Another Guest post from @The_Beck_
There’s something special about this week, I’ve wanted to write about it all summer, yet when it came, I felt weirdly empty and lost for words. I’ve struggled to come to terms with what happened last week, even though I was probably one of the few who truly believed something like that or more would happen. I’m talking about our biggest record breaking signing, ever, Mesut Ozil.
See for me, I’ve long loved Ozil’s new manager, his name is Arsene Wenger, he’s the greatest manager Arsenal has had to this day and I doubt many will top his tenure. It’s a bit of a cliché to say that Ozil came at the best time, it is hard to say when that time is, but it certainly helped the club, the fans and the manager.
Yet when Ozil was announced, I wanted to go around and laugh at those who doubted it would happen, doubted Arsene, doubted Gazidis and Law (almost everybody), those who talked about them all summer like they have no place at the club, like your average Twitter user somehow knew more, your average Arsenal blogger had all the answers and all the right questions with it too.
But I didn’t do it, I had 100’s of Tweets favorited, 100’s of mates to text, Facebook friends who I’m sure would defriend me after a little online Ozil party. I just thought to myself, we’ve done it, this is great, this is great for our future and no one can take that away from us and all I want to do is celebrate.
All year I’ve defended players he’s defended, whenever I’ve gone to a game, I’ve never booed or abused a player, I’m always the first to defend a player who I believe has quality but is not finding form, the likes of Kos and Ramsey and even Gervinho. I also defend those who have never quite made it at our football club, even if secretly I think they are not a very good player (sort of like AW does).
People truly believe I act or think the way I do because I want to be some kind of super fan? They don’t think I want to look out for the club, its players, staff and fans?
95% of my thoughts are Arsenal and Politics and Sex and Love, the other 5% is just food.
I want the best for us; I want the best for the club, the fans and of course the world (a world where Arsenal is winning, until we’re sick of winning).
For me the best supporter, the best fan of the club is Arsene Wenger, he’s a model supporter, it’d be pretty difficult for me to be a better supporter than he is.
He looks after young players, nurtures them, makes them better, keeps faith in them after injuries, despite our fans wanting them sold, and even when they turn their back on him and leave (Robin), he still continues to do the same for other players (Ramsey/Diaby). The man embarrasses my level of support for my club.
I don’t want to be some kind of supporter police, telling people what they are wrong about, that they are carrying on ideas that do not match reality nor rational thought. It’s not my job either to look out for the club, its players, staff or fans, I am just one person, I have a few that think like me. But making sarcastic quips at people for what they think and why they think it, I do it because I love the club, I love the manager and I love a lot of the fans I interact with.
And I also do it because I see that people are adamant that they love the club, but they don’t show it, is it some kind of secret love where you only drink Peroni and shout at the t.v.? I don’t think that’s love, I think these people fell in love with a quick shag and didn’t realize who they really were and now constantly want them to change. You can always tell how much someone loves something or a person, by how often they put themselves or their thoughts or their feelings before it, or before that person. Love is not a competition, it is just love.
And just like I enjoy being friends with faithful lovers, I enjoy being friends with faithful Arsenal supporters, who stay true to their love. I enjoy questioning things, questioning them until I get an answer that satisfies my rationale, my mind, I don’t enjoy condemning situations or people. Of course, people do not like being told what to do or how to think, this is self-evident in many situations, they want to somehow get there themselves, or to think they got there themselves.
But this week, it changed something in me; it made me not want to tell people what to think or why they were wrong, I didn’t need to, perhaps I never did. Our manager did it for me in a way. All year we’ve had people speculating about what Mr Wenger is like, that he would never spend, that he only seeks cheap solutions to expensive problems. That he’s done finding gems, that he’s a relative panic buyer and that he doesn’t have any plans anymore.
But every year he surprises, every year he answers critics, piece by piece the British media try to make him out to seem clueless, pundits, bloggers and the odd bloke at the pub, predicting his demise, predicting it’s his final season, when the likelihood is that he’d be signing a new contract (I’m certain he will) and finally have a fair crack at the title, that I don’t think he’s had since 2004 and we were invincible.
The worst part is, when he proves a certain group wrong, or when our club prove others wrong, they use it for fuel, not to apologise for their irrational conclusion, but to further insult, attack, misinform and panic others and like the sheep they are, they follow.
I wonder what Usmanov has up his sleeve now; it’s probably drenched in pharmaceutical sweat and oil.
This is not to say he doesn’t make mistakes (it’s obvious he makes them, every manager makes them), this is not to say he is the definition of perfection, I just believe, due to the evidence presented towards me, year after year, we are far better off with him, than without.
