Arsenal - A 'Broken' Club

[IBK]

Firstly, I know that the thread title is exaggerated. Secondly, it is not just a reaction to our usual miserable transfer season, or a spoilt brat reaction to the spending of our rivals.

But in terms of our status as a 'top' club with title aspirations, this transfer window; together with the preceding season has torn away the last vestiges of an illusion that has characterised AFC for the past 10 years, and finally revealed us for what we are. We are also-rans, and we have thrown in the towel in terms of preserving the status that we have enjoyed for decades.

I defy any Gooner to think seriously that we have any prospect of winning the league, or progressing into the final stages of the CL this coming season. I defy any Gooner to suggest that the majority view outside the club is anything other than that we are a bit of a joke - clinging Canute style to the idea of 'doing things the right way'; playing 'proper football'; growing organically etc etc while the game accelerates beyond us.

Don't get me wrong. There are 16 teams in the league whose fans would be pleased to perform at our consistent level. Plenty of people will gladly come to matches to see us play, and (for now) we will remain prominent in terms of televised games. But with the club's approach over the last few seasons, combined with the comments that have been made by manager and CEO lately, I think that the truth is there for all to see. Arsenal has no plans to progress; no proper understanding of what has happened in either the game or the football environment over the past few years and no blueprint to take the Club forwards - which is more than likely to translate into regression as other clubs move forwards.

It is almost as though our appetite to be a top team evaporated following the now 'failed' stadium project. It has failed because with the TV money throughout the entire league, stadium receipts are effectively an irrelevance. The future in this regard is typified by the deal West Ham did re the Olympic stadium; the fact that Liverpool, Spurs will be able to raise finance for their new stadiums without breaking stride on the playing side and the recognition by the top clubs that 'obscene' investment in the world's best players and managers is more than offset by marketing receipts.

If you think about it, the 'Oligarch' era is itself now consigned to history. Like it or not, we are in a brave new world of commercial investment in football - where the top clubs are more than billionaire's playthings. The supreme irony of Arsenal is that football is that we are specialists in corporate management - but even here we lack ambition, because Kroenke's vision is not both self-serving, and lacks the scope of those at the helm at Manure and Citeh.

I heard a Gooner on the radio yesterday bemoaning the fact that 'nothing will change' until Wenger leaves. The reality is that its no longer even about our myopic manager any more. The entire structure and philosophy of our club is predicated against being the best. The club's acceptance of player talent/performances that falls consistently below the excellence required to win; a seemingly mediocre scouting system; an inability to recognise what it takes to close deals and the continued endorsement of managerial decisions that are clearly misguided. I don't think that this will change post Wenger. I think that second best is now as woven into the fabric of our club's set up as our reputation for doing things the 'Arsenal Way'.

As for Wenger. IMHO he has lost his bottle. He is a slave to his own hubris and has become characterised by his ideals of self sustainability. He takes untimate pride not in winning, but in achieving efficiency - a coeficiency of spending against league (CL) position. Our problem as fans is that this coincides so precisely with the mentality of those running our club that it has come to define it. What Wenger would love is not to be a Man U, but a Leicester. But he does not seem to appreciate that the Leicester's success was a) a one-off, and b) built on belief; ambition and a team work ethic that is very different to his own approach to the game.

So we as fans are left with only two realistic options - to 'enjoy' our club without the excitement of a tilt at silverware (which has been undoubtedly a privilege in the past); or to disengage from the intensity that comes with being title contenders - which is clearly now what Arsenal has done.

[Özim]

Also-rans sums us up perfectly, we have manager with no bottle and no hunger for success, he accepts medocrioty and rewards it and hails failure as a success. As for the rest, it's all about money, winning doesn't come into the thinking, just profits.

We're an example that no other club should follow, no longer a football club but more of a profit making business.

I've got no real interest in this club anymore, IMO we've turned into a horrible, losers mentality club, we're a big club that aspires to be a small club on the pitch and Wenger's legacy for me will be failure and as someone who changed this club for the worse.

We're takers who give nothing back and are blatant about it, which is sad. You were right though, as a club we might not be broken, but as a football club we certainly are.

[bignev]

Great post from the Op which you have to agree with really.

I appreciate everything that Wenger has achieved for the club during his tenure. What is happening now makes me sad because as a person I really like Wenger. During interviews you can see he has a great knowledge of the game and that everyone in the footballing world respects him. He's done some fantastic things for our club as well which many have forgotten about.

After we build the stadium and were in the process of paying it off, we were all frustrated about the lack of silverware and the lack of ambition shown by the club. However a large majority of the fanbase could see the wider picture or so we thought. Many of us bought in to the idea of stability and short term pain for long term gain. Now we're out of that period, we shown some ambition by signing Ozil and Alexis and I think we started to get excited, especially when combined with winning the FA Cup. We even started this summer off well with the signing of Xaka. The club even announced at the beginning of the summer that we wanted a CB and striker. I thought we were finally going to go for it. Stupid me.

