Ok .. so I was just beginning to calm down from the anger of pre-season and the beginning of the season woes and this clown with an idiotic moustache has given me the hump now. Is this man Kroenke for real ? I already didn't like his moustache now I think he is taking Arsenal fan's for fools. In the AGM he says and I quote "We are happy with the direction of the club" ! What direction is this then ? Sliding down the table into mediocrity ? Since Dein left in 2007 we have slipped out of the top 2, then out of the top 3, now it will be a miracle to stay in the top 4. Is this the direction of the club Kroenke is happy with ? Bloody idiot !
The board is a bit like our team for the last few years. Stan is the non-visible captain of the side. P Hill-Wood is the geriatric player (s) we bought. Ivan is the always positive player who has to do the 'everything is rosy' bit after the match. The others just sit there complacent with the contract they are on.
Wenger said we should trust him and that these players are quality and blah blah blah. We've been hearing that for 6 years, we've trusted him and mostly never questioned him. Change the bloody record already !! The time for talking ended ages ago, let us see actual progress then we "might" start trusting you again. Too much chit chat and no action. We have 4 deluded idiots running the club, Wenger, Hill-Wood, Kroenke and Gazidis, I thought people got wiser as they got older .. but not these 4 !
Hothead - why do you think we've slid out of the top 2 and top 3 ? Seriously, does anyone believe it's possible to be a top 3 team with the resources at the disposal of Manchester and Chelsea - teams built of cash are not sustainable (Utd slightly different here of course) but it's also impossible to compete with them so we shouldnt try. One of two things need to happen for us to get back to the level we were at 7 or 8 years ago, the sugar daddies of these clubs get bored/asassinated, or the new financial rules become reality and football becomes a reasonably level playing field again.
But that's no answer to 'why did we make such a balls of the end of last season?' and 'why do we make such odd panic buys when we have months or weeks to set a deal up?' and 'why are we so complacent?'.
Grizzly, mate, you couldn't be more wrong ! Since Abramovich's millions Arsenal have been down the pecking order when it comes to spending with Man U, Chelsea and Liverpool having far more spending power than us yet during the last 6 seasons we have stopped finishing in the top 2. Abramovich has been at Chelsea since 2003 - so we were still competitive when we were buying proper players. A more telling fact is the fact that we have been able to compete until the final third or quarter of every season on all 4 fronts, this tells me that the money Chelsea et al are spending is not the issue, the issue is one of leadership, when the going gets tough, it is poor decision making, it is the management letting our skillful players leave and replacing them with sub-standard players. for seasons now we have all been saying we need 2 or 3 key players to supplement the squad we ALREADY HAVE. Because of this neglect we are only hopeful of making 4th place when with proper investment the likes Arsenal can comfortably afford we would be challenging for titles - as we have by investing considerably less than our peers since Wenger first arrived. I don't buy this money argument. Levante are top of the tree in Spain. In recent years Boavista and Sevilla have competed against teams spending far more money than them. Twente won the Dutch league spending a fraction of those around them as did Wolfsburg in Germany recently. If we spent the money we had on the players we need rather than kids who aren't ready we would still be top 2 in my opinion.
Gents, I see where you're coming from, and don't get me wrong I think the club has made mistakes in the past 2/3 years, a proper centre back and a decent keeper I'm convicned we would have won last years league, and stronger management with Gallas in 2008 would have won us the league that year as well. Of the panic buys I only think Arteta and Benayoun were genuine 'panic' buys, the others I think were all being negotiated well before the trandfer deadline but got complicated because of the international calendar - I've said all along make the deadline day 31 July before the season start, that way no-one gets ****ed ! And to be honest, I think Arteta and Benayoun are good acquisitions, they aren't stars who you build your team around but we lost one of the worlds best players in Cesc, replacing that level of talent is almost impossible. Has our spending actually gone down or is it that our net spending is down ? genuine question, I don't know the answer. Some of the talented players we've had who've been lured by the bucks have netted us £20-25m each, so when selling someone for £25m and buying a couple at £10m yes the soending reduces. Another possibility is that our spending has dropped (if it has) because AW can't compete financially and because he will only look to players who will strengthen our squad the chances are us, Chelsea, Utd, City, Liverpool et al are all looking at the same players but what's the point bidding with Man City when they can promise riches beyond everyone else reach ? He's better taking a flyer on others who could be described at the second tier players - no different in some respects to what George Graham did with his Scandinavian raids.
