Doing ‘a Likely Lads’; as tough today as it’s always been …
Arsenal in recent years has been subjected to levels of abuse from sections of its own supporters way in excess of what might be expected for a club routinely competing in all of England’s – and Europe’s – biggest competitions. Indeed, there are clubs that have been relegated with considerably less acrimony than the routine nastiness regularly dished out by a small minority of ‘our own’.
Working out what could possibly be behind the worst of the vitriolic verbal assaults on the club is confused by the presence of a good number of what we might also describe as ‘glory-hunters’ – those casual critics who spend much of the time moaning about anything and everything, often on the flimsiest of pretexts with little supporting evidence to back up their banal, negative claims. These more casual critics of course come from all walks of life and are not unique to any age group or background.
But the hardcore club basher – the perpetrator who is often aggressive and abusive to anyone opposing him rarely permits rational debate for any real length of time before the inevitable vitriol starts up again. These are individuals who appear to be anything but Arsenal fans, such is their disaffection from the club. Like a prisoner removed from society and denied the vote, they couldn’t feel less ‘apart’ from the club if they tried.
Surprisingly, I actually have a certain amount of sympathy for the genuinely disenfranchised fan.
Imagine, when the cost of doing so was just about still affordable, that you had been a season-ticket holder and a home (and maybe an away) game regular all your supporting life. And that your Dad had been, also. As was his Dad, your brothers and your dad’s brothers. Maybe your old mum used to go, before her leg or hip got too bad? Imagine you were related to one of the more than 500 now deceased fans whose ashes are scattered over the much loved – indeed, the venerated – Highbury pitch. And imagine being of modest means, gradually priced out of regular attendance as your mates were also side-lined and dispersed by a game and an institution that was undergoing a revolution right in front of your disbelieving eyes.
Imagine watching Highbury being partially demolished for flats and replaced by a new but very alien space, rapidly filling with a new generation of fans and visitors. Imagine that the long-held dream of taking your own children to games had effectively been supplanted by that new generation of fans and visitors.
The ‘gentrification’ of the club has not come without a cost, for some.
For a time, I was once able to take my place alongside the old guard fans who used to go to Highbury, just like my Dad before me.
But for me, the Emirates project spoke of opportunity and excitement – the possibility of being able at last to properly compete with Man u, Barcelona and Real Madrid. To finally go up a level and join the top table of clubs for whom success was a byword. I was one of the lucky ones able to afford the move. But my Dad, after that first Emirates’ season, being retired, was unable to repeat the season-ticket owning experience and has, like so many others, simply faded away.
Highbury held 38,000 by the end of its working life.
My guess is that a proportion of those have, like Dad, been unable to join in the fun at the Emirates but, unlike Dad, refuse to go away and have in recent years found, in Twitter in particular, a vehicle through which they can attack the club at will. Radio phone-ins, blogs, you name it, are all fair game, and all are legitimate weapons of war to the dispossessed.
Not everyone, by any means, who criticizes the club are former season-ticket holders from the Highbury era but many are carried along by those for whom no amount of success will ever compensate for the loss of their match day experience spent alongside friends and family; an experience that stretched back generations. Dressed up as concern for an absence of trophies in recent years, this particular red herring is as relevant to their real complaint as their attacks on Ozil and Giroud for being ineffective, Wenger for not spending ‘the money’ or for not replacing RvP, and the Board for raising prices.
So whilst I don’t agree with them, their actions or their views, yes, I do have some sympathy.
Imagine in ten years’ time someone decided to move the Arsenal ‘franchise’ abroad somewhere, say Spain, France or Germany (as unlikely as that now seems).
Would I be likely to hold back in my criticism of the club? Would I care about the impact of my words?
Would I even care if they won anything, anymore?
So what about the future – are we destined to always have this hideous split amongst our own supporters? Will the price of joining the ‘top table’ of Europe’s footballing elite be a prolonged near-civil war fought online and elsewhere by the very fans who once found camaraderie and common purpose in supporting, unconditionally, the club we all loved?
