So I went on Twitter on Wednesday night, following the disappointing 0-0 draw to Bolton, and came across a rather interesting tweet by @JoshPillingg which read ‘would you rather win something and finish fifth? or go trophy less AGAIN and finish fourth?’. As usual I like to answer questions posted up about my team and tweeted back – go trophyless and finish fourth.
Now I know we’ve gone nearly 7 years without a trophy and the Arsenal faithful, players and the club itself would love to end the drought which has loomed over us since 2005, but if we were unable to secure Champions League football next season then it could have massive ramifications on our beloved club in general.
Although the poorly named Europa League is classified as European football, it doesn’t come anywhere close to the Champions League – the biggest European competition in the world. Now if we don’t manage to acquire this then I’m guessing a lot of our current players, namely Robin van Persie who has around 16-17 months left to run on his current contract, wouldn’t like to play on Thursday nights on Channel 5 or ITV4, thus consider his future. And I’m pretty confident in saying that our potential future targets wouldn’t like it either, therefore not being able to attract the big names. So in essence, in order to attract the top players, keep our stars and be considered a big boy club around Europe, finishing fourth over acquiring a trophy (unless it’s the Champions League cup itself) is an absolute necessity in my opinion.
As well as what I mentioned above, financially we stand to lose out on a helluva lot of cash. I know we don’t see it as much as we would like, but the income of being involved in the Champions League is vital for the stability of our club, despite what that skinhead Ivan Gazidis and the stingy board say. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail on how much we actually acquire, in terms of cash, by being apart of the Champions League, so I opted for the lazy option and found a page which explains the financials a lot better than I ever could (click HERE to view this document).
Ideally this season I would like us to a secure a top four spot and bag a trophy (FA Cup would do me). However, if you gave me the choice of ending our trophy drought and finishing fifth, thus playing on Thursday nights, or going one more season without silverware but attaining Champions League football, then I would always opt for the latter option, no questions asked.
What do you guys think on the matter? Leave us your thoughts and comments below.
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Suddenly we seem to appreciate that being in the CL is invaluable! But we took it for granted all along. Lol!
Taking part in the cl is important for a club like Arsenal. Of course the gunners have no divine right like automatic qualification. The thing is once you are out,it’s very difficult,repeat very difficult,to get back.
Wenger says he will consider his spending if the gunners are out. I’m afraid he is too late . He should have done so four to five seasons ago.
He hsould go and play his tippy tappy soccer with the French national team or RM. He will find out that failure won’t be tolerated .Ancelloti was axed despite winning the double in first season.