It came to me the morning after the game. But for the move to the stadium, Cristiano Ronaldo would have been an Arsenal player rather than a Manchester United one. Wenger wanted him in the summer of 2003, but the club were a few hundred thousand short. David Dein worked on the deal, but the club did not have a pot to p*ss in, struggling to raise money to build the new stadium.

They could have stayed at Highbury, and learned to live with the lesser income. But as football was becoming more and more money-driven, the board wanted a stadium which could raise serious money. The problem is the short-term pain for the long-term gain. So we are watching a group of players that we are hoping can buck the odds rather than a team that can credibly compete with those who have not moved stadium and incurred debt that way. Instead, those teams have incurred debt on buying players, chasing the dream to win trophies. Since Arsenal’s 2004 title, Chelsea (whose debt is on paper and will never have to be repaid) and Manchester United have carved up the title between them and won a few other trophies besides.. Arsenal have finished third or fourth. It’s their natural level at the moment. The long-term plan is that gradually, there will be a decent budget for the manager to spend. In the here and now though, it’s make do and mend. And the consequences of that were all too clear last night.

Arsenal have a reserve choice at left back between an 18 year old and an Alex Ferguson cast off who would not get within a sniff of their first team in 2008/09. In goal, they have a keeper not even good enough to be called up for his national side. That he may be considered as an England keeper brings to mind David James’ outstanding display at Fratton Park for last weekend’s trip. If that’s the opposition, it says little about the qualities of Arsenal’s shotstopper. The squad is weak. Wafer thin. Some buy the manager’s pronouncement about how good these players are, but the evidence cannot continue to be a mere inconvenience to his argument. ‘We will be magnificent’. If nothing else, Arsene Wenger should learn to use the past tense when talking up his team. He looks pretty stupid today, as many Arsenal fans will feel.

Funnily enough, I was quite relaxed about the second leg. I thought the team did not have a chance due to the poverty of the defence, but I was willing to believe that strange things happen in cups. Evidently, not always. Anyway, I entered the stadium with a mindset that anything but elimination would be a bonus. When Arsenal were the underdogs against Parma in 1994, I believed they could do it. I do not have that belief anymore.

The manager has a scouting system that is supposed to reach far and wide and pick up the very best players in the world early and at bargain rates. But I’ve come to the conclusion that it is very, very difficult to prosper with this approach. I remember the buzz about Fran Merida and watching a YouTube video of him slaloming round a bunch of other 12 year olds. He looked better than Diego Maradona. Look at him now. A regular on Reserves Live on Arsenal TV. If Wenger seriously rated him, Neil Banfield wouldn’t be let near him in a month of Sundays.

Arsenal’s scouting system should be used to pick up the likes of a Vidic. More experienced players who are proven. The wages the club pay match anyone’s except Chelsea’s and Roman Abramovich can’t buy everyone. The club can afford about £20 million a year on transfers at the moment, so the buying has to be intelligent and with less blatant gambles. Eduardo and Sagna arrived for about £8 million each in the summer of 2007 and the team made a decent attempt on the title. It fell apart when first the Croatian and then the Frenchman became injured. Sagna played in that Birmingham game that could turn out to be the turning point in Wenger’s tenure at Arsenal days after the death of his brother. I am not convinced that this group of players has ever recovered from that day.

Three semi-final encounters in the space of three weeks and Arsenal have stunk out three different stadiums. That’s too much of a trend to be considered merely unfortunate. Sadly, there is something rotten at the heart of this team. And it is Wenger’s reliance on players who are not intelligent enough to operate at the very highest level. There are some brains in the squad, but not enough. The defence is a joke. There is no organization. Kolo Toure looked like a headless chicken in 2002/03 and my abiding memory of that season is his uncomposed clearance at Villa Park when he hacked the ball into his own net, costing the team two points, and ultimately, a title they should have won by a street. Harnessed next to Sol Campbell, he improved, but the man is no leader of a defence. He’s enthusiastic, he’s 100% Arsenal, but he’s still a headless chicken.