My own view is that the areas behind the goals should be made standing and should be available at a fraction of the current price. I believe that some of those spaces should be made available to season ticket holders but also there should be many tickets available on the day. I think the season tickets should have the option to cover just league matches or include cup games also, to enable the price to be even more affordable for those who might otherwise struggle to pay.
My view of the pitch when I’m sitting down, in the North End, with the goal on the left just out of shot …
… and my view of the pitch standing up.
That there are presently no standing areas in the English game is hardly AFC’s fault but the potential for change could certainly work in all the clubs’ favour as much as the fans. Whether there is stomach within our own club to provide the necessary leadership on this issue at FA and government level is not known to me and in any case, the club acting in isolation, could hardly expect too much success.
But the benefits, not just to Arsenal, are such that this kind of development should, in my view, be everyone’s number one priority.
Well, once they’ve sorted out introducing video technology and improving the ref’s, obviously …
* ‘Doing a Likely Lads’ has lived on as a phrase used in England to describe the predicament of anyone trying to avoid the results of a game before getting to watch a recording later. The show first aired in 1973.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPiKQGJZfkc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwkUdnyiU5U
Positively Arsenal 
I am glad you have written this because It has made me think slightly differently about the effect of the move on certain fans and how it has affected them. But I do thnk, and I know this is an unpopular view, that the growth of TV coverage has more than made up for the disenfranchisemnt of the traditional fan.
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haahh tremendous quality in the article..
all this shows me is that arsenal was never big ….the locals/natives are spitting and swearing at progress cause they cant tag along or cant identify with the class and sophistication of wenger has brought or cant cope financially.
– for those who cant tag along because they want the ‘old arsenal’ back ..they can go fuck themselves…the old arsenal was shit in all accounts
– those who cant identify with wenger’s euoprpena woprldwide respectful cosmopolitan class are typical bitter little englanders who refuse to ackowledge that a frenchman with a funny accent and ‘weird’ ideas can teach them a thing or two on their national sport
– those who cant cope financially are the only ones i feel for but then again they shoudl understand that WE, THE FANS, are going to pay for that stadium. it was built for us.
Finally those who wanted arsenal to stay at highbury are absolutely clueless and revisionist lowlifes who cant cope with the loss of comfort of doing whatever they want in their ….community and football club…puahahaa
also for the financial element they can go and march outside f.a fifa and uefa and downing 10 street as well as brown blair murdoch zaxavi abramovic the shieks etc etc….if they have the balls …but they dont …so they attack the one man who has done for this club what the whole community hasnt done in a whole century…..
hands of arsenal ! you scummer little englanders with your clueless paytons and bullies…go watch rugby or support chelsea and the spuds since they do it ‘your’ way …
enough!
tora tora tora !
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Andrew you did a mature, nuanced job trying to understand the disenfranchised fan. The there was Hunter.
BTW: I am very much in support of making attending games more affordable. As you allude, this “gentrification” of what was once the sport of the working man and woman is to be resisted because it is unhealthy and elitist. Being a business, the club needs reminding who are its core customers.
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Brilliant stuff Andrew,I don’t think there will ever be standing in our stadium apart from what there already is in certain areas-mass standing at seats briefly interrupted by stewards,as for the split amongst supporters? Once we’re back winning trophys on a regular basis that split will be virtually non existent,lets not forget Talkshite only have the likes of Timmy P on when there’s negative shit flying around,says it all really..
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Once we’re back winning trophys on a regular basis that split will be virtually non existent,
very correct dear mel …
which reflects bad on arsenal fans in general ( not all) to be honest
where is that class and tradition and love for the club i hear about ? is it conditional on trophies then ?
i find it very hard to believe that a genuine fan who has witnessed this transformation for the better would moan about trophies.
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But it wasn’t the move, it was turning Highbury into an all seater stadium that shut out a number of previously regular supporters. Capacity down from around 60k to 38k. The real price hike was around that time & those that could afford it kept the ground sold out, in spite of some rather dull latter GG football.
