John Evans
Over the last eight seasons or so my relationship with Arsenal FC has changed with each passing season.
Back in the 80’s when my dad first started to take me to matches at Highbury it all felt like a big event. Maybe it had something to do with being a child at the time when things are all fresh and exciting but I loved it each and every time.
Just walking down the road that led up to the old Highbury stadium on match days from Finsbury Park station was fantastic. I used to get excited at the first glimpse of the back of the old north bank stand each and every time. The smell in the air of burgers mixed with onions. Those burgers sure did always smell better than they tasted!
When the seats first got put in to that stadium my dad bought us both season tickets and from memory back then you could get a couple of season tickets in the west lower for around £350. We’re talking early nineties here and just at the beginning of The Premier League.
I simply couldn’t get enough of football in those days and each and every Arsenal FC result was felt right in the heart of the home. If we won my dad would be in a joyous mood for the weekend, lose and it would feel like the dog had died.
To go from that to how I now feel about the club and to be honest the game in general is something of a seismic shift to say the least.
I haven’t had a season ticket since the turn of the century as I simply could not justify the cost anymore. I did however have a membership when we moved to the new stadium and I did start off by attending maybe 8-10 home games each season.
This has recently turned in to only going to one or two games a season to then choosing to cancel my memberships and now to turning off from even watching the games on TV.
I chose to watch the Watford game this weekend but the feeling of any real intensity in the game is long gone. When the penalty was conceded I didn’t blink. When the injury time winner went in against us I didn’t blink either, to be honest I almost found it funny as it was all so predictable.
After the game I came to thinking why this was. Was it all down to the realisation that we simply have no chance of competing under Arsene Wenger years ago? Would my interest come rushing back as it once was if there was a sudden change of manager at the club?
I have come to the conclusion that Arsene for me is more of a symptom of an underlying problem.
It is football in general for me that has been ruined to the point of no return.
I still consume a lot of Arsenal FC related online content. It is part of my day to read online blogs and occasionally listen in to podcasts and such like.
I have come to the conclusion that many of these online sites only give out info that the club itself kind of pre-approves. Many of these sites are so overly loyal to people like Arsene and the club in general that I feel the club must allow them to receive snippets of inside info in return for their ongoing loyalty and support.
With the world moving more and more online this kind of setup in business is commonplace as bloggers really do have a powerful say in how the general support feel about the club. Keep it all a bit upbeat and the club are happy. Speak the truth and you can go spin.
Anyhow I have personally come to the conclusion that even if Arsene was relieved of his duties tomorrow it would not necessarily see any major change in the ethos of the club.
I found it interesting listening to the latest offering of The Gooner podcast where Tim Payton revealed that he spoke with Stan Kroenke in person near the start of his involvement with the ownership of the club. Stan had no real interest in the club whatsoever but got all excited when he started to talk about the media rights in Africa and Asia and how they could boom in years to come.
For me this sums up the whole issue more with modern day football in general rather than just Arsenal FC.
You now have two types of Premier League club owners. The first is the kind you have at Manchester City and Chelsea at present. They have so much money it really doesn’t matter to them what they spend on players. They do not buy the club to make money, they buy the club to create a legitimate looking brand in other parts of the world from where they come from. Many if not all of these buyers have made their fortunes in rather unconventional ways (cough) in their own countries. It is all simply a way for them to legitimise what they do and who they are.
If you are a Man City fan who has seen your club plying its trade in the third tier of English football not too long ago and someone comes in and instantly buys players for your club that Man Utd could only dream of do you give a s*** where that person made their money from? The answer is clearly no.
