Are Arsenal an Overachieving Feeder Club?

Now with an opening question like that you could be forgiven for assuming I have some anti-Arsenal agenda and continuing to scroll past this. I don’t. Nor am I trying to be overtly controversial...well of course I am a bit; where would the fun be if I wasn’t? But hear me out.

It was as I mused over my latest pint and listened to the forlorn Gooner across the table from me that I came up with this idea. He was clearly upset over the likely departure of Robin Van Persie, as any fan would be if he had scored a ton load of goals for your club and single handedly got you into the top four. That was easy enough to understand, however I was getting a sense of deja vu.

Weren’t Arsenal fans here a year ago with the Fabregas/Nasri affair? And a few years earlier with Thierry Henry? All players that one can argue had a massive bearing on where Arsenal finished in the league. And all players - bar Van Persie, for now - that have left and since won domestic trophies. Something that their Arsenal career was conspicuously void of. Thus isn’t it fair game to label Arsenal a feeder club?

However, even if you think it is, there is no debating the fact that they are most definitely an unorthodox one. We are talking about a club that has failed to finish outside the top four since 95/96; a very impressive feat in itself, but an all too familiar theme of an Arsenal season is them being potential challengers on all four fronts for most of the season until inevitably the wheels come off around March. This sharp turn of events has happened on far too many occasions in recent years begging the question of whether Arsenal are overachieving in the first place?

Add into the mix the influence the aforementioned players had on the team achieving such then the quality of the rest of the Arsenal team falls into question. A team whom from my perspective, on paper, does not look like a side that would strike fear into an opposition. But in their defence after every departure the remaining team has shown incredible resilience to continue to finish within the top four despite being constantly written off in the run up to every season, thus throwing evidence to the contrary and suggesting that they do in fact deserve their league position.

As an outsider I view Arsenal as a kind of paradox, by which I cannot firmly answer the question of where their capabilities should take them. Whenever Liverpool play them I never view their line up, - bar the obvious player - with apprehension, although their establishment as a top four club whom has finished above Liverpool for past years means maybe I should. Yet they have an empty trophy cabinet and appear unable to keep their best players from leaving.

I am therefore curious to know where Arsenal fans themselves believe their team should finish justifiably? And if there are any underlying tensions or events at the club at a higher level which may have a negative bearing on the club’s on-field affairs? Over to you, Gooners!

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Comments

[shooy]

Yes I understand your point about a paradox. It's like every year I get taken in by a lot of hype surrounding Liverpool before realising they are just not very good, though occasionally very fortunate. Please don't assume I have some anti Liverpool agenda, nor am I trying to be overtly controversial. It just seems so coincidental.

[Diablo]

@shooy: lol

[Shakabula Gooner]

To the extent that Arsenal never blatantly or coyly offer its star players to any club in order to make money off him, it has never been valid to refer to Arsenal as a "feeder club" to any club or clubs whatsoever.

Nonetheless, in much the same way that Arsenal will not pay over the top fees for any player it wishes to buy, the club, as a matter of policy, will also not keep any player demanding excessive salaries relative to its valuation of the player. Every time such impasse arises, Arsenal has always opted to sell.

It is indeed true that in the last seven years, the policy had been at short term costs to Arsenal's drive for a cup winning team. However, Arsenal rates its principles - which is to systematically build cup winning sides at sustainable profits to the club - higher than the short term gain of keeping or buying a few players that will skew its operating costs adversely and jeopardize the long-term profitability of the club. Nonetheless, Arsenal remains second only to ManU in its consistency at the top 4 over the past 16years and added a modern stadium in that period to boot....anyway you look at it, no mean feat at all.

To my mind, this is most sensible way to run a club. All of us in life recognize that we have to work within realistic boundaries; the same should apply to a great club like Arsenal with a long tradition behind it. It is also better than pinning for a "rich uncle" just as a spoilt child would be inclined to do. Rich uncles have their disadvantages too: they can get broke, lose interest or die.

Now that the stadium costs is not looming as large as it was in previous years, Arsenal's internal economic constraints are easing off at the same time as the club's long-term investment in Youth is showing the possibility of a steady stream of squad players some of whom have great potential to also become star players. Arsenal is getting closer to being able to put out cup winning sides annually and in a manner consistent with its sustainability or profiablility desires effective from this year and onwards.

You have been looking at a phase in Arsenal life that, after seven years, is already coming to an end. I suggest you stop looking to that past but to take a closer look at what is evolving right now and to project this to how much better it can get in the coming years.

Some day this bird's eye view will become unmistakable and recommend itself to sincere observers and to all clubs' management worldwide...

[LJB]

Oh dear,Shakabular another brainwashed gooner.Pray,what cup winning sides are Arsenal putting out because i can't remember any recently.And what young players are coming through because i can only see AOC,and he was stolen from Southampton.In fact,Arsenals record with young players under Wenger is appalling;the only decent player to come through the academy in 16 yrs is the soon to be retired JW (i'd sue the club for loss of career earnings if i was JW,Wenger and his medical staff have destroyed that kid) All the others have been poached from various clubs round europe and wenger gets the credit for "developing " them,what a joke. As for all your talks about profits,shouldn't a sporting institution reinvest these into the club instead of them being used to boost the bank accounts of its shareholders? I swear Arsenal fans ,like Wenger ,who can't do an interview without boring everyone rigid with FFP and self sustainability,care more about where the club is in the latest Forbes rich list than where they are in the League.Arsenal are heading for a fall and its going to get bloody.To the pool fan,you want to see the latest Arsenal team,its the worst team fielded by a CL side i have ever seen,you'll hammer us in August!!!!