Have you ever been so disillusioned ?

[highburyJD]

At the top its a game of diminishing returns, not sure we can expect to finish miles ahead of all those
if you combine transfer fee and wage budget

[northbank123]

If you're going to rely on financial statistics to justify not competing (as our manager and board love doing) then you also have to allow it to be used as a tool against us. Everton's turnover is less than a third of ours and their wage bill is less than half, they look a good bet to challenge us this year. Newcastle's turnover is about a third and their wage bill is quite a bit under half of ours, they nearly pipped us last year. Our turnover is over 75% of United's and our wage bill is over 80% of theirs, yet we haven't finished above them since 2005 (not even getting close apart from one or two occasions) and hardly look like breaking that trend in the foreseeable future. I'm sure I'll get some bollocks about how our resources are tied up to finance the stadium but fact is top 4 should be seen as a minimum for Arsenal, not a constant source of achievement.

[flash gunner]

now he's hovering around par

[Herd]

I can remember being disillusioned when my wife turned out not be be a virgin ,but still was a lousy shag !

[highburyJD]

If you're going to rely on financial statistics to justify not competing (as our manager and board love doing) then you also have to allow it to be used as a tool against us. Everton's turnover is less than a third of ours and their wage bill is less than half, they look a good bet to challenge us this year. Newcastle's turnover is about a third and their wage bill is quite a bit under half of ours, they nearly pipped us last year. Our turnover is over 75% of United's and our wage bill is over 80% of theirs, yet we haven't finished above them since 2005 (not even getting close apart from one or two occasions) and hardly look like breaking that trend in the foreseeable future. I'm sure I'll get some bollocks about how our resources are tied up to finance the stadium but fact is top 4 should be seen as a minimum for Arsenal, not a constant source of achievement.

You misunderstand, I don't see Everton or Newcastle actually competing with us.
At the top each extra % improvement is expensive

[northbank123]

Everton look like challenging us this year, Newcastle just fell short last year. Spurs have a much smaller turnover, less attraction for prospective players, a considerably lower wage bill and have had considerable managerial turmoil over the last 8 years or so yet have closed the gap to the point where they're neck and neck with us.

[SteveO 35]

I can remember being disillusioned when my wife turned out not be be a virgin ,but still was a lousy shag !

Combined with the 'Milli Vanilli don't sing their songs' disappointment Herd, its any wonder how you've managed to survive this long mate

[highburyJD]

Everton look like challenging us this year, Newcastle just fell short last year. Spurs have a much smaller turnover, less attraction for prospective players, a considerably lower wage bill and have had considerable managerial turmoil over the last 8 years or so yet have closed the gap to the point where they're neck and neck with us.

none of those teams finished above us last year
none will this year

[northbank123]

That doesn't mean they didn't compete. You say at the top each extra % improvement is expensive. Well how come United were 19 points better than us last year given the figures I posted before? And, seeing as we aren't at the top and therefore (supposedly) money will make more of a difference in terms of extra improvement, how come we finished a few points ahead of Newcastle whose wage bill and turnover is only a fraction of ours? You can't justify our performance as proportionate to our finances when we're competing with Everton and Spurs and not City, Chelsea or even United.

[highburyJD]

we've finished above each of Citeh, Chelski and ManUre
more recently than any of Everton, 5per2 or Barcodes have finished above us

[StuartL]

I can remember being disillusioned when my wife turned out not be be a virgin ,but still was a lousy shag !

Hope you kept the receipt and got your money back.