Quote Originally Posted by Letters View Post
No team has a Divine right to be anywhere, some clubs have a history of being a bigger club, others have recently bought their way in to the top table (which, to be fair, is the only way of joining these days).
Arsenal have always been a big club and a fairly successful one BUT it should be noted that since the 30s we have never been a team which has been consistently successful. Read Fever Pitch.
We won The Double in 1971 and didn't win another trophy of any kind till 1979, for example. And that Double was preceded by the Fairs Cup in 1970 but that was the first trophy since 1953 when we were champions.
There have been long periods of time when we've been nowhere. English football has never had a Rangers or Celtic who are pretty much always up there, it's only the rise of TV money and in particular the Champions League which has created this little group of teams at the top of each league who tend to stay up there because the money it generates makes it self-sustaining.

This is why I asked what you meant by who "we" are. What standard do "we" set ourselves? If you mean the board then the current lot only care about the revenues, trophies are nice and keep the profile up but so long as we're up there in the top 4 and qualify for the CL the income streams are secured so that's good enough. I believe Wenger desperately wants us to win titles but I don't think he has the ability to do so any more. If you mean the fans then what is that standard based on? For younger fans it can only be what they've grown up with which is us being brilliant and winning trophies left, right and centre. This is why I say Wenger is only failing compared with himself. It's not that we never had success before Wenger, obviously. But let's not forget that it was never consistent success. Never in our history have we had so many consecutive seasons as one of the top few clubs in the country.
I'm not talking about divine right? What is divine right? Football has changed since the 70s. There is no point comparing.

You still haven't answered the first part of the question. Would it this be acceptable for Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Barca or Bayern?

We're the 5th richest club in the world above City, Chelsea and Juve, just below Bayern with Utd, Barca and Madrid. But we're the club that hasn't won the league in over a decade. Well, Spurs are also in that Top 10 along with Liverpool but considering how we rip the piss out of them and how we rip the piss out of Utd, City or Chelsea when finishing lower than expected or losing, why is that Wenger is only being compared with himself? That's not how this works. I've only ever heard of that when someone is so good and far beyond the competition that they're on another planet compared to anyone else and it's only fair to compare their work with their best effort. We can agree that's not the case for Wenger.