All football fans moan at some point or another but it seems that Arsenal fans moan more than most and I have to wonder if that is part of our DNA as Gooners.
There are other clubs, Newcastle United springs to mind, that moan a lot more than us but in fairness, they have very good reasons and I am not sure that is always the case with us.
The last decade under Arsene Wenger was stained with division, even when we were consistently finishing top-four and winning FA Cups the moaning went on.
Banners were brought out telling Wenger to go and he was subjected to abuse, our most successful manager ever.
This site has been accused of being overly negative, the AFTV empire was built on negativity, almost every former player has a go at some point or another, I mean, it is never-ending.
I can remember back to the George Graham era and even then my fellow Gooners would sit with me in the pub and complain about our negative style of football and we were winners.
We complain about the owners, Mesut Ozil, transfer policy, manager, club direction and vision, that is what we do.
Not every fan is like that of course, but if you check out the comments on this site and other Arsenal fan sites you will see that the majority of comments are negative.
Maybe it is because we have such high standards and a glorious history but as I say, we have done it even when we were serial winners.
We at JustArsenal are not innocent in all this, we moan with the best of them but we feel it is justified and do feel that we reflect the majority opinion on this site.
I mean, even this article can be constituted as a moan and so I ask, is it in our DNA?
Since Wenger tried to mold Arsenal into Barcelona.. that’s when my moans began and haven’t stopped since ?
Wenger produced the best team that played the best football I’ve seen Arsenal play in my 60+ years of supporting them.
Of course Declan I agree untill he became obsessed of trying to replicate Barcelona.
Ok I get what you mean now.
?
My moaning began when Kronke got his foot in the door. I’ve watched that parasite here in the States for 2 decades.
1. His infamous statement about “not
getting involved to win titles”
2. He comments regarding us competing
when the stadium was built
3. Papering over cracks rather than
solving problems in the squad
4. False promises and lies to milk
fans for more money
Many more to list but everyone gets my point. Yes it can seem like “moaning” when holding the owner accountable for statements he makes.
Josh and Emery both specifically mentioned “big signing” this window; so we’ll see. Ceballos on loan isn’t a big signing, neither is Martinelli or Saliba deals.
Is it “moaning” if there isn’t a big signing as they both stated?
Kroenke wasn’t around when the stadium was being built!
OT. Any latest concerning Daniele Rugani?
Is it in our DNA to miss Champions league football every year and get trashed in EL final?!!if yes then we are wrong to moan…If no than we have every right to be demanding and ambitious and if you want to call it moaning than call it…
Then call it sorry
Are we just going to accept what Our club have become
At the moment we are a mid-table club.
If we don’t have enough funding and can’t sell our average players then we can’t sign top players.
If Kroenke continues this every year we can forget about top 4 for the foreseeable future
Since the invincibles season we have seen Liverpool, Spurs, Chelsea, City pass us by. Chelsea, United, Liverpool have all won Champions League. United, City, Chelsea, even LEICESTER has won the Premier League.
I hope I’m wrong. I will happily admit I’m wrong if we signed some big players but doesn’t look good.
Also if Emery can’t see that Mustafi is not good enough, then I have to question his judgment for the first time
Mid table club? Are you talking metaphorically or you mean what you said. I have watched this term loosely used here. When was the last we finished in mid-table? Isn’t that supposed to be between 9-12, except 5th and 6th position are the new 9th-12th position. No matter how bad the situation appears to be Arsenal will never finish below 6th.
He is right, we need to open our eyes to today’s reality. Arsenal used to be 6th richest club, now 9th – dropped 3 places without UCL and without owner putting his own money, will continue to drop. We are in a league which have many clubs who manage their wages better than us, and can outspend us without UCL too. Our ambition should not be talking about Umtiti/Bale, but exactly what we need at this hour to get back to UCL. I see us fighting with United/Chelsea for 4th spot, and take more or less top 3 spots already fixed. United cant have that bad a season, last season start was very bad, and they are doing the correct signings. Even if they get Bruno+Savic for Pogba, they will be above us. All comes down to Emery and his coaching to bring the best out pf this team, and prioritize UCL spot above everything else.
It will take at least 2 seasons to reduce the wage bill and for the promising Academy players to come through.
Patience is an Arsenal supporter virtue. I am patiently waiting until the transfer window to see what transpires.
