It isn't because we don't have a squad that can compete for the title. Player-wise I maintain we can if we have immense luck with injuries, and each player performs to the pinnacle of their abilities week-in, week-out, from now until May.
We won't obviously, but that will ultimately be the fault of the manager, his system, his lack of tactics, and inability to prevent his team slip into complacency in random games (United at home last season, Monaco, West Ham two weeks ago, countless others).
A key issue here is that the squad still could have been improved, we had the money to improve it, and we chose not to improve it. With any team, the only excuse to really not look to improve your squad is if you win your domestic league or the CL. Even then it is only an excuse not to improve, rather than a definitive reason not to.
We finished third. We never competed for the title last season.
Of our current crop we have Flamini, Arteta, Rosicky and Campbell who quite simply should not be there any more. They will play little, and when they do, we will all be wishing that they aren't. In a perfect world we would have replaced all four of them with players who would compete for a spot in the starting eleven. More realistically we could have got rid of all four and brought in two to replace them, who could have made us stronger. We kept them all.
Of our current starting eleven, I would say we can clearly improve on Mertesacker, Coquelin (maybe a tad harsh), Cazorla, and Giroud. A few others are debatable too.
These are not players we should have looked to offload, but players who could have been moved into squad roles if we decided to strengthen the starting eleven, or moved on if we replaced them with players of a significantly higher quality. We decided against that.
While as I said, I think we could win the title with our current squad, we are not a perfect team, far from it. And most importantly, while our squad might naturally improve, as ever our rivals all significantly strengthened too. Forget about the money they spent, it is impossible to look at City, Chelsea and United, on paper and say they do not have better squads than last season.
City were not perfect last season despite finishing higher than us, but they improved. Chelsea were not perfect last season despite cruising to the title, but they improved (despite their slow start to the season).
However, despite all of this, I could abide our lack of activity, IF we lowered our ticket prices. Some gesture that says, we chose not to invest in the squad this summer because we believe in this team, but we understand that is quite a gamble and rather than taking that money you all spent last season to watch us, and line the pockets of our shareholders, we are gonna knock off a tenner from the 'category a' games this season, or have five games this season where you can get in for fifteen quid.
This summer's inaction, to me, says quite clearly:
"We are Arsenal FC, we are happy to finish in the top four, make loads of money, and make our investors pleased"
"We are Arsenal FC and we do not care about winning major honours if we make money"
Here's my thinking. You can either have 100-200 million quid in the bank (depending on what source you believe) and lower the prices in accordance to a club that is not competing for the title and CL OR you can spend your money, do all you can to strengthen the squad, making us competitive for the title and CL and the fans can continue to pay the most expensive ticket prices in the UK.
You cannot have the 200 mill in the bank, NOT make us competitive, and charge the most.
Anyone who thinks Wenger has done all he can this summer to make us competitive for the title is a fool.
It is disgraceful. And the club won't be getting a penny more out of me this season. And others should follow suit.
And don't give me, "you need to get behind the team no matter what" nonsense. That is the kind of attitude, (whilst, admittedly with the best interests of the team in mind) which has created the poisonous situation where we have an arrogant, stubborn, complacent, untouchable dictator at the summit of our club, immune from criticism, who answers to no one - maintaining the status quo of mediocrity (relative to our resources of course).
What is worse is that this season it is more clear than ever that the decisive factor preventing us from strengthening was not the board, the owner, or the CEO. He was the man we have a statue of outside our stadium.
Enough is enough.
The Real Reason To Be Angry Today
posted on 1/9/15
Wenger has belief in this squad, and believes the players available wouldn't have improved our squad. He now lives or dies by this rod he has made for himself. If he is right and this squad is strong enough then this article is redundant spending because our ticket prices are high was not needed. If we fail again it's unacceptable.
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But Godfather it is so obvious that we could have improved. I am willing to forgive Wenger for not bringing in a CF to be honest, as I do not think there was anyone (really) available to strengthen us drastically for sensible money. Cavani 50 million or Higuain 40 million is mental. Benzema was never an option. I think Benteke would have improved us (maybe) but would have been a big risk.
But when you look at the players that have moved this summer, we should have brought in three outfield players minimum.
In hindsight I wish things had panned out this way:
Out
Arteta
Flamini
Rosicky
Campbell
Diaby
Podolski
In
Cech
Kondogbia
Vidal
Sterling
I think we probably should have pushed for Sterling. Think he would have fancied Arsenal over City, due to him being a London lad, and his mates being here. Think those ins and outs would have us much more streamlined with lots more quality, strength, bite and goals and with a real chance to win the PL. Wouldn't have broke the bank either.
posted on 1/9/15
posted on 1/9/15
Not sure there is the reverence for Wenger as there used to be. Keep in mind Carpetright Harris was brought in by Hill-Wood, our only connection with the old guard. There is no Dein, no Fiszman, no Hill-Wood, no Carrs, no Nina Bracewell-Smith.
Josh Kroenke was reported to have assumed more control last season and he was none to pleased with our Monaco performance according to most of the papers afterwards. Harris's interview was a direct challenge that Wenger immediately refuted.
I agree no one in there right mind is going to give up £8m. I don't think Gazidis is going to be allowed to give him another contract. It is also interesting that Klopp and Pep are both going to available next summer.
