Quote Originally Posted by 21_GOONER_SALUTE View Post
in general and I'd like to point out your last paragraph helps me with a different ongoing argument I am having with a "trust the process" HCZ about how good our suits have been in managing our affairs.

Initially when the Forbes list came out in 2007, we were the 3rd biggest club in the world financially based on value and only behind Man U and Madrid (we were practically the same size as Madrid though).

At that time Man U was only about one and a half times bigger than us. All the other clubs in England were miles behind us. Liverpool and Chelsea were roughly 2 times smaller than us, while Spurs and Citeh were 4 times smaller than us.

Almost 20 years later, we are number 8 in the world and we've actually improved quite a lot in the last 3 years after dropping to as low as no 11 in the world and no 6 in England. However Man U and Real Madrid have consistently remained in the top places of every list in the past 20 years never going below no 3 and are currently no 2 and 1 respectively.

In England specifically, Man U is currently twice the size of us, Liverpool & Citeh are one and a half times bigger than us, while Chelsea and Spurs are pretty much at par with us (they were ahead of us a year ago).

Clearly in the last 20 years we've had the lowest growth among our rivals financially (and probably in every other aspect despite consistently always charging the highest on average for season tickets), and it's obviously not only about titles as Man U and Tottenham wouldn't be doing so well despite their erratic form.

So when some of us who are familiar with this world lambast our suits for being shortsighted and acting like mini shopkeepers, its clearly something evidenced by something as unbiased as our value to the unapologetic outside world....which permeates even into things like the transfer market.
Really interesting topic this.

We are losing our position as one of the biggest clubs because of our lack of success in winning major trophies, and IMO you are right that we do not have the pull that Arteta/the club thinks we do. Unltimately, unlike we Gooners the outside world doesn't really give a shit that we have been runners up in the league 3x, and got to the CL semis. For all that he has improved us, Arteta is still a relative rookie with no winning track record. And we do not have the petro dollars to make up for our lack of footballing pull.

We have a traditionally big worldwide fanbase - but this is largely based on the exploits of Henry, Bergkamp and the Invincibles and a reputation for playing pretty football. This reputation is dying out, and if we are honest our current style of play is not really gaining new fans. Success is imperative for us.

I think that this is a big reason why its so frustrating to see us dithering. For anyone taking an interest in our club from outside, I think our reputation undoubtedly took a hit as a result of disastrous transfer windows last season, and our failure to prevent Liverpool from cruising to the title effectively with a couple of months to spare. Literally nothing that we are hearing so far this Summer is giving any indication that we really mean business. I mean - even the Zubimendi transfer has come under question - notwithstanding that this is apparently a done deal. If we are honest - we do not look like an outfit with any real ambition to enhance our postion as a top world club. Reputationally, landing a truly world class player (and I don't even include Gyokores or Sesko here) is very important for us, but from all we can see even or transfer targets - let alone the likes of Nico Williams and Rodrigo - are pretty lukewarm on joining the project.

I hope I am wrong, but currently I don't have a great feeling about how this is all going to play out - and I can see a relatively small time approach this Summer leading to failure next season...