Firstly, I know that the thread title is exaggerated. Secondly, it is not just a reaction to our usual miserable transfer season, or a spoilt brat reaction to the spending of our rivals.

But in terms of our status as a 'top' club with title aspirations, this transfer window; together with the preceding season has torn away the last vestiges of an illusion that has characterised AFC for the past 10 years, and finally revealed us for what we are. We are also-rans, and we have thrown in the towel in terms of preserving the status that we have enjoyed for decades.

I defy any Gooner to think seriously that we have any prospect of winning the league, or progressing into the final stages of the CL this coming season. I defy any Gooner to suggest that the majority view outside the club is anything other than that we are a bit of a joke - clinging Canute style to the idea of 'doing things the right way'; playing 'proper football'; growing organically etc etc while the game accelerates beyond us.

Don't get me wrong. There are 16 teams in the league whose fans would be pleased to perform at our consistent level. Plenty of people will gladly come to matches to see us play, and (for now) we will remain prominent in terms of televised games. But with the club's approach over the last few seasons, combined with the comments that have been made by manager and CEO lately, I think that the truth is there for all to see. Arsenal has no plans to progress; no proper understanding of what has happened in either the game or the football environment over the past few years and no blueprint to take the Club forwards - which is more than likely to translate into regression as other clubs move forwards.

It is almost as though our appetite to be a top team evaporated following the now 'failed' stadium project. It has failed because with the TV money throughout the entire league, stadium receipts are effectively an irrelevance. The future in this regard is typified by the deal West Ham did re the Olympic stadium; the fact that Liverpool, Spurs will be able to raise finance for their new stadiums without breaking stride on the playing side and the recognition by the top clubs that 'obscene' investment in the world's best players and managers is more than offset by marketing receipts.

If you think about it, the 'Oligarch' era is itself now consigned to history. Like it or not, we are in a brave new world of commercial investment in football - where the top clubs are more than billionaire's playthings. The supreme irony of Arsenal is that football is that we are specialists in corporate management - but even here we lack ambition, because Kroenke's vision is not both self-serving, and lacks the scope of those at the helm at Manure and Citeh.

I heard a Gooner on the radio yesterday bemoaning the fact that 'nothing will change' until Wenger leaves. The reality is that its no longer even about our myopic manager any more. The entire structure and philosophy of our club is predicated against being the best. The club's acceptance of player talent/performances that falls consistently below the excellence required to win; a seemingly mediocre scouting system; an inability to recognise what it takes to close deals and the continued endorsement of managerial decisions that are clearly misguided. I don't think that this will change post Wenger. I think that second best is now as woven into the fabric of our club's set up as our reputation for doing things the 'Arsenal Way'.

As for Wenger. IMHO he has lost his bottle. He is a slave to his own hubris and has become characterised by his ideals of self sustainability. He takes untimate pride not in winning, but in achieving efficiency - a coeficiency of spending against league (CL) position. Our problem as fans is that this coincides so precisely with the mentality of those running our club that it has come to define it. What Wenger would love is not to be a Man U, but a Leicester. But he does not seem to appreciate that the Leicester's success was a) a one-off, and b) built on belief; ambition and a team work ethic that is very different to his own approach to the game.

So we as fans are left with only two realistic options - to 'enjoy' our club without the excitement of a tilt at silverware (which has been undoubtedly a privilege in the past); or to disengage from the intensity that comes with being title contenders - which is clearly now what Arsenal has done.