Now I prefer this conclusion than what Henry has stated. He has said Wenger just can't attract top player to Arsenal anymore. I think thats worse for Wenger because what does it say abt someone who has had full control for almost 20 years?
posted on 1/9/15
Not signing a striker is understandable. But with Theo now competing for the CF position, we should have signed a wide forward to replace him. Also not signing cover for Coquelin is unforgivable. Doesn't matter if he plays 90 minutes of every game in all competitions and we win the quadruple, it is still a totally ridiculous gamble that we did not need to take.
posted on 1/9/15
Please let him retire gracefully after this season.
I want to remember him fondly.
posted on 1/9/15
Come on Godfather, wait for what? This is a team that regularly finishes ~10-15 points behind the PL winners and gets knocked out in the CL 2nd round. How on earth is signing just the solitary keeper (albeit a very good one on paper) going to bridge that gap? We have the stature to genuinely challenge as a top European club, yet the board and Wenger seem continuously happen to only aim as far as being an outside shot at the title.
For the record, I thought that when we signed Cech, we COULD have won the title. But that was dependent on us remaining injury-free and playing a more pragmatic gameplan with pace on the flanks (a la Utd and City away games). Then the season started and Wenger reverted back to his old failed methods. We have an outside shot at the title if the stars all align and Wenger has a flawless season, but even in the 1% chance that happens, we'll still come up way short in the Champions League. This club doesn't seem to be making any genuine attempts to capitalise upon the massive springboard that the new stadium and income have provided, and with the shackles coming off a lot of the old excuses are starting to wear very thin.
posted on 1/9/15
comment by Lucas NorthBank! (U11643)
posted 22 minutes ago
Heard the, judge him in May, stuff for years. I judged him about 3 Mays ago. Not good enough.
It's like a broken record.
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posted on 1/9/15
I am willing to forgive Wenger for not bringing in a CF to be honest, as I do not think there was anyone (really) available to strengthen us drastically for sensible money. Cavani 50 million or Higuain 40 million is mental.
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Actually this is where I think you are wrong. There is a reason why the premiership clubs have spent c£850m. Keep in mind the new TV deal starts next season. Bayern Munich have already complained that the money they will make from TV revenue is less than the club that will be relegated next season c£100m from TV alone. Where do you think that money will go? It will go into increasing transfer prices and wages. That means the c£100m-£200m in Arsenal's bank account will be immediately devalued. This is the simple economics that Harris was talking about and what Wenger does not understand. Now if we win the league our player values will increase so the point will be moot. But the fact is we are no close to winning the title unless Wenger completely alters the system we have been playing for the last 3/4 years. He can do that because we do have the British core that we have been nurturing for a few years. However going back to a system that hasn't worked for 3 years after doing well in pre-season suggests Wenger is too wedded to his favourites, to try anything new and stick with it under initial growing pains.
posted on 1/9/15
Actually this is where I think you are wrong. There is a reason why the premiership clubs have spent c£850m. Keep in mind the new TV deal starts next season. Bayern Munich have already complained that the money they will make from TV revenue is less than the club that will be relegated next season c£100m from TV alone. Where do you think that money will go? It will go into increasing transfer prices and wages. That means the c£100m-£200m in Arsenal's bank account will be immediately devalued. This is the simple economics that Harris was talking about and what Wenger does not understand. Now if we win the league our player values will increase so the point will be moot. But the fact is we are no close to winning the title unless Wenger completely alters the system we have been playing for the last 3/4 years. He can do that because we do have the British core that we have been nurturing for a few years. However going back to a system that hasn't worked for 3 years after doing well in pre-season suggests Wenger is too wedded to his favourites, to try anything new and stick with it under initial growing pains.
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That may all be true, but ultimately I am not that sure Higuain or Cavani, strengthens us that much. Both getting on, both would have cost a fortune. Not sure either would be a hit in the PL, especially in our current system.
I am in the camp that thinks we actually have a pretty decent striker in Alexis, but we just play him out wide. We should play Alexis through the middle with Walcott one side, and Chamberlain/Welbeck the other, with Ozil in behind. Leave that front four together for five consecutive games and see if it gels.
posted on 1/9/15
I am in the camp that thinks we actually have a pretty decent striker in Alexis, but we just play him out wide. We should play Alexis through the middle with Walcott one side, and Chamberlain/Welbeck the other, with Ozil in behind. Leave that front four together for five consecutive games and see if it gels.
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I don't disagree at all. I have been calling for a front 3 of Alex, Welbeck, Theo since last season. The idea is that they all rotate so it doesn't really matter who starts in the middle as all 3 would rotate into the middle often enough during the game.
But my point, is Wenger strong enough to stick with it through the initial pains its going have. Channel runners, or players who run in behind defences require a lot of playing time with their team mates, so that they can (a) time their runs, and (b) form enough understanding with their team mates for them to acknowledge the runs for passes. Both those things will not happen if the manager buckles under pressure to return to lump it to the big man mentality we have had for the last 3 seasons. People forget or don't want to acknowledge the time it took for Cesc and RVP to form a partnership. I used to hate it when Wenger often played RVP instead of Henry to terrible results. It took years for them to gain that understanding. And Wenger going back to the status quo against West Ham was appalling and showed weakness.
Remember many pundits like Wright etc are very anti-Theo for years. They will not afford him the time he needs to adjust to striking position. And going back to Giroud will be just an awful retrograde step that Wenger will just be too temped not to take. Thats why I wanted someone like Higuain, Benzema which then overrides the infatuation Wenger has for Giroud.