When I have nothing important to do I’m usually reading football. Yes, reading football. For those of you who don’t understand this, it is about scavenging the internet and hard copies for football news and gossip. For an ardent lover of the beautiful game and a great fan of the best footy club in the world; Arsenal, watching alone can not quench the thirst. Reading football has made me a better fan, now I understand quite a lot about the game and how it is played. I played football in college but it is far from pro football by a country mile.
Now talking about fan’ship’ we have got three sets of fans:
There are those I rate as below average, the ones who are waiting for a goal to cheer. To them a good match is one laden with goals and crazy foot works, a goalless draw despite the display is often dismissed as a dull game. These fans are especially active when major tournaments like world cup, Euro, and Africa Cup come around. They know very little about football outside match-days and only know a few household names like Ronaldo, Messi, Rooney, Diego Maradona and Zinedine Zidane. Even here there ignorance can not be concealed, in discussions they often throw in weird remarks like ‘Messi scored a wonderful goal for Brazil in 2004 World Cup’. They make me sick in the stomach.
Then there are average fans. What stands out with them is their commitment. They don’t identify with a particular team through good and bad times. They are generally excited about the game. So to keep their excitement going they are always with the winning team. How else to you think Barcelona has so many supporters out here? It is not uncommon these days to hear phrases like ‘Man City for life’. Where the going is good they go with flow. They know a few things here and there like, when is the next match, a quarter the line ups, they watch professional football; not just waiting for international tournaments. The problem with this set is their inability to take positives and negatives from a match. Fro example van Persie had a poor game if he failed to score, in spite of making assists and creating chances for others. These fans can not wait for the nest game.
Finally, there are real fans. In this set is where you find people who have gone through ‘Laws of the Game’. I can not adequately describe them but be sure they are quite informed. They know the distance between the posts, the three names of the match officials, they correctly predict whose coming on as substitute, they know all the players not only of their team but also every big team around. They keep track of the results the whole season, they know how much every player was bought and what they are paid, they know which player is married and with how many kids, they hate international matches because it interrupts the league, they know the financial position of their club, they know why Manchester United and Real Madrid generate more income than Arsenal and Chelsea, they understand the administrative structure of the game at all levels, they understand why a player from Kenya can not easily play for a premier league club. These fans celebrate in a descent way and don’t shout a lot. They avoid arguments with the other ‘lesser’ sets of fans. Above all, their wives understand their passion for the game and therefore learn to live with it.
I can proudly say I’m at the early stages of the third category. A few weeks ago while watching Guinness Football Challenge on NTV I was quite amazed at the knowledge guys possess of the game. It was beyond me how one contestant could answer something like ‘what is the middle name of the player who scored the winning goal in the match between Everton and Tottenham in the 2004-2005 season?’ 5 seconds to answer. Now, that’s something I can not do.
However, that does not intimidate me, much less make me feel like an inferior supporter of Arsenal. I pretty much know about my club than you expect. Now, speaking about Arsenal, at this point in time there is not much positives to write home about. Quite evidently we are a club in decline albeit on the pitch, because we are told our finances are intact and getting better. With defeat at Sunderland during the weekend we ended yet again our main hope for a trophy this season. The FA cup was the most winnable of all given we are massively behind league leaders Man City in the premier league (17 points) and all but out of CL. So it is seven seasons without silverware, and still counting. The Sunderland lose makes it the second in a week coming in the wake of the Milan massacre at the hands of AC, our worst lose in the champions league.
Now, nobody can conclusively analyze the problem at Arsenal FC, I guess not even Wenger. The downfall has been gradual, I could say the result of managerial negligence of many years. We have reached a level we can not compete for honours with the likes of Man U and Chelsea let alone at the European stage. The problem started when Wenger dismantled the ‘invincibles’ team of 2004 to pursue a crazy and illusionary dream of ruling the premier league and Europe with youngsters. One after another he sold the core of arsenal and replaced with young ‘talented’ players. Denis Bergkamp, Robert Pires, Patrick Vieira, Jens Lehmann, Thierry Henry gave way to players like Theo Walcott, Denilson, Emmanuel Diaby, Manuel Almunia, Francecs Fabregas and van Persie. Some of these players were highly talented but they needed those veterans to learn from in order to make an impact for the club.
What followed was a very talented team of youngsters playing a deceptively beautiful brand of football, hitherto not seen in the English football but without leadership and experience to win things. You don’t go far looking for what the mix of experience and youth can achieve together. At the opposite end, Sir alex stuck with his battle hardened veterans: Giggs, Scholes, Ferdinand, Neville, van der Sar and blended them with young talents i.e. Rooney, Nani, Cristiano, Evra, the rest as they say is history.
