From Wayne :
Hi Myles,
I can’t bring myself to comment on the Barcelona game except to say when an International doesn’t score from the six yard box against the Catalans at 0-0, you know it ain’t gonna happen.
The break for the first goal had only Koscielny left in the defensive half. How many times have we seen that before?
I was more moved by your comment in reply to a previous post where you said “Kroenke’s business model is profitable mediocrity. He has no style. Yes, Arsenal remain one of the top 16 teams in Europe. If they became European Champions, Kroenke would have to play massive bonuses to the players.”
This has been a view of mine for some time now.
Our world has become more and more short term-ist. In politics, commodities, art, health, sport etc, short term thinking is the norm.
Arsenal appear to buck that trend by being self-sufficient, stable and even “socialist”.
We assume there is a masterplan that is one day going to come to fruition and all other competitors will be left trailing. Yet they never progress, never really get the extra two or three personnel that can make the difference, or focus for the 90 minutes as a team, or seem tactically astute enough to compete at the highest level.
Back to your remark, and perhaps that is the way Stan Kroenke wants it to stay. If Arsenal win the league, what then? Big bonuses, and demands for improved contracts, higher wages, higher profiles, more demands for bigger and better players, who have big personalities that do not tow the Wenger / Kroenke line. Difficult to control.
And the Champions League? Impossible to win with what we have now. Can you imagine winning or being in the final even.
The expectations that follow would place a burden on big Stan’s Arsenal empire that could only really be appeased by winning again and again.
That is a most unlikely scenario, so maybe it’s better for the quiet ranch muncher to have a thereabouts kind of business that can more or less guarantee the income and outgoings over the course of say a 10 year period. Nothing too variable, just a nice steady income from a business model that reaps the maximum, promises much and delivers little.
Not all long-term planning is positive! This could be the way of it for another decade.
To be honest, I would love to see Leicester win the title this season.
Myles says:
Wenger & Kroenke fail at the same level so regularly that it can’t be luck. It has to be policy.