Guest post by Adi (@positivegunner)
So the transfer window filled with ITKs, Exclusives, Airport Sightings, constant reminders of our bank balance and more has finally passed us.
We’ve added one genuinely top quality player to play left back as part of a quality foundation that already exists here. Now, this might not be the position where you thought a player was needed and it certainly wasn’t the first position this author would have strengthened if given the choice (I’d have gone for a CF). This might not be the only signing you thought we needed and you could even feel that if we have the money it should have been spent right away on whoever was available to add to this team for now. There’s a couple of reports from Italy about getting rejected by Fiorentina for Jovetic and plenty about Barcelona refusing to sell Villa, so it looks like we did try for a top quality forward (though some of you don’t like the “we tried” line).
However, we need to be reminded that as much as we’d like, we have zero say in this process and this is finally the decision of the manager. He thinks what he has is enough for now to get the job done between now and May and whether we like it or not, the squad will remain as it stands and no amount of complaining or moaning or lambasting or screaming is going to change that now until May.
So this is it, our team and potential depth for various positions from now until the end of May. Take a good long look at it. It seems thin in some areas, strong in others but has quality and versatility in it capable of getting us the top 4 (especially as we seem to be getting a lot more cohesive and deadly going forward)
Now let me let you in on a little secret. I’m furious and have been for a while. About a signing we missed. I thought we could have used him in the summer and I thought we should have paid beyond our means to get him if that was the stumbling block (other clubs, their own interest in moving is really no issue if you throw money at it)
This is a player, the likes of whom we used to have before, and I wish we had signed. He’s a free agent now, so it still isn’t too late to sign him and he could make a massive difference between now and the end of the season. Who is this you say?
Let me give you some clues while I hold your attention for just a little bit longer.
To narrow down his style, I’ll just say that he’s a fierce defender and truly loves the club.
I believe this kind of player is what we need to help push past and overcome the Jekyll and Hyde act that we do in the two halves where we play the first half fearful and flat and the second half at a level near our true potential.
Besides any big quality signings that you might think we need or didn’t get, this is one player this team needs to push it on to every success even if we sign other world class players.
He has had the reputation of going missing sometimes against weaker teams but he’s the ultimate big match player, delivering his best performances on the biggest stage or against the biggest rivals.
He is loud and usually dependable, and often the one that players turn to when they need inspiration, confidence and self-belief and need to shake themselves out of fear and nervousness.
He can induce fear in the opposition and reduce them to nervous wrecks and has the ability to singlehandedly spark his team to life from the lowest of depths to achieve anything and fight like warriors.
He’s supposed to be so good that he makes people feel like they’re up against an extra man, a 12th man if you will.
A whopping 94% of professional footballers believe that playing with this guy, helps them play miles better.
Wondering who this is if you haven’t figured it out already?
The answer is simple, its Mr.Vocalis Fultus.
Confused? Well you’re supposed to be. This is Latin for vocal supporter.
That’s right, the signing that I hope we’ve made and if not yet, then can still secure is the vocal supporter. The one who makes himself heard in the stadium in full support even when the chips are down at 0-4 like we did against Milan. The very one who resides inside each and every one of us who claim to love this club and support the players in red and white. And this is not just when the team is playing well, but more so when the team is playing with fear and looks completely flat when the extra 12th man counts for so much more.
Support means a lot of things to a lot of people but I see supporting the team you love as similar to supporting someone you love. When they’re going through a bad patch, you don’t just pound on them and make them feel worthless, you do what you can to help them out of that patch.
Our opinions on matters of ambition, how much money we have to spend and we haven’t spent, why we spent or didn’t spend, can be far and wide and extreme. Our opinions on the quality of players (and whether they’re Invincibles level or not) can differ between shit and world class. Our opinions on the board, Gazidis, Kroenke, Usmanov and Arsene Wenger can range from they’re right and they know to they’re ruining the club. All this is and more can be up for debate, and you have every right to do so.
