“Quick, dive off Alex Song, and save yourself”
“Lansbury! You’re too young to die. GO GO GO”
“Theo get your trunks on and getting ready. WE ARE DOOMED, after all – the captain was again the first to jump ship”
Last year Robin Van Persie was the Premier League player of the season. Every team wanted him. He was our savior and by his own admission – ours to lose. Not only did we lose him, we allowed him to go to our biggest competitor since the Premiership formed.
Is it about the money?
It is simply not true to believe we cannot compete with the wage structure of other big clubs. It does however appear more true to say we will not force ourselves to spend equal amounts on transfer fees and on going player wages.
Current reports suggest Theo Walcott’s contract negotiations have stalled over him not being happy with an offer of £75,000 per week for 5 years. To put this into perspective £75,000 per week for 5 years equates to £20million – and this it seems is not enough.
Can any Arsenal fan sympathise with a player not being content (let alone overjoyed) over the potential hardship of being offered £20,000,000? The counter argument goes –he will be offered this elsewhere, but I don’t believe this is the full story.
The need for winning
So why do we keep losing our best players? Arsenal no longer genuinely appear as title challenger – it hurts, but is difficult to deny – and it seems our best players leave on this basis, year after year. Worse still, we have been on such a downward spiral, for so long, it may already be too late to prevent the long term damage. If the board and management cannot see this – they are blind, and we are doomed.
So, how can we turn things around?
Win something. How can we win something? Keep hold of our best players, and invest in players that will have an immediate return (rather than hopefully at some point in the future) – and hope for some luck. After all, we have been within touching distance to silverware, we just need to retain and reinforce the depth of our squad to be able to push to the finish line. It never comes easy.
With a clean sheet in all Premier League matches so far, and Podolski off the mark – you just never know…
