Arsenal's Decline: Are there any easy answers?

[Xhaka Can’t]

While I support a change in Manager, I think the solution to our problems are more complex than that. I fail to see how anything can possibly change to a material degree following the strategy our Chief Executive espouses.

We are in the wilderness and are likely to remain there as long as we have a disinterested owner, a weak CEO, a Board that is out of touch with anything unrelated to financial gain and a Manager for whom the game has moved on and passed him by.

Leaving out hysteria, what do you actually think needs to happen for the Club to move forward?

[Letters]

I’m just fed up of us being so ordinary. RvP is the only reason we’re not deeply mid-table and he will leave in the summer if he knows what’s good for him. He’d be stupid not to.

I remember us being ordinary before of course but I wasn’t paying £1500 a year to watch them being so ordinary then. We weren’t in a shiny new stadium which we were promised would allow us to compete with Europe’s elite. Instead for years we have replaced top class players with average ones. We all knew there would be a bit of belt tightening when the new stadium was being built and you can’t legislate for billionaire owners throwing trucks of money around. I accept we can’t compete with City and I wouldn’t want us to try. I don’t want to play that game where any achievement is marred with the knowledge of how it’s achieved. But I do expect us to compete with Spurs. In fact, Spurs shouldn’t be anywhere near us. We have a far bigger stadium, a far bigger global fan base, a far bigger income in every way. We have CL football to offer players, a manager who is respected around the world, a legacy of (fairly) recent success. There is no way that a team like Spurs with far less resources than us should be allowed to catch up with and then overtake us. It’s embarrassing mismanagement from top to bottom. I don’t think replacing Wenger will make a whole lot of difference because we’ll still have the same board who are clearly complicit in it all. Were they not they’d have sacked him years ago. They’re clearly happy with his policy of minimising expenditure and maximizing income and, to an extent, Wenger has done well to keep us top 4 till now. But there’s only so long you can go on replacing top players with average ones before it starts to seriously hurt and we’ve reached that point now. We already had last season to an extent but then in a car crash of a summer we went and sold our 2 best midfielders and bought a few decent but not really world class players (even then it was only last minute panic-buying, were it not for the Old Trafford debacle you have to wonder whether we’d even have done that).

Wenger has been far too patient with players who just aren’t up to it. Theo is one of them, but there are others. At our pomp we were a terrific side, arguably the best ever PL side. It was a joy to watch and it’s sad if Wenger’s legacy is anything other than that side. And I knew it wouldn’t last. It’s not realistic to expect us to sustain that. But to see us fall from that to being so…well, I’ll say it again, so ordinary. It’s sad and infuriating. It is, as Oscar Wilde (or was it Didier Drogba) once said “a disgrace, a f***ing disgrace”. The atmosphere on Saturday is going to be…interesting. People’s patience has finally run out and if we go in at half time 0-0 or, worse, behind, then it’s going to get ugly. Our success has raised expectations but so has raising the ticket prices. And they haven’t gone up by 10% or even doubled. I used to pay 2 or 3 hundred a season, now it’s £1500. If they raise them this summer then it’ll be the final “screw you” to the fans. Were it not for dad wanting to go and me valuing the time I spend with him now as he gets older and confuseder they wouldn’t see me for dust. They could have thrown us a bone in the January window. Something, just something, we could maybe get a bit excited about. But no. So on we plod in the battle against mid-table. Spurs are gone, they’re a much, much better side than us. Top 4 is just about do-able but only because of other team’s ordinariness and right now I wouldn’t back us in that race.

In brief, balls to it. Balls to it all.

[Kano]

While I support a change in Manager, I think the solution to our problems are more complex than that. I fail to see how anything can possibly change to a material degree following the strategy our Chief Executive espouses.

We are in the wilderness and are likely to remain there as long as we have a disinterested owner, a weak CEO, a Board that is out of touch with anything unrelated to financial gain and a Manager for whom the game has moved on and passed him by.

Leaving out hysteria, what do you actually think needs to happen for the Club to move forward?

change the manager, that will be the first step.

anything behind that is not going to change, the owners are here to stay for the foreseeable future but at least with a set of new ideas and a refreshment of the approach by the team, we will at least see something to get behind.

i go to every home game but will never boo as i don't see the point. the most frustrating thing is that however inevitable it is that a manager will come to the end of his days, name calling etc is a crass and disgusting way to see our most historic manager out of the door. frustrating he may be but in his mind he is doing the best for the team and deserves a far better send off than people labelling him a buffoon/cunt/incompetent.

[Grebbo]

If you look at the financial resources of the competition the best possible outcome for our club for the foreseeable future is 4th place.

