Tottenham were in Arsenal shadows for decades, they went through managers like a hot knife through butter, had a mediocre stadium tried to spend their way to glory all without success and then they decided to emulate us.
They bought wisely, for the most part, they put trust in their youngsters, they created stability with a new manager despite his lack of silverware, they built a new stadium and now they are in the Champions League final and starting to become regular top-four finishers.
We were once exactly like that and yet have stagnated and today, we find ourselves looking for an identity.
Arsenal used to be the club that trusted in youngsters, that bought wisely, mixed youth and experience successfully, we and Man Utd pioneered that method, but somewhere along the line, we lost our way.
Now we look at others and I have seen some comments on social media saying we should emulate Liverpool or even Tottenham, that we need to spend big on two or three players in key positions, that we should buy a certain player to do this that and everything in between but we do not have a history of emulating others, our history is as pioneers and that is how we must proceed if we are to get back to where we once were.
I do not pretend to know how we will do that, the board and experts that Arsenal employ are the men and women that need to work that out from Unai Emery and his backroom staff to the other employees at the club from nutritionists to phycologists to analysts.
They need to identify what Arsenal want to be and then put in place a mechanism to achieve that goal.
When Arsene Wenger took over he had a vision and he implemented that vision, he soon got rid of the English influence and replaced it with his continental methods from the food to the training to the tactics on the field of play, it was extremely successful but eventually became outdated and he was unable to evolve while others around did.
We have to trust that Unai Emery can be the one that can evolve us with new thinking and new methods and as fans we have to show patience because the road back is not going to be easy, we do not have the money that other clubs have to buy our way to success, we have to do it ourselves, we have to pioneer a new way, it is as simple as that.