A case for optimism

So, RVP wants out. **** him, you don't need him.

1-3 seasons ago, things looked worse in my opinion. The board/Wenger was afraid to buy anyone or spend any money, but times really are changing.

Your debt is slowly but surely disappearing and with that, you're becoming richer and richer.

Most peoples biggest complaint was the lack of transfer activity and when you finally bought something, it was some 18 year old Costa Rican. But now, during the last 2 seasons, you've bought 2 German internationals, an experienced Spaniard, the Ligue 1 top scorer and a french international and a, at the time and the jury is still out, a great international winger in Gervinho.

You've brought in 2 internationals before the transfer window has even opened this season, and you're not even done yet.

I've criticized Wenger A LOT in the past for his somewhat naive behavior, but to me it really looks like he's finally woken up and/or now have the means to do something.

Oh, an you've got one of the best midfielders in England coming back as well.

Best of all though, it's time for something NEW. Countless times I've seen people on here yell at the sky for being frustrated with the "same old ****". Now, you have change. New players, new personalities. It's something fresh.

I for one am excited to follow you next season. You went from Henry to Fabregas to RVP and now, I'm excited to see who will be your next star. I'm betting on Wilshere.

Arsenal FC will still be here. I admire this club to no end, you're the only respectable top club in England. You literally have no ***** on your team, you've got so many likable players and you do things right.

If I had to pick 1 club I'd like West Ham to emulate, it'd be Arsenal FC. I don't want to buy trophies with foreign oil money; I want a club that values personality, morale and dignity. And that, to me, is what Arsenal FC is all about.

I get what you're saying Dokaka, and I partly agree. But the issue that a lot of us are struggling with, is that often times it doesn't seem like the board acts with morale and dignity towards supporters. I truly believe that half of the reason why supporters are so frustrated is that the board has lied to us over and over again for the past numbers of years. If things were transparent and they said: "Supporters of Arsenal, we are going through a restriucturing phase where our primary goal is elimination of our debt. As a result, we might be forced to sell a number of assets, including players, and raise ticket prices to get us through.... Etc, etc."

Instead, everyone year we get the message that the club wants to challenge on all fronts and is committed to doing what's needed to win while our top players are sold and less than adequate replacements are brought in.

At least in the first scenario our expectations are not violated season after season and the clubs actions don't go against their word. Instead, the board treats supporters like we aren't aware of that contradiction and continue to move forward behind their veil of untruths.

Hell, I just want transparency.

I get what you're saying Dokaka, and I partly agree. But the issue that a lot of us are struggling with, is that often times it doesn't seem like the board acts with morale and dignity towards supporters. I truly believe that half of the reason why supporters are so frustrated is that the board has lied to us over and over again for the past numbers of years. If things were transparent and they said: "Supporters of Arsenal, we are going through a restriucturing phase where our primary goal is elimination of our debt. As a result, we might be forced to sell a number of assets, including players, and raise ticket prices to get us through.... Etc, etc."

Instead, everyone year we get the message that the club wants to challenge on all fronts and is committed to doing what's needed to win while our top players are sold and less than adequate replacements are brought in.

At least in the first scenario our expectations are not violated season after season and the clubs actions don't go against their word. Instead, the board treats supporters like we aren't aware of that contradiction and continue to move forward behind their veil of untruths.

Hell, I just want transparency.

I understand that. Your board does seem incredibly disconnected from the fans. It's actually the reason why I love our board so much. They even talk with us on twitter!

I just think that, as long as you're in debt from the stadium switch, Arsenal won't be firing on all cylinders. You'd think the money being used to pay the debt right now would be directly fused into the wage budget considering you're running on a profit right now.

I truly believe that half of the reason why supporters are so frustrated is that the board has lied to us over and over again for the past numbers of years. If things were transparent and they said: "Supporters of Arsenal, we are going through a restriucturing phase where our primary goal is elimination of our debt. As a result, we might be forced to sell a number of assets, including players, and raise ticket prices to get us through.... Etc, etc."

Instead, everyone year we get the message that the club wants to challenge on all fronts and is committed to doing what's needed to win while our top players are sold and less than adequate replacements are brought in.

