never forget Munich,even when we win it again nothing will replace that night but there is nothing like winning the Prem to me. I can't help but wonder if the club as a whole would benefit from concentrating on the Prem and getting competitive in that again because we aren't right now. We still have some very young and inexperienced players in Hazard,Oscar,Aspi and hopefully the like of Courtois,De Bryune,Piazon,Lukaku and others will join them next year and just maybe concentrating on the Prem will be of benefit.
No way. Our prestige and reputation would go down, as well as our ability to attract the best manager and the best players. Add to that it would make it harder to renew contracts and we would lose one of the best bargaining chips when it come to contract wages and bonuses. The money gained from tickets, TV, advertising, sponsoring, Champions League merchandise and glory hunters/woodwork fans is way too much to throw away. Most of all we would miss out on another chance of winning it. Look at Liverpool. They said a year out of the Champions League would do them good - look where they are now. Look at England. They said not making the Euros would do them good - look where they are now. Top four (much preferably top three) is without doubt the priority.
I don't think the finances would be as bad as you are suggesting,indeed if we missed next season that would be the 3rd year of this series which we are at the moment in the black but are allowed to go 40M in to the red so it wouldn't affect FFP and we could still buy players although with the talent we have out on loan I don't see much need to go crazy in the market. That aside do we really want to be just Arsenal and top 4 is our aim?
The Champions League is too big a comp to miss out on. I would be very disappointed if we were not in it next season. So many potential big games against Europe's best.
It's very important that we do our absolute best to live off our own finances. The best way we can do this is by increasing the club's global recognition and prestige which in turn increases our fanbase, strengthens and lengthens the support (I'm talking about glory hunters/plastics/woodwork fans and also as overseas supporters) boosts toursim as well as gains us a higher amount of more credible and financially beneficial sponsorship deals for a longer time. Just because we are allowed to go that deep into the red, doesn't mean we should take advantage of that. It's better to avoid it for the long-term. We can't make mistakes all over the place and then rely on Roman's money to bail us out every time, that a very poor club financial model. It's time we started to become self-sufficient. This summer our two main priorities should be a top defensive midfielder who can protect the back four and also be a deep-lying playmaker and as well as a top striker who is a finisher. The rest I agree that we can make up with the players we currently have out on loan as well as our reserve and youth players who we have failed so many times. Top 3/4 is the best we can hope for in the league at the moment. Having this ambition for one season means little. Arsenal have been getting top four finishes and winning nothing for the last seven years. We have been winning trophies consistently for the last eight years. This year Arsenal have won nothing and may not even finish in the top four. We still have two trophies in our cabinet that we won just last season and this year are still in another two competitions which we could win. We're not comparable to Arsenal at all.
Agreed. If Arsenal make top 4, it'll only be because of their poor showing in every other competition. We'd get top 4 easy if we only performed in the league.
we can afford to keep our players on. they have to take some of the burden if we fail, can't just blame it on board/managers, everyone has to take responsibility. the main aim in football is winning trophies.
I said this last season. Had we not been in the cups I'd have bet almost everything I own we'd have come 3rd/4th. Weakened teams were fielded against Arsenal, Liverpool and City, and there was no focus for the Newcastle or Spurs games. Not easy playing a semi against Spurs and a derby v Arsenal with the small matter of Barca sandwiched in between.
Something that is lost on the modern fan due to the media/Sky sanitisation of the game. The main aim in anything is to come 1st, be it Europa League, FA Cup, PL, CL whatever. The only season where I'd have definitively taken top 4 over a trophy was in the 02/03 where the future of the club was almost entirely dependent on qualifying for the CL.
4th would be nice, 3rd even better, but I've always argued that we might well benefit in the long run from having a few seasons out of the CL, for the internal reorganisation and policy/philosophy shift that would entail. We'be been run as a mad house, and winning the cl just exacerbated it. A few years in the wilderness may see a bit more strategic planning going on at the top, rather than a method that just sees us bounce from fire to fire, from the current shiny object to the next , seemingly unable to see beyond our noses. Having said all that, would still rather finish top 4 than not!
True enough, but bloody hard to do with the clown we have in charge, and the lunatics upstairs who keep on repeating their mistakes season after season.
I know, believe me they carry most of the blame for the constant chopping/changing. However the players can't just expect to be able to leave if we fail to get top 4. Fortunately we'll be able to afford to keep them on even if we did. Just praying for some stability in the near future, I'd love nothing more than for Jose to come back and finish what he started and build a legacy here.
If you want stability, Drogs, I'm not sure Mourhino is the best manager for you. Let's face it, he's never been a one-club man, has he!
We need to qualify for the CL. It helps financially, it attracts the best players to the club and it has a number of other advantages and they certainly outweigh the disadvantages. A few years back we used to do reasonably well in all comps, that was because we had an excellent squad that was balanced. Our squad these days just isn't good enough IMO. I'm not going to turn it into "we should buy this player" thread but right now our squad has no balance and not a lot of depth. As soon as we sort that (the summer i'd hope) and get the correct manager in charge we'll be competing on all fronts. I don't like these Tuesday/Wednesday evenings not being able to watch us, it's not the same!
Seems Jose agrees with you and has insisted on them upstairs staying out of buying and selling, he's also asked for Gourley and Emanelo to go, and is apparently asking for a dismissal clause so loaded even RA will go white if he has to pay it. So if he comes, there is great hope we might finally see a few years of going forward with a plan. That depends on top 4. With the FSW sabotaging our PL team selections for his CV, I'm not counting on it.
I don't get where all this top 4 dependency for Jose has come from. Pure speculation if you ask me. If RA can agree non-interference terms and a severence package, he'll come top 4 or not.
