Sadly it is....imagine you win the FA Cup but fail to qualify for the CL. The next season would feel very,very ordinary without the Champions League

Having said that I think the big problem for Arsenal which was especially the case last season is that we don't have the strength in depth to compete on all fronts.....the best thing that happened to us this year was losing to AC Milan. I reckon we'd be fourth or fifth even if we'd got knocked out in the next round.

We certainly thrived in the PL for a bit after that, so it would've been interesting to see how we could've done in the CL.

What about these mumours of Mertesacker wanting to leave? Recent write ups on Arseblog seem to suggest he's happy here.

Sky Sports News reporting that Jack Wilshere needs surgery on his left knee.

A minor op and shouldn't significantly affect the length of his rehabilitation.

How often has this happened though?
Rosicky
Diaby
Vermaelen

No coincidence?

Not a sniff of RVPs planned meeting with AW, did it happen

Seen a couple of stories in the sun and fail claiming that talks broke down over RVP wanting more reassurance that we'd be competing for silverware next season.

Do they bother putting any imagination into their stories at all?

Looks like this won't be decided until after the Euro's.

The longer it takes the less chance we have of keeping Robin. Wenger and the board who have once again shown shocking ineptitude on contracts/transfers.

We have so few world class players (well 1 now!), why was a high profile player we signed for just £3.5 million, in a key position, who at the time was in his mid 20's only on a four year deal?

Even without this outstanding season, he would still be worth four times what we paid for him, why didn't we make sure he signed a six year contract?

It's one of the only ways a club that can't afford to just throw money at players can protect itself to a degree. By the way, we will face exactly the same situation with Song next year too.

Does anyone else think it's embarrassing for a club of our stature to be in this situation time and time again, where we have to virtually plead with our better players to stay with us?

If we had been competing and winning trophies over the last 7 years it wouldn't be an issue, the player would re-sign for Arsenal and that would be the end of it. RVP is 29 and hasn't won anything, I can't say I blame him to be honest.

So yes, it IS the fault of Arsene and the board!!!!

Anyone thinking it would be decided before the Euro's was dillusional in my opinion....Arsenal were never going to be able to blow the likes of Man City, Real Madrid et al out of the water financially and make the necessary signings before the Euro's to convince him to stay.

Always going to be about selling the Arsenal story to him...which really revolves around who they buy to strengthen. They can tell them him they have intention to sign players but from his point of view that could be all fart and no poo....we've seen signings collapse at the last minute in the past (Xabi Alonso springs to mind) so until he sees signings being made he's not going to sign IMHO.

The good news is that the club may actually go out and buy the two or three players everyone thinks they need. The board and Wenger must know that the say £30mil they would get for RVP would not be enough to replace him. I just don't believe the "we won't sell him come what may" line....it's exactly what they said last summer about Nasri until Kronke intervened and told them to sell him.....Kronke will feel massively vindicated in that decision "we got third without Nasri so I was right".

Thats strange......cos from where I'm sitting thats great news.