G'day. Long time Gooner, first time poster.
I've been on and off on a few Arsenal forums for years, but never really dabbled in here. Mostly because, well, I didn't want another sub-forum to procrastinate from uni with!
I started supporting Arsenal FC in 2002. Yeah, I know... but how else is a footy-centric 7-year old, in Western Australia find a club?
Anyway, I've always had the utmost trust in Arsene. Even in some pretty dire times. But this week, I've felt sincerely disillusioned. We've lost hundreds of games to lesser opponents, but the effects of this seem more tangible.
There are fundamental flows all through the entire club. Everything seems stagnant. There are lower clubs, smaller clubs, poorer clubs, who seem more fresh than us. The club seems absolutely stale and grey, and in itself, that's completely disappointing. But our club has been one of pioneering, revolutionary, and modern thinking. I don't need to list the innovations and (literal) game changers that have been the result of people associated with Arsenal Football Club.
The Arsenal of 2012 really isn't much of an Arsenal. Every endearing trait of the club has just subsided. And those traits are what make The Arsenal, The Arsenal.
What happened to "The deeper the foundations, the stronger the fortress?"
We are in a lull. A lull that will be a decade long one. Arseblog summated my feelings well: "But even if his hands were tied [with repaying the Emirates] did he use what he had as well as he could have? Did he really have to sell his best players, his captains, summer after summer? Did he replace them properly?" And that's extremely hard to take. You can take the reasons for our best players wanting to leave, but there's a culture, slowly creeping in, where Arsenal is a stepping stone: You don't go to the Gunners to win things, you go to the Arsenal to go somewhere else to win things.
The top is flawed. They have no interest and no passion in the sport. They're idle and unwilling to mix things – anything – up. They moved from Highbury to Emirates. And even if it means I'll never get to go to Highbury for a match, the benefits of the move were necessary. But anyone could realise that one of the world's most famous clubs couldn't live with 40,000 seats. They have done nothing. And their stagnation has resulted in the squad's stagnation.
The squad, meanwhile, is disappointing. Theo Walcott epitomises our laissez faire attitude, whereas I want Mikel Arteta to.
Save for a few (literally, I think there's maybe four) strong, charismatic, and gut-running players, we do not care. The players are lazy and completely fine with mediocrity. It's shambolic that Walcott may become our highest paid player. Why didn't we laugh him out the Armoury Shop? This is a guy who shows no desire to lift the club, and win a game off his own back. He will only come into his own when everyone else comes into their own. And I don't like that in sport. Someone like Patrick Viera or Tony Adams, players who changed games off their own foot (which then saw 28 more red-and-white touches before being dinked into the Clock End net) are rare. But Theo Walcott? Mediocre.
Arsene has worked wonders for us. He's brought in some genuine world-beaters. He's given us memories and trophies and stable finances and a tough, central figurehead. But I think his time is up. The world passes by everyone. The greatest minds in every field struggle with change. Football might not be science, mathematics, medicine, poetry, literature, or art: But it can be all of them. There are alterations and transitions in those alleys, and, football is no different. I don't think Wenger is capable of delivering another great Arsenal squad, let alone another title.