Arsenal's Decline: Are there any easy answers?

Yeah, our fans suck for going to support the players (players who are obviously giving a shit this season). The travel club must be up there with the best away fans around. It's not easy to just stop going to watch games. People have been going for many years and it's a part of thee lives - as irrational as it may be. Letters has said before that the only reason he goes is for his dad. It's an addiction. Cigarette companies know they've got people that will buy cigarettes tomorrow even if they double prices, and the club know people will still go to games. That said, in the period we were about 17th, many home games were going on general sale. And they're running out of little gimmicks that will increase attendances if there are no changes. We cant keep signing invincibles.

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Originally Posted by fakeyank

How about not going to the games for a change?

IMO Arsenal fans are too laid back. Most are at best keyboard warriors. We need proper ghels like those at leeds, milwall, manchester etc to make a difference.

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This, problem is we have too many Prawn sandwich brigade fans now who the board cater for, they don't care about the poor cunt who works hard to get his season ticket, only the twat born with a silverspoon who will go and pay and watch whatever happens.

Surely it's the prawn sandwich brigade who will be the first to stop going as we get crapper.

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Originally Posted by Letters

Surely it's the prawn sandwich brigade who will be the first to stop going as we get crapper.

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They haven't been underfunding the prawn sandwiches have they? It just gets worse.

Disgusting how prawn sandwiches and brigades they have inspired are treated on GW.

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Originally Posted by Syn

Yeah, our fans suck for going to support the players (players who are obviously giving a shit this season). The travel club must be up there with the best away fans around. It's not easy to just stop going to watch games. People have been going for many years and it's a part of thee lives - as irrational as it may be. Letters has said before that the only reason he goes is for his dad. It's an addiction. Cigarette companies know they've got people that will buy cigarettes tomorrow even if they double prices, and the club know people will still go to games. That said, in the period we were about 17th, many home games were going on general sale. And they're running out of little gimmicks that will increase attendances if there are no changes. We cant keep signing invincibles.

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Our away fans are great but our home support is terrible. NY Redbulls has better home support than what I have seen at Emirates! I agree Arsenal is a part of many fans lives and it is time they decide whether they want to improve their lives or just float through it. The kind of mismanagement and shit that Arsenal fans have been given over the last 3-4 seasons, its only a miracle the fans havent done anything. We should have been on the boards and Wengers arse 3-4 seasons back.

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Originally Posted by fakeyank

We should have been on the boards and Wengers arse 3-4 seasons back.

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Quoted especially for GB..

Why for me?

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Originally Posted by Ach

One thing i cant forgive Wenger and the board for is they killed my love for football. Ive seen us finish 12th after a brief battle with relegation in 94/95 but we had players then who gave a fuck. They werent very good but they gave it their all and i as a fan can get behind that all day every day. The players we have today barring i dont know RVP? can all fuck off. They dont give a fuck about this club. In it for the money, they get paid regardless and they still go out after defeats and live it up. Fuck the lot of them.

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Totally agree, I've said this many times....I just don't enjoy watching the team any more, the attitude, the style, the lack of desire and now quality....then we have to put up with him spouting cr*p after every game.

Once upon a time he was almost a god, now he's an irritating pr*ck I can't wait to see f*ck off, he's ruined what he'd built and is becoming someone who is heavily disliked now.

The board and the rest certainly have a lot of blame to shoulder, we know they're greedy f*ckers who don't give a sh*t about football, I've long voiced my feelings about Hill-wood and co, some said they cared about the club, I saw them as leeches that knew nothing about football and only cared about money and that's pretty clear now. Wenger though, well he's part of this mess and a certainly doesn't come out with any credit......he's an embarrassment, both on and off the pitch, I cringe every time I hear him talk or see him get into another confrontation with the manager of another team.

Opposing fans/managers dislike him and now a lot of his own fans do as well.

I think it's more accurate to say the modern day incarnation of the sport has killed my love of football, rather than Wenger and Arsenal specifically. Although yes that has contributed, it is incredibly frustrating to support a club absolutley blessed in comparison to 90% of other clubs in the country, yet consistently fail to make the most of what they are.

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Originally Posted by Marc Overmars

I think it's more accurate to say the modern day incarnation of the sport has killed my love of football, rather than Wenger and Arsenal specifically. Although yes that has contributed, it is incredibly frustrating to support a club absolutley blessed in comparison to 90% of other clubs in the country, yet consistently fail to make the most of what they are.

