The internet gives fans the chance to instantly vent.
By Cameron Wolfe.
I well aware of the irony of writing on a blog and talking about not being able too. In my own defence it came from reading so many negative comments. Even here on UA. It crossed my mind that we’re very lucky that we can and what did fans do before the internet was up and running.
Imagine you were an Arsenal fan between 1953 – 1971 (18 years) or one between 1971 – 1989 (18 years) both times eighteen years without a league title. Although they did win the F.A cup in 1979. The Littlewoods Challenge Cup in 1987 (The league cup), the Southern Professional Floodlit Cup (no idea) and in 1958 and the Mercantile Credit Centenary Trophy in 1988 (100 years of the football league celebration trophy).
Now if you were an Arsenal supporter through those two periods of no league titles would the other trophies have sufficed? Or would there still have been disgruntled fans calling for the Manager and the Board to be sacked? Buy better players etc.
If you did want this how would you go about doing so? Mass protests at the ground? A black scarf movement to show your disapproval? Boycott the games? Write to the Evening Standard asking for your Arsenal back? Possibly all four.
Today it’s so much easier to voice your discontent of the team. You can phone talksport and vent in person on the radio or you can come to a place like UA and write a comment on how you feel. It’s so much easier to vent these days. Is that all it is though? Venting about how you feel? After watching an under par performance of YOUR team. You’re unhappy and want to express your opinion on how bad the team/manager/board are. Jump on the bandwagon and follow all the other disgruntled supporters and voice your disapproval in a public domain. It’s easy. You write it and in seconds it appears their in print for everyone to see. We live in such a great technological age. Hell I’m writing this from Canada? No snail mail these days. I just press send and it travels invisibly through cyberspace and arrives in Tony’s email inbox in secs. Even Nano seconds.
Seriously though. How must’ve those Arsenal fans felt in those two long periods of not competing for the top honours? Fed up? Disillusioned? I’m sure that a lot of fans drifted off and followed another team. Maybe they just went a long to the game in the hope that the team would play better? In the hope that the manager would get the tactics right and they would start winning every game? Maybe they stood on the terraces and hurled abuse at the whole team and the manager? Who knows. Some of the people who comment on UA have been around that long. They do remember those dark times. But they did get better and we went on to win the league. Win doubles. Be in the CL final.
See I can’t help it. Regardless of the result. I always look to the next game and hope that we do turn up. That we do put in a great performance and ultimately we win. Preferably in style.
Last year we were written off before we had kicked a ball. This year seems like we have only just begun and yet the writings on the wall. We’ll be lucky to finish in the top half never mind the top four. Let’s forget that we’re on 16points and ther’e’s still 81 to play for.That’s 94 points all in. We’re still in all four competitions and with some luck and better performances. We could still ultimately push the others hard for the title. Why not?
I got slated recently for sounding patronising? I shouldn’t be telling supporters how to support Arsenal? I’m not.I wasn’t I’m just giving my own opinion of how I feel at this current time being an Arsenal fan. As optimistic as when the first day kicked off.
Come the end of the season there’ll be almost twenty teams not in the same position as us and some will be envious of where we finish. Some not. The worst case senario as far as I’m concerned would be. Being relegated. Not being in the CL next year. Falling at the first round of the FA cup. Being beaten in the Capital one cup from lower opposition. See if none of those things occur then I’ll still be as happy as when the season started. Anything else that we get is a bonus. There’s only four trophies to play for and there are twenty teams all trying to win them. In football just like in life itself anything could happen but again being an optimist I think we’ll still surprise the pundits come May.
I just can’t think any other way.
Bring on those Spuds.
The books…
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- “The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal”: crowd behaviour at the early matches
The sites…
- Referee Decisions - just what are the refs up to this season?
- The weight loss programme: The only guaranteed wayto stay fit
- Looking for a terraced house in Northamptonshire?
- For all your football betting try these Bookmakers with free bets.
When I went to Highbury for my first game ever in 1979 we lost that game. So I started to support a losing team. I never expected them to win anything. I just fell in love with Arsenal. As you can fall in love with a woman. Other man might say: what does he sees in her and think she is not that pretty. But the man who is in love sees more than just a good shaped body with some nice breasts (admit it helps a bit
) and sees the person inside, the friendly smile on her face, the warmth in her eyes.
So is falling in love with a losing team the same. I don’t want my wife to be considered the most beautiful women in the world. And I don’t need my team to win all and everything. Just having them around, giving me the emotions I wrote about in my latest article is what I want from the persons/things I love.
If we win anything I feel ecstasy, if we lose I feel down but then I think about the fact that I am blessed to be able to follow them at all.
Why should I get angry about something I love? If that would be the case then I think it would be time to stop following it.
Our daily life is filled with joy and disappointment. So is football.
