The pictures that came out after Arsenal had clinched the fourth Champions League spot were some of the most embarrassing I have seen for a long time. Players huddled together, standing, sitting and draping over one another with their shirts off. Some even went as far as swinging them around their head, all with pure elation on their faces. Many of them were soaked in liquid that they just couldn’t contain themselves from squirting at each other.
All this tomfoolery stemmed from the sheer joy that they could be competing against the crème de la crème of Latvian football in August for a place in the group stage. Let’s hope it wasn’t champagne they were going mad with as that would be taking the proverbial biscuit. Anyone would have thought that they had won the Champions League let alone the fact that the celebrations could be premature should they come up against a side from one of Europe’s top leagues. It was desperate stuff for a club of Arsenal’s stature.
This was not one that had qualified for Europe’s premier competition for the first time, it was their 16th in a row! You would think they’d be used to it by now. It’s just another season, so no need to go potty with glee. But this sums up the standards to which they have become accustomed to for nearly a decade.
Poor Arsene Wenger. If only he had left Arsenal between 2004 and 2006 (maybe 2007 at a push) his name would forever be enshrined by fans of the north London based side. No doubt he is lauded by even the most disillusioned Gunners’ fans for his past achievements, but after he has gone, his reign will be tainted by these last few years where they have not won a major trophy since the FA Cup in 2005. Perceptions could easily have been so different though.
The year after that FA Cup win they reached the 2006 Champions League final. They were down to 10 men within the first 20 minutes when Jens Lehmann was sent off. Despite taking the lead with one less player on the pitch they lost 2-1 courtesy of two Barcelona goals in the last 15 minutes. The following year they lost the League Cup final to Chelsea and then, along with a few semi-final appearances in the intervening years, lost to Birmingham City in the final of the same competition in 2011. It exemplifies the fine line between what is seen as success and failure.
They have been close to the prizes, but have just fallen short when a trophy here and there since 2005 would have casted a brighter glow on the gloom. A European Cup triumph would have lit up the club for a good number of years. How galling must their fans feel that Chelsea (a much smaller club in terms of history especially before the 2000s) pipped them to become the first London side to lift the trophy. It’s not as if Wenger’s sides have finished in the bottom half, or even once outside the top-four since 2005, but for Arsenal, the third most successful club in English football when it comes to trophies, it’s not a very invigorating time to be a supporter.
Sure, there has been a lot of exciting matches over the past eight years, but fans are often left extremely frustrated by the end of them as they either throw away a win, or obliterate teams by turning on the style that could beat just about any side in the world. As it is the club are going through their most barren run since the start of the 1980s when they went from 1979 to 1987 without a trophy, one that will be surpassed by next year.
Wenger relies on the fact that his sides have qualified for the Champions League in every full season he has been at the club, which is a stellar achievement, but for a club of their size and resources, doesn’t he feel they should have more? It’s winning trophies that have secured the illustrious history that Arsenal have to their name, not third and fourth place finishes.
Out of the last eight trophyless years, would fans rather they qualified for Europe’s premier competition during that period without a trophy like they have done?Or win four major honours and finish below the top four for say four or five of the campaigns in that time span? After the financial constraints of the last few years, it appears that the board and Wenger will finally push the boat for players that can bring them the trophies they crave.
The record buy is still the estimated £15million paid for Andrei Arshavin, a fee that Newcastle United stumped up for Alan Shearer in 1996! But for the moment, the photos of Arsenal players losing themselves over a fourth placed finish arguably justify Robin van Persie’s decision to leave for Manchester United more than the ones of the Dutchman parading the Premiership trophy around Old Trafford. The comparison between them just about sums it all up.
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this is true. imagine what the Spuds would have done if they got 4th. Grapes. Sour. Black. Kettle
Totally agree, Wenger should have gone years ago.
His ‘legendary insight in the transfer market’ that we hear so much about is a joke. He has signed a boat load of planks for every good player he signed and his legendary talent for spotting talent in young players is nonsense. This is the man who turned down Drogba for 100,000 only to watch him rattle our net for years.
He knocked back Bale as well, what insight…
And one last time he didn’t sign Bergkamp! he was there before Wenger as was Viera.
I won’t listen to nonsense that he ‘made’ Henri and Cesc, they would all have been amazing players without Wenger.
Has anyone noticed that good players come to us and don’t do well? A product of Wengers farcical attempts to reinvent players and play them in different positions which hurts the team as a whole. I wouldn’t ask a mechanic to give me a heart bypass or a heart surgeon to plaster a wall, Wenger’s Gallic arrogance thinks that it is acceptable to move players around, it isn’t.
Look at Vela, the guy stopped his progression under Wenger and look at him now, rattling the net.
I also believe this nonsense approach discourages top players from coming to us as world class players don’t want to be sent back to school by a man who hasn’t won Jack in 8 years or to put it another way he hasn’t won anything for most of the duration of most top players careers!
They don’t see him as a winner plain and simple.
