A PERSPECTIVE by Abel
Arsenal fans have been calling for Arsene Wenger to step down as he is seen as the pantomime villain who has destroyed our beloved club and held us back due to his ‘penny pinching’ in the transfer market and ‘poor player management’. Names of young dynamic coaches have been mentioned as better replacement for him. Names like Pep Guardiola, Klopp, Pochettino, have been put forward, managers that would take over from Wenger and win the League and Champions league with Arsenal.
However, Arsenal as a club is very unique and not many coaches can manage under the setup. The board has a setup that will ensure the longevity of Arsenal and hence money is not thrown at problems instead, there is always financial accountability so we don’t end up like Leeds United, who famously got to champions league semi finals, but are now a permanent fixture in the Championship. Similarly, Nottingham Forest, who dumped us out of the FA cup, have actually won the champions league many years ago but they too are now also a permanent fixture in the Championship.
The American businessman who is the majority share holder in Arsenal is a ‘sports’ fan not a purely football/soccer fan. He was offered the chance to buy Arsenal so as to stave off interest from other megalomaniac owners, who would initially throw money at Arsenal and leave us bankrupt when they lose interest or become broke. Take a look at Rangers in Scotland, or Portsmouth or even Blackburn who were bought by Indian ‘businessmen’. Chelsea is owned by a billionaire who actually loves football and the club. But that is one good example out of several. Manchester United’s owners are much like Arsenal owners. They are stable and do not throw money at the club, however, due to earlier success and consequent merchandising, United have enough money to dominate EPL without extra funds from the owners. Manchester City on the other hand is owned by an oil rich country (UAE).
It’s no coincidence that Arsenal have been unable to consistently challenge for the title since the emergence of Chelsea, Man City, and recently Liverpool under FSG (another makeshift ownership structure). I can categorically state that Pep cannot win the premiership with Arsenal working under the same restrictions as Wenger. Pep went trophyless with a City side that was still the most expensively assembled players last season. This season he has now spent £174M on defenders (£124M on fullbacks and £50M on Laporte) plus millions spent on Bernado Silva from Monaco. Pep has always worked in a star studded team and still outspent his opponents.
That leaves the likes of Pochettino and Klopp who for all their huffing and Puffing are yet to win any trophies in England. Last season was the first season Arsenal had failed to make the top 4. United failed to make the top 4 two years consecutively but made it into Champions league via winning the Europa League.
We need to adjust our expectations, no matter who the Arsenal manager is. We will never out spend City, United or Chelsea. Hence, realistically by finances, we should fight for 4th spot with Liverpool and Spurs amidst winning the odd cup. We have actually done well in the cups recently. True, Leicester won the league with less funds and unknown players but it’s not often that circumstances conspire to achieve that, otherwise they should have been able to do it again instead of nearly getting relegated the very next season, resulting in the sacking of the title winning Manager.
Let’s get behind our team, no manager is a miracle worker, they all work with what they are given by the owners.
Abel
We could all accept what you say if the manager was not hugely paid, the ticket prices were not the highest , and the manager and board were not pretending constantly that we can compete with the best. All nonsense, and I say it again, fans expect to see a club trying to win, not beancounters.
Totally agree. It’s the consistent misleading and deception by AW and the club that really grates me. One day we’re being told we have money to spend and the next, we can’t compete for the best players.
You sound like you want to win more than Wenger…
Really?
well said …. and would add if the same management structure hadn’t lied to fans about how all this would allow us to compete with top teams in Europe with … with exception of PSG … are not driven by oil wealth or megalomanic owners … of course none of this has anything to do with the footballing errors consistently made by wenger and which if corrected would at least give us a BETTER shot at winning top trophies than has been the case over the last dozen or so years
“Manchester United’s owners are much like Arsenal owners. They are stable and do not throw money at the club, however, due to earlier success and consequent merchandising, United have enough money to dominate EPL without extra funds from the owners.”
Arsenal also benefited from their earlier success (such as the Invincible era), have a world class stadium, have the most expensive ticket in England and have very good merchandising sales, proven by their wealth compared to other football clubs in the world today:
standard.co.uk/sport/football/tottenham-have-more-financial-muscle-than-real-madrid-manchester-united-and-chelsea-says-study-a3731576.html
No manager is a miracle worker, but Leicester City and Ranieri have proven that money is not everything. And unlike Manchester United, Arsenal deliberately made fake interests in world class players (Suarez, Lemar and now Aubameyang), to fool their own fans repeatedly.
well Leicester and Ranieri cant do it again……
Fake interest? or are you creating fake rumours?
Liverfool refuse to negotiate after our weird 40+ 1
Lemar price have escalated to over 90m ….even Liverfool is being frighten off….so far no one has sign him yet
Aubameyang deal is still under negotiation….no one knows whats going on behind the scenes…..
