It started off well, and by and large kept going quite well, until sometime in December it all fell apart. Then it was awful until we drew with Manchester City in April and off we went again. Eight wins in nine games at the end of the season, and a cup final to come.

And maybe all these years of saying “Fourth is not a trophy” were quite right. Fourth never was a trophy. But the same people who said that now seem to be saying that we won’t be able to sign the top players this summer because we are not in the Champions League next year. So maybe it was a trophy, of sorts.

As it turned out the League has been won for the past two years by clubs not in any form of European competition, which makes one wonder who will win the League next year. Southampton? Bournemouth? West Brom?

It seems an unlikely outcome, but then so did Leicester.

Although I know that the banner wavers and the people who arrange the aeroplane fly bys all deny it, I can’t help thinking that their prolonged anti-Wenger campaign can’t have made the players play any better. Which means either it had no effect on the players or it made them play worse.

Likewise with the transfers, I can’t imagine any player is more likely to come Arsenal because of the protests. Either it has no impact or it puts a player off.

I suspect that it will affect different players and different agents in different ways, but some players who played this past season would have put in more nervous performances because of the protests, and some players who might have been inclined to come to Arsenal this summer will have been put off, because of the protests.

After all, it is not as if Arsenal will be the only club bidding for any player.

Thus it is fair to say, I believe, that irrespective of what happens in the Cup Final, Arsenal is now a club in turmoil. There will be some who will want to leave, and some who might have wanted to come here, who didn’t. Some players will continue to put in more nervous performances than might have otherwise been the case.

And meanwhile we face an almighty problem, in that three of the teams who are our rivals (Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United) have much, much more money available for transfers than Arsenal.

For while we have to pay for our new training facilities and new youth centre, Manchester City have all that paid for by their owners. Chelsea, when they come to move, will likewise have it paid for by the owner, and won’t have years paying off the debt. And Manchester United will continue to benefit from the fruits of their world wide marketing scheme set up back in the 1960s.

As long as Kroenke sees Arsenal as an investment, we are stuck with the finances we have, and that’s that. Yes another manager might do better than Wenger, but there’s not guarantee. And he (whoever he is) most certainly won’t have more money.

Of course Leicester did win the league with far less money than Arsenal has, but as we have seen it was a one off, and for a while it looked like they could go down this season. And besides one season at the top is not what we are after. What I think most of us want is a return to the style we had in the early part of the Wenger era, which means regularly challenging for top position.

But when Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United can buy anyone they want, any time they want, I just can’t see that happening. It is not a case of removing Wenger, or the next manager, or the one after that. It is a case of how we compete with the monied clubs when we don’t have nearly as much as they do.

So, if I see those three clubs continuing to develop, what of the other challengers? In particular, what of Tottenham? Tottenham have built an excellent team, let us not be churlish about it. But… they are back where we were when the Emirates Stadium was built. They have to pay for the new ground with money that would otherwise come from transfers.

Worse they have the disadvantage of one year, and possibly two years, at Wembley.

The only club in the last 25 years to survive in even a semi-decent position after moving to a new ground has been …. Arsenal, with its regularity in the top four. All the other clubs have slipped back. From Middlesbrough in 1995 (relegated in 1997), to Leicester in 2002 (relegated 2004), and from there via Manchester City and on to West Ham, every club that has moved to a new stadium, has gone backwards in terms of results.

We have seen Tottenham’s results this season at Wembley in the Champions League (relegated to the Europa) and the Europa League (knocked out). Of course they might finally be the exception that proves the rule but each of the last 15 moves have resulted in a decline.

Worse for Tottenham, it seems that they are following Arsenal’s model of paying for the stadium from their own revenue. And double-worse (if there is such a phrase) they are going to be paying for a stadium that is coming in at double the cost that they estimated at the start. In fact double the cost of Arsenal’s stadium.

That doesn’t mean that because Tottenham will slip back, Arsenal will rise up again. Without being able to match the funding of the Manchester clubs and Chelsea it is going to take some amazing work with youngsters and transfer opportunities to break through to the top. But I am fairly sure that Tottenham’s reign as being the top club in North London, will be a one season wonder.

Can Arsenal rise up again while Kroenke is in control. I must admit I rather doubt it. But we can always hope.