They need to refund season ticket holders because there aren’t enough cup games this season? Are we now hoping for Portsmouth to give us one of those famous big money FA cup replays that keep clubs in business? 
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Even then we’d need a home QF to get us to the required 7.
First time in 20 years the club took a loss. Yes Kroenke is an absentee owner but the bottom line is the bottom line. You have to imagine a guy like him is gonna look at that and be displeased. Pressure will be on to get things right. We’ll see what the response is.
Issue isn’t application, it’s competence. They keep putting morons in charge, well…
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Unfortunately there’s no replays left to play for from this round.
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This a good (very bad) listen
Was quite reassured it could have been worse after listening to that tbh.
The fact we can’t get secondary sponsors have fucked us.
Emirates demand exclusivity.
Everyone else has training gear sponsors and kit sponsors except us 
There’s room for expansion for sure. Getting CL the most important aspect of it all though.
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We lose 30m if we have no European football next season.
We really need to be in Europe next season ffs 
On a related note, isn’t it really nice to be playing on a Saturday?
Even Shite-on away next week is on a Saturday at 3pm
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The loss isn’t that bad.
These are all chickens coming home to roost after years of neglecting the squad after Fabregas left, tbh even before.
The people in charge then made the worst decisions imaginable, just hoarding money for no reason.
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The mythical war chest that Wenger, Gazidis and the board used to go on about, but never actually spend, was the reason why we are left with only one world class player, no CL football, no chance of challenging for the title.
As you say, the fact our decision making was as bad as our lack of investment, when we desperately needed it, is to blame for this mess.
I’m sure our lack of expectation is what Kroenke wants, as he can get away with spending even less, now we are virtually a fixture in mid table.
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I’m not even that mad about the state we were left in in 2017/18 ish.
It’s more the 2010 ish times when a couple of £20-25m kind of signings could have pushed us all the way and we did nothing and let it all fall apart. Now we spend £70m on players that aren’t all that.
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It was always sad how we had close to £200m in reserves at one point but we were penny pinching in the transfer market.
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Exactly. We said it time and time again back then, it wasn’t even that much we had to spend then.
£40 m back then would have got a top 5 defender in the world and we’d have been sorted for a while.
But no. £40m is a bargain these days.
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For sure the roots of the problem were laid 10 years ago when we underspent, lost our top stars and failed to recruit the extra 2-3 good players we needed to kick on.
Latterly as we’ve slipped down they’ve reacted and blown a load of the reserve too late and incompetently and at a time when good players are 2,3 or 4 times the price of what they were not so long ago.
CL looks a long shot now and EL a serious doubt too. It’s going to be hard to retain Auba who’s goals have been the difference between comfortable mid table safety and a genuine relegation fight. We still have well over a 150m cash balance in our last published accounts but with current losses and falling revenues this doesn’t paint a good picture for potential added investment in the squad in the Summer or a replacement of Aubas proven class up front.
Maybe one of our youngsters could kick on a lot next year or maybe Laca will go from a 10 goals a season merchant to 20 goals if we’re really lucky. Realistically though it’s tough times ahead and we look set to become just like a Newcastle, Everton or Villa. All big clubs with big fan bases but all a mile away from much better times and once you fall out of the European elite it can be a long way back.
The only way back is a miraculous change in competence at the top of the club or a sugar daddy billionaire persuading Kroenke to cash in on his investment or maybe both.
I don’t see competence in football coming from the Kroenke family so as long as they stay owners we have to hope they stumble into an amazing senior exec/leadership team. I’ve seen enough to conclude that Raul isn’t the miracle worker for this. Maybe Arteta will be the miracle worker to make the silk purse from the sows ear and who will then gain enough influence on player recruitment and then do it superbly to make the difference (that’s a lot to pin on an inexperienced young head coach).
I hope something good will come up and better times lay ahead but realistically all the excitement next year may just as well be in the relegation battle rather than a fight for a CL place. As for competing to realistically win the prem or the CL anytime at all in the next few years, right now it’s not remotely imaginable.
As for Josh Kroenke telling us last Summer that he didn’t agree with the fears expressed by many supporters and that instead we should be excited about the future - well draw your own conclusions on him and his dad.
Regrettably this long and steady decline has been foreseen by a minority of fans for years but even so it’s very hard to watch the reality slowly sink home.
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Either Arteta works out, then great we can build a team around him. Or he doesn’t, but either way I think the way back is similar.
We have to nurture our young talents, there’s a decent production line coming through and they are free.
So even if they aren’t quite good enough, we can sell them and create an income.
We have to hope a couple do come good, and continue buying up talented youngsters, then flipping them for a profit Dortmund style.
Then little by little acquire good players and keep a team together, that may allow us back in the CL, and then we can spend.
But of course this is easier said than done.
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I agree.
I have always been amazed that so many supporters believe the words that, Gazidis, and then Josh Kroenke say.
They’re both compulsive liars and will say anything that they think the gullible supporters want to hear.
Kroenke couldn’t care less about winning trophies and making us successful.
Why would he?
He had probably never heard of us until his dad bought the club.
As for the lack of spending, when we were close to challenging for the title and needed two or three players to give is the push we were desperate for, it was a false economy.
All Wenger and Gazidis droned on about, before every transfer window was “not being afraid to spend” and “wanting to compete with Europe’s elite” which, as a lot of us knew, were just a pack of lies.
So, even after Wenger and Gazidis left, we have an even bigger liar in Josh Kroenke, who is worse, because it’s his wig wearing father who controls the finances of our club and has no interest in it what so ever, as long as it’s making him money.
We have been overtaken by all the big clubs but more embarrassingly, we’ve been caught up by the like of Sheffield United, Leicester, Wolves, Everton, Burnley, Crystal Palace, etc.
We’re out of Europe and have the worst group of players we’ve seen and an under whelming manager.
Q: What’s the common denominator in all this and when did it start?
A: Kroenke, when he bought the club.
I despise him more than I despise Man U, Chelsea and spurs combined.
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