Congratulations on 4th place I am really happy for the team and fans.

However, there is a downside.

Arsenal achieved their goals but there is a problem. Your only goal is to get 4th place (which is sad because it used to be winning the title). This shows the significant downfall of the club. Arsenal win the CL spot every year and only buy players to keep that CL spot, they never go that extra mile to try pushing up on the table.

I think if you guys ended up at 5th, Wenger would have a serious epiphany and would spend extra money on better, proven players. Then hopefully over the next few years Arsenal will be title contenders again.

tomorrow is open bus parade in London.

This isn't Arsenal's GOAL, but an achievement that grows more difficult to attain season after season.

"Spend extra money on better, proven players"

Granted. Arsene bought Podolski and Cazorla.

Go figure, Arsene's ideals respect financial fair play and Arsenal have yet to finish under 4th place since the beginning of the PL. In Arsenal, there are growing, homegrown talents such as Wilshere, Ramsey, Walcott, and Chamberlain. I say homegrown because they've flourished in this club.

Arsene's doing a fantastic job in club. Besides being a financial guru, he's working to instill faith and responsibility in those who have actually stuck by Arsenal, and not in some superstar, AND they finish 4th amongst some of the best clubs and players in the world.

It's easy to criticize Arsenal with the bigger picture out of mind. You think Man City were shooting for 2nd place? What about Chelsea?

I get your point. But look at your team 5-10 years ago and look at it now. We all know Cazorla and Podolski are all cheap replacements for Fabregas and RVP (many of your players are just cheaper replacements). The main reason why your club has gone downhill is because the lack of ability to replace quality players. Sure, you call Wenger a financial guru, but I think "cheap" would be a better word. Selling your best players for a lot then buying cheaper replacements doesn't make you a financial guru.

Sure you have some flourishing players. But are you forgetting your especially recent past? Are Wilshere, OX, Ramsey, and Walcott replacements for Bergkamp, Henry, RVP, Fabregas, etc? You had some of the best players in the world, and now you're best player is Cazorla who in my opinion is overrated and not even good enough to play for his national team.

I'm not blaming Wenger for these players leaving, it's not his fault. I'm blaming him for his lack of ability to replace players when they do leave.

You can't compare Arsenal to Chelsea and Man City. First of all Chelsea are the current CL holders. Chelsea and Man City are both going through phases of new era's, and both don't have an established manager who is proven to lead the club. Unlike Arsenal, we both know Wenger is very much proven. The struggles here are different. Chelsea and Man City have the squad to lead them to glory, but no manager. However, Arsenal has the manager, but doesn't have the squad.

It's because he doesn't have first pick of little-known superstars anymore.

When he was plundering Ligue 1 in the late 90s, he was the only manager in the Premier League who knew anything about that league. Same goes for the Eredivisie. He had an advantage, because he knew something that no-one else in the league did, and was the only serious alternative to Man United.

Nowadays, the world-wide scouting network is ten times more competitive, and all the top prospects go to the clubs who pay the most for them (Chelsea, Man City, PSG, etc).

Wenger lost his advantage. It's not his fault, but, he is what's standing In The Way of Arsenal moving forward. It's just, unfortunately for Gunners fans, also true that Wenger is the reason these lesser players have managed to stay in the Top Four, despite being not as good as their predecessors.

Long term: Arsenal need to replace Wenger. It's just going to be very painful when they do, as they'll drop to where Liverpool are now, while a new manager rebuilds the entire club around the Wenger-shaped hole he'll leave there.

