I feel like this summer, more than many that have passed before, is feeling like one of the worst.
14 years of neglect have hit us very hard.
We have regressed.
Our nearest rivals have progressed.
If we were looking at a graph, it’d be the saddest graph in the world.
5 years ago, Spurs and Liverpool were behind us in the league. Now they are Champions League finalists with monster transfer budgets. Both clubs invested in elite coaches with big ideas. Both clubs are now attracting the very best in the game. At the same time, Arsenal fans were purring at the idea of Wenger being given big money to spend.
£350m later… we’ve managed to make things worse.
Arsenal didn’t make hay while the sun was shining.
Many people are complaining that Spurs are spending after a stadium move. That’s because their frugal strategy of prioritising youth, smart buy and great coaching is reaping bigly in Europe. They had a coach that took them to the Champions League final after spending zero pounds last summer.
Arsenal’s issue, for all the bluster, is that we were never really that future-facing.
We hoarded Champions League money when elite players were adding 50%+ year on year. Remember when we baulked at £32m for Higuain? Remember when we fucked up Suarez? There are so many times we didn’t pull the trigger because leadership at Arsenal hid under the comfort blanket of Wenger’s perceived view of value.
Arsenal didn’t recognize the clear patterns that were emerging in football.
They didn’t preempt what the uplift in TV money would mean for agent expectations with contracts. Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil and Alexis would still be at Arsenal on £180k a week if we’d given them proper money when most major clubs were bumping salaries. At the very worst, we’d have sold them. We waited until it was too late and lost two for fuck all and had to keep the third on outrageous cash because of Ivan’s ego.
We never paid a premium when it made sense.
We didn’t take chances.
We didn’t refresh our talent, ideas or thinking.
We invested too much in players that were good for a culture of meekness. Too little in players that could have taken us to the next level.
Now we’re in a situation where we’re in danger of being gazumped by Spurs for Saliba, we’re being hardballed by Celtic with Tierney, and we’re seriously contemplating selling Auba to fund a move for a 27 year old winger who scored 15 goals last year.
Edu is having a week off after the Copa America according to Ornstein.
What a mess.
Still, Adidas is our kit sponsor, so who cares?
Thoughts on the leaked advert (someone in deep shit over that mishap):
This is a great spot.
I love the humour. The respect for the local area and the texture. I like the mix of old and new. I love that Wrighty is in it. I like that Adidas are massaging our egos pretending that we still run North London.
There’s a lot of hope in there.
It’s so great to have a proper sportswear brand backing us.
Mustafi is going to look about x4 better sliding into the back of Harry Kane next season.
Bring it on. Being shit with good clobber. Bit like me playing in goal with silver mercurials back in the day.
‘All the gear, no idea’ my friends teammates used to say to me.
See you in the comments. x
Let’s take a look at AFC the way Stan looks at it, as a business. On last year’s figures it’s a money-losing business. He is probably having sleepless nights wondering why he didn’t take Usmanov’s offer. If the Club had won the Europa Cup, many (me, included) would be saying Emery did a pretty good job under the circumstances. But it would only have been papering over the cracks. Imagine Stan in his steer-roping hideaway after yet another sleepless night, The horrors won’t go away. For a start, the wage bill is mind-boggling. And the players are not just overpaid,… Read more »
Will be interesting to see if conte with Inter can topple Juves death grip.
Most Juvemtes fans attribute there revival and winning the league back in 2011 to Conte himself and his tactics.
Point being Arsenal need an on point manager
conte would have been a fabulous manager for arsenal or man utd
the bloke smacks of competence and class.
Financial constraints and a wage bill of 220 million. And also 560 million spent since 2011 actually over 600 million adding in last summer. We’re doomed
“And also 560 million spent since 2011 actually over 600 million adding in last summer. We’re doomed”
God damn….
New owner
New manager
New players
Celtic apparently interested in Jenkinson but will not pay his £45 000 a week wages and would pay up to £15 000 a week only.
