flobaba wrote:You know how to deal in absolutes when it suits your argument.
If you look over the period of the last 10 years they've done no better than us in Europe whether you like to admit or not.
flobaba wrote:Not when your rivals are Bayern Munich.
Up until recently Bayern have hardly been the best team in Europe. It's a poor league in comparison to here or Spain.
flobaba wrote:
And Why not? Does any of their players or coach have more than one head?
So we should judge our teams by one off incredible achievements now? Whatever floats your boat but I like to be a bit more realistic
flobaba wrote:Irrelevant. They still had to go and win it, didn't they?
Who is disputing that? I'm just pointing out the quality of the main teams took a dip this season.
flobaba wrote:Yawn. This basically boils down to us having had financial restrictions over perhaps the first 5 years post the stadium project. After that period, I have no doubts that we've had the resources to spend enough to build a club with stronger depth and more quality than we currently possess, and make a stronger tilt for the title. But I'm not even going to waste time on this point. Atletico and Dortmund probably have/ have had their own financial issues which we aren't aware of. The stadium excuse is old.
You have no doubts we could have spent more? Is that based off anything more than a hunch? We had stadium debts to pay and financial
obligations to stick to. When you have money in the bank and one of the worst financial crashes in recent times you don't blow your load on players to keep the fans happy. When Wenger says we need to be making a £20m profit do you think he plucked that figure out of thin air?
The sponsorship deals with Nike and Emirates were signed back in 2003 and were front loaded to help pay our share of the stadium cost. They've only recently finished and we've seen an uplift of around £50m and we've started spending more money. Maybe not just a coincidence if you really think about it. Until those deals were signed as a football club we were running at a loss unless we sold players or property.
flobaba wrote:No one is disputing this. I'm saying despite our financial handicaps, Wenger could have done a much better job assembling a team over 9 years, and we'd have seen the corresponding results on the field, in terms of league position come end of season, as well as possible triumphs in other Cup competitions. Let's not make it seem like this is definitely the best we could have made of the period, and Wenger deserves applause and had to be rewarded with a new contract.
Who's giving him a round of applause? He does deserve a new contract, he's help modernise and bring this club into a position where we can now start to compete for the top players. The board recognise that, I've found fans only think short term but good thing they don't. I'd rather not be in a position like Spurs where we go around chasing unrealistic goals and sack our managers when they don't achieve them.
