The question: What does a manic-depressive (recently diagnosed after a half week that saw a win at Real Madrid followed by a loss at Blackburn) Arsenal fan do on a rainy day?
Try to conjure up hypothetical results for the rest of the EPL season of course.
The easy part of such an endeavor is eliminating the teams that the Gunners do not have to worry about. Looking at the current table, my guess is the clubs from Man City to the bottom should not be a danger to Arsenal?s chances to play Champions League football next year.
Of course, Man City may be the most dangerous of this bunch due to the fact that the Gunners still must make the journey up to the City of Manchester Stadium for their annual meeting?a game that has rarely been a dull affair. And City only have one match against the big three?Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool?left on this year?s Prem docket. So if they get hot, beat the Gunners, I may be ruing the day I ever counted this talented squad out of killing the Gunners chances for Champion?s League football next season.
Three other squads, the aforementioned ?big three?, also do not figure much in the mix other than the fact that Arsenal needs to count on them to maintain their current form and beat some of the Gunners? closer rivals in the table. The danger for Arsenal that Chelsea might clinch the league and then go on cruise control is a real one, especially if the Blues somehow manage to keep themselves alive in Europe and look to rest the regular team for their final European matches.
Yet, the five teams that are most likely to be in the mix with Arsenal for fourth are the following clubs (in current table order, excluding Arsenal): Tottenham, Blackburn, Bolton, West Ham and Wigan. Just like the Gunners, Tottenham, Blackburn and Wigan have 11 premiership matches or 33 points remaining in the campaign. West Ham has 12 matches (one game in hand), while Bolton has 13 matches (two games in hand) remaining.
If you take a look at the upcoming fixtures for these clubs, you see a lot of competitive football ahead for each of Arsenal?s main rivals. This leads to one of the inalienable laws of football: Anything can happen and it usually does. But I can?t help but make some guesses.
It may come as no surprise that Bolton may be the team most likely to keep Arsenal out of a much coveted fourth place. With two games in hand and the advantage of 4 points against Arsenal this year, Bolton is in an enviable position. I?m going to go out on a limb and guess that they are likely to end on about 64 points, which assumes 6 wins, 4 draws and 3 defeats to close the books on their 2005/2006 EPL campaign. Sadly, the three assumed defeats?at Liverpool and at home against Chelsea and Man United?are by no means certain. But there is enough quality left in Bolton?s opposition to assume they have more than just a couple defeats ahead.
Tottenham and Blackburn are the next most likely to push the Gunners out of the fourth slot. Interestingly, these two teams play each other next week. Of the two teams, I actually like Blackburn?s chances better in the long term due to a more favorable schedule, although I have a nagging feeling that Blackburn is just in over the heads at the moment. But the fact remains that Tottenham must play Arsenal, Chelsea and United, as well as a virtual list of who?s who in the top ten of the table. There are just not enough virtually assured three point matches on the Spurs schedule to think they may not be coming off that fourth spot sooner or later. As for Blackburn, they seem to have the other side of the table for the remainder of the year. They play a few of the bottom feeders and get some of those teams you never can be certain about, clubs like Middlesbrough and Villa. The Rovers may be able to find a way to win 4, perhaps five matches, but anything more from their remaining 11 would be a stretch. In the end, I see Tottenham and Blackburn coming in at 61 and 62 points respectively, just off the standard set by Bolton.
Before getting to what the Gunners must do, let?s quickly take a look at West Ham and Wigan. With a game in hand, the Hammers would look more threatening if it were not for what is likely 4 defeats in the weeks ahead. With all of the big three still on the fixture list, including two of the big boys away, plus other matches at Bolton, Wigan and Middlesbrough, I just can?t see West Ham making enough points to threaten fourth. Wigan, on the other hand, is a team that no one should ever count out, especially given their gutsy performances and year long presence near the top of the table. I can actually see Wigan having quite a nice run in. They only face a visit by Manchester United in terms of the big three and their remaining road matches are manageable ones. On the other hand, they do have a ton of very competitive games against several of their closest rivals, including City, Blackburn, West Ham and Arsenal. No matter the outcomes, Wigan will have a lot to say about the final make up of the EPL table. These two teams feel even harder to estimate in terms of final points, but I?ll guess 55 for West Ham and 57 for Wigan.
