Arsenal a big club knuckling down to fight giants but for how long!
In my last post I discussed how cheerful things cannot even be enjoyed when you’re an Arsenal fan. We want to challenge for honors but we first have to challenge for top players to achieve that.
First we could not buy the world greatest but could hold on them
The truth is though we hardly broke transfer records since Arsene’s taken the reign of the mighty Arsenal. I don’t remember any year when people saw the players we have purchased and backed us to challenge and win things. Yes the Thierry Henrys and the Vieiras have turned out to be among the very best at their positions but Arsène buying them was hardly a world trending buzzing event, was it. One thing though we could do was to buy players more than we were selling which was nice as we weren’t making profits in the transfer market. But the best thing was as soon as these players turned out to be absolute world beaters we were able to hold on to them. Henry spent at least five years at club after every club would have loved to have his services. Before him Vieira spent seven years being among the two to three best players in is position. Likewise for Freddy Ljundberg, Robert Pires, Sol Campbell and of course the best of them all finished his career defending our colors The Mighty Denis Bergkamp.
We still can’t buy the world great and can’t hold of the ones that turn out to be
Now the players we have struggling for top performances are staying put but as soon as they have something resembling at top level quality we can’t retain them. People want to ignore the true reasons and fire at the board, manager, players and even supporters being deluded. If you don’t win titles you won’t hold of your best players and if you don’t hold on to your best players you won’t win titles hmmm. But what we have to ask ourselves are basic questions like:
- What’s the club’s strategy?
- What are our true objectives
- What are our means to get there?
- What are the constraints?
- What is the timescale in which we want to achieve our objectives?
- What are the indicators of good and bad performance?
In the AGM people rightly asked about Ivan Gazidis bonuses.
I think Wenger honestly declined his objectives in :
1. Win the PL (if possible)
2. Win the CL (if possible)
3. Qualify for CL (vital)
4. Win the FA (if possible)
5. Win the league Cup (if possible)
I add what’s in the brackets. I believe the most important objective of the club is to qualify in the champions league which is ok as long as the club admits it to its supporters.
Now let’s talk about transfer and finance to prove and validate the assumption that our main objective right now is CL qualification.
Simply put if we want to win the league we have to have players to match the best squad in the league. Today we cannot.
If you look at our finances we have made a loss in the football department every year since 2006 without player sale as noted on the excellent SWISS RAMBLE BLOG:
And in the last financial result we would have made an astonishing 31 plus million pounds loss without player sale. Now I am asking in constrains part can Arsenal afford to make losses year after year with the stadium debt? The answer is a big fat NO. This just says we cannot hold onto our best players for two reasons:
a- We will make a loss not selling them
b- We will make a bigger loss by paying them even more.
So I agree we cannot have the top players at club playing at the top of their game altogether to win us PL and CL titles those that matter. So I conclude the true vital objective assigned to Arsene is to qualify for CL. That’s his trophy.
If our strategy is to be among the greatest clubs if not to be the greatest club result wise the objectives of the board should be to get us the muscles to be able first to hold on the rare top players that come out and later to be able to buy the very best players in the world. Nothing more nothing less.
So how is Ivan’s team going? It depends on the timescale they are supposed to be working under. But I believe they have to be underachieving and unless they are able to let Arsenal have the same wage bill as the other top teams and to buy other top quality without making us have a negative profit, Wenger is doing very well.
If they are waiting for our commercial deals to expire in other to get new deals that will enable the club to challenge then they are not needed and even Piers Morgan could be right call Gazidis IvanTheTerrible.
If they are backing FFP to put clubs to reduce the amount of money they are paying to get top players then they are not needed.
And that’s where we need the shareholders. They should be giving objectives more ambitious than the ones they are having enabling Ivan to get millions of bonuses without the club’s state unchanged.
In my last post I discussed how cheerful things cannot even be enjoyed when you’re an Arsenal fan. We want to challenge for honors but we first have to challenge for top players to achieve that.
 |
| Can we hold on top players? |
The truth is though we hardly broke transfer records since Arsene’s taken the reign of the mighty Arsenal. I don’t remember any year when people saw the players we have purchased and backed us to challenge and win things. Yes the Thierry Henrys and the Vieiras have turned out to be among the very best at their positions but Arsène buying them was hardly a world trending buzzing event, was it. One thing though we could do was to buy players more than we were selling which was nice as we weren’t making profits in the transfer market. But the best thing was as soon as these players turned out to be absolute world beaters we were able to hold on to them. Henry spent at least five years at club after every club would have loved to have his services. Before him Vieira spent seven years being among the two to three best players in is position. Likewise for Freddy Ljundberg, Robert Pires, Sol Campbell and of course the best of them all finished his career defending our colors The Mighty Denis Bergkamp.
We still can’t buy the world great and can’t hold of the ones that turn out to be
Now the players we have struggling for top performances are staying put but as soon as they have something resembling at top level quality we can’t retain them. People want to ignore the true reasons and fire at the board, manager, players and even supporters being deluded. If you don’t win titles you won’t hold of your best players and if you don’t hold on to your best players you won’t win titles hmmm. But what we have to ask ourselves are basic questions like:
- What’s the club’s strategy?
- What are our true objectives
- What are our means to get there?
- What are the constraints?
- What is the timescale in which we want to achieve our objectives?
- What are the indicators of good and bad performance?
In the AGM people rightly asked about Ivan Gazidis bonuses.
I think Wenger honestly declined his objectives in :
1. Win the PL (if possible)
2. Win the CL (if possible)
3. Qualify for CL (vital)
4. Win the FA (if possible)
5. Win the league Cup (if possible)
I add what’s in the brackets. I believe the most important objective of the club is to qualify in the champions league which is ok as long as the club admits it to its supporters.
Now let’s talk about transfer and finance to prove and validate the assumption that our main objective right now is CL qualification.
Simply put if we want to win the league we have to have players to match the best squad in the league. Today we cannot.
If you look at our finances we have made a loss in the football department every year since 2006 without player sale as noted on the excellent SWISS RAMBLE BLOG:
 |
| Arsenal losses without selling |
a- We will make a loss not selling them
b- We will make a bigger loss by paying them even more.
So I agree we cannot have the top players at club playing at the top of their game altogether to win us PL and CL titles those that matter. So I conclude the true vital objective assigned to Arsene is to qualify for CL. That’s his trophy.
 |
| Honestly 4th is his trophy |
So how is Ivan’s team going? It depends on the timescale they are supposed to be working under. But I believe they have to be underachieving and unless they are able to let Arsenal have the same wage bill as the other top teams and to buy other top quality without making us have a negative profit, Wenger is doing very well.
If they are waiting for our commercial deals to expire in other to get new deals that will enable the club to challenge then they are not needed and even Piers Morgan could be right call Gazidis IvanTheTerrible.
 |
| When Piers right about #IvanTheTerrible |
If they are backing FFP to put clubs to reduce the amount of money they are paying to get top players then they are not needed.
And that’s where we need the shareholders. They should be giving objectives more ambitious than the ones they are having enabling Ivan to get millions of bonuses without the club’s state unchanged.
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