What's going on?

I was, once again, horrified by the response of many Arsenal fans to our defeat by Man Utd on Sunday. Yes it was a big game, yes we were at home and yes a win would have been fantastic.

But to see our own fans effectively booing one of our players onto the pitch and criticising the manager's decision to make a substitution - whether it worked out or not - is just plain wrong.

And I agree wholeheartedly with Wenger that he does not have to justify his decisions, team selection or substitutes to anyone. That's his job for goodness' sake.

However, while I am a strong supporter of the club, respecter of the players and manager, that does not mean that I just blindly accept everything without question.

There's something that doesn't quite stack up at the Emirates at the moment. It feels almost as if the collective foot has been taken off the gas and I've been wondering why.

The new stadium was meant to make us a bigger, stronger club, with bigger gate receipts and the ability, therefore, to compete with the Man Uniteds, FCBs and RMs of this world. Instead it seems to have become a (hand) brake on the club.

In addition, while we have not won anything for 5 years now we have, in all those previous years, remained serious contenders until quite late in the season. Last year we were in the mix until the last 6 games (when we fell away badly).

We have remained in contention through performances and results and, crucially, because we have had the sort of 'super quality' that can take games away from the opposition. This year we were effectively out of contention before the end of September. That has to be worrying for everyone involved with the club.

The Hill-Wood out brigade are, I'm afraid, barking up the wrong tree. He's a ceremonial figurehead. Doesn't make decisions or set policy. He has also done a great deal for the club over the years, so respect is due.

The WOB (Wenger Out) people are also, imho, being a bit naive. He's still one of the top five or six managers in Europe and, after that select group (none of whom are likely to be contenders to replace AW), it's a long way down in terms of quality, to the next best.

So what's changed? Yes it's been 5/6 years without a trophy, but this season the intensity seems to have gone down another notch in my opinion. And because he always fronts up (let's face it after Hill-Wood's performance last week we now know why), AW personifies everything that's good and bad in the fans' eyes.

If the purse strings are being tightly held by the board and/or the owner, AW still has to go out there and put a brave face on the situation. He's not going to criticise the club or the board or the owner. And for £7million a year, I wouldn't either :-)

An alternative view is that AW himself has decided that we don't need to spend any money in order to improve the quality and competitiveness of the squad. Now he is clearly a stubborn man, but I just do not believe that he thinks we do not need to invest in quality in order to compete.

I think that when the board had several members whose shareholding was effectively for sale, there was an urgent, unmissable need for the club to do as well as possible, to keep as high a profile as possible, in order to maximise the value of their shares.

Once the deal had been done, and there is now effectively a single owner, that pressure was off. At least that's what it feels like to me. It feels like the owner is stifling the required investment and that everyone else in the club, therefore, has to go along with it. I really can't think of another explanation for the current situation.

I am struggling to understand why Stan bought the club. Surely you want a 'toy' to play with, to have fun with, to compete with your rival super-rich people? He's been once in 9 months.

He talked a good fight at the AGM and hasn't been seen since. I wonder if perhaps he's over-stretched and does not have the sort of 'fun money' we thought he had?

Maybe what he's actually doing is waiting to make a killing when Usmanov comes in at a future date? Certainly his money will be making more money invested in Arsenal than it would just about anywhere else at the moment.

Meantime, we're stuck watching in despair as he consolidates his position, shores up the club's finances, pays off the stadium and gets to the point where AFC will be one of the most desirable/valuable sporting brands and clubs in the world.

It probably doesn't matter all that much to Stan if we're slightly off the pace for the next couple of years while all this consolidation happens. By then FFP will have kicked in and the stadium will be paid for.

I hope I'm wrong about this: I don't think the problem is the manager or the chairman, or the players' efforts or commitment. It is partly down to the quality that we are able to put on the pitch every week (irrespective of injuries) and about whether we can attract the top level players that we once could, now that mega bucks has come into the game.

But the bottom line, for me, must be that the owner sets the vision and ambition for the club. He controls the purse-strings and effectively dictates who says what to the outside world. We may not be able to compete, toe to toe with Citeh or Chel$ki, but we should be able to at least match United, Liverpool and Spuds and we should not be simply rolling over and becoming, effectively, a feeder club to Manchester City.

Like I say, something just doesn't stack up at Arsenal right now. It won't change my allegiance nor that of any true fans, but it is starting to become pretty bloody frustrating.

My message to Stan would be: If you're not here to play; to win; to have a bit of fun along the way, why not cash in your chips, accept your (considerable) profit and go and lie on a beach somewhere. You may not need the money Stan, but we fans need the excitement, competitiveness and sheer joy that being an Arsenal fan has always delivered in the past. If you're not committed to continuing that scenario, maybe you should not be our owner.