It was an emotional game (Spurs), Monday was an emotional day, but the man is paid to keep it under pressure and he does, he always does, he always keeps calm when others are panicking, you see it every match and every window, he has the edge, even if he doesn’t always get the targets he wanted.
I’d say every one needed to be reminded that he could still do that, that Arsenal could still do that, but if he hadn’t, for many, this would be their wish for him to leave.
But in a window, filled with misinformation and mistrust and greed, I am still forever impressed that they pulled it off. And even more impressed with the targets we’ve been after all summer and the targets we will be in January and next summer. We can be confident in our proceedings and our pursuits, we are a far attractive club with Ozil, but we were with Cazorla, as we were with Robin and Cesc and Henry and so on. We’ve always been an attractive club with a manager that romances players to sign contracts for us and he does it well.
The thing that annoyed me the most this week is this: Arsenal bought Ozil through the self-sustainable model. No hand-outs, no billionaire showing off what he can do for the club, silent Stan was silent and he will continue to be as the value of our club rises, without his help, without anyone’s help but our own revenue.
But no one, no one talked about this, it wasn’t covered anywhere, it wasn’t celebrated in the news, it should be celebrated by us. They should be lauding us.
They lauded Dortmund all last year (for good reasons), who struggled to keep Gotze and look like they’d struggle to keep Lewandowski, let alone Reus and Gundogan (who we’ve been interested in for a while).
We’ve done something amazing and will continue to make amazing purchases at a time 2-3 of our in domestic rivals have more spending power than we do. We will catch up and we will do it without help or as I like to call it, cheating.
This is a fantastic achievement, both in business terms and in football terms. We should be proud, I hope most of you are.
I don’t think you can be a super supporter, I think if you are true to your club and its values, you will just enjoy being a supporter a lot more.
I love Arsenal so much more because of Arsene Wenger and I love Arsene Wenger so much more because of Arsenal.
Positively Arsenal 
“Love is not a competition, it is just love…
I love Arsenal so much more because of Arsene Wenger and I love Arsene Wenger so much more because of Arsenal.”
..frankly, you’ve said it all The Beck…thank you.
COME ON YOU GUNNERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Stand strong stand proud we’ll rise and they shall fall
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Couldn’t have put it better myself, what a fantastic piece of writing.
Thankyou
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Simply amazing man. I am refraining from going on a superlatives overload. From the heart, but with clarity and rationality. I have a lot of respect for the person you are (from what you have said in this post).
I have been toying with the idea of joining twitter, but being friends with people like you and talking, even if it is online, has made the decision for me. Expect a friend request from a weird sounding handle sometime today.
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‘For there are these three things that endure: Faith, Hope and Love, but the greatest of these is Love.’
Great piece Beck, from the heart.
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Even the eternal optimist and deluded fantasist that I am needs encouragement to stay strong. You have done that today with that piece. Many thanks
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That piece is just beautiful, thanks.
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Simply fabulous. We are privileged to have a manager like Arsene and to be able to call ourselves Arsenal fans.
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Great post Beck!
Let us all remember why the negativity has been so prevalent among our so called ‘fans’: No trophies in 8 years. This is always the root of all the whining no matter what they disguise it as.
For me, I love and support Arsenal because of the club’s values; not because of players that we might sign or trophies we might win. No indidvidual personifies the Arsenal values more than Arsene Wenger. NO ONE!
If it’s any consolation, we can take some joy in the knowledge that our know-it-all fans’ influence is limited to annoying people on the Internet. I am grateful to Dennis that they will never get anywhere running my beloved AFC.
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True that Bootoomee, we can be extremely grateful that our club is run by intelligent people who keep on making very good decisions despite them being somewhat unpopular.
Insisting on staying a self-sustainable football club in the Premiere league what a bunch of morons they said, well not on our watch kids.
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I’m much the same mind as you except for the percentages. 50% Arsenal and 50% food is closer.
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perfect, beck.
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A dreamy, sentimental piece. And where does sentiment belong in football? At the heart of any football club, that’s where. Thanks Beck.
Meantime, three questions linger but not for longer. What formation will Wenger use with Ozil and Santi? How fast can Ozil be integrated after a strenuous international break? How close are TV and Diaby? A little bird says TV end September and Diaby may be back in training in October?
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@ zp
“Diaby may be back in training in October?”
Really?
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What Bootoomee said. Wonderful piece Alex. And I LOVE the idea of you being the suppporter police. Make it so!