@tdot, all of what you are saying is complete and utter bullshit. I guess you don't follow the EPL much. Arsenal can't be compared to chelsea ?We finished 2 points behind them, and they were out of the CL in the group stage. And how much did they spend ? how much did we spend ? Our performance is obviously far better. Cazorla is overrated ? He is underrated, he was an obvious choice for team of the year but weirdly didn't make it. Look up his stats. You are saying our best players are leaving every year, and are replaced with "mediocre" players. Giroud, Podolski and Cazorla have 11, 11 and 12 league goals for their first premier league season. Both Podolski and Cazorla have 10+ EPL assists. Well you could say it was a transition stage for the club, losing our best players. Look at our squad right now, who is going to leave ? Arshavin, Squilacci, hopefully chamakh and park, maybe some youngsters, but not any player from our starting eleven is going anywhere. Our start to the season was bad, but when the team finally got used to eachother, we were unstopable. We are unbeaten since our lost game at WHL. Our finish to the season is the best finish by any team in the EPL in 4 years. We got 35 points out of our last 14 games. Spurs had their best season finish in 24 years and we still finished above them after being 7 points behind.
Okay so now imagine next season, we lose no important player, we buy 3 proven players just like we did last summer, say Higuain/Jovetic + Gonalons, some info on twitter reported that we have 70 millions for the transfer fees alone (so not for the wages). So maybe Wenger will spend big but even if he doesn't spend the 70 millions, we are still the most in form team in the EPL right now. You add quality to our team, I'll let you imagine the rest. So the EPL better be seriously afraid of Arsenal next season.

I don't think what I'm saying is bullshit. My point is that Arsenal have gone downhill because of the lack of ability to replace quality players. Yeah Podolski, Giroud, and Cazorla have all done well in their first season but your team needs a lot more then that to be title contenders again.

You finished two points from third place but you also finished one point away from no CL spot. Spurs were clearly the better team this season and I think it is out of pure luck that they didn't finish above Arsenal. It just goes to show the competitiveness of the EPL to be honest.

& yeah the upcoming seasons look bright if you guys make some significant transfers. I'd say buy a new striker, a defensive midfielder, a center back, and a full back.

@tdot

You do realize that the same thing could be said about your club as well. :P

Anyways, I agree with KingHenry here. People, read his comment.

The thing, is though, KingHenry, is that two things should be remembered about your recent run of form:

1) Arsenal have had 3 months of one game a week to catch up, and nip it by a single point.
2) the only teams you played that are worth a damn were Everton at home (0-0) and Man United at home (1-1), the very next game after they wrapped up the title

Be careful before you start talking up your team's performance. There's only one Top 6 team you've managed to get a win against, this season, and it was Spurs with 10 men.

Just sayin'. You're gonna need much, much more than Jovetic and Gonalons, especially with Sagna out the door and Mertesacker losing a yard of pace every month, to be a contender for silverware next season...

Or, in other words, what tdot said.

@Lodatz, Good point.

@tdot, first and foremost, NO ONE can replace Bergkamp or Henry in their prime, which was in Arsenal.

Look at who Santi is up against to fill a spot in the Spanish national team. That doesn't do justice, and I don't know how you can say he's overrated, seeing as he's been in Arsenal for one season and has played outstandingly. You're already saying Arsenal isn't up to par, yet he has better statistics than Juan Mata this season, who plays in nearly the same position, and also plays in a "better team" by your standards. And I'm not saying he's better than Juan Mata, but there's quality in Santi. In no way is he overrated.

And that's just it, Chelsea and Man City are flaunting money around. Who's going to get first pick?

I'll admit I haven't liked Arsene's presence in recent transfer windows. His last minute purchase of Santos was god awful and was only made because of media pressure. I don't agree with Wenger being "cheap". Scouting is also an issue. Where there's scouting, there are various clubs who may have more pull and appeal.

I can however agree that Arsenal has lost more quality than gained.

Gary Neville on Arsenal - "They've spent
£9million net in 10 years and maintained
the level of consistency of getting in the
Champions League.

"They've built a football stadium, they're
paying off their debt and they're nearly
there. If they move up now it will look like
one of the most magnificent managerial
performances when you look back in
history.

"Half the Arsenal fans are annoyed because
they think they should be doing more and
should be doing better, but of all the
madness and debt that surrounds football,
what they have done is absolutely the right
thing.

"What they now need to do, having nearly
paid off their debt, is they need to go now.
I think he knows, Arsene Wenger, that
moment is now.