You can’t help it but to moan because arsenal will always you something to complain about. I have never complained about us not winning trophies as I have witnessed us winning up to 10 if not more. My complaint has being on us never want to try win more especially epl. There are several occasions that we need to just push a little but we get too complacent or just not care. One of such is in 2008 and when Leicester won it. Imagine we got only Cech when it was obvious we needed striker. Do we even needed Cech then. And now what is happening during this transfer. I have never had any doubts about getting in new players but I have never thought we would still be in negotiations with the kind of season we had last. By now I think we would have done with transfer.
Was 2008 the season of Eduardo injury? Oh my, we led the table with 7points and a game in hand(newcastle). Diaby red, what a come back. Finishing 4th eventually, thats pure frustration , i doubt any true fans wouldnt moarn that season
I actually like the way you put it sir, @AdminMart, i think the moarn is as a result of our expectation which is not in line with the club legacies. Am not sure how much fans moan pre-arsene era, but during his regime we found a reason to brag as a big club and constitently compare ourself to utd and lpool, we were d least of those 3 which is acceptable, then came Abramovich ,chelsea and Jose, we fell from been season favourites to also run, it was totally unacceptable and to crown it all we have to endure Arsene and Gazidis lies and false hopes, to me, those were the most ridiculous things, i could accept the fact that our club is broke, we dont have to expect any addition,but statements like, we can afford any players in the world whereas we eventually bought a pensineer goalie only to be told we tried to buy Leyman , we bid 90m but monace didnt want to sell. BS!!!
I may say Wenger with false hopes make fan give up on the club and until now we dont believe any good thing may come our way based on past experience. I hope new guys dont deal with us with lies, this is how we could erase the moan mindset
The moaning, imo, comes mainly, but probably not wholly from younger fans. Ironically, those that started watching arsenal in the early Wenger years.
I remember Graham’s dour but effective football, when he was successful and built the famous “ full monty” back four. I also remember his last couple of years, when he was taking cash in brown paper envelopes to overpay for players who weren’t ever going to be first team regulars.
Go back further, and Terry Neil’s team of the late 70s and early 80s that went to three consecutive FA cup finals, losing two of them to lower division opposition, and winning the 79 cup in a classic 3-2 vs Man U.
I just about remember the mid 70s when we were really crap. Iirc, we finished about 15th in 75/76? This was the team that was transformed by a bunch of Irish kids, Brady, O’Leary, Rice and Stapleton, who were the spine of the more successful years that followed.
Moaning fans got what they deserved in those days…. Sammy Nelson dropped his shorts to them when they got on his back ( and my name of course, is in reference to that moment, which I witnessed.)
I guess what I’m trying to say…. sure, there have been problems at Arsenal, and some remain to be solved, but nothing is ever perfect. The excessive doom and gloom, imo ( and it’s only my unscientific opinion) likely comes, mainly, from younger fans, whose expectations, ironically, were set in the early Wenger years : the greatest and longest sustained period of success we ever had, perhaps bar the 1930’s…
Anyone who thinks that “ the club is destroyed by coming fifth, not winning European cups and only three fa cups in 10 years” is a relatively young fan who probably started with the club after Wenger did, and certainly wasn’t around in the mid 70s…..
@Sammy-don’t mention age and the fact you supported the club for decades.Some on here react to that as if we are not allowed to mention the fact.
Just a point -1978 we lost to Ipswich who were a first division team
1979 we beat man s who were first division
1980 we lost to West Ham who were division two.
Still bad but not as bad as two losses to lower league sides.
However for those of us who remember being at Wembley for the League Cup Final In 1969 we lost to Swindon Town 3-1 after extra time.They were DIVISION THREE.
Now that was a time to moan I can tell you
Lost to a division three team in the final???
SNP and Phil, a supporter of a football club or any other entity “supports” through thick and thin, good times and bad. That’s not to say you can’t be critical of things you don’t like.
I just want the owners, management and players to proudly represent the Arsenal and give their best.
I can always sympathise with supporters of other great clubs like Nottingham Forest, Leeds United, Newcastle United and Aston Villa; they remain steadfast through much darker periods than we have experienced.
@ SammyPants
Why, dear friend, should we be happy with mediocrity just because we were mediocre in the 70’s?!!And yes i started supporting the club during the glory days of Wenger(around 2006) but let me confess to you that i was naïve in believing in the self -sustaining crap the club is still runned with believing it will bring success forever….
“Ruled with “sorry
Easy Eddie, human wants are insatiable. We all want more, thats our nature
Admin Martin so just because I wrote my statement which was opposite to your article, I asked questions that needed answers and because I made my views known about why us fans express ourselves which you call moaning.
You took down my comment?
Why? I broke any rules?
Pat left this blog in your hands ans told you to run the iy this way?
I can’t share my views anymore? I’m not allowed to oppose what you write in a sensible way?
