Are Arsenal Days As An Elite Club Over?

Arsene Wenger's Highbury Arsenal was a true English footballing giant although often berated for their lack of European success, their brilliance was undeniable. Ironically they were always getting dumped out of Europe by their domestic rivals, even when they went through a whole league season without a loss.

Sir Alex Ferguson never warmed up to the arrival of Arsene Wenger to England, often playing down Wenger's linguistic genius as nothing special. The rivalry between both men soon saw Arsenal Vs Manchester United become the biggest football fixture in England and one of the biggest derbies in Europe.

The team Wenger had assembled had everything you could ever want in a winning team - character, leadership, guile, elegance, arrogance, and winning mentality, Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, and Patrick Viera Embody these qualities.

Even though Wenger never successfully defended any title he won, he immediately rallies his team and wins it the next time around, which was a trait of a mentally tough team. He had good plans for Arsenal as a team, a club, and as an institution. He conceived the plan for a bigger stadium which he thought would rank Arsenal amongst the very best clubs in the world.

It was a good plan at the time, bigger stadium, more fans on match days, more revenue from tickets, more financial power to acquire the biggest players and ultimately compete with the biggest teams but it never really panned out that way.

Fast forward to 2006, Arsenal were now in their new home, they had lost Bergkamp to retirement, Viera to Juventus, and the Champions League finals to Barcelona. The team was on a sharp decline and needed a massive rebuild but the stadium also needed to be paid for. So to stay afloat, relevant, and pretend to compete till the stadium debt is paid off, Arsenal bought cheap unknown "talents", and relied on Wenger's magic to turn them into world-class. Of course, he usually did, but they also usually left for more ambitious teams.

Arsenal was stuck in this vicious cycle and soon, players instead of seeing Arsenal as a final destination for trophies and football glory, like they once were, now saw Arsenal as a mere stepping stone, a feeder home where they would come, perfect their craft and leave.

Aside from "almost" winning it in 2008 and also coming the closest in 2016, Arsenal never truly challenged for the Premier League and was often mauled each time by Barcelona and Bayern Munich in the Champion League.

Of course, they had success in the FA cup competition which saw them win it 4 times between 2013 to 2020, ultimately becoming the most decorated team in the competition. But the FA cup success hasn't changed the fact that Arsenal is no longer what they used to be. They are no longer counted when EPL contenders are talked about.

A finish below their arch enemies Tottenham for the first time since Wenger's reign in the 2017/2018 season was strange and new both to Arsenal and Tottenham. Tottenham and its fans celebrated while Arsenal and its fans despaired, it was a new low for the club but they were sure that it was gonna be the first and the last time. Fast forward to the 2020/2021 season and Arsenal are 9th on the table with 2 matches to go and are once again destined to finish below Tottenham for the fourth season in a row and nobody associated with Arsenal is outraged by that fact in the least which is damming evidence of the new mentality within and around the club - MEDIOCRE.

Times have changed from when Arsenal used to dominate the English league, everything is different now. There is less "loyalty" and more money this time around. Players tend to go where the money calls, only a few clubs still have the pull they used to without dangling money in front of players and Arsenal certainly isn't one of those clubs anymore. And it doesn't help that their new owners, the Kreonkes aren't exactly the model owners that a truly ambitious club needs.

The new money in football has seen the English league move from usually seeing 4 teams always interchanging positions at the top of the table to seeing 6 teams do it and thanks to Leicester's remarkable run to the title in the 2015/2016 season, every team now feels they can do it or at least be in contention.

This means there is nothing special anymore about Arsenal, other traditionally "lesser" teams have caught up and have equal or more stands in the scheme of things.

At the start of this current season, Everton and Tottenham were touted as possible dark horses to maybe win it, even though they ultimately finished reasonable places behind the actual winners, Man City, they were at least looked at. Nobody ever looked at Arsenal that way, nobody takes Arsenal that seriously.

Now, where it gets tough for Arsenal is, they no longer have the pulling power to attract the best players, they also do not have the unlimited funds or financial backing of the owner to attract the best players, their squad is already average, at best on par with those of Leicester, Everton and Tottenham who are merely the chasing pack to Man Ctiy, ManU, Liverpool and Chelsea who not only have the better squads but also have the financial power to attract the best players in the world.

This reality sort of relegates Arsenal to a mere member of the chasing pack for the time being, so when do they catch a break? Manchester City, United, Liverpool, and Chelsea have owners who don't penny-pinch when their squads need rebuilding, they are ready to invest every single season to make sure their teams continue winning. So where does the lucky break come for Arsenal?

Does it come with a new coach? Is Arteta good enough for Arsenal?

Does it come with new ownership? Are the Kreonkes going to sell?

Will Arsenal catch a lucky break by finally getting an owner who is willing to invest as much as the coach wants?

Will they catch the break by coming of age when the leading packs are rebuilding?

Seems like Arsenal needs a lot of many variables to come together perfectly and change their fate. But what's to say that these variables won't continue coming together for the other members of the chasing pack or even the leading packs for that matter?

What do you think?