Tottenham being hammered 5-1 by Manchester City gave all the Arsenal fans a good chuckle, or at least until the final whistle went at there own match when their team was on the end of a 8-2 shalacking by Manchester United.
Not a good afternoon for the two North London clubs but i would be more worried if i was an Arsenal fan rather than a Tottenham fan.
The glaring truth is that after selling Fabregas, Nasri, Eboue and Clichy, Arsenal are a weaker team than last year, only bringing in Gervinho and a couple of teenagers who may or may not come good in a few years.
The best players gone and not being replaced, or being replaced with cheaper, less talented players, sounds dangerously like asset stripping to me.
Even when the bigger names return from injury and suspension, you can only see Vermaelen making that much of a difference.
If it is all down to Wenger not spending, then sacking him and getting in someone who will spend is a pretty quick fix. Ancelotti is currently available and would be a great replacement.
If the reasons are at board level, and the likes of Stan Kroenke, then unless they can force out the board a la the Liverpool fans with Hicks & Gillette, Arsenal fans had better get used to finding themselves in the company of Everton and Aston Villa in mid table.
Another reason could be the reluctance of Arsenal to pay the wages the top players command which is very principled but means your season will be over by January every year.
As us Pompey fans know, it is a shock when the rug is pulled away from under you (thank you Harry) and you suddenly drop from the dizzy heights and although i can't see Arsenal joining us anytime soon in the Championship, European Nights at the Emirates may be few and far between for a while after this season.
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It’s been obvious for at least 4 or 5 years that Arsenal require a decent goalie, another two good centre-backs, a midfield enforcer, and a good ‘fox in the box’…(and, more generally, men with a shedload more experience and Premiership ‘know-how’ than the foreign-bought boys currently in the team)… and yet the London media have persisted in this myth that Wenger is ‘le Professeur’ who knows what he’s doing. He clearly doesn’t. Hasn’t done for a while.
Re- “thank you Harry”… I still don’t geddit, Pompey fans. I’ll give you the following hypothetical:… Let’s say Harry now signs up a big bunch of expensive players on long-term contracts (all of which have to be approved by Daniel Levy and the board), and Spurs are subsquently unable to generate enough revenue to pay said players, and they almost go broke, have to have a ‘fire sale’ of all their best players, end up getting relegated… you know the story… Then guess who we’ll be blaming? Yep, we’ll laying 100% of the blame at the feet of Daniel Levy & the Board. It’s the managers job to get the team winning on the field. The finances are the responsibility of them ‘upstairs’. The manager asks the chairman & the board for a certain amount of resource (and in the Premiership you would expect the manager to usually ask for more than what the club can afford), and it’s the job of the people who run the finances to see to it that the manager gets what he wants WITHIN THE ABILITY OF THE CLUB TO AFFORD IT. Redknapp fulfilled his side of the bargain. He got the team winning on the field (first silverware since 1948 and first European football ever) and he did it within the budget he was given. The fact that this budget was unrealistic was the fault of others. The vitriol towards him personally is weird.
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