Originally Posted by
Niall_Quinn
You've just said it yourself though, despite horrific officiating and also the key injuries, we are still a good team, the best you say. And we've finished 3rd in the CL qualifiers and we're second in the PL, we still have to go to Anfield and Liverpool still have to navigate through tough games and avoid the issues we have face (and most teams eventually face over the course of a season). So we aren't out of this title yet, and we aren't out of the CL yet.
We didn't help ourselves at all in the summer, agreed. So here was a chance to rectify that. And it's not as if there wasn't talent out there we could have picked up, in fact it now sounds like we could have signed Watkins if we chose to do that, and that manager wanted to do that. But we had non-football people banging on about age and sell-on fees. The sustainable gang. Well I would say of that's the goal, sustainability to the last penny, it's the very definition of a lack of ambition in football or any sport. Not saying they should put in stupid bids for unnecessary players, but can you think of a time, a critical point in any season, when we more desperately needed a specific type of player? And we didn't do that. Because the sell-on fee might be an issue.
Sounds like Arteta had to persuade them to back him. Sounds like Arteta also realised there was no option here, we had to get a striker in. Sounds like all the usual shit that has plagued Arsenal over so many years scuppered that deal again. How is that classed as ambition? It's more like sabotage. Sustainable, for sure, they've kept their money in their pockets, can't get more sustainable than that. But serving the interests of the club, to win on the pitch and bring in trophies, which we actually have a chance of doing? It's bullshit, an abandonment of duty and a disregard for the reason we're all here. If the whole Watkins thing goes wrong then sell him in the summer and take the loss. Or sell some other player who we don't actually need (like Zinchenko) and offset that against Watkin's undesirable sell-on fee.
Watkins aside, what about Rashford. Yes, as distasteful as that might be. Was that deal undoable as well? Even on a loan? I don't know, maybe Utd wouldn't have even spoken to us, but surely they are more concerned with Villa's fortunes than ours this season. Or any of the loan deals that were made, that Evan Ferguson kid. Arsenal standard? I don't know. Was MLS or Nwaneri Arsenal standard before they got a chance?
I don't think the club has a lg to stand on here. I think this is pure negligence and I think that negligence has come about due to a complete lack of ambition. What other reason can there be? Are we saying we'll go bust if we sign Watkins? We can't work around that? Are we saying our summer plan is so exceptional and so guaranteed we could do nothing to jeapordise that, even as Saka and Jesus are laid up in the treatment room?
I see ample evidence for a lack of ambition. I see a make-do-and-mend mentality. Keep us bubbling at just the level so those seats are occupied and that waiting list is long and that shop has the tills ringing. That's how they measure success, not in trophies but in profit margins. I;d also like to see a real breakdown of expenditure over the Kroenke years, not just gross and net spends. I want to see the full amount of what came in and what percentage of that was then returned in transfer activity, both in and out. It wouldn't surprise me at all if that number was heavily weighted in the Kronekes' favour. I don't know those numbers, would just be interested to see them. Sustainability would mean us balancing what comes in and what goes out, wouldn't it? Is that what we have been doing or is cash piling up in Kroenke's bank account. It's time to start looking into that again.
I didn't want to see a buzzing transfer window for the excitement of it. I wanted to see bodies coming in to replace the fallen bodies who aren't on the pitch. That's just common sense and all the other considerations be damned. We have to get from here to the end of the season and do the best we can with the 3 chances we have to land silverware. But if we are saying, forget this season, wait until the summer and then we go again next season - well how is that not a lack of ambition when 3 chances of silverware are still there, in front of us? How?
I think it's important Arteta has made a statement about his disappointment because now, hopefully, the fans can get behind him and the players (who did excellently against Wolves and then city), and point the finger where it deserves to be pointed.
I mean in the end, Kroenke has sent daddy's boy from over the pond to run a club that has almost as much history as the USA. Fuck that and fuck them.
Jesus injured, Saka injured, Eddie sold and Sterling literally this bum living in our house. Did we absolutely need to do business this transfer window? How could anyone suggest we didn't?
Well, I'm going to back Haverta and Trossard and Martinelli and that kid on which we have now pinned so much, Nwaneri, and I'm even going to pray to the gods that Sterling somehow managed to conjure up some las hurrah. Then I'm going to pray for a miracle that none of them get injured between now and the end of the season. Because that's all the penny-pinching, blind and disinterested accountants who run this club have left us with.
In my book, bastards to a man and it would be better if they would GTFO and let somebody come in and push this club the last few yards.
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