I’m out of step again. If supporting Arsenal was a dance I’d be treading on every toe in the room. It’s OK don’t feel sorry for me, I’m quite used to it. When we were playing in hugely entertaining games but coming out with honours shared in multi scoring draws or losing by the odd goal or as a result of hugely prejudicial refereeing decisions I often found myself in a minority of one. I stood like the little boy still waving his flag after the procession had passed saying to nobody “Wasn’t that a gay parade, colourful and exciting?” as everyone else in the street marched grumbling back into their houses angry, cheated, feeling the costumes were less flamboyant than in previous years, the music a little discordant, the majorettes skirts less high than they liked and the baton twirls not as extravagant as they might have been.
My final contribution, I genuinely believed it to be forever, to the world of Arsenal blogging was to ask, almost a year ago now and following a three three draw with Fulham, whether there was any other single person out there who could agree that the match had been entertaining and good to watch. Nobody could. I said that in that event I would keep my counsel. That I did until George and Adi inflated the enormous bouncy castle that is Positively Arsenal and enquired as to whether or not I might like to jump on and try a few somersaults. The rest is, to polish a very tired and already shining cliché, history. Or at least so I had assumed. Increasingly though I’m finding myself once more moving into a position of isolation. Remarks passed are missing my bulls eye by a fraction and the popular note is not, to my ear at least, always quite true.
Before you begin to berate me for a curmudgeonly, or as my Caledonian comrades would have it, a carnaptious outlook during this time of celebration and general rejoicing among the Arsenal cognoscenti, stay your sword hand, I beg, keep your powder dry, and hear me out. I am not miserable, nor am I deliberately dour simply in a spirit of perverse contradiction. I have been accused of such contrary instincts often enough in the past and so I must presume that there could be some truth in the accusation, one is put in mind of the old clench about a stopped clock being correct at least twice a day. However on this occasion I am certain I can defend my position against such a prosecution case.
In the first instance I believe I may meet with a favourable reception. I am hugely antagonised by the refusal of the media, exemplified by the apparatchiks at ЅҠЧ ЅРѺЯТЅ on Tuesday evening, to give simple unvarnished credit where it is manifestly due. Arsenal did not in fact play the most outstanding, beautiful efficient and yet inventive football imaginable. Instead Napoli were a disappointment. Napoli were poor. Napoli were sure to come out and show more in the second half. The script cannot be changed, Arsène cannot be given credit for what he has been building at the Emirates all these years because then the real power in football would have to admit they’d been wrong and force a different editorial line from the wooden lips of their ventriloqual dolls. I’m sure we were all as annoyed by the commentators search for excuses to prop up their tired arguments. Thank goodness for the French TV coverage I eventually secured. Where I differ from the rest of you perhaps is my reaction to the media circus where there is evidence or at least the suggestion of a change of heart. People are rejoicing that the papers are beginning to recognise that we are resurgent, that we have awoken and the bad or lean times are behind us. I hear folk talking with glee how this negative blog or that radio show are saying that from the depths of despair when we lost to Villa and inspired by our new Deutsche Wunderkind Arsenal are suddenly a different team. And this is one of things that really pisses me off.
The media are not saying “We got it wrong, we’re sorry for all the scurrilous nonsense we’ve talked about the great Monsieur Wenger and his long term plan” of course they aren’t and they never will. What they are actually saying is Arsenal were shit until Arsène finally caved in and spent some fackin’ money – just like they’d always told him to. I can’t celebrate that. I can’t celebrate when they propagate the nonsense that Mesut Özil inspired us to victory over Napoli as I heard this morning or that he was ‘at the heart of everything good about Arsenal” as I read. Apart from the fact that by any sensible measure no one stood out in what was the consummate team performance (except possibly Aaron Ramsey who was the best man on the pitch in the first half and by quite a long way) the comments are at best lazy –
Arsenal spend a lot of money on a player ergo he must be the best player at the club
or self serving –
we always said Arsenal would never do anything until they spent some fackin’ money so now we will ignore the facts and thus prove ourselves correct.
