Mikel Arteta is preparing his Arsenal side to take on the League Champions (and current European Champions) at the Emirates this evening, and after our disappointing defeat to a weak Tottenham side in midweek, there are not many people that fancy our chances.
But, inevitably, Mikel Arteta was asked about Liverpool’s success and the way that the Gunners have now dropped out of Champions League contention for four years in a row now. He was asked by the Mail how hard it now is for Arsenal to regain their place in at the top table, and he replied: “Harder and harder because that’s obviously something that has to feed each other. If you are not in the Champions League and you say “OK, I don’t invest because I don’t have the financial ability to do it”, but the other clubs invest, then the gap becomes bigger.
‘If I do want to invest and risk, and then I don’t reach it, what happens? So at some stage you have to make a decision, whether I want to aim to make that gap closer and go for it, or I stay where I am.
‘You see many good examples of teams that have done it [risked] and they have come back to their habit [of being in the Champions League].
‘While I am sitting in this chair I’m not [stopping seeing Arsenal as a Champions League club], because that’s the only thing that I think of this football club.’
‘Then, at the end of the season is, OK, see the direction we want to take, agree on the ambition of the football club, realise that where we are the demands are going to be huge – it doesn’t matter what we do, that’s never going to change because it’s linked to our history and our success – and move from there.
‘Put our plans together where we can achieve that as quick as possible.’
So, Mikel clearly wants to see some real risk taking by the Arsenal owner and to invest in the summer transfer window to try and reduce that gap quickly. It will be interesting to see if succeeds in that quest. If one thing is certain, it is that Arsenal need to ‘speculate to accumulate’, which is surely the whole point of Stan Kroenke?
It’s at Arsenal not Anfield…🙄
I’ll be cheering every opponent of Burnley, see we have to retain our 9th spot! Forget Kroenke investing and why should he? To pay clowns like Luiz (contract extended), Mustafi (likely extension), Kolasinac , Xhaka, Socrates, Elneny and Ozil? Get them out of the club first, then think of investing. Coach and promote good academy prospects. Just because it is not his money, Mikel can lavishly spend on sub standard player contract extension? And then ask for more money? To get more sub standard players like Mari and Cedric? Shameful! Would Cedric or Mari walk into any top 4 team? And we want to be a top 4 team when the coach is looking to sign the worst players available?
Loose Cannon, the problem with Kroenke is not the money, but his lack of intervention in holding the Board and senior executive accountable for the mismanagement of Arsenal’s player and financial assets.
ozzie Surely though, as the owner HE HIMSELF is responsible for appointing(or in Gazidis’s case allowing him to stay there) the wrong people and keeping the wrong peoplein charge too long? That included Wenger in his last several fading years. IF THE BUCK DOES NOT STOP WITH THE OWNER, WHAT IS THE OWNER FOR? Apart from pocketing the profits, so I have answered my own question with the true and depressing answer. But Kroenke must bear the blame. Surely?
It sounds to me as though The owners and Arteta have conversed little about the longer term projection or strategy?
Artetas words sounds like he is in the dark to be honest and I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if the Kronke family are using him as a stop gap or a scapegoat (a little like Man U did to David Moyse). Maybe they agree to see how things go this season before discussing the future?
One thing is for sure though, the future is just as uncertain as it was 2 years ago. The leadership of this club is laughable and pathetic!
COYG!!
Exactly what I thought, it’s either one of two scenarios here.
1: He’s been assured he’ll have the club’s backing, so he’s just trying to motivate and keep the spirit alive among the fans.
OR
2: He’s worried the club ain’t ready to spend so his best move is to publicly put pressure on them.
I guess we’ll know after the season ends
I would like to be an optimist here, Eddie but I get the feeling Arteta (who doesn’t go public with internal matters) is putting some “indirect” pressure on the hierarchy to realise the need for some investment which, he knows is very unlikely if the club fail in the quest for European football!?
I thought we were at home….
Ok Okay I get it lol!
It was early in the morning and I had spent an hour sorting out last night’s outlandish comments!
That’s my excuse anyway lol
LOL 🙂
If it’s any consolation, Pat, I’d rather.not be playing them at all 😆
Game tonight is at The Emirates.
Either way we haven’t beaten Liverpool At All since 2015. That’s no win in over 9 fixtures. Not Good for a supposedly top club.
Relegation next season. Our absentee owner only cares about the other kind of trophy. The one where you shoot animals dead. He doesn’t care about football and won’t even care if we end up being booted out of the Emirates because we no longer earn enough to take care of it.
The owners must know another season of disappointment will lessen their cash cow of a club. As without success and champions league football the club will cease to make the money they have been getting !! they have to invest heavily for Arteta !!
