Originally Posted by Belligerence:
“He'd have to win the league or CL to justify staying, simple as that. He signs a new deal and it says a lot about Stan's intentions.
Apparently Wenger's been trialling Coquelin as a CB........#InternalSolutions”
Lol, that was actually a joke (albeit dark humour) from Arseblog this morning.
Personally, I'm torn.
I've been going regularly since 77 and have been a season ticket holder since about 1990. It's clear Wenger is going nowhere, till the end of the season. I found the whole protest movement last season pretty childish and stupid, along with the Arsenal Fan TV protagonists, amusing as they often are, though I seriously worry about Claude...
Arsene has done a huge amount for the club and apparently his biggest crimes, along with the board and owners, is a disinclination to (1) run Arsenal as something other than a football club; (2) to bring in dirty or dubious owners (Chelsea, PSG, City etc) (3) spend frivolously. Yes we have a big cash reserve; one we've built up over years. If he splooges £100m on Pogba, or £50m on Stones or £75m on Higuain where do the next purchases come from?
On the other hand, they've taken caution to a new extreme. Everyone but everyone knows we need a CF of true quality to play with Giroud yet we've repeatedly bottled it. We could have had Higain for maybe £35m years ago. We could have had Suarez, if we hadn't low balled another grand old club in Liverpool with that pound land crap; they were never going to take that. We needed a CB before BFG screwed his knee. Do we want Lacazette or not? If not why not Mahrez, get it done and make it clear that a CF remains on the radar, even if not in this window? Played right, we could have, or could still, achieve these targets.
You can't come out in the press each window as a Club and say a whole series of completely inconsistent, stupid and patronising things, as Gazidis has repeatedly done.
It's true that when we built the Emirates we didn't anticipate Oligarch football (no one did) but likewise, no one anticipated the riches the PL now brings. There are more players in required positions out there we could and should have taken a chance on and thats down to Wenger and the board.
I don't want nor expect Arsenal to become some other type of club, a soulless Chelsea or City, built on a pile of dodgy dough, slave labour and £50m quick fixes. We're not going to suddenly become Barca, or Real. But we can and must compete with the likes of Utd, Juve, Bayern, Milan etc.
If we can't do that this window and this season, these guys all need to take a long hard look at themselves.