Got a feeling Laca will pursue a move to Atletico
Bye then
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Given that Wenger had a double at the end of that second year anyone doing that is going to get rightly and heavily mocked.
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Liverpool had a few years out of the CL and then bounced back at fairly short notice with the right manager and some shrewd investment.
As usual all this talk of falling below Leicester and West Ham needs to be taken into ‘day after a cup final loss’ context
We have the Big Club Guarantee and are too big to fall too far 
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If only we didn’t bottle the first legs of Rennes and BATE, he would have been EVEN FURTHER ahead of Wenger 
In all seriousness, I think we should have Wenger manage us against the shit teams and Emery for the big 6 matches, and maybe we’ll finish 4th then.
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This is why I think we can spare time for a complete clear-out and rebuild.
We can be like an international superstar singer who steps back from the limelight and comes back a few years later with a killer album.
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I think we are still a couple of years away from these sides really troubling us if this is to happen. I think we can stop that possibility if we react well quickly, but there’s still a danger that we drift and do eventually get caught.
I totally agree that we are about where Liverpool were in 2010 now.
This is all fine except we have been stepping back from the limelight for more than a decade and the misconception that we are a club in transition is laughable.
We have needed a rebuild for so long. it’s becoming a joke.
We are a club on the slide and are getting worse every season.
The only transition we are in, is going from a top four club to a mid table club.
It was a shocking second half surrender last night. The defence is past it and the whole defence and wing backs were bought for less than the cost of Chelsea’s keeper alone. We were playing Chelsea’s reject ageing keeper even though he made some good saves. The midfield were not up to it and out played. Ozil yet again nowhere to be seen as we capitulated. It’s years of mismanagement wasting the money we’ve got on hopeless players - eg Mustafi and keeping an erratic Ozil. Then under investment by an owner who doesn’t care. It’s a long slow steady decline since he got involved in the club. It’s only getting worse from here with peanuts to spend in the Summer and our best players will leave again. Ramsey now. Lacazette and Auba next. When he’s fit again Bellerin will be off too. No hope until the owner goes. Kroenke out!!
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Yeah but until the last couple of years we always managed the bare minimum in qualifying for the Champions League.
We are getting worse, which is why we need a turnaround. Three seasons out of the Champions League is not on.
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I honestly think the best option is to sell Auba and Laca for decent money and the deadwood for whatever we can get this summer. Then promote the best we have from the youth setup, invest the money in some young players with potential while we can get them cheap. Expectations would be lower, we should see improvement over a few seasons and just maybe the gamble would pay off
I think there is every possibility of falling to 7th next season. Wolves and Leicester have better coaches for the modern day game.
We are in a complete mess and lack of a plan means transition hasnt even started yet. This outlook of being to big was the same mentality of when we thought our top 4 placings made us untouchable from spuds and Liverpool.
We gloried in that and let others get away from us and left ourselves wide open as the team to pursue and they did.
We will be that target team again now for lower sides. It might need to get that fucking bad before these fucking clowns wake up and smell the coffee.
Really refuse at the moment to believe we have seen our worse days yet.
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It’s possible that we sink further behind, but ultimately Kroenke will then have to spend to keep this club a valuable brand if we do slip below another club. Maybe that’s the only thing that will get him to commit more funds to us and it’ll be a positive in the end.
I still think we’re a top 6 side if we have a smart summer, but that’s the only hope at the moment.
You know I had momentarily forgotten that we got fucked last night, was a couple minutes bliss.
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You really think so? I’m not totally against you and I do feel like a bit of an arse trying to brighten the picture after a really shit night but we only needed one game to go our way in the league (whether if it was us or relying on another team to slip up) for us to be in that top 4.
Chelsea will be screwed after Eden goes and United are pegs behind us let alone the top 4. I feel we’ll see loads of teams falling again, us being one of them for sure.
We conceded 51 goals in Arsene’s worst season. We conceded 51 in Emery’s first season.
The very least we should be expecting is for that aspect of our team to improve, regardless of the players.
Except Liverpool have an owner that actually cares.
What we’re witnessing is a death by a thousand cuts, from winning the PL and appearing in a CL final, finishing second and then third and then being more close to 5th and 6th finding outside of the top four than winning the title.
We’re a big club of course but the premier league is the most competitive it’s ever been and other teams will soon be breathing down our necks even more so. The case of Liverpool is almost the complete antithesis to ours in that they along with City are the best run club in the PL.
Doing the bare minimum only results in diminishing returns, obivously not saying we will be overtaken by clubs such as Leicester but the fact we’re talking about it says it all. If continue at this pace we could possibly be on par with them from a results and expectations standpoint in the years to come.
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Nobody knows how it will go when Hazard goes. They will have to find a different way but they have just destroyed us and the nature of that defeat puts a gap between us and them.
Yeah united are in a mess but still have potential and money and guarantee you they find one good youngster comes through.
We are dead in the water mate as of last night till the board get a plan.
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We simply can’t do this at the moment though. These two are literally the only unit that kept us from being a mid table club this season.
This squad is woefully constructed and there is no chance in hell that it’ll be fixed by the start of next season given the amount of areas we will be in need of replacements in, so we have to fight tooth and nail to keep these two for at least one more season. If we don’t keep them, we have no chance of getting top 4 next year.
As poor as they were in the final, they basically dragged a terrible defense and an imbalanced midfield through the entire season and without them we would have gotten nowhere.
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Fair enough 
Find it hard to overly disagree with you as mine is based on success via reliance on sun-optimal competition rather than outright superiority.
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