As for the Gunners, the equation is simple isn?t it? Play the final 11 matches without a defeat and all will likely be perfect in the world. The problem is that there are five remaining road matches in the current campaign. All must be handled with better form that what has been on display away from Highbury thus far this season. The obvious dangerous road game, and the one in which I think we can assume a loss, is at Manchester United. The positive spin on this match is that Arsenal seems to rally against their rivals from Manchester, so perhaps a point is in the cards just as it was at Highbury against earlier this year. As for the other trip up to Manchester, this one against City, I?d guess one point is also what we must hope for. The other three matches are ones that Gunners can and hopefully will win. Fulham, Portsmouth and Sunderland make up these matches and while I can see getting only one point off one of these teams, surely 7 points will be needed from these to see Arsenal up to fourth. Combined with the estimated point at City, that would mean 8 points earned away from our final five road matches.
More points are needed. And they must come at home. West Brom, Charlton and Villa all must be defeated at home. Draws will do us no good. That leaves three other home games, critical ones, against Liverpool, Tottenham and Wigan in that order. Given the scenario that I have described, Arsenal would need 65 points to snatch 4th from Bolton. Excluding these three high-profile, home matches, Arsenal would be sitting on 58 points. That means 7 would be required (or 6 and our slight goal difference advantage) from these three important home matches to punch our ticket to the Champions League for 2006/7.
It may be too tall of an order. Yet, at home and especially, in the emotion of what will be the some of the very last games at historic Highbury, I am hard-pressed to see how our men could fail. Perhaps a draw with Liverpool and a famous win over Spurs will set it all up in a way that not even Nick Hornby could have imagined at the start of the season: Beat Wigan in Highbury?s final match and play Champions League next season; Beat Wigan in Highbury?s final match and Henry signs on for several more years; Beat Wigan in Highbury?s final match and the club makes exciting transfers worthy of its new, grand stadium; Beat Wigan in Highbury?s final match and all is not lost, faith and more importantly, hope, are rightfully restored at the Arsenal Football Club.
27 Responses to “The Road to Fourth”
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February 28th, 2006 at 7:46 am
There is plenty of football to be played out, roughly a 1/3 of the season left.
We can make it, we should make it but nothing in football is ever that simple.
One game at a time is the way ahead, three points against Fulham please.
February 28th, 2006 at 8:14 am
I read that with ManU winning the Carling Cup, 6th place in the league will also yeild an UEFA Cup spot. Is that true? Does anybody know? I thought that Wigan would get that place as runners-up.
February 28th, 2006 at 8:19 am
There is a lot to hope 4 and wish…but the fact is that even the blackburn fans are making such predictions…so r the bolton fans and the tottenham since it’s been a while since any of the teams have been in the CL..
Times really do change. At one point arsenal were assured but now they r squandering 4 a 4th place hoping that the other teams fare badly. The way i see it, we might just drop further if we maintain this poor mental spirit. We could have won that game against blackburn but the lads we all downed by that one goal. this was just blackburn..Why give up. i know we’ll go really far in the CL because the teams in the CL lack the brutality of the english teams….
as for the EPL we might not even make it into the UEFA cup..wat a shame. where is the moral. who is supposed to motivate the players..no wonder they missed all those chances against b’burn…Fulham is on fire so expect the worst..
February 28th, 2006 at 10:32 am
4th place is possible.
The problem is that we are trying to leapfrog more than one team.
We do NOT control our own destiny. We need other teams to slip up.
We need to win most of our remaining league games… including the road ones.
Bolton is ahead of us with 2 games in hand.
These are all big issues.
We could go on a good run till season’s end and STILL NOT make the top 4.
Thats the position we’ve put ourselves in… I’d LOVE for the above scenario to occur, with everything on the line in the last match of the year at home to Wigan.
I just don’t think we’ll ever get that opportunity.
Cole & Clichy & Sol ALL with injury set-backs… and we show ZERO signs of doing anything consistently.
It seems a bridge too far. The dye is cast. Ain’t gonna happen… not gonna do it… wouldn’t be prudent.
It’ll be nail biting time in every match, and HUGE stakes for the AFC, but I don’t think we get top 4.
February 28th, 2006 at 10:55 am
So does that mean bye bye to TH???
I think yes…
February 28th, 2006 at 11:21 am
4th or 7th he’s history, he’s gettin’ older, the EPL is too hard, he wants a softer touch in Spain or Italy, bannanas or no bannanas
February 28th, 2006 at 12:33 pm
Yes, he’s ancient.