Likely Jenkinson on loan with Arsenal subsidising £30 000 a week of his wages will be part of the Tierney deal if I was to guess.
The wages in this squad are a fucking joke. Hopefully two years down the line the wages offered by the incompetent and the bald headed twat fall off the books.
Marko You do realise that the club declared a huge operational loss (c. £50m) last year (2017/18), and there will be an even bigger accounting loss in the accounts for this season (2018/19, which Kroenke now publicly releases several months later since taking full control of the club), before the scale of losses reduce in the 2019/20 accounts as the new commercial deals plug some of the shortfall. You can guarantee that as a risk-averse, pure financial investor, who has absolutely no sentimental attachment to the club, that the ONLY thing Kroenke is interested in is that operational loss being… Read more »
Jenkinson on 45,000 a week. I’m assuming that if it wasn’t for the financial constraints put on by Stan he’d on something like 100,000 a week. Damn him
When you look up ‘luckiest c**t in the world’ Jenkinson must pop up.
Nah that’s still Diaby or Wilshere.
marko
What will it take for you to wise up?
Marko
At least those two had times at the club where they were of use. Don’t denying they too weren’t lucky but at least they had some quality that you could point to.
Jenkinson though, jeez.
Dream10
“Yep. They’re a smart club. Will make a nice profit on Ramsey when he returns to Arsenal or another PL club in another two years”
How much are his wages ….if as is being reported it is 3/400 grand a year then they just may have landed themselves in an Arsenal /Ozil situation …..smart?
Englandsbest for me to go along with your line of thinking you’ll have to actually be able to prove some financial constraints. Otherwise you’re just trying to pass off actions/inactions from Wenger to Stan
Arsenal has always been self-sustaining, but it won’t stay that way with the current wage-bill. That is why this window ought to be a ‘get rid of’ window. That is what we should be looking for, primarily, from Raul and Emery.
IMO any incomers on high salaries would be counter-productive.
Marko:
I am not talking about the specific budgets set by Kroenke. Clearly only those in the boardroom or the most senior executives have those figures.
I am talking about the pricniples of how business works. The fact that you refuse to accept the basic principles which have existed for 500 years of modern capitalism says more about you than anything.
We say no one wants to buy mustafi and co but are we actually setting prices relative to their realistic worth? Reports of arsenal asking for 25m for mustafi well might as well ask for 100m. This is not his market worth and with high wages on top even more so But if hypothetically we were only asking for 10-15 we might actually see someone bite Arsenal being arsenal would rather get a high selling price and eventually get nothing at all and still have him at the club next season than just accept he’s a chocolate teapot and that… Read more »
marko
Instead of stealthily backing down, why don’t come clean, and then we can move on to the best way of dealing with the current situation.
The fact that you refuse to accept the basic principles which have existed for 500 years of modern capitalism says more about you than anything.
Of course a football club can be seamlessly be run the same way. Again you still have not proven your claim of financial constraints. Can you prove it outside of a generic statement about capitalism and how an owner micromanages everything within a company. Seems to me that you haven’t proven a thing Michael. That’s a shame Michael I really thought you were going to be able to prove your point
Mustafi’s market value is at between 30-40 million. I don’t think think it’s unreasonable to look for 25 million maybe 20 million. Chambers should be about 20 million and I’d value Mustafi slightly more
Holland knock Italy out 2-0
“Again you still have not proven your claim of financial constraints. Can you prove it outside of a generic statement about capitalism and how an owner micromanages everything within a company. Seems to me that you haven’t proven a thing Michael. That’s a shame Michael I really thought you were going to be able to prove your point” I cannot believe I am having this debate. Are you seriously asking me to “prove” how capitalism and commercial enterprise works ? I really think you should quit before you embarrass yourself even further. I have not mentioned “financial constraints” except to… Read more »
Great post Pedro, banging. >>>>>> CGJune 28, 2019 09:44:45 For such a naturally bright, and learned chap- a lacklustre post today by our Graham ( I mean PedRo) ……(&IOCTH4I) Mind after his ‘ drive- by shooting” line -last time out- one cant expect perfection every time….. (I was hoping a Pol Pot and the Killing Fields one today ……maybe later on In the season.- we can incorporate that) He is falling into the trap (like so many) of focusing on the past rather than the realities of today and tomorrow. Wenger, Gazidas, Hill Woods have gone. The more anyone –… Read more »
Sometimes I wonder whether Mustafi had this mental problem before he joined Arsenal. I remembered that he was quite good the first 10 games playing for Arsenal. No doubt he is a sensitive fellow. He could be a good defender physically. Could it be the constant attacks from the fans and nonstop trade rumors have destroyed his mental health?