But what is not up for debate anymore is the fact that now that the January window is over, between now and May, the constant unabated support of every player on the pitch, ranging from Santos to Santi, is needed more than ever. We cannot let our opinions of things that cannot change for the next four months cloud our support for the team or detract from it in any way. We cannot take out our frustrations or anger of any perceived decline since the stadium move out on the players who are on the pitch now. We cannot put the pressure of that frustration onto every misplaced pass, every missed challenge, every scuffed shot and every goal conceded. Now is not the time for that, now is the time to stand up and be counted as a genuine 12th man.
So what do you say? Can we as fans provide this massive signing that will prove as big a boost to the team starting Saturday against the cavemen? Or do we as fans dither until the summer or the next trophy and refuse to make this one signing that could prove to be the difference towards achieving those goals?
Positively Arsenal 
George we can try it any which way. Ban all of the fuckers and see what happens. If you need some fun let one or two through.
LikeLike
Look,I’ll ditch the wellies but can I still wear my leopard print thong?
LikeLike
Just shout INCOMING before you do
LikeLike
You can even wear someone else’s leopard skin thong if you want to, Mel. Suggest you wash it first though.
LikeLike
The irony is that we are blessed with more than our fair share of contributors who are more than capable of standing up to those of a negative persuasion.
At the end of the day I’d support whatever George decides to go with.
Like Stew, the last thing I want is an endless round of rubbish from some individual looking for a soapbox. On the other hand, if there’s a point to be made constructively we have nothing to fear from debate per se. Personally I wouldn’t have wasted everyone’s time by posting the quoted comment (I don’t mean George’s just wasted our time) as that particular writer is clearly just lashing out like a hysterical four year old in need of a firm hand and his favourite dummy.
Fine lines but suggest you go with your gut feeling George. There are 101 other homes for the black scarves; in any case, they will be a dying breed soon enough …
LikeLike
The thong sounds like an improvement on your old Mankini, Mel.
Did it wear out in the end?
LikeLike
Sorry about Kieran but I am very impressed with AWs contingency plan. Welcome Nacho…are we sure that Nacho is Spanish? Perhaps his mum is British and did a heist.
LikeLike
Where is the end of a mankini, Andrew, and how come only the end wears out?
LikeLike
Agree with arse or brain at 3.24 pm btw – all these anonymous abusers feel so distant from the players that they care not a jot how any of them would feel if they were to read the abuse routinely dished out by some.
The problem is that when you have a tsunami of abuse, inevitably some of it will get through. In the current climate, who could possibly blame any player for thinking twice before joining us – or even staying.
Let us not forget – it’s a truly weird mentality to attack your own club in the way some do. Daniel might not like the semblance of censorship but if supporters can’t handle the responsibility of supporting the club responsibly, then they don’t deserve to have an unlimited platform from which to spread their hate.
I’m actually very proud of what George has achieved here with help from Adi. When I bump into Arsene in Waitrose I want to say to him –
“Arsene, check out Positively Arsenal; it might just make your day.”
LikeLike
That’s one for Mel I think you’ll find, Frank. I know he had terrible trouble with it shrinking when wet …
LikeLike
The mankini has perished,the leopard print thong has seen better days, maybe I’ll just it, I’m sure people are laughing at me anyway,I suppose the pierced nipples set them off. With regard to censoring people it’s a tricky one for George & Adi that one, me? I’d let anyone in,except for white blokes with dreadlocks,now they really grind my gears.
LikeLike
Frank,the mankini is now used as a slingshot by local tearaways,the thong will eventually be returned to my great mate Sir Peter Stringfellow.
LikeLike
Guys like the one who got deleted don’t want to have their minds changed. They don’t care about Jack Wilshere becoming the undisputed best midfielder in England and how rewarding it has been to watch him go from nappies to where he is now. Or how Giroud, like Koscielny, came out of nowhere to establish himself as one of the most important players in the team. All they want to do is have a moan about the fact that we’re not one of the Manc clubs and we don’t throw money about like Abrahamovich. If I believed in conspiracies I’d say that the doomers are shills for the Uzbek gangster.
LikeLike
ArsenalAndrew – I don’t have a problem with censorship 🙂 I do it on my own site for the potty mouthed plebs.
