Arsenal fans by JM
True fan or fickle fan, glory hunter or deluded? A fan is a fan, it don’t matter our reasons. We love the club for whatever reason we are comfortable with. It can be bragging rights or beautiful football. It is also our right to imagine our club following a path we like, spend more, sack more, change more… It is a personal opinion and why not? After all there are two sides to every coin… Why not opinions? After all the club is a part of our life and it makes us feel special about ourselves. We like to be identified as fans of a particular club.
A lot had been said in the media about the Arsenal spine all the way down to the manager. It would be incredible to change 5/6 first team players and suddenly realise the team wears an Arsenal jersey but that’s about it… unrecognisable.
Man United were last year blasted for losing their identity. Danny was sold, a lifelong United fan, a good player to some a squad player to the rest but would United have been better off with him this season than Falcao or van Persie? You be the judge.
The players earn top dollar so do the manager, however it’s not because they are greedy simply, it’s because the sport makes a lot of money. They all get a share of the spoils. Imagine if they make that much money then how much do the TV channels and websites make just by selling the sport. Again you be the judge.
I believe in every fan and every opinion because we all look at our club from our own eyes. We have our own thoughts we have our own opinions.
My opinion is ‘winning isn’t everything’, loyalty is. Loyalty to your players, your manager and your club. If we try to change everything just to get a winning feeling who are we supporting then? Just a club called Arsenal? And what might that be, what is the identity of that club, red and white shirts? A club is identified by it’s players, it’s manager, the fans, the stadium, the owners and a philosophy. You change all, and then there is nothing left to identify with!
I have myself in the past blasted the board manager and players. But that’s all part of a cycle. You win you laugh – you lose you cry. And then another week goes by.
Patience is a virtue very unfamiliar in recent times. Keep calm and support Arsenal.
#NottinghamForrestisabiggerclubthanChelsea
JM
Lets be positive, and look towards the new season making it a strong “priority” to challenge our rivals for the title! Coyg!
You can say all you want but at the end of the day every Arsenal fan irrespective of his personality wants to win trophies every season.After so many years of trophyless years and seeing our best players leave it is due we win many many trophies in coming years.
Loyalty is all well and good but we haven’t even been runners up (second place) in the PL in the last 9 years. Loyalty can coexist with trophies
I think fans are very loyal to players. The thing is that the days of Gerrard, Scholes,Giggs, Terry, etc are over. Loyalty seems to go one way
In terms of trophies. All I want is for our club to use it’s resources and be the best it can be.
We are literally two to three signings away from being PL champions. We can have everything: loyalty, reputation, trophies, money etc.
loooooooool the liverlool fan’s reaction to sterling especially the one holding that banner has anyone seen those pictures it looks As if Sterling took his sausages.
That’s the point. The fan with the banner might still done it at their last 1-6 thrashed game over Stoke. Would you do the same for Arsenal?
Theo Walcott: 3 league goals in 36 minutes.
Mario Balotelli: 1 league goal all season
To be honest, the argument of ‘if you want to win titles every year go and support another team’ is quite valid here.
Why didn’t we all become Chelsea fans this season?
Quite obvious really – We’re Arsenal fans. We want Arsenal to win, not anybody else. So that surely means loyalty to our club is more important to us than winning. So why would we sell the soul of the club out just to win? Clearly the soul of our club is more important to us than winning, or we’d all be Chelsea fans right now.
Can’t change anything now, just wish during our lean decade, where we clearly were hindered in a title challenge, that we took the FA cup and Carling cup more seriously. May seem minor, but a couple of FA cups along the way would’ve quelled the “X number of years without a trophy” line we’ve been beaten to death with until last season and not let this great hole fester.
I don’t realistically think a title WIN was expected during those years, but being part of the convo would’ve been far better than languishing until a late rally to make 4th. Trouble is during our lean spell we went from title challenger to a standard 3 points for anyone actually competing for the title. THAT wasn’t good enough. A couple of domestic cups along the way and the transition would’ve been far easier to take, that’s where we underachieved IMO.
All in all we’ve had to recover from more (pressure of no trophy, the idea we can’t beat the big boys) than we should’ve. Nobody is acutely able to identify the reasons, my thoughts are Deins departure isolated Wenger seemingly and Arsene got in his own way for a number of seasons – only now showing glimpses of significant adaptation. Staying in the top 4 has been epic management, but that’s not to say he’s the right guy for now switching focus to actually competing for things. The two skills are very different indeed, like some managers who are just plain gods at keeping teams in the league but could never manage a truly big club (fat sam).
Sticking point is Wenger knew how to be a proper winner 15 years back, but the game is different today and as of now it’s uncertain if he’s learned how to be a winner in 2015 and beyond (don’t quote the FA cup to me, please…just don’t). But here’s hoping, because he’s been absolutely vital to us until now and there would be no greater vision than seeing him front and center of an open top bus with the Premier league trophy hoisted high and screaming with delight. Been too long since we’ve seen Le Prof like that.
Why should we act so skeptical? Chelsea cheers their title last night, and from the gesture of their faces (specially that super coward football master who called himself special) didn’t show any different than the last few month when their lift a real tier 3 cup. Joyful smiles all over their faces. The Portuguese smug man teach them not just how to win but also how to value the win. Further more, about how to have winning and champion’s mentality.
