When did we stop supporting Arsenal for the football?

When we were children and first started supporting Arsenal we didn’t do it because we liked the economical policies of the club, their commercial nous or their wage bill to turnover ratio. When did the balance sheet become more important to us than the team sheet? We followed The Arsenal because we loved the club, the team, the players and the thrill we got from seeing our heroes in the flesh or on the television marching onto the pitch in dashing robes of glory coloured in red and white or yellow and blue.

Why is it now, as adults, our support of the club is dominated by values extrinsic from the playing side of the game that clung so heartily to the very fibres of our being? As mature football followers we all appreciate the necessity for understand elements of the business side of the game and how that impacts the playing side but why is our conversation so monopolised by finances and business management? Surely it should make up a small portion of our Arsenal related discussion?

Why are we all talking about debt leverage and consultancy fees when we could be having discussions about implementing a traditional 442 with Giroud and Welbeck or if Theo makes it back into the team when fit with how Chamberlain is playing or who plays at left-back if Gibbs and Monreal are injured?

Discussions about how the club is run must be had but to the detriment of supporter harmony? We split ourselves more than any individual at the club ever could. We say Wenger has divided the fans but it is the fans who choose to incessantly and blindly castigate or eulogise the man who are dividing themselves.  It’s now become a trend at Arsenal to polarise every issue and label supporters based on their views with the few members of either extreme putting stickers on the majority of supporters who sit in the middle and branding them supporters of the other side. If you don’t agree with someone you are automatically part of the “enemy” group and the cause of all of Arsenal’s problems.

Season ticket holders are the problem, foreign and non-match going fans are the problem, Stan Kroenke is the problem, oil money is the problem, ticket prices are the problem, Wenger is the problem, not supporting Wenger is the problem and on and on it goes.

All of these things are problems in their own way but none are the single cause of unrest at Arsenal. A lack of unity is the biggest problem at Arsenal. There is discord amongst the fans and a lack of clear instruction to the board as to what the fans want. Our messages are as mixed as our opinions as to what the biggest problem is because problems are subjective.

Ticket prices are high but often when people voice their displeasure with prices they often follow it up with because Wenger/Kroenke/league titles/losing big games. The issue is diluted. It sends a mixed message that infers prices would be okay if we were competing more which is a kind of paradox because the club can argue they need the ticket money to better compete on the field. To which people respond with arguments about weak positions in the team and lack of signings in certain areas which dilutes the issue further and further again when the lack of signings becomes about the manager which then becomes about doing his best against oil clubs and before you know it you have diluted the issue so much it tastes like school dinner orange squash.

The biggest problem is that we may never have the unity required to enforce a change at the club, whatever it may be, and the bickering will continue. People will do as they please and opine as they choose and others have the right to their opinion on your opinion and so on and so forth but my advice would be, in any walk of life, never dilute a problem you want addressing – you’ll have a better chance of being heard and taken seriously if you know exactly what you want and do not deviate into other subjects.

Personally I’d like to see safe standing considered by the club, ticket prices coming down, commercial revenue going up, better youth production and more incisiveness in the transfer market but I don’t know where to start and which is most important to me so I’m going to think about what would be most important to the child that fell in love with The Arsenal and that’s watching the game tomorrow night, supporting the team, cheering on the lads and generally enjoying a day at the football with my mate.

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