For a club with that fanbase and those resources it is a clear indication of lack of ambition.

'Lets just settle for the safe 4th place option'

Meh.

American owners don't have ambition because their own sports are built on stability, They rely heavily on coaching and recruiting, Of course there are some exceptions to that rule in the states i.e. the Yankees and the Cowboys but the past 5/10 years, Most American sports have developed this money ball ethos as opposed to spending big. They will throw the Leicester example at you every time you question their ambition now, Albeit European football has shown over the past 15 years without spending big you win nothing, Even this current Barcelona side, Has been bought. 

 

The problem with Arsenal is they don't have a philosophy, Say what you want about us and Chelsea/United now but the philosophy is to rectify issues with big money signings, Arsenal try to copy Atletico and Dortmund but when you buy players like Ozil for gargantuan sums and Sanchez, It contradicts what you are supposedly about, You are either a club who believes in developing and recruiting well or you're not, Some days Wenger goes on about finding value in the market and then some days he pays extortionate amounts for La Liga rejects. The Arsenal fans clearly want the club to be run like Chelsea and City otherwise they'd be a lot more patient with him.

If Arsenal win the league this year. The board will never get rid of Wenger. The only plus side I can possibly think of.

It's got to the stage I'm almost praying for Leicester to win the league, both to beat off their competition and for the story alone. Amazing achievement.

Anyone seen Vitesse this season? I've been watching the highlights, Solanke's doing well, despite the injury he picked up, Baker I think is doing okay, the rest aren't playing regularly, including Pantic who seems to be very angry. I have to confess I've grown a fondness to them, largely due to the whole British Airbourne link and the way the show their respect.

So Hodgson has picked Milner to captain England against Holland.........the thing stopping England from progressing is the England manager himself. I don't get this obsession he has with this painfully average player. If you were asked to pick 5 of Milner's best moments, you would be racking your brain trying to find something. Every time i see someone stick up for Milner they say the same thing "he works really hard and gives everything for the team"............uh, isn't this what everybody does? There isn't a player in the England team that doesn't give their all, they just don't look like they are running around like a headless chicken when doing it. It's the same as the "he's got a lot of heart" excuse, it means you're not really any good, but you're trying so well done to you, it doesn't mean you should be called up to the international team every single time though.

 

The Euro's are going to be Milner's 4th International tournament and he has yet to have a good game in any of them. I can only think of 1 or 2 games where he has looked good for England, and that was against awful opposition.

While charging the highest ticket prices in world football. I can't believe how many of their fans are happy to bend over and be shafted while backing Wenger to 4th place every season.

Yeah I was stunned to see their ticket prices. Pretty outrageous when you consider how much they get from other income sources. Then again it's a business, and they charge what the market will bear. Another sign of how much the owners are thinking in terms of business, prices determined by supply and demand analysis to the optimal point.

I'm not as negative about Arsenal overall as I'm "supposed" to be. I really like one player (Cech), am generally positive about some others (Sanchez, Ospina, Özil), extremely irrationally dislike one (Giroud), and am totally apathetic about the rest. I'm not even that negative about Arsene. I think he's done well for his employers, and given the trench level of personalities of elite managers, I don't think he's any worse than a lot of them. For sure he's petty, whingey, snobbish, and prone to double standards; but he's miles ahead of van Gaal among others. I think he's said/done so many dislikable things mainly because he's been there so long, so they've accumulated. His rate of prickish things per year isn't super high. I see Arsene as a caricature of every negative French stereotype, and stereotypes usually are based on some modicum of current or past reality, however insignificant or outdated that modicum might be. If he weren't French maybe I'd think more negatively of him, but as he is French, I attribute some of that to his Frenchness, rightly or wrongly.

The fans however are insufferable. They are arrogant, rude, self centered, massively ungrateful, hypocritical, and so snobbish that they make Arsene look modest. They made me feel sorry for Robin van Persie, something I thought was impossible.

That's why I said Piers can feck off. Piers is one of those fans, and every adjective I used in the previous paragraph applies to him.