This summer I expect good things. I'll be furious if we do not get any sort of added quality.

nah, we are going to be fine. You are making fun of mertesacker but he was our most consistent defender this season, we are the second best defense in the EPL btw. The frustrating part of our game this year was always our finishing and our attack in the last third. I agree on sagna though.
We only beat you, it's true, but in the end, we won the games that mattered to get CL and finished above you. Like I said above, next season is all about how to improve from where we are, when the last 2 seasons were all about not falling too far behind.

@KingHenry: I wasn't trying to make fun of Big Per, but you surely can't believe he's going to age like a fine wine..? I'd sincerely put a large part of the credit for that Goals Against tally on Arteta, Ramsey and Wilshire, instead.

Anyways, I fully believe you will improve, for sure. Just saying, you might need to spend something like that 70m after all.

yeah maybe we should trigger that 50m buyout clause on bale's contract. huehuehue
Anyways, everything I said makes me super exited for this summer and for next season.

MY FIRST POST: REGARDING GARY NEVILLE's ANALYSIS..
Whilst I agree with his overall point, I am not sure where in the G. Neville got some of his "facts"

#1 Inaccuracy - Takes away from his argument: The stadium debt isn't "nearly" payed-off. We still owe a gross amount of £246m. In short, we have 18 more years of extremely stable/low interest annual payments of ~£18m/year before the debt is completely wiped off.
#2 Inaccuracy - ACTUALLY Helps is argument: If he's referring to transfer fees, we haven't spent a net of £9m total over the past 10 years; we've spent -£4.25m. Furthermore, as is often cited by the famous graph below, we're actually dead last in net expenditure since we've moved to the Emirates in 2006, having spent a net of at -£40m!

MY SECOND POST: REGARDING THE ACTUAL DISCUSSION.

The truth is, the truth is not so simple. There are many many factors at play which have shaped the current predicament of Arsenal. Many are internally based but a very large part is also due to changes in the larger environment of football. Arsene Wenger has had a pivotal part to play in it all but not the sole part. There are honestly entire ooks that written on this subject and I feel that I would fall short in trying to concisely summarizing the relevant points and indeed, I fear you won't have the patience. Suffice it to say that some of what you've said is completely accurate and some of it, short sighted and wholly irrational.
I would like to just make one point though if I may:
In many people's opinions, including my own, Arsene Wenger has accomplished feats that few, if any, other managers could have, given the same restrictions. There are also many things he has done to seriously damage the progression of the club. Like all things in life, it's not black and white.
In my opinion, Wenger is a visionary. A football man, whose knowledge of football is admired by greats and matched by less than a hand-full of people on this planet. He is also a man of great integrity and conviction and I WILL NEVER TOLERATE any petulant "fans" who post flippantly Disrepectful comments about the great man. That said, I also have little time for fans who seem to care more about Arsene than ARSENAL. The same people who, in the face of all the facts, insist on completely and utterly blindly following the man as if he were some sort of demi-God. It is OK to question him and even criticize him as what he does affects the entire club.
Wenger is a very complicated and eccentric man and I will not be able to do justice in this short space in analyzing his character, nor do I want to as it is very taxing. I will however highlight one or 2 of his attributes that have dictated the current situation Arsenal find themselves in. He is insanely stubborn, to the point of delusion at times. He acts, and I have no doubt believes in his heart, as though he were some football crusader who's destiny it is to right the wrongs of football by example. He wants to enforce his own IDEALISM upon more than his club, he wants it to influence the world. His insistence upon things like the "socialist wage structure", the avoidance of confrontation, the importance of values at the expense of success... and many many more things have done unintentional, but nevertheless, undeniable damage to the club and it's relative status.

@King Henry: When talking about Chelsea you said: "Our performance was far better". Sure, that's why we did better in every competition than you (except for the UCL, but we still managed to win Europa League) and we also won twice against you.. so cleary, your performance wasn't better than ours.

Hopefully they will buy some more players

@juanmata Yeah you finished above us in the league, but I was refering to your frenetic spending compared to ours. Not saying it's bad, just saying you spent 3 times what we spent and we still finished 2 points behind.