The EPL is soooooooooo hard for Henry… its especially difficult seeing that he’s so far superior to any other striker in the league that its a joke!
Whats difficult for Henry, is that he was on an invincible team 2 years ago, and Wenger has dismantled it, not improved, and sold him a bunch of bullshite that we’d bring in the talent around him that could play at his level of football.
Thats whats difficult for Henry.
So try blaming ARSENE for not surrounding the best footballer Arsenal has ever had, with adequate talent to get near a top 4 finish.
Not buying the “blame Henry” theory, or that he wants out. Sorry.
Wenger has had his chance to get some f’n ambition and bring in REAL PROVEN PLAYERS, he chose kids. He gambled. He LOST.
February 28th, 2006 at 1:35 pm
Stag—Your point about ‘not controlling our own destiny’ is a very good one; and one that I failed to adequately illuminate in my mailbag submission. Last night, I was still dwelling on the scenarios that I had painted in my head (with a little help of a spreadsheet) and the hard truth that Arsenal requires six or seven wins with only yielding one more loss is a chilling one. It’s simply a quality of football that we have not seen this season. We have had more than one loss in every stretch of ten prem games, so it’s wishful thinking at best. I do think it’s Bolton that is most likely to do us in. But given our performances against those guys, it may just serve us right. Still, my fingers are crossed for one, final Highbury miracle.
February 28th, 2006 at 1:44 pm
Yes, AW gambled. And yes, it looks like he lost. But please don’t discount the relationship between the lack of buying and the building of a new stadium. I somehow don’t think AW was just sitting around and thought, what the hell I’m going to dismantel this team and base it around unproven youngsters. i think there are other forces at work here. And the loss here is strickley in terms of the PL. Longer term is not obvious it’s a loss.
February 28th, 2006 at 2:39 pm
Hey NL, good work on going through the point scenario as I was trying to do the same this past weekend. For the first time ever I think I found myself looking at Bolton, Blackburn and Spurs remaining fixtures and was trying to see what results Arsenal needs to make that 4th spot. And then I had to regard West Ham and Wigan as well and it looked very gloomy indeed. So the league table is something that I didn’t even want to think about. Wish we could say ‘one game at a time’ but it is not as easy.
I found the whole thing stupid when a few weeks ago, I was hoping for Blackburn to drop points against Sunderland because I didn’t want them to overtake Arsenal with a victory this past sat. Which is exactly what happenned. After every away loss this season, I found myself saying ‘no worries, just hope they don’t drop points at the next away game..’.
Curious, really curious to see what happens now.
February 28th, 2006 at 3:14 pm
Read some rumours coming out of the Bernabeau that Beckham is looking to move to London, most likely with Arsenal, now that Perez is out. Should be a very useful addition given Ljundberg’s stuttering form and injuries this season. Should be a good for Walcott as well to learn from one of the best. Will Henry (if he is still around) hand over the captaincy to Beckham then?
February 28th, 2006 at 4:11 pm
Beckham isn’t the type of player we’re looking for in terms of a holding midfielder/midfield general but his spirit (along with jersey sales) may be just the thing that’s needed at Arsenal. In a team of galacticos, he’s the one that’s giving his all.
Anyhow, Henry’s one of my fav players but if he’s serious about winning the CL (the only trophy that he doesn’t have), then he’s gone even if we get 4th. He has a better chance at winning the CL elsewhere. If his loyalty to Wenger (who gave him the opportunity to become the world-class player he is) and love of the club is so great then he will stay even if we don’t get a CL spot. I think he’s gone anyways - he’s at his prime right now so he wants to win the CL soon. He’s not going to wait for the kids to catch up to him.
February 28th, 2006 at 4:20 pm
Wenger and the board have ambition - we’re moving to Ashburton Grove . . . that’s how many millions of pounds of ambition?
I do agree that Wenger could’ve changed his tactics and brought in some decent proven EPL players for under 10M GBP around 25-30 years of age. Probably not world-class players but they definitely could’ve helped our domestic form. I don’t think we can get the world-class players to help immediately b/c every other big team (esp. Chelsea) will be after them. We’ll just get priced out of the market. Wenger stuck to what he knows - he buys kids and develops them into world-class players. Anyhow, I don’t really blame the kids for this predicament, I blame the senior players - we have enough senior players to encourage the kids.
February 28th, 2006 at 5:19 pm
We don’t know for sure what the “long term” outcome will be.
