So Brendan reckons Liverpool finishing in the top four would be a better achievement

[Monty91]

than finishing second last year, having had to "rebuild the team".

He must have been taking PR spin lessons from the SFC.

[Pokster]

finishing top 4 would be very good, especially where they were

[Pokster]

[Classic Jorge]

I tell you, when he takes that painting down he's going to have a hell of a job rebuilding that house.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02332/rodgers1_2332799c.jpg

[Bergkamp's Brain]

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

The very definition of success as per the majority of Arsenal supporters each year since 2005.

Of course in this case Rodgers did spend the guts of 100m in one summer.

[Peter]

Rather different to the old arsenal model.

[Monty91]

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

Not a trick question btw, just not the sort of data I would have clung onto.

[Peter]

If anything it is a sign of how good your players are. So good that they want to leave :-)

[Billy Goat Sverige]

[Peter]

[Monty91]

You seemed so sure. I trusted you.

[Peter]

Since the summer of giroud, cazorla and podolski we have improved the squad every year.

Everythng i said was predicated on an if, as you well know.

[Monty91]

Even without knowing the ins and outs of our finances, it seemed a fairly f**king safe bet.

[Peter]

Which is why i said i would wait until i see us do something rather than simply believe what the club say. Bear in mind they never, at sny point, admitted we didnt have money to spend.

Why are we going over this anyway? The point i made above was purely suggesting that rodgers cannot lay claim to performing a wenger-like miracle as he has actually spent plenty of money.

[redgunamo]

Veng is some sort of bostonbrian loser who can't win anything unless he can outspend his rivals.

I know you all mean well and a' that but this sort of talk diminishes His achievements, rather than burnishes them.

****ers.

[Monty91]

during our skint years than during our minted years.

So you may well be right.

I always believed we could win the league. I refuse to believe if Liverpool cold have won it last season, we couldn't have also done so, had we, y'know...played better football and won more games.

[redgunamo]

[Monty91]

we'd start spending money and so any projections on the future had to take this into account.

[Ashberto]

[Ashberto]

Favourites for the FA Cup too. Not that you recognise that as a tournament, of course.

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

It was never ‘obvious’ that we were going to spend in the way we subsequently have done, that being where we spend large sums of money on players irrespective of the value of player sales in the same period.

The club could have at any time during the more parsimonious years chosen to spend more than they did but allowing the club to go into a manageable debt scenario, as opposed to break even. Note nobody is suggesting a level of debt that would jeopardise the club’s future in any way but at various points we could have stretched further for certain players or players in certain positions.

We chose not to, a business decision taken on the basis of being self-financing.

Having achieved relative success in that period it would not have been a huge shock for the club to continue forward in this manner in the belief (or gamble) that continued success would happen. What has helped the club is the increase in funds available as a result of re-negotiating of commercial deals.

I think you would be lying if you argued that you were not a little shocked when we finally went out and did what we did on Ozil, less so Sanchez.

Now we are big spenders, interesting to see if we do it every year (within reason).

[redgunamo]

Presumably he's the new Gerd Mueller :-|

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

In a "not at all" sense.

There will never be another GM.

[Monty91]

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

One of the greater myths of Arsene's reign at the club.

[redgunamo]

[redgunamo]

Brilliant side, that was.

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

A who knows.

Had definite potential but got banjaxed and became an almost superhuman goalscoring machine whose lost cost us a title.

*******s.

[redgunamo]

http://p2.trrsf.com/image/fget/cf/460/0/images.terra.com/2015/01/18/eduardodasilvahomenagemgilvandesouzaflaimagem.jpg

[Peter]

That apart, 'at some point' is kind of the point. It could have been ten years down the line.

[Peter]

Has our measure of success gone up now that we are loaded? Surely fourth is no longer a miracle but is it good enough?

[redgunamo]

does it. In theory, having the best manager is the deal-breaker for us.

Wenger simply needs to demand more and better from everyone, if we actually care about the big trophies, that is.

He's done it before.

[Bergkamp's Brain]