Over the last couple of weeks I have read a lot of articles on the Gooner website, and elsewhere on the internet, lambasting the players, the manager, the coaches (poor Pat Rice…), the Board and even the fans for the “utter calamity” of finishing fourth in the Premier League and only reaching the semi-finals of the Champions League and FA Cup.

Now, I am very disappointed too, but I would urge all to consider the bigger picture.

Firstly, let’s look further ahead than next week or even next season. Let’s consider five years ahead.

The key determinant of success in the longer term is the relative financial situation of Arsenal and their rival clubs. Unless a club is bankrolled by a benefactor, the only way to secure financial health is for income to be at least equivalent to expenses. The only benefactor operating currently, as far as I can see, is Roman Abramovich – and this is dependent on his whim and personal financial situation in a grave economic crisis. It is possible that Man City’s owners are prepared to sustain a loss to promote Abu Dhabi although even that is unclear at this stage. All the other high-rollers currently involved are in it to make money, albeit in the longer term (even Randy Lerner at Aston Villa is investing now in the hope of CL football in the future). I think this is a highly suspect strategy during an economic crisis, where sterling has collapsed and the future of English football at the top level is very uncertain.

Manchester United have to pay, off the top of my head, £60m per year in interest! They only cover this through extreme on-field success. And Ferguson won’t be there in five years… Liverpool are also hugely in debt. Chelsea I mentioned above, and can’t be considered stable given their limited support base. Aston Villa are still some way off the CL and Man City are even further behind and unstable to boot. Other prospective challengers (Everton? Tottenham?) do not have the financial resources - even in the short term.

Arsenal, I believe, are paying around £20m per year in interest (forgive me for not checking the exact numbers), and are well on the way to financial stability. In five years’ time, their annual income will be a match for anyone and should be generating significant surpluses for investing in players.

Now, let’s look at how our current situation on the pitch may look five years down the road:

Arsenal, whatever the Board says, have obviously had to operate within a restrictive budget over the last few years due to the new stadium. Now I suspect Wenger has long harboured a dream to build a team from scratch through developing young players to maturity – so his dream has coalesced with the commercial reality and that is what has been happening. I believe Wenger is correct in saying that, given time, the current squad could indeed win the PL and CL. In five years time, most of the current players will be at their peak and even the older ones (Sagna, van Persie, Toure, Almunia) will have value. Only Gallas, Silvestre and probably Rosicky will be gone. At the same time, several of the players currently in the Youth Cup Final squad will be adding strength in depth. Meanwhile, it is likely that many of our current rivals will be in severe financial difficulty and will no longer be a threat. While some of the existing squad will inevitably leave, the assumption would be that they could be replaced like for like.

The question is whether people will be able to wait five years (perhaps less)? But then I remember the mid-70s, the early-mid 80s and even the mid-90s when we would have been delighted with 4th place in the league – and the European Cup semi-final would have been a pipe-dream. Anyone remember 16 years with just one trophy from ‘71 – ’87?

When Wenger took over we had just qualified for the UEFA Cup on the very last day, had little money, played in a small stadium and had a very mediocre youth policy.

In the shorter term, I believe we would have won the league last season had it not been for Eduardo’s injury (sadly Birmingham will be back next season). We were then destabilised this season through the departures of Hleb and Flamini – neither of which Wenger wanted (I don’t believe Gilberto was a major loss) – and a whole succession of serious injuries.

Today, I believe that Almunia, Sagna, Clichy, Toure/Gallas (not that effective together), Fabregas, Nasri, Rosicky, van Persie and Arshavin could be regular starters for a champion team. I think that Gibbs, Djourou, Song, Denilson, Walcott, Bendtner, Ramsey, Wilshere and Vela could all be at that standard within three years (less for some of them). Of the remainder, Eduardo is close and could do it and Eboue is acceptable cover at right back. Adebayor needs to get his head straight – but will probably leave. Which only leaves Senderos, who is not good enough, Fabianski, who looks a long way short and Silvestre who is a liability (as an aside I strongly believe that the common factor throughout the season when we have shipped goals is one or both of Silvestre and Fabianski has been in the team. Our average goals conceded with Silvestre is probably at least double what it is without – I don’t have a match programme to hand to check).

Therefore, I acknowledge some experienced signings will help. A stopper centre-back, a defensive midfielder (although Song is very close now – the problem is that the remainder of the midfield, particularly Walcott, are extremely poor defensively, therefore whoever fills that role needs to be outstanding). And a centre-forward to replace Adebayor.

But we will still not win the league! Consider: why pay £25m for a 27 year old who is at the level one of the youngsters will be in 12-24 months? Then the 29 year old is worth £10m and/or the youngster has left because he didn’t get the opportunity to complete his development.

So the long term sensible thing to do is to reinforce the team enough to stay ahead of the pack for the next 2-3 years – and then watch the “financially-doped” clubs fall to earth, leaving us dominant from around 2014 onwards (and likely with some success in the interim)!

I can wait – can you? And, if not, by spending money we don’t have now, we are just mortgaging the future and still may not win anything… Arsenal are for life – not just next season.