RVP – Guard of Honour?

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Apr 252013
 

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On May 6th 1991, Arsenal secured their second league title in two years. Our opposition that day was Manchester United, who finished 25 points behind Arsenal that season, and who, grudgingly I’m sure, provided a guard of honour. Arsenal went on to beat the northerners 3-1. In actual fact, nine days after providing the guard of honour at Highbury, Manchester United beat Barcelona to win the Cup Winners Cup.

So surely there is a bigger question about Arsenal providing a guard of honour for the league winners? I think the question that needs to be asked is why Arsenal’s next game is the first of three desperate battles to get sufficient points to finish 3rd or 4th in a league we used to win regularly. If we were preparing for a semi final in the Champions League or looking forward to appearing in an FA Cup Final, would be as bothered about Robin Van Persie smirking his way through two lines of his ex-colleagues?

I don’t like Van Persie, he lacks something in my book. I remember him addressing the manager as “Wenger” when he’d been at the club for ten minutes and when he was unveiled to the Highbury crowd, he was wearing the same stupid trousers as the bass player from Iron Maiden; there were also those unfortunate allegations in Holland and he missed huge chunks of successive seasons. Did he owe Arsenal a greater degree of loyalty? Too flipping right he did!

However, last season his goals were the most significant contributory factor that enabled us to qualify for the Champions League. No Champions League, probably no Santi Cazorla and for those of you who still think Walcott is a footballer, no contract extension for young Theo either. But let’s be frank, if you are a highly skilled professional in your own field and someone offers you the chance of significant advancement and triple the salary and critically, your current employer has been in the wilderness for a few years, what would you do? Van Persie’s “crime” was to run the clock down in the same way Nasri did, but doesn’t the club have a case to answer here, by not negotiating earlier?

Van Persie underlines the fundamental difference between Arsenal and Manchester United. They are the type of club that spends £24 million on a 29 year old with dodgy knees, but we are the type of club that sells him. Over the last eight years we have sold Vieira, Henry, Adebayor, Nasri, Fabregas and RVP for a profit of £106 million (the basic difference between purchase and sale price). Good business, but how much did your season ticket cost in 2005 and what does it cost now? Do we really look like challenging for silverware?

These are better questions than whether or not we should give them a guard of honour. If you can’t make it to the game on Sunday and you’re stood next to a group of glory hunters at the pub, just remind them Arsenal always do the right thing, because our club has genuine class, if you are there, polite applause or stay on the concourses until the first whistle and then give the greedy opportunist turncoat hell.

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What can we learn from Swansea City?

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Jan 092013
 

David Conn has written a customarily excellent article in today’s Guardian, about Swansea City and although there are a couple of aspects about Swansea City that remind me of Arsenal, there are evidently many more that we can learn from.

The Swans almost went out of business in 2002 and were bought for £1. Ten years later they are owned by local people including a 20% shareholding owned by a supporter’s trust. They made a profit of £14.6 million last year, have a young, dynamic manager and were able to sell Joe Allen and Scott Sinclair for £21.2 million whilst bringing in players like Michu under the radar for £2.2 million, with no apparent impact on their ambitions and quality. Swansea City is committed to passing, progressive football and they have a new stadium where the highest price charged for the majority of home games is £35. Furthermore in recent times, we have played them four times, won one, drew one and lost twice.

So, we have some things in common, we have a new stadium and we play (when we choose to) attractive, passing football. However, what separates us defines us and them. Swansea City seems to be very much a people’s club, I remember Arsenal trying to pass themselves off as a people’s club some time ago and it was hilarious, like George Osborne trying to pass himself as a “man of the people”. I was talking to some Swans supporters before the recent home defeat and they were quality fans, knowledgeable, agreeable and keen to acknowledge Arsenal’s playing style. But let’s face it; our playing style isn’t what it once was and how many of us would bet more than a fiver that we’ll beat them at home in the FA Cup replay?

