Some physicists think that there might be an infinity of universes running parallel with ours. Let’s speculate what it might be like to be a Gooner in just one of these alternate realities.
An unknown Arsene Wenger signs for Arsenal. After some early controversy, he settles into the role. He quickly starts to recruit some quality players. Patrick Vieira is followed by Marc Overmars and Nicolas Anelka. The solid defence already at the club is built upon, adding to the mix a powerful and incisive counter attacking element to the team.
In his first full season in charge, Wenger and his new team takes everybody by surprise and picks up the double.
Sound familiar?
Then Nicolas Anelka, fancying himself as something of a footballing icon, pushes through a transfer away from the club – Arsenal make over £19 million in profit in one fell swoop. The board and Wenger think about how best to invest this money and decide that they should invest it all in players. Thierry Henry comes from Juventus, along with another attacking player from the continent.
But what about the redevelopment at of our training ground at London Colney? What about developing our academy and investing in youth?
A few players leave and more are brought in; Lauren, Campbell, Pires and Wiltord (just to name a few), and in 2002, Arsenal go on to win another double. Wenger is investing all his finances in new players and wages, the training ground and the youth academy is far down his list of priorities. All he wants to do is win trophies.
2003/04 brings about something special. The Arsenal team goes on an unprecedented unbeaten run spanning three seasons and lasting 49 games. Wenger has supplemented his team with new signings. He has spent a small fortune on a selection of highly impressive players, but he has also made some duff signings over the years (Franny Jeffers and Richard Wright just to name two).
Across London, Chelsea are seeing massive investment in their team. Arsenal are seemingly unbeatable at the moment, so nothing to worry about. As always Manchester United are spending lavishly on marquee signings and in doing so, are keeping toe to toe with the Gunners.
It doesn’t take long before Chelsea have assembled the most expensive squad in world football. They might not be the best, but they’re getting better all the time. Arsenal manage to win the FA Cup despite their aging squad getting battered by United in the final. Whilst Arsenal are doing this, Chelsea go and win the title, and in doing so, usher in a new era of billionaire led fantasy football.
Anyone who reads this and still thinks we should spend big money in the market is not a fan interested in the welfare of their club but rather an insecure glory hunter who needs trophies to feel good about themselves.
If my aunt had bollocks she’d be my uncle!
Or.. a mega-rich oil magnate buys up Arsenal and they are now richer than Chelsea. With new found riches, they spend obscene amounts of money recruiting players such as Eto’o, Kaka, Buffon, and Vidic. With their new owner’s increasingly demanding expectations and intolerance of failure, Arsenal sees an inconsistent managerial regime over the next decade, with coaches of high calibre coming and going almost every two seasons…
Sorry mate, but that would’ve been the likelier outcome of the two. You just can’t fight reality. Money talks, sometimes too much I’m afraid. 🙁
i’d hate it if the arsenal was like city or chelsea. not happy about where we are but they are disgusting clubs
cg: some are glory hunters for sure. but i think the main problem is people forget its a business because of the billionaires distorting the market. there are millions of pounds at stake and some people think its just fantasy football. they see chelsea spending money left right and centre and don’t realise that for us to follow suit would be a massive risk.
PhilF: Yes, she would. But you’d still love her/him.
VitArse: I agree, but it wouldn’t have made the point i was aiming for……
tonbridge plasterer: it might not be exactly what we want but at least we know that what we’ve got we built together, the fans and the club together.
You mean if arsenal spends 20million each season while selling off henry,viera,adebayor,toure,cole,reyes, helb,overmas, etc over the years in deals worth over 200million plus it would have gone bankrupt. Your naive with selective memory of what arsenal is facing. A management that refuse to address the clubs glaring problems. Last year we needed a goal keeper. Wenger said he will get one. Schwazer was thier for the taking. Wenger bid 2million. Fulham said 4million. Buy a player you obviously need and move. No. Untill Hughes who hated Wenger like many coaches in england did and does toke,and wouldnt even sell. The rest is history. Almunia before he was replaced cost this club 9 to 11 points. Making excuse for this management is self delusion. The have failed. The players have no faith in the club even. Even a dog in my village know that we need 2 central defenders, a left back and a midfielder. Gibbs, varmalen,fabregas if he stays, are injury prone player. Attack? Chamakh is ok, with Gervinho and welcot we may manage. But we do a real striker. But of course, apart from french and french speaking players, who wants to arsenal.