Grizzly, you cannot tell me Sunderland, Aston Villa and Spurs can afford to buy players that we cannot. If these teams are able to buy good quality players then so should we, we shouldn't be penny pinching the way we are. Wenger offered £6m for Cahill. £2m for Schwarzer, then spends c£13m on Oxlade-Chamberlain. WTF ! We cannot compete with the Chelsea's of the world but there are a finite number of players that can play at those clubs and there are a number of great players available elsewhere. Sometimes you have to dip your hand in your pocket, like he did 2 years ago for Arshavin .. we spent £36m that season - way more than the £20m Wenger had spent until that point. We can afford the odd £20m, every good player in the world doesn't want to only go to Real, Barcelona, Chelsea, Man City, Man Utd and Inter/AC Milan, if that were the case Spurs and Liverpool wouldn't have lured the players they have in recent years.
Hothead, I don't want to sound like the AW defender, but maybe he didn't think the players bought by Villa, Sunderland and Spurs would have improved the squad, he may have got that wrong he may have got it right, but he's there to make judgements and decisions and I will be the first to admit he's not got every one right, but the strategy and direction in my opnion are right, Mark Schwartzer - had he been there throughout last season we'd be league champions now, I have no doubts about that, Fulham wanted £500k more than we offered, that was time to bite yoru lip and accept the extra cost I think - though I have heard from various sources that Mark Hughes (manager at the time) was a complete twat and changed his tune more than once on that transaction...
You represent what most Arsenal fans think and say. The problem is, you're too scared to say whos at fault. I mean, he's only won the league 3 times etc. However, this was over 7 years ago..... There is a lot of sentiment for ol Wenger, and i too have a lot for him. I, as the rest of you lot want him to win something. But the problem is, he's past his BEST BEFORE date. Now he's still good to use, like bread a few days old, but the effectiveness he once had has now gone.
Grizzly, we know the answer to whether or not he has been right or wrong, just look at where we are now, it is not with the benefit of foresight to say many of us could see it happening .. this steady decline since the Invincibles. Look at the number of players that Wenger turned into household names but upped and left because of a seeming refusal to commit to investing in the squad, they could see that this was a path to nowhere and left (albeit for a lot more money in some cases). I like Arsene Wenger, I respect him and what he has done for us, but I love Arsenal more. In a perfect world Wenger would stay at the helm and turn things around but his refusal to look facts in the face is turning fans like me against him and his methods. We have trusted his methods but they have categorically FAILED. The thing is, with a re-jig here and there and a tweak here and there Arsenal would quickly get back to where we should be. Wenger MUST acknowledge there is a problem before it can be fixed though.
Hothead - I see things slightly differently. Prepared to be shot down but I don't see that we've regressed massively, I just think the likes of Utd, Chelsea, City and I'll include Tottenham and Stoke as well, have improved enormously, you coudl even include Liverpool in there because although they've not challenged for league honours they've spent heavily in the last 12 monthe and will be expecting a return on their invesnment. I honestly the strength in depth of the league is far better now than it was 8 years ago, and yes I do believe that is solely down to money. He has lost some outstanding players but again I believe this is down to player greed, £200k a week versus £90k a week - regardless of what the player thinks he'll have an agent working on commission feeding him the answers ! AW has made mistakes, but he;s also been extremely unlucky with injuries, the whole Cesc saga and that one or two became infuriatingly greedy...
To be fair, I think he does realise what needs fixing. He's just not the sort of manager who'll come out and say it in public though. I'd rather that, that some gobby tart like Redknapp telling the media that his missus could have done better etc. It's not been easy at Arsenal over the last 6 years, we moved stadium, saw the end of the invincibles team and have seen our young squad come really close on a couple of occasions - albeit to end up with nothing. That is hugely frustrating, but it's not a crisis. I think it's been really tough trying to compete with the endless millions pumped into City, Chelsea, Utd, Liverpool - and whilst I'm not saying that Wenger hasn't made mistakes, I think he's done a pretty good job at keeping us right in the mix. I still think we're two or three players short of a title winning squad, but to his credit, Wenger HAS tried to sign these players and may well still do so. I can understand the criticism from some, but I would just urge you to be mindful about being careful what you wish for, because the grass is rarely greener.
