When can we next realistically challenge for the league title?

I think for us to seriously challenge we need to change our strategy in squad investment. It’s not like the the other leagues around Europe where you have just one or two very rich teams competing, here we have at a minimum 5 and then the teams like Everton who have shown they’re willing to throw money at it too.

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It’ll be years away sadly .
Footballing finances now dictate where the trophies go .

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So basically we have to hope the Kroenke’s sell at some point and we get our very own sugar daddy owner.

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We could get lucky, like Leicester did. A one off season where things go our way and rivals struggle.

Look at Man City and Chelsea . Two wankpot clubs until the money men stepped in .

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Doesnt have to be a sugar daddy type. Just a set of investors like FSG who have a decent plan. We will well and truly find out in summer if real change and hope is attainable for this club going forward. Im not confident personally.

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I also agree with you I can’t see us competing for the title in the next five years. Thing is we have so much catching up to do with the top teams and they will be constantly moving forward as well. Top four looks more likely Inthe next two years and beyond.

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Not too fussed about it tbh, the club isn’t eager to be a top club anymore. It’s clear now as ever that our yearly goal will be to somehow get Top 4 and by some luck win a trophy. That’s the best you can get. The fact that the club said no more with Rambo and Ozil situation shows that they purposely put a ceiling.
I won’t have any issues with that, given that we go back to being one of the most entertaining sides in the world, use our academies better and do what Arsenal has been doing best, finding talent and turning them into PL stars.

:face_with_raised_eyebrow::face_with_raised_eyebrow:

The ambition looks dogshit but people underestimate how bad the defence is.

Shore that up and this team could do something.

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Until Kroenke goes, we are just going to do the bare minimum to keep supporters spending their money until we fall fall so far behind our rivals Kroenke will probably sell the club.

After a few seasons out of the CL the expectation levels will fall and any talk of us challenging for the PL title will stop and the fourth place trophy will be the only thing we will be challenging for and failing to win.

This is ultimately what Kroenke wants because it means, although we are one of the most profitable clubs, only a minimum investment is required, which is just the way he likes it.

There is also a chance that a clubs like Everton, or any other well supported mid table club, could get lucky, like spurs have, and get a good manager in and invest in some top quality players, like we haven’t, and overtake us.

It’s not like we have great players and a great manager but are just short of a couple of world class players and a little bit of tweaking will sort this mess out, we need a complete overhaul.

Even if we did buy a couple of world class players all that means is, if we want to catch our rivals up, we have to hope they buy no one, because they aren’t going to sit back and wait for things to happen, they are going to invest heavily to be even better.

The bottom line is, we need a world class manager and several world class players, as well as an ambitious owner, and this is just to challenge for the PL title, and that needs massive investment.

Unfortunately, massive investment and ambition are not words that can be used to describe our owner.

A more apt description of him would be a the word parasite.

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Tbh I barely care anymore. I guess Liverpool fans could tell me properly because they’re enjoying themselves but I feel like football is less of a sport and it just doesn’t give me the same feeling that it used to.

I watch YouTube videos of 10 years ago etc and I just remember how I used to care so much more. Even when we were shite, like in 2012.

It just seems so fake now.

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Where more likely than not, not going to get top 4 on the strength of the league now. Also our academy produces no more than anybody elses now.
This day and age you cant put any stock in that level to sort much out. Sooner or later the board has to wake up to the fact it will end up losing revenue by being a top 5 or 6 club. They are then left with 2 choices of invest or sell.

The board don’t need to sell.
Owning Arsenal is a license to print money.
Even if we were a relegation club, the fact is we would make money with very little investment.

The biggest problem we have, is that we have an owner who doesn’t care about the club, the supporters or lack of success.

He couldn’t care less, as long as the money keeps rolling in and he doesn’t have to invest other than the bare minimum.

No sooner or later though we lose a fair percentage of that money. We are not like Manchester united. Sponsorship and partnership deals wont sustain without a degree of improvement. Im sure its a concern to them now. Knowing how to sort is another matter for them. They will have to react sooner or later.

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When I used to go to Highbury regularly, we were just about above mid table, playing boring football and not winning any trophies.
I used to go regardless of if we were playing Wimbledon or Luton, or Man U or Liverpool, because it was fun and the atmosphere was great.

There were plenty of games where I would stand in the rain at the side of the North Bank, with crowds of less than 20,000 and then there would be other games that had more than 50,000 squeezed into the ground.

But the one thing that was guaranteed, was that the players would give everything and, if they didn’t, the supporters would let them know.
Also the players would be earning hundreds of pounds a week, not hundreds of thousands of pounds, and they would still give everything they had.

Compare that to the pampered, millionaire, ego maniacs who kiss the badge of the club they play for, only to be seen even more passionately kissing the badge of their next club a few weeks later because they are earning more money there.

It does seem fake now, and the false love for a club displayed by players on social media, when they write stuff that their PR team have told them to say, which is that is lapped up by gullible supporters, is often cringeworthy.

Saying that, if we had owners like Man City and Chelsea have, with every transfer window being exciting and we saw the worlds best players and managers arriving, while challenging for the top trophies, I wouldn’t be so hypocritical as to say I wouldn’t enjoy it.

It’s just a shame, that as Arsenal supporters we have to endure endless boring transfer windows, that are perpetually under whelming, knowing we are making more profits and paying higher ticket prices, than these sugar daddy clubs.

It would be nice to get the opportunity just to see what it would be like to see a revolving door of world class players coming into the club every transfer window, rather than the opposite.

Know what you mean on this. Seems to coma a point in every season that I just get exhausted with watching the game now.
Top 4 promoted by tv and sponsors and media is a relevant concept that just doesnt excite me really.
First ten years of the prem were golden years and not just because of Arsenal being a great side. Champions League getting bigger changed the whole outlook on everyones outlook on the game. The domestic cups have been the first casualty and the prem has been an all encompassing monster at both ends of the table.
Ive said it before but without this forum dont think id have much interest in the game. Depending what changers face the game soon, not sure how much im going to maintain an overall interest.

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Yeah, I definitely enjoy talking about the football more than I enjoy watching it at the moment – especially where Arsenal are concerned. Watching the game on Thursday, I felt like I was being punished for something!

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Last season was worse imo but put them together and its totally joyless.

Exactly, same. The fans is the best part about the football, and despite what some Wenger lovers say, Arsenal fans are the best thing about the club, for sheer entertainment if nothing else.

Nothing beats taking the piss out of Spurs together. Without it, football now would be fully shit.

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