So you don’t agree with the financial constraints that englandsbest alluded to? Well that’s good Michael. We can agree on that much at least. You might not have actually said financial constraints but you seem to go along with the essence of what he was saying which is that Stan sets the budget and the targets and all that. I would not agree with that we’re self sufficient we set our own budgets. Whether you agree with it or not Stan only cares about us making money however we do it. Like I said earlier during his ownership we’ve accumulated… Read more »
Carl Jenkinson epitomises everything that has been wrong, for far too long, with AFC.
A substandard player, on a ridiculous salary (£45k a week), set in a comfort zone, who no one wants.
C’est la vie.
>14 years of neglect have hit us very hard. I think it’s worth noting that “neglect” is probably the wrong word. I don’t think everyone at the club particularly wanted to fail on purpose (ergo neglect). I think 14 years of appeasing an aging and failing (both mentally and practically) manager who was just completely perplexed as the modern game passed him by is closer to the mark. It also didn’t help that the rest of the executive management structure, while not neglecting as such, were just in it to line their pockets, and to be honest probably still are.… Read more »
Based on reports read, I think Celtic are ready to pay for Jenkinson £15000 pound less than what he take at arsenal now.
Come to think of it I read here sometime ago from some posters that Jenkison was on probably £70000 per week. U see, not all that u read from the media is correct about players’ wages.
Spot on Benny.
The vacuum behind Wenger has been filled with the same types.
They know we are desperate to get back to winning ways so like all Spaniards they tell you want you want the hear.
Spain is one of the most corrupt countries in the World, full of con men.
We now have them in the club pretending to be doing something different.
Ten games into the season all hell will be let loose as the truth will unveil itself
So Balde Keita is the name doing the other rounds today, we’re supposedly interested and he can be had for 25-28m if Sky are anything to go off of.
I have to admit I’m not a fan although he did have one very good season at Lazio.
Never settled in France and didn’t get too much of a look in at Inter Milan last season.
More of an Arsenal-esque link than the Zaha one.
marko
You are hilarious, a worthy member of the brothers.
I love your ‘we set our own budgets’.
I take it by ‘we’ you mean BoD (or do you mean the tea ladies?)
For your info, none of the BoD own a single Arsenal share. They are Stan’s yes-men.
To be honest, I am unsure whether they still exist. With sole ownership, the owner generally appoints ‘Officers’ to do his bidding.
bennydevito
I don’t think CG has it in him to highlight the obvious. He would rather point the finger at the present regime, to avoid acknowledging all the failings of the past regime.
When I was at school, if you blamed someone for something that was not their fault, it meant you were ignorant.
Nothing’s changed.
“He is probably having sleepless nights wondering why he didn’t take Usmanov’s offer.”
You way you brits have no idea how little Kroenke cares about Arsenal is pathetic. The idea that he would lose a second of sleep over the club, or even worry about his LA investment. Jesus christ.
Good ebeing guys.
😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣
Billionaire republican who’s into trophy hunting. I bet he sleeps on a bed of puppies
Yeah, Kroenke wakes up in a cold sweat wondering how the hell his £1B London sports franchise investment has doubled inside a decade with zero cash injection.
His Walton wife must be pissed.
Nice big-hearted daughter, though. Wish she was doing Josh’s job. Much prettier.
