The next step for Arsenal Football Club - An opinionated thread.

(NOTE: These are only my opinions and wishes. They are not realistic at all, but it's what I believe would be the best for this football club. I'd love to hear your opinions too, but please don't harass me if I don't share your opinion.)

It has become rather evident, at least to myself, that we're not really able to compete with other big clubs like Man City, Chelsea and Man United anymore. We're trying to beat them at their own game, but without the same resources as they've got.

If we play like Man City of the pitch, we'll lose to them on the pitch. That's why we need to change our entire recruitment policy. Big name signings like Aubameyang, Lacazette, Pepe and Partey hasn't worked out for us. While individually brilliant, it has weakened the collective

Take Aubameyang for example. He has arguably been our best player for the past 3.5 years, and yet the club has continously declined in that period. If he stays for the entire duration of his contract, we will have spent well over £120m on him.

This has left us unable to build a great team around him, effectively rendering the signing pointless (again, him individually has been brilliant). With his age, we won't be able to recoup the money spent on him either.

What I'm proposing is a total revamp of our recruitment-process. First of all, we need to give total control of signings to experienced and proven professionals, who agree upon requirements for new signings, as well as understand the system and role they're meant to play.

My two dream appointments would be Luis Campos (Lille OSC) and Sven Mislintat (Stuttgart), either as co-DoFs or with Campos as DoF and Mislintat as a techical director of sorts. Either way, they would share responsibility of bringing in new players (and staff).

From here, the club would identify how we want to play. Take a 4231 with positional play as an example. With an identified style, regardless of who our manager is, we'd have a more unified and harmonious recruitment process.

This would of course mean that managers and staff will have to suit the desired style of play and formation. The benefit is that transitioning between managers, sale of players or rising through the youth ranks will be far smoother.

Signing players would also be far easier, since we know the style of play and the role required of them. Personally, I'd like us sign young players with a high potential around the age of 20-25, keep them until they're 25-28 and sell them on for a large profit.

This would make us far more self-sustainable, and would also allow us to target world class youngsters after a few seasons. In other words, this would be a similar model as to the ones of Ajax, Lille, BvB or Bodø/Glimt.

In my opinion, this would be a way to compete with top teams in a way we currently can't. It won't be easy, but it will provide stability, consistency and self-sustainability in the long term. It's far from perfect, but it's better than what we've got currently.

End of thread. I'd very much like to hear your thoughts on the matter! Please keep in mind this is only my personal preference. I know it's unrealistic, and probably not our best solution. I'm just an idiot, in love with a underpreforming football club. First thread in a while