Ok this is my nightmare – Arsenal fail to make the Champions League, lose £25 million revenue and drop into the Europa League, then, to put it bluntly, our chances of staying in the top four are made increasingly worse, as the high quality players who would have come to Arsenal with the lure of Champions League Football will look elsewhere.
So when Ivan Gazidis and Arsene Wenger get on the plane to Italy next Tuesday, they will be sweating slightly and hoping that Udinese are held to a draw. It just goes to show how error prone Wenger has been in this transfer window, because as a result of Koscielny’s back spasm against Liverpool, we are down to ONE fit senior centre-back in the Premier League. If I were the CEO of Arsenal, I would not be sleeping well for the next three nights. Yet, he will be unable to buy a single high class player before the end of Wednesday night as I shall explain.
There were performances to be proud of yesterday at the Emirates, mainly because of the pressure that was being placed upon those young shoulders. Wenger has gambled now once too often. Losing key players like Jack Wilshere to injury could not have been foreseen. However, not having recruited a long awaited centre-back and a Cesc Fabregas replacement could have been. The long-term future of the club now rests upon one match. Wenger is right to say that it is not all doom and gloom in football terms, but morally Arsenal Football Club is staring over the precipice. Armageddon awaits and what will happen to the fan base? your guess is as good as mine. It is clear that Wenger is awaiting the outcome of that fixture before making final purchases. The agents of those target players will also want to wait and see if Arsenal qualify for the group stages. The only players who would sign before Wednesday will do so only for financial reasons in contractual terms, and are those the kind of players we really need? It will be a real crisis for the first time, bred and born in Islington.
Yet it need not have been this precarious, given sensible planning, a forthright determination to acquire targets instead of arrogantly trying to save the shareholders money.
If Udinese beat the Arsenal, I predict that the Arsenal share price will fall by at least 10%. Internecine rivalry will lead to protests at the ground, Wenger will find that the only friendly place will be the boardroom, and may for the first time in his career consider breaking a contract before it has expired.
Ivan Gazidis will wring his hands and claim that Arsenal will be able to withstand the loss financially and look to blame everyone else except himself. Yet these two very powerful men, Ivan Gazidis and Arsene Wenger, will both have conspired without intention to seriously weaken confidence in the institution and heritage that is Arsenal Football Club, something that two world wars failed to do. What an amazing claim to fame to have. Let the countdown begin. Three days to Salvation or Doom? I think Salvation, but not by design…
Click HERE to see the original article. This article was first published on Arsenal Insider
Written by Rocky The King
Wow – what a downer !
Listen , our long term future will not be decided on wednesday – that would be our short term future.
The next couple of years will be tough, but come 2014 we will be the most independently wealthy club on the planet ! Forget the billionaire owners and clubs raking massive debts, we will have no debt and with renewed commercial deals you can add almost an extra 100 million a year onto what we make now
Our future is remarkably safe – lets give these young kids a chance, keep the faith and hope for two or so signings of some real quality.
The future is arsenal… nothing has changed
vote for wenger on arsenalnews.net
What would happen if fans were more optimistic
Remember we can actually lose on Wednesday and still go through
A 2-1 defeat will do me fine, or a 3-2 or even a 4-3.
We might even just grab a draw. 0-0, 1-1, 2-2, 3-3 or higher any of these will see us through.
I dont know why everyone is so doom and gloom
Szcesney, Van Persie, Song, Gervinho, Frimpong, Sagna, Vermaelen, Walcott are all certain starters
Rosicky, Koscielny, Wilshire, Djourou, Traore could yet all be passed fit
Who knows even Nasri and Bendtner might play.
The only definite absentees are Diaby and Gibbs
If for some terrible reason we go out then so be it, but it may just prove to be the shot in the arm the board needs.
My team for Weds (4-1-4-1)
Sczesney
Sagna Djourou/Koscielny Vermaelen Traore
Song
Walcott Frimpong Wilshire Gervinho
Van Persie
Fabianski Koscielny/Djourou Jenkinson Ramsey Rosicky Chamakh Chamberlain
I have a feeling that Nasri, Bendtner, Squillaci & Arshavin will all be left out to avoid being cup-tied.
I predict all 4 will then be sold raising another £50m+ for Wenger to add to his already booming transfer kitty enabling him to sort out the 8 signings we need.
Vertonghen
Hazard
Drogba
Kaka
Mertesacker
Cahill
These 6 will replace the 3 first teamers that have left (are leaving) Fabregas, Nasri & Clichy, as well as give us the 3 players that we needed at the end of last season.
We should also have some money left to replace some of the squad players we have lost (will lose) Denilson, Vela, Eboue, Emmanuel-Thomas, Bendtner, Almunia, Arshavin, Lehmann, Squillaci.
you been playing too much Football manager? be realistic mate lol
Let us be realistic, AW will no sign drogba, cahill, benzema. He will probably go for scott dann, scott parker on loan & hazard depending on if nasri goes. Personally, i don’t mind exchanging nasri for man city’s adam johnson, SWP & nedum onuoha. Getting parker on a 2 year loan & maybe eden hazard. With these players, we get the needed depth as well as EPL experience. Baines will be a sweetner tho
how about sacking arshavin for a start, i had a enough of the magic moment that only comes once every 10 games, we pay 12 millions for chamberlain its about time we see what he’s made of.
actually liverpool defeat should teach us that van persie shouldn’t be played as lone striker. arsenal needs to sign a goalscorer more than anything. although we need new midfielders had wilshere played he would have been different story.
we can have a 4-3-3 attack like this: VAN PERSIE on the left, NEW STRIKER in the middle and GERVINHO/WALCOTT on the right. keep arshavin, chamakh and bendtner away from first team as far as possible.
i think we will go through with a draw and i hope we do!!!!…the 30 million or so revenue will come in useful!.
We havent a chance to win it and i expect we will crash out in the group stages.
we will finish mid-table or lower and it will be interesting to see if wenger resigns….i hope so as he clearly is not up to the job anymore.
Even if he buys a player or 2..(he wont get three) it wont be enough to stop the rot. The sooner we get on to a fresh start with a new manager the better.
Wenger and gazidis are getting fool and you have to resign both of you before pushing ARSENAL into relegation zone.ARSENAL are lucking,if they didnt go for relegation.sir kbo2 m.shinkafa,bauchi-nigeria.
if we fail to beat udinese we wil have already qualified for champions league the headline shuld b wat if udinese beats us by a two goal margin
If arsenal failed to qualify to champions league, we are finished.