Peter Le Beau
I have a confession to make which it has taken me 21 years to get off my chest . I walked out of Wembley after Gary Lineker's second goal (and Tottenham's third) in the 3-1 semi-final defeat in 1991. It has troubled me ever since, and the reason that I did it at the time was that I found it really difficult being in a stadium of whooping, ecstatically celebrating Spurs fans for another twenty minutes. As I walked down Olympic Way, false rumours filtered back to me - "Campbell has scored", "it's 3-2 and we're all over them" claimed idiots clutching transistor radios - remember them? (The transistors, I mean; the early- leaving idiots spreading false rumours are very much still around.)
I regretted deserting my side almost as soon as I left. I have supported Arsenal since 1958, and never done anything like that before or since. As it was, the club wasn't in the doldrums exactly, going on to win the League and losing only one game in the process despite having two points deducted. Maybe it was because it was Tottenham, the most painful defeat of all, that I did it, but I was wrong and I bitterly regret it. Sorry, lads.
I recalled the incident to mind this week because my PA went to the Tottenham game with her brother. As Adebayor's penalty hit the back of the net, two men in her row left the ground. I laughed like a drain when I heard it. How stupid did they look and feel afterwards? I wonder when they found out what happened next? Perhaps they will recycle my feeble excuse that they couldn't stand being in a ground with ecstatic Spurs fans, but that doesn't hold water.
They left early because they are useless fans, of no value to Arsenal in terms of their support, because it is clearly conditional on Arsenal doing well. They have clearly made no commitment to support the team through thick or thin, and they are typical of the new breed of fan, particularly an Arsenal fan, who only expects success and has no interest in the club when they are not top of the table. Yes, it hurt enormously to be two down to Spurs, but the most objective fan would have had to agree that we were already playing them off the park before we scored, and played like demons in the second half.
Now, let me make my position quite clear. I am very critical of a lot of the things currently happening at Arsenal. I am very far from an AKB, but I have enormous respect and gratitude for what Wenger has done for our club overall. In fact, he has created this expectation that we must always be successful, because, before he came, we yo-yoed violently between success and mediocrity.
My relationship with Arsenal is, one friend aside, the longest of my life. Like a lot of faithful Gooners out there, I have seen us when we were mind-numbingly awful, and I have also become immeasurably proud of the team on numerous occasions. The bad times help you to enjoy the good much more acutely. I well remember in 2002/3 we embarked on a long unbeaten run, ultimately ended by a kid called Wayne Rooney at Everton. During a routine win over Sunderland earlier in the season, as the second goal went, in my mate turned round and said "this is becoming a bit boring!". He is still a loyal Gooner, follows us all over Europe, and loves the club to bits. He now realises it was a daft thing to say, but it illustrates the point that, for the committed fan, adversity defines your allegiance every bit as much as success.
I could recite several reasons why I think the new breed of fan has emerged. You can blame society, modern attitudes, Sky television and inter-personal relationships in a world of social media but, whatever the reasons, we find ourselves with a stadium at Ashburton Grove that is habitually filled with 40,000 Arsenal nutters and about 15,000 people whose support is totally conditional on continued success. The nickname for these people is "plastic" fans, and we certainly have a lot of them at the Grove.
These people are not only changing the face of Arsenal, they are changing the face of football; in fact, they are changing the face of society as a whole. We talk a lot about disposability in packaging and products, and football support for many people is like that. “I am an Arsenal supporter until they displease me by not winning as much as I want them to, when I will look around for a new team. How are Chelsea or United doing?” While I accept the argument that people are entitled to vote with their wallet, I know - and anyone else who has football in their blood knows - that changing your football allegiance is one of the hardest things you can do. I live in Kent, occasionally go to Gillingham and look for their results, but you couldn't possibly compare my interest in them with my passion for Arsenal.
There's also another thing which is particularly magnified by the Spurs and Arsenal rivalry. All too often, I see it spilling over into a sort of tribalism that is so intense that I fear people may be losing their sense of perspective. The sort of tension during the 5-2 win, especially at the start, made this more than a football match. We know why, because they have (temporarily) stolen the bragging rights, but hang on, get a life. We have finished above them fifteen times in a row and have only lost to them in the League a handful of times in twenty years. We've won the League as many times at their ground as they have won it in their entire history. Let's not get so wound up that we lose all perspective simply because of a few mouthy Spuds.
My family aside, football is the great love of my life and, by football, I really mean Arsenal. They are my club and I will support them to my dying breath, whatever Kroenke, Gazidis or anybody else tries to do to them. Even when they were pathetic, I've gone and supported them. Believe me, that makes the good times - and, frankly, we've had some sensationally good times at this club - even better.
Every time I read a blog-comment cursing Wenger or Hill-Wood in the sort of invective that has no place in a criticism of what is going on at the club, I will try to convince myself that it is a die-hard Gooner who just can't take it any more and is suffering an extreme reaction . I will try to empathise with the many thousands of Gooners for whom the club is a way of life and who have an affinity that will never die, how ever old they get or however old or infirm they might be. My old dad loved the Arsenal as did his dad before him (that's 100 years of family support stretching back to Woolwich). He impressed on me at an early age that you must never boo an Arsenal player during a game and that you must also accept, as a supporter, that into each life a little rain must fall.
He would be incredulous that people left sixty minutes before the end of a glorious victory over the old enemy, just as he would be incredulous that we ever bought Sebastien Squillaci! But being puzzled by your club's actions must never be confused with being a fair-weather, success-at-all-costs-or-I'm-off fan, the like of which we see at the Emirates much too often. To those fans, I'd say this great club has been around since well before you were born and will be around long after you depart. It stands for something very special and it belongs to us all. There is no guarantee you will win trophies or that one day we won't be relegated, but - sad as it may be - I'm a Gooner and I can't help it and, wherever they go, I will try to be there too. I just hope a lot of people feel the same.
Up the Gunners!
