Biggus wrote:

goon wrote:

What do you mean who cares about long term success? I'd rather we challenge for the title every year for 10 seasons, winning 5 or 6 along the way, than win 1 in three years and then suffer a period of transition where we can't compete because no care was given to the future by the bloke who knew he wouldn't have to deal with the consequences. If anyone here is thinking like a small club here Biggus, it's you. Narrow horizons.

Are you having a laugh?
We don't challenge for the title every year for the last 10 seasons never mind winning "5 or 6" anything along the way. 

Ok. Not sure what that has got to do with anything.

No- I'm thinking like a big club- Fuck long term planning there is no long term look what happened this season the ground is constantly shifting, try to win everything all the time.
The horizon is the end of next season its impossible to look further.

So let me get this right, set ambitions and strategy in place to try and win the league this year, the next 5 seasons, and beyond = thinking like a small club
Try and win the league this season, that's all that matters. Doesn't matter if we're back fighting for top 4 next season = big club thinking?

What happened this season is a direct consequence of many of the big clubs not future proofing themselves. City had no young stars to come in and takeover from Yaya, Kompany, the full backs etc. They spent 150m and yet it wasn't enough to plug all the gaps. United have been paying for a lack of future planning since the end of Fergusons reign.

It seems that Wenger's always needed someone to say "tell me what you need and don't worry about how much it costs". We heard that sort of stuff about him even in the early days. He's a big part of Arsenal's problem but definitely not all of it.

I like Ancelotti but if Wenger goes I'd like a young bloke to take over and start a new legacy.

Ancelotti would be a good sort to get in transition. It's a very unlikely thing that we'll settle on the right successor first time and give him the chance he deserves, as the club will be in turmoil when Wenger leaves, and entire structures will probably need to change.

My main worry with Wenger's successor, is that if we don't get it right with the first appointment, which is likely - will our owner and board act quickly enough to try to rectify the situation? Mentioned it elsewhere before, but I could well see a scenario that had we hired Moyes to succeed Wenger instead of him succeeding Fungus at Man U, then I feel there is a good chance he would still be here.

I think we'd be surprised at how quickly the board would act should Wenger's successor fail in terms of achieving the bare minimum (which I would hope to be finishing in the top 4). They'll have been watching the United situation closely these last few seasons, they know that they'll have to make similar decisions soon. United were ruthless with Moyes, whether he should have been given more time or not is another debate but in the end they finished 7th under him, I would like to hope the Arsenal board would be similarly unforgiving of anyone who takes us to a position like that.

Thing is, Moyes did just as well as Van Gaal did, and as Mourinho will. They might be just as well off if they'd stuck with him.

7th isn't just as well.

Sure it is, Martial's been the only difference between them.

I see our board and owner as very much reactive, and not all that bothered about winning. I don't have the same confidence that they would/will all of a sudden become proactive and ruthless.

If we missed out on the Champions League for a couple of years on the bounce I reckon we'd see ruthlessness from the Arsenal administration. They may not care about winning but they wouldn't like being hit where it would truly hurt them - the back pocket.