They may be Anti-Arsenal, but they’re our Anti-Arsenal
By Simon Bailey
They may be Anti-Arsenal, but they’re our Anti-Arsenal
or
Why they haven’t got a leg to stand on.
I love the Arsenal. No, I mean it, I really love the Arsenal. There are things I love more; my family, my home, and my dearly departed brindle lurcher to name a few. But apart from these, the Arsenal is my all consuming passion.
All of my work buddies and friends support different teams, and of all my family only my eldest son and father-in-law are fellow gooners. My missus worships the ground that Torres walks on, and her brother is a spud.
This past year I have had supporters of United, City, Villa, West Ham, the spuds, Liverpool and Pompey join me to watch games either in HD or via the internet. There is always plenty of banter and mirth making, but we are all bound together by our love for our respective teams.
Not many of us actually get to see our teams play in the flesh, and indeed if I get to come over twice a year to see us play, then that’s a good year. But we are all dedicated footie supporters.
I have often heard cries of anguish when their teams lose but not once have I heard any of them complain about off field issues. My wife never complains about Rafa or Hicks or Gillette or the Europa cup. My buddy Shocky doesn’t care that United are wallowing in debt. John, my brother-in-law doesn’t give a hoot that the spuds never amount to anything. And Arlo and Stan (Villa & WHU) are eternal optimists. I could go on but it’s the same story for all concerned.
I am not saying that all fans of other teams love every aspect of how their team is run, let’s face it United and Liverpool fans have plenty to complain about. However Ferguson, Benitez, and Zola are not the targets. Sure the press may occasionally have a half hearted pop at them but it isn’t sustained and the next issue will generally have a different target or theme.
So what’s up with Arsenal and Arsene? Why have the the press and the anti-Arsenal painted a great big bulls-eye on them?
It can’t be silverware, because in the last 10 years only three EPL clubs have more than us.
It can’t be league position because in the last 10 years we have never finished lower than fourth. We have been in the Top flight longer than any other English team, indeed it’s almost a century since we were promoted from the second division and we haven’t looked back.
It can’t be lack of European football because for the last 10 years we have had it every year.
It can’t be our financial situation, because ours is currently the best in the EPL. I know Chelsea and City have sugar daddies but they still can’t manage to post a profit in their respective end of year accounts, and we all know about the situation at OT and Anfield.
It can’t be our lack of youth training and recruitment, because ours is the best in the EPL if not the world. For instance, the whole of the Ivory Coast national team were recruited and trained by one of our worldwide soccer schools. Our youth and reserves teams are playing exceptionally well and have been for a few years now.
In fact we are doing so well on this front that it makes it almost impossible for Arsene to find better players in the transfer windows. Last year we signed two first team players, Arshavin and Vermaelen. Both of these deals went to the wire because Arsene will not pay over the odds for anyone.
It can’t be because our manager and most of our players are not British, because its 2010. Britain is truly a multi-cultural society, the French own and supply many of our utilities: power, water etc. and there is a great big tube linking us to the continent.
Most of our hospitals are staffed by immigrants, who also do most of the jobs that are ‘beneath’ us. Our national dish is Chicken Tikka Massalla, most of us drive to the match in cars made by non British companies or watch it on TVs or PCs manufactured abroad. Sky Tv is owned by an Australian, ESPN is American and Setanta is Irish (yes, I still get to see 3pm Saturday kick offs every week on Setanta).
It can’t be our lack of training and playing facilities. Our state of the art training ground in Hertfordshire, funded from the profit from selling Anelka, is the envy of all EPL teams and we play at the newest and best ground in the country.
It can’t be because our players continually exhibit anti-social behaviour in public because, driving offences aside, the most recent scandal was a photo of Bendtner with his trousers round his ankles looking bewildered as he left a night club, and we all know that the photographer paid his mate to pull them down at just the right moment, hence the bewildered look.
In short, they’ve got nothing, nil, nada. Not a leg to stand on. Every argument thrown up (literally) has been countered very eloquently by the Pro Wenger / Arsenal crowd.
