- Jan 17, 2006
- 1,240
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Well said and it saved me replying to "20 years of failure" so I thank you from the bottom of my heart ?I agree that we need to keep spending, and I agree that we are still making questionable signings. But we're also making some very good signings. So I would say it's wrong to focus only on the negative stuff - we should look at both. Last summer was certainly not a case of "largely last minute" - it was the polar opposite.
Honestly, I don't care about Arsenal having a larger net spend since 2018. It doesn't matter. Net spend is a useless metric to be judging anything on, and the more anybody does it, the weaker their argument looks in my opinion.
Ignoring net spend, I think Arsenal a good example of what you can achieve with patience and consistency. If you polled Arsenal fans early last season about Arteta and Kroenke I think the vast majority would say they want them out. If we stick with Conte and back him more than just financially, I would expect we will be playing better over the next couple of seasons as well.
There are clearly questions about Conte hanging around, and questions about if Levy/Paratici are going to back him in all respects. Personally I'm skeptical about the backing, but have to admit that the last couple of windows have been more good than bad.
This reminds me of the Three Lions song... "30 years of hurt" implies that England fans were in some sort of agony the day after winning the World Cup. It's all a bit mad!
I think that "20 years of failure" suggests we have been bouncing around the lower leagues, all the while spending endless billions on players. Nobody can deny the trophy haul in the last 20 years, but we also can't deny that the team has come pretty close to winning more. The owners don't kick the ball... all they can influence is getting a playing staff who can compete. Ours have - not as much as we would all like, but they definitely have.
FWIW, had we won the CL and a couple of FA Cups along the way, I wouldn't actually rate ENIC any higher than I do currently. I tend to judge them on the long-term stuff, not what happened in any individual match. If we got new owners today I think they would have to be judged by our on-field competitiveness, and I also think ENIC should be judged primarily on that from now as well. The boring stuff is done, they now need to get on with the fun stuff.