This article was published as a comment in relation to the article “Why on earth would some supposed Arsenal fans turn on a young player?” I feel the piece makes a number of important points, and so with the permission of the author, I am republishing it here in the hope it will reach a wider audience. – Tony.
by Vikrant Dogra
Open season on Arsenal, but apparently the banter aimed at Tottenham has ‘gone too far’, just because they ‘might’ get relegated for the first time in almost 50 years?! On the contrary, allow me to explain why.
With each passing day, I want Spurs to go down more and more; I would even sacrifice all the trophies we are in contention for, just to see this happen. After all, no credit will be given for winning any of the trophies: if we win the League cup, it ‘won’t count’, same for the FA Cup, we are already looking to be branded ‘the worst Premier League champions ever’ who play boring, garbage, cheating football, and I am sure a Champions League win would be met with ‘what took you so long?’ and ‘you aren’t really champions of Europe as you didn’t win the domestic league to qualify for a cup competition!’ Not to mention the Alan Pardew ‘asterisk’ and Martin Keown being told to ‘get a sense of humour’ by the same hypocritical snowflakes who have tried to suppress any criticism aimed at their beloved Spurs (Sam Matterface for example).
I want them to go down, not just for local bragging rights, the memes and the jokes, but also: so that the media will actually talk negatively about our neighbours, for fewer London derbies (as long as Millwall don’t go up) which make League titles much harder for the capital’s clubs to win, and to serve as the ultimate vindication of how we managed our move to the Emirates Stadium compared to their transition to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Of all the factors being discussed over the decline of the N17 club, the stadium move is constantly overlooked.
For instance, compare their 7* seasons in the new ground to our first 7 seasons at Ashburton Grove.
Arsenal League finishes: 4th (2007), 3rd (2008), 4th (2009), 3rd (2010), 4th (2011), 3rd (2012), 4th (2013)
Tottenham League finishes: 6th (2020), 7th (2021), 4th (2022), 8th (2023), 5th (2024), 17th (2025), TBC (2026) – * since 2025/2026 is not yet complete
Then let us look at the financial approaches of the 2 clubs over the same period.
Arsenal’s approach – sell big earners and ‘key’ players to make a profit on transfers, spend some of that on regenerating the squad to qualify for the Champions League every season, while the rest of the player sales, Champions League qualification and League prize money were used to pay the debt repayment instalments for the stadium, doing this so well that by 2013, we could start buying ‘marquee’ players for the first time in years (Ozil, Sanchez, Aubameyang, Cech, etc), stay in the top 4 and win 3 trophies in 5 years (FA Cups of 2014, 2015 and 2017).
The reaction from the media, the press, fans of other clubs (including Spurs) and, sadly, some of our so-called ‘supporters’? ‘Fourth is not a trophy’, ‘you parade your balance sheets along the streets of Islington’, ‘spend some f***ing money!’, ‘Wenger is a ditherer’, ‘Arsenal try and score the perfect goal’, ‘Arsenal are soft and lack leaders’, ‘why the lack of ambition?’, ‘Arsenal are standing still and are therefore being left behind’! Oh, and who could forget Adrian Durham’s ‘The Daily Arsenal’!!
In that time, Daniel Levy was being lauded as a financial genius for selling Bale and Modric for hundreds of millions of pounds and investing the money in a new squad which finished 5th more times than 4th, and when they DID finish 4th in 2012, they were denied Champions League qualification because Chelsea won the competition following a 6th placed Premier League finish! Levy was also seen as a hard taskmaster for NOT selling his ‘prized assets’ (Kane, Alli, Son, etc), the media rubbed their hands with glee at a ‘North London power shift’, and how great Mauricio Pochettino was for getting the most penalties over several seasons and nearly 3 years without a Premier League red card and STILL failing to win the title; don’t forget all that ‘Mind The Gap’ stuff as well!
Tottenham’s approach – keep Kane and Son so long that you couldn’t get any proper transfer money for them, spend Man City money on transfers (and more than Arsenal btw) for inferior players, have £30million annual debt repayments on a stadium that cost 3 times that of the Emirates nominally and twice the cost in real terms, with initial relative League stability below the Champions League places until last season’s finish, which has been ‘justified’ by winning a competition against a bunch of nobodies and a horrendous Manchester United side with ‘Champions of Europe, you’ll never sing that’ jibes aimed at us!
Add to that a succession of managers with different track records, playing styles and training methods due to an impatient and fickle fan base (even more so than ours) and the supposed obsession with ‘external business’ over matters on the pitch! Yet the main responses were ‘look how the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is miles better than the Emirates’, ‘Spurs keep hold of their stars by giving them new contracts’, ‘Ange Postecoglu is a great bloke and so clever for sacrificing Premier League points to win a trophy’, ‘Micky van de Ven is good enough to play for Real Madrid and is better than Gabriel’!
They also wasted two golden opportunities to secure long-term success – not kicking on from their Europa League ‘success’ and the riches of Champions League qualification, while Manchester United are currently 3rd in the League, and losing (on purpose?) to Manchester City in May 2024 just to stop Arsenal winning the League that season. If they had won, they would have finished 4th, qualified for the Champions League, possibly attracted some of the players that have signed for us, Man City and Liverpool in that time, and perhaps even ended up in our position at the top of the Premier League today!!
Conclusions? First of all, Arsene Wenger got the management of the stadium move ABSOLUTELY SPOT ON but got no credit for overachieving in the ‘austerity years’ whatsoever.
Secondly, the Kroenkes and Mikel Arteta deserve much more praise for turning Arsenal from possible mid table obscurity into being the bookies’ favourites for all 4 competitions for the first time in the club’s history; and finally, Spurs built a new stadium ‘to get one over on the Gooners’ by claiming a higher capacity and better facilities, while we did so to secure the long term future of our club and to hell with anyone else!
