The league is made up of 5 mini leagues
Theres the big 3 - 2 Manc clubs and Chelsea
Laughing stock - Us, Spuds, Liverpool for various reasons. Basically clubs who won trophies in the past but are shit now
Making up the numbers - Villa, Everton, Fulham, Bolton. Wont threaten the big clubs in the league and wont go down so do f all really.
Pub teamers - Blackburn. Stoke. Teams that cant play football but do enough to stay up.
The rest - fighting for survival
There was never really a big 4 tbh, a big part of it was Sky needing something to market on and to sell their annual 'Grand Slam Sunday', there were 4 teams that were usually in the top 4 spot but as that only really held for 3/4 years it was a bit of a weak claim. Now there is Chelsea and Citeh throwing money at anything that comes near them, Man U slowly declining (yes, despite winning the title...) and in need of rejuvenation and us and Liverpool trying to build something without the advantages of the other teams.
As for what I expect this summer, we'll see a few good players come in, probably of the right kind needed, and we'll see a few squad players leave. We'll be stronger next season but fuck knows if it'll be enough to stop us from doing our usual collapse, anything we do will be a little inconsequential as far as I'm concerned because we won't know if it's had any real effect until the crunch time at the end of the season, unless we win all our games from now until Christmas and end up 15 points clear then it might be an indicator.
I don't really expect anything significant, just more projects, some like Gervinho are like High Profile Projects, others like Alex Oxlade are Young High Profile Projects.
I don't think Arsene has it in him to spend the money that will significantly strengthen our squad....and I think when it comes down to it we will not sign any of our first choice targets/PL targets because Arsene's morals will get in the way.
It will be the usual summer of
"We set a price on zee player and ve vill not pay a penny over zee value"
"We try for zee player but zee price is too high, zee market is inflated"
Blah Blah Blah, we'll scrape 4th place the season was a success, the players don't get enough credit for their achievements, Blah Blah Blah.
I think there was a big 4. This was created out of the Chavs and Liverpool encroaching on territory that we and Manure dominated prior to 2003/4. Almost as soon as it came into existance, however, we were on the slide. And Liverpool have traded places with citeh over the past couple of years.Originally Posted by Darth Vela
Ironic really that our decline came as a direct result of the measures we took to remain a top team in the long run.
But where we are now is that we are not in the top tier in this league, and IMO if we expect to be signing players of the calibre of the best players in the top 3 this Summer, we will be disappointed.
That's not being pessimistic. Its being realistic. Taking an overall look at the situation with a little distance between us and our shameful collapse the sad thing is that of all the teams in the league, possibly in Europe, we made the best effort to try to remain properly competetive by an alternative method than simply buying success...and failed. Whether in the future we will have our own means of spending big enough to achieve success is another matter.
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter
expecting a few more squad players, an overrated overpriced kid or two and some promotions from the youth team.
Never a truer word said, still time to rescue it imo but as it would probably be as a result of flexing our financial muscles it makes it look less and less like a consistently viable method. I still think it's provided a solid base for us to build a team that can compete for quite a while but unless we're actually able to build it we end up going round in circles again.Ironic really that our decline came as a direct result of the measures we took to remain a top team in the long run.
on reflection the story about having to invest in the long run has been a lie. The stadium move has generated a lot of value its true. However that value has been divvied up by
1) players/management on ever increasing wages and
2) shareholders who, while never taking dividends out, were happy to keep the money in the club so their shares got boosted and they could sell out to kronke for a massive backdated payday.
very little of that value generated found has been invested in sporting performance.
I think that that asessment is a tad harsh. Firstly, it ignores the need to repay the stadium debt - something that the club is doing ahead of time. In April this year, the debt had been reduced to £147m from £350m.
Second - and this is the crux of the matter for AFC - the stadium project was intended to allow Arsenal to compete at the very top against the background of the EPL as it existed in the early 2000's. However, the unrestricted 'investment' that has since occurred at the likes of Chelsea and Citeh means that the market has made it impossible to compete at the top via traditional means. You either become a billionaire's plaything, or you live on the verge of bancruptcy - and the latter is something that only the very biggest clubs can do 'safely' because lenders have to have the security of the underlying asset base - in tems of fanbase as well as tangible assets.
It is undeniably the financially doped clubs that have had an adverse effect on us - by making it far more expensive for us to buy and keep players than if they had not inflated the market. So the club can't be wholly blamed for having to divert more of the stadium income into player's wages.
What we are talking about, essentially, is degrees of borrowing. And while I think we would all agree that our manager has been overly puritanical in his approach to the transer market, and over-indulgent as regards rewarding his 'project' players, I don't think you could go so far as to say that the aim of long term investment was a lie. It is an aim that has been taken over by events, and one that will only now bear fruit in the unlikely event of the FIFA fair play rules having any real effect - but only the most blinkered fans woiuld deny that long term stability remains a key aim of the club management.
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter
We were still selling our top players and not replacing them with the same quality or experience way before man city came into the picture. That has been Wenger's deluded approach always -- this has now been shown up to be as you refer to it "an overly puritanical" approach. This is what is to blame -- external factors are irrelevant because as a club we are still big enough to influence our own fate.
A former board chairman has said wenger has to be made to feel comfortable to spend money FFS. I mean if spending over the top ocassionally to address serious deficiencies in the squad so we are competitive is too much for wenger then who is to blame?
Xabi Alonso was one vital potential signing we let slip away because his club's valuation was a bit over wenger's valuation. I read a couple of million. Now here we are looking to flog denilson whose replacement I am sure will be the unseasoned ramsey and wilshere!
The blame mostly lies at wenger's door steps, though the board are partly to blame -- rightly or wrongly they have ceded the matters on the pitch and and those that directly afftect what happens on the pitch entirely to AW's whims.
Do you genuinely feel that it was not entirely within the club's control to make sure what has happened the past few seasons did not happen? Are we not better than that? Torres initially went to liverpool for 25mil -- could we not have bought a top striker like that for that sum?
We could have, but wenger doesn't want to "bankrupt" the club.
‘Arsene was very cautious and David was very ambitious for the club,’ said former director Keith Edelman, managing director at the time. ‘He was very good at getting Arsene into a position where he was comfortable spending money.’
The board have said if wenger identifies a player he really wants and he needs the money it's there. Wenger doesn't think it's worth it!
Yep i think your bang on the money with that. Where you have put us is spot on and even Wenger would tell you the same.
The Arsenal bored know were not part of the big 3 hence why there was no need to spend big these last 5 seasons. all we were was champions of getting 4th spot and once we finshed 3rd wich was a bonus for the club.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote