Former Arsenal captain Frank McLintock feels the team has ‘lost the plot’ and the ability to compete with their rivals.

Arsenal trail league leaders Manchester City by just the 23 points, but only seven points separate them from second placed Manchester United.

It’s not an insurmountable gap (to United) by any means, but our form hasn’t been great this season.

Like many former players and anyone associated with the club, Frank McLintock was disappointed with fifth place last season and fears the same could happen again.

“I felt disappointed we finished fifth last year, and we could finish fifth or sixth this year, hopefully not,” he said, as reported by the Evening Standard.

The former Arsenal captain has been particularly disappointed with broken promises and average transfers.

“I admire good football, and in the last few years Tottenham have been playing very good football, I just get disappointed as we were promised things and we haven’t been able to accomplish that.

“I don’t think the team are anywhere near as good as some of the teams I’ve seen in the past,” he said.

“In the last 15 years, this is just an ordinary team in comparison to the ones Arsene Wenger has brought through.

“Wenger and the owner have decided between them they can’t spend as much money as some of the other bigger clubs are doing.

“Some of the buys have not been as good as I expected, but at the time, if you look back over Wenger’s career, he came in and took over after George Graham and Bruce Rioch and did a fantastic job for about 12-14 years, but in the last three or four years, we have lost the plot and I don’t think we are going to challenge anyone.”

He’s not alone in thinking that Arsenal’s transfer business recently has been disappointing.

Several of the new signings have failed to make an impact at the club.

However, in terms of spending, few clubs have invested more money into their squads than Arsenal have.

The club has parted with figures north of £30m for five players since Mesut Ozil’s arrival in 2013.

So how much the club is spending isn’t the issue. They money is there to be spent.

In any case, Arsenal will hopefully find a way to return to the Champions League next season and make their squad rebuild a little easier.