It started before that, when Arsene was firmly in control - remember, Stan is a hands-off owner, EVERYONE says that. Add in a historic resurgence of Pool and Spurs, a new rich kid (City) with the best manager on the planet, then you have a very different landscape.
We used to fight with Utd… then we had Utd and Chelsea… suddenly, at least for now, we have Utd, Chelsea, City, Spurs, and Liverpool.
I’m 100% convinced he wants to risk-minimse and secure a steady profit. I think if he wanted to actually expand our brand profit he would’ve obviously recognised that we needed to invest, from the savings back in say 2010 and forward to stay competitive and near the top instead of leaving us with no money for another 3-4 years while the stadium debt bulk was finished.
Because not only is it a massive task to still get top 4 by the time everyone you had in the 06 days have gone or retired and you’ve shifted out the squad to end up with 25 new players that all cost peanuts, when you then get to spend what everyone else around you spends, you can’t just buy 2-3 players and be Barcelona again. Even if you buy an assist king from RM who gets 20 assists, you turn a winger from Barca into a 30 goal /season top 10 player in the world and get one of the best keepers in the PL era from a London rival in.The moment you have one bum window and spend your hard earned yearly funds on say Xhaka and Mustafi you’re done for, you can’t get back in again. Not even Laca and Auba saved it. That’s what happened to Wenger. Nothing else. Could he win the PL and CL either way? Perhaps not, not sure, we’ll never know. But even the specialist in securing a top 4 spot failed eventually. Based on the money he got, he had one bum window in 20 odd years, and that was it. Try holding any other manager in the world to those standards before being too hard on the old W. In a way I’m glad he’s out of this mess, imagine him sitting on the side lines with abuse hurled at him again, he deserves better.
Kroenke needs to identify that he is the one who can push in extra money and say “you need to spend more than you usually do and get my club back in the game”. He should have in 2010-2013 or w/e, the ripples would’ve maybe prevented this. But Wenger kept overachieving with that squad and got him CL anyway so hey. Wenger set the standards for what Kroenke thought he could get away with. Whether you like any of them, it has changed and Kroenke needs to adjust.
If he only wanted to risk minimize, Football club isn’t the best way to go… there is a bizarre narrative that implies he is acting against his best financial interests but yet is ONLY motivated by his financial interests…
I’m not suggesting he isn’t motivated by money by the way; although I actually believe it is somewhat an ego thing - as owning all teams is given that it generally isn’t a very good investment in comparison to common alternatives.
Look, when I talk to ANY VC, banker, etc. and the rich people beyond them… they are looking to double/triple their money in 3-4 years in general… that is over 25% annual return, which the value of AFC hasn’t come close to - last analysis I did is that we were getting compounded (value bought, most recent measure, years past) like 14-15%, with risk… just because some investments in teams have paid off, including AFC (relatively), doesn’t mean that at the time it wasn’t a risk - it clearly was with our massive debt and growing challenge to make top 4 with mega-rich clubs.
Liverpool have American owners tbf.
It’s all about the property. Having that chunk of land in the middle of London is well worth it.
This situation of under investment has gone on so long that I’m not sure that even 200m could sort it out.
We have very few players worth keeping.
We have lost players like Cazorla, who haven’t been replaced and this seasons we’re losing Ramsey as well.
Kos is our best CB, yet he is old and injury prone.
There are far too many players on world class wages that should be embarrassed to take the money.
We always struggle to keep hold of our best players because they can see we are a club going nowhere, with an owner who couldn’t care less, which means Lacazette and Aubameyang aren’t going to hang around and play in the Europa League.
We might win the Europa League, but the thought of us being in the CL and showing how poor we are against Europe’s elite clubs, takes the gloss of it.
Since Kroenke bought the club there has been stagnation and a lack of a plan.
He stuck with Wenger for too long and we are drifting along aimlessly.
To show how bad we’ve become, if you take Aubameyang and Lacazette out of the club, what’s left?
The GK’s are average.
Our defence is as bad as I’ve ever seen.
The midfield doesn’t even have a guaranteed first team starter and we don’t have a winger better than mid table level.
Without our two strikers we have a first team that is no better than Wolves or Leicester.
We have an owner who has let this happen, and with no clue about football other than what profits it makes him.
We might as well have stayed at Highbury.
At least Kroenke wouldn’t have shown an interest in us if we’d stayed there.
The club is worth multiples of the land.
Yeah not to mention the land and club came with sizeable debt at that point…
Is it though?
If the team is sliding towards midtable oblivion what good is the Emirates?
I guess you could stage concerts and some NFL games there but if the idea was to woo really rich people from the City to bring their corporate clients to games I’m not sure the plan is working.
Not about the stadium the actual land it’s built on is what I’m talking about.
Yea. I understood. That land is worth a pittance in contrast to the roughly 1.5bn the actual club is worth.
It’s not fucking manhatten.
Ok fair enough. The New York Knicks for example are the highest valued franchise in the NBA, and that’s because Madison Square Garden and that plot right there in Manhattan. Gotta believe London is up there rivaling it in property values. I was replying more to Josh tho he was talking about the stadium.
That is one reason… the bigger reason is that it is the biggest market.
Even if it was up there with Manhatten the equivalent area of London would not be Islington.
There is also zero chance whatsoever that permission would ever be granted by Islington council for a change of use of those lands.
Was there anything at all behind the completely throw away comment you made other than some random fact about the Knicks?
Would Stan ever be given permission to build on that land though? I don’t really see a situation where he’s all of the sudden putting up office buildings.
He’s not wrong tbh. If there’s no investment with the team we have right now, then what can we expect?
When will we invest if not now? And if not ever then wtf is the point of this guy?
Get the cunt out. There’s literally no point in him owning us.
I’m not joining any movement but I’m definitely not going to any more games. I really enjoyed the three games I was at this season but fuck it, he’s not getting another penny off me.
Wont be buying one of them knew tops now. Not going to be a winning one is it. 1950 cup final winning yellow top it is kids for fathers day then.
I need to as that Adidas home is sexy as fuck. If we’re gonna bottle again next season at least we will look 
Pretty much no scenario where buying the jersey nets the club any more money unless you buy it from arsenal direct.
That’s how I’m gonna justify it.