I really think you are targeting the wrong people Andrew. Undoubtedly there are many club bashers from the ranks of the “disenfranchised fan” but I bet there an even harder core are still supportive even if less interested.
The match experience itself was radically altered by the change to all-seater stadiums. The place can rock at times but you never get the truly electric atmospheres of yesteryear, nor would you again, by restoring some standing (which I am all for), because those that created it have all gone or are used to their comfortable seats. What you would likely have is the type of continental copy provided by the commendable Palace fans. Far too organized for me & I know where I would ram those f/g drum sticks…..
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lverpool has the kop
dortmund have their yellow wall
roma has curda sud
pana has gate13
ajax , feyenord, bayern , tifosi, neratzuri……all teams have their section of their hardcore support.
which one is arsenal’s? the north bank? the clock end? …lightweight…very lightweight compared to other european clubs…..
of course as mel notes…say we win 5 epl titles and two champions league the next decade…… the fans will not allow any questioning or division….bet on it.
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You are on a roll this week Andrew
I am torn on the disenfranchised fan issue. It seems to me, and it is only an impression as I have never conducted any serious investigation, that some of the most vociferous, most negative anti Wengerists come from the season tickets holders, the Club members, the “I’ve paid my money and I have a right to my opinion” mob.
In the good old days that Flint has referred to above very very few fans had seasons tickets. It was probably not til the late 70s that i ever knew anyone with a season ticket. Season tickets were the preserve of old blokes with sheepskin coats and cardigans.
And because most fans were not season ticket holders when they were fed up they raged, they ranted and if no improvement in the form of the cub occurred just gave up going ” That’s it ! I am never going down the Arsenal again while that Wright/Mee/Neill/Howe/ANOTHER is in charge”
For a season ticket holder who has invested substantial cash that release valve is no longer on offer. They are locked into Arsenal, with no escape. No wonder they moan in the media and the Twittersphere.
As for standing in stadiums I am indifferent. I don’t intend to stand. I am highly dubious that standing will do much for the atmosphere. I have spent many a quiet afternoon on the real Clock End and on the North Bank surrounded by a mute mass of muttering fans. I also suspect the standing arrangements will be highly regimented in order that safety, for which seating was brought in is preserved, and no cheaper at all.
I am much more in favour of more match day tickets being on sale and letting people sit where they want. It would mean culling season ticket holders but for reasons I have outlined above that is not necessarily a bad thing – for some of them a kindness.
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Great post, thanks. If I could write I could have written this as I have always agreed with the sentiment and have tried to articulate it to the best of my ability.
Flint is also correct, it is important fans were priced out before the the stadium move when all sweater stadia were introduced which is what I tried and failed to describe yesterday. That’s why this concern affects fans of so many other clubs.
As a teenager growing up near the ground with other commitments I could only afford to go to about two or three games a season. Later on it was still a ‘treat’ to go to the footy. Now? Now that I am older and less wise then I was I refuse to spend my farking money on football over the course of a season above what I believe should be a reasonable price for a season ticket (way less then it is now!). No bin bags required for such an opinion. No march through London dressed in black (or brown?) with my own natty logo pinned to my arm. No lily livered mock shrieking over a 3% rise when far too many have already been priced out of the game. No gurning whilst listening to talkshite.
None of that is required.
Watching the one day cricket World Cup that was held in the West Indies it became apparent and obvious that sports broadcasters don’t care about the fans in the stadiums, there were none there in that tournament as they could not afford the tickets. But the contractors who were probably not from the Windies got paid to build some empty yet shiny new stands!!!! This is why any protest directed against any club for the cost of tickets and the lack of safe standing areas behind the goals (probably the only way cheaper tickets could be reintroduced) is juvenile and ill considered in my humble opinion. Based upon their past form it is too much to hope that that the self-promoting bin baggers and malcontents desperate for their fifteen minutes after years of bleating would come to the obvious conclusion: That it is not the clubs in Germany that have guaranteed the better conditions/experiences for fans out there.
