What can a simple Arsenal fan do to change anything? by Kieran Daly
I have read several excellent articles recently (including the Wengers Faults by Jon Fox and of course all of Konstantin’s) – and written a few, highlighting the almost despair with which a vast majority (I believe) of Arsenal fans now feel. The constant message is that Kroenke, Wenger and the Board are going nowhere, making no changes and totally ignoring any feedback from fans, but even also ignoring the opinions from basically the whole Football Community now, saying Arsenal is in crisis and Wenger should go.
I think Wenger leaving is half the solution but if he is replaced by another Kroenke puppet then what’s the point?
But, apart from complaining and writing about it, what can we actually do? Many of us are not even in the UK, so can’t really march or hold up banners and so on.
Last year, in spite of the criticism from some TV pundits and large sections of Arsenal fans, a very successful protest campaign developed. Yes, it wasn’t as widespread as some expected ,and yes it kind of died when Arsenal had their miracle late run, but the use of flying banners and images projected onto the Emirates walls had major impact. The publicity generated almost impacted Wenger (who was as close to quitting as ever before) and almost impacted the Board (who timidly suggested a Director of Football). In addition, don’t forget on the back of it, Usmanov made a 1 Billion Pound bid for the club! So it had HUGE impact!!!
We need to get the Arsenal hierarchy to feel the same level of embarrassment, anger and frustration that the fans feel so that they will do something. Look, Kroenke must be as stubborn as Wenger if he doesn’t think selling up and **going away** isn’t the best thing to do. Can anybody really get Kroenke out if he doesn’t want to go? No. But what if he was made to realize that not changing was not in his best interests? But how do we convince him?
Money and Sponsorship, that’s how. Hurt them in their pockets where they feel it. What if Emirates, Puma, etc, turned around and withdrew sponsorship due to the embarrassment their association with the club was causing? It’s happened before in other sports, remember Tiger Woods?
This is what we can do ……..
What if every Wenger Out fan committed in writing to never boarding an Emirates flight or buying another Puma product until Wenger was sacked and this message was sent to these Sponsors?
What if everywhere Emirates was publically associated with a failed club with a toxic fanbase ? How long would they maintain sponsorship ?
If all sponsorship money, merchandise sales and so on dried up and impacted the Clubs value and revenue, how long would Kroenke continue to hold out to Usmanov? We fans have more influence than we think if we unite and use it properly.
Ideally all this could start with the Arsenal Supporters Trust but this may not be the most passionate vehicle for change.
What if a Kroenke/Wenger Out Club was set up? People could join and pay membership. Contributions could be made depending on means and conviction. I contributed 100 pounds last year towards the West Brom Banner flight and would to 2 or 3 times that again. I would pay that every week if I thought it would get Kroenke and Wenger out. We need to do the same again, and this time stick with it , regardless of a few good results against teams already on the Beach.
We need to get a Facebook page or Crowdfunding organization setup or something so that enough negative publicity is generated so that Kroenke et al can no longer ignore us.
We need images projected onto Emirates constantly. We need flying banners at every game. We need to buy TV, Radio adds to give the message that Arsenal fans have had enough.
We need to write and message Skysports, ESPN, BEin Sports all around the World that we have had enough. Get Arsenal FanTV broadcasts expanded and publicized more.
Anything else that contributes to Arsenal’s Management feeling uncomfortable and gets potential change happening. As they say, you cannot make an omelette without cracking a few eggs. We need to start cracking some eggs !!
This is what a simple fan can do.
Kieran