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:gp:

I pretty much never watch a neutral game any more. It's hard to care about a sport where it's mostly about who has the biggest chequebook and it's hard to care about our players when they're mostly overpaid spoilt brats who will piss off when someone waves the next big cheque at them. It's hard to care about the club when they so clearly care so little about the fans and just see us as customers to extract as much money as they can out of us.


:ilt:

Wenger talks shit - yes. But lets not pretend football isn't full of people who talk utter shit. And yep, our football is dirge, but you know what? At least 90% of football in the EPL is pretty fucking unwatchable now. We are utter dirt - our football stinks, our player attitudes stink, our manager is out of touch, the Club haven't invested in years, morale is as low as I've ever known it, I see no way we can get out of this, I feel nothing but despair.

And despite all this, the worst conditions in my life supporting Arsenal - it is still good enough to be comfortably in the top third of supposedly, one of the top 2 leagues in the world.

Football. Is. Shit.

And it is not just us.

I don't offer this as an excuse for where we are, because it isn't, I'm just pointing out that football is a mess. How many games does anyone watch that they can truly say they've enjoyed? It is actually a shock to the system these days when I stumble upon a football game that is actually any good.

Anyone up for a mass GW Suicide Pact now the ZD epidemic is unstoppable?

Dont disagree at all with the people who say footballs shit these days especially with the reasons they give but ultimately i dont give a fuck about other teams, only Arsenal.

If we werent as we are now then id still enjoy it

I'd go along with that Ach. Football has been dirge for a while, and even though I we didn't win things over the past few years, I could at least take some comfort from watching us play some good enjoyable football. That does not happen any more.

Winning trophies for me, is the cherry on the top of the cake. Going to a game and watching an entertaining game is for the most part all I want out of football - unless we hit the business end of the season - then I'll take a win however it comes. But we don't get that any more. Just boring predictable dirge with the same mistakes being repeated over and over again.

Fuck this shit.

I'm fucking off to gonersweb tbf.

Rip everything up and start again.

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Originally Posted by Letters

Anyone up for a mass GW Suicide Pact now the ZD epidemic is unstoppable?

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Just watch superior sports, like tennis.

And don't support teams/individuals anymore.

It's possible your life will change. For the better.

There's something in that tbh. Football is so tribal.

Nothing actually pisses me off at the moment more than Arsenal, which are a complete irrelevance to my life, what they do doesn't affect anything. Yet there I am fucked off every Monday morning because we ballsed up on the weekend. :shrug:

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Arsenal fans are planning to use bin-bags to protest against the club's poor run of results. Fans will highlight the number of empty red seats at the Emirates during Saturday's match against Blackburn by covering them with black bin liners.
Full story: Daily Mirror

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:lol:

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Originally Posted by Master Splinter

Just watch superior sports, like tennis.

And don't support teams/individuals anymore.

It's possible your life will change. For the better.

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Lot to be said for that approach. Fuck this shit, caring about cunts who earn millions and don't give a fuck about anyone but themselves. Like they care if we're pissed off or not. Cunts.

Anyway, Formula 1 starts again soon and I'm just praying Alonso can do the biz this year. Fuck that Vettel bitch. Come on Alonso! Fuck it, I'll kill myself if he doesn't win this year.

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Originally Posted by Ach

:lol:

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PHW will just go around and collect them so he can trim some more off the operating budget.

F1? :lol:

Thats even worse

Tennis is the sport tbh

Bloody love Tennis.

Theo would be awesome at that - he always hits it over the net.

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Originally Posted by Ach

F1? :lol:

Thats even worse

Tennis is the sport tbh

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:gp:

But I'm not in the business of critisising one sport to praise another.

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Originally Posted by fakeyank

We need proper ghels like those at leeds, milwall, manchester etc to make a difference.

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This really is a post of such monumental stupidity i am genuinely taken aback. Good work :good:

Have you never seen his posts before? :unsure:

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Originally Posted by Letters

Have you never seen his posts before? :unsure:

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Well yes of course but he has raised the bar so high with that i am dumbfounded. Someone actually wanting fans like Leeds and Millwall is truly astounding.