–
Pop Idol
Murdoch Inc. had their Football Trial reality programme.
Is it time we asked Simon Cowell to start a football manager reality tv programme? Brendan Rodgers’ video diary was just a taster.
I can think of some candidates for nomination. The “investors” at some clubs would see the obvious appeal. What could possibly go wrong?
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“I am much more in favour of more match day tickets being on sale and letting people sit where they want. It would mean culling season ticket holders but for reasons I have outlined above that is not necessarily a bad thing – for some of them a kindness.”
I agree with that too. Good idea.
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but ani ..surely they do realise that if arsenal is to make it as a business/football club then yes…season tickets …sell outs…waiting lists…..
do they not want the club to grow?
do they understand what needs to be done for the club to grow?
or do they think in their silly little brains that growth ONLY comes via a rich folk doing charities for the club? that is one way ..and a quick way….but i thought the class and tradition of arsenal would make fans realise thats not the way we want our club to grow…..i.e not via the artificial way.
as for standing…noone asked for standing sections…seats can be there ….we just refuse to sit down cause we are pumping like mad and want to sing …..nothign to do with standing sections……only to do with support singing and atmosphere.
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*coughs* “all sweater stadia?” It was the auto-correct! Gets me every time…
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Interesting piece Andrew and one possible explanation for the split. But I think the real change came when Usmanov appeared on the scene. A lot of ‘new’ fans were attracted by the early years of success AW brought and especially the unbeaten season. So they rage against him now because they bought into an expectation of more of the same on a never-ending basis and now they feel robbed that they invested financially and emotionally in a product that stopped giving them the trophies and vicarious glory they crave.
I was online pre and post Usmanov buying into the club and the change in tone was dramatic and evident, alongside the sudden appearance of dozens of ‘new’ names online all posting variations on a central message. It may be written off by many as a conspiracy theory, but I think there was a real board room battle for control that was played out online and people were paid by R&W holdings to go online and create a groundswell of anti-the status quo opinion, hoping to ride to control on the back of fan discontent. Thankfully, the Board stood strong and the manager with the skills to make a silk purse from a sows ear remained resolute in the face of some appalling abuse and disrespect by people who could not see beyond their own selfish desire for gloating rights, over the long-term good of the club. Success on the pitch is the only thing that is going to shut them up.
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Is it time we asked Simon Cowell to start a football manager reality tv programme?
top top comment
top top quality
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still laughing
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Thank you hunter. Thank you. : )
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Passenal
What amazed me was how little coverage all these Expert critics on the club gave to the board room civil war, which lasted for years (is still going on I guess) and that phase came to an end with the melodramatic hand-over from Fizman.
Someone could probably write a tome to rival War and Peace on that chapter alone.
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yes yes spot on pass…lots of good people and good practices and principles ignored and dismissed in the fight for ownership …….
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Hunter
I would like to invite you to dinner……
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oh cool im in …need some good proper food every now and again ..
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On the footy:
Considering Mourinhio set his team up exactly (as in exactly!) the same for the CC game and their league game Away at Arsenal as he did last night can we say that Arsene “out-tacticed” the happy one when it mattered, in the league?
Gazprom had some chances but I recall two late chances for Arsenal where they could have won the game.
Those who desired Change they could believe in and an adoption of “shit on a stick” tactics won’t ever give the Arsenal any credit.
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Very interesting piece Andrew and an extremely profound comment from Passenal! Whilst conspiracy theories are attractive we must be very wary of them. However, this one from Passenal has merit…
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but its not a conspiracy theory…football is big business …dein and usma want a slice…dein for recognition and to big himself up when he goes to ascot with his mates and bets on thoroubreds and usma who probably wants to launder some like his pal roman…. legitimise his activities..
it was never hidden that fizman did not want to sell out to dein and his people
it was common knowledge.
