Black Scarf Movement & REDAction
Fans will have the opportunity to make their feelings known about the direction of the club at Saturday’s home match against Norwich. Here are statements from two of the leading supporters’ groups at Arsenal…
Black Scarf Movement statement
TIME FOR CHANGE
Have your say when we play Norwich
The current season has been one of massive disappointment for Arsenal fans, with the campaign fizzling out in a depressingly limp fashion.
Over the past few years - massively so in recent months - increasing number of supporters have become fed up with the club. There are a number of reasons for this, including...
• Our majority shareholder, Stan Kroenke, showing he's purely motivated by cash when he went on record to say he doesn't care if Arsenal are not challenging for honours.
• A complacent Board with absolutely no football experience, focusing purely on Arsenal as a profit-generating entity, not a football club.
• A Board happy with Kroenke milking millions of pounds out of the club every year, and refusing to give valid details of what the payments relate to.
• Being sold the vision of moving stadium to compete with Europe's elite. We're now close financially but in a football sense we're probably as far from the top European sides as we have been for many years.
• A huge amount of cash sitting in the bank and comments from Ivan Gazidis that we can buy pretty much anybody, yet the money remains banked and our squad remains lacking in key areas, year after year.
• A manager who seems to be past his best, refusing to adapt to the modern game and dragging us down through lack of signings, poor tactics, predictable poor performances, and not being able to get the best from his team.
• Consistent failure to challenge for football's big prizes and using 4th place finishes as a cause for celebration, when all Champions League football means is more income for the Board to celebrate.
Basically speaking, Arsenal Football Club has gone stale.
We are seeing the same failures year after year, and amid rumours that Arsene Wenger may be given a new three-year contract there really seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel. Kroenke and the Board are seemingly content with Champions League cash, so outside of finishing 4th best in the league there is no pressure at all on the manager. This isn't good enough.
It's time for change.
Whether it's the manager, whether Stan Kroenke has to go and whether the Board needs shaking up and reminding that we're a FOOTBALL club, change is needed at Arsenal, A fresh approach to bring some excitement back to this great club of ours.
Have your say
We host Norwich this coming Saturday in what's become a pretty meaningless end of season kickabout. At this game we would like as many fans as possible to show their desire for change at Arsenal by holding up signs demanding that action is taken. We've seen Coventry City do this successfully at Emirates already, and abroad there has been massive success with this approach.
On this page you can see an image of a sign declaring TIME FOR CHANGE at Arsenal. Click here to download a copy; then print it off and if you can, print as many copies as possible and hand out to people you know are going to the game. We'll also try to get copies in pubs around the ground and handed out near the stadium on the day.
When to hold up your TIME FOR CHANGE sign
We ask that all fans hold these signs aloft on 12 minutes, and 78 minutes (12 minutes from the end of the match). Then at the final whistle hold them up again. We'd love to see a consistent effort in highlighting this message and hope people join in. There have been huge numbers of people saying it's time to protest, so now is your chance.
Up The Gunners.
TIME FOR CHANGE - Have your say at the Norwich game
It's pretty clear that things aren't right at Arsenal.
We have an absentee owner who takes money from the club whilst not engaging with fans. We have a manager who won't use the resources available to him, to strengthen a squad which everybody can see needs investment. Throw in some of the highest ticket prices in world football. And, all of the Groundhog seasons, where it's clear that the fans' ambitions are not matched by those in charge.
Fans are fighting each other over what exactly is wrong and who is to blame - but it's clear that we are in a rut, and that something needs to change.
Lots of people have opinions on how fans can make our voices heard. At Saturday's game against Norwich, we (along with other fans' groups – the BSM for starters) are calling on fans to send a co-ordinated message - together we are stronger.
What we are asking fans to do:
Before the game - print as many copies of this image as you can (colour or B&W, whatever size you can). Give them to friends who are going to the game.
• At the game - we are asking fans to hold these signs up on 12 minutes (the number of years since we last won the title), and again on 78 minutes (12 minutes from the end). Then, at the end, we are asking fans to stay behind, hold the signs up again, and make your voices heard.
Why this, and why now?
We believe that the only way to ensure our voices are heard, is by getting lots of people involved. A huge banner held up by four people is one thing - signs held by thousands of people are quite another.
• Lots of people have advocated a walkout, or a boycott of the Aston Villa game. Thousands of Arsenal fans walk out 10 minutes before the end of games anyway, and there were thousands of empty seats at the West Brom game. So, would anybody notice the difference?
• The Aston Villa game is unlikely to be on TV now, so this is our last chance to make a big impression at a home game.
• We are encouraging the most vocal protest to be after the final whistle, so no suggestion that this should affect the team. And it goes without saying, during the game please give your maximum (and loud) support to the players on the pitch.
Finally, if you don't agree with the sentiment that things need to change at Arsenal, get involved in your own way. If you don't like what the sign says, make and print your own, and hold that up instead. Apathy achieves nothing - and talk is cheap in the pub and on the internet - we need fans to get involved. Something is wrong at our club - and only change will unite the fanbase again. See you on Saturday.
