Arsenal Legend Nigel Winterburn has declared that he thinks Arsenal fans have had it very good under Arsene Wenger, especially in the first several years after he took over as manager for the club. He also added that fans should keep the faith, despite Arsenal recently completing a sixth consecutive season without winning any silverware.

“In a way when Arsene first came to the club the supporters became spoiled because he continued the tradition of winning trophies,” said Winterburn in an interview with talkSPORT.

Winterburn went on to add, “the last six years haven’t been great in terms of winning things, but I’m sure by now he has realised that maybe he needs to strengthen the squad, and I’m sure he will do that in the summer. And you also have to look at how he has provided a new training ground for the club, and the infrastructure for the Emirates Stadium.”

For the record, I will always be grateful to Arsene Wenger for what he created at Arsenal. His vision of how a club should be run has brought Arsenal to where it is today, with a new stadium, a new training ground at London Colney, and an established tradition of excellence rivaled by few clubs in the world.

The sad reality, however, is that we live in a ‘what have you done for me lately’ culture. Lately, Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal has been short on substance, and big on excuses. Us fans have been patient, when Wenger asked us to trust in him, to give his young side time to mature and flourish, we faithfully obliged. We were led to believe that this team would be great, once they put the pieces together. Now, many of us are beginning to believe we were misled.

And in somewhat related news, Robin Van Persie has stated that he feels Arsenal can no longer be considered among the frontrunners for the English Premier League title each year. Skysports.com has reported that the Arsenal striker believes his club must invest in new players this summer to have a hope of competing for trophies next year.

“Every year it goes wrong in an identical way and that is frustrating. When you look at results in the last years, Arsenal shouldn’t be talking about winning the league because too many times that has gone wrong.”

Van Persie went on to add, “but I believe with the signing of a number of players, we should be in there competing for the prizes.”

As much as it hurts to admit, RVP is correct when he says we shouldn’t be considered among the favorites anymore. Arsenal have made too much of a habit over the years of selling off established players and trying to replace them on the cheap, and it’s catching up with us. Arsenal need a summer filled with signings, while taking care to only let so-called ‘deadwood’ depart the club.

And make no mistake here, when Robin was speaking about signings, I don’t think he was referring to Carl Jenkinson.

As always, whether you agree with me or not, I invite you to let your thoughts be known in our newly-launched Arsenal Forum!