A post by Anthony Hawke, from our friends over at OTBAG
If I scourge through the English vocabulary, I find that the single syllable words are the ones which convey the most, and in the most effective manner as well. Allow me to explain my statement with a few examples. (The words I want you to focus on, I’ve typed in all capitals).
HATE: It is the single most, strongest negative word in the English vocabulary. We’ve all used this word in our lives, multiple times, to convey our discontent or dislike towards someone or something. What we need to understand is how much negativity is carried on with this small word. And because it carries with itself such a huge burden of negativity, we must use this word cautiously. We should understand the difference between hate and dislike or being discontent or whether we disagree with something or someone. But even within this word, there is positivity. (You’ll know what I mean, just read on. It’s at the end.)
LOVE: It is the exact opposite. It is the one word everyone wants to hear from someone they love too. It is everything that Hate is not. Exact opposites. There is so much positivity in this ONE word. It carries on itself the positivity that most other words, even the word “positivity” cannot. And hence, one should be wary about using this word too, rather than give false pretence or to avoid misinterpretations from taking place. Hence, there is a milder substitute – LIKE. We always HOPE that our feelings are reciprocated, don’t we? 🙂
Which brings me to my final word – HOPE.
HOPE: I am not sure if I’ve mentioned this before but it is by far the most motivational, inspirational word that the English language can ever come up with. It is the ONE thing that makes you want to go on and on and on, even longer than a Duracell battery can promise; because with hope you remain positive, you smile, you inspire, you don’t give in, you don’t give up, when everything is stacked up against you, you spit on defeat’s face and you get up, once more, time and again because you hope, because you believe, because you want to achieve what everyone thinks you cannot, what everyone wants you to resign to believe in, that you cannot; why everyone wants you to fail in your attempt because either they could not do it too or because they want to be the only ones who ever achieved it. You brush aside people’s ill wishes and ill prayers and when you are convinced in your goal, when you have complete FAITH in your goal, you can look into your conscience and say whole heartedly with a gentle smile on your face that “Yes, I’ve given it everything I’ve got.” Eventually, there is salvation. Eventually, there is reward. But with hope, an important factor is PATIENCE. You need to stay CALM.
And that is exactly what we experience with this team – HATE. LOVE. HOPE. PATIENCE. FAITH. CALM. This team, this club, is a perfect mixture of all of these qualities. We HATE to lose, We LOVE it when we win, We HOPE that we can continue, that our players can continue their golden streak and that we keep winning (we’ve done it once, we can surely do it again yeah?), we are taught PATIENCE for that one moment of brilliance and magic right up to the last minute of the game, we learn to keep FAITH that we will hold on to our slender leads towards the dying moments of the game, we learn CALM and COMPOSURE from our players when it matters the most (probably not always but more often than not surely, yeah?).
Positively Arsenal 
Hope indeed.
But if you hope for bad things to happen to others,what does that mean?
LikeLike
A very philosophical piece today…..many thanks
LikeLike
Excellent advise for being a fan and for life too. Thank you.
LikeLike
Good stuff Anthony – The Way of the Fan is long and hard, but it is the path we chose.
“We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go
Always a little further; it may be
Beyond that last blue mountain barred with snow
Across that angry or that glimmering sea”
LikeLike
The following is a piece that typically evokes an emotion in me that sits somewhere between dislike and hate. It is from the mis-named blog ANR…..
“I’ll add no more to the transfer gossip other than to say I don’t think Wenger will buy any rumoured transfer target.
I’d actually be OK with that if…..he allowed Bould to coach the back 4, sacked his incompetent medical staff, worked on the psychology of his team and conditioned them to fight at all times regardless of pressure, jacked up the intensity of Arsenal’s play, created a coherent shape off the ball, improved his in-game management, analysed opponents before hand, put greater demands on himself, his coaches and players and made a sworn vow that never again in his life will the words ‘Champions League football is success’ pass from his lips”.
LikeLike
Not much point in hating (or even disliking) the terminally stupid, GP. Unfortunately, it’s almost certainly the readers who are stupid: the writer is simply exploting their ignorance.
LikeLike
# Georgaki… someone wrote that?
u are pulling me legs? really?? right???
LikeLike
@Georgaki,
That gave me a good laugh. So many bloggers nowadays have all the intimate details of the inner workings of the club. Did Arsene invite them in for a discussion and to have a look through his papers? Perhaps it will soon be George’s turn to thumb through Arsene’s coaching and tactics files and tell him where he’s going wrong.
LikeLike
@Georgaki
That’s why I avoid any and all doomer sites, because reading such drivel does evoke very strong negative emotions in me. It does wind me up, and even though I am usually rather level-headed* I just find it hard to tolerate such obvious disrespect of what our great club and our fantastic manager has done, especially when it’s delivered in the smug tone of someone like Palmer, who really does seem to believe that he is somehow important in the great scheme of things.