Edited March 28, 201610 yr by offside

Yeah I was stunned to see their ticket prices. Pretty outrageous when you consider how much they get from other income sources. Then again it's a business, and they charge what the market will bear. Another sign of how much the owners are thinking in terms of business, prices determined by supply and demand analysis to the optimal point.

I'm not as negative about Arsenal overall as I'm "supposed" to be. I really like one player (Cech), am generally positive about some others (Sanchez, Ospina, Özil), extremely irrationally dislike one (Giroud), and am totally apathetic about the rest. I'm not even that negative about Arsene. I think he's done well for his employers, and given the trench level of personalities of elite managers, I don't think he's any worse than a lot of them. For sure he's petty, whingey, snobbish, and prone to double standards; but he's miles ahead of van Gaal among others. I think he's said/done so many dislikable things mainly because he's been there so long, so they've accumulated. His rate of prickish things per year isn't super high. I see Arsene as a caricature of every negative French stereotype, and stereotypes usually are based on some modicum of current or past reality, however insignificant or outdated that modicum might be. If he weren't French maybe I'd think more negatively of him, but as he is French, I attribute some of that to his Frenchness, rightly or wrongly.

The fans however are insufferable. They are arrogant, rude, self centered, massively ungrateful, hypocritical, and so snobbish that they make Arsene look modest. They made me feel sorry for Robin van Persie, something I thought was impossible.

That's why I said Piers can feck off. Piers is one of those fans, and every adjective I used in the previous paragraph applies to him.

This 100%. Any fanbase which thinks their is a 'right way' to do things and that if you don't follow their narrow ideology then your achievements are negligible is completely delusional. Seeing Drogba and now Costa ruin their beautiful game is delicious schadenfreude, if Leicester can't win the league than I'd rather Spurs than Arsenal, just to see them come to terms with yet another of their rivals pass them by. 

American owners don't have ambition because their own sports are built on stability, They rely heavily on coaching and recruiting, Of course there are some exceptions to that rule in the states i.e. the Yankees and the Cowboys but the past 5/10 years, Most American sports have developed this money ball ethos as opposed to spending big. They will throw the Leicester example at you every time you question their ambition now, Albeit European football has shown over the past 15 years without spending big you win nothing, Even this current Barcelona side, Has been bought.

The problem with Arsenal is they don't have a philosophy, Say what you want about us and Chelsea/United now but the philosophy is to rectify issues with big money signings, Arsenal try to copy Atletico and Dortmund but when you buy players like Ozil for gargantuan sums and Sanchez, It contradicts what you are supposedly about, You are either a club who believes in developing and recruiting well or you're not, Some days Wenger goes on about finding value in the market and then some days he pays extortionate amounts for La Liga rejects. The Arsenal fans clearly want the club to be run like Chelsea and City otherwise they'd be a lot more patient with him.

Nonsense. American teams, thus American owners, are willing to spend if they see the prize in sight. The ambition is there. I give you the 2014~present Kansas City Royals. Billionaire owner increases payroll to unsustainable levels to win a World Series. We won last season and we've spent again this offseason to try and win again at the cost of probably losing a lot of games after this season. Granted thats a risk we can take because there is no relegation in baseball but the ambition is definitely there.

Nonsense. American teams, thus American owners, are willing to spend if they see the prize in sight. The ambition is there. I give you the 2014~present Kansas City Royals. Billionaire owner increases payroll to unsustainable levels to win a World Series. We won last season and we've spent again this offseason to try and win again at the cost of probably losing a lot of games after this season. Granted thats a risk we can take because there is no relegation in baseball but the ambition is definitely there.

I was talking about American owners of football clubs, and i didn't say all American owners as i mentioned with the Yankees and the Dallas Cowboys etc.

Edited March 28, 201610 yr by Kinkladze1871

I was talking about American owners of football clubs, and i didn't say all American owners as i mentioned with the Yankees and the Dallas Cowboys etc.

So by most American sports you didnt mean American sports?

So by most American sports you didnt mean American sports?

