Why top players have no interest in The Arsenal.

This is the fatal mistake Wenger is making. He is betting on another 4th place finish, which him and the board will consider a success, but which ever top class players we have left will be heading for the door next summer and that is our best case scenario. Worst case we drop out of the CL and have even more players heading for the door, and pocket the money made in sales to cover the budget gap no CL leaves us with.

In Wenger we rust (but in anyone elses hands we rust faster).

 

That's why I hate the Champions League so. It makes finishing 4th a goal, something respectable. And yet, if we didn't have the CL, what really would be the difference between a 4th and 6th or an 8th place finish? We're being rewarded for mediocrity. I still think we'll finish top 4 because Liverpool and Spurs have similar, or greater, holes than we have, key discontented players, and mid-table managers. But seeing the kind of displays we've seen this preseason is going to make finishing 4th seem like a success. I'm aware that different teams have different targets for success, but eventually the moral victory of a CL spot wears thin. I've been tired of it for years....

 

the stadium was never built to rival Chelsea. Chelsea were a nonfactor, then Roman stepped in and changed things. Then the Sheikh bought City. That changed things and was not accounted for.

Thats why Arsenal cant pay for top players at the moment (and its not like Arsenal ever really did)

this thread gets made once every 3-4 months it seems

 

Yep, the choices made by Arsenal FC to barely skimp by have come to roost.

 

Here's the thing that kills me--OBJECTIVELY speaking, only Man Ure, Madrid, and F.U. Barfa sell more shirts world wide than us. And we are worth more than F.U. Barfa .

We are one of the very biggest teams in the world, playing in the mot dyamnic, most popular league in the world. These are facts.

Why the hell does Wenger continue to nickel and dime???????

 

We would have to literally double our payroll to compete with Citeh's wages. That is simply impossible at this point. In a few years, when our shirt deal runs out, we'll be able to increase wages closer to what ManU spends, but we won't ever surpass them financially, and unless UEFA gets serious about FFP, we'll be trail Citeh and Chelsea as well. That's reality. How do you recruit top employees when the guy across the street pays everyone double what you do? Let's be realistic.

 

Agreed. The money excuse has some viability, but some people exaggerate the restrictions and underplay the size of our brand.

A good portion of our "restraints" are self-imposed, by the Board and by Wenger.

 

surely it is possible to put out an excellent squad with the wages we offer? there are only so many players that can be on the books of those clubs who can offer more. granted other teams may pay individual players good money, above and beyond the average for their team, but i find it hard to believe we can't put out a better team than we have, that there aren't enough great players out there after maybe 6 or 7 other clubs fill their rosters.
we may not be at the very top financially, but we are still up there in terms of wages paid for the majority of players in europe.
this excuse that a handful of clubs spending more completely cripples us is wearing thin.

 

As it stands, we can't compete with City and Chelsea but it's rare to see an Arsenal fan say we should be. The anger has come from the refusal/failure to add to the squad through the transfer process on a regular basis rather than focusing the extreme majority through the youth squad.

What has happened was fairly predictable. Some of the youth have panned out and some haven't. Those who have will begin to look at the current squad, realize they can make more (and actually win) at another club and leave. That was my fear all along and I can't believe that Wenger didn't see that coming.

 

It's easier to whine and not pay attention to what is going on around us tho


That doesnt mean I am satisfied or happy with the club's transfer dealings so far, or over the last few years. But I'm realistic, when you see some other clubs spend half a million on players over 3-4 seasons I dont understand why anyone would complain that we are not competing for those same players.

 

You must have a crystal ball, because i never predicted that Citeh would be offering double your money deals to every decent player in Europe. How do you compete with that? Our strategy was to get competitive with ManU's wages. Roman came in and moved the bar up around 50% and Abu Dhabi came in and doubled that again.

 

The thing is Arsenal aren't doing worse than the clubs behind them
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=6354899

 

No, the anger comes from not winning trophies. It has carried over to not buying players, which people think rates directly to winning.