Its a little like Greenpeace saying, "We aren't getting anywhere with our peaceful methods, you know what we need? Some of those take the situation by the scruff of the neck Nazi types, I wonder if Hitler is still around. Or what about that Stalin chap? He always delivered"

if I may try to de-stupid it a bit, FY isn't from these parts and may not know all the history of violence with Leeds and Millwall fans. If he means we need more passionate fans then maybe he's right. But in terms of people who go to games, Arsenal have relentlessly marketed themselves and more affluent, middle class fans. And that's what they've got.

There isn't a problem with our home support per say.

It's that we attract a wider range of fans than most clubs, have a bigger stadium than most clubs, and the fact that Arsenal choose to "Americanise" everything, saps away some of the atmosphere....things like the cheering after a name thing....I DON'T WANT TO SHOUT OUT THE SURNAME OF THE PLAYER, I'M NOT IN PLAYSCHOOL!!!! Arrgrgrhrhr....things like that, which are totally un-fan related.

The core support of singers is as good as ever....but you try starting off a song when you're sat next to someone in a suit on Champions League night...stinking of booze and leaning on his shoulder

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Originally Posted by LDG

..but you try starting off a song when you're sat next to someone in a suit on Champions League night...stinking of booze and leaning on his shoulder

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:lol:

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Originally Posted by Letters

if I may try to de-stupid it a bit,

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Many have tried, all have failed.

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Originally Posted by Jeebus

Why shouldnt we be able to compete every season though?

Why couldnt we become like Man U and win back to back titles or win 19 league titles?

We can afford to buy quality players, but instead we buy cheap youngsters and shower them with high wages.

What is it with this inferiority complex that some gooners have? With the right manager and 3 or 4 quality signings, we could be up there competing every season and winning titles/trophies.

Its the current rut that we are stuck in that makes it seem impossible, its not the actual fact or impossibility of it.

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I can go along with this....as Letters I have seen woeful Arsenals and I have seen us reach the heights too! and I don't see why we can't go back to those heights....I mean we have Arsenal up there, in with a chance at some point in all the seasons that have made up our barren run. The problem has been a massive implosion at the wrong time.

There is something about the mechanics of the club that does not allow us to maintain a challenge and that has been the case even during our heady years, as the lack of back to back league titles shows.

(Wasnt able to finish. . .) I do think a change is in order and it seems that Wenger is tarnishing his legacy by sticking to the current path whether it be at the boards direction or not!
Any manager worth his salt would have demand a freer reign or walked, he has done neither and by such actions is losing the love of the masses. . .Marie Antoinette after famously saying 'Let them eat cake' deservedly got her head lobbed off. . .go work it out!

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Originally Posted by Japan Shaking All Over

I can go along with this....as Letters I have seen woeful Arsenals and I have seen us reach the heights too! and I don't see why we can't go back to those heights.....

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It's a different world now, it's harder to compete. Sides used to finish mid-table one year and win the title the next. It's far harder to move between 'strata' in football, even within the PL (although Arsenal seem to be doing a good job, albeit in the wrong direction) unless you have a billionaire backer. City and Chelsea wouldn't be top 4 right now had they not spent big - spent money they by themselves couldn't afford. Wenger has made a lot of mistakes but it has to be remembered that 2 of the sides above us are in false positions and it's hard to compete with them.

All it comes down to is maximising the resources we have, and using every effort we have to TRY and be up there challenging. If we don't make it, fair enough....but the point of the WHOLE FUCKING THING, is that we are not doing everything possible to achieve our best.

That's in the board room, and on the pitch.

/thread.

That. Yes, it's unrealistic to think we can be as dominant as we once were but it's realistic and perfectly reasonable to think we should be doing our best to try to be, and we're not. There's your problem.

If we don't win the FA cup I'll scream and scream and scream until I'm sick :angry:

Why don't we just wave handkerchiefs like they do in Spain? I'm sure all the toffs will have them on their person.

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Originally Posted by McNamara That Ghost...

Why don't we just wave handkerchiefs like they do in Spain? I'm sure all the toffs will have them on their person.

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I would put my house on the blatent FACT that Letters has a hanky. A proper material one.

Nailed on.

You can keep your house. I have 2, one in each pocket. I was brung up proper, you know.

If we don't win tomorrow I fear I may break another monocle. <_<

:lol:

My take a pack of handy andy's with me tomorrow...I do tend to get the sniffles when it's cold out.

Hard core Asrenal support :bow: