When I started this blog at the beginning of the season, my stance on the major issues at the club were clear: Wenger was the right man for the job; I agreed with our cautious approach to spending; I accepted we were in a period where we had to sacrifice massive investment in the team – and possibly trophies – to secure the long-term future of the club at a time when we had a stadium to pay for; and I genuinely believed that when the media said most fans ‘just want silverware’ that they were wrong.
In ten months, things have changed a lot.
Bob Wilson came out today very much echoing the things I said in August. He reminded the fans that they are lucky to have been in the top four – and the Champions League – for the past 14 seasons, at a time of having little cash to spend. “You’d miss it if it was gone,” he said. “Just ask Spurs fans.”
He is right on that, of course. It only takes one season to lose your place in the top four and the demise can be rapid.
But maybe football fans don’t think that way, and maybe I don’t either anymore.
I didn’t particularly agree with the black-scarf demo at the weekend because I’m not sure they are right that the board is being greedy. It’s not like they are taking massive dividends out of the club, it’s just that they’re not spending the money the club has.
However, I did agree with the chorus of “6 per cent – you’re having a laugh” throughout the second half of the game, because I think the club has a cheek asking us for more money if that additional money is not to be spent strengthening the team.
However, what I think has changed my mind on investing in the team the most is not really a desire to buy the players to win trophies – although that would be nice – but a genuinely concerne that if we don’t spend, we may not be anywhere near the top four next year.
While the general consensus among the football fraternity is that, now the title has gone, we’re simply going through the motions in our last few game, the stats are a bit more damning.
Two wins in our last ten league games and just three in our last 12 games in all competitions (that’s equivalent to a quarter of a season), shows this team has gone stale. Too many players have lost form, desire and the ability to win regularly, home and away.
What’s more, I haven’t seen much in recent performances to suggest that next season this team will turn those things around and, if Man City invest as many suspect they will, Liverpool continue their resurgence and Spurs retain their big-name players, we could be in for a pretty big shock come August.
Five years ago today, on 17 May 2006, our team walked out on the biggest stage of all – the Champions League Final.
Fail to spend some of that 6 per cent on new players this summer, and we may not even be in it the year after next. And who knows where we go from there.
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