The Emirates Stadium – the ultimate symbol of a stunning club transformation
The club bashers are an odd lot.
This is something that tends to be borne out if you engage in civil conversation and avoid the interaction descending into a steaming pile of swearyness. Their logic tends to be flawed, their arguments unsound and inconsistent. They have backed themselves so far into the corner of discontent they genuinely have no idea how to get out of it.
Bearing in mind we are top of the league and have been for most of the season and are continuing to perform well in two major cup competitions I have, in recent days seen the club heavily and passionately criticized for the following:
* failure to replace RvP with a similar quality striker
* the 3% ticket price increase which would help fund such a replacement and other similar acquisitions
* the supposed poor quality of recent additions to the squad – specifically Giroud and Ozil
* failure to spend up our reserves, said now to stand at a whopping £100,000,000 – a sum that is small change for the Oilys but, misspent by us in a rush of blood to the corporate head – as AW has said – could set us back two or three years
* failure to deal with deadwood quickly enough in the past, continued abuse of Diaby
* signing an injured player despite the negative financial cost to the club for the short duration of the injury
* that old favourite, the medical team.
* Arsene’s new contract and salary
These are the criticisms that spring to mind from just the last few days – they are hardly consistent with a club in the position we currently find ourselves in and one is pretty much forced to conclude that the worst of the abuse is coming from those disenfranchised by the move from Highbury to the Emirates. For them, on pitch success is of little value, it’ll never bring about a return to the old days and the old ways. They are now effectively the enemy within and their spurious and largely unwarranted attacks simply have to be rebutted as and when they appear.
I can not think of any other club that finds themselves in our position in the league, playing the way we are playing, with the financial stability and power that was built from the bottom up, with the brightest of futures before us – ever being subject to this level of criticism.
Neutrals just look on in bemused wonderment.
Sadly for the club, I don’t see them going away anytime soon but I DO see them becoming marginalised by our success and rendered irrelevant by the club’s overall situation in terms of its fiscal prowess and unique levels of managerial talent and stability. Not to mention its truly outstanding squad.
About a year ago I was genuinely concerned that the ‘end of era’ prophecy could effectively see AW driven from the club by a tide of negativity rising on the back of the majority of fans. Thankfully, success on field and good sense off it has prevailed and Wenger’s signature on a new about-to-be-signed contract will underline the sea-change we have just been through.
Whether any other club would attempt what AW and Arsenal pulled off in the first decade or so of the 21st Century seems extremely unlikely given the challenges that have to be confronted. When simply attempting to continue Ferguson’s success is proving to be so much harder than anticipated, who’d fancy being in the shoes of Spurs, Everton, or Liverpool, where real change is required in order for them to truly join the top table of the European elite.
For they, as much as we, have witnessed first hand the birth of a super club.
Positively Arsenal 
Great stuff Andrew.
I suppose it was the end of an era,just not the beginning of the new one they predicted.
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I have noting to add to that post Andrew.
You have said exactly what I have been thinking, and far more eloquently too.
Goal posts have been moved: now not winning the league is the new can’t make it into the top 4. Even if Wenger does – the complaint will be that he should have done it in ’08.
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I’ve seen that picture before Andrew!
Great piece, just the antidote to the drivel I listened to on a podcast on ‘A Bergkamp Wonder Land’ over the weekend which featured good ol’ Geoff Arsenal as the only voice of reason…..
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Cheers fellas – yes, guilty as charged Georgaki! I did look for an image online suitable for the piece but thought that snap wasn’t too shabby.
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I agree with your perspective. However the real obstacle preventing us from achieving the success we as Arsenal fans crave for, is not the enemy within, but the enormous wealth of clubs like city and chelski. FFP needs to be vigorous and robust for the sake of club football in Europe. Should UEFA fail to implement proper punishment to clubs that fail to meet the criteria for FFP, the game is finished. Just look at the Scottish Premier League. Celtic will win the championship every year until Rangers drag themselves back!
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Andrew
isn’t it one of yours?
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“the worst of the abuse is coming from those disenfranchised by the move from Highbury to the Emirates.” And given that many of them possibly remember with affection the Arsenal Firm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d800oFP4AwE it is perhaps no wonder that such irrational hatred is shown for the remarkable achievements of the last 10 years.