When I first went to Highbury (it was the 1970’s), Arsenal were still very much a part of the community and you could identify with the team and club. This morning I was reading that Manchester City has returned 900 tickets priced at £62 for this Sunday’s fixture. I know that we are being charged £64 for tickets at the Bridge, but since when have Chelsea been able to claim the moral high ground on anything. There was a blogger selling a ticket for the same game, through the excellent @arsenal_tickets feed for £126! What’s going on? Do these people think that the recession never happened?

Actually, possibly the biggest difference between Swansea and Arsenal is that they genuinely care what their supporters think, they have to, a trust has a 20% share in the club, Arsenal “say” that they consider their supporters, but we know that this isn’t true. The rarely lamented Keith Edelman spoke of “monetising” supporters and need we forget the dismissive manner with which our smaller or individual shareholders were treated at the most recent spinfest … I mean AGM.

I was thinking the other day about what makes me proud to be an Arsenal supporter and after a while the penny dropped, it’s what we used to stand for, our history. I still admire the football that we are capable of playing and I wouldn’t dispute the club’s excellent track record with its charity programmes and we also do some valuable work with outreach projects in Islington. However, when sections of the crowd sing that they want their Arsenal back, I’d like to think that they are expressing feelings of regret about where the entire club has found itself in 2013, not just whether we should sign  Fellaini, Villa and Jagielka.

This is a dangerous calumny, so whisper it, but perhaps the only way to return to the days when we felt that we were more than just customers, is for the club to suffer a period of real despondency. Apparently, that doesn’t refer to winning trophies, that doesn’t matter; it’s missing out on Champions League qualification three years on the trot that might make a significant impression. Maybe then, Silent Stan might get cold feet and sell, maybe then the board of  Arsenal will realise that a half full stadium cannot be reported as being filled to the gills and maybe then, they might listen to the poor sods who were there before they were and will be there long after, the supporters.

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Wenger still the right man to lead Arsenal according to fan poll 2012/13

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Dec 192012
 

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Over half of all Arsenal fans questioned believe moving to the Emirates Stadium to be a step in the right direction and over one-third consider Arsene Wenger to be the perfect candidate to lead the Gunners this season, as evaluated in the Sports Bulletin 2012/13 fan poll.

At the half-way point of the Premier League season Sports Bulletin got amongst the fans to find out how today’s Arsenal team is perceived in comparison to its predecessors, the following answers are taken from the responses of 2,000 participants.

When asked if moving to the Emirates Stadium was a positive step over half of participants answered yes, one-third chose to disagree and the remaining 16% were unsure of the effects of relocating.

The greatest modern victory at the Emirates Stadium as nominated by the fans is Arsenal’s 2-1 triumph over Barcelona in the 2012/11 Champions League, which collected almost half of the votes. Arsenal’s 5-2 demolition job over Tottenham proved second highest with just less than one-third of the votes, ahead of Arsenal’s win over Porto in 2009/10.

No surprises came from the reactions for Arsenal’s greatest modern striker, as expected Thierry Henry romped home with 63%, some way ahead of ex-captain Robin Van Persie on 20%, followed by fellow Dutchman Dennis Bergkamp with 13%. Highbury legend Ian Wright managed just a 4% slice of the voting.

When asked which exit transfer hurt the most fans were unanimous in positioning Thierry Henry as first choice. Henry collected just over half of the votes, with Robin Van Persie, Cesc Fabregas and Patrick Vieira taking the next three spots respectively.

A changing of the guard has dislodged Tottenham Hotspur from enemy number one fifth in the league of Arsenal’s fiercest rival team, earning just 8% of the total count. The choices were as follows: Chelsea (30%), trailed by Liverpool (22%), narrowly edging Manchester United (20%) and then Barcelona (16%). Man City were voted in sixth place (4%).

Half of Arsenal fans are in tune with Arsene Wenger’s theory that finishing in the top four is the principal aim of the 2012/13 campaign, before domestic or European glory. 50% believed this to be the case whereas only 16% voted Arsenal’s top priority this season to be winning the Premier League.

Almost half of those asked were not convinced that Steve Bould will add value to Arsene Wenger, 45% agreed it was too early to judge if the former player is right for Arsenal. 39% of fans are behind Bould in his new role, twice the number of participants that voted against his introduction as Wenger’s number two.