I know this… if Henry departs, it will be much more difficult to:
a) keep young talented players at the club
b) bring in star players with none IN the club
If we finish outside the top 4 this year, and then follow up with another struggling year next season… then perhaps the likes of Cesc, Kolo, & RVP will start to think about playing for BIG CLUBS who will win BIG TROPHIES.
There is no loyalty by the clubs OR the players any more… so if that scenario occurs, we’ll see if many of you folks still “love Cesc and RVP”… when they want to move to teams with ambition.
Ifs all POSSIBLE that we could REALLY go south if we don’t get top 4 and keep the likes of Henry & Cole… its big potatoes we are dealing with.
February 28th, 2006 at 5:25 pm
Speaking about the fourth spot is kinda of different for us as gunners. We always looked for the first spot, maybe second at some points, so we always wanted to see us winning and winning, and a draw is like a loss. A
Asking for the 4th place does not requires looking at other clubs and see their results. None of these 4th spot candidates are capable of winning 11 games in a row, if they do, they would have been competing with Manu and Liverpool even with Chelsea.
If Arsenal retain the form that we know, we will have no problem finishing 4th, even third could be acheived. But looking at our form this year, we are just doing the same of what Spurs, Bolton, (liverpool sometimes or Newcastel) have been doing for many seasons.
You cant look at Bolton and count the same way you do for Man Utd. Man u would not lose against Sunderland, or you would not predict Chelsea to drop a point against Villa, but its normal to predict that Spurs ties at home with Sunderland.
So, Arsenal need to get back to form close to the one of last year (is enough) to get us the 4th place. I.E. Beating Spurs at home should not even be a question, the problem that our recent form made us question this.
Now, with Cole being Injured, I am just worried about our back four … if we have a full squad (Ebou out of Lauren), we will finish 4th.
Realisitcaly, Bolton and Spurs are the only team that can take our spot … so lets go them !
February 28th, 2006 at 5:59 pm
I just think the mix isn’t right.
The senior players we have … have been dissapointing… no doubt.
Precarious position we are in… no doubt.
February 28th, 2006 at 6:01 pm
Very good analysis. But I feel that worrying about other team’s performance is a lost cause. This happend last season as well when we were trying to chase Chelski after being displaced in 1st place. Everytime Chelski dropped points we were dropping them as well. This season is no different - from the begining of the season all we worry about is how we can make up the gap between top 2 spots and ourselves but never once looked at how we can play better football so we can be consistenly getting points on the road and at home. Our attitude seems a bit lofty assuming that we’ve a god given right to win games against mid-table and lower teams (defeats to west ham at home and brom away are good examples).
Althought I’m no fan of Jose, but he was right when he told Wenger to worry about his own team and his own results, and not how other teams are buying the EPL and ruining the game by playing physical 4-5-1 boring tatics.
Before we can run, we need to learn how to walk again. I think think Wenger shouldn’t be worried about playing exciting football but instead focus on ARE PLAYERS GETTING STUCK IN and put in a good effort regardless of win or lose? If we don’t focus on rebuiding the fundamentals of the team (mental toughness, establishing cohesion with the mid-field and defensive pairings), then I’d say next season will become another transition year even if we get 4th spot, get in CL, and still possibly lose Henry because he does not see the consistency and stability he seeks required to be in contention to win trophies to play out his career at Arsenal.
We must first regain stability. That will require less injuries and having a bigger 1st team squad with experienced players that can cover.
With Stability we can then work on consistency. That comes from having a regular back 4 and a cohesive mid-field playing and getting used to one another, and not fooling around with fromation Ericksson-style when we don’t have the right players to properly execute those strategies
Once you have stability and consistency, mental toughness and confidence will naturally come.
Stop worring about Europe next year. That’s like worring about what you’re going to do with the money before you’ve won the lottery.
February 28th, 2006 at 6:15 pm
The thought of not having Champions League football next season revolts my very being. It’s so unthinkable I can’t stop thinking about it. If we miss out on the top four I would rather go the whole hog and miss the UEFA Cup as well. That tournament is just embarassing. Okay for 1999-2000, not for 2006.
The Clichy/Cole situation is unbelievable. They both seem to be in cahorts with each other, having a competition to see who can stay injured the longest. Good news is Flamini looks the most accomplished stand-in left-back so far. It will still probably cost us in the long-run though.
What’s comforting is that, despite the hair-pulling frustration of another away defeat, we played pretty well in the second half on Saturday and did create chances. That we managed to make a mess of every one should not detract from the fact that some swanky football was played prior. That is some consolation at least, especially compared to the Liverpool game.