Exactly, although it has been a huge dissapointment considering the position we were in at the end of the invincible season compared with where we are now,the financial doping really accelerated in the following years and any club without similar huge resources would have struggled. Add to that the fact that the overall standard and difficulty of competing in the Premiership has increased significantly, I think Wenger as done well. Personally I would like to see us try and kick on with a couple of top signings. If we had a small amount of debt as a result, to hell with it! Just tack it on to the stadium debt and win something! I'm a firm believer in the equation Wenger + great squad = titles, the great squad part of the equation has been lacking in recent years but we have come close over the past few years anyway and hopefully over the next few we will start to see us compete for the championship once again.
I don't agree with this at all and there are many pundits who would disagree. Many of them have said on numerous occasions that there is no stand out team in the league (except for City this year), there hasn't been for years. The year Liverpool threw it all away with Benitez, the pundits were saying they won't get a better chance than this year to win it because Arsenal, Chelsea and Man U were playing awfully. No team in the past 4 years has stood out, we have all been playing football far below the standards we set previously, but teams like Man U have been winning ... playing badly. You cannot say us moving stadium is the reason or part of the reason we have underperformed, that doesn't explain why come February and March we are well in the title hunt. You say we saw the end of the Invincibles .. Wenger alone was responsible for that ! He chose to let the players go and he chose to replace them with duds. You cannot say we cannot compete with the Man Citys financially because like I said, we've NEVER been able to compete with anyone financially but we were able to compete when it came to football and winning. Wenger has been making poor decisions for so long now it has eroded our squad. When we were winning double's Wenger was spending £20m per season max.
There's so much that I disagree with on this, where to start? Pundits, for one thing - this season is only 8 games old, so it's a bit early to say that there are no stand out teams (except for City - and I wonder why that is? I'll come to that later) I don't agree either with the assertion that Arsenal, Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool have been 'playing far below the standards set previously. It because the other teams have improved their squads and overall game that these teams no longer get hammered 6-0 on a regular basis. And that's also why the top teams no longer run away with the league and establish 20 point gaps between the chasing pack. Moving stadium undoubtedly affected our ability to compete in the transfer market. In fact it was to such an extent, that the club actually came out and said that we would have to pursue a strategy of developing youth - they didn't just do that on a whim. There is also the cultural effect of losing Highbury and having to establish a new 'home' at Emirates, again this has been well documented - with players, fans and manager all saying that it took time (and still is) to settle in and feel at home. Yes, it doesn't explain why promising seasons have collapsed in March/April, but it's not a huge leap to suggest that being having a thin squad due to financial constraints and without the top players to help us get over the line has contributed. Invincibles - what did you expect Wenger to do? Hang on to them all until they were in their Mid 30's? The invincibles were a team particular to a specific time period, you can't expect that to last forever. Wenger sold those players at the right time. Replacing the likes of Pires, Vieira, Henry and Ljungberg was always going to be a tall order, as for the replacements, well they came close to winning the league on two occasions, so 'duds' is not an accurate description. 'You cannot say we cannot compete with the Man Citys financially' ??? Are you sure you want to say that? I think one glance at their accounts would tell you otherwise. As for NEVER being able to compete with anyone financially, again that's not true. In Wenger's early reign we were paying the going rate for top players, along with those around us. It was only ever Man Utd who would bust the bank with a Veron type of signing. But to say we couldn't compete financially is untrue. It's since the mega rich foreign owners have come into the English game that we've seen vastly inflated transfer fees and wages. Wenger may have been spending £20m max per season to maintain title winning squads but that was during a level playing field - the equivelent figure today would look more like £100m and as we know, that is not sustainable. Don't think money is a factor in our performances? - tell me where Man City were 10 years ago?
