New FFP rules will make it HARDER for Arsenal this summer

galen: I applaud your efforts on here, you contribute well and do a fair job in trying to liven the place up and also try hard to appease and accommodate some fairly disparate views. But I agree with TJ, bottom line is – JA is still a difficult place to have a serious discussion. Yes, I know, I could f*** off to another forum – but many of the guys on here feel too much like family for me to give up just yet!!

My single biggest gripe is the commonplace detachment from reality, and how very complex and intricate matters are distilled down to almost infantile simplicity. When people talk about finance I swear most don’t even have the experience of running a cheque account. When we talk about buying players I swear some genuinely see it as a process involving little more than a few mouse clicks on a footie management game. And whilst it is an all too human trait never to be entirely happy with what you have got – the way that some just go with the flow every time a name is linked with us by the media and then add them to their wish-list so they can recite the list ad nauseam. We are not quite there yet, but when football becomes entirely, and I mean 100%, about spending I will be finding other things to do in my spare time. At the moment it is probably only 80-90% about the money and Wenger is one the few who has an interest in the other 10-20% of ways to make a football club better without being seduced by the quick-fix of spending. And that is why when you say “City and Chelsea” will be way stronger next year I naturally think why, and how can you be so sure? You are re-confirming the belief that heavy spending and immediate improvement are natural bed buddies, perfect cause and effect. But we know, because we have seen it so many times before, it is not an infallible truism. LOgic says you cannot get continually better through spending. The team with arguably the smallest amount of changes between 2013-14 and the 2014-15 season was Chelsea, and was the top team 7 that improved the most.

I don’t think it requires much wit or imagination to stand back a little and see 3 distinct phases to AW’s time at AFC. Phase 1: 1996-2006, a time when life was a whole lot easier in the PL and also probably the time when 75% of the posters on here became Gooners. Phase 2: 2007-2012 when things got tough for reasons that weren’t fully obvious at the time and even now the financial constraints that accompanied this period appears to have been air-brushed out of history by the media and some fans. Or it could just be selctive memory failure. We effectively spent nil money in that time – the evidence is there, there is no dispute. Why, how and should we of gone down this road are different questions but the nil spend would have been a board decision and nothing to do with Wenger. That is why when you talk of “RVP Cesc Nasri Song Denilson Adebayor Diaby” and the inability to build a squad you are being a little disingenuous – you know the reason and you know it was AW having to juggle the minimal resources, qualify for UCL and all the time knowing he was not able to build off a solid foundation. In retrospect it was close to miraculous that we had players of that quality in the first place – cost around £25M in total! Phase 3: 2013 onward, even the most die-hard AOB has to acknowledge there being a different feel to AFC, and whilst the two FA cups will be derided and progress is not fast enough it still feels very different in an entirely positive way. Aside from a few fringe elements, there appears, despite all the angst and hand-wringing, a sense that we are closer than we have been for at least 8 or 9 years to achieving something. And who has bought us to this position – close but not quite there? For me Wenger has probably 2 seasons to go and the next season he will have nowhere to hide should the wheels come off and there is no credible challenge for the PL title.

Anyhow, not sure where all that came from – keep up the good work fella.