Oh but I am, seriously, sad as that may seem 

haha well you win that one

Just woke up and assessed the damage.

As predicted we didn't have the guts to hold on to Sánchez, but then we also didn't have the pull to replace him. If it's true we bid £92m on Lemar … everything that has ever been said about the need to save money at this club was a lie.

The longer term, larger scale truth is that Wenger and the Board didn't understand the business of football at all, in fact they're terrible at it. Several consecutive years of massively rising player valuations, massive cash reserves, and they've failed to invest wisely in the squad.

They don't know what they're doing, and right now they're doing as much long term financial damage to the club on paper as it cost to build the stadium.

Crisis, what crisis? 

I know I may get told off for being insensitive to people’s mood right now - but this pic made me laugh.
In the midst of all the fan furore and agony Weng abandons deadline day for a spot of commentary.
Reminds me of the time he was off visiting the Pope and we signed Welbeck while he was away.
Except we signed no one this time around  :gape:

Jog on Arsène.

I always wondered whether they really had fiddles in Nero's day. I suppose the phrase "Nero luted while Rome burned" doesn't have the same ring to it, although it does make a decent pun.

I did a quick check - the vioin, viola and cello seem to have been invented in the early 1500s. In Italy.

Yeah, well. There are certainly plenty of lyres around Arsenal.

Well played.

Just made another weak pun then noticed you'd made the same one above.

kamikaze wrote:

I'm on Tone's side here. I'd trade both FA Cups if it meant Wenger wasn't re-signed this year.

If your point is merely that we don't know for sure whether that would've done the trick, then yeah ok, but lets be real, we're not arguing over the difference b/w a fact and an opinion

The fact vs opinion issue was a complete irrelevance that has added nothing to the debate.
I believe father time has finished him as a top manager and volunteered the opinion that winning the FA Cup was a disaster as it convinced him to, finally, sign the new contract that he had been dithering over for months.

I'd rather have Father Time manage us than Wenger.

Hell, I'd take a punt on Rumpelstiltskin or Rip Van Winkle at this point.

Yeah, well. There are certainly plenty of lyres around Arsenal

Well played

ive had some time to assess. here is where im at right now

• i think its highly unlikely we finish top 4 this season. citeh, united, liverpool, spuds, chelsea. i cant see a compelling argument that we have a stronger squad and a more organized team than any of those clubs.

• what is the point of top 4 anymore? for the last few years, just holding on was the only real goal. we got humiliated every year in the CL. the last year i remember us making a good run was when we got hosed at anfield on that bullshit penalty. that was, when? 2008? i dont even fucking remember. being in the CL now only means we are going to get battered by bayern, madrid, barcelona, or dortmund 2 times per season. whats the point? we are a billion miles away from winning the CL.

• we are going nowhere as long as wenger is here. he loves clinging to the old chestnut of him never breaking a contract. so, fine. if the team flounders for this season and next, finishes 6-8, wins nothing, then there is no logical way that kroenke will override everyone again and offer wenger a new deal. ive never actively rooted against any sports team ive loved in my 30+ years of watching sports. but i think its time.

• for this club to go forward, wenger has to go. end of story. so whatever it takes to make sure he never gets another contract here is what i am in favor of. because we all know that as long as hes breathing, he will refuse to walk away from the club. so, i want to make the circumstances impossible for him to justify another 2 or 3 year deal after this one ends. we're not going to get relegated. there is no difference between finishing 5th and finishing 15th. we have no chance of even winning the europa league, because decent teams will finish 3rd in their CL group, drop into the europa league, and then tonk us just like bayern would.

i think ive missed about 5-6 arsenal matches in the last 12 years in terms of watching on tv. ive watched on terrible streams in other countries, i even watched on an airplane once. ive missed matches for a friend's wedding and for funerals for family members. but i dont know how im going to drag myself out of bed at 7:30am for our first early kickoff this season. im getting older, i value sleep, and arsenal, frankly, has ruined so many of my weekends in the last 10 years, im not sure i can justify trading sleep for arsenal right now.

this is as depressed as ive been about arsenal in a really long time.

"whats the point? we are a billion miles away from winning the CL"

The point's about £40-50m in revenue every year.

What is the point of that revenue if it doesn't get invested in the team?

@Tone do you seriously believe there was ever any dithering over whether to take the contact?

invisibleman18 wrote:

What is the point of that revenue if it doesn't get invested in the team?

Well exactly! But as soon as you get someone willing to spend the cash in the frame, the point of it becomes very clear.

It's worth a good quality first team player every season. The way we're going Liverpool or Spurs will probably consolidate themselves ahead of us in the PL pecking order.

£40m doenst even buy you kyle walker in this market.

lets be real here. we just offered £90m for a 22 year old who has had one good season in a pretty shit league, and that player turned us down. lacazette only came here because he couldnt go to atletico. im sure he'll want to leave next summer. we're going to lose alexis for nothing next summer after doing nothing this season. my worst fear is that we're now going to overreact and give ozil a ridiculous contract, and then we won't be able to sell him because no one will want to pay his wages.

we're a selling club now, after 2-3 seasons of not being a full on selling club. whereas previously we could spot good young talent, buy them cheaply and then sell them on, now we can't even spot the good young talent and close those deals.

wenger needs to go. the entire staff needs to go. we need a competent sporting director who can sort out our scouting network and transfer team. we are lost at sea right now, from the very top to the very bottom.

Yeah, but let's be real here. If players' values keep going up, that Champions League money becomes more important, not less important. It absolutely matters, in fact it's vital.

That's one of the reasons it appals me so much that Wenger and the club structure around him have laid out so little this summer with such a lack of strategy. They're headless chickens.

mdgoonah41 wrote:

• what is the point of top 4 anymore? for the last few years, just holding on was the only real goal. we got humiliated every year in the CL. the last year i remember us making a good run was when we got hosed at anfield on that bullshit penalty. that was, when? 2008? i dont even fucking remember. being in the CL now only means we are going to get battered by bayern, madrid, barcelona, or dortmund 2 times per season. whats the point? we are a billion miles away from winning the CL.

Because a 22 year old from the French league, who's probably not even a top talent, rejected us. When you can't overpay like United can, CL can make the difference in getting talented players.

Now, I don't think we'll win the CL any time soon, but it certainly beats seeing dross players every weekend.