There are owners who care about the success of a business, and then there are owners who don’t care what happens to a business except how much money they can make out of it. Kroenke is most likely the latter. Now that covid is here to stay I’m sure nobody’s going to renew their season tickets therefore less money will be coming in. Subsistence on TV money means we’re fighting relegation every year since we rely on gate receipts more than other clubs do. Now it seems it’s actually a blessing to be bankrolled by oil money, just look at man city who dodged a European ban doing so
S, ” MOST LIKELY?” ONLY most likely? Of course it is true and no “most likely” about it either. 100% certain, as all Gooners should easily know.
Even when we were in Champions league for over twenty years our tight fisted owners would not invest in world class players who would have made us champions for years.
Absolutely👍
How right you are. Arsenal, being successful in the early years of the PL AND with CL revenue, should still be up there. Even when Chelsea and ManU had a blip they were soon back again. We are going backwards
I thought we only went backwards on the pitch, Sue 😂😂😂😂😂😂
👍
Kroenke knows nothing about football. What I cannot understand is how someone who has obviously been a good enough businessman to build and maintain a fortune, fails to select and hold accountable a Board and senior executive to manage Arsenal’s player and financial assets?
The money has been there; however the scouting, recruitment and contract management has been abysmal. The player assets have been diminished such that the spending putting Arsenal in the top 3-5 clubs, now only gives a league position of 9th!
The writing was certainly on the wall in 2015 when Arsene Wenger and Arsenal decided that the squad required no outfield reinforcement and only bought goalkeeper Petr Cech, a Chelsea cast off.
I thought we started to rebuild the management infrastructure after Wegner left but, at this time, the board and management team are undoubtedly dysfunctional, unstable and incapable of leading the Club. They hired, then fired Emery, after failing to back him in the transfer market; they hired, then fired Sven Mislintat, who successfully recruited and hired three of the most re-saleable players in Leno, Guendozi and Torreira; they recruited and signed Mari and Soares – players with questionable fitness records. Abysmal is an understatement.
If it can help us to get just two of our top targets instead of settling, it could make a huge difference. We’ve a good crop of younger players, but not much of that established genuine difference maker besides Auba. At the back we need that genuine article, the midfield needs it too. So two top top targets could make a lasting impact to this side. Something to then work on from as Arteta begins putting his pieces together. The desire within the mindset of the players targeted will be crucial. We need to sign a different type of player, more Tierney like and less Ozil like, more Martinelli like and less Podolski like, more Saka like and less Walcott like, more Ramsey like and less Arshavin like -Mindset -Looks like we may have began the process to some extent.
Things are getting worse year after year, which started towards the end of wenger’s. We keep buying altgernative players, call them the one for the future, why not for the present? Kraonke is only intrested in the money the club is make and not investing in the club. People wants to buy this club and invest on it, “SELL IT AND LEAVE THE CLUB FOR GOOD”
We haven’t exactly invested well have we? £107m on two players, Mustafi and Pepe, new long term contracts for Soares and Mari etc. etc. We are not a well run club anymore and haven’t been since David Dean left. Like any institution, weak top management manifests itself in the performance of that institution, spending money is not necessarily the answer if the money is spent unwisely. Liverpool, the team we meet today, illustrates my point exactly.
David Dein’s departure was pivotal
👍 👍
To illustrate my point further, over the last 5 years we had a gross spend of £443m and a net spend of £249m, Liverpool a gross spend of £471m and a net spend of £92m. They are 43 points ahead of us as of today!!
Wow 😳!!!!!
To make matters worse Sue, in the 2014/15 season we finished 3rd on 75 points, the scousers ended up 13 points behind us. Like you they are my least liked team after the Spuds but they do know how to run a club properly.
They sure do, Andrew… and how painful is that?! 😔
Liverpool successfully re-invested the profits from the sale of Coutinho to Barcelona – by essentially raiding Southampton for players with high upside potential like Sadio Mane and others. They also successfully scouted Sala, who had failed to cut it with Chelsea under Mourinho. Granted, they spent heavily for CB and Goalkeeper to round off the team. This if proof indeed that with a smart manager and effective scouting, AFC could well climb back to the top without a massive gross spend. They big challenge however will be – deciding which players to sell.
Im of two minds. We have spent, we’ve just spent poorly. Liverpool’s netspend is very low, they have only splashed cash on two players in their current squad. Allison and VVD. The key is better scouting. Invest in better scouting and you wont keep getting expensive flops like Mustafi, Pepe. And dumping 30mill fees on the like of Torreira, Xhaka. That is money that could have been way better spent. Now we are in a position that DOES require investment and it is not guarenteed. Also, Kroenke had the chances over the years we were in UCL to help make us into a true force, but he never cared AT ALL. So that much is defintely on him. It’s a sad fact that our owner simply does not care about the club.