In this lead up to the world cup, in which many of our players will be going to South Africa, the English press, as is to be expected, are whipping up a pro-English furore. Unfortunately for us (or fortunately) not many of our players will be sporting the 3-lions crest and so negativity towards the opposition (us) wrapped up in fervent nationalism is the order of the day.
This doesn’t bother me a great deal because English press = Engand squad = no brainer. The beauty of the internet is that anyone with an opinion can voice it quite anonymously.
This is where Anti-Arsenal has exploded. Any two bit scrote with a hangover and a bad attitude can vent their frustration free from the normal restrictions of truth, clarity and news-worthiness. To tell you the truth, I read Legrove every day, normally for the hilarity factor of the ‘bboooommmm’ first comments. Although I heartily disagree with most of their content, I have to admit that, as a diatribe, most of it is well written. Unlike many blogs with the word ‘Arsenal’ in the title.
The question still remains; why so negative about the team they love? I think it’s just another facet of the modern society we live in. Impatience is the new patience. As I pointed out earlier, over the last 10 years we have been very successful, but 10 years is 2/3 of a lifetime for a lot of bloggers and so the five-trophyless-years stick which they beat their keyboards with is pertinent to them.
We all know that if Arsene left, two things would happen. Firstly he would be able to walk into just about any team in the world. Secondly, we would struggle, probably for years, to replace him.
We also know that if Arsenal reverted to football 2.0, things wouldn’t change for the better. We might be able to buy our way to a trophy or two a-la United or Chelsea, but there’s no guarantee. We could always do a Harry and bankrupt our team for one bus-top parade. Or we could do a City, get a sugar daddy and still fail to play inspiring football or fill our stadium.
Personally I wouldn’t change a thing. Not the manager, not the team, not the press or even the anti-Arsenal. They are all now inextricably linked and are what make The Arsenal what it is today.
Simon Bailey.
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Chris66,
diversity of opinions? In which way is your opinion different from 90 percent of the newsnow headlines demanding Arsene’s head, reiterating some old rumours about his way of working? You choose to treat Arsenal like a product, some choose to support our club. That’s it.
And your far right Republican comment clearly shows that you don’t have a clue about free speech. It’s an insult to people who suffered from real censorship and prosecution. This is a football forum ffs. Leave it that way.
If you’re struggling to find the right football analogy look at what happend to clubs like Leeds or Portsmouth and many more.
No one is bigger than the club. I know this and the person who is most aware of this is Arsene Wenger. That’s why he has my unconditional support while he is at our club.
@66,
I thought you said you gave up on this site long ago? Now you introduce American politics into Arsenal football. What gives anyway? I think To Simon’s point was what? Stop hating the Club you love! Every fact he presents is not disputable but factual… I have a proposition for you write an article that reflects The New Arsenal you would approve of (of course I have no say if it gets approved) let us become You by being critics and let’s see a debate. Again to Simon’s point; it is very easy to blog but it is quite different to actually run an organization like a football club or Arsenal for that matter. If you were honest how much different would it be from how it is currently run or maybe I could be wrong but you do have real actionable legitimate proposals?
How on earth can someone term Arsenal a mediocre club?
Boozy, are you dizzy?
Please go support a different club ’cause you definitely don’t deserve this club.
@chris66
Quit quoting Palin on one hand and then deriding everything he stands for on the other.
You’re all over the place. Daft analogy by the way [football v politics]. If you want to talk football, stick to football. You’ve completely negated the context of the game by comparing it to something so widely off the mark.
I’ve yet to read anyone here address these points:
1. Our tactical naivety
2. Our persistence with substandard players (Almunia especially)
3. Our faulty medical department
I feel like I’m talking underwater here. I give three points that an anti-Arsenal fan would give, no one has given a response about these things, and yet there are 50 comments supporting the vision of Arsene Wenger, the saintliness of his devoted fans, and the mindlessness of his detractors. No one’s argued why my objections are unjustified.
Are these things really so inconsequential in the grand scheme of things? I thought addressing these things would be part and parcel of a well-run football club. Or do people really think conceding stupid goals is bad luck and not systemic failure to coach our defence. Do people really think that Almunia isn’t a liability in goal? Do people really think that having 10 players out at a time, for four or five consecutive years, is a sign of good physiological management.
And no one’s explained to me why Wenger dropping Arshavin for the FA Cup semi-final last year was justified. Walter tried… but he didn’t answer it. Finsbury made some veiled allusion to a misquote, but his didn’t answer it. Do things like this just slip the collective consciousness of the Arsene Knows Brigade?
Well-endowed gooner, there could be dozens of reason for nut starting Arshavin in the Fa cup semi’s last year.
Arshaving could have been tired, a minor injury, needed a rest, aiming at the CL semifinal.
Other reasons could be that there has been an argument with : other players, with the coaching staff,
yet other reasons could be that he didn’t do what he was told to do: on training, in games, by coming late on the meeting point, by drinking wodka in stead of water, maybe some lack of discipline from the players part, etc…
We just don’t know it as our training ground is as closed as Fort Knox. It could be a combination of those things also.
And maybe Wenger and Arshavin had agreed that he would be punished for one of those possible reasons and would not start that game and that they had agreed to not go public on this just to cause no further unrest ?
I don’t know, you don’t know, we don’t know. Your guess is as good as my guess and as long as both keep their lips thight no one will know.
So we can keep talking all over it untill the end of the century we only can guess. Maybe if Wenger writes his memoires, we will find out.
At the time, I thought Arshavin had to have had a slight injury or was unfit. Both were plausible reasons, and would’ve been accepted as such. There is no plausible reason why Wenger would cover up an Arshavin injury. Wenger doesn’t shy away from talking about players having injuries. He even uses “injury” as a reason to drop a player for discipline or disputes. Half the Arsenal team has an injury at one point or another. It’s not a new thing.
But Wenger said he did it to prove to his boys that they can win without him. WTF was that about? You can second-guess Wenger all you want, but I’m taking his comment at face value – Wenger wanted HIS players to show their worth so badly that he was willing to put out a weakened side. That’s unforgivable.
And Arshavin was cup-tied for the CL semi-final. That was the reason for it, I remember – there was a big CL semi-final against Man Utd coming up, and there wouldn’t be an Arshavin in that line-up, so Wenger wanted to prove to his players that they could face big opposition (Chelsea in case of Man Utd) without Arshavin.
And you REALLY think that that’s a good enough reason to drop Arshavin?
well-endowed,
it’s a good sensible reason for me. Also Arshavin’s defensive effort has room for improvement to say the least. Just ask some Zenit fans or look at his games for us so far. Remember after Arshavin came on we conceded our second goal. The difference between the FA cup game against Chelsea and the following Liverpool game was the quality of defence of the opposition’s team.
And please move on. It’s tiring having to talk about an event almost a year ago.
Re: leaving Arshavin out of the FA cup semi-final.
Bar maybe one or two players, didn’t Arsene select the same team that nearly did Chelsea in the 2007 Carling Cup final? I personally think this was behind his team selection that day. They were so unlucky in the CC and ran Chelsea ragged most of the game. I think he selected the team he did to let those young players have another crack and to see how far they had developed since that final defeat. Unfortunately, he couldn’t legislate for a goalkeeper that completely lost the plot as is what happened with Fabianski.
Carling Cup semi final???, why are you guys draging up that old story, let’s deal with what’s important now!
With this in mind I’d like to congratulate the team for the defeat of Liverpool yesterday.
Well done lads!!!
anyone see the horror tackle yesterday in the arsenal game? was a shocker lol.. anyways you can watch the liverpool v blackburn game at http://www.watchliverpoolonline.com/2010/02/watch-liverpool-fc-v-blackburn-rovers-online-28-02-2010/