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The only thing I regret about not being able to go on ACLF is that I cant gloat ,crow and be rude and obnoxious to all those experts. I would be insufferable.
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Courtesy of my trusty Nokia, Georgaki – itself in severe danger of being swamped by the near-constant rain on the night of the AFC – Coventry match recently …
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An erudite and well crafted piece Andrew
We have some right miserable fuckers attached to our club – never happier than when forming an angry mob with pitchforks waving and lynching rope hungry for this week’s victim
But I am a patient man – a forgiving man – St Francis of Assissi almost
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i thank you Andrew for the inclusion fo the word “birth”.
These shitheads you talk about are the same lame arsed halfwits who have been going on about arsenal being a big club or a super club or a major player in football industry and comps ever since the club’s establishment. Of course they are wrong.
I have mentioned many times the inability of the older guard to identify with the n to become a modern club first of all and then a world wide recognised brand name.
The cheap excuse that “bergkamp was already here when Wenger arrived therefore we were on our way to world class before him” is bollocks. Back then Arsenal was a mediocre club enjoying some domestic success in a style closer to stoke and chelsea. Wenger found an ok club but in reality the club was years behind the trully elite clubs and recognised players of European football. He changed all that with WORK ….not heavy outside investment….but with genuine internal hard work and solutions. Whatever money was spent it was either ours or recovered from player sales.
Arsenal and Arsene Wenger have accomplished somehting unique BUT they are unlucky in terms they chose to do it in an era where everyone else was selling out. This selling out ( primarily to sugardaddies and oil states), besides being a TEMPORARY fashion thing in football, it is also guided by political factors that FANS havent got a clue about.
The people who follow football are in their majority the dumbest and most stupid people in society. the sophisticated ones who still love the game and have a sense of principle CAN NOT fault wenger or arsenal and have nothing but admiration for what has been accomplished.
Besides the stupidity of modern man/woman and the easiness with which failed souls demand the rich folks give them kodak momments with some tin cups, this phenomenon with reagrds to Arsenal illustrates , to me at least, that Arsenal was never a big club. Big clubs have big fans and int he last decade i have come to realise that Arsenal fans do not deserve Wenger or any kind of success. Whatever Arsenal succeeds this year belongs to the players and the manager, the fans do not deserve a thing and i include myself too.
There are two fundamental ways to run a club in this era….you need a madman like roman, berlusconi, moratti perez etc, OR you do it like Wenger.
Arsenal fans mock porto and ajax……..thinking that arsenal stands higher in the memories and historical records of football. The biggest difficulty for Arsene has proved to be the education of the fans and masses who still think with their fish and chip mentality and are like the peasants who are easily fooled and manipulated by shinny stuff. What shines isnt always gold but then again arsenal fandome is not wise and does not have a long particiaption in european events of football to know how to behave.
Perhaps, the only thing i would blame the hierarchy of the club, not really blame but i guess there was nothing they could do ( they need the money) was to allow much cheaper sections in the stands for the trully passionate gunners who win lose or draw are there to SING FOR ARSENAL….not titles, not trophies.
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trust me …if there were 5-6000 ‘hooligans’ as you would term them ….then the prawn sandwich wankers like payton and the rest wouldnt even dare raise their voice…….
and as for the bloggers? lol …..saddest cases in the world…..
they were inspired by this mans fotoball and then turned against him to serve popular opinion
noone bigger than the club they yelled at wenger ……only they go on acting as if their opinion is bigger than the wellbeing of the club.
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arsenal fans need leaders…firms and fans clubs 100% alligned to the principles and agendas of the club…arsenal fans need organisation..
WHERE IS IT?
was it ever there?
i show people here of fans organistation in gate 13 panathinaikos and they look at me as if im crazy…no im not crazy…..theses people are just pussies and too sanitised and have forgotten what football grounds are there for …to stand up and sing and cause chaos for your team in a good way ..if i wanted to sit down id stay home
2013-2014 ! get in!
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or ..fuck the clubs agendas…just simple fans who are there to sing for their club.
granted the stewards are a bunch of arseholes but if 10,000 of us push them back i dont think theyll come back again to act tough and remind us of the rules and such bollocks………
victory through harmony !
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anicoll5 at 2:52 pm
Coll for someone brought up around the corner from me, you must admit, that someone like St. Francis of Assissi wouldn’t last 5 minutes…..
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Hunter
Do you get invited to dinner parties much?