Arsenal (we are), are collecting those mentality since last year and on the verge to make it again in few days to come. We are in the right track to be EPL champion again after along dull waiting. Be positive! COYG!!!
Rightfully skeptical, only thing that’s changed the last 2 years is FA cup success. It’s been CL last 16 the last 5 years and 4th place the majority of the last decade. Those last two trophies are the yard stick for Arsenal in my book, and we haven’t made recognizable progress. We got 79 points last year and this year we got 75, we finished 4th last year behind City/Chelsea/Liverpool, this year 3rd behind City/Chelsea. Was that us getting better? Clearly it was a Suarez-less Liverpool going from 2nd to 6th that bumped us up a place.
I’m all for being optimistic, but I need some signs and some action to be optimistic over. We’ve made some nice changes (actual DM, big game tactics…long overdue) which is pleasing, but we need more on top of that to be title challengers next season so here’s hoping we do what’s needed. Until then I think 10 years with no title tilt is justification for being skeptical.
Ferguson + Mourinho
have been superior
to Wenger. Simple.
Ferguson I have nothing but respect for. He took the team through a period of massive success which enabled him to keep building and building and is a lot of the reason United is the empire it is today. One of the greatest managers ever.
Chelsea and Mourinho on the other hand… People are neglecting the fact that he inherited a billion dollar squad funded by a billionaire manager, not by actual success earned by the team. Yes he is brilliant at getting the best out of top players and can assemble a team quickly when given funds that only a few clubs in the world can offer. But he’s still a mercenary.
If he was given the job at liverpool or tottenham tomorrow. How many seasons do you think it would take him to reach success?
Nothing will last forever. Simple.
There’s a difference between being a fan and a supporter.
The term glory hunter for me is poisonous. Jumping on bandwagons with the sole purpose of that team being most likely to succeed, not to enjoy that success, but rather to rub it in others faces who’s clubs didn’t succeed that season. Searching for that feeling of superiority, when if the team in question drops off the supposed ‘support’ will dry up, and on to the next club primed for success. After wins you’re more likely to see these fans on opposing teams forums, bragging, saying ‘i’m better than you’ but after losses they’ll poke out their heads and act like a baby who’s dropped their ice-cream and tell you everything wrong with the club, the players, and how the team should be gutted for the most in-form players elsewhere.
I’m not trying to lump in the ambitious fans, the self-entitled fans, the wenger out’s and people who constructively criticize the club. Even the doomsdayers. But those who can’t find joy in supporting teams for any reason other than to feel superior to others with no loyalty, I personally have no respect for.
@JM Yes a football
follower is a complex
entity. We pour our
hearts into the club
and its season long fortunes
and we talk of us ,we ,our, team though most of us
have never met any of the players or 99.9999999%
of the other club supporters.
As fans we believe our team is better than all the others
and refuse to believe all other fans think the same about their team too.
We buy into the stupid myth that every team can win the league.
yet only one of 20 can win no matter how good the teams are.
47 teams have contested the Premier league
yet only 5 have actually won it.
Its a kind of madness setting us up for endless disappointment.
But we “know” that with 2-3 decent signings in the summer
we will finally conquer all.
Loyal or unhinged 🙂
Both probably
Respect me as an arsenal season ticket holder.I know 99% of the cry babies here have never seen the emarates live,fans who dont buy Match tickets how do they claim to support the club may be through good will.@ADMIN you hide some of our comments when we criticise the club positively yet you have space to quote the metro and other unreliable sources to make a point.No titles no progress
No EPL, no further in CL.
1 position higher because Liverpool declined. And a Potential FA cup..
Yes, le coq was used to sure up our defense and make us more competitive in midfield and we didn’t get destroyed by the
Big teams this time around.
But..no great improvement if you ask me.
Wenger needs to identify, procure and integrate a number of top quality players through the spine of the team in good time or even as a loyal supporter (financial and emotional) of over 30 years I will be counting down the days until the coach leaves.
I supported AFC while Bruce Rioch was at the helm! Now there is loyalty.
“Loyal supporter”. LOL. I’ve never read one remotely positive comment from you on here. It takes a certain brand of hubris to translate any form of win or improvement in to a negative. If by chance we won the EPL next year I will fully expect your observation that everyone else “declined” and/or Wenger got lucky and it was 12 years too late. I note you differentiate between the club and the manager when you talk about loyalty – you supported Arsenal but not Rioch. Not much change there for you in 30 years – “loving” the club but hating the managers. I assume George Graham is your only love affair you have had in three decades. Keep counting the days and get back to us in a few years.
We don’t need to change a lot. We really are close. We need more balance and a few new players (we don’t need 5 or 6 changes).
1. We need another CDM. At the very least, a better backup for Coq than Flamini. Ideally, someone better than that like Morgan S.
2. We need to replace Per with Gabriel. Per is fine as a backup.
3. We need to rotate Debuchy and Bellerin. Play Debuchy when we want more steel. Play Hector when we want to attack.
4. We need to find another striker. Not sure who but someone with pace like Welbeck but better finishing skills.
5. Another goal keeper. At a minimum, competition for Ospina.
One more thing. Wenger needs to be willing to make tough tactical decisions. Like resting one of his star CAM’s when the opposition’s defensive scheme is crying out for us to play a winger.