I agree with galeforce.
The board have the fans exactly where they want them. And wenger has enabled that. it’s basically due to wenger's brilliance that arsenal are in that sweet spot; where they are above the likes of us and liverpool, but just about competing for trophies. This means that they have the glamour of being one of the elite clubs in the world and have a massive worldwide and domestic presence.
And if you compare arsenal to clubs around Europe with a similar reputation, arsenal are doing this on the smallest budget. That is all down to wenger. And whilst he’s doing this, he’s raking in a decent amount of profit for the owners’ year in year out. In reality, for a club the size of arsenal (who are not a real madrid or bayern for example), to be where they are, they probably need someone who will subsidise them. Not to the extent that Chelsea are, but someone who doesn’t mind losing a few million every year.
In response to glorygloryeze, I disagree that the signing of ozil really changes the conditions that wenger is judged on. At least I doubt it will change much from the people that matter. ie. The board and wenger himself. However, the expectations from the fans might change obviously.
It would be absolutely ridiculous in my opinion that one £45m signing should lead to any big changes in objectives for a club the size of arsenal. To seriously be competitive for a league or ucl title for a sustained number of seasons, you need to be spending that kind of money for a number of years (look at Chelsea, Man Utd and City), not once in a decade, when you have made more than enough profit in the previous windows, to still be a in net positive in player transfers in recent windows.
In my opinion, that ozil transfer happened for two main reasons.
1- Arsenal are coming to the end of some sponsorship deals and are on the verge of signing some bigger deals, leading to them having greater spending potential in the transfer market.
2- But more importantly, I think the board and wenger noticed that the fans are getting disgruntled. And this transfer was basically their way of sweetening the fans somewhat, so that they can continue with their spin of “wanting to do well”, “are ambitious”, “willing to spend on quality” etc etc etc. I suspect that if all their fans were like Alan Sugar, they probably would not have signed ozil this summer.
I think it will be very interesting to see what happens once wenger goes. It can only go one of two ways. They will either become like us and Liverpool, and be another team that will finish outside the top 4 the majority of the time, and go through a continuous cycle of managerial changes. Or, the board will realise that Arsenal is declining as an asset and will sell up. If they do sell up, it will probably be to some billionaire, and then they will be another Emirates Marketing Project, Chelsea.
In short, if wenger goes but the board stay, I can only see arsenal being worse off.
The board have the fans exactly where they want them. And wenger has enabled that. it’s basically due to wenger's brilliance that arsenal are in that sweet spot; where they are above the likes of us and liverpool, but just about competing for trophies. This means that they have the glamour of being one of the elite clubs in the world and have a massive worldwide and domestic presence.
And if you compare arsenal to clubs around Europe with a similar reputation, arsenal are doing this on the smallest budget. That is all down to wenger. And whilst he’s doing this, he’s raking in a decent amount of profit for the owners’ year in year out. In reality, for a club the size of arsenal (who are not a real madrid or bayern for example), to be where they are, they probably need someone who will subsidise them. Not to the extent that Chelsea are, but someone who doesn’t mind losing a few million every year.
In response to glorygloryeze, I disagree that the signing of ozil really changes the conditions that wenger is judged on. At least I doubt it will change much from the people that matter. ie. The board and wenger himself. However, the expectations from the fans might change obviously.
It would be absolutely ridiculous in my opinion that one £45m signing should lead to any big changes in objectives for a club the size of arsenal. To seriously be competitive for a league or ucl title for a sustained number of seasons, you need to be spending that kind of money for a number of years (look at Chelsea, Man Utd and City), not once in a decade, when you have made more than enough profit in the previous windows, to still be a in net positive in player transfers in recent windows.
In my opinion, that ozil transfer happened for two main reasons.
1- Arsenal are coming to the end of some sponsorship deals and are on the verge of signing some bigger deals, leading to them having greater spending potential in the transfer market.
2- But more importantly, I think the board and wenger noticed that the fans are getting disgruntled. And this transfer was basically their way of sweetening the fans somewhat, so that they can continue with their spin of “wanting to do well”, “are ambitious”, “willing to spend on quality” etc etc etc. I suspect that if all their fans were like Alan Sugar, they probably would not have signed ozil this summer.
I think it will be very interesting to see what happens once wenger goes. It can only go one of two ways. They will either become like us and Liverpool, and be another team that will finish outside the top 4 the majority of the time, and go through a continuous cycle of managerial changes. Or, the board will realise that Arsenal is declining as an asset and will sell up. If they do sell up, it will probably be to some billionaire, and then they will be another Emirates Marketing Project, Chelsea.
In short, if wenger goes but the board stay, I can only see arsenal being worse off.
