Quincy Abeyie wrote:
Ricky1985 wrote:
But anyway, I feel you're being disingenous in the argument you're making so I'm out.
I feel like your idea of being a supporter involves supporting all decisions/aspects of a big corporation regardless of personal opinions/values while mine just involves hoping that my team wins football matches so probably a good idea.
Again, I don't know whether you're being genuine or not because there is no basis in reality for what you're saying, and you're smart enough and have been around long enough to know that. You were here when I was criticising the club from top to bottom and at the end of my teather because I couldn't stand the way the club was being run. I was labeled 'The Sunshine Kid... in rainy season' ffs? 😆
But I'll take you at face value defend myself against your claim this time.
The whole club was run by people that didn't care about winning - there was no ambition, no plan or purpose, no fire or balls in anything we did. Wenger included. And it was perfectly reflected on the pitch. Maybe Arsenal fans have forgotten how depressing the club and the football was back then? We did the same thing every summer and then the same thing happened every season. And when our continued decline resulted in that thing not happening and we finished outside the Champions League places, we shrugged and carried on doing the same thing. It was soul destroying.
I could barely stand it, I watched the games against my will (if that's possible but I know you all know what I mean), and I criticised the club for just about every single thing they did - from the way they ran the youth team, to the way they operated in the transfer market, to the lazy, weak, outdated and uninspired way they performed on the pitch. Every area of the club, every decision made, was rotten, infected by complacency and an acceptance of mediocrity.
I wanted KSE gone because I believed they had shown they were part of the problem, but in 2018 they bought the club 100% and since then steadily over time nearly everything about the club has changed for the better - and as evidence has continued to mount in their favour, my attitude and views have changed with it. Fans can say what they want about KSE being here since 2007, but since they took full control the facts speak for themselves in terms of spending and the clear concerted effort to change the way the football club is run across the board to return Arsenal to the elite.
Is everything perfect? Hell no!
Could we have better owners? Perhaps. Josh and Stan don't have a clue, but the younger Kroenke is actually, genuinely, without question, trying. He's trying to make Arsenal the club it should be, the club that our amazing and gargantuan fanbase deserves, and he's learning and getting better by the year. Just giving a shit gives him and edge on most owners. And he does.
Could we have a better DoF? Again, most likely. But Edu's an Arsenal legend of sorts - which is relevant because he cares about the club, unlike, say, Sanllehi who possibly cared about his pocket more? And I really believe him when he says he's doing his best to get us back to where we were when he was playing here. He's not some visionary genius in the mould of Luis Campos or Michael Edwards, but he has a plan to get Arsenal back to the top and I think he has done a lot of damn good work so far. It also seems to me he's under pressure to deliver on what he has promised to the board this season and I'm very happy with that too.
Could we have a better manager? Yes! Arteta is a novice learning on the job, and he's made many mistakes by my reckoning. Especially with how he handled some of the players that have left the club, and his squad management and in-match management are still not quite there yet - he's still got a way to go to match some of the more experienced guys he and we are up against. But in my opinion he's also a brilliant coach that has ideas about how football should be played that truly excite me and align with my own views and preferences. He's also absolutely hellbent on getting Arsenal back to the very top and will leave no stone unturned in pursuit of that. I mean the dude literally lays in bed at night wondering how he can get his players to handle the atmosphere at Anfield better than they did last time round! I abaolutely love it! He also has a fire in his belly that I really love and an eye for a player that I think is absolutely top notch. And most importantly of all he knows exactly what he wants to build in terms of the squad, team, staff, culture, strategy, etc., and that is the anchoring point for everything else in my view. It's all a far cry from the last days of Wenger.
So, I'm not blindly backing what the club do like some kind of moron that can't think for themselves. I am buzzing with excitement at the squad the club have put together and the team Arteta is in the midst of creating, and also just really enjoying seeing my club trying really fucking hard to get better, even if they're making some mistakes along the way. I'll take that any day over the decade of nonsense that preceded it any day.