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Loads of great comments as usual but particular thanks to Flint for making the important point about the impact of making Highbury an all-seater stadium.
With regards Passenal’s remarks, all I can add to that is a conversation I once had with a well-known and much respected blogger who essentially confirmed the suspicion that not all posters were who you might expect them to be …
It’s a complex area and as is so often the case, rarely comes with a black and white answer to anything.
I should again stress I’m not referring to those who focus on the details (eg whether Ramsey is playing in his best position) but really those followers who now give every impression of hating the club.
Regardless of the origins of the split, I’d like to share my own perspective of match day with you.
I’ve added two new photographs to the main post if you have a moment to go back up – they are taken from my front row seat which is slightly to the right of the goal at the North End. The moment I and my immediate front row neighbours stand up, everyone behind us follows suit. If you didn’t you wouldn’t see a great deal. In effect, we spend much – probably most – of the game standing up. I’ve never been hassled by stewards.
This is fine for me, no-one’s in my way, but if you are a child, an average height adult, an elderly person with dodgy knees sat anywhere behind me in rows B – Z, then it’s anything but fine. My ticket costs just under £900. Look to the left and right of the second shot which is a slightly rickety panoramic image – you will see everyone is standing up (it’s actually half-time at this point). I think these two images make a great case for the introduction of controlled standing. At Bayern Munich, 16,000 fans safely stand for every game.
At Arsenal, 8,000 (or whatever the number might be) standing spaces behind each goal, non-season-ticketed to allow at least some fans to buy on the day of the game at prices that will appeal to all would I think go a long way to defusing the current anger to be found in certain sections of the fan base.
Having given birth to a super club, dealing with the growing pains could prove to be rewarding for all.
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Interesting, Andrew. There is also a comparison to be made to people who love an Indy band while it is a cult and then hate it when everyone else discovers the band.
My sympathy for the malcontents is extremely limited. And the following anecdote is an example of why. On a recent AFC Podcast, one of the contributors, who is I believe a BSM member and an AST member, mentioned in passing that the club gave the AST access to the CEO Ivan Gazidis and a room at the Emirates. No gratitude, just taking that for granted. A room for free and special access…for an organisation boasting around 3,000 members. His gripe was that the club then opened out this access to other fan groups. Or in his words, “hijacked” the meetings – on its own premises. They think of themselves as the real fans, but how do they explain ticket and season ticket sales? Who are all these other people regularly buying tickets? Are they not fans as well? Some of these hardcore bashers won’t go to the League Cup matches because it’s a “Mickey Mouse” competition, let alone the Emirates Cup, despite these matches being cheaper. I suggest their problem is as much their sense of entitlement as the ridiculous price of watching The Arsenal live. If you can’t afford to go, don’t go. Watch on Sky or BT Sport or listen to ArsenalPlayer. If you think that sounds harsh, it is. But prices are as high as we tolerate. (For the record, I would love ticket prices to come down, but wages and transfer payments have to stop going up first.)
Islington used to be a deprived area, now it is one of the more expensive parts of London. But no-one has an inalienable right to buy a flat there at a discount just because they grew up there. They wouldn’t be interested in staying in the area if it was like Moss Side. In this climate of wage inflation, the club can either charge stupid amounts for tickets, compete for trophies and top players OR we can bump along the bottom of the PL at best and play our journeymen in a crappy stadium. Supporters can’t have both the benefits of a globally recognised club AND a traditional set up. The cost of tickets has become a symbol for all sorts of other gripes to do with the changes in the game in the TV era. Some of them justified, I must say.
@ Passenal
Very true about the Usmanov effect. No question in my mind that the online cheer-leading was and is orchestrated. The “messages” are too consistent for it to be organic.
Usmanov never had any measure of control, but it was an attempted coup. Ongoing, probably. Such people never give up.
