IF it turns out that Arsenal have thrown away Champions League qualification, then several people have to take accountability.
The manager for deciding to build a youthful squad with zero leaders, the owners for prioritising In January the need to slash the wage bill, and of course the players for simply not showing up in certain fixtures.
I’ll give you one more group to blame and it won’t make me popular ……the fans!
In life, as well as sport, it’s not hard to have standards. If you really want to, you can simply not accept those standards not being met.
You may have read accusations that I don’t think Arteta has done a good job.
It’s not an opinion, it’s a factual statement.
That’s because my expectations for Arsenal is bare minimum a club our size should be making the top 4. Anything less than that it’s not okay.
Our manager has said so himself that we should only settle for challenging for the major honours, that’s it’s inexcusable for us not to be in Europe, etc.
So, if someone is paid millions of pounds of a year with the job specification of taking us back to UEFA elite competition and after their third season they have failed to do so, that’s not a success, is it?
Again, not an opinion, it’s a fact that the Spaniard has failed to meet his criteria.
Mr Wenger was driven out of the club for finishing 6th, Emery sacked for 5th, so how come our owners have now extended contracts without knowing what European competition we will be playing in?
History shows the Kroenke Family have never cared where we finish in the table, they can make money off Arsenal the brand.
So, if they see a fanbase lowering their ambition it’s music to their ears.
Where’s there zero tolerance to failure?
If they wanted, they could create an atmosphere at the Emirates where it’s known that 5th is unacceptable for a club our size.
Like Man United and Chelsea do.
Can you see Tan Hag finishing 8th twice then 5th and United calling it progress just because he failed the first two times?
Arsenal are the only big club who think like that because some Gooners let them do that.
Can you imagine a Thierry Henry jumping into the crowd to celebrate a home equaliser against Palace that put us in the dizzy heights of 12th?
What about a Vieira leading celebrations with away fans at Wolves to put us 5th?
When did we become such a small, minded club?
Supporters who mocked Mr Wenger for ‘only finishing 4th’ now treating it like it’s the holy grail.
We even had some fans think January was a good window because we had slashed the wage bill.
Imagine Stan Kroenke when he realises not just is he reducing salaries, but he’s got his customers saying it’s a great idea!
We gave away Aubameyang and was left with Eddie Nketiah, and some thought it was a good idea!
Some woke up when it was too late, realising that between Auba, Guendouzi, Saliba, Bellerin, Maitland Niles, Chambers, Nelson and Torreira, we probably did have players who could have helped a young squad.
Most of those are loaned out purely to save money which again fans supported.
At our stadium while the atmosphere has been amazing at times, expectations hit an all-time low.
Defeats at home to Man City and Liverpool were accepted because we played well. How patronising.
Imagine a Tony Adams happy to lose 2-0 to Liverpool because we had got to half time goalless.
Not showing up in the FA Cup was allowed because it meant we could focus on the League.
A 3-0 loss at Selhurst Park, once considered an embarrassment, was accepted based on us having games in hand.
Being outplayed in the NLD, once humiliating, was blamed on officials.
Even on Justarsenal, a platform I wrote for for years, I saw a change in attitudes.
Where once you could have an opinion, you get personally attacked for saying Arsenal should be aiming higher than this.
Instead of a footballing argument you would get abuse for pointing out the obvious.
Even banter that can’t be banter because it makes zero sense.
Such as when Ole and Lampard were sacked by United and Chelsea, this apparently proved that Arteta was the better coach because out of the three ex-players he outlasted them.
When I pointed out he’s finished below both, I got called negative.
When I laughed at the notion that our youngsters were better than Wilshere, Ramsey, etc, i was told I had an agenda.
My agenda is for Arsenal to be the best they can be.
To not accept mediocrity.
To not say everything is great just because you love the club.
To not celebrate 5th and draws at home to midtable clubs.
That it’s never okay to lose to anyone unless you give 100 percent.
That slashing the wage bill shouldn’t be a priority.
These things have happened because the fan base have allowed it to happen
We were promised by now we would be competing with Bayern Munich.
We are further away from winning the title at any point since we last won it.
Our style of football is not entertaining.
We don’t have a single world class player.
Blind hope and fake praise doesn’t hurt me, I’m one guy with an opinion.
It hurts the culture of the club.
Time to say enough now.
Dan Smith
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