Ashley Cole was right all those years ago...Originally Posted by AKBapologist
Ashley Cole was right all those years ago...
Might have been right but he still a **** lol.
ofcourseofcourse.
He suuuuure was
well wilshere was supposed to be the one to step through
and that went tits up.
Common sense.
IMHO the only things the club can be seriously criticised for are:
- Being a bit too conservative. I feel we are - but its a hell of a lot better than too many risks and going pop. A lot of people don't understand that we simply don't have the marketing clout to borrow/raise money like Manure do - and even with Manure their levels of debt are uncomfortably high. They have prospered because they have a better manager than us. But AFC can't be criticised for that. SAF's don't grow on trees. I'm not even going to bother mentioning the Chavs and Citeh - the only other clubs above us in the EPL.
- Giving Wenger too much power. A difficult one this, because its been an evolving situation and is so closely tied in with the stadium project as to be indistinguishable. The project has benefitted the club less than was anticipated, but it has undoubtedly been a benefit for the club. Remember the Chavs; Liverpool; Spurs still need to revedelop stadia to progress. We have already done so. And we simply could not have done it without Wenger.
- Becoming an developmental side. I agree wholeheartedly that the balance between tried and tested and overpaid unproven players has become horribly skewed and harmed our chances. But its easy to criticise in hindsight - at the time it was a) a necessary evil of the stadium project and our reduced capacity for sponsorship deals, and b) an alternative to the financial doping route. yes it didn;t work, but IMO its harsh to blame the club for trying.
Noone is trying to deny that not winning anything, and enduring groundhog day in terms of our best players leaving hurts - but I maintain that there is/was little, if anything that the club could have done to prevent Cesc; Na$ri; RVP and Song walking out of the door. We are not as rich or successful as the competition. Its a fact and we have to deal with it. Blaming the club for not being as rich/successful as others is trite.
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter
^ I would add another 'serious' criticism of the club in that list, IBK:
- Demolishing club pride. We've sold our captain to Man Utd. You just don't do shit like that. You hold on to him and if he leaves next year, at least you tried. You can't just take the best option financially all the time. The long-term future of the club is obviously very important. But for Wenger's Arsenal - a club that prides itself on principles and tradition, you just don't hand over your captain to Man Utd. Liverpool would never do that.
Few things to deal with here.
Is our football boring? Could be. I'd agree that we are indirect and obsessed with tippy tap possession play. But we were boring under GG. Chelsea were boring under Mourinho. City were boring and negative until the last third of last season. We might not like the way that Wenger has chosen to play, but is that a reason to criticise the club?
Is the game being bled dry? Hell yes. I despise the greedy players; the agents; the billionaires in their pissing contests; the press raking over every sensationalist detail...and yes, for this reason my passion for the game is much diminished. Part of the boredom comes from the fact that the arrival of the petro dollars has taken the spontenaity and the unpredictability out of the game, its not just because of our playing style. But this is an accusation to level at the game, and perhaps even at society itself. Not the club.
Is football value for money? Well the market seems to say so, because our club and others still have full stadia notwithstanding the high prices charged. Its sad, but the reality is that if AFC halved its ticket prices, and then announced that it was not longer seriously in the market for silverware, because it did not have sufficient matchday revenue, but it had now based its policy on simply 'entertaining' as wide a cross section of live fans as possible - I guarantee that there would be even more criticism than now.
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter
I'll buy that. But IMO it has to be tempered by some pragmatism. We want our club to be hard-nosed when it comes to commercial deals, but being hard nosed about getting the best financial deal for a want away player then comes in for criticism. I still feel, in the real world where football is governed by money, as everything else, that the club had little choice but to do the Manure deal. Personally, I'm disappointed that RVP's gone to Citeh, as I was disappointed when that scrote went to Citeh - because it makes us as fans feel small. But the real crime, IMO, is in not being bolder in re-investing our transfer funds. If we had brought in just one more real quality player the Manure factor would not hurt nearly as much - after all, its hardly a revelation that they are a bigger and better team than we are. I can understand AW not wanting to make a snap decision - after all, Carrol was bought partly to offset psychologically the loss of Torres at Liverpoolbut we have a perfect storm of losing our best player and then fumbling in the transfer market like we haven't, and that I will admit is frustrating.
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter
Whilst you are right and it shows a lack of ambition selling our captain to our rivals. But if he says he only wanted to go there which he said.,as fergie said. I'd not have believed hat if it came from our camp. Then there is not much we could do, its clear he did not want to be with us.
so what do we do put him in the reserves for a few months or the year. Well we still won't have him in the team and when we do he won't be fully commited.
Its easier said then done to say you hold on to him but football is diffrent once a players head its turned the club have no control really. And If he really wanted to go to man utd then we'd have no choice but to sell him to them as long as a good offer is in.
The problem is getting into that situation where we backed ourself into a corner.
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