swipe right wrote:Top four in 20 of 22 seasons isn’t bad mate. We just got tired of top four. That was the problem. I fear we will end this season around 8 or 9.
We didn't get tired of top four, our manager just lost the plot. From 2010-2015 we all but stopped signing very top players - we believed some cult nonsense about 'we will win it my way' we developed a communist approach to salaries and contracts, youth players not even close to EPL standard were touted as the next best thing, and the rot set in ...
2010-13 we signed Koz, Ox, Gervinho, Arteta, Mert, Pod, Giroud, Cazorla (great but injured) all for under 15m a pop, all not bad players, well some were, but certainly all not potential title winners either.
We then get to 2014 and Ozil - for 47m this should have been a great signing, and it was for two seasons, don't blame Wonger at all it was a great signing, but sadly there's just something wrong with the lad, his crazy new contract was where we really screwed up.
Sanchez at 42m - fantastic but somehow again we screwed up his contract
Then back to more of the same average stuff in '14 Chambers, Welbeck, Paulista, Debuchy, was that 70m well spent?
Then in '15 Cech and Eleney was that 30m well spent?
That gets us to 2016 when we start to realise we're in deep shite .... suddenly in come Xhaka, Mustafi, Perez and 100m gets blown
That gets us to 2017 when we really got the big money out ... in come PEA, Laca, Mkhi with 150m spent
Then last summer 2018 .... in come Torreira, Leno, Sokratis, Guendouzi with another 70m spent
So as you can see we've been trying since 2016 to make up for the awesome transfer failure from 2010 to 2015 ... a period during which we signed 16 players of whom I think only 3 are still first team players, that was the foundation, or lack of foundation, that ripped the very heart out of the club ... during that entire disastrous period one man had 100% control ... surely he must take some responsibility?