Arsenal FC's addiction to mediocrity

I'll never ever forget Jose Mourinho's "specialist in failure" comment, as a reluctant Arsenal fan all I could think of at the time was how true it was and how much of a laughing stock we had become. "The Banter era" still frustrates me to this day and even though Arsenal have gone on to win a few FA cups, I don't believe that we've moved on from this era.

My sole issue with Arsenal is that in almost 20 years, Arsenal FC have shown no urgency to win. Winning is not Arsenal's number 1 priority and that sickens me.

They have defined success through developing young players, balancing the books, creating commercial revenue, qualifying for the Champions League and even cool kit designs. Arsenal have shuffled and shimmied through every possible definition of being successful but never winning.
The height of being an Arsenal fan was the invincible era, which was great but still not the pinnacle of football. Winning a domestic league is great, but there was still more to do. Following the 2006 Champions League final, changes were made and instead of building on that and targeting Champions league glory, Arsenal decided to go down another path and simply qualifying was good enough. While we watched clubs surpass us and become title challengers, European powerhouses and league champions, Arsenal have become as mediocre as they could possibly be and the club have no real intentions to change.

The list of excuses as to how we got to an 8th place finish can run forever. On one hand the club is damaged, broken and mismanaged. On the other the club is talented with one of the best goal scorers in Europe and won the FA cup. I'm stuck in a constant state of confusion as to what to expect from this club. I have no problem with a club trying and failing, but Arsenal do NOT try. For every step they take forward, they jeopardise everything with poor contracts, average performances and lacklustre recruitment.
The two things I am sure of is that at this point, 1. Winning the league is nowhere near arsenals priorities right now.
2. Nobody at Arsenal cares.

This is shown to me through the appointment of our Manager. Currently Mikel Arteta's reign as Arsenal has had some pro's and cons but overall he seemingly has the support of the club. However if you have expectations of winning the league, would you bet that on a novice manager. If winning truly matters, Arteta is the last place you would look. Development is what matters now, progress is what matters, but winning does not. If Arsenal did not (luckily) win the FA Cup, what would change, would Arteta lose his job, no. Would the pressure increase, i doubt it.
His appointment reminds me of Tim Sherwood at Tottenham but better yet Roberto Martinez' appointment at Everton. Filled with enthusiasm and belief at a decent europa league standard club, whose reputation was also buoyed by an FA Cup win with Wigan. Martinez' aim at Everton was to take them to the Champions League he failed. And Arteta will fail too. It looks like we are willing to wait 2-3 years to just achieve top 4. 

Until Arsenal act as a club where winning leagues and competing for titles is the expectation and a 2nd place finish deserves an internal investigation I will always look at Arsenal with some disgust, and shame.

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