I think that it is a very risky strategy from financial point of view. I mean many people/companies spend their money, time and interest for Arsenal just because they are still made to believe that we are very close to winning stuff.

If the board publicly admits that its focus will be on rebuilding the club, minimizing our debt and the board would be happy with just a top4 finish, then I guess that a significant part of spectators, companies, sponsors would be less willing to give their money and time to Arsenal. "Challengers for the title" image is a lot more enticing than "team in transition, just please give us top4 finish", isn't it?

Very good post.

Some people think we are finished i highly doubt it. While RVP is a great player, i also feel he was at times detrimental to the team.

We all know that Arsène loves so called total football the stuff we refer to as the tip tap sh*te. Then we had RVP screaming at players for shooting rather than passing to him, you can see why players like Rosicky Arshavin etc totally lost their shooting boots. I have a feeling that this year alot of players will be beter off out of RVP's shadow, and will come into their own.

It is like we are starting again, and i hope with RVP leaving that we will finally abandon the tip tap project that IMO has been our greatest downfall. Im expecting players like Walcott and Gervinho to cut inside more often and take the shot on instead of feeling obliged to pass to Mr captain, The same with rosicky he made countless fantastic direct runs last year, and just when you thought he would unleash a shot, he chose instead to lift his head and try to pick out a heavily marked RVP.

Our top striker has left, but is hardly the end of the world, seems to me he had alot of his teammates playing with the shackles on. Im excited about next season, if we invest the money in quick thinking creative midfielder i can see us becoming a much more dangerous team and not just the dangerous one man team we had become last season.

Dokaka - With respect to West Ham, they dont say every season that they will be challenging for the CL and the PL, our club does. They then set about it by doing the same thing as the previous season and scrape into the top 4. If they said this was their aim and we cant compete with the top clubs (for a few more years) many of us would accept it, but no, its lies, lies and more lies!

I think that it is a very risky strategy from financial point of view. I mean many people/companies spend their money, time and interest for Arsenal just because they are still made to believe that we are very close to winning stuff.

If the board publicly admits that its focus will be on rebuilding the club, minimizing our debt and the board would be happy with just a top4 finish, then I guess that a significant part of spectators, companies, sponsors would be less willing to give their money and time to Arsenal. "Challengers for the title" image is a lot more enticing than "team in transition, just please give us top4 finish", isn't it?

You're right, it could be risky. But is it as risky as hitting the point where supporters just revolt against the club for years of failed promises? I'm not a Marxist, but that kind of thing does lead to conflict eventually and that looks a heck of a lot worse to investors. Not to mention that big-money sponsors are looking for teams that are actively challenging for the title. I don't think they pay as much attention to what the club says as to what the club does and 19 points off the title and losing a major financial draw (RVP) does not exactly look attractive either.

Obviously if the club were to take the approach I mentioned, it would be carefully drafted and worded, but I firmly believe that it's the violated expectations every season that leave the most negative impact on supporters.

Dokaka this is a point of optimism "IF" the club does a few essential things moving forward.

- 24 month contract limits (negotiations on renewals and committment to be established while we have contractual leverage).

- Wage structure to be modernised

- We stop using the captains armband as some form of blackmail and give it to a worthy defensive minded midfield or CB general.

- Kronke leaves or invests instead of using Arsenal as a profit making machine and not helping build us up, I'm not against profit but you can't just let the club stifle and fall backwards.

Now what dent's my optimism is will the club make these steps .... most Arsenal fans know they won't.

I do think our style of play has been the major cause of our failures as a team. We simply do not have the players to play barca style football.

Teams park the bus against us and instead of going direct and causing mayhem and confusion in their box by shooting and driving cross shots into the box, we tip tapped outside around midfield, at this stage our defenders had got fed up watching our indirect football they push higher up the pitch than they should. We lose the ball and bang we are hit on the counter, it happened several times last year and in previous years. And it has to stop.

