Rival watch

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One of the supposed better teams in the Europa had a surprise defeat:
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Lots of ex-Premier League players on show.
 
It's certainly funny, but what tops it off for me is how the pundits are so wrong. This was an easy victory, Arteta has clearly turned it around and made a difference. They said. All of them. It's not so much the opinion but the fact that you get virtually no variation between pundit opinions - they all say pretty much the same thing. Except occasionally Durham on TalkShite but he's only on a wind up.
 
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I hear other Arsenal fans going round saying that 'we're cursed'. We're not cursed. We are just now witnessing the culmination of years and years of ineptitude from previous, as well as current, Arsenal executives and management.

Ever since we have moved to The Emirates, virtually every single decision we have made has been a crap one - and now we are seeing what happens when you allow a circus to continue for too long.

This has been in the works for a long time. And now the chickens are coming home to roost.
 
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BrunelGooner said:
I hear other Arsenal fans going round saying that 'we're cursed'. We're not cursed. We are just now witnessing the culmination of years and years of ineptitude from previous, as well as current, Arsenal executives and management.

Ever since we have moved to The Emirates, virtually every single decision we have made has been a crap one - and now we are seeing what happens when you allow a circus to continue for too long.

This has been in the works for a long time. And now the chickens are coming home to roost.
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It doesn't take too long for things to go down the crapper, if you're in a position where your senior management don't know what they're doing. Just a few years will do it.

In 1984 we won the UEFA Cup, when that was a proper tournament. We challenged for the title in '85 and '87. By '90/91 we were insolvent and five years later, we were an irrelevance. Irving Scoular was a twat and bet the future of the club on the roulette table. We lost.

If your owners don't know what they're doing, the drop can be pretty swift and brutal. I don't think that the Kroenkes know what they're doing.
 
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"Thanks for that Brian" said:
It doesn't take too long for things to go down the crapper, if you're in a position where your senior management don't know what they're doing. Just a few years will do it.

In 1984 we won the UEFA Cup, when that was a proper tournament. We challenged for the title in '85 and '87. By '90/91 we were insolvent and five years later, we were an irrelevance. Irving Scoular was a twat and bet the future of the club on the roulette table. We lost.

If your owners don't know what they're doing, the drop can be pretty swift and brutal. I don't think that the Kroenkes know what they're doing.
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I don't necessarily think they don't know what they're doing. I just feel as if they don't really care enough.

There are things that the Arsenal board and owner knew they could have done to alleviate the pressure off our debts and give us sufficient backing in the transfer market, especially in the more austere times. But they didn't want to lose their share of the pie.

For example, a rights issue was proposed by Usmanov back in 2009 to free up additional cash. Kroenke and the other Arsenal board members at the time said no, as it would have mean their own stake in the club would have been diluted.

They could have also looked to refinance our current debt, rather than keeping it as it is. The rate at which we're paying the stadium debt off now, with interest, was actually not that bad, considering the timing coincided with the global financial crash. But since then, KSE have not been proactive in attempting to renegotiate the rate at which it is being paid off. In contrast, I can't remember the exact figure Spurs are paying their stadium debt off, but I read it is a lot more manageable and at a dramatically lower rate than Arsenal.

He also could have done more to just pay off the debt entirely. I am aware that we would have incurred penalties if we pay it off early. However, if he truly cared about the club and really had Arsenal's best interests at heart, the penalty fees would have been immaterial to the 3rd-richest billionaire owner in the Premier League.

The simple fact is he just wanted to grow his portfolio, saw an opportunity to invest in an organisation that he knew would increase in value, and has been happy to leave it to rot, whilst paying more attention to his franchises in the US. Oh, and the ranch. Can't forget the massive Texas ranch.
 
I wish these billionaires would bugger off if they think a football club is like a train set. They can play about with it until it falls apart. Then they piss off and screw something else up!
 
BrunelGooner said:
I don't necessarily think they don't know what they're doing. I just feel as if they don't really care enough.

There are things that the Arsenal board and owner knew they could have done to alleviate the pressure off our debts and give us sufficient backing in the transfer market, especially in the more austere times. But they didn't want to lose their share of the pie.

For example, a rights issue was proposed by Usmanov back in 2009 to free up additional cash. Kroenke and the other Arsenal board members at the time said no, as it would have mean their own stake in the club would have been diluted.

They could have also looked to refinance our current debt, rather than keeping it as it is. The rate at which we're paying the stadium debt off now, with interest, was actually not that bad, considering the timing coincided with the global financial crash. But since then, KSE have not been proactive in attempting to renegotiate the rate at which it is being paid off. In contrast, I can't remember the exact figure Spurs are paying their stadium debt off, but I read it is a lot more manageable and at a dramatically lower rate than Arsenal.

He also could have done more to just pay off the debt entirely. I am aware that we would have incurred penalties if we pay it off early. However, if he truly cared about the club and really had Arsenal's best interests at heart, the penalty fees would have been immaterial to the 3rd-richest billionaire owner in the Premier League.

The simple fact is he just wanted to grow his portfolio, saw an opportunity to invest in an organisation that he knew would increase in value, and has been happy to leave it to rot, whilst paying more attention to his franchises in the US. Oh, and the ranch. Can't forget the massive Texas ranch.
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Oh, he knows about business alright...but knows **** all about football in England. Neither do \ny of the senior management team brought in to replace Wenger and Gazidis. Everyone's learning from their mistakes.

The wage spend is out of control arising from desperation, a lack of transfer budget and increasingly short term decisions. Borrowing next season's money to buy Nicolas Pepe was a real punt. Currently, it looks a poor decision all round.

It's going to be very interesting to see what happens to Aubameyang this summer. Can Arsenal sell him, as they did did Henry, Viera, Petit, Overmars, etc? This is the smart move for a club outside City or United...or do you offer him an Ozil style monster deal at 31 years old...and will he be interested?

Do the Kroemke's have plans worked out for no European football next season and what happens to sponsorships and kit deals? Without some dumb luck, it's set up to get worse before it gets better.
 
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