And what is this middle-ground? Are these the people who don’t identify with AKB or WOB?
I’m more of a AKBTMBHICI (Arsène Knows Better Than Most But He Isn’t Completely Infallible). The man is human, he makes mistakes, but he’s still the best manager we’ve ever had and probably the best I’ll see in my lifetime.
LikeLike
Zimpaul, having watched Campbell often this season, I hope he’s still in London come August, suiting up for the first team. The boy is only twenty and he oozes so much confidence that he looks like he’s been playing at the highest level for ages.
LikeLike
My take is if we try to be moral and allow dissenting voices and Mr and Mrs oh so reasonable “I love Arsene but…” to crawl and slither like venomous serpents into our garden of Eden then tell me: What will distinguish this from any other blog?
Yes of course we can stand up for ourselves and give as good as we get but we can go anywhere and do that. That’s the state of every other blog, full of the vile pretend middle of the road “I love Arsenal but…” brigade and I for one want a blog where I don’t have to fight just to stick up for my club.
I’ll argue whether Jack might one day be as good as TR7 or if Per’s reading of the game is complimented better by TV5 or the Boss. If our wingattackbacks should defend more or be even more gung-ho, or if Mikel should be allowed to displace Aaron after his peerless display against Liverpool – loads of room for debate – but I won’t come here if I have to fight off pretend support and whining trollery dressed up as reasonable argument.
LikeLike
Sorry Daniel, misunderstood your original remarks, my bad.
Agree with Stew’s points immediately above.
And I’m not bothered if we have fewer comments as a result; I don’t see this site as being in competition with anything else – quality over quantity any day of the week.
LikeLike
George @ 2.55
Maybe I was brought up wrong but for myself I consider people who lie consistently and who when asked to explain themselves can only squirm and miss with a snide retort that splutters out of their arsenal holes to be, well, to be impolite.
LikeLike
Anyway,more Nachos:
LikeLike
It’s the relentless fucking misery I can’t stand
The same topics the same phrases repeated day in day out nothing new nothing constructive nothing ever remotely funny
Totally righteous totally obsessed with their RIGHT to moan
Fuck em – I am not debating not acknowledging en NFI in em
LikeLike
What Steww said, and Andrew!
LikeLike
This is well worth playing if you get a moment – very subtle in parts and extremely funny!
Particularly liked the Arsene impression and ‘Arry looked on the money ‘n’ all.
http://t.co/kWG7VsdQ
LikeLike
I am with Stew,I ,as you mostly know ,will fight with anyone.They can call me what they want,But thats not how I saw this site.
Its for the debate Stew talked of .Not for tell Arsene he can stay if…..Or for stating with utmost certainty that player X is not fit to wear the shirt,
And anyone who wants to endlessly rewrite the same post ,with slightly different words,can bob over to ACLF .
No ,lets keep this place pure .
It will live or die because of us .Not because we allow snideness and stupidity to creep in.
In other words ,Fuck em!
LikeLike
This whole censorship debate is an interesting one actually. A few years ago I argued the toss with Peter Wood on Le Grave, calling them a bunch of stalinists when they would put people in moderation, and when finally deciding they didn’t like the cut of their jib, put them into the “bin”. This is old news for most of the posters here, I am sure. So the wheel has turned full circle and we are doing the same thing. But are we ? I suppose we are ? Hypocrites ? Probably. But what’s the alternative ? You have a blog which is a forum of some sphere of opinion that you associate with. Le Grave peddle the line that anybody post an opinion as long as it’s respectful, and doesn’t contain abuse. What they don’t tell you is that you can only do that once in a blue moon. If you put the same, repeated sentiment, on their site, say, that Wenger is a genius, twice in a week, it will be destined for the bin.
I think the problem here is that being positive makes you a target for negativity. Being an apologist for the club, Wenger or the players leads people to believe that you are trying to defend a perfect world. And the reality is that, actually, all you are saying is that it’s not as bad as you think it is, or if it is as bad, it’s down to your expectations. I can handle the sardonic humour and the moaner culture in one context, like on the train coming home. But a blog gets more aggressive, and it takes a lot longer to pacify people, or even understand their point of view. I think the issue here is that some people are professional trolls and sociopaths. We’ve seen that on ACLF recently.
