Arsenal Fans: Relax, the Future Looks Bright

This is my first post, so don't judge me too badly; I'm a young Arsenal fan who needs to express all his opinions and views about the current situation.

First, a message to all the delusional fans out there: Arsenal is not on the decline. You need to sit down and have a cup of tea.

I understand all the Manchester City fans getting excited by the promise of a brilliant new future with world-class players and top-four finishes, sunshine and lollipops, but you fans need to realise something. Success cannot be made overnight.

For one thing, Mark Hughes is not the right guy to lead Man City into the Premier League's elite top four; he lacks the tactical ability and all round is a manager who is able to at best manage a club between five relegation places.

Man City have bought Gareth Barry. Yes, he's a good player, but he's hardly Ronaldinho (a player Man City couldn't attract in the summer, by the way). Barry had been playing for Aston Villa for some 11 years and had never played in the Champions League or for a big club with big players.

Despite Barry's status as an England international, I've been surprised by Arsenal fans' disappointment at failing to reel him in. For one thing, his style of play doesn't fit in with the Arsenal system. There's plenty of strong central midfield talent still available: Felipe Melo, Xabi Alonso, and Yaya Toure, to name a few.

During the 2008-09 season, some began to question Arsene Wenger's management abilities. At one point so did I, but that was before I read a particularly memorable forum post someplace. The gist of it is this: Could Rafael Benitez, Alex Ferguson or Luiz Felipe Scolari have kept Arsenal in the top four, in the Champions League and FA Cup semifinals with this team? 

I realized Wenger is a brilliant manager and is starting to become underrated by a lot of Arsenal fans nowadays.

Now a lot of people have been saying that since Money Bags Man City are buying the world's best stars, they will "inevitably" make it into the top four either this season or next.

People are contemplating who will fall out of the top four. After this season's events, many are predicting Arsenal's fall. Pundits and fans say Arsenal are on the decline, that we can't afford to compete with the Man U's, Chelsea's and Man City's of the world.

Well, I say one thing: Crap! They say look at our debt, we have to sell players in order to survive, but look at the facts. In the 2004-05 season, after winning the Premier League, Arsenal posted €171.3 million. Then when Arsenal moved to Emirates Stadium, revenues rose to €264.4 million, making Arsenal the sixth biggest club in the world on revenue.

Arsenal are above giants of world football like Inter Milan, Juventus, AC Milan, Lyon and Liverpool. Imagine when the debts are paid off: We'll be laughing. We will have so much money to play around with it will be ridiculous.

We don't need a new owner because we can survive by ourselves. Man U have some £700 million debt which they may never clear off, and Chelsea have £500 million worth of debt. If Roman Abramovich walks away, then Chelsea are up the creek. Liverpool are in a very precarious financial position right now after posting a £42.6 million loss, and they have until July to reorganise their finances.

Arsenal fans know where changes need to be made: defense and central midfield. The top-caliber names being thrown around to fill these spots should excite every Arsenal fan. We have such a young squad, which can be seen as a good and bad thing, but imagine how we can dominate the league for years to come.

With the likes of Theo Walcott, Samir Nasri, Carlos Vela, Aaron Ramsey, and Jack Wilshere, we are just a few players from winning the Premier League. Everyone just relax.

We all see that Arsenal regressed slightly in the recent past, but Wenger made assumptions he now realises were wrong. He has seen where Arsenal went wrong this season, and I believe he will make the necessary changes this summer. Arsenal will be a force to be reckoned with once again.