Crystal Palace slap a £100m price tag on Zaha to ward off potential suitors… according to the Daily Mail.
In the meantime Arsenal has told sources that they would sell last season’s Golden Boot winner if they received and recouped their purchase price of £56m…
No wonder we’re seen as a soft touch.
We should be asking for a similar amount for a talismanic player in our team, should we not?
Summer is awful??
Pedro today has been gorgeous. How can you not get swept away by 33 degree heat in laaaaandaaaan town?
Been a lovely couple of days
Booze birds and budgerigars
Leeds it’s despicable
Wenger gone and the same old shit continues to occur. We are a fucking jellyfish of a club.
Is the source for this story The Metro?
…
You way you brits have no idea how little Kroenke cares about Arsenal is pathetic. The idea that he would lose a second of sleep over the club, or even worry about his LA investment. Jesus christ.
Cutter!!!
For once we agree!! Go on son. We will make a man out of you yet.
Alex
You’re wrong about us Brits, we have every idea how little Stan cares about Arsenal. Or about St Louis. Or about wild animals, Or, for that matter, about you Yanks.
I bet he cares about a money-losing business, though.
Leeds only a gobshite is going to believe the Aubameyang story
What is everyone’s deal with Nelson? I’m trying to work it out. So many Arsenal fans online have him starting in the team…is it just total desperation?
They also have both Lacazette and Aubameyang starting with Xhaka and Torreira as the central pairing.
Do Arsenal fans just not get football?
Marko
Why? It’s a believable story. We sold Gnabry for £3m
We sold Jeff for £2m know he’s worth £20m
We let Ramsey leave for free
Hired emery and gave ozil a £20m a year contract to phone in performances
Why wouldn’t we sell aubameyang for £55m? The club is being run by clowns and charlatans
Arsenal is just another investment to Kronke. He made his money in real estate and as such he is used to playing the looooooooong game to realise profit on his assets. Sorry ladies and gents we are stuck with Kronke for years if not decades.
The idea that Silent Stan wastes a moments thought on Arsenal is very optimistic me thinks.
Do you waste a moments thought on how much your carrots cost you in your weekly shop? No?
Neither does dear old Stan when it comes to the Arsenal.
CA
Partly
But it’s also due to the fact we are desperate for a local hero. We haven’t had one since Ray parlour/ Cashley. And haven’t had a local goalscorer since wrighty.
We’ve lost our soul and our london identity.
CA I’m convinced by and large Arsenal fans are painfully stupid. There’s just so much evidence to back it up
Marko
I agree.
Linked with Gary fucking Cahill
Ffs
Cesc
I like the boy an want him to play with Sala
Play them alternately an they won’t tire out…
RSPCA
Would rather keep koscielney
‘I want one our numpties in charge to state- by 3 years time we want to be better than Juventus!’
Seriously guy?
You want to be told we will sign an established world best in 3 years.
And you would believe?
Linked to Cahill might suggest that the Holding injury
is going to take longer than exspected.
Sure we could have had Cahill last season on loan.?????.
I don’t see how a defender who is literally most famous for weekly brain farts could be worth 30-40m by market value. Which other defenders can we name who are demonstrably as bad as mustafi and going for that money? Secondly the market rate is what people are actually willing to pay. I think we’ll find if we ask for even 25m there will be a grand total of 0 buyers from now until his contract ends, because including his wages, that would represent bad business for whoever buys him And lastly, sure let’s ask for 25m. And when no… Read more »
If mustafi were a 6 pack of beers, he’d be taped together because the ring connector broke. He’d have one can inexplicably missing. One of the remaining cans would be sticky on the outside and one would have a slightly funky smell coming from the top.
And you only wanna give me a 10% discount on my 6 pack???
Un
Damn right ,
Hey I was just giving what his market value is illustrating that us looking for 20-25 million seems reasonable. 10-15 million is a bit cheap
It seems that Emery prefer Cahill than Bielik. I was hoping that the team will breed some youngsters this season.