The middle ground, which as people have said can become really turgid. Do I really want to come on to a forum, which I hope is full of like minded supporters, and then get embroiled in a several threaded discussion that makes me lose the will to live. This particular area is for people who, fair enough, want to discuss the machinations of the club, the manager, tactics etc, which one doesn’t have a problem with. The issue is when they start to believe they know better than the club, the manager etc. I don’t have a problem with a one off comment, or even post, where people are critical with a set of reasons. The real problem is when you get people who are perpetually at odds with the club, who seem to have no other reason that it reflects their psychology, and it’s just the way they seem life in general.
Some of the people complaining do have some legitimate points, even if there are counter arguments for them. Ticket prices are high. We have lots of cash, yet we haven’t spent money. Wenger doesn’t sign a DM. etc etc. My view on all these is that being an apologist or positive about Arsenal doesn’t make you responsible for all of these issues. One can explain the reasons behind these things, but ultimately, we are not a forum of apologists, and we don’t have to feel guilty. If you don’t like high ticket prices, lobby the AST or Arsenal. If you want a forum to complain about them, go on Twitter, Online Gooner, Arsenal Times or even ACLF, which is even handed. And by the way, I am a season ticket holder, and I wish the prices could be a bit lower as well, but constant bleating probably doesn’t help.
Those are my arguments for censorship.
LikeLike
I think we should enjoy watching Arsenal, revel in all that that means and have a fucking good laugh doing it…..
LikeLike
In Mexico nachos are called totopos and not only by people with a stutter
LikeLike
Thanks for your kind words ZimPaul – I feel welcome here and hopefully the others will join us soon enough.
I agree with your decision George – that is the thin edge of the wedge that I have seen destroy other blogs before. There are hundreds of other places they can go, so why give them another place to defile?
Thanks for the Nacho clips finsbury – he looks like a good player. Let’s hope he can adapt quickly and put a few of those crosses in for Olivier to bang into the goal!
‘Vocalis Fultus’. I like it Adi 🙂
LikeLike
There is a festival each year in October in Mexico where they vote for the best Nacho in the world. This year it is going to be held at Arsenal on the pitch.
LikeLike
I agree with George too
LikeLike
There, I am off the fence
LikeLike
Lord Olivier’s biological great grandfather. Its in the genes. He’s going to lead the squad to glory with or without arms or legs….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOaqfrHQMWk
LikeLike
We the hunted will now hunt. Bound together as brothers in a life or death friendship….even without arms and legs.
LikeLike
Arsenal Arsenal Arsenal Arsenal
LikeLike
I think you were correct George. If you allow one dog to piss on your rose bush it will not be long before a pack arrives to do the same thing.
LikeLike
Right well I think we’ve had the free speech debate, cleared the air now lets just enjoy our football together and as Frank says have a laugh so doing.
LikeLike
“Ticket prices are high. We have lots of cash, yet we haven’t spent money. Wenger doesn’t sign a DM. etc etc.”
But Muppet, taken at more than face value, it’s not as if our prices are actually that far away from any other top London club – even those with robber baron owners. The cost of most goods and services are higher in the Capital. I saw a comment yesterday from someone complaining that the club didn’t buy the player they ‘allegedly’ bid £30m for, on the basis that it would have been a quality signing ‘for a change’! I’m sorry, but Podolski, Santi and Giroud are all quality signings bought last summer and their price tags are irrelevant. As for this DM nonsense, where does that come from? I really wonder if some so called supporters actually know the club they claim to support? If they did, what are they moaning about? Arsenal is an attacking team, which makes us vulnerable at times, but the manager has been clear that a one-dimensional DM is not part of the plan and is not the answer to our problems. How would a DM have stopped Sagna slipping, or Vermaelen mis-kicking his clearance? People need to just get over it and either get on board or don’t. I’m heartily sick of the attacks on the manager for being ‘stubborn’ because he won’t buy the players ‘they’ want, or play the tactics ‘they’ think are better. They accuse him of arrogance, when they should be taking a long hard look in the mirror. How they think they have the answer when they don’t even know the question is beyond me.
