Oh yeah, sorry. You're right I'd still take Sagna, Wilshere and maybe Cazorla in our first 11 though and they still have other quality players but the truly outstanding players they've had in previous years are very noticable by their absence in their current squad.
Finally Piskie you understand what I'm saying. It wasn't a slag off at Arsenal. You have done amazingly well to fund a new stadium while still keeping in the top 4 year in year out. You have backed up my point that Cazorla aside there aren't the world class players anymore, just some very good ones.
Without a doubt there is not much between us but as CJ keeps on pointing out with many examples...we are improving as a club and Arsenal are declining. Like I said just listen to the Phone ins and forums with many Arsenal fans confirming it.
If you think your board are stingy now, I'd be very concerned about losing the £40/50mill a year of CL money if you finished outside of the top 4 before then.
Tbh most arsenal fans are spoilt by recent success IMO. In the short term I agree with what you're saying but in the long term I don't think so though that's just my opinion.
I'm not sure how much exaclty but its expected to be cleared by 2014 though as yv said not sure if that's taking cl into account.
I think we're in a decent position financially now, and it's about to get better. But there's no doubt we've been extremely frugal over the last few years. Missing out on CL football would be a bigger blow to our stature than our finances to be honest. If we're trying to attract the best players out there (Our CEO has said that we will be able to match the wages of the top clubs, with our Emirates money) then we need CL to do it. We're having a **** run of form at the moment. But it only takes two or three games to turn it around. Last season is the classic example. After the 8-2 at OT some of our fans were saying we might get relegated and at best we'd finish mid table. One of our own even came out with the now infamous 'Power shift' meltdown and HIAG was on about his Juggernaut all season. But we all know how things ended up. Nobody has got a crystal ball, so we don't know what's going to happen this season. All I'm saying is that it's the 1st of December today and the season has barely got going yet.
Tough to understand. Arsenal have the stadium, the far bigger revenues, etc. Against that, they have a far larger wage bill, costs etc. Wenger has picked up some great players at bargain prices, in the past. The market is far more clued up, far more competitive nowadays, and that's not as easy. In general, we have done a better job of picking up young talent early from elsewhere, and also brought on some promising youngsters from our own ranks.
Yes, but you keep conveniently forgetting that, last season, you had RVP to save you (which he did), whereas we were stymied by Redknapp and his pathetic dream of lifting the World Cup for England. This season, you've already started to bottle it, and who have you got to dig you out of the $hit? Little Walnut and his massively misplaced ego. Let's stop beating about the bush, here - you are in deep, deep trouble. Whereas we are now led by a manager who, despite his many faults, has proven that he has the ability to win leagues and cups. In short, the odds are stacked very differently this season., and we have looked the better team so far.
I think you'll find that Giroud and Podolski have got as many goals as RVP had at this stage last season. Plus Walcott has got 6 in his last 7.