This is not Fifa18….you dont pay any club without negotiation and still has unlimited funds for spending
simione did it with atlatico madrid
klopp did it with dortmund twice
dortmund wont 60 million arsenal offers 50 million!! why they cannot just pay 10 millions.
Are you addicted to Fifa18?
I heard it’s a pretty cool games for jobless people.
But as the last 5.5 years have proven, money isn’t the issue! If it was, Leicester wouldn’t have won the title, Spurs wouldn’t have finished above both of the Manchester clubs for the last 2 seasons, City spend loads last season, and finished 3rd, winning nothing, etc. Another blatant point is that we’ve spending a lot of money as well over the last 5.5 years, kept all of our best players until this month, yet we’ve regressed in both the league, and in Europe.
Yes spending huge money makes it a little easier, but the finances are just one of many components that make a winning team. Yes it’s hard to win the big prizes, but we’re not even challenging for the league or in Europe anymore!
So please stop with this false narrative of ‘it’s all about the finances’, because it’s proven beyond doubt that it’s a lie! And even if it is about the money, then why are we not selling our players for big money to generate funds then? Liverpool bring in a quarter of billion selling Coutinho, Suarez, and Sterling, whilst we let our players leave for next to nothing, or for nothing!!!!
Forgot to mention we’re one of the richest clubs in the world, we pay the highest ticket prices in the world, and our manager is one of the best paid in the world. If ALL of these were not the case, then I would happily adjust my expectations.
We won several FA Cups recently…
No PL title
No CL
So, to get PL title, the Mhiki + Auba are the new additions. This is likely going to be more productive than Alexis wanna win World Cup and Ozil always in the World Cup. (Armenia and Gabon are not in it.)
More to come next season, assuming Ozil is leaving. We can then play 442 as well as 433 and variations, with Auba much faster and better in the air than Alexis. Auba + Mhki will have more goals in them, as they have played together.
What is needed now are replacements for Koz, who is getting injured. Then at DM to add to proper competition to protect the back 3 or 4.
We have Lacazette, who I thought was subdued Alexis in the show.
So:
4321
———————Laca—————————-
————–Mkhi——-Auba——————
Sead—————-Xhaka————-Ramsay
Monreal——-Koz——–Mustafi——-Bellerin
———————–Czech————————–
4-3-3
————–Mkhi—-Laca—Auba————-
——–Sead——-Xhaka——-Ramsay———-
Monreal——-Koz——–Mustafi——-Bellerin
———————–Czech————————–
442
————-Laca——————Auba————-
Sead———-Xhaka——Mkhi——-El/Ramsay
Monreal———Koz——–Mustafi———Bellerin
———————–Czech—————————
4312 (If Ozil stays!)
—————-Laca—–Auba—————
———————-Ozil———————–
Sead——–Xhaka—-Mkhi——-Ramsay
Monreal—–Koz——-Mustafi—–Bellerin
——————-Czech————————
We are due a quality CB and a quality DMF in the summer. The attack is done with or without Ozil. There is no point in trying to replace Ozil, he is one of a kind. So better to a get a DMF to stop the goals and begin clean sheets with the teams below Arsenal.
It seems the salaries and the burdens of ego will cause problems at United, City and Chelsea, while the Spurs will have problems holding on the core. There is a good chance for Arsenal to hit the ground running next year as the team will be more settled with or without Ozil.
No body is asking for money to be thrown at problems. We are also not asking for money to be wasted like it was on Grabriel, Perez who where bought but never got a chance or on Xhaka who was more expensive than some of the players bought by Man City, Chelsea or Man U but he was a poor investment or Chambers who cost a fortune at the time but was than barely used or respected.
Our manager has shown he has lost the plot and no longer has the ability to keep his star players or out manage clubs with vastly inferior payrolls like Liverpool and Spurs.
We are not asking for miracles we are asking to stop doing what doesn’t work and Wenger has had more than his fair chances to give it a go but he just is no longer in touch of the game and that has nothing to do with money or expectations.
Old history… Write this this in two years.
it is the turn of bigger clubs to lose players now, as Arsenal has its core signed up, more or less.
Wow ok! Let’s be average and happy about it guys! This defeatist mentality peddled by AKBs is exactly what we must resist. As one of the top 10 wealthiest clubs in the world it is unacceptable we cannot challenge for the league or champions league. Why can’t we buy a defensive midfielder? Do we need a Saudi prince to buy our club inorder to buy a defensive midfielder? A lot of our problems lie with 1 man who has clung on for decades and refuses to give anyone else a chance to manage the club.
Arsenal have the ability to be to quote special one A GIANT club!! You cannot achieve that if you don’t expect to be the best! The fact is that the premier league IS the hardest to win in the world!
i think one of the greatest /decent things left for mr wenger to do as his two-year-contract ebbs to an end would be to encourage talks with carlos ancelotti to come in to the club and to afford him space enough to weave his talent to take arsenal to more lofty heights – you see we don’t aspire to settle at 4th place, we like to think the players we have are skilled and enough and inspired to deliver us the epl as well as real prospects for us to show in the latter stages of the champions league.
thing is i think ancelotti would love to take up the baton and jump at the stability of being our next manager – thing is there’s so much ego and narcissistic tendency behind the scenes at arsenal that i’m concerned whether the club has the guts or the will to get behind another manager and to show what is really meant by ambition and “catalyst for change” – we need new ideas, for sure.