LikeLike
“Sam Fisher
doctorparth06@gmail.com
173.31.82.110
Submitted on 2013/02/01 at 6:14 pm
So point you guys are making here is our way or high way? So even if the constructive criticism that is majorly filled with truth but against Manager, you guys will not allow it here? It brings a question, what is the point of self-claimed positivism when you cant accept opinions which do not agree with yours and tag them as stupidity and trolling? Its like if you question the writer or people, your comment will be deleted. What kinda deluded microcosm you want to live in?
People like this divide the fan base, by ousting different opinions and disrespecting them. I understand the definition of support and it also says that if things are wrong and you do not vocally challenge them, you are doing great disservice to the club because you are accepting and encouraging the wrong doings.
I have know Author since last few months on Facebook and Twitter. All he does is stamping his opinion on other people and if some one does not agree with him, blatantly attack him, be extremely rude to him and then tag him moaner and block him in case of twitter or ban him from group in case of Facebook. I would just say one thing, how insecure you are that you constantly get involved in to such fracas. I would say go get life Fatass.”
You see Sam you missed the point .I suspect you make a habit of doing that..
You can have your opinions ,good luck to you ,wallow in your misery ,we just don’t want any of it here ,We are like minded and happy .And happy to be deluded ,AS YOU KNOW DOUBT THINK WE ARE..Because I know every one of you arguments and points.I have heard them hundreds of times .Keep them thanks.
LikeLike
Ok, ZimPaul, here I go…female AND American. Not very many safe spaces for me; looks like this might be one. 🙂
It’s all about college football in the Southern US, and the 12th man tradition is huge at Texas A&M, where they have “Home of the 12th Man” all around their stadium. I can’t be a 12th man for Arsenal…I’m counting on you guys to do that. But I do wake up my household at 9:00 am on Saturday mornings yelling at my TV. And never abuse…except for the other guys. :). The strongest thing I say about a player is “Bless your heart”, and that’s over a particularly bone-headed move. Love our players, love this club.
LikeLike
Fat Arse is what I think Sam meant, George.
LikeLike
..and I agree with Passenal
LikeLike
…and I agree with George
LikeLike
I think the term pocket battleship was invented for you, George. You are a star.
LikeLike
Very nicely summed up Muppet – says it all for me.
And ditto having a laugh as we go; without slinging any mud, the loss of humour on any blog site is a matter of serious regret.
One of my favourite ‘forms’ of humour used to be known as terrace humour (as in from the football terraces) – that’s a great tradition to resurrect, in my opinion.
LikeLike
I think that rallying call from Captain Blood is perfect Frank! And I see I’m not the only one to notice the resemblance!
LikeLike
Starting berth tomorrow Nacho ? I hear TV is having a test in the morning but I would like to see our new recruit
LikeLike
Muppet expressed the pros and cons eloquently. I am with you guys. We need somewhere we are free to be positive about our club without having to step on egg-shells. If le-grave can own the franchise on negativity where is the counter-weight? The middle-of-the-road blogs have failed miserably for all the reasons stated. By invitation only George. A few pretenders will slither but they will be exposed soo enough.
I love you Arsenal, yes I do!
LikeLike
Bac ,Per,Kos and Natchos please Arsene.
LikeLike
alabamagooner February 1, 2013 at 7:03 pm
Great to have you on board, many of us can’t get to the matches and do our 12 th man stuff from home so you’re in good company. But voices raised in public fora like this can be a part of a larger voice of support. If you coming here and telling people it’s ok to back the club and the manager helps someone else feel more confident in their positive support then goodness might just prevail.
LikeLike
George and Frank…Sam just used that post to resort to a rather direct personal attack on me for something that happened over a year ago…sad that such bitterness and grudges exist for something trivial (like being banned from a Facebook group) and cross all lines of human decency
LikeLike
Someone say it was music on a Friday?
LikeLike