Watched some of the CL match. We are a light year behind both these teams, not just 30 points. I don’t think Arteta has got our team playing anywhere like these teams, even for 10 minutes in any game this season. I wonder if Aubameyang will start at CF in the Europa or if he insists he plays wing. That would of course require him to admit he has been wrong.

The fairytale of those two plucky underdogs fighting to get to the promised land that their great leadership* indomitable spirit** and excellent squad building*** has won for them just warms my heart. What’s stopping us from being more like them??

* money
** money
*** money

You cynical man you.

KSE can say they don't want to sell, thing is though the appetite is clearly not there from the majority of fans to enter any sort of ESL.

Arsenal are now a loss making business in downward decline, even if any sort of ESL emerges again, which looks only possible in the long term, Arsenal may not be invited at that point as we'll likely be festering in midtable.

I keep hearing people say the club will continue to rise in value?, I don't see this as very likely, how is this going to happen if as is likely to happen we remain largely uncompetitive and without a ESL?.

Well actually you would think after this period we might have crisp passing, people actually closing down opponents, and finding space out wide. It’s not money that does that, it is the coach having faith in the players and a system that allows for creativity. You can actually try to beat players and surge forward without the coach yelling at the player to stay. But if you like to play the poor card go for it. You might have missed the fact that When Aubameyang, Pépé and Lacazette play that is the most expensive forward line in the EPL. We have an owner who has money and he allowed other experts spend. We should be a better team than we have.

Very sad to hear the news about Alan McLoughlin today who lost his fight against cancer. His goal at Windsor Park for Ireland will long be fondly remembered. RIP.

Yes, the quality is there. But that doesn't imply that our squad is remotely comparable to City's. You can't play Aubameyang and Lacazette together really (even on the rare occasions when they are both fit and in form) and there are major holes elsewhere in the squad. You could drive a bus through our midfield (especially with Xhaka covering Left Back) or left back position.

I don't see why you have to take such an extreme position. You spoil you argument when you say you haven't even seen 10 minutes of us playing anywhere near where City plays all season. We've looked very good indeed at times.

On your last point: the Guardian described Old Trafford as a giant shopping mall with a football stadium attached. I think that captures the general idea. So long as millions of people are buying two or three overpriced shirts ever year, and paying their money to the TV companies, it doesn't matter if the team doesn't win much. Look at how United and Liverpool rode their long lean spells without really losing their status. Even Spurs, despite never winning anything more significant than the Feyenoord Jubileum Tournament in living memory, are able to milk it.

Arsenal are a huge global brand with massive marketing potential. That would gradually fade but it would take a long time = lots of money in the interim as the air leaks from the balloon.

On your first point, isn't saying that just SOP? It would be extremely bad form, and would probably get Kronke blackballed from his club, to start off negotiations with an honest statement of how badly he wants to get rid of us. He may secretly be restraining himself from biting Ek's arm off ... $2 billion or whatever is pretty handy. Gets some some pretty nifty toupees, a couple of Congressmen, etc..

No matter who owns the club, be it Kroenke or Daniel Ek, what's stopping either one to not be in the ESL. If/when it's reintroduced. Kroenke as we all know, will push for it strongly. He won't sell up if this ESL is made definite. Ek on the other hand, could be persuaded into it. If Arsenal rusts in mid-table repeatedly, no matter what owner or manager there is overtime, chances are slim the club would again be part of the "dirty dozen".

Ah, what I have done quite a few times is not exited the forum, even though I’m not looking at it. So I assume it must look as though I’m logged on when I’m not definitely not reading it or writing a post.

I wasn't aware he took a loan to buy

I beg to differ. Even in games when we won we rarely dominated and often wins are because of individuals rather than really putting a game and game plan together.

We are very far from the best we have ever been. Our standard has regressed since the latter years of Wenger.
Arteta is struggling to establish a proper team. He does not have the players to make us good or great. His lack of tactical nous does not help either.

Mourinho rocking up at Roma next year. You have to feel sorry for Chris Smalling and Mkhitaryan!

I saw City had signed a 17 year old Brazilian, Kayky for £9m plus add ons and thought I'd look back over some recent signings they've made that no one has heard of:
Pedro Porro £10m
Kayky £9m + add ons
Pablo Moreno £9m
Filip Stefanovic £7.5m
Nuhuel Bustos £6m
Ante Palaversa £6m
Diego Rosa £5m
Yan Couto £5m
Issa Kaboure £5m

£60m for the lot, not one of them has ever played for Man City, all find themselves on loan and will undoubtedly move on in the future for at least the fee City paid for them. They really only need 1 of those 9 to be good enough for the first team and they're quids in.
Chelsea have a very similar strategy. The tactic is almost just sweep up every good player available and send them on loan to your sister clubs, it keeps these players out of the hands of your rivals. It helps that City can make £60m worth of transfers without any intention of using them in the first team and without it impacting the budget for the first team signings - which is of course colossal - it is a win/win strategy for those with the money. Yet another example of the huge advantage cheat mode money brings.

Hi Niall,

Very sad. Only 54.

RIP

Hi Rich,

Indeed.

It's one of the reasons I was hoping Edu could give us a big advantage with the young south american signings. Doesn't seem to be happening yet though.

The reason why Arsenal will continue to go up in value is not revenue related. There are only so many clubs with a global following or recognized at least. Arsenal's name is recognized on every continent. West Brom who are also in the league (this season) aren't.