I'm aware some American sports teams go big in free agency but the majority look to draft well and find good coaching, The salary cap you have over there forces that mentality alone, An American sports team might not spend a penny for 2 years just so it can go big the 3rd year but you can't do that in football, The Knicks did that to get Carmelo Anthony,However in football take 2 years off in the transfer window and you're looking at away days to the keepmoat. If you then translate drafting well and finding good coaching to football, That becomes a situation where you don't sign any marquee players and hope your manager pulls a few rabbits out of a hat, Look at Sunderland, Villa, Liverpool, Fulham and Arsenal, What has been the common theme? American owners who have either let down the fan base by penny pinching or who have tried to piece together squads hoping the coach will work wonders.

I'm aware some American sports teams go big in free agency but the majority look to draft well and find good coaching, The salary cap you have over there forces that mentality alone, An American sports team might not spend a penny for 2 years just so it can go big the 3rd year but you can't do that in football, The Knicks did that to get Carmelo Anthony,However in football take 2 years off in the transfer window and you're looking at away days to the keepmoat. If you then translate drafting well and finding good coaching to football, That becomes a situation where you don't sign any marquee players and hope your manager pulls a few rabbits out of a hat, Look at Sunderland, Villa, Liverpool, Fulham and Arsenal, What has been the common theme? American owners who have either let down the fan base by penny pinching or who have tried to piece together squads hoping the coach will work wonders.

Same in football no? Except instead of draft it's develop players.

This 100%. Any fanbase which thinks their is a 'right way' to do things and that if you don't follow their narrow ideology then your achievements are negligible is completely delusional. Seeing Drogba and now Costa ruin their beautiful game is delicious schadenfreude, if Leicester can't win the league than I'd rather Spurs than Arsenal, just to see them come to terms with yet another of their rivals pass them by. 

 

Yes, they are pretentious. They also think they have a monopoly on that style of play when in fact there are other teams that follow their "ideology", in some cases doing it better, and they give them no credit for it. 

 

I wonder if the Arsenal players are annoyed and embarrassed when they hear their own fans spouting that nonsense. I bet all players on any team including Chelsea are to some extent annoyed and embarrassed by their fans, for totally understandable reasons. But I bet it's the case more with some teams than others. I'd surmise and hope that Chelsea players aren't among the most annoyed and embarrassed; I'd be confused if that were the case. I'd say we're no worse than average among PL fans. (I'm using the term "average" in its official definition of being in the middle; on this board the term "average" has some negative connotations, and that's not what I mean.) The Crystal Palace fans strike me as some of the most unconditionally supportive (as much as you can get with football fans) of their players. Liverpool fans seem very supportive of their players as well. 

Good old Arry Redknapp, now coaching jordan who lost 5-1 to Australia meaning they missed out on world cup qualification.

"Redknapp later admitted Australia were by far the better side. “It was as difficult as I expected it to be,” he said. “There was a big gulf in class. The [Jordan] players did their best, we all did our best. What can you do? I’ve been there five or six days. The players are the players. I can’t suddenly bring in [Cristiano] Ronaldo or somebody.”

They beat Australia 2-0 a few months ago ha ha. Such a bullsh*tter.

Watching England-The Netherlands. Nike designers were all over the place when they designed the new England home kit and the Netherlands away kit. Light blue socks, what the hell!

Milner has given the ball away 4 times already......he'll still always get picked though, no matter how sh*t he plays.

Milner has given the ball away 4 times already......he'll still always get picked though, no matter how sh*t he plays.

Hes been embarrassing thus first half, utterly garbage. But he's "steady" and "solid"..... f**ks sake.

Milner is your typical water carrier who somehow gets big moves, high wages and international call ups.

Jordan Henderson will be the new Milner.

Wayne as eloquent as ever.  Such insight.

Milner is your typical water carrier who somehow gets big moves, high wages and international call ups.

Jordan Henderson will be the new Milner.

Agree with this. Both are average squad players.

Vardy scores!

Vardy's value has went up yet again. Goals against Germany and the Netherlands. What a story.

Stones messes about too much, i'm glad we never signed him.

Nice calm and composed on the ball that stones lad eh......stupid sod.

Well done Stones.

How much does martinez want for stones...f##k it he can keep him!