I was analysing the performance in the second half and it was clear Fabregas was having a great game, despite a few sloppy moments, and was running the midfield. We were clearly lacking in the final third. Adebayor was willing but wayward and Henry was again doing the opposite of what his team-mates desired of him. His concentration in terms of holding up the ball, which was stellar in Madrid, was again lacking in a run-of-the-mill away premiership game. I still think we should drop him for away games and play Adebayor and Van Persie when the Dutchman is fit. In these games, when the balls to him are less refined, Henry goes on strike, hoping for a defensive gaffe rather than a collectively-conceived opportunity.
Fulham away should be interesting.
February 28th, 2006 at 6:29 pm
neova–Thanks for the kudos on the post and thank you for a very good reply.
I agree with you entirely that the club can’t spend time worrying about what the other clubs will do with their matches (fans like me get to do that) and that consistent team-based play is what is needed to rebuild Arsenal’s form. You are also right to point out that we need to shake off the injury bug and then perhaps some of these new partnerships can take shape.
On the other hand, I do think making Europe is a legitimate worry not just for the fans, but for the club as well.
There are two reasons and they are related. First, what else, but the money. With the new stadium, AFC has taken on unprecedented debt for it’s long history. I haven’t scrubbed the financials, but I bet that Champions League football might very well be a revenue line item the board was counting on for next year. And second, if we don’t make the CL, there will be an effect on the make up of the squad in terms of transfers in and transfers out.
I think it’s a pretty good bet that no CL play will allow Henry to make an excuse-filled exit. There will also be departures from other old-guard men (some who should go regardless of Europe). But what really will be difficult is seeing how Wenger could bring in any experienced replacements that would be willing to not play in Europe for the year. Maybe we could grab some men in their last few seasons, men who want a slower pace to their fixtures, but that is not what is needed. What is needed are experienced players in their mid twenties who have shown that they can compete at the highest levels. These fellas tend to cost big and without Europe we will have a hard time paying for them even if we persuade them to play for domestic glory only in 2006/2007. The alternative: more young lads who will struggle to gain their footing for several years. This scenario to me smells of no Europe for several season to come and even more financial woes.
In the end, I have always maintained that it’s the EPL first, then the FA Cup and then Europe in terms of cherished achievement. The Champions League is such a crap shoot and pot of luck that no one should count on anything. But sadly, the state of the game at the moment is heading another direction. And AFC needs to either face up to this reality and find a way back to Europe as soon as possible or risk becoming a team that is no longer among the elite–a club on par with the likes of Spurs, Villa and Newcastle.
February 28th, 2006 at 8:46 pm
NL11, good analysis.
I say:
1. Strip the captainship from Henry and give it to anyone, Toure or Lehmann and let them lead by example in the field
2. Let Henry concentrate on playing football
3. For the away games, play 4-5-1 with Freddy and Fab, Hleb/Diaby in the middle, Reyes/Pires/Theo in the wings. Drop Gilberto.
4. Drop Senderos & pick Djourou.
4. If Henry does not perform, substitute him in the 35th minute.
I would say we can possibly challenge for 3rd spot if Wenger has the b**ls to do this……
February 28th, 2006 at 11:17 pm
Can we get some REAL analysis?
Wenger would need his head examined to do anything that would make Henry leave.
He’s the best striker Arsenal has ever had…. he’s among the best in the world, and we are doing everything we can to retain his services.
We don’t need stupidity in dealing with him.
I don’t need to hear more silly rants about how selling Henry is good, or how his leaving isn’t a loss to the team.
You can’t win f-all without star players in your team, and he’s the only REAL star we have. He’s the only one that other proven stars will be attracted by… he’s the one that puts asses in the seats.
Its beyond me how some folks go on about Henry.
Finish outside the top 4… and you’ll see just how fantastic he is banging in goals for a world class team elsewhere…
and just how important he was / is to our team, as we sink to mediocrity or below.
Isn’t it enough that we sold one captain and leader and its cost us the entire season, because we couldn’t or didn’t replace him?
Learn from the mistakes.
February 28th, 2006 at 11:21 pm
well spoken…
that’s the sincere truth…we r just too faulty now..
there is totally no mental strength in the squad. I wonder whether it’s just down to poor leadership..
