What exactly are we expecting to happen this Summer?

[Joker]

We'll buy some average players that are playing in a shit league that ultimately will have no heart or sould for the club. We will be told all they need is a chance to prove thier worth.

We'll sell some terrible players that we all knew were shit some seasons ago that Wenger thought were going to be world beaters even though they would have trouble beating an egg.

Wenger will lie and tell us that after a difficult start these players need to bed in and all that bullshit.

Cesc will probably get sold the final day of transfers and Wenger will then say he had no time to buy replacements.

The Wenger bullshit merrygoround will carry on and on and on and on and on.

Unfortunately, I think there's every chance that this will happen. I've not been particularly heartened by the transfer rumours floating about, especially with regards to players like Gervinho. I think we need more proven quality, who have had some experience playing in a top league or at least fair Champions League experience, where they've shown that they can hack it, rather than simply standing out as a big fish in a small pond.

[IBK]

No such thing tbh.

Theres the big 3 and then theres the rest.

We are in the latter

I'd agree with that.

[Joker]

I agree, we're deluding ourselves if we even consider that such a thing as the "big 4" still exists. It's the big 3 now, and if Wenger continues to bemoan external forces (like City's new found wealth) and ignores looking at internal reasons why this situation has arisen (his own poor management in recent seasons) we'll continue to be left behind.

[Cripps_orig]

The league is made up of 5 mini leagues

Theres the big 3 - 2 Manc clubs and Chelsea

Laughing stock - Us, Spuds, Liverpool for various reasons. Basically clubs who won trophies in the past but are shit now

Making up the numbers - Villa, Everton, Fulham, Bolton. Wont threaten the big clubs in the league and wont go down so do f all really.

Pub teamers - Blackburn. Stoke. Teams that cant play football but do enough to stay up.

The rest - fighting for survival

[Darth Vela]

There was never really a big 4 tbh, a big part of it was Sky needing something to market on and to sell their annual 'Grand Slam Sunday', there were 4 teams that were usually in the top 4 spot but as that only really held for 3/4 years it was a bit of a weak claim. Now there is Chelsea and Citeh throwing money at anything that comes near them, Man U slowly declining (yes, despite winning the title...) and in need of rejuvenation and us and Liverpool trying to build something without the advantages of the other teams.

As for what I expect this summer, we'll see a few good players come in, probably of the right kind needed, and we'll see a few squad players leave. We'll be stronger next season but fuck knows if it'll be enough to stop us from doing our usual collapse, anything we do will be a little inconsequential as far as I'm concerned because we won't know if it's had any real effect until the crunch time at the end of the season, unless we win all our games from now until Christmas and end up 15 points clear then it might be an indicator.

[selassie]

I don't really expect anything significant, just more projects, some like Gervinho are like High Profile Projects, others like Alex Oxlade are Young High Profile Projects.

I don't think Arsene has it in him to spend the money that will significantly strengthen our squad....and I think when it comes down to it we will not sign any of our first choice targets/PL targets because Arsene's morals will get in the way.

It will be the usual summer of

"We set a price on zee player and ve vill not pay a penny over zee value"

"We try for zee player but zee price is too high, zee market is inflated"

Blah Blah Blah, we'll scrape 4th place the season was a success, the players don't get enough credit for their achievements, Blah Blah Blah.

[IBK]

There was never really a big 4 tbh, a big part of it was Sky needing something to market on and to sell their annual 'Grand Slam Sunday', there were 4 teams that were usually in the top 4 spot but as that only really held for 3/4 years it was a bit of a weak claim. Now there is Chelsea and Citeh throwing money at anything that comes near them, Man U slowly declining (yes, despite winning the title...) and in need of rejuvenation and us and Liverpool trying to build something without the advantages of the other teams.

As for what I expect this summer, we'll see a few good players come in, probably of the right kind needed, and we'll see a few squad players leave. We'll be stronger next season but fuck knows if it'll be enough to stop us from doing our usual collapse, anything we do will be a little inconsequential as far as I'm concerned because we won't know if it's had any real effect until the crunch time at the end of the season, unless we win all our games from now until Christmas and end up 15 points clear then it might be an indicator.

I think there was a big 4. This was created out of the Chavs and Liverpool encroaching on territory that we and Manure dominated prior to 2003/4. Almost as soon as it came into existance, however, we were on the slide. And Liverpool have traded places with citeh over the past couple of years.

Ironic really that our decline came as a direct result of the measures we took to remain a top team in the long run.

But where we are now is that we are not in the top tier in this league, and IMO if we expect to be signing players of the calibre of the best players in the top 3 this Summer, we will be disappointed.

That's not being pessimistic. Its being realistic. Taking an overall look at the situation with a little distance between us and our shameful collapse the sad thing is that of all the teams in the league, possibly in Europe, we made the best effort to try to remain properly competetive by an alternative method than simply buying success...and failed. Whether in the future we will have our own means of spending big enough to achieve success is another matter.

[Alan B'stard]

expecting a few more squad players, an overrated overpriced kid or two and some promotions from the youth team.

[Darth Vela]

I think there was a big 4. This was created out of the Chavs and Liverpool encroaching on territory that we and Manure dominated prior to 2003/4. Almost as soon as it came into existance, however, we were on the slide. And Liverpool have traded places with citeh over the past couple of years.

Ironic really that our decline came as a direct result of the measures we took to remain a top team in the long run.

But where we are now is that we are not in the top tier in this league, and IMO if we expect to be signing players of the calibre of the best players in the top 3 this Summer, we will be disappointed.

That's not being pessimistic. Its being realistic. Taking an overall look at the situation with a little distance between us and our shameful collapse the sad thing is that of all the teams in the league, possibly in Europe, we made the best effort to try to remain properly competetive by an alternative method than simply buying success...and failed. Whether in the future we will have our own means of spending big enough to achieve success is another matter.

Ironic really that our decline came as a direct result of the measures we took to remain a top team in the long run.

Never a truer word said, still time to rescue it imo but as it would probably be as a result of flexing our financial muscles it makes it look less and less like a consistently viable method. I still think it's provided a solid base for us to build a team that can compete for quite a while but unless we're actually able to build it we end up going round in circles again.

[Alan B'stard]

on reflection the story about having to invest in the long run has been a lie. The stadium move has generated a lot of value its true. However that value has been divvied up by
1) players/management on ever increasing wages and
2) shareholders who, while never taking dividends out, were happy to keep the money in the club so their shares got boosted and they could sell out to kronke for a massive backdated payday.

very little of that value generated found has been invested in sporting performance.