Arsenal's Road To Mediocrity

Henry's out and Wenger's seems to be thinking about it.

The times are a wee bit troubled at the Emirates stadium in these hot summer days. Arsenal likely got a fair price for their talismanic striker (about 16.5 million pounds) and Cesc Fabregas is making rumblings about taking his leave before the new season.

After his pal David Dein was given his walking papers in the latter parts of the season, rumours started to surface that Wenger's days were numbered. Now, the pot is on full boil.

The rumoured replacements for Henry consist of Nicolas Anelka and Klaas Jan Huntelaar. Not exactly setting the world on fire, are we?

The root of Arsenal's current predicament is twofold: the new stadium and Wenger's curious transfer philosophy.

The Emirates stadium cost around 390-million pounds to build. According to the club, the vast majority (260-million) of the cost was financed by a consortium of lenders. With this heap of debt lingering around, is it any surprise that few - if any - star calibre players have been signed?
The transfer coffers appear to be bare for Mr. Wenger, save those he can generate on his own.

Viera and Henry have been sold prior to their expiration date in successive seasons, apparently as part of Wenger's idea that a club should cash in on player value just after it has peaked. Along with Pires, these sales represent the very core of the squad that had the Premiership at its feet for two seasons.

Unfortunately for the Arsenal manager, without significant funds to bring in immediate injections of talent and without successors in the wings, Arsenal may be doomed to the UEFA cup after the upcoming season.

You can almost smell the glee coming from Whitehart Lane, whose Spurs seem the likely candidate to snatch the final Champions League position from their arch-rivals.