For the past five seasons Arsenal fans have had very little to shout about. We have won nothing, come close on very rare occasions and folded like a pack of cards every time we have seen a winning post in sight. We have seen our main rivals catch us up and then cruise past us with ease and watched as they disappeared over the horizon. Let us face facts as things stand we are virtually on a par with Tottenham and comfortably behind both Chelsea and Manchester United.

Shall we all give up the ghost and go home? Well I for one don’t think so.

Let us go back to 2004. Arsenal have won the league title and gone the whole season undefeated. We would have laughed at the prospect of being on a similar level to Spurs and I simply don’t remember ever losing to Chelsea in the league home or away. It was us or United that won the title and whoever out of us two that didn’t win it finished second and it was as simple as that.

Enter Roman’s cheque book and suddenly the football hierarchy got shook up, Chelsea spent like money was going out of fashion and others over time followed suit. Liverpool improved, Aston Villa improved, even Tottenham started to improve and all of a sudden it was no longer a two horse race season after season. Good for the game? Not if you are a Gooner.

Fast forward to the summer of 2010 and Manchester City have now sat down at the top table. Any players of the calibre of Yaya Toure and Carlos Tevez at City ten years ago? I don’t think so. Money talks in this game, just ask Ade and Kolo. Whilst all this has been happening elsewhere we as a club have got on with our business old school style under the leadership of Wenger, Hill Wood and co.

But let us now fast forward another year or two from today and the horizon shifts back in our favour. No longer can clubs be run in such a way as they will not be permitted to enter European competitions such as the Champions League etc.

The spending at the Bridge has already dried up but let’s face it they are not exactly profitable are they! Villa under American ownership have not spent any real money anyway, Liverpool have gone downhill far quicker than Eddie the Eagle ever did and City will clearly have no chance of repeating the spending power they exercised last summer. It simply will not be able to happen.

We have been run more like Everton and Blackpool in recent times but because of this possibly mundane approach we will not have to change our business model one jot. The likes of Manchester City and Chelsea need to re-think and quick otherwise the only cups they can win will be the Carling and FA Cups available to them without any need for a plane or should I say private jet?

Don’t forget as well the rules that came into place this season about home grown players. We do have the likes of Jack Wilshire, Theo Walcott, Aaron Ramsey and Kieran Gibbs at the club who are all British and young enough to get asked for ID. Yes Chelsea have English talent on show at the Bridge but if JT, Fat Frank or Cashley stroll into a bar on the Kings Road they wouldn’t be asked to get out their driver’s license in order to buy a shot of tequila would they! When you throw in the likes of Cesc (he is our player and when he isn’t £30m will be warming the coffers!) Vermaelen and RVP we shouldn’t feel too intimidated as things already stand let alone what they may look like in a season or two.

What we clearly do need to change is the general mentality of our squad as we do seem to have a bunch of players who in my opinion simply do not have the mental powers required to lift a major trophy, not only at this club of ours but anywhere else for that matter. For my money this list of players to oust includes Sagna, Clichy, Arshavin, Diaby, Rosicky, Almunia and Eboue. As long as our team is dominated with this type of weak headed player we will not win a meaningful trophy. I have come to the sad realisation that I move more whilst sleeping than Arshavin does in a month’s worth of matches! Pack the short overweight Russian’s bags for the Bridge now whilst we can still get a few quid back on him.

We need to get rid of this calibre of player, sprinkle over the existing squad with a more steely, gutsy mentality which in my opinion would only take two to three players to achieve and definitely include a much needed born leader (a genuine captain we have not had since Big Pat left the club) as we have no-one that rolls up their sleeves and looks proud to wear the shirt.

Do this over the next twelve months and we will be returning to winning ways. Don’t do this during the next twelve months and then it must be time for Wenger to leave the club and accept his failure. He has been the best manager the club has ever had but he has installed this loser mentality in the players. I believe it has been borne out of his own obsession with winning in a pretty manner, too nice to be dirty, too honest to cheat a free kick, too pansy to tackle Essien and co and let’s face it too cute to shoot.

We as fans pay top dollar to watch our team and we deserve a fair crack of the whip, otherwise it is all too easy to start watching Match of the Day and save the £80 including travel it costs to watch games in our state of the art library we call home these days.

Onwards and upwards or sideways and back? I expect the former.