For me it is with out doubt the biggest cause of all our problems. People on here totally overrate Man utd as a team, they are not a very talented team at all and that is the view of many Man utd fans. But what they do have is a team that plays in a certain style that makes them very hard to defend against and a hard team to beat, unless ofcourse they play a team like barca that totally exposes their frailties.

Weaker teams generally sit back against a better team, and we should take advantage of it, but with our style of play and us not being all that good at it since the infamous 07/08 season, weaker teams tend to grow in confidence as the game goes on and we continue to do the same tip tapping over and over. On the otherhand Man utd rip straight into a team that sits back they bombard them with shots crosses etc, they panic their defence and eventually that leads to mental fatigue and mistakes. Some might say lucky man utd i say well done not a great team but you play to your strengths and it works.

There have been two occasions in the recent era where I was actually confident that we would improve as a team after certain star players had left, the first was when Henry departed, and the second was when we sold Adebayor and Toure. Unsurprisingly for me, we produced our best recent campaigns in the following season. Provided certain things happen, which may not include signing a top class striker, I think again we can come out better from this.

I've been saying for quite some time that Van Persie is unlikely to repeat his heroics from last season, and as we saw with Fabregas and Henry both of whom stayed an extra year only to produce underwhelming seasons, we may actually be saved from witnessing likewise from the Dutchman if he were to have begrudgingly stayed. Personally, the single biggest reason why we needed to retain him was to break the mould of us losing key players every summer. Footballistically, we obviously still needed his quality in the team, but we definitely did not need him strutting around with his mind elsewhere.

We can still come out of this with a stronger attack, provided that Podolski spearheads the front line, Walcott signs a new contract and we purchase a goalscoring dribbler like a Jovetic. Failing that, for Oxlade and Gervinho to really step up their game, which isn't all that unlikely.

Of course there are some legitimate reasons for optimism, but the reasons for a more pessimistic view are far stronger. This club is heading in the wrong direction and has been doing so for 7 years.

We have a board who is at best indifferent to fans and at it's worst directly hostile. Our owner sees us as a cash cow for his American sport empire. The owner and board sees fourth place as a good season and there is little reason to believe that will change. Add that to the fact that our manager still want's to play a very demanding style of football despite having players of limited talent.

Furthermore the descimation of our squad is still going at full strength. With RvP as good as gone and Walcott and Song likely to follow him we are left with probably the poorest Arsenal squad in the PL era. To think that we will replace them adequantly is naive given our recent history.

To sum up I believe we are at best going to be figthing for fourth place, hoping for a QF in the CL and to not be to embarrased by the club's acievement in the FA and CC.

That's always how it is... fans want the glory now, those running the business want stability and think more long-term...

We are extremely lucky to have Wenger... look at what happened to Tottenham... with all the hype and the crop of players they had they still couldn't finish above this Arsenal side... genius of Wenger made the difference, as it always does!

In terms of Arsenal no firing on all cylinders until the debt is paid off, you're absolutely right! It's a miracle we're still competitive given the number of world class players we've lost over the years.

VP can go to hell for all I care. The club will always be here and Arsène will steer it into the right direction as always.

It's not that we neccessary want the glory now, but we at least want to feel that we are moving forward or improving in some way. We are not doing either. So please don't dismiss our arguments based on some prejudice about fans and short term thinking. After all we will still be here when the owners, players and manager has moved on.

As for Tottenham at least they have the guts to gamble and try to better their team. That's a lot more then you can say about us.

As for Tottenham at least they have the guts to gamble and try to better their team. That's a lot more then you can say about us.

That is because they are on the outside trying to break in. We are on the inside slowly slipping out. We have more to lose from gambles.

There have been two occasions in the recent era where I was actually confident that we would improve as a team after certain star players had left, the first was when Henry departed, and the second was when we sold Adebayor and Toure. Unsurprisingly for me, we produced our best recent campaigns in the following season. Provided certain things happen, which may not include signing a top class striker, I think again we can come out better from this.