What has followed has been nothing short of ridiculous and I don't understand what we're trying to do. For all of his many talents, Wenger has lost sight of what is necessary to make a club successful. That doesn't make him a c*nt or clueless or any of the other insults that so called "fans" throw at him but it does illustrate that he is out of touch with modern football. I can even understand those "fans" frustration because the way that Arsenal act is infuriating. The real irony is that we hamstring ourselves every season and yet Wenger stills manages to make us "the best of the rest" every year, in some ways that proves what a great manager he is. If we actually went for it then we could actually achieve something.

It isn't just Wenger that's the issue. The board are also a big part of the problem. None of them are footballing people and they don't really care about silverware, or so it seems. We've heard reports that we're difficult to deal with in terms of transfers as well. That is hindering us. I strongly suspect we've lost out on some good players because of that. Why sell to Arsenal when we can sell to another club who are easy to deal with?

Leicester winning the title has hindered us as well. Because they've proven that you can win the league without spending big money which is music to Arsena's ears. Of course it was a one off but they don't care.

The sad thing is I honestly don't see how we can change things. We're powerless essentially. I almost wish I could support another club but of course I can't do that.

[LDG]

I used to be happy living in the bubble of "self-sustainment" during the cash shy days. I believed it all too.

What a mug.

"Wenger smokescreens"
"He has a plan"
"When we've paid off the stadium debt"

What a load of bullshit.

[Marc Overmars]

I used to be happy living in the bubble of "self-sustainment" during the cash shy days. I believed it all too.

What a mug.

"Wenger smokescreens"
"He has a plan"
"When we've paid off the stadium debt"

What a load of bullshit.

That's the most frustrating thing. There was a degree of patience, most understood what we had to work with after the stadium move. Wenger was still fucking up in his own special way but the benefit of the doubt was given.

Now though? It's pathetic.

[dostoy]

I agree with all the above and I feel the same way about wishing I could support another club, Man City maybe, it could never be Man Utd, Chelsea or the unrealistic dreamers next door.

Wenger is obsessed with getting value and spending as little as possible then stealing 4th place and saying we were unlucky.

When you look at what Mourinho does in terms of spending and then usually winning, its hard to believe that two managers in the Premier League can be polar opposites like they are.

I know we can't compete with both Manchester clubs in terms of spending but we could spend a lot more than what we do on proven top class players and be more competitive, especially in the CL.

It won't change until Wenger leaves which won't be until 2020 and I am finding it very very hard to care any more and wish the season was not starting again.

Its frustrating, unbelievable and very sad.

[LDG]

That's the most frustrating thing. There was a degree of patience, most understood what we had to work with after the stadium move. Wenger was still fucking up in his own special way but the benefit of the doubt was given.

Now though? It's pathetic.

The annoying thing is, Wenger is more than capable of bringing us success, if it wasn't for his ridiculous principles, and ignorant behaviour.

[Niall_Quinn]

Firstly, I know that the thread title is exaggerated. Secondly, it is not just a reaction to our usual miserable transfer season, or a spoilt brat reaction to the spending of our rivals.

But in terms of our status as a 'top' club with title aspirations, this transfer window; together with the preceding season has torn away the last vestiges of an illusion that has characterised AFC for the past 10 years, and finally revealed us for what we are. We are also-rans, and we have thrown in the towel in terms of preserving the status that we have enjoyed for decades.

I defy any Gooner to think seriously that we have any prospect of winning the league, or progressing into the final stages of the CL this coming season. I defy any Gooner to suggest that the majority view outside the club is anything other than that we are a bit of a joke - clinging Canute style to the idea of 'doing things the right way'; playing 'proper football'; growing organically etc etc while the game accelerates beyond us.

Don't get me wrong. There are 16 teams in the league whose fans would be pleased to perform at our consistent level. Plenty of people will gladly come to matches to see us play, and (for now) we will remain prominent in terms of televised games. But with the club's approach over the last few seasons, combined with the comments that have been made by manager and CEO lately, I think that the truth is there for all to see. Arsenal has no plans to progress; no proper understanding of what has happened in either the game or the football environment over the past few years and no blueprint to take the Club forwards - which is more than likely to translate into regression as other clubs move forwards.

It is almost as though our appetite to be a top team evaporated following the now 'failed' stadium project. It has failed because with the TV money throughout the entire league, stadium receipts are effectively an irrelevance. The future in this regard is typified by the deal West Ham did re the Olympic stadium; the fact that Liverpool, Spurs will be able to raise finance for their new stadiums without breaking stride on the playing side and the recognition by the top clubs that 'obscene' investment in the world's best players and managers is more than offset by marketing receipts.

If you think about it, the 'Oligarch' era is itself now consigned to history. Like it or not, we are in a brave new world of commercial investment in football - where the top clubs are more than billionaire's playthings. The supreme irony of Arsenal is that football is that we are specialists in corporate management - but even here we lack ambition, because Kroenke's vision is not both self-serving, and lacks the scope of those at the helm at Manure and Citeh.

