I’m old enough to remember all three of Arsenal’s Premiership wins.
Because of that, I understand how hard it is to get over the line and deal with the pressure that comes in April and May.
It’s why I preach about mentality all the time.
In elite sport talent only takes you so far. What then separates the good to the great is your mental strength.
Having lived it, I can honestly say that some Gooners don’t deserve the honour of seeing the Gunners Champions.
Some need humbling.
Some need to respect the standards that Pep Guardiola has set.
Those who arrogantly said it was a case of when and not if?
Those who thought winning at Anfield would be easy?
Those who mocked Garry Neville for his balanced opinion?
Those who verbally abused me for suggesting if the same players who couldn’t handle the race for top 4 could suddenly handle the pressure of a title race.
Those who compared this squad with the Invincibles!
All of the above can be debated.
What can’t be debated is any supporter who responded to Saka’s penalty miss on Sunday by racially abusing him.
The fact this no longer makes headline news on the Sports pages is a sad inditement of the UK. It means that racism in football is accepted, it no longer shocks us.
It’s no longer worth wasting our breath asking the likes of Facebook and Twitter to have zero tolerance towards racism.
It’s why the likes of myself have the responsibility to spread the message that this is what the 21 year has to deal with daily.
Of course, not every tweet or post would have been sent by an Arsenal fan.
Just like not every vile message after Euro 2020 was sent by an English person.
Either way, it’s proof that we continue to have a major issue in Britain, grown adults who think in the confines of the world of football, they can say or act how they want.
It’s why I always defended Xhaka when he threw the armband down. That was someone in his twenties no longer able to tolerate the scale of abuse he and his family dealt with daily.
For the same trolls to then try and take the moral high ground over an armband was irony lost on themselves.
I could point out how many times Saka has delivered for us this season?
I could say how counterproductive it is to abuse your own player for failure from a spot kick.
Does that help him or the team the next time he’s in that position?
To do that would make this a conversation about on the pitch. Yet that’s trivial compared to the human element.
I admire the courage of a young man who knows the consequence of taking a penalty. Everytime, he steps up he knows he’s racially abused if he doesn’t convert.
What a crazy yet sad sentence to write.
Any Arsenal fan who responded to our draw with West Ham by racially abusing someone doesn’t deserve to see their team get an ounce of success. That’s the only way they might see karma.
I can’t include important things such as families or job,s because I like to think anyone who had fulfilment in those areas wouldn’t take football so seriously that they feel the need to abuse someone.
That or they are just not that educated.
True supporters will do what Ian Wright suggests and give Saka a standing ovation on Friday, letting him know the vocal minority don’t reflect the majority.
Mr Wenger warned in his final year as our manager that we were in danger of having a small portion of our fanbase sacrifice the principles he helped maintain.
So, against Southampton, let’s drown out these cowards and support the team.
Football is a beautiful game but it’s just that …. a game.
Dan
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Sad if this is happens. I’m sure he knows most of us True Gooners support him. People are despicable and that’s just the way they are. However, any real supporter will be cheering him on and singing his name from the rooftops! If we get another penalty, i want him to take it and put it away
Yes, I’m sure he knows that anybody can be abusive on the net and the real Gooners are the ones in the stadiums
Saka is a smart kid
I’ve been reading people saying that Jesus should be our main penalty taker. In hindsight, of course people would say that coz Saka missed, despite the fact he never missed before.
True fans know how important a player he is for us in the team
Spud like fans who have deserted that team down the road to come and watch how it should be done are the fans who don’t understand and probably the ones giving him abuse
Ps
Still a long way to go and nothing is done as yet
The boys will see us over the line in top spot
Onwards and upwards
Really shameful that this is continuing and I hope that the offenders can be identified and dealt with by police and clubs.
I hope Saka will continue to be the penalty taker, despite this miss and vile comments, especially as Jesus has missed five of his last 13, and anyway, who else is there?
👍Spot on.