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Do you get invited to dinner parties much?
hahahahaha
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Oh I don’t know about St Francis Georgaki – he had his moments
I remember my old Dad having words with another Scotsman, a roofer by the name of ‘Wee Gus’ in a pub in Nightingale Lane once – the gentleman in question came from the other side of the sectarian divide in Glasgow.
After the customary phase of mutual squaring up and cursing Gus was advised to commend his Orange soul, although dammed as it was to Hell, to St Francis – the patron saint of animals.
Happy days
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Eloquent, and spot on, as per usual. Cheers, Andrew.
One very very very minor quibble. That “end of an era” thang that oft gets mentioned, If memory serves, was less a prophecy, more a mere observation of the mood at that particular time. No more, no less. At least it was when first used it on ACLF (I don’t know if the term became a clarion call of the dimwitted elsewhere….if so, was surely never the authors intention), which I take it is what is being referenced.
George, irony is that some of us “over there” wouldn’t hear a word spoken against you. Personally I’d wrestle an angry bear to defend your good name. Well, at the very least a slightly pissed off kitten. Maybe.
.
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Lol Re:standing
The Council and the HSE have AFC in a bind. If too many people stand up they can argue that the club are allowing it, then they can shut the stadium down.
All seater stadia were imposed on football clubs by the state, as we now know under guidelines that were not honest and that were politically compromised.
Cheap tickets, protected club ownership and standing areas in Germany are guaranteed by their state, supporting their league associations. Tis now a strange nineteenth or eighteenth century concept, that one function of the modern state was to protect the individual citizen from corporate interests. Unrestrained corporatism is what made those colonists in Boston so upset. Unfortunately the neo-Dickensians have done their best to rewrite history, as we can see day to day.
Arsenal FC alone cannot reintroduce standing. We’d need the FA to take a lead, which is not going to happen as they do not even have any interest in the fans or grass roots football, perhaps not even football itself (they did manage to spend 1bn+ on a stadium that didn’t have a football pitch…)
I blame Vengaaar.
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Sorry Harry,
The “end of an era” was what they desired. Plenty of evidence for that reasonable conclusion. They weren’t just against the strategy, by the end they were against they style of football, the coaching, everything.
They wanted Change and they did not deny it. Yogi wanted Pellegerini. To be fair that is a better shout then Moyes, but bizarrely very few malcontents mentioned his name!
I like Pellegerini, alongside Wenger and the others he has been one of the Pioneers. He’s a good manager, but he’s not as good as the Arsenal manager, and I have little doubt he would argue against that given their records. With a squad that cost half a billion in transfers alone and an unlimited budget he’s still behind Arsenal, behind Arsene. : )
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They are addicted to bitching. And as anyone who has ever been addicted to anything knows, letting go is hard to do.
The Black Scarf Movement needs to be uprooted. As in,. they need to be shamed out of existence through quips, songs and witty remarks.
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Two former Real Mad managers managing two gas clubs against each other tonight. Is this the future for football? Is what the end of an era drones desire to see?
Thank the football gods for Arsenal FC, still a football club.
Should be mildly intersting. I’m hoping for the obligatory brawl, various injuries, gouging on the touchline and some cards here and there. A sinkhole opening up would not be amiss.
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Harry, I’m sorry but I get to differ.
Some of the great and good even openly said that no matter what Arsene achieved it could not make up for past mistakes.He had to go, he had become a relic and devoid of new ideas.
One esteemed and venerable gentleman even apologised to Suga3 and said he had been right all along.
And watch those kittens, they can be fierce.
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This will make a few of you chuckle….
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Hey Harry – how you doing?!
You are quite right, Yogi’s ‘end of era’ was an expression of the Arsenal spirit as he saw it at that time rather than a prophecy per se and of course it sparked the mother of all debates which, I think it’s fair to say, ultimately culminated in the creation of PA. My use of the phrase above, was intended also to reflect the largely prevailing mood at the time rather than Yogi’s use, prophecy or not; from that point a line in the sand was effectively drawn and you were generally on one side of it or the other.
And Fins is dead right, too – the rest of that autumn, the winter, spring and right up until the Ozil signing, I’d suggest, all manner of people who had previously backed Arsene without question, started to express their doubts, openly calling for a change in the manager, his assistant, the Board, the owner, the medical staff – and at one point I was seriously fearing for the future of the tea lady.