I've been saying for quite some time that Van Persie is unlikely to repeat his heroics from last season, and as we saw with Fabregas and Henry both of whom stayed an extra year only to produce underwhelming seasons, we may actually be saved from witnessing likewise from the Dutchman if he were to have begrudgingly stayed. Personally, the single biggest reason why we needed to retain him was to break the mould of us losing key players every summer. Footballistically, we obviously still needed his quality in the team, but we definitely did not need him strutting around with his mind elsewhere.

We can still come out of this with a stronger attack, provided that Podolski spearheads the front line, Walcott signs a new contract and we purchase a goalscoring dribbler like a Jovetic. Failing that, for Oxlade and Gervinho to really step up their game, which isn't all that unlikely.

Well I am an eternal optimist when it comes to Aresenal, so maybe thats all it boils down to, but regardless I agree with you. I think we still have a good chance to improve on last season even if we don't make any more signings (though I believe we should and will).

Look at what happened last summer, and how we ended up actually doing better last season than the one before when both Cesc and Nasri were here. This time around we're only (so far) looking at losing one key player rather than two, and have already brought in reinforcements. Wilshere is also going be back, which is going to improve our midfield over last season. Ox could have a break out year as well.

If we end up making even one more creative/attacking signing we will be in a better position from a squad perspective than we were at the end of last season, despite RvP almost certainly leaving. It won't be as good a position as it could have been had he re-signed, but it would still be an improvement provided the team is able to score goals without him. And I think it should be able to.

As for Tottenham at least they have the guts to gamble and try to better their team. That's a lot more then you can say about us.

That is because they are on the outside trying to break in. We are on the inside slowly slipping out. We have more to lose from gambles.

Think by underinvesting we've been gambling for a few years now.

My reason for optimism is Arsène Wenger. He still kept us in the CL while most pundits thought we would miss out on it. Like winning, overachieving is a habit.

We can still come out of this with a stronger attack, provided that Podolski spearheads the front line, Walcott signs a new contract and we purchase a goalscoring dribbler like a Jovetic. Failing that, for Oxlade and Gervinho to really step up their game, which isn't all that unlikely.

I think people are judging Podolski's poor showings at the Euro's against RVP's last season's form. RVP is a great striker but lets not forget Adebayor worked better for us for a while. Podolski can be very effective if surrounded with the right type of players. Buying someone like Jovetic(replacing Cesc) will be a must though to get the best out of him.

There have been two occasions in the recent era where I was actually confident that we would improve as a team after certain star players had left, the first was when Henry departed, and the second was when we sold Adebayor and Toure. Unsurprisingly for me, we produced our best recent campaigns in the following season. Provided certain things happen, which may not include signing a top class striker, I think again we can come out better from this.

I agree. The position we're in now isn't that different to the summers of 07 or 09. We need certain things to fall into place and the best we can probably hope for is a title challenge and maybe a cup win if we're lucky but we're not in bad shape. We've lost our only star player but if we take it on the chin and pull together like we did when Henry left then who knows, we might suprise a few people next season.

When Henry left, we had Cesc, Gilberto, Hleb, Toure, Lehman, RvP, Ade and Rosicky. Also Henry had missed out on most of the season due to injury anyways, but we played great football and had loads of chances without him and you could see that if we would put those chances away there was a lot of potential. And there was a good mix of experience and youth.

We had some great players, at a good age with loads of technique, chemistry and understanding, even if they failed to have a good season with Henry in the team. We had an identity and when Henry left, we still had that same identity.

Now we are seeing our best and most influential player leave, and what do we have left?

Walcott - is he even going to sign a new contract? Has he showed any kind of consistency since he has joined us? He doesn't really offer much to our build up play, can he make up for it consistently by scoring goals or putting in assists. He hasn't thus far.

Wilshere - Amazing player, great talent and bright future, but he's coming off a season long injury, will he perform? Will he suffer any more set backs?

Ox - At times seemed out of depth playing for us, while at others seemed amazing. But he's just too young at the moment, we can't expect anything from him yet.

Rosicky - Was amazing for the second part of last season, but will he be able to cope physically?

Arteta - Looked good in our midfield, solid player, but won't make things happen for us offensively.

Gervinhio - Mixed opinions on this guy, but to me he's got no composure and is just a speed merchant, and can't score to save his life. But anyways, for those who do rate him, he will be off again to play in Africa.

New guys - We don't have a clue if they will be good or bad signings! One is coming from a terrible team in Germany and the other from a poor French League.

Defense and Goalkeeper - How many goals did we concede last season? Enough said.

Add to all of this that our team has no identity, the Arsenal way of playing isn't really possible anymore, because we don't have that technical ability with these players. So we really don't know what we play and there is no chemistry between our players.

Right now, Arsenal is just one big mess and I am very worried.

That would be the case against optimism. Going drinking now...

When Henry left, we had Cesc, Gilberto, Hleb, Toure, Lehman, RvP, Ade and Rosicky. Also Henry had missed out on most of the season due to injury anyways, but we played great football and had loads of chances without him and you could see that if we would put those chances away there was a lot of potential. And there was a good mix of experience and youth.

I don't think the players you list there are any better than what we have now to be honest, bar Cesc. RvP as well, but he was constantly injured at that point.

Wilshere shows nearly the same potential Cesc had, only a matter of fulfilling it.

Hleb was hardly amazing, he just worked well in the team.

Ade is not better than either Podolski or Giroud.

Koscienly, Mertesacker and Vermaelen are all as good or better than Toure was the year after Henry left. Plus we have Sagna who is an excellent and experienced defender as well.

Our GK situation is solid enough imo.

Rosicky is still here, along with Arteta and Song who are both very good.

And I'd say there is definitely still a good mix of youth and experience in the squad. Perhaps more experience now than then.

It's hard to be optimistic when we have sold all our best players without replacing them season after season.

When was the last time we had a transfer window where we actually came out thinking we have done really well, and been really excited.

It has got to the stage where we consider keeping hold of a player is as good as buying a great player.

If you read the transfer thread on this forum the biggest names on it are RVP and Walcott.
In the last transfer window it was the same, the main transfer threads were about Cesc, Nasri and Clichy.
What other clubs supporters would put up with that.

It's ridiculous that threads about players leaving us dominate this forum more than potential the ones coming in.

We have received more than 60m for Cesc, Nasri and Clichy.
We will get around 25m for RVP, 8m for Bendtner and about the same for Arshavin.
The wages saved on these players, and the dross we should get rid of, are more than 15m a year.

That is 100m in transfer fees and 15m saved on wages in just over a season.

All this money and a load more should be spent on invested on 3-4 world class players, but our board and Wenger consider Podolski, Giroud and possibly another mediocre signing good enough.


What a joke.

As for Tottenham at least they have the guts to gamble and try to better their team. That's a lot more then you can say about us.

That is because they are on the outside trying to break in. We are on the inside slowly slipping out. We have more to lose from gambles.

Spurs also have their players on long contracts so they don't have to sell, meaning Levy can be hard to deal with in regards to negotiations.

Much does depend if Wilshere can continue his progression pre injury, and who is to say he can't with other players like Ben Arfa doing the same. It is also easier for him to get back to his best than say Ramsey, as it wasn't a dirty tackle and so he will not be afraid to go into 50/50's.

If Oxlade Chamberlain can also get the consistency into his game that one Theo Walcott lacks, our attack will have more dynamism, albeit with a less potent figure head.

Without Van Persie, the team needs to look at what has cost them in games, and what would have cost them without Robin scoring. If the team decides to defend collectively as a team(something Man Utd do) and improve their decision making e.g Vermaelen bursts forward, with a couple of new additions the future can certainly be brighter for Arsenal.

When Henry left, we had Cesc, Gilberto, Hleb, Toure, Lehman, RvP, Ade and Rosicky. Also Henry had missed out on most of the season due to injury anyways, but we played great football and had loads of chances without him and you could see that if we would put those chances away there was a lot of potential. And there was a good mix of experience and youth.

I don't think the players you list there are any better than what we have now to be honest, bar Cesc. RvP as well, but he was constantly injured at that point.

Wilshere shows nearly the same potential Cesc had, only a matter of fulfilling it.

Hleb was hardly amazing, he just worked well in the team.

Ade is not better than either Podolski or Giroud.

