With the added pressures a club of our stature has each season, it is becoming increasingly clear that maybe a full season away from European domestic football will be the best thing for us!
Claiming even just a top four place is not as easy as it used to be, and it is becoming an even bigger battle for the BIG teams in England, competition is coming from all angles and from many other teams in the Premier League, such as the likes of Everton, Burnley, Wolves just to name a few. The harder it gets the less likely we are to be able to get there, especially given our performances over the past two seasons.
This all became clear when we lost both a top four finish and a Champions League spot, when it finally took its toll in 2017 as we failed to qualify for the next two seasons, falling even further down the table and only being able to claim a Europa League spot. An unfamiliar territory for our beloved club.
The longer the seasons we play and the increased competition we have surrounding us in the Premier League, the clearer it becomes that Arsenal will continue to face an uphill battle to retain that once predictable top 4 finish if things do not change for the better.
It seems as though Arsenal are in such a position that they find it hard to keep going in all competitions and come February time they are pretty much on the way out of all competitions and only have the fight for top four left to try and chase. The added pressure and the constant injuries that Arsenal sustain over the winter period unfortunately all play a factor in the demise come February.
Maybe the time has come for Arsenal to go one season without being in either the Champions League or the Europa League and to focus on only the Domestic cups, such as the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup, and to finally fight for first place in the Premier League.
One season out of every competition though may give Arsenal the push we need to maintain fitness, rotate as and when needed, and just focus on becoming real challengers and winning the League that has evaded us for so many years. It remains to be seen whether having a season out of all European competitions would be the best move, but if it worked for Chelsea then why can’t it work for us.
So would one season out of all European football be such a bad thing?
Shenel Osman
My sixth sense tells me can win the Europa league next season.we’ve done well in that competition unless in CL where we get knocked out early.It is still possible to qualify for Europe.
LD, Trouble with sixth senses are they usually run up against firm evidence to the contrary. I ALWAYS LOOK TO FACTS AND FIRM EVIDENCE AND LEAVE SIXTH SENSES TO DREAMERS AND HOPELESS OPTIMISTS. HOPE IS GREAT BUT HOPE BASED ON SOMETHING TANGIBLE IS FAR BETTER, WOULDN’T YOU AGREE?
@Jon that’s sensible
The only problem with not having a European cup to play for means players that we need will be far harder to get hold of and could also meaning keeping players we need will be much much harder !! so in one way yes it would be exactly what the doctor ordered time out to rebuild the team and concentrate on league position but the other side of that coin is if we miss out then we will miss out on the good players we need and that is not good !!
Not good enough. We need top players. Champions league football and good wages attract top players to the club. Also, we should build a squad that can win the competition. That requires spending.
We are a big club. We need to act like one.
For starters
In: Thomas Partey, Lewis Dunk, Nabil Fekir, Asensio
Those are 4 quality players there. Offer them very high wages and bring them in. We must play europa next season. The remaining games are a must win.
The cub must invest in top players.
We should have a big club mentality and go for the EPL next season
Asensio and Fekir will bring creativity and spark in our attack.
Partey is the steel we need in midfield.
Lewis Dunk has EPL experience.
He is tall and strong.
Move David Luiz to DM position.
Out: Ozil, Elneny, Mustafi, Socratis, Guendouzi, Torrera, Aubameyang, Mkhytaryan,
In: Asensio, Nabil Fekir, Lewis Dunk, Thomas Partey
Loan out Joe Willock to a premier league side.
We should consider a loan or permanent move for Asensio. The guy is top quality. Very skillful.
Our first team
Bellerin Dunk. Saliba. Thierney
Xhaka. Partey
Asensio
Pepe. Martinelli. Fekir
Skills
I have a lot of sympathy for your position
The real trouble is that a lot of our players are big earners and are not producing the quality and consistency. Not only that, getting rid of some of them to make those key signings may prove difficult
A bit depressing
SueP I totally agree with you first and foremost is getting rid of the players we don’t want and how much would you get for them
I am just not happy with the way our club is run. We use to be a big club. The season Leicester won the league, we were second. How did we get here? 9th place with 7 games to go. When are we going to have club owners and administrators who care about winning at all cost? The gap keep getting bigger by the day. We take a step forward and two steps backwards. We just have to sign quality players and sell the ones we have. 9 players should be sold. We need only quality players. We keep rebuilding every season and gradually becoming a mid table team.
A central defender is needed.
A defensive midfielder is needed.
Two creative attacking midfielders players who can dribble and move with the ball are needed. Big guys with personality. Asensio, Isco, Fakir, Lemar, Sane, Dyballa.
These are the kid of midfielders we need.
