Arsenal Exodus

This isn't the way things were meant to pan out, not in the short term, not in the long term. Long term Arsenal were meant to move to a huge new stadium, sell the old one as flats for loads of cash, watch other debt-ridden clubs with rich benefactors suffer under new financial regulations, all the time supporting Wenger's philosophy of winning trophies with a young team. Well, they have a new stadium, but not one that's quite as big as they wanted. Short term, Gunners fans were looking forward to Wenger finally bringing in some top players. Instead, Arsenal look like losing three of their best players, while bringing in another guy from France who might do well and a youngster from Southampton.
In fairness, both plans may still work out well. The financial regulations could hit other clubs hard and Wenger could yet buy brilliantly in the coming weeks.
What is certain is that Arsenal have been poorly run over the past couple of years. A couple of weeks ago I was having a drink with two friends of my girlfriend, both big Gunner fans. I mentioned that I thought Arsenal's board were bunch of chumps, that losing Dein was a mistake and that the club may regret not going for Osmanov rather than Kroenke. One of them said I might have a point with Dein, but for the other points they thought I was crazy. Well, the board have let contracts run down but don't have enough money to hold on to players by bringing in top stars or increasing wages. Instead of concentrating on the club, the emphasis has been on bickering and bitching. Last week ex-board member Lady Bracewell Smith said the board should go - that would be the board you sold your shares to, right? If Kroenke doesn't get a grip of things, doesn't spend some money, how long until van Persie goes, or even Wenger?

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