Germany lose 2- 1 to Sweden
China1
“When I used to work in the co-op, we would reduce the stuff approaching it’s sell by date”
That’s what we’ve become. The co-op amongst Footballs elite. Harrods/ Harvey Nichols / Macy’s / Bloomingdales, we are not.
No disrespect, because I love the co-op produce, but when you’re trying to sell a bottle of co-ops own brand,for the same price as Harrods finest, you know your fudged.
Thanks China for putting everything into perspective.
you’re fudged
China
Great stuff!😄😄😄😄
Do Arsenal fans just not get football? ________ Cesc- It’s not really that specifically it’s just that Wenger fucked with people’s heads for so long they forgot what a balanced side looks like. It’s not only the money situation that Wenger fucked us on in regards to wages but it was the constant ignoring of positional needs and an obsession with having everyone one the team be a Cam or a #10. Arshavin, Cazorla, Rosicky, Wilshere, Ramsey, Ozil, and the list goes on and on of central midfielders Wenger made play on the wings because he thought that was what… Read more »
Anyone watching Liam at Glastonbury
Right now this is what we are looking at.. 4-3-3
Iwobi……Laca…… Auba
Xhaka/ Elneny…….Ozil/Miki……LT/Matty G.
Teirney/Monreal……Holding(out)/Kos…. Papa/Mustafi… Bellerin(out)/Amn
Leno
This is scary to me.. beyond belief. You can throw in Nelson and Willock wherever you want it doesn’t make me feel any better about it.
Oh no, still Wenger responsible for our woes. Why not accept the fact we do not have as much money as some think we have. We cannot compare with the likes of ManUtd & co, As soon as wenger had money he bough the likes of Ozil, Sanchez, Laca, Auba, all big names. But to be competitive now you need more and more and more money. Look at Real rebuilding, Barca transfers – they are top clubs because they invest. We were actually calling on Wenger to Spend Some Money. He did when he could. So we cannot say that… Read more »
MGooner
Kudos to you sir.
After 50 years supporting my team, I don’t see it quite the same.
He did when he could…another one in denial.
Er….
What’s the point of having youngsters n loaning them out or mature .
Then when time comes bin them.
Beliek
Nelson
Deserve there chance…
Otherwise what’s the point.
Watching Uruguay against Peru. Torr stays in the middle right in front of the 2 CBs. That’s how we should use him.
Mgooner
Wengers mind on spotting raw talent went about 13 years ago..
Clubs only got itself to blame for letting the retard have so much power…
Nelson
Agreed
That’s why we brough5 him.
Hill wood
Brady .?
You can see very clearly how Torr is asked to play. Once Uruguay loses the ball in the opposition half. Torr just moves back into his defensive position. He is waiting for the opponent to come at him. With us he was asked to chase around to try to get the ball back.
RSPC
Lol
Uruguay just lost in the penalty shoot out. Torr scored but Suarez’s shot hit the goalie. Anyway, we’ll get Torr back soon.
The Copa’s no ET and straight to PK after 90 min for just the QF is so retarded.
Peru just shithoused their way through that, Uruguay the only team even looking to win in the 90.
Feel bad for Suarez, sucks when you miss the very first spot kick and you can’t even rely on your keeper to make a single save.
I’m dreading var
We will get bonus an we will get losses from it….
It’s all legit tho.
At the cost of the game….
Unless they speed it up.
Eagle
Rid 1980
Rix
Kempis the the fucker…
Hey ho.