So don’t expect me to cheer when these lying scumbags appear to be blowing smoke up our kilts. They will turn on us at the first bad result and won’t ever give credit for the fact that this team was already in the midst of an incredible run, which has continued and to which Özil is merely one contributing factor. The real story is the platform Arsène has assembled upon which the likes of Mesut can strut their stuff.
Another area where I find myself out of step with many of my friends is this mood of vindication, this feeling that the results have proved us to be right and yar boo sucks to anyone who doubted our positive support in the past. I’m reading Roy Jenkins huge and hugely enjoyable biography of Churchill at the moment and it has given me pause on this subject on more than one occasion. The old warhorse was very fond of saying “In war, resolution; in defeat, defiance; in victory, magnanimity” and a little bit of that magnanimity wouldn’t go amiss right now. Apart from anything else I don’t think it is the results or current form that proves us to have been right for standing defiant by the manager in recent times. Churchill was furious at Chamberlain’s betrayal of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and ’39 and made many dire predictions about the calamitous outcome of a continued policy of appeasement. My argument is he wasn’t proven right by the carnage that ensued in the following years, he was right to be appalled at the perfidious treachery shown by the Western allies to the Czech people regardless of the outcome. Even if Hitler had stopped there and Europe had enjoyed decades of peaceful prosperity it wouldn’t alter the fact that allowing the fascist annexation of another country would have been wrong. Full stop. Wrong because it was wrong by any moral measurement not wrong because of the way things turned out. In our perhaps less cataclysmic area of concern, we would have been right to support our manager and players irrespective of the results they went on to achieve. We are supporters and we could clearly see what Arsène was trying to achieve and how he was going about it. It was right and proper to support him in that quest. If we’d lost a few more games this season than we have that position would still have remained the correct one. We supported him simply because it was the right thing to do and this good run of results is not relevant. ‘I told you so’ has no place for me.
I know what you’re thinking – lighten up Stew and let us have our moment for goodness sake. Fine go ahead I don’t blame you and I too am revelling in the football and the results. I’m happy for players like Aaron and Tomas after their personal tribulations and I’m delighted for Arsène to be where he deserves to be, I am a little bit in love with Per Mertesacker and if it means the team is winning I’m content to be proven right. I just don’t buy the media line and don’t think it healthy for anyone else so to do, oh and I prefer magnanimity to gloating any day of the week. The former is sun kissed and virtuous residing upon lofty moral high ground, the latter lives in a squalid detritus choked gutter of self regard. Having said all that I’m not immune to the instinct to poke out my tongue at my detractors. To that end I have one delicious quotation to share with you from Jenkins’ weighty tome. Churchill was adept at putting people in their place with a pithy or elegantly turned phrase, in fact this remains one of the things for which he is most famous. However he was, unsurprisingly perhaps, occasionally on the receiving end of some pretty stiff stuff. When I consider some of the awful accusations levelled at us Positivistas, that we were living in the past, that events had left us behind and we were clinging to the promise of false hope based on Arsène’s achievements from a sadly bygone age, the words of the Marquess of Linlithgow from a written exchange with WSC in 1932 spring instantly to mind. “Forgive me then if I say that it is not, it seems to me, so much I who am mouthing the bland platitudes of an age that has passed away … but rather you who are hanging hairy from a branch while you splutter the atavistic shibboleths destined by some to retreat into the forgotten past”.
Now that is a put down.
Positively Arsenal 
Curmudgeonly carnaptious cognoscenti. Me like.
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Heh, I’d not heard carnaptious until a friend from Scotland called me it. “Yer a feckin carnaptious wee basturt” he said. Or something like that.
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I’m 100% with you Steww. Ozil is a great player, but I did not see him at the heart of everything we did on Tuesday night. He made a few key contributions, but so did every player on the team. It was a ‘team’ victory, including all the hard work of the coaches and other behind the scenes guys. It pisses me off that the media are making it all about Ozil and I’m getting it parrotted back to me by the brainwashed. That is the media though, always the obvious narrative, totally unable to do a bit of research and see that we lost 1 game in the last 21, most of which Ozil was not around for. They would have us believe that the 1 loss in that sequence is the reality of the crisis we were in until he rode in on his white charger to save us. I’m also not comfortable with this deification of Flamini either. He has contributed, but he has not made the difference as again, we were already on a run long before he arrived. Meanwhile Arsene gets no credit whatsoever for his team selection and tactics which the players carried out flawlessly on the night.