Wow
Eddie, criticise an article all you want I have no issue with that at all but the minute you start using personal attacks then I stop reading and delete. The zero-tolerance policy is a JustArsenal policy that I agree with and implement as instructed. Just try and criticise without calling people dumb, idiots etc and you will not get deleted, it really is that simple.
Tierneyyyyyyyy
Are we expecting any other signing@kev?
OT- you get paid €4.5m prize for coming runners up in europa, you get £15m fee alone for making group stages at champions league!! Crazy difference
Any news on tierney and zaha?
Most of us moan because we can see what is wrong with the club we love, yet it’s the people (owners) who have the power/money to make us a great club who don’t seem to either care or know what to do. Either way it is the failings of our owners that make us moan.
I wouldn’t moan as much if I genuinely believed that each time we step on the pitch we are going to compete but these days that is rare….. You never know which Arsenal is going to turn up.
Even when things are going well we are one stupid error away from one of our bang average players, a Xhaka or a mustafi before we capitulate. after supporting my team since 1972, going to games since 1974, season ticket holder for 26 years I moan because the club I love now treat me like a customer and not a supporter!!!! MOAN OVER!! COYG’s
?
Arghhh. Grhhh. Brhhhh. …,Bullshite owner. Trumpist who tried to open a hunting/animal murder channel. Liar who was shocked at a petition of 105,000 people. There’s my moan in Arghhh language.
` Let us get one life principle straight. Fans are fully entitled to moan when they, whoever or whichever team they are, are lied to . Lied to big time and constantly too. That cannot be denied by anyone who has watched how Arsenal has been misrun ever since David Dein was disgracefully and stupidly forced out of Arsenal back in 2007 a mere year after our stadium move Ever since then, 12 LONG YEARS AGO, the CEO constantly lied to us. The owner was complicit by his deliberate silence and so was the then manager by his own lust for power and cosiness with a corrupt and arrogant board and CEO who had no right to be withing a hundred miles of any football club. In short Gazidis was a conman supreme a two faced liar and we were fooled big time by his lies. Fans are mostly honest but also mostly naive. That is the nature of puppy dog type love for a club, most top- clubs, that constantly kicks you in the teeth and takes you for dumb fools. Think about this for a moment if you will. The manager,players, board and owner do not even know we as individuals exist, let alone love this club beyond all compare. This cannot be right or normal , yet in top-level football it IS! THIS IS IN SHORT A ONE SIDED LOVE AFFAIR, WHERE WE FANS CONSTANTLY GIVE GIVE, GIVE IN LOVE, SUPPORT AND MONEY. The club on the other hand treats us like dirt, is silent, remote from real fan contact and only knows our names from the records of season tickets and such like. This generality throughout all top level football is unhealthy, though normal and on our part is masochistic in nature. The top level clubs, not only OUR club, are actually acting sadistically, as are almost all players, who care little or nothing for fans, despite constant pretence to the contrary. Many players who are kept in sheer life luxury along with their families do not even routinely clap the fans both home and away. Some do so but ALL do not, at least not regularly. If you were fortunate enough to be in the position of our players do you not think it is a moral duty as a decent human being to at least acknowledge and thank the people who give you and by extension , your family too, such vast wealth and support? Because I do think do! This is just one of several reasons why I as a life long Gooner do not , EVER, put players, or managers no matter who, above my love for the club. A CLUB, PLEASE NOTE THAT IS ABOUT 1886, IN JUST AS MUCH RELEVANCE AS IS 2019. OR 1931, 1948, 1971, 2004 AND SO ON. I keep perspective always and foremost in my mind. This is why I call myself a realist, as I never ever indulge in self fantasy where Arsenal is concerned. Oh, I did at one time; when I was a child , even as a young adult. But truth is about recognising and openly stating the facts as we see them. And the facts are that we have been cheated and lied to for about a dozen years now and are fully entitled, at the very least, to moan. As are fans of all other clubs who do likewise. Which means most clubs at top level both at home and abroad. That my friends is a dose of perspective to chew on. It may not help you to see things more clearly, though I hope very much that it will. It is in the nature of one sided love affairs that one party suffers( in our case, us fans) and one party gets away with murder, namely the club and particularly right now the owner and those players who fail to give their all on the field and who fail to appreciate us, REGULARLY TOO!
Every single team has the moaners………………there will be Man C fans moaning about getting knocked out of the CL by the Spuds even though they won the domestic treble !………………..there will be Bindippers moaning that they didn`t win the league even though they won the CL !……………..but the only real moaning DNA is in a woman !……………ask any man ! hahaha