Why Arsène’s Arsenal are hated (even by its own fans): a long perspective
By Brian Baker
I was prompted to write this following the extraordinary convulsions in the Arsenal blogosphere after the defeat to Manchester United.
Chicken Licken bloggers, one of whom claimed they could manage Arsenal better than Arsene, renewed their calls for Denilson’s head, Arsene’s head, anyone’s head. (Unwise bloggers might be encouraged to read this.) It seemed so out of kilter with reality that I thought that there had to be some kind of diagnosis of a collective mentality, shared by the football media in England and the ‘doom and gloom’ Arsenal bloggers, that made them react in such a way. These are my diagnoses.
The Foreign Agenda. Arsene’s French nationality is a constant point of reference, the implication being that Arsenal is now a ‘French club’. (One blog stated that Smalling had chosen United over Arsenal ‘because he wanted to speak English in the dressing room.’) From the old references to ‘discipline’, or rather lack of it (all those red cards, symptoms of a suspect temperament) to the current accusation that Arsenal lack an ‘English spine’, fighting spirit, or physicality, Arsène’s Arsenal fall foul of a particular kind of xenophobia, in both the football media and among our own fan-base.
What is unspoken is that Arsenal’s global scouting network is a necessary and far-sighted (and now much-imitated) policy that enables the club to compete, by attracting young footballing talent from a global pool: nationality is secondary to technique, temperament, ability, and athleticism. Arsenal are a post-national club, a difficult thing in a post-Imperial country.
The Logic of ‘Success’. We often read that Arsenal haven’t won anything for 5 years (and counting). The Chicken Licken mantra: ‘We must buy. The kids aren’t good enough. The club isn’t successful. The ‘youth experiment’ has failed.’
As Untold Arsenal has been exploring, finances in English football mean that we have to re-think what we understand by footballing ‘success’. What is success, and how do we measure it? In wins, in trophies, in superstars bought for multi-millions? Or, in building a stable, properly-financed, sensibly run club, which produces and develops its own players, that plays an entertaining and winning style of football, and that will continue as an institution not for 5 or 10 years but for 100?
The Blame Game. ‘Something is wrong with the club.’ ‘Wenger’s lost the plot.’ ‘He’s too stubborn.’ This line of thinking sees defeat not as a necessary component of sporting competition (think of what it would be like to ‘support’ the Harlem Globetrotters), but as a manifestation of some kind of lack on the part of the manager, or some kind of terminal decline in his thinking.
When Arsenal are beaten, the assumption is not that the other team played better football on the day, but that Arsenal would beat all others handsomely if it were not for the selection, motivational and tactical deficiencies of Arsene Wenger himself. The Arse-blogosphere looks for someone to blame for disappointment, and lays it all at the door of ’Big Daddy’ (see below). The blame game is clearly linked to raised expectations created by the 1998, 2002 and especially 2004 teams, but is also tainted by ‘declinism’, a belief that the past was a better place, which is very much an English cultural malaise.
The Instant. The Arse-blogosphere is reactive, and places instantaneous reaction above reflection and thought. It also places instant digestion above slow rumination. The Chicken Licken blogs are symptoms of our ‘live’, ‘24/7’, instant access and instant comment digital culture. The culture of instantaneousness means that Arsenal are not allowed to lose, because there is no longer view of things, and a defeat means the end of the world.
As the food critic Anton Ego says in Ratatouille, ‘After reading a lot of overheated puffery … you know what I’m craving? A little perspective. That’s it. I’d like some fresh, clear, well seasoned perspective. Can you suggest a good wine to go with that?’
A Sense of Entitlement. ‘We deserve better.’ Chicken Licken Arsenal bloggers and fans believe that somehow they are entitled to watch not only high-quality entertaining football, but all-conquering football. This has been reinforced by the success of Arsène’s Arsenal itself. No-one who watched Terry Neill’s Arsenal, or George Graham’s, can honestly inhabit that sense of entitlement. This sense, not that we are privileged to watch the kind of foot ball seen at the Emirates, but that we ‘deserve’ to do so, is also connected with consumerism.
The Dominance of Consumerism. It’s no great news that the contract between fan and club has changed since the advent of the Premier League, and the post-Hillsborough construction of a middle-class fan-base for top-level football. In treating the fan as a customer, however, our club has helped produce a consumption-oriented fan mentality that now manifests itself on the Arse-blogosphere. A recurrent complaint is: ‘I pay £XXXX for my season ticket, so I expect to see XXXX.’
Chicken Licken bloggers now relate to the experience of watching football as they would to a movie: they want a guaranteed level of entertainment or success, and if they don’t get it, they complain loudly. Of course, the experience of watching a live football match is not the repeatable, guaranteed experience of watching a movie: sometimes a team plays badly, sometimes they lose. Arsenal don’t lose very much, but when defeat comes…
A Culture of Complaint. In 1993, the art critic Robert Hughes published a book called The Culture of Complaint. In it, Hughes argued that ‘we create an infantilized culture of complaint, in which Big Daddy is always to blame and the expansion of rights goes on without the other half of citizenship – attachment to duties and obligations…
The emphasis is on the subjective: how we feel about things, rather than what we think’. Rather than a democratic expression of fan voices, the Arse-blogosphere is largely characterised by this mode of complaint, the football-consumer rejecting the long-term ‘duties and obligations’ of supporting their club in favour of short-term gratification, and instant expressions of blame.
The Importance of Ideology. This underpins everything. The foundational motive for the bias against Arsène Wenger’s Arsenal is economics. Arsène Wenger has been pursuing an economic policy which runs diametrically against the prevailing ideological orthodoxy of ‘Football 2.0’: that financial irresponsibility (spending on transfer fees and wages at a level that cannot be sustained by the club’s business model) is the only path to success (see above).
This model is of course the same one that Brownian economic policy has pursued since 1997, the inflation of a financial bubble founded on unsustainable levels of debt, that is now also falling to pieces. Wenger’s foresight is actually astounding, if only the football media and the Chicken Licken Arse-blogosphere could understand it, or perhaps stand to look at it.
Wenger’s Arsenal offer a different model of financial responsibility and footballing excellence that rejects ‘borrow and spend’ irresponsibility. When the sky does indeed fall (as Untold Arsenal has demonstrated that it shall – the first drops of a hard rain are falling even now) then Arsenal will be one of the best-prepared clubs to succeed – by whatever measure – in England, and in Europe.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
The story of how Chelsea committed the biggest con trick in the history of football on the Making the Arsenal blog
The story of Arsenal’s fall from grace and return to the highlife, in the Making the Arsenal book
Yup, it sure is a good thing that AW has no idea how to drill a defence.
I am glad that there are some people out there who can spot such things!
Er, Arsenal, under AW are not the only team to have won the league unbeaten, are they?
Or will Keown, who’s publicly said he thinks the standard of coaching on England is rubbish, is clearly an admirer of Wengerball, be given all the credit for that too, even though he wasn’t a coach at the time?
I would love to see Keown back at AFC, but not for the spurious reasons given above.
well-endowed gooner – it was eboue, not sagna in that “keown” defence
We have always had fans (and probably so have most clubs) who just want to vent their negative emotions on the club.
Remember in Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby’s vivid description of his first ever game in the late 1960s. He couldn’t believe how much people hated being at the game.
I’m always amazed when I watch fans who just always look unhappy. Even during the unbeaten season there were tons of fans who would say nothing as we tore teams apart and then groaned or shouted out in anger at the first mis-placed pass. I never really understood why people were like this. If you can’t enjoy a season like that then what is the point
Anyway on to the big big game at the Bridge. Come on Gunners. We really mustn’t lose this game. If we do get any result there, both United and Chelsea have very difficult away games in midweek at Villa and Everton. You never know…
i don’t understand why arsenal are still keeping this arsene guy at our club cause am tired of crying season to season cause of entartainig football and yet we get nothing at the end of the season and i don’t know why sagna and alumia are being our starters on the line up when we have eboue and manone on the bench.please arsene werger try to revise on your line.
whoever runs this amusing blog you provide me a great deal of comic entertainment. You thoroughly deserve the Arsene Wenger Ballet, his choreography, his ballet rehearsals and his ballerinas. I’m going make sure to browse back over to your blog and look at that goofy picture of your face at the top of the page next time when I’m having a big belly laugh watching Arsene remonstrate on the sideline and hold his head in his hands when his choreography gets nullified and his ballerinas fail.
hey untold arsenal blogger could you please come over to gunnerblog and defend Wenger? I’m a lurker over there and it would just tickle me pink as an AKB to watch you get taken apart over there piece by piece. I don’t think you’re up for it though so I don’t expect to see you over there.
this article is rubbish,he doesn’t say we are doom to relegation to the championship with the frog at helm or doesn’t say sack wenger now we doom we have not won anything since i m supporting arsenal. actually sack Brian, and tony bring on Pyle Palmer and danish gooner on i say
great read again from a great blog
That was a bit of a gaffe, wasn’t it? Yes Eboue, I’m not sure why I wrote Sagna. And Finnsbury, I’m at a loss as to why Wenger’s not drilling the defence as much as you are, but he ain’t drilling it. Man Utd vs Arsenal, I don’t care how well we dominated for the first 30 mins, because over the whole 90 mins we were compellingly destroyed.
Your talking crap.
Hes now talking like i nearly bought this player on the last day but I wont say his name. Bloody hell hes turning Arsenal into a joke. Your all waiting for the new Adams, bErgkamp,pires or Henry.
It is not going to happen.
Its his way or the highway. It seems to me your just as vocal in your views but because Fans are tiring of his mantra. “I know what ill do ill pput a 5ft 7 player as my striker I dont need a new striker.
Mate smell the roses its not going to happen
Hey he reminds me of someone Margaret Thatcher She wasnt for turning look what happened there
I thought it was an excellent article Brian. An amazing article really, considering that this is a football blog and not a featured editor in the newspaper.
I think you hit the nail on the head when you talk about infantilization.
We live in an infantilized culture, where everyone else is to blame, and personal responsibility doesn’t exist. I only have to walk up my country lane and see all the rubbish thrown out of car windows to see what an irresponsible nation of people we have become.
People expect instant gratification, at almost every level of their lives.
Perhaps we should take a leaf out of Newcastle’s book: they have 60,000 supporters through thin and thin……..
If at the end of the Chelsea match the opinions and comments are anything like they were after the United debacle it certainly won`t help Arsenal for the rest of the season. Somehow I have the feeling that win lose or draw we`ll come out of it with our heads held high.
Walter like you , all us true AW & Arsenal fan will always recognise and appreciate what AW has done for this club. Long may he continue doing what he does best and managing our club as it should be. He may not always get it right but his philosophy will enable Arsenal football to thrive and win trophies long after he has gone. I pay a lot of Money for my season ticket and as far as I’m concerned it’s money well spent. We’ve won shit loads of trophies, never finished outside the top 4 and have been in the CL every season since AW has been at the club. No other team apart from manure who are now almost bankrupt, can boast that kind of consistency and success without spending outside their means or having to rely on a rich sugar daddy . If success is meaured by how many trophies we win every season then sack AW now and sell the club to some fat Arab or Russian chancer And then what??…..
IN ARSENE I WILL ALWAYS TRUST.
Regardless of what people think, I’m quite sure that by Wednesday we’ll cut down the gap from the top.
And Wenger did not want to buy Arshavin, he was forced into buying a world class players because some fans pressure him to. That’s why he spent 30 mil on him —– oh wait, I just realize I just made the last whole sentence up…..
Excellent, excellent article. You perfectlly illustrate the fundamental issue behind supporting Arsenal… that the overreaction to any loss is disproportionate and not based on reality.
However, this overreaction tends to result in the segregation of the Arsenal fanbase into the AK and ADK (Arsene Doesnt know) groups thereby masking the actualy inefficiencies of the squad. I don’t think it is wrong to criticise your team if they are playing poorly or if you feel the manager is making a mistake. It is part of human nature.
Somewhere in this all there needs to be a semblance of balance whereby we are able to tweak the team to advance it’s progress but by the same token not demanding such radical change that goes against everything Arsene is striving to implement. Herein lies the crux of the matter… there is no doubt that Arsene’s policy of living within our means is well founded and something we can be proud of. The fact that we have a team that is able to produce such stylish and effective football makes it even more remarkable. Lets not destroy that with our overreactions. However, balance needs to be maitnained wherein if we see a player is not putting the effort in (Denilson) then we should be able voice our derision.
Where is the balance!
I love Arsenal since 1976. The beste team ever was with Henry, Vieira, Bergkamp and Pires.
I dont se any of them todays Arsenal.
I am finished with Arsenal now because i dont think they will win anything. Today i delete my Arsenal memebership for first time.
I think the math against manu proof that.
If Wenger buy som older and wise players maybe i buy a new memebership.
The Arsenal fan club in norway have lost over 300 members on 1 month.
I think Wenger must go. Hes vision has failed.
x arsenal fan
Per,
If you being a fan depends on winning anything than I really feel sorry for you.
As a fan for more than 30 years (my God time goes fast….) I have had many many years withou winning anything. I still am a fan and will be a fan.
And I will be there when we win our first trophy in the not so distance future and I will know that I was there for my team and players whole the way.
Gooner in good and bad days and I really can not consider these days as bad. Bad is where Hull, Wigan and Blackburn and Portsmouth are. And I admire the loyal fans they have for sticking to their team. Maybe you could think about that for a change.
And our fan club in the Benelux is gaining new members every month.
Per,
Your action proves you’re not an Arsenal fan.
You’re trophies’ fan, and frankly I’m glad we are rid of you.
My Boro supporting friend still loses sleep weekly over his team while wishing all the best for them to come up.
Unlike d&gs (they are still fans somewhat cause they still care…abit) someone like you, Per, doesn’t deserve Arsenal anyway.
Arsenal’s trophies cabinet is not the best in the world, we all know that from the start…ask most of us and you will get surprise answers of when did we started support this club (most started during dry spell)….but we KNOW Arsenal is the best club there is to be a fan of.
To . (name please),
Gunnerblog (Gilbertosilver is a nice blogger who is not a d&g but let they terrorize his blog) is full of morons who all they do is bitch and moan about all things Arsenal. It is by far the most boring blog to read people’s thoughts about Arsenal because the community is currently being run like a mafia gang, there are 20-30 bloggers who will call people names, spit racial comments, while thinking they are the true masters of world football………………………..because a few of them think they knew about some Russian goalkeeper lad before Wenger and his team thus making Wenger stupid by default….if you are a fan of this kind of crap then Gunerblog’s comments board is your place.
And anyone who likes Wenger is a moron….they will make absolutely sure everyone’s aware of that.
I read those things for pleasure now not unlike the rare occasions I visited myles palmer’s so called blog of writings…..
Sometimes I reach the point of wishing that people had to pass a ‘fit and proper’ fans test.
To be an Arsenal fan you would have to study the history of the club (and its long term strategies) before you sign up to being an adherant to its principles. They have never been a big spending club (on transfer fees at least)- certainly not in the way that many other clubs have been and are now. The emphasis has always been on home grown players and on finding players from outside England and giving them a chance to succeed. The first side that I ever saw, in the early sixties, had a minority of Englishmen in it and only three players that had cost any real transfer fee. The 1971 Double side was put together for relative peanuts (again only three cost real money) and that went for the Terry Neills side of the late seventies and for most of George Grahams era. Home grown players plus a few cheap ‘discoveries’ with a sprinkling of expensive, ready made, stars. And even they occasionally had to have their positions on the pitch changed by insightful coaches in order to maximise their contribution.
It’s a strategy that has been in place for decades, has brought well above average success in terms of winning things and has ultimately led to us being, perhaps, the most financially stable club in the world. As UEFA tighten their grip on clubs financial matters and penalise those with unsustainable debt (i.e. eliminate financial doping) Arsenals position will become stronger and stronger.
The young fan tends to be very impatient and seems to be far more gullible when it comes to believing what they read in the press (who have declining circulations to protect) or in blogs that may not even be written by true Arsenal fans.
Arsene Wenger may not get everything right and he may not know all there is to know. But he still knows best – and there is barely a club in the world that wouldn’t swap what they’ve got for him.
Thank goodness there are blogs like this one that understand such things and state their case so eloquently.
ps Bought the book today Tony – will start to read it tomorrow.
Is supporting a team a matter of blind faith? Does seem that AW is right when he says supporters have to have belief that the team can succeed-that they want the team to succeed. Some of the slagging off of players does not help-I am losing patience with fans who seem unable to recognise that some players who are not performing well are playing with injuries. I am referring to Denilson and Clichy and Sagna.
On the other hand, when we look around for the reasons for having to play a diminutive midfielder at centre forward, whose responsibility is it -or do we just accept that the club are completely powerless to replace injured players? Is it anyone’s one’s fault? Just fate maybe? When the player himself says we cant beat the top teams with him playing at centre-forward- we can always reassure ourselves that our balance sheet looks good.
Just thought I’d dig one more hole for Finsbury…..he likes them.
Not going to rub in the 2-0 defeat v. Chelsea, it’s just Bore Four v. Bore Four for me, but I make that the 37th (that’s 37th!) predictable result at Stamford Bridge and The Emirates out of 37 (that’s 37 out of 37…..100%) this season.
Finsbury……you’ve been mugged off my son.
Sean,
you’re a Chelski supporter? Barnet too little for ya? I knew you’re fake.
Look at what I wrote…………….
The Bore Four…………..
I can’t stand Chelsea and what they represent.
Der.
Anything to say about the jaw-dropping predictability of the Premiership?
That’s what my comment was about and, look…..it mentions Chelsea.
Der.
@Sean,
You like Rugby or do you just follow a horrible side like Portsmouth who hire managers that get you relegated eventually? Or just wish you were a gunner fan?
Hmmmm.
Is this speed dating?
Are you asking me out Hartwick?
OK, here we go.
Quickly.
I support Barnet.
Saw them yesterday, won 3-0.
I go to local Non-League clubs on Tuesdays.
I go to Rugby Union on the occasional Saturday.
I love Rugby League.
I despite how Professional Football has gone in this country.
Do I pass?
Now you answer me a question?
With the ’37 game’ stat mentioned above why can’t you see that the Premiership is jaw-droppingly predictable and, if you can, do you think that this is a good thing?
Do you dispute the evidence?
Could care less about EPL other than the Arsenal…Let me ask you nother question now? Do You support England 2010? How about JTerry?
That’s fake Sean for you, Hartwick.
He claims to be a Barnet fan, but nothing he has written so far shows any enthusiasm for his club. It’s an excuse to have a go at Arsenal.
He hates the big four, but watches every match between those clubs.
Really miserable guy.
I guess if the ‘consumers’ are not to be guaranteed success, then it is a bit incongruous that the players are guaranteed their gargantuan salaries. How about a bit of Performance-related Pay??
I repeat my mantra: you don’t pay Roller prices for a BMW. And right now, Arsenal season ticket prices are Roller prices. I’ll let others decide whether the team represents a BMW right now……
You aren’t guaranteed success. But you should be guaranteed a team which does the basics right under pressure.
1. A goalkeeper doesn’t kick the ball straight to an opponent just outside the area.
2. A defender closes down an attacker when he is last man and six defenders don’t let an attacker run straight through them without following his run closely.
3. A defender doesn’t wander from his post at a corner.
4. A squad is balanced in terms of the components of a team. You need one engine and four wheels for a car to go. If you possess no engine but six wheels, you’re in deep doodoo. And I tell you this, I was none too impressed when my first car came with a dead battery after my family were customers for 15 years plus…..and was more than disgusted when another outlet of that global OEM claimed the car needed £750 of repairs to get through the MOT 3 years later, but when I took it to an independent, they passed it without need to replace anything….
5. Your youth squad is paid like a youth squad and the season ticket prices are set according to whether the First XI is a youth team, an aspirational team or a team capable of winning the EPL and Champions League. That’s not consumerism, it’s treating fans with proper respect. If you won’t buy a squad that can win the league, lower ticket prices and balance that with a USA tour pre-season. It won’t affect finishing position, because all you did was transplant training to the USA and a few friendlies likewise. And I do consider it possible that the USA possesses a few facilities of professional standard…….