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You’re a nice person, Beck, but I’m not. I laughed my ass off at all the plastics who were absolutely horrible to Wenger and those who supported him all these years. I especially laughed at all those idiots who gave up their position on the season ticket queue until that “French Frog” left. Mesut Özil’s arrival at the club is a huge middle finger to all the spoiled babies who spent the last eight years being absolute tits.
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Plastics exist everywhere, attention is what they usually want, I do not give them that.
For me, sometimes it feels like 90% of the world are absolute fools, not everyone is worth your time, you have to set a value on your time and your thoughts, it may end up in you doing better things with them.
Arsenal is special because we have big accounts like FourFourTom and Piers Morgan and LeGrove and such, that are usually wrong and express unbelievable negativity and it spreads to their followers, yet people still follow and talk about them.
Sometimes the big accounts that see reason even get drawn it with that lot, thinking that because they are followed that its somehow justified and that view should not be ignored.
We’re supposed to laugh at many of those who said it would never happen, who would rather our club become a cheating billionaire funded no class express train to trophies.
“French Frog” and other racists outbursts, I will never have time for either.
People are what they are, unless you can change them, those that show no promise, no change, we leave, we forget, we ignore.
Those that do, we don’t, we love, we like, we support.
Just my thoughts.
Thank you all for your comments.
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Does anyone know where I can find that snide article Amy Lawrence wrote a couple of weeks ago ?
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I was thoroughly looking forward to much gloating this week in the face of the moaners and make them look pathetic, but they seem to be doing a better job than I ever could. After convincing themselves of so many myths and theories they have been left utterly confused by this colossal signing and show of ambition (which they have asked for, nay, demanded, for the longest time), but now that it has arrived they aren’t able to enjoy it, so mired they are in their own agendas and beliefs, and trying in vain to convince themselves and others that the summer was still a failure and a shambles. And that’s just the way I like it!
“If you’re absent during my struggle, don’t expect to be present during my success.”
May the club’s ambition and success continue to hurt their foolish pride.
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@PG
You might find it here: http://www.theguardian.com/profile/amylawrence
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@ LeoS
They’ve painted themselves into a corner over the last season, and there is no going back without losing face. For some of them, losing face is a far worse outcome than anything AW might do/not do. So they carry on in the same way with ever more outlandish “reasoning”, or they simply pretend they never expressed the views they previously published. They are to be pitied.
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Great blog man
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Lol its exactly how I see it too, seeing their responses, seeing how they come out of this, how they respond, how they try to save face, has been hilarious in itself.
Club is so beautiful and January and next summer has me even more excited, we can compete and we are resolute in our convictions, our club is full of heart and 2nd chances and professionals. Shame not all supporters are like that.
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Fantastic piece! Now going to read it over again!
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Nicely done ALEX. enjoyable read and thought provoking.
The two-faced amongst us do need to come face to their other face with our middle finger its a good wake up call to the dishonest foofoos who keep denying they ever stuck the knife in ARSENAL & ARSENES back and twisted. They have been schooled so many times by the great man it is getting truly pathetic listening to their bullshevik . At least admitting they were way off the mark and incorrect would get them an ounce of respect back but their egos won’t allow it.
Humble pie is proving very hard to digest in their bodies. No matter. No one takes any of them seriously when they can’t even be honest with themselves. Kind of like being divorced from yourself inner??
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great post The Beck.
It will be intersting to see how long some of these folk can hold out and continue to try and save face, as you put it.
Will we eventually get this: “If we had a good manager in 2003/4 we would have won every premiership game instead of drawing some” ?
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Fun,
Diaby, yes, it would seem so, but I may have misunderstood. TV has scheduled WB/late Sept for his full return. Re: Diaby the gist was gym physio on course or ahead and he gets back to field/football work during October was my reading. Rehab on the field may take a lot longer to be certain, or be more cautious (now with hindsight), and then he needs to get to full fitness, but the report I read (somewhere in blogosphere) was pretty upbeat. May he be our Xmas present this year! ZP
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@FunGunner, @Beck
I really overestimated some of the moaners, I thought they would be capable of a little humility at this time and perhaps admit they got it wrong, or at the very least that they underestimated the club and were overly critical. Possibly even give some credit to Arsene, Gazidis, Kroenke, or whoever it was they’ve made out be some sort of pantomime villain in their warped reality. But instead many appear to be simply revising and readjusting their whinging, negative stance, moving the goalposts as their pride prevents them from doing little else, a stance which will look increasingly bitter and comical as the club moves forward.
