There was a time in the not too distant past when Arsenal were challenging for titles and in cup competitions, however sadly this now looks a thing of the past, as profit takes priority.
Following last night’s pitiful loss to Schalke in the Champions League, Arsenal have now gone the best part of 180 minutes of football whilst only creating a handful of scoring opportunities, and this is what Arsenal fans can come to expect if the club continues to sell their top players.
Profit over success?
Over the past few seasons Arsenal have had to cope with loss of their best players to rivals, whilst never properly replacing them.
Van Persie, Fabregas, Nasri and Song, to name but a few, have all left North London in recent summers, whilst their replacements have been not of the same calibre.
Replacing world-class players with average ones is never going to lead to success. However, it would seem that this has all been part of the Arsenal boards scheme to make profits, and keep the shareholders happy, while keeping the fans out of pocket.
CEO Ivan Gazidis refused this claim at today’s AGM, insisting ‘our target is not profit, it’s to have success on the pitch’, but when he is the highest paid CEO in the country, picking up huge bonuses yearly from a club who has the biggest profit margin over the last year in England and we are not having success on the pitch, it is hard to see his validity.
Add into this that Arsenal has the highest ticket prices, and it makes you wonder, where is all the money going?
Qualification as a trophy
At today’s AGM, manager Arsene Wenger spoke about how the third most important thing in football was to qualify for the Champions League, after winning the competition and the league.
He labelled it a trophy, though it is hard to see many Arsenal fans feeling the same way.
This is however, what modern football has become about, as the FA Cup, once the leading cup competition in club football, has now become less important than Champions League qualification.
Maybe Wenger is right, but surely Arsenal fans would like to success in the form of real trophies rather than just the satisfaction of qualifying for Europe, and achieving the goal of being the fourth best team in England.
To the Future
As Arsenal fans look to the future, they can only hope that Gazidis’ promises of being able to compete with the “big boys” when our sponsorship with Emirates and Nike ends and our new ones come in is correct, but at the minute there is little to look forward to.
Hopefully Arsenal can bounce back from their dismal performances against Norwich and Schalke, and show that this team is not dead and buried yet, and give the wearied supporters something to cheer about against QPR.
If things do not start to turn around on the pitch soon, and the lack of investment continues, with increased ticket prices, you can bet that the escalating concern among Arsenal fans will increase, and will result in more fans protesting, asking for their Arsenal back.
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