From Brendan: First? Second? Third? Worse?
Hi Myles,
I’ve been formulating ideas about Arsenal’s current situation and the situation in the premier league in general, and, in a broader sense, the state of football today.
We can agree, I think, on the fact that Wenger, and Arsenal, are flawed, not least because, as you put it well, Wenger needs someone managing him.
There are other flaws, but that is not what I want to focus on.
Looking at the league and considering the money that’s going into it, Arsenal’s current position and their achievements so far this season should be being sung from the rooftops, shouted aloud, particularly with good young English talent right in the mix.
It’s a measure of how degraded, mesmerised and corrupted everyone has become by the huge sums of money in football that Arsenal tend to be little more than an aside in the media, with the focus on the big money clubs – City and to a lesser extent Chelsea.
The focus is also on Manchester United, for other reasons.
I feel sorry for them, particularly as they are built (and building) around a core of young English players and are therefore much more positive an influence on the English game, even in a temporary phase of decline, than City or Chelsea.
It is increasingly sickening to me how much money is in football.
I read some very interesting articles during my commute home in the Evening Standard recently about how Chelsea are even standing up for FFP in a way that quite surprised me – although they have crammed a lot of massive spending in over the last 10 years, so I wouldn’t go too far in praising them.
I hesitate to agree with Mourinho that the ways that City are approaching FFP are ‘dodgy’ .. but he’s probably right. However, I could never trust either him or Abramovitch! In the face of this, I think Arsenal’s position in the league is almost miraculous.
That’s why I can’t shake the pessimism that I feel about the rest of the season.
I just feel that all things being equal, the players which City have been able to assemble with their obscene wealth will eventually outdo us, while the same is likely of Chelsea, too. If we finish third, quite honestly, I won’t be unhappy. It would still be a great achievement, in my eyes, in the current state of the English game.
But for God’s sake let’s win a cup at least.
Sorry, Myles, I know ‘finishing third’ (or fourth, to follow tradition) is not a trophy, of course.
But it’s so beyond that these days. City and to a lesser extent Chelsea’s expenditure mean that we can’t simply talk of the ‘best’ team.
‘Success’ is a philosophical concept.
Many different factors go into defining what ‘success’ means.
I don’t think it will be ‘success’ if Manchester City win the league.