If fans don't think we should compete with City and Cit yas well as United then there would be no anger at finishing 4th. People have unrealistic expectations, there's your anger.

 

Fair enough, but as Prince points out we are 5th in the premier league and 10th in Europe in wages. Why do people expect us to be competitive?

 

because there are more good players out there than just the ones at those clubs financially above us.
it is hampering, but not to the extent that we can't have a squad that can realistically challenge for every honour available.

 

And we sign those players, hence why we aren't also rans or midtable

And we do challenge for every honor available, we just aren't as good as those teams that are ahead of us.

The only time in recent years that we shat the pants to an inferior team was Brum in the League Cup final. We lost to Barcelona last season, and gave them their toughest matches in the knockout round of champions league. We finished behind Chelsea and United, and quit to finish behind City.

It's frustrating but we aren't sitting in like 9th or 10th place like Juve were last year or finishing 2nd or 3rd like Bayern have done. We are finishing behind the best teams in the world.

 

I don't even think it's about money, or City having more transfer funds.

it's Wenger himself. I think the guy is a legend, but he has brought all of our current problems on himself. IMO, it is for these reasons:

- Post 2007, he changed his transfer policy. 1996-2007 was based on technical quality, but with high degrees of experience at the top level. He stopped this when buying in youth, who whilst maybe holding potential, have not fulfilled it at all. I'm referring to Diaby, Eboue and Denilson in this regard. Song probably is the only exception in this sense.

- Buying players with little to no balls. 1996-2007 had technical quality, but also had balls. It was due to this that we got so many red cards, we were not dirty, but were competitive and didn't let others push us around. Post 2007, we've signed technical quality, coupled with **************. There are no Vieira-esque personalities again, and no old heads like Keown or even Tony Adams to rough things up. If Arsene signs more beef to blend with technical quality, we're up there again as serious shit to be reckoned with.

Money is no issue, and never has been. Other clubs have always out-spent us since 1996. Newcastle paid a world record for Shearer, and he helped them win nothing (yes, he scored goals but he was bought to take them to the next level). Liverpool outspent us, and they have no league since 1990 (their enemy has even stolen their record from them). Even Spurs technically have, and not much more needs to be said regarding their performance since 1996.

Arsene should hold his hands up, and sign more steel. If/when that occurs, we can compete again.

 

Did you read the first sentence of what you quoted? I don't think anyone thought that the City situation would happen but then again, my job isn't to figure out the football present and near future. It's Wengers.

But, we aren't even close to matching Man U's results which was our strategy according to you. At this point we're regressing because of several issues, one of which TxTechGooner was correct in pointing out. Arsenal isn't a destination club anymore, it's somewhere to stop on your way to a big club.

 

And we have many of them. So?

 

Where did those expectations come from?

Here is a big clue...

 

So how come we had success before without never signing the true cream for big money? yes, we obviously had quality, but never the big guns at the peak of their careers. I think part of the reason we were successful in the early Arsene years was his transfer market talent and coaching, by signing quality for low prices. Now, either he has lost this talent, or some other factor makes him sign quality with weak wills.

 

did you realistically think we could win any/every competition available to us over the last few seasons? if not, then the job wasn't done properly and what we are hearing now is excuses. do you think that our squad is settled and ready for the league and for the cl today? if not, why not? all i hear are excuses and all i see is inaction and inept performances.
bottom line is: it's becoming seriously unacceptable to be seeing the flaws at the club repeatedly allowed to flourish under a regime of half assed excuses and pure bs.

and to those who thinks we have a squad full of great players, i ask you to look a bit harder. we have SOME great players. this may not be such a problem if the less great players were competent and reliable, but ours just plain and simply aren't.

 

Because Henry and Vieira and Overmars finished their careers at Arsenal?

Arsenal were never a destination club. The stadium was supposed to help us reach that point in the future.

A lot of what has hamstrung te club are these long term commercial contracts. It's exploded with other clubs signing shorter term deals. Those contracts were done under D-v-d D--n, our hero.