Ask Liverpool. And ask yourself, would you rather have signed Cazorla and Podolski, or Borini and Allen? The only real problem Arsenal have, imo, is the constant selling of important players every season. Pretty much no other club does the same cos they recognise the importance of continuity, even if the players aren't necessarily all that important. And most of the time you could avoid losing the players - as far as I'm aware Vieira and Henry were sold voluntarily, Cole could have been kept for another £5k a week, Flamini just wanted a decent contract offer etc. It wasn't like they were fire sales either - despite the stadium costs you've never been in any sort of financial risk. Clubs nowadays are always at risk of losing some players to boyhood clubs like Fabregas, and some are just mercenaries like Ade, Toure and Clichy, but it seems Wenger just doesn't appreciate the important of keeping his players. And that's more damaging than any period of time without winning trophies.
Much of Arsenal's ability to post basically stagnant revenue results and reasonable profits come down to two things: selling players and selling property. Both are high risk and the second is running out fast. I think the club's hands have been tied on the sales front more than people realise; after all, without the sales of Cesc, Nasri and Clichy the club would have posted a loss of around £30m for 2011-12.
But without the sales of those three you wouldn't have needed to spend £40m on inferior replacements like Gervinho, Park, Santos, Arteta and Mertesacker, all of which will have also come with signing on bonuses, agents fees etc. And don't forget that £30 million loss would have been entirely due to amortisation of player registrations, which has no effect on cash flow. The key statement is in your accounts: "the profit on sale for the year amounted to £65.5 million (2011 - £6.3 million) with the major contributions to this figure coming from the transfers out of cesc fabregas, Samir nasri and Gael clichy. during the period we invested £78.3 million in the acquisition of new players and, to a lesser extent, the extension of contract terms for certain existing players" If you stop selling all your best players, you won't need to keep spending so much on replacements and the cash flow will still balance. You don't have the freedom to spend like City, Chelsea or Utd, but over the long term selling players isn't making a big contribution to profits, or to cash in the bank.
Back to the OPs question - does not the simple fact that our consistent qualification for the CL raise the expectations of the supporters for success. That qualification for the CL is now viewed as a minimum and almost unimportant requirement is interesting. Added to the success of his earlier years, Wenger has created a rod for his own back in terms of the supporters expectations. To have qualified so consistently is an achievement that many other 'big' clubs - Tottenham, Everton, Liverpool, Newcastle, Villa to name a few -would bite your hands of for the chance of emulating. This doesnt overcome the frustration of losing out on trophies, but I think does put our current situation into some perspective. Like others who have contributed to these threads, I remember the big gap between championship wins in 1971 and 1989. I also remember a lot of the 17 gap for ANY trophy up to the 'Fairs Cup' win in 1970. My point is that for an immense amount of reasons, it is imperitive that we qaulify for next years CL. I believe Wenger is capable of delivering that. Then the club and Wenger should make an honest assessment of the situation before deciding who will be able to take us further. I have no desire to see Wenger hounded out of the club and I find some of the attacks made by him by other Arsenal lovers to be distasteful and unnecessary - he is Arsenal through and through and we have much to laud him with. However, nothing lasts forever and some tough decisons are required.
Completely agree. Wenger is not the problem, it has been the policies of our board who have seen fit to sell our best players that has caused the problems. Look at the players Wenger has brought to the club over the years. Who else has been able to mould raw talent into world beaters ? Wenger wanted to keep our best players, but the board saw fit to sell them. I wish some of our fans would wake up to what's actually happened instead of using excuses to pursue their hounding of Wenger. Eventually the bloke will say enough is enough and walk away from the job. What then ? I hear people banding around names off the top of their heads, Klopp, Mourinho etc, but what if they don't come, what then ? I think some of our fans underestimate how far this club could fall if it was left rudderless.
Well, we are going to find out aren't we? I would say that once you slip off that 4th place ledge, it is difficult to get back on. I would say that in the next four or five years we are going to look back on this season as our last good one.