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P.S. It doesn’t help when players are buying into it and parrotting the same crap back to the easily led. It seems that they are just like the average fan who needs to feel there is a ‘world class’ player around before they start to believe in their own ability and show what the manager and a lot of us already knew they possessed.
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pass – glad I’m not as lonely in my view as I thought. And yes I quite agree with you. I suppose the players might be trying to make him feel welcome, or perhaps, horror of horrors, they aren’t too bright and believe the media agenda.
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I did not have much time for the media when it was Arsene’s turn in the barrel and,now that the crisisdramacatastrophehorror focus has moved elsewhere, I cannot bring myself to take seriously the new excruciating insights from the boys and girls of HM Press Corps on AFC.
To be fair I admit I read it. Occasionally there is a piece which has an original idea or is well written. I even remember a joke once. I think that is magnanimous enough for 8am.
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His Excellency R G Mugabe would say ” never ever wil we go back on Wenger again. Take ur Manure, take ur Spuds, take ur Chelski n Man shitty and take ur intoxicated Liverfools, i wil keep my Arsenal.” Icho!
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“We supported him simply because it was the right thing to do and this good run of results is not relevant.”
This is a very good point.
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A most serendipitous Post, of somewhat herculean proportions that nonetheless delighted the palate of this jaundiced reader. Thank you.
I wondered how you conspired to produce such a title for your essay as initially the words “atavistic shibboleths” did reek of antiquarian construct.
‘Atavistic’ is an adjective meaning [characterized by reversion to something ancient or ancestral:] whereas ‘shibboleth’ is a noun meaning [a belief or custom that is not now considered as important and correct].
Reading your article in the hope of discovering how these terms applied I was somewhat nonplussed at my inability to discern any such phraseology, and then like an assassin’s stiletto applied to the innards was the answer — it was the Marquess of Linlithgow’s fault for berating Churchill, and allowing you to remind us an age long gone.
And in a footie blog of all things!! Thank you again. 🙂
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ghandi & churchill …..very nice…
i agree with your article about media and fans covering their butts…however on the subject of being magnanimus…do you feel they deserve generocity or kindness ?…its not like they are morally balanced to appreciate any such gesture..they will take advanatge of it as not experiencing any resistance in the crap they come up with and as soon as the next bad result shows up they will be doing the same exact thing even more loudly…. true they need to be ridiculed and silenced and that will sadly only happy if we win trophies….
the narrative coming around which i hate is that we are fickle idiots who were ALL screaming wenger out just a month ago….no…not all….
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Just curious, Is churchill seen in a generally positive light in the UK?
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Some great points, extremely well made, Stew.
For my part, I find the whole gloating, crowing, ‘told you so’ mindset unedifying and unnecessary. Apart from anything else, one runs the risk of being hostage to fortune.
As Stew rightly says, the whole point of our taking a stand in support of club, players and manager wasn’t to make an investment in cheap point-scoring at a later date. It was simply because it was the right thing to do.
And, as in any ‘civil’ war, there is a price to be paid on both sides and, in the short-term at least, the beneficiaries of such conflict tend not to be the adversaries tearing each other apart but the mercenaries (media) and the actual enemies of the club – our opposition – who gain from the fractured nature of the support and the compromised morale within the team and its environs.
We all took a stand against the nay-Sayers, George took the courageous decision to set up this blog with help from his many friends and the rest is – or should be – history.
We are what we are; our proud record speaks for itself.
Having said all that, when individuals were hammered back in the day for their beliefs in Arsene and the club – and that hammering became personal and abusive as it often did from certain quarters – it’s hardly surprising that such individuals now wish to make the point that just maybe they were unfairly and wrongly treated, one way or another.