I’m not sure I get this? In the past, to our shame, some arsenal fans directed racial abuse at black players. Not as bad as at other clubs, but it was there. One thing we never did though, was abuse our own black players. Chelsea yes, liverpool yes, but not Arsenal. If our fans didn’t do that back in the day when it was deemed ‘acceptable’ by society, what has happened to society that fans think its ‘okay’ to do it now? Thing is, it wasn’t acceptable back then, and it still isn’t. Saka is one of the best players we’ve had since the days of Henry, Pires, and co. Dishing out racial abuse to anybody is despicable, but to one of your best players in an age when players ‘will’ walk away if it goes on, is beyond moronic. I hope the fans do take on Wrighty’s (we are not worthy) suggestion and give Saka an ovation on Friday.
Racial abuse is wrong no matter who a person plays for
EXACTLY!!!
If you abuse Arsenal you are not a true fan.
Yes have an opinion but DONOT abuse.
They have been magnificent this season, I shed a tear after Sunday result because I will be devastated if we don’t win league, but will still be so proud of my team.
Totally agree Dan. Hence I said it was wrong then, and still is now. I take your point though. After reading it through after posting, it does read as you thought, which wasnt my intention.
👍👍
Please remove this post. It reads exactly as dan says it does which was not my intention. Racial abuse of players is disgusting regardless of whether they are playing for your club or others.
And Xhaka doesn’t deserve regular abuses for example being unfairly as usual blamed for Liverpool loss.
Or is he a fair game because he is white?
Dan, abuse of any kind should not be tolerated in a modern society, that is a given surely?
My problem with your article, is your assumption that there are Arsenal fans out there who are abusing Saka – where is your proof that this is actual fact?
It is very easy to assume something in order to fit a scenario, as you so readily did when condemning Liverpool supporters at the CL final, but never apologised when it turned out that EUFA and the French FA were to blame.
I also recently read that it was perfectly OK to abuse AW in his latter years , but he should have realised that, after that abuse, every Arsenal fan really loved him and he should forget it!!
Just as the case with Xhaka, these absolute morons have no idea or comprehension what their actions provoke…. we have plenty of them on JA, sitting behind keyboards and denegrating our players without a care in the world – thinking that their tirade of BS actually helps the club!!
I can promise you this, if ANY “fan” tries to abuse Saka when we play Southampton at the Emirates, that person will be dealt with accordingly, if not by the stewards, then the real fans around him / her.
There will be NO abuse of Saka this Friday, because it will not be tolerated and I’m surprised that you haven’t realized that.
I think this has more to do with FaceBook & Twitter than abuse at the game.
I used to hear it occasionally at Highbury, but never at The Emirates.
Didn’t arsenal have to investigate racist abuse against koulabaly against Napoli when a arsenal fan was heard saying something , that went viral.
Didn’t Adeyabayore complain about racial abuse
This idea that Arsenal don’t have any racism fans is a stretch
Dan, your article was about Zaka getting abused by Arsenal fans after the West Ham game, nothing to do with the two instances you mention above, correct?
Neither did I say there were no racist Arsenal fans, but I can assure you that Zaka will be supported 100% by those who attend the game against Southampton.
I ask again, what proof is there that any Arsenal fan has disrespected Zaka, apart from media claims?
Reading the tweets mate and their timelines they were Arsenal fans but I accept I can’t 100 percent prove that
It was when you said it wouldn’t be tolerated?
Vile chants are tolerated thought arnt they ?
Not if one doesn’t join in, then that means they’re not tolerated by anyone with a sense of right and wrong.
There was such a wonderful write up concerning our fans at Anfield with regards to the minutes silence for the 97 fans and that’s how I judge our fans Dan, by facts.
Reading between the lines is a dangerous thing to do, as Liverpool fans will tell you.
As for the time line, what a great opportunity for the morons who abused Zaka at the England game, to rear their ugly heads once again…. were they all Arsenal fans?
Of course not
But some would be
Unfortunately I been at games where abuse is tolerated
The Van persie song , Nasri song , etc
Couldn’t agree more. I find it repulsive that some here in JA will be at the forefront of war against racism and yet they will abuse Xhaka non stop wherever chance they make.
