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FA Cup 2016/17

Indeed. Devil and the Deep Blue sea.

I think possibly, and it hurts, but Chelsea doing the double, as it was bought anyway....
This... plus we'd have the small consolation of going out to the eventual winners... and AFTV would be a highly entertaining distraction :D
 
So true. If they win the fa cup I'd rather have a season like them papering over the cracks.

I actually would, but I'm probably a bit too sentimental for modern football. If it came right down to it, to me, an FA Cup would justify finishing anywhere above lower mid-table, really. Football is about glory, winning trophies, making history under the bright lights on great nights. It isn't about finishing 4th ad infinitum.

But I'm probably unfashionably old-school in that respect. :p
 
I'd love to 'paper over the cracks' at our club, if it eventually comes to that, with trophies. What a fine wallpaper they make. :(

Would you take a cup even if it meant finishing outside of the top four, losing your best players and holding onto the reason why they are going?
 
Can't understand all this wanting Wenger to stay, he's had the better of us every season apart from possibly on, this season, where they might still win a trophy.

And each season they get a little bit worse and the infighting gets a little louder.
 
Would you take a cup even if it meant finishing outside of the top four, losing your best players and holding onto the reason why they are going?

All of those things don't necessarily follow after each other...but I think I would, if I really were forced to choose. Why keep all your best players together if the aim is not to win things with them? Just to watch them play? The fetishization of keeping your squad together only works if there's an aim to win things that requires them to stay - if the aim is only to finish top four forever, what's the point in hankering after our best players hoping for them to consent to staying?
 
All of those things don't necessarily follow after each other...but I think I would, if I really were forced to choose. Why keep all your best players together if the aim is not to win things with them? Just to watch them play? The fetishization of keeping your squad together only works if there's an aim to win things that requires them to stay - if the aim is only to finish top four forever, what's the point in hankering after our best players hoping for them to consent to staying?

I think that is probably where we differ. I'd love to see us win a cup but I would put sustained improvement on the pitch first if forced to choose. I want to see us have a sustained period of challenging.

Arsenal are getting worse each year and their manager seems powerless to address the causes. The odd FA Cup won't change that and it may make the club less reluctant to deal with the problems there.
 
I think that is probably where we differ. I'd love to see us win a cup but I would put sustained improvement on the pitch first if forced to choose. I want to see us have a sustained period of challenging.

Arsenal are getting worse each year and their manager seems powerless to address the causes. The odd FA Cup won't change that and it may make the club less reluctant to deal with the problems there.
I'm hoping that becoming Champions League regulars will allow us to sign top drawer players in their prime, like Sanchez, which should help us to make that next step and start winning silverware on a regular basis; like the Spurs sides of the 60s and 80s.
 
I'm hoping that becoming Champions League regulars will allow us to sign top drawer players in their prime, like Sanchez, which should help us to make that next step and start winning silverware on a regular basis; like the Spurs sides of the 60s and 80s.

Same here. We're pretty much there with our first eleven, we just need to hold onto them and build a squad to match our rivals. I think Champions League football gives us the best chance of doing this.
 
I think that is probably where we differ. I'd love to see us win a cup but I would put sustained improvement on the pitch first if forced to choose. I want to see us have a sustained period of challenging.

Arsenal are getting worse each year and their manager seems powerless to address the causes. The odd FA Cup won't change that and it may make the club less reluctant to deal with the problems there.

I can definitely understand that, but to my mind there's no point in challenging if at the end of it you still end up exactly where you were when you began - trophyless and still looked on as a club that can never vaunt the final hurdle. There is no point keeping Alli, Toby and Lloris if they never win us anything - we could buy Snodgrass, Shawcross and Ben Foster, save the dosh and spend it on making tickets cheaper or the Spurs Foundation or something equally substantive, because there is no difference between finishing 2nd and not winning anything and finishing 10th and not winning anything. Except perhaps that hopes are sustained a bit longer than they would be if we were gurning around in mid-table. ;)
 
I can definitely understand that, but to my mind there's no point in challenging if at the end of it you still end up exactly where you were when you began - trophyless and still looked on as a club that can never vaunt the final hurdle. There is no point keeping Alli, Toby and Lloris if they never win us anything - we could buy Snodgrass, Shawcross and Ben Foster, save the dosh and spend it on making tickets cheaper or the Spurs Foundation or something equally substantive, because there is no difference between finishing 2nd and not winning anything and finishing 10th and not winning anything. Except perhaps that hopes are sustained a bit longer than they would be if we were gurning around in mid-table. ;)

I don't want us to end this period trophyless. I understand that it has been an uphill battle to get where we are now and that final step is the hardest of all. This is the best we've been in a very long time and one game doesn't change that. I'm prepared to give us time, it will come.
 
I can definitely understand that, but to my mind there's no point in challenging if at the end of it you still end up exactly where you were when you began - trophyless and still looked on as a club that can never vaunt the final hurdle. There is no point keeping Alli, Toby and Lloris if they never win us anything - we could buy Snodgrass, Shawcross and Ben Foster, save the dosh and spend it on making tickets cheaper or the Spurs Foundation or something equally substantive, because there is no difference between finishing 2nd and not winning anything and finishing 10th and not winning anything. Except perhaps that hopes are sustained a bit longer than they would be if we were gurning around in mid-table. ;)

I remember the 90s and early 2000s - I'll take what we're doing now every time.
 
I'm hoping that becoming Champions League regulars will allow us to sign top drawer players in their prime, like Sanchez, which should help us to make that next step and start winning silverware on a regular basis; like the Spurs sides of the 60s and 80s.

We won't tho. Got a stadium to pay for.
 
I remember the 90s and early 2000s - I'll take what we're doing now every time.

So do I. Doesn't really add anything to the discussion, though - the choice is between winning trophies but underachieving in the league (a false dichotomy imo, but whatever) or perpetually finishing 2nd but winning nothing. To my mind, I'd prefer the former, and if all we were doing was the latter, then there isn't much point working up to that status since there's not a whole lot of difference between 10th and trophyless and 2nd and trophyless in my eyes. Apart from maybe the quality of football, but then mid-table teams like Soton play some pretty stuff on their budgets, so I have little doubt we could do the same while allocating the money we save to something more likely to make a positive, lasting change - as I said, giving it all to the Spurs Foundation or something. ;)
 
We won't tho. Got a stadium to pay for.

Regular Champions League football, higher league finishes and an increased capacity will help us hold onto the players that we have. Holding onto our stars whilst the next generation come through would be something that hasn't happened at Spurs in decades and couple be all we need to take the next step up.

Anyway. My fault but we should probably leave this thread for talking about other clubs and keep talk about us to SN&V.
 
Same here. We're pretty much there with our first eleven, we just need to hold onto them and build a squad to match our rivals. I think Champions League football gives us the best chance of doing this.
Indeed, aside from the prestige we're effectively taking £25million out of ARSEnal's coffers and transferring it to ours if we take their place in if the CL :D
 
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