Shocking, miserable times.
For many, doubts turned to disillusion and for a few months at least, it felt that a majority of those fans prepared to discuss the matter publicly, yearned for change along the lines Fins describes above.
And when we set up Positively Arsenal, I had real doubts as to whether we would attract enough commentators and visitors let alone contributors to the main posts to make George’s remarkable vision viable.
It was a very grim period – don’t forget, the BM win and the amazing end of season run was still some way off and the ghastly spectacle of RvP rubbing our noses in his somewhat scarcely earned Mancunian success was very much the straw that broke many a gooner’s back.
For me, the first sign that everything with the club was going to be all right was when you lot all pitched up!
ACLF was a very lonely place by the end and the small handful of us left willing to defend the club’s position felt isolated and exposed. To be reunited with so many former regulars from Yogi’s site was a truly uplifting experience and that alone gave me great hope for the future of the club.
Faith that has, in the end, proved wholly justified, as it turned out.
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Arsenal FC alone cannot reintroduce standing. We’d need the FA to take a lead
..nothing wrong with what youre saying but if we need licence from the f.a to stand up in our own fucking ground and sing …then the plot is lost…..
“And Fins is dead right, too – the rest of that autumn, the winter, spring and right up until the Ozil signing, I’d suggest, all manner of people who had previously backed Arsene without question, started to express their doubts, openly calling for a change in the manager, his assistant, the Board, the owner, the medical staff – and at one point I was seriously fearing for the future of the tea lady.”
i never felt that way…..i got a job in london and came here and looked for a ticket first and then for a flat. when you know arsenal;s past, when you follow european football instead of only epl and you know what wenger has done for us you cant lose faith. fuck the fans, the fans are stupid and we need their money. to repay the banks for the stadium we built for them to milk them for another century. its business. yet arsene does it with class and with a touch of romance when it comes to styles on the pitch and ethos.
but hehhehehe look…when a person old enough to know better, sits and critisises arsenal for ‘optimal seasons’ in a period of MASSIVE transition ..that shoudl tell you that teh person is clueless and shouldnt even be allowed to have opinions.
arsenal with the smallest budgets and youngest squads critisised for optimal seasons in the period when repaying their stadium?
only a fool would have the audacity to complain and such fools should bemocked and ridiculed and the yogis arseblogfs whatever shouldnt ban us just becuase we put them detractors mugs at their places.
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hey georgaki, dinner parties? is that posh?
i do go to parties but not much dinner going on…..
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Bloody good thing all seater stadia, came in as I recall after the Taylor report that looked into the Hillsborough slaughter, and the Bradford slaughter, and made a number of recommendations about making it safe to watch football. Without all seater stadia who knows ?
Oh yes in the good old days I loved those great big steel fences, the ‘crushed in a pen’ feeling you would get at a big game. The death slide staircases, the rain, always the rain.
Yes all seater grounds is right up there as an example of politicians invading my inalienable civil rights as an Englishman – like prosecuting drunken drivers, banning dog fighting. sending children up chimneys
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hunter
It’s all mixed up with the Hillsborough tragedy, not much I can about it!
Thatcher hated football, amongst other things (such as human beings, she didn’t like those!) and that is the short version of that story.
Also, very rewarding construction contracts would’ve been given to some of her bessie mates when re-building all those stadia ; )
Sometimes I think I have a suspicious mind, but the business practices and politics of Balfour B. etc. are on the record, and in the courts too!
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George, I’d wrestle a dormouse then. Vicious little f*ckers.
I’m fine Andrew, ta.
I did say it was a very very very minor quibble! You’ve provided a more thorough response than my offhand comment deserved, And I broadly agree with much of what you say there. That’s a fair summary of how it all went down.
To be fair Fins, I can’t remember who said what and when. My memory being increasingly hazy at the best of times. Not gonna rake over old ground though. Yogi doesn’t need, require or want the likes of me to defend him.
I think I emerged with (what is left of) my dignity intact there. Just about.
Arse.
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lol at mou..without fpp ..impossible to compete
no not impossible
ask arsene
😉
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finsbury
February 3, 2014 at 5:13 pm
police state treating its citizens like dumb sheep.