Sure, you'll get the odd season where you can compete (see Spurs this season) but ultimately it's unrealistic to think that Arsenal can compete for the Premier League. Even when we had an amazing team (and FAR less competition) we never won back to back leagues. We only won three league titles in ten years when our only competition was one team - Man U.

I am content with only competing for fourth. I am a realist.

What boils my piss though is this cretin of a manager. We have the worst away defence on the whole of the Premier League!! Just think about that stat!! A worse away defence than Wigan!!

We have the same problems EVERY season and they're NEVER fixed.

[KSE Comedy Club]

We could do a raindance, that might have some effect?

[LDG]

Well, the first thing that needs to happen, is that the people in charge of our club (or should be in charge), the board, need to get their priorities right.

You can't take with one hand and then stick the other hand behind your back, and forget what this "business" is. It's a football club, built on years of tradition. It was built by the fans. It was built by local communities, not fucking Americans or Russians.

The board need to then consider what is best, not just commercially, but "footballistically". If they are in charge and own the club, then one of the top priorities has got to be the consideration of the football side of things. In that respect, they have to have the final say on who runs the team. Who picks the players, and who works the transfer market.

What does the club need footballistically? A top level manager. With experience, know-how, astuteness in the transfer market, abilty to man-manage, tactical nouse and desire to win.

Who is out there? There are plenty of good managers around, but we need to be careful, because only a select few are capable of managing a big club.

I would be in favour of Syn's suggestion. A young manager, who has balls, who can think tactically, enough to change games, and put him with Wenger. Someone who can challenge the stubborn git. Someone who will eventually succeed him.

We need Arsenal back. We need the tradition back. We need someone to show our players what it means to play for Arsenal.

We as fans need respect.

And we need to spend some fucking money.

[Olivier's xmas twist]

While I support a change in Manager, I think the solution to our problems are more complex than that. I fail to see how anything can possibly change to a material degree following the strategy our Chief Executive espouses.

We are in the wilderness and are likely to remain there as long as we have a disinterested owner, a weak CEO, a Board that is out of touch with anything unrelated to financial gain and a Manager for whom the game has moved on and passed him by.

Leaving out hysteria, what do you actually think needs to happen for the Club to move forward?

Alot needs to happen for the club to move forward in all honesty. As much i think AW needs to leave, his replacement won't change much at the club because it won't be no top class manager people on here think it will be. We need to see a summer fo quality coming in, no more lies or excues or silly comments from the board.

Think winning the fa cup is another way to move the club forward, it will lift the players and lift the manger. Hopefully the winning feeling will spur then on next season. However if they went on to win the CL (unlikely as it might be) alot would change for the better, AW would not be so obssessed with it abd out the league before it etc.

[KSE Comedy Club]

If you look at the financial resources of the competition the best possible outcome for our club for the foreseeable future is 4th place.

Sure, you'll get the odd season where you can compete (see Spurs this season) but ultimately it's unrealistic to think that Arsenal can compete for the Premier League. Even when we had an amazing team (and FAR less competition) we never won back to back leagues. We only won three league titles in ten years when our only competition was one team - Man U.

I am content with only competing for fourth. I am a realist.

What boils my piss though is this cretin of a manager. We have the worst away defence on the whole of the Premier League!! Just think about that stat!! A worse away defence than Wigan!!

We have the same problems EVERY season and they're NEVER fixed.

Why shouldnt we be able to compete every season though?

Why couldnt we become like Man U and win back to back titles or win 19 league titles?

We can afford to buy quality players, but instead we buy cheap youngsters and shower them with high wages.

What is it with this inferiority complex that some gooners have? With the right manager and 3 or 4 quality signings, we could be up there competing every season and winning titles/trophies.

Its the current rut that we are stuck in that makes it seem impossible, its not the actual fact or impossibility of it.

[Grebbo]

Why shouldnt we be able to compete every season though?

Why couldnt we become like Man U and win back to back titles or win 19 league titles?

We can afford to buy quality players, but instead we buy cheap youngsters and shower them with high wages.

What is it with this inferiority complex that some gooners have? With the right managerand some 2 or 3 quality signings, we could be up there competing every season and winning titles/trophies.

Its the current rut that we are stuck in that makes it seem impossible, its not the actual fact or impossibility of it.

Arsenal FC only makes a profit due to player trading. Look at the accounts.

We can compete with Man U now and then but you then have City, Chavs, Pool - all with bigger budgets as well.

It's better to be realistic or you'll forever be disappointed supporting Arsenal for the foreseeable future. The glory days are long gone.

That doesn;t mean we should have the worst away defence in the league though.

[Letters]

We do need to be realistic. But it's not unrealistic to think we should be doing better than Spurs.
Spurs!
They shouldn't be anywhere near us, it's embarrassing mismanagement from top to bottom that they've been allowed to catch up with and now overtake us.