We went a few seasons without winning anything but it was alright since we were supposedly building a team to rule the future. Problems started for Le Prof when the best players started looking for greener pastures. Aliaksander Hleb joined Barcelona while flamin joined AC Milan. The exodus continued when Kolo toure and Emmanuel ‘Bighead’ Adebayor started the well trodden path of Arsenal to Man City. The rise of Man City has been inversely proportional to the fall of Arsenal. The lure of petro doallars at city was too much for money grabbers like Ade and Nasri to turn down. Wenger refused to strengthen the team even with those crucial departures. He instead went and bought teenagers and low profile players. There was no like for like replacement. He employed a stringent spending policy at Arsenal that beat the logic out of everybody involved. Nevertheless, with his initial success at the club, he was given the benefit of the doubt. Given his stature at the club his decisions were unquestionable.
Maybe, maybe he would have succeeded had we not entered the age of injuries. The rate at which our players picked injuries was baffling. Eduardo broke his leg at Birmingham, he was never the same player. Rosicky spent more time with physician than the coach. Just when van Persie was entering the scene of play as one of the most dangerous strikers he suffered multiple injuries that kept him out for nearly two seasons, something that led him to being dubbed ‘legs of glass’. Diaby is forever injured and even if he comes back I doubt he will attain his full potential. Thomas Vermaelen had a breakthrough first season only to be injured at the start of the 2010-2011 for the whole season. Fabregas’ arsenal career was punctuated with hamstrings you would think he was born with one. Ramsey has struggled to regain his form since he was ‘Shawcrossed’ two seasons ago. Wilshere had a sensational breakthrough only to miss the whole of this season with an ankle injury. We have played the first half of this season with no recognized full back since all of them were mysteriously injured. I can not remember when was the last time we had a full squad to choose from, we always have someone playing out of position to cover for a missing player. It looks like our guardian angel for fitness has turned his back on us, and as someone put it recently, it’s about time Wenger started going to church.
Now, this coupled with the fact that Arsenal owner Kroenke is not keen on addressing issues affecting the footballing side of the club has led to slow-motion downfall of this once mighty club. Pressure on the manager and the board has continued to mount and things may reach boiling point between now and May especially if we finish outside top four. If that is the case and God forbid, then we are likely to see major changes rang in the club from the board right down to the players. players who have consistently failed to perform at the level they are expected will more likely be shown the door. I also foresee an exodus of worthless players who are taking up space and wages. If Arsenal is to return to its former glory, we expect dead woods like Djourou, Squillaci, Chamakh, Denilson, Almunia, Arshavin, Bendtner, Vela to be asked to find clubs. We expect them to be replaced with players who will add quality to the side, speaking of which, names like Goetze from Borussia Dortmund, Harzad from Lille, Poldoski from Cologne, Matias Suarez from Ajax, Odemwingie from WBA are worthy replacements. Any two of this signings will convince van persie of the club's intent and therefore extend his contract with us, it will be catastrophic to lose him.
We know how stringent the manager (or board) is we may after all not see any of these, so let us not get our hopes high. But where we finish come end of season will tell a lot which direction we are headed.
Later people...
Now talking about fan’ship’ we have got three sets of fans:
There are those I rate as below average, the ones who are waiting for a goal to cheer. To them a good match is one laden with goals and crazy foot works, a goalless draw despite the display is often dismissed as a dull game. These fans are especially active when major tournaments like world cup, Euro, and Africa Cup come around. They know very little about football outside match-days and only know a few household names like Ronaldo, Messi, Rooney, Diego Maradona and Zinedine Zidane. Even here there ignorance can not be concealed, in discussions they often throw in weird remarks like ‘Messi scored a wonderful goal for Brazil in 2004 World Cup’. They make me sick in the stomach.
Then there are average fans. What stands out with them is their commitment. They don’t identify with a particular team through good and bad times. They are generally excited about the game. So to keep their excitement going they are always with the winning team. How else to you think Barcelona has so many supporters out here? It is not uncommon these days to hear phrases like ‘Man City for life’. Where the going is good they go with flow. They know a few things here and there like, when is the next match, a quarter the line ups, they watch professional football; not just waiting for international tournaments. The problem with this set is their inability to take positives and negatives from a match. Fro example van Persie had a poor game if he failed to score, in spite of making assists and creating chances for others. These fans can not wait for the nest game.
Finally, there are real fans. In this set is where you find people who have gone through ‘Laws of the Game’. I can not adequately describe them but be sure they are quite informed. They know the distance between the posts, the three names of the match officials, they correctly predict whose coming on as substitute, they know all the players not only of their team but also every big team around. They keep track of the results the whole season, they know how much every player was bought and what they are paid, they know which player is married and with how many kids, they hate international matches because it interrupts the league, they know the financial position of their club, they know why Manchester United and Real Madrid generate more income than Arsenal and Chelsea, they understand the administrative structure of the game at all levels, they understand why a player from Kenya can not easily play for a premier league club. These fans celebrate in a descent way and don’t shout a lot. They avoid arguments with the other ‘lesser’ sets of fans. Above all, their wives understand their passion for the game and therefore learn to live with it.
I can proudly say I’m at the early stages of the third category. A few weeks ago while watching Guinness Football Challenge on NTV I was quite amazed at the knowledge guys possess of the game. It was beyond me how one contestant could answer something like ‘what is the middle name of the player who scored the winning goal in the match between Everton and Tottenham in the 2004-2005 season?’ 5 seconds to answer. Now, that’s something I can not do.