They look for a tiny reason to abuse and worse still if they don’t find it they make up one. So when they say they are against racism, will I be wrong to question their honesty?
What is the difference between them and racists? Abuse is abuse regardless of what form it takes.
Racial abuse is completely out of order. This is the 21st century for god’s sake.
The penalty miss was just something that happens to the best players occasionally. Remember that you have to be good to be taking the penalty in the first place, so don’t dwell on that one mistake. Saka will be heartbroken because I have no doubt that he will feel the consequences of it far more acutely than the rest of us do. But he should remember that sometimes the price of experience is heartbreak – he’ll pay and he’ll come back stronger because of it.
As for racial abuse . . . I hope he’s already strong enough to cope with that shit and knows that no true fan would even think about it – and neither should he. If I could give Bukayo some advice it would be not to allow racists to live in his head – they’re not paying rent to live there, so kick them out and just concentrate on those of us who love him.
Bravo Bukayo, thank you for being a part of this phenomenal ride that we’re all experiencing this season.
Let us critically examine whatever the motive of racial abuse might be. Whoever engages in racial abuse must of necessity be of very low IQ, semi-educated, uncouth and extremely parochial! Thus I will not waste my time on such people. Suffice it to say that people who racially abuse others have a paranoia and are consumed by hatred for those who look different to them. They disguise these negative trends under a false veil of racial superiority! The sad bit is that no amount of legislation or punishment can put an end to this vice. The only effective solution is concerted efforts by all of us to fight it wherever we detect it and to isolate those who perpetuate it. Each of us should act as our neighbour’s keeper. That way we shall gradually overcome it.
Racism is common in society from top to bottom. People with poor educational backgrounds may be recruited as the ‘foot soldiers’ of the far right, but too many people from wealthy backgrounds or with high intelligence have been shown to be racist to generalise. Just because the law (currently, and not for much longer) prohibits racist abuse, that doesn’t stop racist sentiment.
Unfortunately, the current refugee situation has shown right wing politicians that playing the race card pays dividends. Hence centre right party’s have lurched hard right, and far right party’s are doing well all over Europe. Unfortunately many football fans have taken their lead from them.
At the same time, when it comes to a balance of money v stopping abuse, many major leagues have done little to nothing to stop racism. Indeed, as in Italy, players are punished for taking action. UEFA is all but useless, allowing racist abuse at internationals, meaning, somewhat bizarrely, it’s been left to FIFA to do the right thing for once. In England, in fairness to the FA, clubs, and the England side, and despite govt criticism of them doing so, they’ve taken a positive stance on dealing with racism.
Unfortunately there are ignorant gutless wonders in all societies who cowardly use the anominity of social media or large crowds to vent their discriminatory bile. They wouldn’t have the intestinal fortitude to use such language to anyone, one on one, face to face.
Hopefully Saka gets all the support he needs.
If only that were true. The number of racist incidents where people have either been abused or physically assaulted is on the rise. Not helped of course by Police forces found to be racist themselves, and home secretary that frowns on dealing with the issue. Not to mention cabinet members like ms Bedenoch who claim people who are abused are being ‘over sensitive’. Racism will not recede in society when the signal from the top is ‘its okay’.
OT.has anyone seen the videos recently posted by some Arsenal fans?
They were videos of some young Asian boys,one was blind and the other autistic.both were wearing headphones.the title was “and this is why we can’t get tickets”not only did it get loads of likes but the comments were horrible.that they should be at home listening to the game on the radio/TV
What a waste of a ticket/money
And of course the usual they probably didn’t pay for those tickets…
So Arsenal fans(some) need to have a good look at themselves first.
It should be noted that Erling Haaland missed a penalty by a greater margin than Saka for Manchester City in the Champions League. Albeit it didn’t cost his club the tie against Bayern Munchen, but it will be interesting to see how much denigration he receives?
I have just read that there is a police investigation into this tweet, so possibly some justice.