As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
augie wrote:G88ner, when you say that 4th is as good as we can accept (factoring in the chavs, citeeh and manure) you are, whether you like it or not, reinforcing an ethose/agenda that has and is running throughout the people running through our club ? Why is 4th as good as we can expect when we have massive cash reserves sitting in the bank ? Why is 4th acceptable (when factoring in the above clubs) when it is defeats against the likes of norwich, villa etc that is preventing us getting any higher ? Why is our achievements acceptable when we continually fail to win cups because of loses to the likes of bradford, blackburn etc ? For me there is nothing acceptable in where we stand as a club and until the fans start publicly demanding more (instead of accepting our lot) then nothing will change
Have I woken up in a parallel universe where everyone's a rosetinter and I'm the only one who thinks United, Chavs and Citeh will finish above us??
Since when is that view controversial and how on earth is that reinforcing the ethos within the club? - I'm not happy finishing 4th; I fucking hate not challenging in recent seasons. I just don't expect much more than 4th this season. Not because I don't want more, but because I genuinely believe other teams will prove to be better than us over 9 months.
That said, I'm pleasantly surprised by our consistency since March and genuinely can see improvements from previous seasons. So, as an optimist, I can't deny I see that as a step forward and there's a glimmer of hope of good times ahead.
I stand by that prediction but will obviously hope we do better and will support the team along the way. And hopefully we'll win trophies but I'm not expecting it at all. Recent history of failure is hard to shake.
Brady's left peg wrote:
So putting our personal views aside for a moment, do you not think that the club have a 4th will do attitude? They talk the talk but under the current owner have failed to walk the walk. As long as they achieve UCL qualification they are quite content.
Of course they've had a 4th will do attitude. In fairness, Wenger has as good as admitted that.
You can see a difference in attitude this season though, although I still think 4th is most realistic. And finishing 4th in itself isn't the problem - all fans really want is progress and the early signs are (in my opinion) there. Ozil was a surprise signing, and we'll see in the next couple of windows if that was a one off or whether we finally mean business, but you can't make signings like that and not have a change in attitude, so i'm optimistic (not convinced Wenger is the right man though, but he's here to stay so I've accepted that).
There is a Chinese phrase called paper tiger. It means something that appears threatening but is really not so. Wenger has successfully made us a paper tiger since 2006.
defleppardisking wrote:There is a Chinese phrase called paper tiger. It means something that appears threatening but is really not so. Wenger has successfully made us a paper tiger since 2006.
In fairness, we've been a paper tiger for the vast majority of the last 100 years. Certainly since the end of the 30s.
Thankfully, since our dominance in the 30s, that has been interspersed by brief periods of real success, such as the double in 71, Graham's title wins in 89 and 91 and Wenger's invincibles and 2 doubles, etc. Other than that, our bark has mainly been worse than our bite.
As for 2006 onwards that you refer to.... we also moved into a new stadium in 2006. Could be a coincidence, but highly unlikely. Wenger takes a chunk of the blame, but certainly not all of it.
defleppardisking wrote:There is a Chinese phrase called paper tiger. It means something that appears threatening but is really not so. Wenger has successfully made us a paper tiger since 2006.
defleppardisking wrote:There is a Chinese phrase called paper tiger. It means something that appears threatening but is really not so. Wenger has successfully made us a paper tiger since 2006.
augie wrote:G88ner, when you say that 4th is as good as we can accept (factoring in the chavs, citeeh and manure) you are, whether you like it or not, reinforcing an ethose/agenda that has and is running throughout the people running through our club ? Why is 4th as good as we can expect when we have massive cash reserves sitting in the bank ? Why is 4th acceptable (when factoring in the above clubs) when it is defeats against the likes of norwich, villa etc that is preventing us getting any higher ? Why is our achievements acceptable when we continually fail to win cups because of loses to the likes of bradford, blackburn etc ? For me there is nothing acceptable in where we stand as a club and until the fans start publicly demanding more (instead of accepting our lot) then nothing will change
Have I woken up in a parallel universe where everyone's a rosetinter and I'm the only one who thinks United, Chavs and Citeh will finish above us??
Since when is that view controversial and how on earth is that reinforcing the ethos within the club? - I'm not happy finishing 4th; I fucking hate not challenging in recent seasons. I just don't expect much more than 4th this season. Not because I don't want more, but because I genuinely believe other teams will prove to be better than us over 9 months.
That said, I'm pleasantly surprised by our consistency since March and genuinely can see improvements from previous seasons. So, as an optimist, I can't deny I see that as a step forward and there's a glimmer of hope of good times ahead.
I stand by that prediction but will obviously hope we do better and will support the team along the way. And hopefully we'll win trophies but I'm not expecting it at all. Recent history of failure is hard to shake.
defleppardisking wrote:There is a Chinese phrase called paper tiger. It means something that appears threatening but is really not so. Wenger has successfully made us a paper tiger since 2006.