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Great piece AA, Books have been written on the subject and those who truly analyse history agree with you. We are fortunate that ARSENAL football club have had several forward thinking people that have carried our club to be first among equals, however it is undeniable that at times through our history with have dropped back in pack and it was in such a state when Arsene arrived.
Every club in the land should have us as their model and we should be every fans second favourite club, the fact we are so widely unpopular and derided shows the power of the media and propaganda.
We have long been an apathetic nation in every aspect of life and very often the truth is just to much of a hassle to discover. If Murdoch’s institution wanted the general public to believe that boris Johnson was actually the world best footballer then they would duly oblige and the ballon D’or would be delivered promptly.
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Just come across this blog, great stuff Andrew. Good to see some of the old gang from ACLF here.
Absolutely agree with most of that except:
“worst of the abuse is coming from those disenfranchised by the move from Highbury to the Emirates”
I don’t think that is the case. I comes from all sectors young & old, die hards & the nouveau glory hunters. Equally genuine support is also from the spectrum of ages & football experience. I still feel the positive have always been in the majority but the dissatisfied always shout the loudest. The Villa game lanced a boil, I feel a lot of people were unhappy & at the abuse AW got & the atmosphere has lifted considerably ever since.
Football fans rarely are completely logical, myself included, ,Until conclusively proved otherwise I am proud to be an AKB because over the balance of AFC history we have still never had it so good as we have it now.
The club has remained in the top 4 whilst positioning itself to become one of the genuinely elite clubs in world football.
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“police state treating its citizens like dumb sheep”
As in making ’em sit down in a comfy stadium ? The bastards !
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No worries Harry,
It became a boring and cyclical thread at the time. Best avoided.
Though, I can’t deny that I have enjoyed revelations such as those from D.Winner (‘Arsenal were broke for a while there’), that Fulham were asking silly money for Schwarzer (shocking surprise!) and the decimation of other dearly held myths that were used to consistently heckle and undermine the manager and the club (and poor old Doris too! ).
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Great stuff Andrew,I agree with every word mate.
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Harry, I wasn’t talking about Yogi,particularly.
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because over the balance of AFC history we have still never had it so good as we have it now.
bullseye !
proud akb here too
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I know George, I know.
Think Flint makes some great points there btw.
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It became a boring and cyclical thread at the time.
with a tyrant host allowing a bunch of idiots to directly question Wenger.
all of them togther aint fit to cut Arsene toenails and they want to judge his football credentials? are we serious? obviously not….
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george stay strong he who laughs last buddy,,,
in may we laugh are hearts out and …nothing wrong with being insufferable to a bunch of traitors and cowards.
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As in making ‘em sit down in a comfy stadium ? The bastards !
in a liberal state you allow for the sandwich brigade, you allow for the one who wants to take his family and youalso allow for me and others like me who have grown up going to stadiums to SING ….
If i wanted to sit comfortably id stay home and watch it from tv
and im sorry but they are bastrads…its an open stadium for crying out loud and we cant even smoke….but you can drink 50 pints…that makes no sense to me.
what about us who want to go there drink smoke light up flares sing and behave like the palace fans ( fucking brilliant they were, i was singing the rhythm of their tunes silently) …
i dotn get this fascism in our own ground….we pay to have some wanker with his yellow/orange outfit tell us what to do?
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Hey, Feckers. Ready to be dazzled by Jose’s 19th century football?
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Where did you used to stand Hunter ?
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As for the “brilliant” Palace cunt with his great big fucking drum that is one item I agree on
In the good old days he and his 20 jolly boys on their days outing would have been shut up permanently in about 2 minutes – and good riddance
Tell you what though ? Let’s all get great big DRUMS
Every third Arsenal supporter with a big bass drum, leopard skin cover, what a brilliant atmosphere that would be
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no i cant… i tried watching the two humble football clubs but its horrible…il play grand theft auto instead.
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anicol i dont think we need freaks with leopard skin covers …not every fan that wants to sing is a violent freak motorcyclist with lizzard tattooes all over their face or people who look like the pirate bully or whatever ….
but sure…you need some non comformists to make an atmosphere…we cant have atmosphere with my mother there taking pictures if you get what i mean….
and besides i allow for everyone…just in sections…
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PG, I believe you now have a full hand?
In the past there were excellent discussions between Flint, Frank and Yogi, about Arsenal tactics. It was tribalism, at it’s best.
You took a long time to find your new home, Flint!
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