Perhaps instead of ‘Project Youth’ we might soon be hearing complaints of Arsene’s stubborn insistence with his misguided ‘Project Galactico’. But enough about those silly buggers.
I cannot wait to see Ozil take to the pitch, a player of his quality and intelligence makes everybody around him better. His creativity combined with Cazorla’s is going to be mouthwatering; the movement, power, pace and confidence of Giroud and Theo with a supply line of such vision and execution. When those players really ‘click’, teams will be torn apart. And if they weren’t before, there will be a queue of world class forwards wanting to be a part of this now. This signing proves we can now both attract AND afford the very best players on the planet.
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heheh didnt you know..it was fans pressure that brought ozil..nevermind the work of the club the last decade or so…the fans own the club, decide on policy, play, win trophies etc…its all about the fans…..
cant wait for wenger to sign his new deal and laugh at that enlightened bunch and their end of eras
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“If you’re absent during my struggle, don’t expect to be present during my success.”
perfect!
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Nice one Beck:
–
PG
In addition to the the lack of any journalism that covers the plight and lack of investment in grass roots kiddies football as the FA lined their pockets (see Greg Dykes latest gibberish over the past decade (conveniently ignored in Greg Dykes gibberish) we could add…
17th August:
“If you are not prepared to pay the price, there is a price to be paid….expectations are being undermined by a strategically inept transfer window.”
It now appears that Perez had made a deal with a cash rich club in order to help fund his other deals. Either that or he likes Arsene. A lot.
A shame that such brilliant theoreticians on the football transfer market fail to understand the value of, well, cash!
From the 31st August:
“The Arsenal board, who never dare to challenge Wenger’s control* ), may well feel a dilemma coming on about the manager. The Frenchman’s deal runs until the end of the season. He has had a number of renewals during his 17-year tenure, but until now they have all been a case of Arsenal having to tempt Wenger to carry on. Perhaps now he has to tempt them.”
Ya damn right he tempted them.
* let us not mention Slurgus or even model Director of Football Damien Commoli’s comments this morning on the wireless (forgive me for I have listened to talkshite) that Players like Ferguson & Wenger are the ideal and when you can’t get that stability in the club, then you have to look to some kind of director. If Commoli says it….then….
….Doh!
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It’d help if i hadn’t missed out the start of that article on the 31st:
“Midway through a fairly routine pre-match press conference a nerve was struck when the subject of Franco Baldini’s busy summer as Tottenham Hotspur’s technical director was put to Arsène Wenger.”
Proper. Gr*tty. B*ll*cks.
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It should also be noted that Arsene is not just building a talented squad but one that is also very physically reliable. We’ve had some great teams in the past let down by injury, players like Diaby, Rosicky, Cesc and the Judas struggling to play together for extended periods of time, some of those caused by what you might call ‘industrial’ tackles.
Ozil has averaged 60 games per season (including internationals) for the last 5 years. Cazorla has not missed a league game since 2011 in his days at Villarreal, a run which still continues. Giroud has played in 42, 42, 43 and 47 club games the past 4 seasons. Theo appears to have put his injury troubles firmly behind him and played 46 and 43 club games in the last 2 years, despite being out of the team at the beginning of last season due to his contract uncertainty. Ramsey – 44 and 47 club games and Arteta – 41 and 43 club games. That’s a front six we can depend on to play plenty of games.
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I did not realise that we had such consistently fit players Leo – thanks for that – even Theo seems to much more robust these past two seasons ( touches wood)
This international break is very disorienting – every time the football club gets up a bit of momentum everyone packs in for ten days !!!!! roll on Saturday
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Very nice point Leo. Reliability will be a big factor in our title challenge this season.
So in order to be in touch with you nice, positive people on twitter, I have joined it. My twitter handle is: @Madras_Periyar
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Alex, what a fantastic piece. You are wise beyond your years. I make no claim to know the exact number of yours, but feel safe in the assumption that it is but a fraction of my own! I have seen you consistently take the high road on Twitter, where often the conversation is so low down I doubt the perpetrators can see the high road, much less take it. You keep doing what you’re doing. Maybe some will eventually notice and start to emulate you.
Oh and this?
“95% of my thoughts are Arsenal and Politics and Sex and Love, the other 5% is just food.”
Best. Line. Ever.
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Fin, Greg Dykes is a prime example of why English football will never improve. Instead of looking at the reason why foreign players have become a better alternative than native ones, he jumps in with both feet to stir the xenophobic emotions which reside in many football supporters.