So I do ‘get’ the desire for humble pie.
I understand the anger, rage and yes, the hurt feelings, felt by many of us. But it is for exactly this reason that I’d suggest we stop flagging up to those few who clearly took delight in this pain that they had succeeded in their former quest for vilification.
And in the interests of the club, and to stop giving comfort to our actual enemies, let’s think about moving on.
Apart from anything else, why continue to stoke something that will deliver very little.
By stigmatizing those who doubted, indefinitely, we are only encouraging the continuation of the old war which then stands to spark back into a raging inferno every time we experience a set back – a draw, a defeat or several defeats.
We all of us have a responsibility to move on, so let’s do it.
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SA – He is a curate’s egg I think it’s fair to say. In some ways he’s seen as an heroic figure and no doubt in 1940 he provided much needed leadership but other parts of his career were far less successful.
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I agree with Steww.
–
Didn’t Churchill also say that he wanted ‘The Fakir’ trampled to death under a heard of elephants? Not so gracious in defeat then, heh! : )
–
“The next game is really important” (and hopefully good fun) the players keep repeating to inane questions from the hacks.
West Brum.
Sessègnon. Amalfitano hit the bar during in extra time last week (was it only last week?). They have had the week off after their first victory against the cheatin’ Mancs in over two decades. The good thing is AFC played on the Tuesday and the game is on the Sunday. So things should be ok on the tiredness front, better then the 2nd half against Stoke. Carzola to return?
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Nailed it Andrew. Spot on.
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fins – you could write a pretty convincing argument with both sides made up of Churchill quotes. He adopted positions which he later shed, crossed the floor of the Commons not once but twice. He was at the end of the day a politician.
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Steww.
With the above piece I’m forced to write. Fact is, your last two pieces were, like this, so wonderful, that I spent time re-reading and trying but failing – to write something of a thank you.
On reading your previous contribution it occurred to me that your writing is “eyegasmic”, but I didn’t confess – because I felt my word doesn’t fully encapsulate all that I’m feeling. It’s also my Brain that’s buzzing. What sort of “gasm” am I experiencing, please?
Whatever it is, I’m really enjoying it, and unlike a program about porn I watched the other night, where the general conclusion was that too much of watching porn and wanking is harmful (I still have sight), it appears I’m addicted to the uber-gasms I regularly experience when reading your articles. Thank you.
brain-eyegasm?
eye-braingasm?
fucking good read?
I mean, whilst reading I’m shouting “yes, yes” at the screen.
Help (or not).
Thanks.
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If you have five minutes on the Churchill question SA have a look at the following article which neatly covers the contradictions;
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/not-his-finest-hour-the-dark-side-of-winston-churchill-2118317.html
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rantetta – if I give you pleasure then that is reward enough.
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Steww
Churchill and Gandhi were both very modern politicians I guess. And no doubt they both also made mistakes. Big ones. I’m not their judge and I don’t envy the choices they had to make!
One of those choices had an impact on The Arsenal. It was Churchill who had to make the call during WWI to relocate the Royal Arsenal from Woolwich to Glasgow, out of reach of the Zeppelins. For better or worse he is a part of the history of the club.
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Correction: the move happened before WWI.
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there must be something in this team that makes every team play poorly.
the media and the brainwashed fans will always find a way not to credit wenger for anything good about arsenal but blame him for every single wrong pass. when van traitor was here, we were one man team. now that he is no here we are stil scoring and the traitor will be lucky to get 20 goal this season. when wenger signed flamini, he was acused of refusing to spend. now that his work is sticking out like a sore thumb, they said he is the saviour of our weak defence.
i’m sure ozil will be very surprise at the amount of world class talents in squad.
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Fine piece Stews. But I think the magnamity is lost in those who will not admit the flaws in their old dogmas. But kudos to you for being as usual the bigger man.
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Sensationally Arsenal, being from Chennai, were you alluding to Churchill and the Bengali famine during WW2?
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You are right about both points Stew.
We were good before,and gloating is poor form.
However ,I am not telling the stupid that I was right,I am reminding them that they were stupid and vindictively cruel.