Koscienly, Mertesacker and Vermaelen are all as good or better than Toure was the year after Henry left. Plus we have Sagna who is an excellent and experienced defender as well.

Our GK situation is solid enough imo.

Rosicky is still here, along with Arteta and Song who are both very good.

And I'd say there is definitely still a good mix of youth and experience in the squad. Perhaps more experience now than then.

In your opinion Ade was not better, in mine he was. He had already played a season on the sidelines and got some good games with Henry injured. Meanwhile Guroud comes from a poor French League and Podolski from a terrible team in Germany and hasn't impressed at all for Germany in a long time (not only Euro Cup).

You also just can't compare Wilshere to Cesc because Cesc was coming off a great season and was injury free, Wilshere has been injured for a whole season.

Hleb had been with us for two seasons and had showed some great football and technique as well. He understood how to play the Arsenal way. What do we have now? Gervinhio?

Rosicky was 27, he is now 31 and very injury prone.

Gilberto Silva was one of our best performers the season before Henry left.

Toure was still a good defender and Lehman was considered one of the best goalkeepers in the world.

On our defenders, like I said a defense and goalkeeper that concede so many goals is bad. Its that simple. Individually they may be good players of have potential, but as a whole we are terrible in defense.

Meanwhile our Attack and midfield is full of doubts, passengers and maybe players.

You just can't compare the quality of that team to this team.

It's not that we neccessary want the glory now, but we at least want to feel that we are moving forward or improving in some way. We are not doing either. So please don't dismiss our arguments based on some prejudice about fans and short term thinking. After all we will still be here when the owners, players and manager has moved on.

As for Tottenham at least they have the guts to gamble and try to better their team. That's a lot more then you can say about us.

I assume by moving forward you mean beating Chelsea, ManCity and United in the transfer market? United is just a special club in England and in the world imo so no point in comparing.

And...the other two have sugar daddies. Our resources are however limited. It's like you going into a casino and playing the casino indefinitely... I bet your money will run out before the casino's

We have to be realistic and adapt to how the world around us is changing. We don't know how Osmanov made his money... was he a thief like Roman Abramovich? Would you want stolen money pumped into Arsenal?

As for CashCity... not sure you've ever been to the UAE or not... but to cut it short, the money wasted (not really invested) here can go a long way into improving living conditions of the poor Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani etc workers... underpaid and living in filth, treated like animals.

Believe you me I want Arsenal to dominate as much as the next guy... but not at any cost.

(Apologies for the long post and being overly dramatic and sentimental lol)

When Henry left, we had Cesc, Gilberto, Hleb, Toure, Lehman, RvP, Ade and Rosicky. Also Henry had missed out on most of the season due to injury anyways, but we played great football and had loads of chances without him and you could see that if we would put those chances away there was a lot of potential. And there was a good mix of experience and youth.

I don't think the players you list there are any better than what we have now to be honest, bar Cesc. RvP as well, but he was constantly injured at that point.

Wilshere shows nearly the same potential Cesc had, only a matter of fulfilling it.

Hleb was hardly amazing, he just worked well in the team.

Ade is not better than either Podolski or Giroud.

Koscienly, Mertesacker and Vermaelen are all as good or better than Toure was the year after Henry left. Plus we have Sagna who is an excellent and experienced defender as well.

Our GK situation is solid enough imo.

Rosicky is still here, along with Arteta and Song who are both very good.

And I'd say there is definitely still a good mix of youth and experience in the squad. Perhaps more experience now than then.

In your opinion Ade was not better, in mine he was. He had already played a season on the sidelines and got some good games with Henry injured. Meanwhile Guroud comes from a poor French League and Podolski from a terrible team in Germany and hasn't impressed at all for Germany in a long time (not only Euro Cup).

You also just can't compare Wilshere to Cesc because Cesc was coming off a great season and was injury free, Wilshere has been injured for a whole season.

Hleb had been with us for two seasons and had showed some great football and technique as well. He understood how to play the Arsenal way. What do we have now? Gervinhio?

Rosicky was 27, he is now 31 and very injury prone.