30, 40 years ago, there were only so many people who would be willing to pay for a 'premium club' (Liverpool, Arsenal, Man Utd, Bayern, Juve, etc). There are far, far more billionaires than 30 years ago. There are over 2,700 billionaires globally. Also, 30, 40 years ago companies wouldn't consider buying a club. These days there are a number of them. Now you have far more companies (Red Bull, Volkswagen, willing to buy clubs.

So the big differences is there is far more money chasing a limited product (elite clubs). Arsenal's value is based in large part on that.

Lastly, the prestige and ego stroking that comes with owning a major club.

Here is an interesting transfer rumour. Apparently Leno has told Arsenal he'd like to move on in the summer, he's got 2 years left on his deal so Arsenal should really be making a decision one way or the other. A GK who Arsenal may target to replace him is Szczesny, bringing him home as Juve target a free transfer signing of AC Milan's Donnarumma.
Szczesny is a better GK than when he left us but I haven't watched much of him recently to see if he's still a top GK, at 31 he shouldn't be in decline yet - more like in his peak years as a GK. He also counts a a home-grown player which is something we need to be mindful of if we're looking at selling Bellerin, AMN, Willock, Nelson and Nketiah this summer

oi that's a prestigious trophy, don't pooh-pooh it!

I’d be disappointed if Leno left but not gutted

I find many parallels between him and the john lukic situation. A very good goalkeeper but if a David Seaman was available on the market and we had the money it might make sense to bite.

The question is surely how likely is it that Arsenal would (a) find a modern day David Seaman that clubs of a comparable size didn’t want, and (b) spend the money to buy him?

The strange thing if Leno does want out is that we effectively chose him over Martinez (and I still think it was the only sensible decision Arsenal could have made at the time) - but if we'd known Leno wanted out we'd have probably been much more likely to give Martinez a new deal and make him No.1.
It is situations like this that i do feel some sympathy to the club, they made a sensible decision, backed the experienced GK and a year later he might want to leave.

Could all be rumours and Leno is quite happy. But it wouldn't surprise me if a number of players start questioning their future if we don't make europe at all - and currently it looks like we get everything we could have wished for (ie: a European Trophy and a seat back at the top table in the Champions League) or have the worst season we could have possibly imagined, 11th in the league and no europe at all next year.

There has been talk of more protests outside the ground tonight, you can't blame them - but there was also talk of a group trying to get the fans that gather to make their voices heard as a welcome to the team bus and encouragement to the team. I like that idea, Arsenal could certainly do with something to wake us up in the early part of a lot of games recently

https://www.teamtalk.com/news/arteta-pr ... ep-forward

Arteta stating the obvious. Please make sure the team comes out with all-guns blazing this Thursday. Stop playing the slow-mo, overly deliberate build up that he set them up to do. Villareal will be working hard on a tight defensive unit. And we cannot be walking up to the last third, then pass it around endless times looking for that eye-of-the -needle pass. Just play fast moving football, work on the triangles. Allow Martinelli and/or Pépé to run at their defence, but have someone at the ready to bail them out of tight situations. In short, more fast paced movement please.

Interesting. Move on then. Ryan shall then be our #1.

You meant tomorrow night? Would be quite quiet and lonely if anyone should show up tonight.

I'm sure they don't. They probably take it out and polish it every day

Lehmann getting himself into trouble. Quite astounding really. https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/footba ... 33349.html

Experience has told me it’s going to be the latter. And I don’t think we’ll make it past Villarreal. It might be close but we’re missing a few at the back, Leno isn’t in good form I just don’t think we can defend well enough for long enough not to concede one or two.

But we’re privileged to be watching matches where it’s all on the line. For the sake of the health of the fans perhaps not this much

No worries.

Would help if fans turned up to cheer the players as a motivation to win going onto the final. The Kroenke out protests should continue at further home matches till last day of the season.

If Chelsea wins their second CL, I may go into a full depression. Never imagined we'd go this far down so soon. I can only imagine Man Utd fans in '74 thinking how did we go from champions to relegation in 6 years?

Something to look forward to this Saturday. Chelsea v City PL game. A sort of pre CL final expectation.

Horrible CL final as expected, hope City win obviously but really a final four in the CL of all doped up clubs says it all - no sport to be seen here.

Jealous?, probably, doesn't change the fact they are all cheaty horrible clubs though!.

Still if you can't beat them...

#KroenkeOUT

Could be all-English European finals in both competitions this season.. UEFA are not going to like that!.

Yes vile final.

I too hope City win the final. Must admit I don’t mind City. For every trophy they win it means Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham haven’t won it.

We also have to remember when calling Chelsea and City “cheaty horrible clubs”, Kroenke has comparable wealth to Abramovich and the Kroenke family has comparable wealth to Sheikh Mansour. The only difference is Kroenke won’t spend his own money on the club he owns but Abramovich and Mansour will. Is that really enough to make them “cheaty”, even if it makes us jealous?

I hope these Sarri rumours are not true.
Would be so so underwhelming.
Totally the wrong fit for us.
I’d rather someone like Graham Potter or Steven Gerrard or if experience then Rafa.
First choice would be Rodgers but he wont come.

We need to do the job tomorrow and get to the final.
Will be unbearable watching us play against Utd.
Would be so nervous.
Couldnt take another Chelsea Baku style hammering.

City have spent completely beyond the club's means. Literally hundreds of millions. Chelsea work within revenues generated by the club these days but in the first 7 or 8 years of Abramovic's ownership they did the same. "Financial doping" really is a very good description.