I am reminding them that next time to keep there miserable views under their hat.Because their stupidity is now proven.
You may still have some respect for some of them.I don’t.
These people actively attempted to destabilise the club and the fans base.
So ……………….Fuck E’m .
Lovely writing as ever.
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My point has nothing to do with them George, it has to do with us. It’s like forgiveness. You don’t forgive for the other guy, you do it for yourself.
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fins – Jenkins has glossed over that, I didn’t know so thank you. Fascinating stuff.
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Fantastic Stew,Churchill was the mp for this area,there’s a statue, an estate & a fish n chip shop to name but 3 memorials to the fella around here (woodford)! Some vandals sprayed the statue once and there were vigilante crews of people with comfortable shoes standing guard on it for a while, as for the gloating or pulling people up for being wrong about this team and manager just isn’t worthwhile, I mean if people pulled me up on the error of judgements I’ve achieved they’d be a line outside my door right up to the Churchill statue. The most important thing is we were right and this team is back where it belongs and long may it continue-that’s what counts.
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,I am not telling the stupid that I was right,I am reminding them that they were stupid and vindictively cruel.
I am reminding them that next time to keep there miserable views under their hat.Because their stupidity is now proven.
i agree……and when stupid people dont shut up and keep being a deliberate nuisance then there is only one solution…. hospital…
🙂
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Lovely reading, Steww.
I’m afraid Churchill was probably right in the 30’s about emerging threats to the Empire. Just about the only thing the old drunk got right.
Still – the Empire was gone 17 years later.
I’m still digesting you points, plenty to chew on.
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But why do it here Hunter? What do you hope to achieve? I came here to get away from the endless argument, now I have to come here and listen to you still doing it?
If I didn’t want to hear two sides of a row why would I want to listen to one side of it.
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Thanks everyone for the comments about Churchill and thanks anicoll for the link.
Sav, yes, the Bengal famine was on my mind.
Having my country subjected to British rule and the way Churchill treated it, including his response to the Bengal famine and him calling Palestinians dogs, I dont like him very much. However, many people during his time were like that. Even the more enlightened Conan Doyle called us and Australian Aborigines savages, giving us hideous features and negative characters.
I have met some patriotic Britons who extol the virtues of Churchill while being ignorant of his, putting it mildly, ignorant and insensitive side. So I was curious if in general people knew both sides of the Churchill coin. Glad to know they do.
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Rantetta
I went through a box of Kleenex in the first half of the Napoli game.
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DC – I am not putting up an unequivocal defence of WSC. I happen to be reading a well written book about him and a couple of points jumped out at me which I thought might help to illustrate my post. That’s all.
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passenal
October 3, 2013 at 7:47 am
haha yeah i laughed as well when media and fans called it like a bergkamp type signing….ozil with bergkamp? long long way to go before any such comparisons can be made…
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Hunter @ 12:07pm
There is an alternative, care in the community.
I think that’s what PA was set up for.
Mind you, having a dig at the dumb-ass recalcitrants is fun too sometimes.
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In fact Hunter, George – if this place is to become a platform to endlessly abuse other people then open the doors, let them in to defend themselves. But do it without me.
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steww i think you got the wrong idea..this isnt about personal vendettas….just like i will mock the reporters and media who talk shit equal treatment goes to them “fellow fans and bloggers”…..i dont differentiate…..
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but we havent abused anyone steww and certainly not at the levesl we got abused or dismissed…we are just laughing at them for being so wrong and insisting on wanting to have opinions on things they cant even grasp….
it wasnt only the reporters throwing feaces to sebastian bachs was it….?..it was arsenal fans too…
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And for those who suspect that UEFA is purely an anti Arsenal conspiracy I see poor old Jurgen Klopp has been banned from the touchline for two CL games which, purely by coincidence, are both against us.
(banned smiley face)
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and steww …if arsenal fans were organised and united…..they would have found all these morons with their blogs causing harm to the club and shut them down….or smash them down even…… ?
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Stew,I have asked on several occasions that people do not abuse bloggers and posters from other blogs,I asked that tedious arguments that were upsetting some of our posters were put to bed.