Gilberto Silva was one of our best performers the season before Henry left.

Toure was still a good defender and Lehman was considered one of the best goalkeepers in the world.

On our defenders, like I said a defense and goalkeeper that concede so many goals is bad. Its that simple. Individually they may be good players of have potential, but as a whole we are terrible in defense.

Meanwhile our Attack and midfield is full of doubts, passengers and maybe players.

You just can't compare the quality of that team to this team.

I can and have. None of us were sure how well that previous team would do, and there were just as many doubts about it as the one we have now.

I'm not sure why you say coming from the French league is a knock on Giroud when that is exactly where Ade came from, and I'm pretty sure he never did as well there as Giroud did last year.

Podolski by most accounts had a good season for a terrible team, which is harder than doing so on a good team, and is a testiment to his ability.

Don't see why you would compare Gervinho to Hleb, when we have more technical players like Arteta and Ox in the side.

And I maintain that man for man our defense is better now than it was then, I dont think we were fantastic defensively back then either. Remember Senderous and Eboue? They got plenty of games back then if I recall.

I think our attack looks better than back then since RvP ended up injured a whole bunch and Ade was pretty much the main threat. Wasn't that the year we were forced to loan Baptista? (could be wrong on that)

I take your point on Cesc v Wilshere, but Jack's future is extremely promising, and Cesc only came into his own when Henry left. Maybe its Jack's time now that RvP is gone?

It's not that we neccessary want the glory now, but we at least want to feel that we are moving forward or improving in some way. We are not doing either. So please don't dismiss our arguments based on some prejudice about fans and short term thinking. After all we will still be here when the owners, players and manager has moved on.

As for Tottenham at least they have the guts to gamble and try to better their team. That's a lot more then you can say about us.

I assume by moving forward you mean beating Chelsea, ManCity and United in the transfer market? United is just a special club in England and in the world imo so no point in comparing.

And...the other two have sugar daddies. Our resources are however limited. It's like you going into a casino and playing the casino indefinitely... I bet your money will run out before the casino's

We have to be realistic and adapt to how the world around us is changing. We don't know how Osmanov made his money... was he a thief like Roman Abramovich? Would you want stolen money pumped into Arsenal?

As for CashCity... not sure you've ever been to the UAE or not... but to cut it short, the money wasted (not really invested) here can go a long way into improving living conditions of the poor Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani etc workers... underpaid and living in filth, treated like animals.

Believe you me I want Arsenal to dominate as much as the next guy... but not at any cost.

(Apologies for the long post and being overly dramatic and sentimental lol)

You don't have to apologise for that.
It is the whole point of a forum, especially a football forum involving us.

Our resources are however limited.

Self-imposed. That's several of the points in Usmanov's letter. Undervalued equity, inept commercial dealings, stops just short of accusing the board of a breach of fiduciary duty.

I love this thread, kudos to Dokaka!

The main reasons for optimism are simple for me, we still have undeniable quality in the squad.

We have;

-Jack Wilshere who will be England's finest midfielder for years to come. Yes, there are questions about his fitness but I'm 100% certain he'll overcome his current issues and hopefully eclipse Paul Scholes. (Big shout, I know).

-Wojciech Szczesny who will be our number 1 for years to come. Already shown his sheer class as a goalkeeper. He needs to eradicate his irrationality from his game, but this will come with match time and experience.

-Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who again, will be one of Englands finest midfielders for years to come! His versatility, pace, dribbling and shooting alone give us a case for optimism. There's no doubt he will be the real deal.

These are all young, but quality players who will also get better. Add to that the talent we already have in Kos, Verm, Arteta, Theo, Song, Sagna etc, AND the recent additions of Giroud and Podolski, who could easily set the Prem alight like a certain Papiss Cisse did!

I was once told by my Dad, never to forget that 'From crisis comes opportunity'. He couldn't be more correct! RVP is a spoke on the wheel, the wheel will keep on rolling!

Agree with this thread, we have plenty of reasons for optimism - kudos Dokaka.

Of course the same people who moan in every thread about the same things felt the need to repeat that in here - deep joy.