Ozil and Sanchez both want to leave

[selassie]

I'm at the tipping point where all his early successes are overshadowed by what this Club has become and where it is going.

I think we are at the stage now where he is close to tarnishing his legacy. Many have been sitting on the fence for quite a while now giving him the benefit of the doubt through sentiment but enough is enough now, he's doing some serious damage now.

Do I think he can rescue it? Nope....I think we're slowly sliding backwards.

[Power n Glory]

Are you sure it's not just older fans that are switching off? The younger fans have no pre-Wenger concepts, in fact no pre-PL concepts. To them, the greed, the cynicism, the lack of the community element, vanished team loyalty, mercenaries for hire instead of players that grow up with the club - these are all normal. And the hype, all perfectly normal by the screwed up standards we are working with today. I'm not sure the damage being done is the loss of the fan base. The TV companies and sponsors wouldn't be pouring cash like a waterfall if they weren't making even more on the back end. I think we have the fan base, but what type of fan? Football consumers rather than football fan(atics).

As for Wenger. Like I said, selfishness. He's building the legacy of a man who didn't know when to quit, rather than the manager that led us to our most successful period. Amazing how he either can't see that or is prepared to live with it. If I had years like his early years under my belt I'd get the fuck out and dine on that success for the rest of my life. Doesn't mean to say he had to get out of football completely. Plenty of roles for him still to play. But that legacy was good enough to warrant preserving, yet he's throwing it away for what? Proof he can compete in a game that has gone to hell? Some screwed up notion he can rescue the game single-handedly? Addiction to the power he's accumulated? But that's who he is for me now, the selfish guy who didn't know when to quit.

Why would you think it's a young vs old thing? Whatever I platform I'm on I see different ages saying they're tired of Wenger. You can't nail it down to one group without the numbers to back it up.

Also, I wonder how long the TV revenue will continue.

https://www.ft.com/content/45e8a3e8-...4-c742b9791d43

Sky TV suffers fall in viewers of live Premier League games

Not sure how long this can go on for. With the economy about to take a turn for the worse, I wonder how long people will continue to pay a ridiculous amount for Sky when you can find plenty of free streams around. They'll have to rethink this model soon enough. If tech keep advancing with this old model still in place, someone is going to get left behind like how we've seen with the music biz.

[Niall_Quinn]

Certainly the bubble will burst. That's how it's done. The rapists come in, inflate everything, devour the market and leave the ashes. That goes for any market. It's the vulture capitalist way. But my point was, it's easier for fans who have something to compare to fall out of love with this game. No wonder people who were watching when this PL first began have a problem sticking with the comparative shit that is being served up, for 10 times the expense. Youngsters who have no reference are left with that awful fallacy, "That's just the way the game is, that's just the way the world is."

[Bumble]

Certainly the bubble will burst. That's how it's done. The rapists come in, inflate everything, devour the market and leave the ashes. That goes for any market. It's the vulture capitalist way. But my point was, it's easier for fans who have something to compare to fall out of love with this game. No wonder people who were watching when this PL first began have a problem sticking with the comparative shit that is being served up, for 10 times the expense. Youngsters who have no reference are left with that awful fallacy, "That's just the way the game is, that's just the way the world is."

You have probably been saying this for the last 5 years or so. The Neymar deal is ridiculous really £200m for a footballer. The fans that go to the games don't really matter anymore because the clubs earn more from TV, sponsorship etc than just gate receipts. So why not do a good thing and let under 16s in free. I used to enjoy both football and cricket but my preference now is cricket, to earn the money there you have to be a top player International standard, football all the money is going to the players and agents Neymars father wanted to delay the deal til August so he could pocket a loyalty payment.

Financial Fair Play doesn't work if you are backed by the oil rich nations as they can easily just up the "sponsorship" value to cover the outlay. Will the football bubble burst, probably yes as everything does eventually housing, dotcom. or at least there will be a re-allignment