I urged caution about over stating our current run of success.
I have pointed out that constant swipes at other people left us open to accusations of sour grapes.
I use twitter, in the main, as the battle ground and try to keep this place clean.
What more can I do?
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for instance …it is to my great amazement that arsenal fans have not yet found or gone to the offices of the ast and tell that mug payton to shut it or else…
it is pretty embarassing when the only people who defend us on record are ex liverpool and manunited players dude….
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defend arsenal and wenger i meant *
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Or alternatively H13 if Arsenal fans are organised and united they could ignore the ill informed windbags who would, presumably, either change their tune or fade away ?
Going on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and gives them a legitimacy, a significance, they did not, and do not deserve.
Do you see what I am getting at ?
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Hunter – do you love Arsenal?
Or fighting about Arsenal?
I agree with George – Twitter’s a great place to do battle but slugging it out on PA is a bit like having a fight in an empty room. Sure, you’ll probably emerge seemingly victorious but where’s the value in your endeavour?
If I’m being totally honest, I don’t especially enjoy being reminded of our recent past as it was a very dark hour indeed. There’s little point in emerging from that dark hour if all we do is constantly revisit it.
Who are we trying to impress here?
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anicoll: either change their tune or fade away ?
their motivation is to get rid of wenger, they dotn like him, period.they are fed up with him , the glass has broken ..they wont fade away…or change their tune..they will just move the goalposts and keep attacking the club and manager whenever they can….
anyway…i get the memo….andrew is spot on as well..hate it he is always right.. 🙂
what gives them significance is good fans doing nothing…..for 8 years they were the ones being heard the most….why is that?
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Klopp’s failed attempt to make a restrained celebration from high up in the stands the other night after Dortmund scored was highly enjoyable. After the first CL games, keeping Klopp away from the pitch is possibly a good thing for Dortmund!
Why worry about the end of the season when there are two epic games against Dortmund to look forward to. Huge games. We will be lucky to see better football this season then in these two games to come.
If Rosicky plays will Reus be overawed or will he raise his game even further. What of Rosicky (should be fitter by then)? Not forgetting the German players at AFC Rosicky will also be looking forward to these games. I hope he doesn’t play for the National team next week!
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well andrew i love calling people out who were wrong and acting all smart and dismissive ..thats what i like…. whether that has to do with arsenal, football, or any other subject in life it dont matter..its about the principle.
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Steww,
I already wrote a comment on this matter which I think is relevant to this article. This is my comment on Untold about a pice by Henry Winter:
I am not too impressed with the Henry Winter piece. It is the typical revisionist: “Oh Arsenal are doing so well only because they finally did what we’ve always told them to i.e. spend some fucking money”. He goes on like Ozil made everything by himself. It’s interesting that when he assists, they only talk about him with little mention of the goal scorer. When he scores, they ignore the great work that produced that goal and only focus on the £42.5 million player.
I insist that in spite of Ozil’s class, which is clearly not in doubt, our achievements this season is going to be based on the core of our team and with him (Ozil) playing his part. I detest articles and comments that portray Arsenal as a team that only started playing well after the arrival of the German. This is just not true and the only reason why it has persisted is because it makes the media and our “spend some fucking money” brigade feel vindicated. They shouldn’t because they aren’t!
It’s funny that after Henry Winter has told us in about a thousand words how Ozil is doing everything, he ended with: “For all the focus on the £42m Ozil, Wenger has promoted 62 Academy graduates into the first team, and Kieran Gibbs enjoyed a strong first half while Jack Wilshere came on in the second……….” He is the lazy hack who is fixated on Ozil, we Gooners appreciate all our players and their contributions to the team’s victories.
To be clear, I love Ozil and I am glad to have him as our player. His contribution to the team has been fantastic and he deserves to be praised. I only object to over the top praises that ignore the even greater roles being played by the rest of the team. For instance, while his goal against Napoli was sublime, the Giroud-Ramsey combination that produced it was also great. I love keeping perspective and I don’t want us to lose it over Ozil.
..
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