Since leaving Highbury in 2006 under the promise of becoming a European Super-club, it seems to me that the height of our expectations is to be also-rans.
Here we are 8 years after our move & what benefits have there been other than false hope?
* We’ve genuinely competed for the title 2 years at most, to come unstuck in the latter part of the season (08 & 14)
* 1x FA Cup win in May
* 1x semi final appearance in the CL
I’d suggest that’s not exactly the record of a ‘Super-Club’
According to reports, we’ve accumulated near on £100m in this period which could be made available for player transfers. Yes we’ve spent a fair bit this summer but are they along with the likes of Giroud, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Monreal, Cazorla etc not similar to what we would have bought at Highbury?
There’s not much monetary difference between those players & what we paid for the likes of Pires, Hleb & Overmars in relative terms
Yes I accept that Sanchez & Ozil are the exception to the rule but we also constantly spent what was considered big money at the time on Henry, Reyes & Wiltord for example.
I don’t want to get into the exact names of ‘who we should have bought this summer’ debate as we’ll all have different opinions. I’m also not criticising who we have brought in as there is no doubt that all of them will be an asset to our squad but they are all like for like position wise with what’s left the club.
According to the club website we now have 6 defenders to choose from for a 50+ game season. How long will it be until we hear ‘Mertesacker is jaded’ after he played right until the end of the World Cup?
Here lies the problem, there should have been more than the 5 we brought in. We have a lopsided squad, top heavy with creative midfielders. If you & I can identify the areas as weaknesses, why can’t the Hierarchy at our club? The excuse of no money or players not available just doesn’t wash anymore.
As it stands, the only benefit of our move to Emirates Stadium I can see is amassing a huge figure in the Bank. Of course that isn’t a benefit to the ordinary fan if it’s not being invested in the team or used to reduce ticket prices. Only the Shareholders will see benefits with their stock value increasing on a daily basis.
I’m not sure that’s what I signed up for when we moved from our beloved Highbury.
We’ve seen match tickets hit £100+ per game mark & cheapest season tickets now up to over £1000 per year & they’re only going one way. Thousand’s of loyal fans priced out for what exactly?
I hope The Arsenal win the quadruple this year (as I do every other year) but realistically at this stage we are looking at scraping 4th & hoping for another Cup win.
Should that be where we are after all the promises when we moved?
Written by an Admin from http://www.facebook.com/shewore