You are entirely right in your assessment of Wenger’s transfer policy and the team, Wenger should realise that time has past when good players come cheap he should splash the cash and win titles, the fans are tired of excuses.
The point is, we don’t have that much money for that to be a viable long term strategy.
Had Wenger bought Schwazer, Arsenal will be left with an ageing goalkeeper now and ruing that we lost a great talent in Sczesny. Remember his contractual problem back then? I hope so…
kechukwu Collins: The point i was making, though you seem to have missed it completely, is that we’re competing against richer clubs with more money than us. I’m not saying we’d have no money whatsoever, but if we were to just go head to head on a financial basis with no thought to the future and development, eventually the money rich clubs would come out on top. That is inevitable. Maybe you should read out my hypothetical article to the dog in your village and perhaps he might explain it to you in a way that you might really understand.
You don’t have to spend billions to win. Just reinvest. I’m part of the AST and looking at the books there should be at the very least be £45mil to spend without any departures.
That’s enough to get a CB,LB and two or three others. Even if not while we want s self sub staining models I’m sure Kronke would chuck a few million in.
Wenger has become all about the profit, defend him all you like but Arsenal no longer have to be AS cauatous as they well in the period of 2005-2010 because of the stadium.
Another year without investment and no tropies will only show that Wenger cares not for the fans but the shareholders on the board.
If we are so indebted then where the hell the money come from for
1. Arshavin
2. Fabregas 120,000 BACK-TRACKED contract
CB LB and Two to Three others? Have you seen the demand from the fans lately? They want established names. The Kagawas, M’villas, Vertonghen.
Now with 45 Million:
Kagawa 12-18 Mill
M’villa 18 Mill
Vertonghen 15 mill
Clearly the three others must be free and plays for free. Truth is Fans nowadays see that chelsea and mancity are playing fantasy football, assembling established world class players. They want to feel the same with their own club. So they get frustrated when the club isn’t winning and start complaining about lack of investment and how we should buy FIVE top players. Considering the inflated market nowadays. 5 Top players is 150 million without wages which is also astronomical considering they are “top” players.
Jack: You don’t have to have billions, but it helps. I agree that we can still win, and as soon as the payments on the mortgage are done I expect to see much more investment in the team. As a member of the AST do you know when we’ll have paid off the Emirates? If, once the debt is cleared, Wenger doesn’t start pumping money back into the team, I’ll be as angry as everyone else.
As for your last point; we obviously still have enough to compete to an extent, it’s just we can only make one big signing or so every season, unlike some clubs who spend money like it’s going out of fashion.
Well as the current total for the project cost stands at around £500 million but this includes the Highbury apartments refurbishment. As most people know Emirates themselves gave us £100 million for the name and eight year shirt deal; which at the remembers day the hinted they were trying to pay out the remaining years which is Kronke’s doing, as it is a very poor shirt deal.
Without going in to much detail the current debt stands at around £115 million. Depending on transfers the there this should be completely wiped out in at least 2013/2014.
The next step will then be to prepare the expansion of the Emirates. A common misconception is that it is not allowed. All Arsenal were told is that they would need to develop the surrounding area which we had no money to do so.
Still the debt can’t stop the fact that part of the plan is to stay in the top four and we the current squad I can’t see it. Would could lose more money by not spending.
We don’t need ??? spend billions but identifying where d team is lacking such as d goalkeeping department and d defence and plunging this holes might have won arsenal a trophy, Almunia and Squillachi cost Arsenal like 12 points last season, if added ??? arsenal points would have won d league for us and we would have avoided d Carling cup mishap