All that ‘back in the day’ crap, NEWSFLASH this is today not last year or 10 years ago!
We barely scrapped that 4th place and to be honest we got it more on luck than talent and good play.
I don’t feel good about it in the way I should, I am being honest when I say I do not think we deserved it.
Wenger inherited the best defense in football, an amazing striker in Wright and a strong midfield and it contributed to his success until he completely dismantled it and went all out attacking football. We saw how that worked against Spurs.
Faced with the possibility of no CL place he then (although he would never admit to be wrong) allowed Steve Bould to begin coaching defense again. Back came the clean sheets from the start of the season and we luckily scrapped a 4th place.
Who made that happen? Bould not Wenger, if Wenger had carried on with his own game plan we would have missed CL football by a fair margin.
If this club is to move forward Wenger should be out, Kroenke out, most of the board out.
We as Arsenal fans can make anything happen in this club, we have the power.
If fans would stop living their youth, take off the rose coloured glasses and see that Wenger has failed and that he has been too compliant with the board we could move forward.
We always hear that clubs want him, apart from PSG who is that? No one has made an offer so who wants him? He complains about players leaving for money but in truth why does he stay? Well he is paid a ridiculous amount to fail consistently.
Oh and this shit about the stadium, how come Bayern built a new stadium around the same time as us and it didn’t have a negative effect on them.
Poor man management skills and the fact that our players could see they would win nothing with Wenger caused the exodus.
Time for big change at the club because we won’t scrape that lucky CL spot if we don’t.
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha, deep breath, hahahahahahaha
Where does this site find these clowns? Brilliant, keep it up guys.
30 million pounds for that “little” victory and the fact that the team gets to play on the worlds greatest footballing stage.
1.8 millions pounds for FA cup win. I know which i would rather…I know which Wigan fans would rather…
Oh and by your logic the Tottenham players should be equally embarrassed by being so sad and glum on the last day by not making the champions league because there is nothing to be sad about, its not like the champions league qualification means anything…
the most amazing thing is that you get paid to write these articles! wow!
@ cupsui. There’s nothing wrong with celebrating the CL qualification or overtaking the Spurs who have been talking trash for good part of the season, but celebrating 30million pounds which has never been spent on player acquisition in some fifteen years smacks of corporation not a football club with title winning ambitions. If that’s a reason for celebration then Arsenal players should pop another bottle for the stadium naming rights and one for Puma kit sponsorship .Further more, making a 30 million profit on Fabregas deal , or 25 mill on RVP, or 14 mill on Song was probably a reason for jubilation as well.
To those who think that it is a guilty or embarrassing for the player to be elated, I want to ask you this does this the crop of player that we had at the moment seriously good enough to challenge ManU,ManC,Chealsea and be on top of them ???? Yeah getting 4th place is a shabby credential but by the basis of quality and expectation that is just about right. But the main question is do Arsenal deserve to be 4th place = A BIG FAT YES and if you don’t agree go and ask (by the order of responsibility the 1)Board for selling the club to Kronke 2) Kronke for being not bad or not good owner 3) Arsene for agreeing with the club plus his direct responsibility toward the team 4) the player themselves. Now we are at transfer season yet again and let see what sort of player will AFC have come September 1st and only then I can judge if it will be ashamed to finish 4th place come next year.
Nonsense. You are one of those destroying the club by your negative comments and attitude. However to prove your loyalty to the club, please underwrite the cost of signing two world class players and maintaining them for 4 years costing only about £250m at the rate of £30m each as sign on fees and an average of £200,000 per week as wages, these figures do not include bonuses, meals, travelling and medical expenses. I hope you now know that you don’t maintain players with pittance and no sane man who worked for his money would dash them out except thieves. Finally, you are at liberty to join the club of thieves, rogues, fraudsters and embezzlers. As for me, I stick with Arsenal the club that is run ethically and does things in the right way. Whatever be our achievements, we worked for them and we duly deserved them. We are proud because we have not achieves success by foul play, out pricing other competitors.
I’m assuming maths wasn’t compulsory where you live.
The writer of this article is possibly a Tothenham fan so how do we expect him not to be sad. Qualifying for the CL is even more lucrative than winning the Europa league. It is also a proof that Arsenal is still a force in Europe. Looking at it, the FA and Community shield are valueless. They only fetch you the Europa Spot. No matter how many clubs vied for the league, only one would win. It only take no more than 2 loses and 2 draws to lose the trophy. Arsenal had done well but I admit there is room for improvement. We have to appreciate what we got, but ask Tothenham, Liverpool and Everton how they feel, then you will know the importance of qualifying for the CL.
Some people are defending Arsenal financial expenditure as if they benefited from gross net profits or maybe they have little shares they so treasures than any title. How embarrass for a football fans starts to look so much on profits than team performance! Why don’t u sell ur shares to football lover and go buy another shares in British Airway or land Rover co and leave footballs to those who knows the meaning of it!? …