Hendon Gooner (Only Easy Day Was Yesterday))
03-04-2013, 03:59 PM
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/arsenal-decline- because-clubs-owners-1741516 (http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/arsenal-decline-because-clubs-owners-1741516)
The word is that Stan Kroenke doesn’t want to sell. Well, maybe what happened at White Hart Lane yesterday will start to change his mind.
Because when the team Kroenke owns slipped to defeat against Spurs, the money trail began to cool.
Until now, Arsenal owners have been able to sit back and expect Arsene Wenger to qualify for the Champions League on an annual net spend approaching zero.
The Emirates has been a rich man’s nirvana. Rake in the television revenue without having to put an awful lot of it back in. Now they must finally have been shaken out of their complacency.
Their 2-1 defeat to goals from Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon means Arsenal are seven points adrift of Spurs, who are third. With 10 games to play, they have five points to make up on Chelsea who currently occupy the last of the precious Champions League qualifying spots.
“It is a massive challenge to finish in the top four,” Wenger admitted, his face drawn, his expression blank.
He said the obligatory things about fighting to the end, too, but his despair was palpable. And some of his comments veered towards self-parody.
“We were not efficient in the zones where it matters,” he said. “At the front and at the back.”
For the first time in his 16 years in charge, he and Arsenal’s financiers face the very real prospect of finishing below Spurs as they glory in the feats of Gareth Bale and the spirit that Andre Villas-Boas has nurtured.
Everywhere you looked there were images of a club locked in a grim and apparently losing battle to cling to their elite status in the English game.
One of them was a back four raising its arms as one in appeal as first Bale and then Aaron Lennon sprung their offside trap.
In the old days, they raised those arms in certainty. Now they do it with the kind of hope that borders on desperation.
Another was Wenger searching for explanations for his team’s failure to get the win they needed. “It’s difficult to understand how you can lose games like that,” was the best he could muster.
And then there was the sight of Jack Wilshire, who had given everything to try to drag his team back into the game. When the last frantic Arsenal attack broke down and the final whistle blew, the ball bounced towards the young England player.
Wilshere picked it up and threw his right arm out in a gesture of utter powerlessness. He kicked the ball away and trudged over to the Arsenal fans, taking off his shirt (below) and throwing it into the crowd.
Then he marched over to referee Mark Clattenburg and remonstrated with him over an unknown grievance. He left the pitch shaking his head and biting his lip.
So Kroenke has a stark choice. If he wants to run Arsenal in a state of managed decline, he can stick with it and face the burgeoning wrath of the supporters. He could appease the ‘Wenger Out’ brigade and force the club’s greatest manager away from Arsenal.
He can take the money being offered by Alisher Usmanov or a Middle East consortium whose interest was revealed yesterday.
Or he can reinvest more of the money Wenger has earned the club over the years and give him the money he needs to mount a real title challenge again.But if the images of despair are not to be repeated, change must come.
The word is that Stan Kroenke doesn’t want to sell. Well, maybe what happened at White Hart Lane yesterday will start to change his mind.
Because when the team Kroenke owns slipped to defeat against Spurs, the money trail began to cool.
Until now, Arsenal owners have been able to sit back and expect Arsene Wenger to qualify for the Champions League on an annual net spend approaching zero.
The Emirates has been a rich man’s nirvana. Rake in the television revenue without having to put an awful lot of it back in. Now they must finally have been shaken out of their complacency.
Their 2-1 defeat to goals from Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon means Arsenal are seven points adrift of Spurs, who are third. With 10 games to play, they have five points to make up on Chelsea who currently occupy the last of the precious Champions League qualifying spots.
“It is a massive challenge to finish in the top four,” Wenger admitted, his face drawn, his expression blank.
He said the obligatory things about fighting to the end, too, but his despair was palpable. And some of his comments veered towards self-parody.
“We were not efficient in the zones where it matters,” he said. “At the front and at the back.”
For the first time in his 16 years in charge, he and Arsenal’s financiers face the very real prospect of finishing below Spurs as they glory in the feats of Gareth Bale and the spirit that Andre Villas-Boas has nurtured.
Everywhere you looked there were images of a club locked in a grim and apparently losing battle to cling to their elite status in the English game.
One of them was a back four raising its arms as one in appeal as first Bale and then Aaron Lennon sprung their offside trap.
In the old days, they raised those arms in certainty. Now they do it with the kind of hope that borders on desperation.
Another was Wenger searching for explanations for his team’s failure to get the win they needed. “It’s difficult to understand how you can lose games like that,” was the best he could muster.
And then there was the sight of Jack Wilshire, who had given everything to try to drag his team back into the game. When the last frantic Arsenal attack broke down and the final whistle blew, the ball bounced towards the young England player.
Wilshere picked it up and threw his right arm out in a gesture of utter powerlessness. He kicked the ball away and trudged over to the Arsenal fans, taking off his shirt (below) and throwing it into the crowd.
Then he marched over to referee Mark Clattenburg and remonstrated with him over an unknown grievance. He left the pitch shaking his head and biting his lip.
So Kroenke has a stark choice. If he wants to run Arsenal in a state of managed decline, he can stick with it and face the burgeoning wrath of the supporters. He could appease the ‘Wenger Out’ brigade and force the club’s greatest manager away from Arsenal.
He can take the money being offered by Alisher Usmanov or a Middle East consortium whose interest was revealed yesterday.
Or he can reinvest more of the money Wenger has earned the club over the years and give him the money he needs to mount a real title challenge again.But if the images of despair are not to be repeated, change must come.