I heard a Gooner on the radio yesterday bemoaning the fact that 'nothing will change' until Wenger leaves. The reality is that its no longer even about our myopic manager any more. The entire structure and philosophy of our club is predicated against being the best. The club's acceptance of player talent/performances that falls consistently below the excellence required to win; a seemingly mediocre scouting system; an inability to recognise what it takes to close deals and the continued endorsement of managerial decisions that are clearly misguided. I don't think that this will change post Wenger. I think that second best is now as woven into the fabric of our club's set up as our reputation for doing things the 'Arsenal Way'.

As for Wenger. IMHO he has lost his bottle. He is a slave to his own hubris and has become characterised by his ideals of self sustainability. He takes untimate pride not in winning, but in achieving efficiency - a coeficiency of spending against league (CL) position. Our problem as fans is that this coincides so precisely with the mentality of those running our club that it has come to define it. What Wenger would love is not to be a Man U, but a Leicester. But he does not seem to appreciate that the Leicester's success was a) a one-off, and b) built on belief; ambition and a team work ethic that is very different to his own approach to the game.

So we as fans are left with only two realistic options - to 'enjoy' our club without the excitement of a tilt at silverware (which has been undoubtedly a privilege in the past); or to disengage from the intensity that comes with being title contenders - which is clearly now what Arsenal has done.

That's an excellent post and sums up my own feelings too. I guess I focus on Wenger because I'm still (thought to a much, much lesser degree) torn between remembering this bloke for what he's done and despising him for what he's failed to do and if the cadence is reminiscent of religious phrasing then why not, because the cult of Wenger is alive and well. For those characters who have come in and ripped the heart out of the club as they have turned it into their own Poundland equivalent cash generator, well I always fundamentally hated their guts along with the previous crowd who took the money and left their charge in the hands of thieves. I don't consider any of that lot. They are all scum as far as I'm concerned, not because of who they are but because of what they've done and what they shamelessly stand for.

So that leaves Wenger. And then the question becomes, has he accidentally or coincidentally become a tool for these corporate looters or has he been willingly complicit in their agenda and planning? I believe the nonsense the man comes out with to try and justify his record and position has such a degree of deceit about it that I favour the latter - he's complicit. And that, for me, destroys his legacy and leaves him as the worst manager the club has ever suffered. The man who took something great and vandalised it in the interests of outsiders and at the expense of everyone who loves or ever loved the club. Shocking.

Even if we somehow did a Leicester and all our opponents fell apart and left us floating at the top of the pile with a title in our hands, even that would change nothing. The results would not be driven by ambition, planning, calculating execution in football terms - it would be an unrepeatable fluke.

The only thing that can transform the intentions of the club and get us back into the game is for the fans, all of them, to stand together against everything this club has become. But it won't happen. Consumers are not as committed or fanatical as fans. And consumers are replacing the fans as the latter are priced out or bored out. If anything, the strengthening consumer base will fall neatly and willingly into the clutches of the rapists. And unholy trinity, the corporateers, their front man the money priest Wenger and the cult following.

I don't know what that leaves for the real fans. Can you love something that is rotting from the inside and stinks so badly?

[Xhaka Can’t]

This is an excellent thread. I haven't got the time or perhaps the eloquence to post as others have here.

But what I have the time to say is regardless of whether or not Arsenal is a broken Club, it has broken me.

I hope that some time in the future things change. But now? I'm disgusted with this 'club', what it stands for and how it operates.

It clearly exists for one reason only. To generate as much money as it can for those who already have more than we can dream of. And it takes it from anyone it can, right down to the poor sod that has so little, he scrapes together what he can to attend a single match.

They do this while not giving back to us even the bare minimum with a huge pile of funds at its disposal. Money provided by us.

They promised us 'jam tomorrow' for over 10 years now, and we bought it. We invested our love in the club, our time and our money to help build a future where this Club could compete and prosper.

To repay that loyalty in the way the way they have, makes me sick.

In terms of my support for this Club, I'm broken.

[Power n Glory]

I think we're all pretty close to that stage now. The fanbase has been split and it will can only get worse the longer this goes on. What sort of legacy will Wenger leave behind? It sounds crazy considering what's been built but this is a complete failure if it rips apart the foundations of the club. A pointless journey.

I have mixed feelings towards Wenger because of that. He's supposed to be a football man but when you hear some of things he says and think about the agenda behind it... it's rotten. I still can't get over how he said we needed to hike season ticket prices to remain competitive with our rivals. It also irked me last season when he said season ticket prices won't go down because the club needs all the money for transfers. It's utter rubbish. Whether it's revenue from the stadium or sponsorship money, he's not spending. Why? He serves the shareholders and looks after their interests more than he looks after the fans. He gave himself away during that AGM meeting some years back where he told the shareholders they shouldn't have anything to complain about because we were making a profit each year. Totally misjudged that one because the shareholders were Arsenal fans first and upset about the results. Is that how he thinks? If he looks after the club and keeps it running well he's done his job? He's supposed to be a football purist and that's what really sucks about the situation. He should be pushing the agenda for excellence on the field but he doesn't.