@ Rupert & Bennydevito, its good to see you both hold your own, which actually says a lot. i really don’t how long Sav from Australia has been following Arsenal. think that this abuse of fellow commentors should stop. what Bennydevito said is right. this site is run by sane people with some really really good articles. just because one has a different view point is that a crime?
no1 for 1 second doubts what a massive job AW has done for us. from a mid-table nr. london team, we now have a global pressence, but every1 does have their faults.
Rupert,
I wasn’t agreeing with bjt I was merely taking his point on board. I get quickly tired of getting into blog arguments so I try to get my point across whilst acknowledging others and leaving it at that, it doesn’t mean I agree I’m just merely accepting others’ points of view. I agree though that it is exceptionally hard to get our points of view across on here but we have to respect this is a pro Wenger Arsenal site and to a degree we have to accept a fierce defence of their views.
I do like balance in the force.
There are many good posters on here that defend their views intelligently. I do find it odd when others who have different views meet with an avalanche of insults.
Gouresh,
Thanks for the comments and Rupert keep up the good fight. Paul, bjt we will meet again. Good on you for sticking to your guns but less of the insults!
To the rest of you, Tony and Walter, thanks for tolerating me keep up the good work. Cameron, good article.
@Gouresh
How long have I been following Arsenal? The implied point is that if I have not ‘followed the team for decades’ that I am ‘not a real supporter’. The thing is mate, it is not for you to decide which team another supports – you may point as to whether I or others might be ‘fair weather fans’, but alas, your cheap shot falls too short.
Ironically, I have only been interested in the fortunes of Arsenal football club after they stopped winning trophies. Funny what good football, a well run and classy club and a principled manager can do for the discerning football watcher’s interest.
@Sav from Australia: Learn to respect some1 elses view. i bet you would love if 1 of us start calling you names? grow up!
As a supporter of a lower league team, we are often envious of the success of bigger clubs such as yourselves have seen over the years but then I look at your ticket prices, your more expensive match day tickets cost almost as much as some of our lower priced season tickets! I think if I was paying as much/game as I do/season I’d be more demanding of success. I do get along to a couple of Arsenal games a season and must say I enjoy the football you play, I like the atmosphere and have always been warmly welcomed.
We moan as much as you do, we love our club and support it as much as you guys do yours, we have the same unrealistic fans, we have those who back the manager/board with blind faith, those for whom the manager/board can do no right, same with the players. The same cries of unless you go to every game you’re not a “real” supporter etc. We just get it on a smaller scale. Genuine fans of all clubs big and small have the same complaints week in week out! We all experience the same joy when our team scores/wins, the disappointments and if onlys from a draw and the despair from a defeat. Money has been the curse of football.
For little clubs like mine, we never have any, for clubs like yours it’s made supporting your club financially very difficult for the average fan. I admire those who can get to support the big clubs (the real fans not the corporates) because of the financial costs to you as much as I admire ours who will be doing the 700 mile round trip to Carlise for the 2nd time in 6 weeks… The monetary effects are the changes many of us have watched. At your end of the league expectations are high, millions rest on every kick of the ball, at our end we just hope for a decent 3rd round tie in the FA cup to get us through the next season, assuming of course we can ever reach that far in it!! Your youth team earn more than our 1st team – we can never hope to compete in that.
A good pont was made on page 1, in the old days we’d all go down the pub after a match, have a couple of pints and put the world to rights, you need a mortgage to do that these days. Social clubs seemed to go out of the window when the money came in, didn’t cater to the corporates. At Bournemouth we used to have cushions, 10p per match they’d cost to save you from the hard rickety wooden seats, I remember many a time 4000 cushions being thrown onto the pitch at the team/manager when things were not acceptable on the pitch, it was how we showed our frustration before heading for the supporters bar and a moan! I had a front row seat in those days and trust me those cushions hurt!! These days you’d get a lifetime ban for such outrageous behaviour!
The internet is in many ways a beauty and a curse, we can go onto our respective forums/blogs and vent but unlike in the pub if someone is going a bit OTT there’s no-one sat next to them who may put an arm out to them and say woah calm it lad like would happen in a pub/club. That does lead to quite a few rows and insults being flung back and forth that probably would never happen in person. It’s hard to inject a sarcastic/flippant comment onto a forum or blog because the tone of voice makes it what it is, how do you write a rueful sigh?
Still come tomorrow we’ll all be either at our respective games, or huddled round a radio, or watching our team on TV, the internet etc. hoping this is the game, the one where we will put on a class performance, we’ll win and it’ll take us up the table, we’ll oohh we’ll ahhh, we’ll sing, we’ll cuss then come final whistle we’ll be back here to celebrate or moan! That has always been the beauty of football – some you win, some you lose but the love for your club never dies.
Good Luck against Spurs