Theo Walcott is raw pace and a player the crowd are willing to do well. But I am afraid the boy has no bollocks or football brains. If he had the former his voice would have broken by now and if he had the latter he would be the Premier League’s leading scorer. I wanted to believe. I wanted to buy into the Theo myth, but the boy is simply too inconsistent. Compare and contrast with Marc Overmars. A similar type of player. Theo is young, yes, but in that case, why are we playing him before his time? Why isn’t he still being used as an impact sub? Because the manager does not have better alternatives.

Finally, in January, the manager got it right. He bought a player with qualities the team was crying out for. Experience, big match temperament, a football brain, undisputed technical quality. And then what does Wenger do? Leave him on the bench against Chelsea for the FA Cup semi-final. Sorry, but what the f**k was that about? You are picking three players to attack, so you perm three from four and leave out the best one?

I’ll admit to these words being an unstructured stream of consciousness, but even after sleeping on it, I need to get this out of my system. Arsenal’s problem is that the board will believe – and they may be right, we can’t say – that no manager could do better given the resources available. Wenger creates his own transfer budget by selling players he believes are expendable (or uncommitted) – both young and old – at good prices. So the balance sheets are looking good. Could anyone else manage to achieve such good figures on a shoestring?

So any notion that the manager is under any kind of pressure is simply not true. The fans can cry ‘Wenger out’ until they are blue in the face, but it ain’t going to happen. The board will be pleased that he’s kept Arsenal in the top four and made two semi-finals while spending (net) diddly squat in the transfer market. And that is why Arsenal are going to be competing for – at best – third place for the next few seasons. Nominally, part of the ‘big four’, in truth, Arsenal are in a literal league of their own, between the teams currently above them in the table and the chasing pack. Purgatory.

So if the team are the Emperor’s new clothes, how long will the paying public continue to buy into the illusion at such inflated prices? The only scenario I can see whereby the manager is ever in danger of the boot is consistent declining attendances, along with a habitual lack of Champions League football. Spurs continue to sell out their league matches at prices not that far below Arsenal’s. There’s a long way to go yet before the club are going to worry about enough people buying the tickets (even if they don’t then turn up – wait until the Stoke game to see the number of empty seats).

Looking forward, what is the solution? Where do we go from here? Assuming the manager stays, it’s time to pension off Pat Rice and for the manager to employ a number two with some tactical nous, and ability to coach a defence. Someone who is not a ‘yes’ man who will tell the manager he is off his rocker to relegate his best player to the bench in an FA Cup semi-final. George Graham comes to mind. The board should insist the manager recruits better and less sycophantic assistants and listens to them in areas that he is weak. Additionally, the average age of the squad needs upping through some decent work in the transfer market. I am not talking about Old Trafford cast offs like Silvestre but 25-year-old centre backs that have been round the block and still have their peak years ahead of them. When the 2001-2005 team that reaped five trophies (and would have won more if Wenger had a tactician on the bench alongside him) was being constructed, players in their early to mid-20s were bought and the club reaped the dividends.

This group of players has run its course. Wenger was obsessed about keeping them together (hence the fat contracts), but now it’s time to start deconstructing it and getting rid of the deadwood for as much money as some fool is willing to pay. Build the team around Andrey Arshavin. Some will stay, but forget the notion that this is a great team in the making. Too many of them simply are not good enough. I can live with the reality that the club have to be cautious financially, it’s when the manager makes such barmy decisions that I lose patience with the man. Fabregas tried in the Bergkamp role four fifths of the way into the season with prizes still on the table? That smacks of desperation. Try it in pre-season next time.

One final thought. When Nicklas Bendtner came on as a sub last night, I wonder if he was tempted to relay to Emmanuel Adebayor the words, “I’m on because you’re sh*t”?