By Tony Attwood
The notion of a club’s fans booing and jeering their own side, their manager, the board and anyone else locally they don’t like was probably initiated by the fans of Woolwich Arsenal in the 19th century. (For more, see The Crowd at Woowlich Arsenal)
It has long since continued at Arsenal, getting an extra boost under Herbert Chapman following the the defeat by Walsall and again by the AAA in recent years.
I have dealt with this many times before – but we haven’t touched much on the way the phenomenon has been exported to other clubs.
A group of Chelsea fans have apparently created what they call a “toxic atmosphere” at Stamford Bridge, and things have not improved after a 2-0 Capital One Cup semi-final defeat by Swansea City. (Interesting that it was the same score at the Emirates, only we didn’t spend billions getting to that stage). As is now part of the ritual, Fernando Torres was booed.
Chelsea, of course, always want to outdo Arsenal, so they started the match by booing their chairman Bruce Buck before they got down to the real business of booing Rafa Benitez, mostly it seems because he wouldn’t give Lampard a new deal. I am not sure if anyone booed Benitez for not giving Ashley Cole a new contract – not really worth it I suppose.
Of course at Arsenal, if you join Fanshare or if you have enough spare dosh to buy a full bloodied single share you can have a bash at the management at the AGM. Bit difficult to do that at Chelsea.
But anything Chelsea can do, Real Madrid can do better. There we have such abuse of José Mourinho that the awfully nice Cristiano Ronaldo told (yes told not asked) the Real Mad fans to stop it. In a highly original speech he said the fans must get behind the team and the manager. Well, perhaps not highly original.
Here again a player is to blame. Mourinho dropped Casillas and that is enough for wholesale civil war in Spain. (Not literally of course).
But they do surveys in Spain in a way that the AAA can’t do, and found that around 60% of Real Mad members believe Mourinho has “had a negative impact on the club’s image”. Mind you over half of the fans in the survey want him to stay.
Of course you can’t keep a Redknapp out of a discussion like this and he is quoted recently as saying “you would have to be a real dope to mess it up” (at Chelsea). Arry has apparently never spoken to Villa Boas now at Tottenham, who have lost (or perhaps thrown away) Adebayor who was last seen heading for Africa. I wonder if Tottenham fans are booing anyone because of that.
So who goes where in the big merry-go-round of managers? Pep Guardiola to Chelsea is one idea. Benítez to Real Mad – and we know that because the “strange one” (as Benítez is known in some quarters) said at Christmas, “I know things but I think I shouldn’t say…”
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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 FC: crowd behaviour at the early matches
The sites…
- Referee Decisions - just what are the refs up to this season?
- Parent News - what is going on in schools these days?
- The weight loss programme: The only guaranteed way to stay fit
- The Arsenal History Blog from the AISA Arsenal History Society
None, Wenger is the right man.
In the words of Billy Bean “the man runs the club as if he will own it for a 100 years”
@LOL 10.38
I wouldn’t want Henry in as manager. As captain he showed he lacks a natural flair for leadership.
I can’t see that Wenger is at risk of being shown the door. Maybe he will choose to go soon, I don’t know but I don’t think he will be sacked. Even Man U are unlikely to have sacked him yet.
@Adam, well Wenger doesn’t seem to be able to spot cheap players that are good enough. We missed out on Michu. Now I’m not saying he would be the answer, he may well be a one season wonder but then in some ways so was RVP. Imagine if we’d had him this year and he’d been as useful to us as he is to Swansea, well then we could have sold him for a healthy profit in the summer.
Out of interest do you have an idea why we no longer find cheap talent? Do you think there is a dearth of such players?
So Benitez is known as the “strange one” in some quarters is he? No, he isn’t. You made that up. And he isn’t a top manager, according to you. He had Liverpool ranked the top team in Europe for several seasons, all while having to balance the books and deal with the biggest f*ckwit owners in the club’s history. He won the CL once with a poor squad, got to another final, and while at Valencia he won two La Ligas (a huge feat in the face of Barca and RM’s dominance) and a UEFA Cup. His record in Europe – in terms of getting to the latter stages of tournaments and winning them – is better than Wenger’s, a manager I also rate hugely. By any objective measures, Benitez is a top manager. You, however, are a third rate blogger.
Rupert, I think it comes down to opinion, I like Koscielny and I think he was cheap by top side standards. But that’s only one example and opinion but you cannot deny Szczesny was a find.
For me there are numerous reasons; Competition (other clubs & private scouting systems spotting talent as frequently as Arsenal used too) Its not a secret anymore.
Third party player ownership; believe it or not only France and England rule out TTPO, which means if Arsenal go shopping elsewhere there is a high possibility that we will have to line the pockets of an investment fund or agent to release the player in to our ownership.(money that helps perpetuate this cycle) My own personal opinion leans towards this.
Outside investment; Your oil or state money, even when Arsenal identify a target we have to get the selling club & agent to keep quiet and not run off to Chelsea, PSG, Zenit, Man city and many more trying to up the price. Please remember that selling clubs always have this negotiating tactic; “If the player is wanted by Arsene Wenger, he will be wanted by someone else, but with more money”. Yes Arsene’s opinion on a player is still very much respected within the game regardless of what some fans feel about the man.
Players; The player has to want to come to Arsenal, knowing our wage structure and what were up against financially. Remember no matter what we decide to pay a player the oil & state clubs will double it if needed.
Arsenal themselves; I think there is a conscious decision to let certain players pass the club by. If, and I say if, we are following a similar path to Barca, You may see us pushing our youngster on even further and complimenting them with Cazorla like players. Players that are ready to play.
So for me Arsenal are at a cross roads, Our academy has been running long enough now to start pushing players through, Players that will make a difference to us. Players that have a mentality of the Arsenal of old,(Paul Davis anyone). Players that are better than what’s available on the market and have “Arsenal DNA”.
In some regards it feels as if Arsenal are starting over, they had to let all our superstars go leading up to 2005 and have been building to budget (schedules of rates) since then. We now “apparently” have some financial leeway, so there is no more room for excuses regarding being competitive. If Arsenal are starting to have disposable income, I say spend it on bringing DB10 back as youth coach and living statue, same thing with Henry. For me this is what the club is missing the winning mentality that becomes ingrained and additive. The current set up feels void of all history, but again that’s only my opinion.
Hope this helps clear up where I stand on the issue.
@Tony
Your question: And where does all this leave Arsenal, the club that invented booing your own team? Who would we bring in if Mr Wenger went?
Perhaps more to the point is who at the club would know how to go about replacing him, let alone who to appoint. Surely not the ailing Peter Hill-Wood and the other septuagenarian business men on our Board? Not Stan Kroenke or Ivan Gazidis, neither of whom are ‘football men’, well-versed and well-connected in the right areas of the game.
The only person I would trust right now is Arsene Wenger himself, and maybe that is the way it will happen?