The final question asked if Arsene Wenger should be sacked as Arsenal manager, and despite the internal turmoil and poor performances on the field the majority, over one-third, do not want him gone. One-fifth of votes called for Wenger to say at the club but under a different role, with marginally fewer voters preferring to see what happens at the end of the season before calling for his head.

Read the full article including custom infographic at SportsBulletin.co.uk

Football fans will be fickle, but singling out a player is wrong!

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Nov 302012
 

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Many years ago my friends and I were standing in a hallway at work, chatting about weekend results when a guy barged past us, bumped into us and caused a minor coffee spill. The guy kept walking. ‘Jerk’ was the immediate response, followed by ‘well, look at his jacket – what do you expect?’ He was wearing a Manchester United top.

One of my friends who only has a passing interest in football took offence at this characterisation of someone we had never met. My Arsenal supporting friend said, ‘well, if you saw someone wearing a t shirt with a swastika you wouldn’t need much more to know what they are like would you?’. Harsh? Of course. But it got me thinking about whether it’s fair to characterise people based on the football club they support. Firstly, I know it’s not. One of my best friends supports Manchester United -although our friendship is partially sustained by an unspoken agreement that we never discuss football. I was visiting her in London last year and the game at Old Trafford was going on as I was making my way to the airport. She didn’t say a word and supplied me with double vodkas. I will always be grateful for that.

Some other Manchester United fans I know are less decent – my uncle for one. He gloats when they win, and if they lose, there is no pleasure winding him up because he will stick the knife into his own team worse than any rival fan. My mother’s saying for this is ‘they eat their young’. My cousin ‘supports’ United in the text book ‘glory hunting’ way. He’s got a Barcelona shirt to break out for spare occasions. I know there are plenty Arsenal fans (and fans of many other clubs) who behave in the exact same way, but I do (naturally) have bias towards the Gooners.

One of my favourite Arsenal supporting friends is laid back, witty, and the best person you could imagine to watch a game with. I remember watching United tear a weakened Arsenal team apart (we hadn’t strengthened but Arsene had reassured us there was great spirit in the squad). The game was punctuated by shouts at Nasri, a la Star wars to ‘USE YOUR TEAM SPIRIT!’ If you don’t laugh you cry etc. Another Arsenal supporting friend is more like me, the type of fan who, if we are three goals up with five minutes to go could easily conceive of us conceding four.
With twitter, I have access to a much wider variety of Arsenal fan. And for the last few weeks I’ve been considering unfollowing all but about three of them. This isn’t a fingers in the ears reaction to poor performances– it’s more utter disappointment that so many fans of our club seem to have turned on one another, the manager, and most sickeningly, some of the players – the 21 year old Aaron Ramsey for one.
I will always support Arsene Wenger, because I believe he has earned it. That’s my stance – I don’t expect everyone to share it. I have a realistic sense of his faults, but I honestly believe that we would be in a much, much worse state without him. I also know that if he left most of the top clubs in Europe would want him, and it upsets me to see rival fans laughing at Arsenal fans questioning one of the greatest managers of the modern era. Does anyone seriously think he was happy to sell Van Persie to United? If it was me I’d have sat him on the bench for the year. But then he’d have just gone for free and we’d have been worse off financially. And does anyone think he’s happy looking for players between 8-10 million when our rivals are routinely paying upwards of 20? I don’t think that fans should blindly and unquestioningly support teams, regardless of results. And I don’t like that it’s ‘good enough’ to finish in third or fourth place, but I do understand it.

But there’s a reason Arsene Wenger is still in his job. There’s a reason he is asking us to trust that he is planning for the long term. And yes, I worry that we’ll get left behind while we are waiting. And I worry that players will feel they can’t wait either. But I honestly don’t see the point of fans turning on each other, turning on him, and turning on the club. I don’t know where Arsenal will be five years from now. I know I’ll be supporting them wherever they are. I just hope we aren’t in a situation where we have to accept that we never realised how good we had it under Arsene Wenger.

By Mary O’Connel