I am a little bit slow of mind this morning. A European trip will do that to you.
Four flights, all of which were delayed, about 10 hours sleep over 3 days and countless steins of beer later, I am back in England with a cup of coffee. I am getting too old for these trips.
There is the old saying “do not let the 90 minutes ruin a great day at the football”, and that is certainly the case for European away games. When you are spending £500+ on a couple of nights away for The Arsenal, you naturally become “less bothered” by the football.
That does not mean I do not care. It just means that I am not going to let the game ruin what was a great few days in Munich.
As I have said before, if you want a guaranteed happy ending, go to Thailand.
Winning the league, and winning the Champions League, is not easy. Some online commentators would make it seem like it is the easiest ever, and that Arsenal season would have been a failure if we finish 2nd and have been knocked out by Bayern Munich in the QF of the Champions League.
For years, all we wanted was to compete. And for the second season in a row we have competed with Manchester City (and Liverpool). Yes, we might come up short. But is it failure to finish behind Manchester City with their state funded spending?
Man City spend around £150m more on wages than us. They spend on average more than £100k a week per player than us which will naturally mean that they can recruit better players, and have more squad depth. It is no shame to finish below them.
If they win the league, they would have won 6 of the last 7 Premier League titles, and became the first team to win 4 English league titles in a row in the history of the game.
Jurgen Klopp will leave England with just a single league title during that period. I do not think anyone would label his time in this country as a failure. It just shows how hard it is finish above the Manchester City sportswashing jaganaught.
And likewise, was anyone really expecting us to win the Champions League in our first appearance since 2016?
It took Manchester City to appoint Pep, give him billions of pounds to spend (on transfer fees and salaries) and 7-years for him to finally win them a Champions League. If it was that easy, they would have won it a lot earlier during Pep’s reign!
To compete for the title, finishing 2nd or 3rd (although the season is not yet over), whilst making the quarter final of the Champions League is a solid season and backs up last years improvement. We just now need to keep building.
Following the Munich defeat, I heard people saying we need to make wholesale changes. I tried to ignore those demanding Mikel Arteta get sacked or that the Kroenke’s to invest more money in, but they can be a noisy moany bunch.
We are 2 points behind Manchester City in the league, and it was the mighty Bayern Munich who beat us – and it is not the poor Bayern side some are making out. They are 2nd in the Bundesliga behind a superb Leverkusen side! We are not a team that needs wholesale changes.
What we need is a summer like last season – 3 quality players to come in that improve the top end of the squad, pushes players “down one in the peaking order” and with those at the bottom leaving.
For me that is buying a new striker, new winger and new midfielder. And departing would be Eddie Nketiah, Emile Smith Rowe, Reiss Nelson, Mohamed Elneny and Thomas Partey.
The 3 new players would easily replace the 5 mentioned above (considering how little play time they get) and would improve both our starting XI and overall squad depth.
I excluded David Raya from the equation as that deal is done.
You would be surprised if those 3 new signings cost much less than £150m. Add in Raya and a 2nd choice keeper and that will be close to £200m spent again. It is what is needed. Add in the returning Jurrien Timber and we would have moved our squad forward again.
But spending the £200m will not guarantee us the league title or Champions League, more will it mean Arteta would be a failure if we do not win either of the big two.
Liverpool have been doing this sort of spending (adjusted for inflation) throughout Jurgen Klopp’s reign and have just one of each. For every pound Arsenal or Liverpool spend, Manchester City can spend £2 (without taking account what may or may not be put into offshore bank accounts!).
Football is not easy. If you are of the thought that “anything but winning is failure” then you are in for a tough ride for your life. You can not live by thinking that unless you achieve more than anyone else you have failed.
Me? I just need another coffee and another nights sleep. Then it is off to Wolves tomorrow with no trains back…
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 
115. Charges no less.And the silence is deafening.
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You`ve just got to laugh at the spoilt kids complaining about being one of the top 8 clubs in Europe this season and being 2 points behind City in the league. Daft cunts don`t live in the real world mate.
We`re still right in this title race, we`ve got to pick ourselves up and win our next 2 league games. If we do that, we go 4 clear of City and put the pressure back on them.
Agree about Munich, great trip. 3rd time there and hopefully be back next year for the final. I always thought the tie was a 50-50 and it was frustrating to come out on the wrong end of it but we could easily have come out the wrong end of the Porto game as well. That`s the Champions League for you, fine margins. Just got to bounce back now.
Up The Arse.
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