However, that does not intimidate me, much less make me feel like an inferior supporter of Arsenal. I pretty much know about my club than you expect. Now, speaking about Arsenal, at this point in time there is not much positives to write home about. Quite evidently we are a club in decline albeit on the pitch, because we are told our finances are intact and getting better. With defeat at Sunderland during the weekend we ended yet again our main hope for a trophy this season. The FA cup was the most winnable of all given we are massively behind league leaders Man City in the premier league (17 points) and all but out of CL. So it is seven seasons without silverware, and still counting. The Sunderland lose makes it the second in a week coming in the wake of the Milan massacre at the hands of AC, our worst lose in the champions league.
Now, nobody can conclusively analyze the problem at Arsenal FC, I guess not even Wenger. The downfall has been gradual, I could say the result of managerial negligence of many years. We have reached a level we can not compete for honours with the likes of Man U and Chelsea let alone at the European stage. The problem started when Wenger dismantled the ‘invincibles’ team of 2004 to pursue a crazy and illusionary dream of ruling the premier league and Europe with youngsters. One after another he sold the core of arsenal and replaced with young ‘talented’ players. Denis Bergkamp, Robert Pires, Patrick Vieira, Jens Lehmann, Thierry Henry gave way to players like Theo Walcott, Denilson, Emmanuel Diaby, Manuel Almunia, Francecs Fabregas and van Persie. Some of these players were highly talented but they needed those veterans to learn from in order to make an impact for the club.
What followed was a very talented team of youngsters playing a deceptively beautiful brand of football, hitherto not seen in the English football but without leadership and experience to win things. You don’t go far looking for what the mix of experience and youth can achieve together. At the opposite end, Sir alex stuck with his battle hardened veterans: Giggs, Scholes, Ferdinand, Neville, van der Sar and blended them with young talents i.e. Rooney, Nani, Cristiano, Evra, the rest as they say is history.
We went a few seasons without winning anything but it was alright since we were supposedly building a team to rule the future. Problems started for Le Prof when the best players started looking for greener pastures. Aliaksander Hleb joined Barcelona while flamin joined AC Milan. The exodus continued when Kolo toure and Emmanuel ‘Bighead’ Adebayor started the well trodden path of Arsenal to Man City. The rise of Man City has been inversely proportional to the fall of Arsenal. The lure of petro doallars at city was too much for money grabbers like Ade and Nasri to turn down. Wenger refused to strengthen the team even with those crucial departures. He instead went and bought teenagers and low profile players. There was no like for like replacement. He employed a stringent spending policy at Arsenal that beat the logic out of everybody involved. Nevertheless, with his initial success at the club, he was given the benefit of the doubt. Given his stature at the club his decisions were unquestionable.
Maybe, maybe he would have succeeded had we not entered the age of injuries. The rate at which our players picked injuries was baffling. Eduardo broke his leg at Birmingham, he was never the same player. Rosicky spent more time with physician than the coach. Just when van Persie was entering the scene of play as one of the most dangerous strikers he suffered multiple injuries that kept him out for nearly two seasons, something that led him to being dubbed ‘legs of glass’. Diaby is forever injured and even if he comes back I doubt he will attain his full potential. Thomas Vermaelen had a breakthrough first season only to be injured at the start of the 2010-2011 for the whole season. Fabregas’ arsenal career was punctuated with hamstrings you would think he was born with one. Ramsey has struggled to regain his form since he was ‘Shawcrossed’ two seasons ago. Wilshere had a sensational breakthrough only to miss the whole of this season with an ankle injury. We have played the first half of this season with no recognized full back since all of them were mysteriously injured. I can not remember when was the last time we had a full squad to choose from, we always have someone playing out of position to cover for a missing player. It looks like our guardian angel for fitness has turned his back on us, and as someone put it recently, it’s about time Wenger started going to church.
Now, this coupled with the fact that Arsenal owner Kroenke is not keen on addressing issues affecting the footballing side of the club has led to slow-motion downfall of this once mighty club. Pressure on the manager and the board has continued to mount and things may reach boiling point between now and May especially if we finish outside top four. If that is the case and God forbid, then we are likely to see major changes rang in the club from the board right down to the players. players who have consistently failed to perform at the level they are expected will more likely be shown the door. I also foresee an exodus of worthless players who are taking up space and wages. If Arsenal is to return to its former glory, we expect dead woods like Djourou, Squillaci, Chamakh, Denilson, Almunia, Arshavin, Bendtner, Vela to be asked to find clubs. We expect them to be replaced with players who will add quality to the side, speaking of which, names like Goetze from Borussia Dortmund, Harzad from Lille, Poldoski from Cologne, Matias Suarez from Ajax, Odemwingie from WBA are worthy replacements. Any two of this signings will convince van persie of the club's intent and therefore extend his contract with us, it will be catastrophic to lose him.
We know how stringent the manager (or board) is we may after all not see any of these, so let us not get our hopes high. But where we finish come end of season will tell a lot which direction we are headed.
Later people...
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