Although - Of the clubs above us, we can only say that Spurs have less spending power. Even when he leaves, I genuinely think we'll fall from being a top 4 regular. Money talks at the end of the day and we don't generate anywhere near the revenue of United or Liverpool. City and Chelsea have owners that will throw money at the club, so that leave Spurs...
Indeed. The real problem at our club is that we didn't build commercially. Not saying Wenger could or couldn't have done better, but ultimately money is the thing that will make the longer term difference. Wenger's successor will be hamstrung by that and I think we'll fall to a top 6 team quite quickly. I'm not convinced we have great players. We have a few very good players and a few who just can't perform consistently.
We are wealthier than Liverpool. Our natural position - moneywise - is 4th which is why it's difficult to criticise when we achieve at least that. This season we are looking at 6th, maybe even 7th. That is underperforming.
No. I have been a Wenger admirer thoruhgout, still am. But 4th is our natural position now. Wasn't always the case during his reign.
And last year we should have won it, Leicester were nowhere near us financially, or Spurs, and yet the battle (such as it was) was between them even though we overtook Spurs in the final game.
Underperforming ONCE? What would you call last season then? And all this about our "natural" position being 4th - what? That's Wenger's brainwash mantra. We don't have a natural position - we could finish 10th, then 1st....The fact is though, this manager cannot utilize the players at his disposal in the most effective way. This season I'd say some of the players aren't cutting it either - complacent/jaded/disillusioned/misunderstood, whatever the reasons. Last season though, was most telling. One can only pray that, when he gets his 2-year extension and the one after it and so on, that during the remainder of his reign, Arsenal don't register too many more utter Humiliations, because AW's racked up a very impressive display for the Hall of Shame too.