Support The Arsenal or The Arsenal
I’m not one to slag off fellow Gooners on how they support The Arsenal.
It’s your choice, your opinions, your way.
But recently it’s been getting beyond ridiculous.
Some of the feeds I follow on Facebook and Twitter are beginning to test my faith in my fellow Arsenal fans, to the point where, I truly believe, a number have empty shells of lives and just want something to bitch and moan about.
The whole point of being a fan is to support the team though thick and thin.
You might hate the manager, you might hate the board, you might hate some players, but when they walk on the pitch, you HAVE to support the team, whether you’re in the Emirates, sat in bed in Sydney or in a bar in New York, otherwise, what the hell is the point!!!!
For me, this all came to a head during the latest Red Star game.
A comment appeared on my twitter feed saying (I’m paraphrasing here) ‘With Napoli, Lisbon, Dortmund and Atletico in 3rd place in their UCL groups, there’s no point in watching Arsenal in the Europa, we’re not going to win it anyway.’
The ‘gooner’ behind this post, then, whilst the game was still in progress, went on a massive tirade, at the CLUB, about the Sp*ds beating Real Madrid the night before.
Genius, on that basis, why bother to watch Arsenal at all, because on your logic we aren’t going to win anything and if you are more interested in the Sp*ds, sod off to Middlesex and support them.
To quote two famous Gooners:
Denis Bergkamp – “I really like Arsenal. But you, do you like Arsenal? Or just Arsenal with trophies?”
Dave Seager – “Can we get this straight on Spurs. I don’t give a f..k what they do until we count trophies and league position in May, apart from NLDs. End of”
And that is basically it:
You may hate who owns the club and how they operate their franchise!!!!
You may hate the manager and his methods.
But for God’s/Buddha’s/Allah’s (delete/replace as appropriate) sake, if you are a real fan, support the team to the bitter end, come hell or high water.
If you hate the other stuff, by all means let them know, but when the team need you full support, do your duty as a fan and back them.
If not, jog on with the plastics and the glory hunters
If not, jog on with the plastics and the glory hunters
English by birth, Australian by choice. Traffic Engineer, Arsenal ST Holder, Sun DreamTeam Winner, Writer on @GunnersTown, Depeche Mode, Welcome to my world…
Have spent a lifetime supporting the team through worst days and dire teams compared with the present. Please don’t however expect and caring fan to “put up and shut up” about the expressing their feelings and frustrations with some of the bizarre team selections and the manner in which players fail to turn up for matches such as last Sunday.
I regard myself as a loyal fan who will support the club through thick and thin but don’t ask me to tolerate the lack of leadership presently being shown at every level in our club
Mike walsh-spot on.yeah .if you mean support the team during the match.fine.would never ever wish them to lose to follow an agenda.but once game over.if there is criticism let it be aimed fairly & squarely where it is deserved.be that the owner,ceo,manager,coaches,players.we all want what’s best for the club.mediocrity.is not it.never will be.if that means constant crititicism to acheive the level & fame as the club we know we are.so be it.we are THE ARSENAL.
It’s easy enough to express an opinion now and, despite the accurate description of one platform in identifying most of it for what it really is – just twitter, easy to fool yourself into thinking that opinion has any value. Opinions are ten a penny nowadays. Buy your ticket, or tv subscription if that’s your choice, and enjoy each game as much as you can. All the other stuff is just twitter.
“What the hell is the point?!” is indeed the key question. For me, it feels as if there’s no point at the moment. I’ll always support Arsenal as an institution, as a football club, for what it used to stand for. However, this current team doesn’t really feel as if it belongs to the tradition. I feel total apathy at yet another loss.
Part of that has to do with the reality of modern football, which makes it ever harder to care for any club, as they’ve all turned into soulless commercial vehicles for billionaires, intent only on making more revenue from their ‘customers’.
In the case of our club, that’s made all the worse by the sense of never-ending drift (we’ve seen all the scenarios and outcomes before, so we know exactly what to expect – and there’s no improvement in sight) and a squad that doesn’t inspire any emotional attachment either. The players that probably care for the club are anonymous, and the others clearly want out asap. So what’s there to support on the pitch? Very little at the moment if you ask me.
nothing wrong whatsoever in calling out the manager, players, or Board/owner. that’s every fan’s full prerogative. but then i genuinely believe many of the fans whoa re dissenters are pretty much glory fans. they proabbly jumped on the bandwagon during the Invincibles/Henry days, and think that’s what football is all about. I’ve seen people say they won’t follow the team anymore since the club isn’t progressing. then what’s the point? Football support is never about winning. It’s about a passion. Or a hobby. Imagine if we had recent history of Newcastle, they haven’t won anything in decades, but they still average 50,000 for home games. Sunderland got 40,000 in their Premier League days.
Yes, Wenger needs to go. Yes, Gazidis/Kroenke/Sir Chips are all fucks. Yes, Alexis/Ozil may leave, and yes we have not won the league in a while, and are mismanaged in many areas. But then this doesn’t mean support is contingent on success. if so, then piss off to Spurs, or support City. Speaking of City, many of their fans remember when they used to dodge relegation, and were in League 1. We’ve never had those experiences, have we?