Night train home to Victoria
Midwest it’s just last year’s team
Which sucks
Until some dross is moved out and a few first team players are signed, we should expect our team to be no better next year
Yeah co-op are pretty legit actually! More so than arsenal haha Cesc re Nelson, it’s just people being realistic We’re not signing 5 players for the first team this summer. You can totally forget it. We probably aren’t signing Zaha and if we are we probably aren’t signing anyone else for more than 5m a piece. Ergo we’re probably going into next season with either no wingers or no quality wingers in the squad at all. If we actually do spend up our budget on tierney, saliba and a CM, and martinelli for example, we will still have a decision… Read more »
‘I don’t see how a defender who is literally most famous for weekly brain farts could be worth 30-40m by market value. Which other defenders can we name who are demonstrably as bad as mustafi and going for that money?’ Guy is worth some bread, he’s a world cup winner, and the mistakes were not there before hence we paid £35m ourselves and fans were happy we did. He had his confidence destroyed after Wenger tried to shift him as his first season ended. Seriously can’t see the reason for that as I can’t see the reason for selling Gabriel.… Read more »
‘I am happy supporting my club, know that we have no money because the owner will not invest, know also that we will not win anything for many years, but that’s part of life, you do not get everything you wish for 🙂 There is no need to blame the world fro that’ A jolly good fan you are MGooner. Aye, Leicester spent much more than us and so we couldn’t compete as they won the league. Spuds also sprayed the cash around and we couldn’t compete and they took our CL place. We didn’t sign Alonso because we needed… Read more »
I’m sure Chelsea would gladly give us Cahill. In fact I see them toasting happily to it as we bring Cahill in here.
They obviously don’t regret the last favour they did us as four goals went in and the man took an advisor role the following week or something.
Way to go Raul, go bring another one.
Gentlebris- we can’t sell him at all because no one will pay 30m for a player who hasn’t played well for over 3 years. Don’t blame wenger because he was just as shit after a year under emery ‘When the nervousness goes away’ the guy is about 26 and has shown any signs of progress since the day he joined. There’s no evidence to believe it’s about to go away ‘He’s a World Cup winner’ so is ozil. No one wants to buy him either. ‘He’s worth 30m’ – which is why no one appears to be after him? We… Read more »
arsenal are as usual far too casual about dealing with urgent, drastic issues
The club has always had this element of denial about the scale of the issues they face and what needs to be done to correct it
If you could describe the club in one word over the last 10 years it would surely have to be ‘complacent’
The ethos of being patient with the club has long since run it’s due
We have been patient for 10 years and we’ve only gotten worse.
Patience is something afforded to a club that is taking small, clever steps as part of a wider strategic plan towards significant progress
I don’t see that. I see a series of poorly planned, barely connected decisions and events without much coherence or confidence about how to make them happen
We were promised that we were moving to the Emirates so that we could afford players like Zaha.
Except in reality who we got instead was a Denis Suarez on loan, a crock who played even less than Fatty Kim Kallstrom.
What was the point!?!
China1
Let us not forget that we did all of this because we adhered to our “values” and our honourable ways.
On top of this we kept the minority happy.
How can some on here expect us to follow the “Liverpool model” when we can’t even get the basics right?
I think we were supposed to be in for players better than zaha! But even he seems like a far out signing right now lol Yeah we were honorable and classy. I have never known explicitly what aspect of the club has been those things outside of some occasional good charity work. It always was a cheap tag we labeled on ourselves to cover up that the club was just mediocre. Like outside of some charity, what aspect of how we have run the club in the last 10 years has been classy? I guess life time contracts for non… Read more »
Blade isn’t 24 years old or whatever he claims and will just flop. He closer to 30yrs old.
Arsenal couldn’t becos Suarez after talking to Liverpool’s then Captain didn’t want to move.
Are we going to force the player to move just cos of activation clause?
Is Julian weigl so bad that Dortmund want rid for about 27m? I remember he was doing the rounds on le grove 2 years ago. Also apparently, Zagadou has put in a transfer request. Valued around 24m.
Tierney real close now.
Jock newspaper this morning reporting that Celtic have settled for 20m plus 5m add ons and that Tierney has left Celtic training camp in Austria.
Suarez agreeing or not is irrelevant. What matters is that arsenal football club triggered his release clause which should’ve opened the doors to talk with him to agree personal terms which he can accept or reject accordingly
It’s not Arsenal’s job to pay over the release clause amount just because Liverpool didn’t want to sell.
It’s absolutely shameful that arsenal let Liverpool illegally laugh is out of the room