augie wrote:
Is it worth getting worked up about a single player looking to leave ? It is when he is our captain, our talisman and our
only class player. It is when it will without a doubt send a definitive message to the rest of europe and the world that no top player wants to stay at our club anymore
What? Firstly, he's only captain in order to try and appease him, like when Henry was. As for talisman and only class player, again I suggest that your thinking is black and white. He's a good player in a decent football team, but talisman is a bit far. Tony Adams and Patrick Vieira were talismen.
I think that Vermaelen, Sagna, Clichy, Song might take offence to you saying Fabregas is our "only class player". And even if he was our only class player, so what? We'll get loads of cash for him and be able to buy 2-3 players to strengthen the team, and that will have more influence than a single Fabregas.
augie wrote:What happened to the notion that the players are there to serve the club ? Wenger happened - nowadays the players loyalty (or whats left of it) is to wenger and not to our club
As usual, I think you're stating opinion as if it's a fact. How the hell do you know where players' loyalty lies? Did you have tea with Bendtner last week? If I had to be pushed, I'd say that the players' loyalty is mainly to themselves, in most cases these days. But to suggest that because of our manager, the rule that no player is bigger than the club is somehow broken, is crazy. And do you think Arsenal is the only club that suffers from lack of player loyalty? The money these days means that loyalty is already dwindling at every professional club, and it's only going one way unless the TV companies go bust.
augie wrote:In my opinion you have somehow lost perspective of what it is the fans are unhappy about - the vast majority of us dont feel a divine right to sucess but we sure as hell expect the club to do everything in its power to try and obtain that sucess. I know that the size of our transfer kitty is a debate that will keep raging for some time yet but one thing that cannot be denied is that in the last 12 months the club has paid off 10 years worth of mortgage repayments in advance - if that money had of been invested in a keeper we could be going into this new season as defending champs instead of a club desperately trying to keep hold of our skipper
How can you possibly claim to speak for the vast majority of fans? You're a bloke on an Internet forum! It's amazing that considering you think that we have "one class player", we were merely a keeper away from winning the championship. That must mean we have some other class, unless you think that you can win the league with no class. You can't have your cake and eat it.
augie wrote:You speak positively about winning the league within the next 10 years but my question for you is how ? Show me a club that sells
all of its best players and still wins trophies - you can well point to the young talent coming through but if we keep selling the better players in our team wont we continually be in transition ? What quality player in his right mind would want to stay at a club under these circumstances ? There is a shit load wrong with the workings of our club and the thinking behind it and until that changes sucess is not coming our way anytime soon
How? Because that's the way of the world. Sometimes you go through lean years. Sometimes you win the league. It's funny that you talk about the young players - few of them look interesting, but if I had 50 million to spend at Arsenal, I'd spend it on youth stuff. We can't outspend the richest clubs, so it makes sense to "grow our own".
As for selling all of our best players, I struggle to think of many players whose careers have gone up after leaving Arsenal.
augie wrote:You compare cesc leaving with splitting up with a bird - in my experience you hope that when a bird leaves you hope that have been the one doing the screwing up to that point but with every good player leaving our club it feels like it is the club that is doing the screwing and it is us fans that are on the receiving end
Well, it might feel like that to you, but I suggest that there is a difference between feelings and facts, and you interpret the facts as you want to. It's your choice to be negative. That is why not everyone is constantly moaning even though we are all looking at the same situation. Why are you being screwed? Nobody's forcing you to support the club. Nobody's forcing anyone to buy an overpriced pie at the new stadium. I don't believe that constant negativity is beneficial to anyone or anything.
I don't think the current situation is great, but I wouldn't swap places with fans of any other club, and on that basis I'm grateful for what I have. And when we next win the league it will taste all the sweeter for the (relative) current adversity.
Surely you would concede that it makes it that much harder to shine when you are playing alongside such shite as the players I listed above ? Compare that to the performance of cesc in last sundays world cup final or throughout the european championship finals two years ago and you will see a cesc that shines when he is surrounded by players of a similar level to himself.