Therefore, Tottenham Hotspur getting relegated to the Championship not only deserves endless banter, memes and jokes; the media is not going anywhere near far enough with the criticism, negativity and abuse in comparison to what Arsenal has had to put up with since our last League title (most of it totally unjustified and inaccurate)!!!
Vikrant Dogra,
Good points throughout. Well done!
Vigrant Dogra
Well done Tony. As I said when I read this as a post, a great piece, making and reiterating some points I have made many times before, particularly:
“Champions League qualification and League prize money were used to pay the debt repayment instalments for the stadium, doing this so well that by 2013, we could start buying ‘marquee’ players for the first time in years (Ozil, Sanchez, Aubameyang, Cech, etc), stay in the top 4 and win 3 trophies in 5 years (FA Cups of 2014, 2015 and 2017)”
I did the maths on this a few years back and the money we earned from champions league qualification during the ‘**austerity years ‘ was directly equal to the ‘principal’ amount the Emirates cost.
If Wenger had not been frugal, and had not focused entirely on CL qualification, we may well of done a Leeds, which will soon be known as ‘doing a Spursy’.
So, your conclusion that “Arsene Wenger got the management of the stadium move ABSOLUTELY SPOT ON but got no credit for overachieving in the ‘austerity years’ whatsoever”, is absolutely correct.
**NB: For those that do not know, that is the term used colloquially for a ten year period over which our net spend on transfers was actually a profit, compared to Chelsea, Man City and Man Utd spending on average between £20 Million and £30 million net each, PER SEASON. It actually doesn’t sound that much given the ridiculous levels we see now, but at the time that bought you THE top players.
Secondly you make the point that:
“The Kroenkes and Mikel Arteta deserve much more praise for turning Arsenal from possible mid table obscurity into being the bookies’ favourites for all 4 competitions for the first time in the club’s history”
Again, you are absolutely correct.
No panic in face of the endless media criticism for having the audacity to finish 2nd 3 seasons running. No panic in the face of a very loud section of Arsenal fans (in the loosest possible way) calling for the sacking of Arteta.
Okay, we haven’t won a trophy since his first season, but points wise we are the best team since the start of 22/23 season.
Great article Vikrant
Vlikrant, your post is incredible . Nail firmly hit on the head.
The very best I’ve read and on this site which has some fantastic contributors that really is saying something.
Keep up the great analysis.
I’m looking forward to your next post(s) Hopefully the Gunners cap this season with a trophy or two. and we get to read your thoughts on a special season.
If Arsenal are to be labelled “the worst champions ever” it doesn’t say much for the 19 clubs below us
Still can’t believe a true Arsenal supporter would rather Spurs be relegated than us win trophies . Who cares what the media or other clubs fans think, we need the trophies, especially the Premiership and Champions League, that’s what football is all about. There is nothing as good as celebrating winning trophies,
Nigel
‘We need the trophies’ is EXACTLY WHAT THE MEDIA AND OTHER CLUBS’ FANS HAVE BEEN TELLING US FOR YEARS!!! If anyone seems to care what they think, it is YOU!
This ‘untrue Arsenal supporter’ has seen us win 15 trophies in his lifetime and heard all of the mental gymnastics people have come up with to discredit them all! He is also a Club Level season ticket holder for all of the Emirates Stadium seasons to date, and has read not one, but TWO official illustrated histories of the club; and he supports the club REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THEY WIN TROPHIES OR NOT!
And you are yet another ‘fan’ who has not understood my stance whatsoever – since Tottenham’s last relegation in 1977, Arsenal have averaged a trophy approximately every three years and will surely win more in future seasons, so not winning anything for one year while our neighbours may witness a once in 50 years event is not a disaster, is it?
My primary reason for wanting to see a Spurs relegation was that it would prove that Arsenal were RIGHT ALL ALONG about how to manage a stadium move, regardless of if we win zero, one, two, three or even four trophies this season!!!
Vikrant,
Sorry but still do not understand your stance at all. Do you seriously think that the media or public would recognise the fact of succssful stadium switches or not which is what you appear to care about more? You might well be pleased and so I am sure a lot of Spurs fans would be too! I have supported Arsenal as a small kid since 1955 and although never a season ticket holder go whenever I can. So at my age I would not like to wait too long for the thrill of another Premiership title and a first elusive Champion League title. What Spurs do is irrelevant but if they were to be relegated that would be a bonus, but not at the cost of us missing out. Just think of the feelings of Arteta and his team to be so close and miss out again. I stress once more I really do not care about the media or other clubs fans views (reading Tony all these years convinces me of that) but I am unashamedly selfish in wanting success for our club and for myself. I don’t doubt for a minute that you don’t want success this season but please think again at what you are saying as to me as much as I look at your view it will never make sense as we know only too well that these chances of winning are not guarenteed to present themselves again so soon.
Anyway, all the best regards, Nigel. COYG
may I remind all of you that while now we here idiots and incompetents telling us this is the worst PL in years, there are 6 PL teams in the last 16 of the UCL, 2 in Europa League and 1 in Conference League. So I guess the level of the PL is so bad we did not make it to qualify 10 teams in the final 16 ?!?!
So yeah. Sp*rs going down is always going to be good news, St Totteringham day will be celebreated the first day of the next season but I still want us to win the PLand at least another trophy.
I do see more and more posts highlighting the gaslighting of the sao-called media and ‘punidiots’ wth even some of them admitting this is ridiculous and undeserved
In the end, since the start of the season I only had 3 bad mornings after the same numbers of defeats…. beat that…