Prophets and profits

Mitigation is used to excuse or explain unpalatable facts and the manager and board of Arsenal regularly utilise mitigation to defend the indefensible decline at the club. 

Arsenal finished third behind the 2 Manchester clubs thus securing a ECL place again. Arsenal have qualified for the ECL 15 seasons in a row. The balance sheet is a bright black. The club has a self sustaining credo and a Financial fairplay  proof policy.  Great. All good achievements I'm sure most would agree, however the magic word is context. 

Finishing third with a huge gap between us and the top two says more about the general poor quality of the league and are we in a better position to finish higher this time around? Is it better to have qualified for ECL again or would a trophy and Europa league (like Liverpool) have been better? Arsenal would have a better opportunity of European victory in the Europa as far as I'm concerned as general when we have faced a crunch game in the Champions League against the big boys we have failed.  Qualifying for a tournament 15 years running is only relevant if the club are capable of winning it: Arsenal have reached the final once. The ECL is seen by the board in purely financial terms

Finances rule the game and where theres money there's the ability to rule bend; Financial FairPlay will have zero impact and hanging in for it's arrival is a fools errand. 

No amount of mitigation can defend barren seasons, player departures, rising costs and false promises. 

My message is simple; stop bullshitting the supporters, come clean and admit that we are a great Club operating like a two bob outfit. We are second tier with first tier prices. We are being run by false prophets whose only concern is profits.