Are Arsenal ‘drifting’ away from the pack and far away from success as they’ve ever been? Well this is what Frank McLintock thinks after hearing from chief executive Ivan Gazidis that the club are still two years away from competing financially with the big boys.
But is former Gunner, who led the side to the League and FA Cup Double in 1971, right? Are we as far away as we’ve ever been from success?
Speaking on the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast on Friday, McLintock said:
‘I think they’re drifting. They didn’t tell us [when they built the Emirates] it would take between seven and 12 years to start to achieve success.
‘We keep on selling our best players and bring in other players that are not quite up to the same standard and you have to be extremely lucky to continue to do that season after season. You might get away with it once or twice but you won’t get away with it four or five times.’
He finished off by saying:
‘There is a lack of transparency. It would be nice if [Arsene] Wenger or the board came out and said this is the situation we’re in, these are our plans, it might take another year or two but this is where we’re going to go. But we don’t know. It’s always promises, promises and then in the end it’s disappointing.’
Despite agreeing with Wenger that finishing in the top four is ‘essential’, McLintock believes this achievement is not enough for a club like Arsenal.
He added:
‘The top four is essential, it really is, because you get so much money if you stay in there. But for a club like Arsenal that’s not enough.
‘We have the most expensive tickets, the most expensive food and drink, but we don’t put top quality players on the pitch, so why are we playing so much for so little for so long?
‘Getting in the top four [every season] is a great record, but he needs a cup and how are we going to compete with these top teams and when is it going to happen?’
McLintock is 100% right. A club like Arsenal shouldn’t be just settling for a top four finish every year. We as fans deserve more than this, especially for those who go and watch the team week in, week out.
Are we ‘drifting’? Well when you consider the stars we’ve lost over the years and the players who have replaced them, we have gone backwards in my opinion.
Wenger and the board need to come out and tell us what the deal really is. Every year, like Frank stated, is promise after promise after promise by the club’s hierarchy, yet we never see anything at the end of the season.
Hopefully this side delivers us some silverware this season, not just another top four finish. Otherwise we could be waiting a while for our club to achieve success.
What McLintock said is spot on. Tactically Wenger has lost it. He has gone stale with his passing game.You see how Fulham and Reading,score and you wonder why the gunners must pass a thousand times before shooting.
If they play like this you can bet your house red faced will beat the gunners 4-0.The problem is Wenger treats goals as art pices. He doesn’t want win to ugly.
Maybe after the QPR win,he will change his mind and prepare the gunners for the fight with red faced.
My concern with what Gazadis said, regarding the wait two years bit, is that:
– In two years what position will arsenal be in? We are a club in stagnation, even falling behind, with the manchester clubs and chelsea driving ahead and the likes of newcastle and sp**s gaining ground fast! In two years time are we still going to be as attractive a club to join, because at the moment big players do not come to us. We sell our best players (usually ones we have created, to some extent, and instead of adding to the squad we just replace players. My fear, if we fail to get champions league, is that it will much harder to get ourselves back into a position to ‘compete with our competitor’ clubs
– And having said that, in two years there will still be the manchester clubs and chelsea to worry about, all having built up their teams with good young players and still having large funds to spend… ffp rules mean we won’t exactly break our self sustaining model and go buy like we use to pre emirates. Plus tottenham will be in the process of building their stadium, which will weaken them, but they will eventually come back stronger.
This two year gamble is a big risk and it relies on wenger keeping us in the top 4, something im not at all confident we can achieve right now.
Based on what i’m seeing at the moment I think even fourth place is out of our reach this season. Arsenal this season do not look like a team, period. When considering Arsenal players that are second rate in the present side the one over all others that stands out for me is Ramsey why is he in the team? he can’t pass, tackle, go past people, he is caught in possession so many times it is embarrassing and shots on goal, this stand that stand, any where but between the posts.
Lets assume that we dont good player to compete the lyks of m.city, chealsen, m.utd, liverp, tot, even everton, but the question is why does wenger refuses to chose the best out the worst players he having for our first eleven. Can someone tell me what is ramsey doing on pitch while coqlin, ox are on the bench, what is gerviho doing on the while gnabry, walcnt, even arshavin are all on the bench. Sometimes i wonder if wenger is still with his sences.
Questions should have been raised when GAzidis was first hired without a real track record in international football. The fact that he gets paid what he does, that he gets a bonus, and you watch Van Persie go away and replaced by Giroud(?)..Van Persie’s positioning sense was masterful. Song off to Barsa, and who has replaced him? Oh I know Diaby. It is not fair to the Arteta’s, and Cazorla’s in this squad to have a Gervinho up front who consistently dribbles into trouble, and Theo cannot even get a chance.Oh yea and how long are we goingto have Cazorla before he wakes up and smells the coffee? am not ready to give up on Wenger but the fans and supporters have to do more of what happened the other day. Kroenke is an American owner not used to having to answer for his track record of acquiring teams and bringing the all to the same level of mediocrity. I am hoping he will learn something there in London that he has not in Denver or St. Louis. How to reinvest in a club so that they become a brand. No one outside of Denver buys their stuff and the same with the Rams. Whereas every where you go there is Arsenal gear, but for how long?
Rightly said.
All facts.
Arsenal is running a good business, not a football club. They are doing good in that. They are happy including wenger in their business and profit.
They don’t care anybody and fans.