Ed’s note - After this piece was posted on Tuesday, there was a healthy debate on the onlinegooner forum. Thomas Segrue has emailed us again in response to what he’s read.

Thank you to those who care, those with passion and pride. Deep down I knew you were there, and if my words did any good at all, it is in the generation of impassioned debate. I’m very aware that we move on but just because global warming, childhood obesity and reality TV have arrived, it does not mean I have to welcome them. We still have the right to self-determination.

In expressing my opinions I did in no way decry progress, or in fact demand the wholesale return to the past, with all its undoubted problems. My words were in fact an attempt to highlight the long-term decline of qualities that were once an integral part of our game. Bill Shankly said ‘Football is not a matter of life and death, it’s more important than that.’ He did not mean attaining great stadiums, nice toilets, comfy chairs or necessarily winning all the time. He meant that football reached into the hearts and souls of millions of people in this and other countries all over the world. It joined people, families, communities, giving them a glimpse of freedom from the tedious predictability of their lives. Rain , shine, win or lose the overriding passion was the game.

I would have watched Arsenal FC play on a slagheap, in the rain, demand nothing and feel proud to have done so. I am a Gunner, not a Gooner, and that has nothing to do with the fact that I am an old fart (47), but everything to do with respect. Respect earned by past and hopefully future players, those who have earned the right to call themselves Gunners. I accept the criticism of all, require the sympathy of none and dismiss with contempt those whose only answer to concerns about something as important as this is to so many, is petulance and veiled aggression.

P. S. Best wishes to Gazza, who apart from his longstanding psychological problems (which should have been obvious to all via his choice of clubs) is one of those who lives and breathes football. Love or hate him, he was a gifted footballer and now as a troubled human being, he deserves my best wishes.