February 28th, 2006 at 11:58 pm
We have to improve our away form if we want to get anywhere near an UEFA Cup spot, let alone a CL place. We have been improving but very slowly. We need to compete for 90 minutes. Playing crap for 45 minutes, going a goal down and then dominating the whole of second half but failing to score is NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
March 1st, 2006 at 1:07 am
NL11 - I do understand the potential implcations of not making Europe next year but let’s take a closer look.
FACT - Out of CL will mean 20 million quid less for Arsenal to buy players, debt repayment, less gate receipts for CL matches.
PROBABLE - Less appeal for top players to sign for a club that isn’t playing CL, TH14 might have an excuse to leave
Now, just say we do make 4th or win the CL this year (highly improbable) and make europe again. We’ll continue to enjoy the money from CL. However, does it mean TH14 will stay? Does it mean Wenger will buy experienced Top players even if they want to play for us? What baffles me is that TH14 has made his demands quite clear - match his ambition. That ambition isn’t building a team for the future nor getting the top salary in the EPL. TH14 just wants to play out his remaining career with a mature and experienced team that can play consistent and aways ready to challenge for trophies. What did Wenger do in January? Buy a 16-year old Walcott who has potential. But a 19-year Diaby old who has potential. The closest player that might qualify as “matching Henry’s Ambition” was Adebayor who has had well published troubles with his previous two clubs including the national side. Doesn’t quit fit Henry’s ambition I don’t think.
Attracting top players. Other EPL teams who don’t play in europe have been able to sign players. Davids signed for Sp*rs and has been a force in mid-field. Why didn’t we sign him for a year or two to bridge the gap so that our youngsters can mature? It’s not a matter of not being able to attract top players if we’re out of europe, the problem is that even if we are in europe next year and attracts top players Wenger just won’t sign them unless they’re already establish but below 25 years old. I don’t recall the last time he signed an experienced player in their prime at 26-30.
Even if we stay in europe, with the way wenger has managed the team over the past 2 years letting go experience players without replacements (Edu, Viera, Kanu, Wiltord, just to name a few) won’t convince Henry (or any other stars) to stay.
So instead of worrying about 4th place and Europe for next year, let’s worry about what it will take for Wenger to start building a team that balances future potential and immediate results. As Bergkamp said, this transition season wasn’t necessary, and I’m worried that this stubborness will cost us.
March 1st, 2006 at 9:09 am
you’re joking, right? Move to a team with more ambition? I don’t suppose that the new stadium would just indicate some level of ambition. It’s ever so easy to reap the doom and gloom scenario. The whole world could blow up tomorrow. the worst case scenario would have been this happen while the stadium was still looking for funding. Every team needs to deal with the ups and down without become manically depressed or suicidal. Yes, the worst case can happen and a million variations imbetween. that’s why we need to keep the faith, support and enjoy.
March 1st, 2006 at 1:18 pm
I agree that Wenger, and more importantly the board, have tried to do things on the cheap. I too lamented the fact that a man like Davids was not added this summer. I believe the club tried to milk this year financially; it is not likely to change until the money issues around the stadium move are sorted out. And perhaps it will never be the same now that Chelsea has wrecked the fair market value of the EPL transfer market.
Yet, I still do not see how you can claim Europe as a low priority.
Sure, building a team with balance, as you say, must be near top of the list, but how on earth can you suggest that not making Europe improves our chances at accomplishing that endeavor?
If you just think its not worth “worrying about” that is one thing–your opinion and a valid one.
But, if you believe Europe is not a paramount priority for the club, a priority that Wenger talks about all the time and one that I might add is tied to finishing as high up in the table as possible by winning matches (WHAT IS MORE IMPORTANT IN FOOTBALL THAN THAT?) well, then I’m sorry to say, you are simply and clearly dead wrong.
March 1st, 2006 at 10:40 pm
Are we trying to win titles? or fill up a big new stadium?
Are they the same thing and the same argument?
Why can’t we build a new stadium AND have players in the team that are capable of winning titles? Is 5-10 million that much money to spend on a few proven players?
By not making the CL… we’d lose MANY MORE MILLIONS than we would have spent on real proven players… not potential on the cheap.
How does that work positively for the Arsenal Football Club if we skimp on buying talent and save a few million and then lose out on TWICE that much by not making the top 4?
Where is the ambition ON THE PITCH.
If are mid-table … and have a big shiny new stadium… do you think that shows ambition to the star young player? Or do you think they’d rather be playing for titles.
I don’t agree that a stadium = ambition.