That still doesn’t explain Wenger’s constant poor decision making and tactics.
To be fair 4th place and the odd cup
is probably where 90% of Arsenal fans
have been this last decade.
Any public protest has been small,
largely ignored and ineffectual.
Fleeting Piers Morgan tweets achieve … err…nothing.
asenalfantv interviews are entertaining but are
probably no more than tidy earners for the site owners.
Arsenals 14 year title drought has little impact on full stadiums
on TV revenues or the 90,000 waiting list for season tickets.
We sing
And its 4tharsenal 4tharsenal FC
we’re by far the best 4thfranchise
the league has ever seen
and it’s 4tharsenal…
May the 4th be with us 🙂
You need to adjust your thinking! Not your expectations. If you think it’s okay to be 20 points off top half way through the season then you obviously have very low expectations!! The contracts situation is a shambles and the constant lies are insulting!!! Take it somewhere else..
This is why certain fans at this club have sat by and argued with fans who want change ! We act like a mid table club in every way apart from what we pay to watch the team and the promises of the riches the new stadium would bring .
In this day and Age our finiancial management may be great especially if we developed talent , but we don’t our manager can’t beat any top team in the league consistently . Let’s just stop pretending and act like a mid table club and charge us accordingly or act like a big club and pay what big club pay
Even supporters of a small town club in the lower reaches of League 2 can hope to top that league and experience the thrill of being ‘champions’. That’s what being a true fan is all about – ignoring reality and looking forward to the smallest imaginable chance of success.
Under the present ownership and management regime, the reality is all too clear for us Arsenal fans and cannot be ignored!
If someone had the time and inclination,it would be interesting to see how we would have fared in a 17 team league that did not include Chelsea,City and Utd for the last 10 years.It would mean removing all the results from every team that played them over the seasons and calculate the goals for and against.The results would tell us exactly how we have done in a league where these clubs had greater financial power.I believe we would have done very well as it has been our results home and away against the “bigger” clubs that have been the reason we have failed to get close (Leicester’sTitle winning season being the nearest for years).I believe it would portray ARSENAL as the MONEY NO OBJECT CLUB,but I might just be wrong.
There is a solution to consider that will let us compete with every top club in the world and I’m amazed nobody has thought of it as it is 2 very simple steps
1)Build a new stadium and charge the highest admission prices for tickets.
2)Get a Billionaire Owner.
Why didn’t anyone think of this before?
Ok so we should just expect Arsenal to fight for 4th place, win the odd cup over the years and capitulate in Europe year after year while our manager is earning 8 mill for a term and the board is creaming off the profits………no thanks. People spend a lot of hard earned money to follow this club and they expect a club who will compete at the highest level.
Board and incompetent manager OTF!!!!
It’s not a matter of” throwing money” ,it’s investments which can give you money in return.City and Chelsea owners,i hâte to say it, are not idiots they invests and get money on return.thé problème with Wenger is that hé has a Keynesian conception of economy which nowdays is outdated.
I’d take Antonio Conte as manager in a heartbeat.
LOL!
And, then see players bought and sold on the fly?
Even after 12 years?
Abel as we all know Arsenal are now a 6th place team in the Premier League. Wenger is still taking home a big wage packet and the board are also doing quite well. So what I get from this post is you are Happy with Arsenal being a 6th place team at best. I thought that moving to the Emirates Stadium was the Clubs way of saying we can now compete with the best clubs in the World. But I now think it was just a way of getting more money from the Fans. Wenger and the Board are now diddering over buying a quality player Aubameyang for 60m which in this day and age is not a huge amount and I am quite sure the club can afford it. I don’t think this will bankrupt Arsenal.
If you think so maybe we would be better off in the Championship where we might be able to compete.
Pep Guardiola: Contract Salary (£15 Million):
Jose Mourinho: (£13.8 Million):
Arsene Wenger: (£8.5 Million):
Jurgen Klopp: Contract Salary (£7 Million):
Antonio Conte: Contract Salary (£6.5 Million):
Mauricio Pochettino: Contract Salary (£5.5 Million):
Wenger is not overpaid. The job of taking Arsenal to be a global brand has much to do with him as much as the club and results. He is a brand by himself.
What is coming now is Wenger having access to more funds that he does spend. Not to blow it away like Muarinho, or have enough and more like Pep, and have enough Conte, but enough for top four next year.
Winning the EPL will need investment in a solid defense. It is not the money that counts here but some luck to land the right players and have them peak together. I can see Bellerin, but we need at least one more top player and another proved DMF that is world class.