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wow andrew just saw the pics….i sit upper tier..under the screen…row 13 ….the guy with the purple replica and the long hair & beard & specs who always cheers on podolski warming up ..must be close to you. .. mine cost 1350…sadly…
as for those 8000 behind the goal..they must be in their majority season ticket holders but from fans clubs/firms…organised…..guys who you know will always be there…guys who would die for the cannon ….guys who dont even know our players names but have cannons tatooed in the chest..thats what we need.
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The cost of tickets has become a symbol for all sorts of other gripes to do with the changes in the game in the TV era.
everyone is coming up with gem after gem today! well played !
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FG your post is spot on! AFC is a symbol of a wider issue, that you outline very eloquently. In real terms, the oil/gangster fuelled clubs are not subsidising tickets with their ill gotten gains. They are the cause of the over inflation of prices in football, not Arsenal. The club is just reacting the best it can to the situation, without completely selling out. A sugar daddy will not lower ticket prices to help the ordinary supporter, they just hope he might compensate them in their misery by buying them some nice shiny toys to boast about to their mates.
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Great article, Andrew. Some people are just born to moan. They should go out and vote for policies which better their lot instead of criticizing the club for raising prices on tickets a few pounds.
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The good news is Mourinho gave the bus parkers a lesson on how to get the best of City. Put a pacy player close to Zabaleta and their right side shuts down. Find said pacy midfield as an outlet and City will be pinned back. Then pack the midfield in order to deny Silva and Yaya space. If you get a lucky shot from your right back, you will win.
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come on gains..the man is a genius…you dont win all these trophies being crap…..he is a winner. fullstop.
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Hunter, I hope you are joking?
Arsene is a genius.Whatever Maureen is, its not that.
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yes i am …i just wanted to tease gains a bit …
🙂
with humour
always
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but george…did you see that masterclass?
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Nice article Andrew.
I always had this doubt since our Cardiff game. In twitter I often see Gooners complaining about the stewards’ tough behaviour at The Grove, not letting our fans to stand up and sing during games.
But in our Cardiff game I saw them Cardiff fans standing up singing and cheering their team vociferously in huge proportion.
How is that allowed? Who is the authority when it comes to these matters? The FA or Club management?
Thanks.
Up The Arsenal.
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Maestro or monster Chels did a job on Citeh last night
As did the ‘appy ‘ammers to Les Bleus at the Bridge a few evenings previously
Football is endlessly complicated and unpredictable
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Football is endlessly complicated and unpredictable
not if youre a genious masterplanner like jose and can get results out of unknown players on low budgets
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Andrew, you are definitely on a roll this week! Two great posts in a row. Thanks for exploring this – as a fan from across the pond, and a fairly new one at that, I find it fascinating. From my perspective all of the modernizing, and big sponsorship deals, and globalization of the Arsenal brand is key to my love of the team. Without those things, obviously, I would still be living in a world where Arsenal just means a large cache of weaponry. But I do try to understand the perspective of those for whom these changes have fundamentally changed the way they relate to their beloved team. What I don’t have sympathy for are the ones Passenal describes. The ones who came along for the ride when the club were riding the crest of the wave that Arsene Wenger brought, got addicted to the rush that winning brings, and now are unwilling to endure the enivitable ups and downs that come with supporting any sports team. Nothing wrong with coming to a team when they are winning. That’s how a lot of people come to support, if we’re honest. But if you can’t hang during the down times, then just bore off and move on to whoever’s win percentage meets your criteria.
Oh and this from FG? “There is also a comparison to be made to people who love an Indy band while it is a cult and then hate it when everyone else discovers the band.” Spot. On.
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Are Swansea serious? They have sacked their coach… the arsenal board is truly unique in being patient and knowing quality when they see it!
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great article and one we will increasingly have to discuss as the football river heads towards the falls and traditional English fair hits the chasm of the premier league being played in countries elsewhere.
While there are many disenchanted fans that have had colonic irrigation at the hands of the commercialisation of football, anyone with an ounce of common will realise it is the PL and the clubs place within it rather than any fault of the team, the manager or any football related staff.
