Per transfermarkt, Arsenal are 6th in team player value, and 6th in the league. THey are +13 GD above the team below them. Unless one thinks they should just buy more valuable players, I'm not sure how more should be expected of them, or of Wenger.
EPL April 14-16 The first week of Flip Flop Wearing Season?
- Thread starter fletcherpost
- Start date
If they are third in the league in revenues (as they have been in both 15-16 and 16-17 per the Deloitte Money League tables), then why are they sixth in the league in the value of the players? Because they underinvested for many years in the transfer market, because Wenger has long since lost his fastball finding and developing young talent, and because they've been awful in terms of moving players on while they still retain value.
I think spending is a better gauge than revenues, since revenues are murkier and harder to pin down, and since the two petroclubs and the uberclub can basically buy anyone. If you can spend, that likely means you have more money to spend. ManC and ManU are -220m euros and -157m euros in transfer spending this season, and Chelsea is at -57m. The two clubs that Arsenal actually competes with money wise, clubs that actually have budgets, have done a better job this cycle developing and maximizing talent, but they'll have to sell off eventually to bigger clubs. But it's not like players won't go there, Lacazette and Aubameyang cost £99m pounds (and combined for a pretty goal today).
For all the hubbub about them not getting points away, their home form has been great during that span, they've only lost 4 points at home (draw to Chelsea, loss to City) and are exactly in the same place today, 6th, that they were on Jan 1. It makes no difference if they had one more home loss and one more road win, excep for people who like meaningless stats; I don't think there's an award for road points since Jan 1. They've had Europa League, and need to rotate the squad (they had 5 players back in London today. I get it, Europa League sucks, an additional knockout round, powerful interlopers who just drop in from Champions League, Thursday games that fuck up your Sunday squad.) They have to prioritize, maximizing home games, and Europa League, while getting young players run in road matches. But they weren't set up poorly, they dominated possession, and had more shots; the score didn't reflect the play. However, Mustafi and Cech were not good on Ayoze's goal, which, to be fair, was an exquisite shot. But Mustafi should have not allowed him to get to the ball.
Last edited:
That has to be one of the dumbest well-argued posts I've read in a while. Arsenal is 6th in what is effectively a six-team league, and they are now only two points ahead of Burnley. Burnley! (Chelsea has been a dumpster fire this year and is still six points ahead of Arsenal.) They could hardly sink any lower relative to expectations if they tried, and the way they keep losing matches and to whom they keep losing matters - the devil is in the details. Just to pick one out: Cech is playing like a corpse, which was always a possibility this season, and yet Wenger chose to sell Szczesny to Juve for well below his market value at the start of the season when it made absolutely no sense to do so, and now he looks like a worthy successor in waiting to Buffon. Wenger has forgotten how to develop players and make them better than they were before they came to Arsenal. And the killer is that the same thing keeps happening year after year, except a little bit worse, and there will be no end in sight until Wenger leaves.
Even if all of the above weren't true, it still misses the point of the sports fan experience, especially in European soccer. Are you saying Arsenal fans should be content because their club has met the absolute minimum level of competence they might have expected in the most frustrating, half-assed way imaginable? This has pretty much been a worst-case scenario season for Arsenal...and the Europa League run only serves to make a repeat performance in 2018-19 that much more likely. It stinks and it sucks and it stinks.
Even if all of the above weren't true, it still misses the point of the sports fan experience, especially in European soccer. Are you saying Arsenal fans should be content because their club has met the absolute minimum level of competence they might have expected in the most frustrating, half-assed way imaginable? This has pretty much been a worst-case scenario season for Arsenal...and the Europa League run only serves to make a repeat performance in 2018-19 that much more likely. It stinks and it sucks and it stinks.
To just add to this... Arsenal was a mainstay in the Champions League. 19 straight prior to this season. Of course... they were pretty much guaranteed to get out of group only to lose in the round of 16. (7 straight)
This year... they are in Europa. Unless they get by Atletico Madrid - which feels unlikely - they will be in Europa next year as well.
That in addition to the fact that they are 13 points behind Spurs for the final Champions League spot which surely burns on multiple levels.
The EPL is primarily a six team league now. Sure... A Leicester City miracle can obviously happen... and any of these six teams can struggle over a season and completely miss Europe.
If I was a fan of the Gunners, I would be pissed because I don't feel like the team is competing. Certainly, winning the League Cup or the FA Cup is not nothing. But... getting more in Europe... like even a QF birth would be positive movement. I mean... Liverpool wasn't even in Europe last season... and now they have a really good chance of making the Champions League final.
Wenger has been fantastic for Arsenal. But now, he is fantastic for Arsenal's opposition.
This year... they are in Europa. Unless they get by Atletico Madrid - which feels unlikely - they will be in Europa next year as well.
That in addition to the fact that they are 13 points behind Spurs for the final Champions League spot which surely burns on multiple levels.
The EPL is primarily a six team league now. Sure... A Leicester City miracle can obviously happen... and any of these six teams can struggle over a season and completely miss Europe.
If I was a fan of the Gunners, I would be pissed because I don't feel like the team is competing. Certainly, winning the League Cup or the FA Cup is not nothing. But... getting more in Europe... like even a QF birth would be positive movement. I mean... Liverpool wasn't even in Europe last season... and now they have a really good chance of making the Champions League final.
Wenger has been fantastic for Arsenal. But now, he is fantastic for Arsenal's opposition.
Congrats to City and its fans. An incredible, stylish, and entertaining campaign with a frighteningly young core. This squad is really set to be a powerhouse for the foreseeable future. Kompany and Silva are getting older - and Otamendi probably is a weak link - but otherwise, maybe only Bayern compares in terms of young talent? Fantastic stuff.
Chelsea isn't the big spending club they once were, as Roman doesn't seem to have the appetite to blow through money like he once did. Arsenal have outspent them in the transfer market over the last five years in aggregate and Arsenal's wages are on par with them. City and United are in a league apart. But after that Arsenal are roughly on par with Chelsea and clearly better resourced than either Liverpool or Spurs.