*this does not apply on match days, where level-headedness gets thrown out of the window, under the bus and off a cliff, especially in those really close games.
LikeLike
@ PG spend ur hope on good things happening to you instead… and to Arsenal too… A more useful use of HOPE me thinks
LikeLike
I believe the bunker mentality has set in. It would have been fantastic if the fans, board, manager and team were all reading from the same hymn book and they are for the most part. We can’t do anything about the vocal minority of deluded ” fans and support” that have taken the axe to the ARSENAL tree so to speak . The manager and the team relies this and so do many of us P A L S.
Positively
ARSENAL
Loyal
Supporters
We must make sure the team does not feel alone in their endavers and to heck with the rest of the know nothings.
I mean ffs they are asking for Klopp to replace ARSENE and I really don’t have anything against the blok as I kind of like what he has accomplished. But here is the thing. Klopp was full of praise for ARSENAL & ARSENE going back four to five years. Saying BD would do well to follow the model set by AW at ARSENAL. as have many other coaches from other clubs have said. Be it from EPL or the championship division and from other leagues around the Europe. Fast forward a few years and be have some short sighted commentators thinking we should follow BD model and get their manager. Its the other way around you dopes. Dortmund adopted our model and AW ways four years ago when they were on the brink of folding their tent. We are and have been the pace setters not the other way around.
UP THE GUNNERS OF ARSENAL!!!!
LikeLike
goonerkam, it’s a case of familiarity breeding contempt! The goldfish forget too easily.
Great, inspirational work Anthony.
LikeLike
Two colleagues of mine, one an ‘arsenal fan’ and the other a manc were having a conversation at work today. The ‘arsenal fan’ was deriding the club from board to bog room cleaner. He went on about how Arsene’s lost the plot and how his signings have been rubbish particularly stressing on how Ollie G isn’t and will never be a 30 goals-a-season striker **. This entity went on to say how arsenal will scrap into top four next season no matter what Arsene does as by his reckoning, the man has taken the club as far as he can and needs to be replaced.
Anyways, I sit there for 15-20 mins listening to all this bile being poured on the club I love and support, the manager I respect and admire, the players I lose my voice cheering for and defending against the likes of this ‘arsenal fan’……….something snapped. I turn round to him and say “dude, you know nothing about running a football club cos you’d be on the board of some conference league club if you did, you know nothing about managing a football team cos you’d be coaching some high school team if you did, you know nothing about playing football cos again, if you did, you’d be playing in some Sunday league team”. I turn to the manc and say “see where I’m going with this?” Then I said “from the evidence of the past 20 mins, you know nothing about supporting a football club cos if you did,……….well,……..!
He then started asking me about how many games I’ve been to and how I started supporting arsenal in 2006 (true by the way) because they were in the champions league final, and as such, I was a ‘plastic’ fan….yaadi, yaadi, ya!…….couldn’t hear the rest cos I was halfway down the hall walking in slow motion to a backdrop of explosions. I felt real cool!
**(This same guy predicted that Giroud will not get into double figures with goals after his first 4-5 games. Now he’s not a 30 goals/season striker. Talk about shifting the goal post).
LikeLike
Top post by the way. In my rant I failed to acknowledge that. I really liked the piece done on Mozart yesterday. Great player who is criminally underrated (Injuries don’t help either). His appreciation of time and space makes me drool, not to mention his silky turns and slick passing……..or his biting tackles. (Of which I remember more than 5 just from last season alone).
LikeLike
team,
The ANR blog is the mouth piece of the (in)famous Mr. Palmer, self proclaimed football expert (unlike use mere mortals) and writer of a book what he wrote about Arsene.
He is an utter spannerhead.
Nice post Anthony, but I’ll keep my hate thanks, if I can’t use it all on mancs, bavarians and Catalans, I’ll save some for any fuckers with black bin liners I see.
LikeLike
Emmanuel, have a little look at something called “perception management”. the person you described could be recognised as a “perceiver”, in that they can have their opinions guided for them usually by the media. And as for moving the goal posts, it’s common when their arguments fail they resort to differing tactics to suit their agenda, a certain flexibility within their failing arguments, and when that doesn’t work they usually fabricate their version of the truth.
Nice piece by the way,
“Hope is a good thing” Steven King. Shawshank.
LikeLike
DC ,Palmer is also the expert who confidently said Henry would never be a striker
LikeLike
Just been having a look at that ANR blog thing . The bloke is clearly a cock of the highest order. I guess he might also think the same of me, should we ever meet – fortunately, I imagine, that is an unlikely thing. That’s all i have to say about that, really.
LikeLike
Y
Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom – let your email find you!
LikeLike