I have many arguments with the club who have tried, and many times succeeded in ripping me off. My boys who first attended Highbury at the age of four can now only attend some games.
Unfortunately bsm, ast and many others have directed their angst at the wrong targets and trophies or not while this attitude remains the split will not heal.
Thanks AA for those links to a great programme and a scenario that with modern media is also impossible to recreate
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gains !! mate !! a few words please on the ‘trivote’. Have you ever seen anything like it ? i am personally gobsmacked. Such an innovation. Football is changing my friend, or more correctly Senior mou is tearing apart the conventional forms and leading football into a new epoch. Believe you should write 1000 words on the effect of the trivote on the trequartista and a cross analysis of the modern centre back midfield destroyer as opposed to anchorman.
are you sick yet? where is dc????? he will know how to approach this from the perspective of chief alenatore
george will write about the charm and charisma in chelsea’s team talks and how 33 year old ex world class strikers go and hack their ex teammates just cause the mausser said so….
and i will write about my friend leader hero one gary fucking cahill
its the least we can do…….
deal?
p.s how the fuck does that clown get away with talking about milk and horses and jumps ? can you imagine Arsene saying that? he would have been pelted with tomatoes at “mil..” he wouldnt even have time to put a k….. i wont even go on the must learn to jump thing…. deport him probably..
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Another fantastic topic and well tackled by our own ANDREW. we are not worthy. Well done the commentators too. I tend to think more on the boardroom battle being started by dein and his cohorts as being the main cause for the split. This is group that has been checkmated and in their desire to find a way into the boardroom they will start fires and/or find any and all minor or major discontent and take full advantage by stoking that fire for their benefit. The tactics of their paid agents are transparent as heck if one looks hard enough. Here you come up with the other side issues as ANDREW & FLINT have noted and here is where the blackhand takes full advantage and works the crowd to a frenzy. Thankfully AW AND OUR BOARD see right through all this and are strong enough to withstand the winds of discontent. And the marches and the black shawls that go with it. It is truly sad that some fans fall into their trap without thinking. Or it could be a marriage of convenience.
As far as the crowd and atmosphere. yes ,yes and yes. I’ve asked for a portion or the stadium to be left aside at low prices for the our away fans ( lets face it , they are the best ) to get in there and create heat and push the team forward during the game. We must create an intimidating and daunting place to come too. Take full advantage of home field and home groung. Safely but at the same time a bit crazy for the fans to fully enjoy the experience of going to the game to watch the ARSENAL.
At the all famous and scary GUNNERS DEN……
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HUNTER 13
don’t forget to take a nice bottle of wine to GPs for dinner , you hear. Enjoy the wildlife.
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TEAM SPIRIT
I saw that and I’m flabbergasted. A good and quality manager doing the best he can ,playing the game the way it should be. A great lose to Swansea and the EPL that.
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Funny thing is no fan ever has a word about the players and their position in the ‘ ripping the arse out of the fans’ or words to that effect
I suppose being simple working class lads for the most part they are immune to abuse in relation to their wages which, in most cases, would make the average investment banker blush with embarrassment
Ssssssshhhhhhhh it’s not allowed
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Laudrup ? He won’t struggle to find a new dugout
In fact I would go so far as to predict with no evidence whatsoever we may well see him at the wheel of a well known London club – possibly our neighbours #itk
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A5, alan smith let that slip a few weeks ago…so much for sherwoods 18 month contract
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yes goonerkam, those last 7 lines …. the players need it , the stadium needs it, the club needs it.. and i agree big clubs do and should have intimidating grounds…some games and maybe some goals, its the crowd that scores them…..the arsenal …castle – fortress – cannons…
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COL
I really hope what you said doesn’t come to pass. Let them please stick with Sherwood.
HUNTER 13
TORA TORA TORA
be afraid, be very efing afraid……
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Hunter 13’s vision for The Emirates as Giroud scores title winning goal. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4BGaWtDWuM
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