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Alex, the gargoyles at Le Grove have such a sad over Wenger buying Özil that they’ve resorted to picking on his not wasting money on a quick fix striker. It is truly pathetic how they throw speculative charges at the boss and predict our demise.
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Beautiful. Beck.
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Has anyone noticed we also got a striker from Shalke 04 on a free?
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@ Gainsbourg69 September 9, 2013 at 6:54 pm
Yup. He is starting from the premise that the English players are just as good and concludes that they are being held back by an unfair presence for foreigners. The truth is that although the kids might start out with the same potential, it is the English coaching system (or lack thereof) which is holding them back. We start off disadvantaged by the fact that we have a smaller pool of participants to choose from – we watch footie but don’t play it. We also have the lowest number of coaches per player of any of Europe’s big footballing nations.We have an ethos which values effort, and physicality above skill, results above performance – which, at that level, is wrong. By the time English kids reach the youth teams of top clubs, the damage has been done. They just are not as good, on the whole. Why would any club play foreign players unless they were better, or were cheaper, or had a better attitude? Playing English kids more at the expense of better foreign players doesn’t make those players better, it just makes the teams they are in worse.
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@ double canister September 9, 2013 at 7:10 pm
“Has anyone noticed we also got a striker from Shalke 04 on a free?”
Did we? Who?
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Dc has that been confirmed I thought we were just looking, he has lots of experience so could be another good signing
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I stand right by you my friend, totally agree with everything you have said. Arsne is Arsenal. Long live Wenger!
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Ciprian Marica? I thought that was just agent talk.
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Having read the Greg Dyke headlines it was helpful to read the transcript of his speech – you can still get it on the Daily Telegraph website
Like so much in sports journalism, well journalism overall really, the clippings the media serve up on Dyke are but a small and misleading effort IMO.
As Dyke makes clear he has no magic wand, as he says he does not want to start the ‘blame’ game
What he suggests is that everyone, clubs, coaches, the PFA, ex internationals, current internationals contribute to the commission he has set up
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Anicoll5 I hear you but how many times are they going to have these reviews or comissions? How many do they need! Every youth coach I’ve been lucky to have spoken to knows their stuff and most all agree that the FA needs to copy models for grassroots football that already exist elsewhere that require a little more investment.
Met up with some friends I grew up plying football with over the weekend. Some of them were really good, and one has proved to be a really good coach. One of his teams did so well they were given tickets to watch the European Cup final (previous one at Wembley not the latest) after winning some tournament, beating Arsenal and Tottenum kids teams on the way. When I enquired why some others hadn’t followed him into coaching they said money for the badges was a big deterrence. Without the investment nothing will happen. I can click my football boots together and wish for better times and new comissions every oher day but unbtil someone actually does something and makes the investment in monery and youth that has been made elsewhere, it will be impossible to catch up.
The FA already have enough information to know what to do.
Where there is not a will the way will be barred.
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urgh.
try that again:
When there is no will it can be hard to see the way.
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So the answer is simple ?
What is it then !
Seems to me PL clubs spend tens of millions on young players and their various academies – from the age of 8 youngsters join.
My guess is the PL clubs employ the best coaches, have top quality facilities – no shortage of resources or effort at all – dont tell me every club does not do their best to unearth the next Messi, YaYa, Ozil
And yet and yet and yet …….
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One thing is clear: proportionally what is required is an increase in the number of coaches and facilities provided by the FA and not the clubs. Clubs can do well as Southampton and otthers (including AFC) have shown so well but it is not enough. There are centres of good coaching around the country, hot-spots but to there are many areas of the country where there are no good coaches available. In an age where children have more and more distractions you need the greater coverage. Especially if English clubs are going to continue to have restricted catchment areas.
I feel that what has kept Football strong is the amazing passion for the game, so many volunteers active every weekend and during the weeks. There are so many clubs because people love to play and be involved.
I did some research and passed it on for an article on Untold a while ago now. The number of coaches in Germany for example is proportionally much higher, by thousands and thousands. And that difference has only grown to such a level in the last decade or so. Most of the coaches I have met say the same thing, that the FA needs to invest in coaching, or push for it. That is where it gets tricky, no one denys that. But it’s been hard to see the effort.
It’s easy to be critical of good intentions, but the FA do deserve some criticism. There will be improivements in the future. The national centre was positive but I’m not sure having an U21 coach like Pearce (great player!) for so long was the wisest choice. I hope Southgate has a better selection policy and that he plays the long game (no pun intended) better.
There will always be mistakes in the best of set ups, like in Australian cricket at times recently. Copying others who have done well can be helpful, for me a good example was when the ECB looked at Australian coaching.
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