09-12-2014, 17:59
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#2277
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Remoaner
Cable Forum Team
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 32,909
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Re: Football Season 2014/15
Good article here about Wenger: http://www.theguardian.com/football/...nal-fans-media
Quote:
In this regard Arsenal are a genuinely interesting case study. What exactly is it, in any case, that Wenger is supposed to have been out there winning over the last eight years of cautious financial management? More Carling Cups? More player of the months? Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United, all of whom have billionaire-backed spending power, have divvied up the league between them in that time. Similarly since Liverpool in 2005 only Barcelona, United, Milan, Internazionale, Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid have won the Champions League, with only Inter, arguably, bucking the era of the super-spenders of the modern game.
When it comes to measuring whether that recent period of trophy-less stasis was one of success or stagnation Tottenham Hotspur are probably the correct point of comparison: the north London club of similar means who did not go ahead and build that new stadium. In this light the biggest problem at Arsenal looks to be not a lack of relative success but the simple monotony of that sustained, fixed-gear commendable achievement. The issue here is not misspent resources or opportunities missed. It is simply the fact that sustained mid-range relative achievement is boring. An ingrained cash-driven hierarchy is boring. The same few teams winning trophies every year is boring. Elite level modern football is, from a certain competitive angle, inescapably boring.
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