Things you got drastically wrong about Arsenal

[This Is The Daybreak]

What things did you say or think relating to Arsenal that ended up being so far wide of the mark. Here is mine.

1) I was more excited about the signing of David Platt than Dennis Bergkamp (I was 10 at the time and I knew that Platt had scored a lot of goals for Villa and was Englands captain. Because I didn't follow football outside of England I knew about Bergkamps high reputation but not a lot else).

2) Even though I was gutted about losing the Champions Final in 2006, I proclaimed to my brother on the phone in Paris that this was our first final and we've got bigger things to come and will be back. With our move to the new stadium Arsenal felt so optimistic back then.

3) When Emmanuel Eboue first came into the team as our right back I thought he was bloody good.

4) I thought Bergkamp may have lost it after a dismal performance against Liverpool at Anfield in Christmas 2000.

5)When Manuel Almunia came into the side I said that I don't think he would ever win you a game but he wouldn't lose you one. He certainly lost a lot more games than he won us games that is for sure.

6)I thought Robin Van Persie would sign his contract and go onto be a legend at the football club.

7)I was peeved that we didn't sign Mario Balotelli before he went to Liverpool as I thought he could be what we needed.

I thought it would get better from 2004 and we'd win back to back titles, European Cups and set ourselves up for a period of dominance. Sadly I thought 2004 was the beginning and sadly it was the start of the end.

9)I was so confident we'd beat Real Zaragoza in the Cup Winners Cup Final that I bet a Spurs supporting kid at school 5 pounds (my pocket money) we would win. Didn't want to go to school the next day.

10)Saw Thierry Henry get the ball and run it out of play in one of his early games for us. Said out loud he was useless. Regretted it ever since.

[officepest]

That Wenger would finally win back-to-back titles after the Invincibles and that we would dominate the league the following year.

Mourinho and Abramovich’s wallet had other ideas though.

[augie]

The back to back league titles and the period of dominance are certainly the one's that stood out for me - when you look back at some of the great teams we have had in the past 40 years or so (I am 46 so that is all I can judge on), it is shocking that we haven't won back to back titles since the 30s Even though we had the best teams under GG and wenker, we were never able to win 2 in a row and maybe if we had it would have led to a period of dominance.

[g88ner]

3) When Emmanuel Eboue first came into the team as our right back I thought he was bloody good.

Yes! I thought Eboue looked superb. Quick, won his tackles, great when defending 1-on-1 and good going forward.

Also, I was dead against playing RVP as a lone striker. I didn't think he had the pace or strength to cope. I was definitely wrong about that!

In fact, my misjudgement on RVP is probably influencing my view on Theo playing as a striker. I'm not as dead against it as I thought I would be.

[northbank123]

5) as well. To be fair for the first 6-12 months whilst he was never a class keeper he made very very few mistakes.

After that 4-4 game against Spurs both him and Clichy had crises of confidence and neither of them ever recovered, both went catastrophically downhill then.

[BFG4]

When Henry signed a new deal in 2006, I expected him to finish his career with us.

[northbank123]

Thought Reyes would be a quality signing. Still remember that Chelsea FA Cup game fondly.

Never believed standing in the Millennium Stadium celebrating robbing the FA Cup in 2005 that it would be nearly a decade before we'd win anything again.

[Perryashburtongroves]

I thought Wanker would have fucked off by now

[GranadaJoe]

Thought Reyes would be a quality signing. Still remember that Chelsea FA Cup game fondly.

Never believed standing in the Millennium Stadium celebrating robbing the FA Cup in 2005 that it would be nearly a decade before we'd win anything again.

As an ex-winger, I've always been excited about that position, and I too was really excited about Reyes. I was also excited about Glenn Helder!! And Podolski.
I always thought Gervinho would be shit though.

At least Alexis isn't letting me down.

[augie]

Thought Reyes would be a quality signing. Still remember that Chelsea FA Cup game fondly.

Never believed standing in the Millennium Stadium celebrating robbing the FA Cup in 2005 that it would be nearly a decade before we'd win anything again.

Henry killed his career with us. It is that simple

[northbank123]

Thought Reyes would be a quality signing. Still remember that Chelsea FA Cup game fondly.

Never believed standing in the Millennium Stadium celebrating robbing the FA Cup in 2005 that it would be nearly a decade before we'd win anything again.

Henry killed his career with us. It is that simple

Was also a bit of a baby mind

He's not really lit the footballing world on fire since

[Bradywasking]

Genuinely believing in 1991 that Arsenal would take Europe by storm and win the then European cup in 1992, we got the bonus of the final being held at Wembley so there was no stopping us as European defenders would be terrified of Kevin Campbell

Genuinely believing in 1998 that Arsenal would win the Champions League in the 98-99 season.

Genuinely believing that while the move from Highbury would be very painful it was for the best and as a result of the move to The Emirates that Arsenal would compete with the Barcelonas , Real Madrids and Bayern Munichs of this world.

[jaysa123]

Kept on criticising manager for playing a clueless Patrick Vieira over a class Remi Garde.

[SteveO 35]

The thing I always loved about Arsenal was the fact it was owned and run by Arsenal people throughout its history - my mistake was naively thinking that somehow it would always be that way and that the shares would only ever transfer between "Arsenal people" and that the executive board would also be exclusively from within the Arsenal family

Roll forward the clock to 2015 and what do we have - a main shareholder who cares only about the global brand and property developments and who mutters a couple of words a year, a CEO who has done nothing to accommodate even the more basic demands from ordinary fans who can no longer afford to take a family to matches and a highly expensive team of marketeers generating wealth for the owner.....none of which is ploughed back into assembling a competitive title challenging squad

[Peeman]

Thought Martin Hayes was gonna be world class. He did do alright for us but did nowt after he left.