Seville President said during the pandemic that he doesn’t want to sell Nabyl Fekir French international bought for 20M who is happy and improving all the time,we had the chance to buy him last season,his agent offered him to us because he wanted to come us but we didn’t and I don’t know whose decision this was!Asensio is staying at Real even if he were available we couldn’t afford him,Partey is valued at 60M coming to Arsenal would be a step down and now Atletico has offered to treble his wages,the only way we could afford him would player Lacca/Guendouzy plus cash and Lewis Dunk is not what we need!Lee should look at players from Lyon last week Aulas their president estimated that they need to recoup 190M euros in lost revenues with no European football,they have some very good young , experienced players and we should look at ligue one for a robust DM there are a few who could do a very good job for us and wouldn’t cost an arm or leg!!
I would not move Luiz to DM i would move him out compleatly he is a liability .
I would rather we were in Europe but it is a distraction from the real job that Arteta has, which is to get the club competitive in the PL. Without that then either the EL or CL is just a pipe dream
More clubs with ambitious owners with plenty of money to spend are buying into the PL. Going forward the top four places won’t automatically be filled by ManU/ ManC/ Liverpool or Chelsea. I’d like to think Arsenal can get back but Wolves, Spurs, Everton and Leicester are close. From a sporting point of view it is more interesting. We had it lucky for a lot of years being in it. Utd always spent big but the advent of Abramovitch & Mansour started the change to where we are now
SueP, the money is there to compete financially with the majority of clubs, bar the two Manchester Clubs and Chelsea, if Abramovich gets serious again, after the transfer ban; however, Arsenal’s management has squandered the Club’s player and financial assets. One just has to compare where Arsenal sits in total wages and total and nett transfer spend.
Fair enough ozziegunner
I was under the impression that Everton have hugely ambitious and wealthy owners and Ancellotti is a sign of intent.
Leicester and Wolves have a lot of money behind them but the difference between all of them and us is that our hugely wealthy owner is not showing ambition, investment and an understanding of what owning an English football club is all about. The Leicester family that owns them have shown passion for the city and have reaped the rewards.
Mismanagement at the highest level has cost the club and we all suffer as a consequence 😢
There arewpros and cons to thearticles theme of a missing season form Europe. It looks very likely that we will miss Europa andeither way nothing changes thr handicap we face each season of Kroenke. Real and permanent change for the better can only ever come when he is forced out.
Hopefully, the financial mess left by Covid may do the trick for us. Dangote is still supposedly waiting in the wings to buy him out. With all his loss making sports franchises and the ghastly twerp who runs USA making ANY audiences at USA sporting events further away then ever, Kroenke will come under far more pressure than most multi billionaires to relinquish control.
On a separate point, football must be the only case where mass support of an enterprise , business or club can stil lgo on DESPITE almost total loathing of the person who owns that business, thus proving my long helf assertion that all humans are hypocrites and football fans among the most prominent of them. I do not even mean this as criticism; merely as an example of my lifelong belief, borne out of countless individual observations far and wide and including myself personally, that hypocrisy is a perfectly normal, natural and present condition in our shared human race. Football fans prove this constantly. Think, please REALLY think about it! Hypocrisy is at core merely double standards and who among us can honestly say they do not have, at times, double standards!
What are people on! No Arsenal football club Will wither and die out of Europe and to be a big fish in a big pond, they need CL football. We have no money for players because we cant get into European competition, once you drop out it is even harder to get back in. Not in Europe is like swimming in water against the others with lead boots on, we will get left behind. There is no future in no Europe.
Like Jon says there are pros and cons either way. Our club needs to reorganise, rebuild and reorient the team. On paper our players are not far from the players of the other big clubs. What then is the problem? I believe the greatest problem is psychological. Our players lost belief in themselves and feel that they can’t win against the big boys! Secondly, they lost the spirit to fight. This is the main reason that makes us concede quick goals in succession. We are so fatalistic that once they score against us we start panicking leading to stupid errors that cost us games. Our players have also come to believe the often rehearsed assumption that they can’t defend set pieces. They go in without conviction instead of standing to be counted. They give up too easily yet we now have good young defenders in form of Mari and Holding who will soon be joined by William Saliba. When you add on Soares and Tierney our defence should become stronger next season. The only missing link is determination and a winning mentality which should be addressed by Arteta and the other coaches. Perhaps Xhaka should regain the captaincy because he has shown renewed energy and zeal and has also demonstrated that he can weather any storm.
Unlike some on this site, I am optimistic about the future of our team because I see many capable young players who can become winners if well groomed. The onus is on the coach to take advantage of his young players’ potential and turn them into world beaters.
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