Quote Originally Posted by Stilts1964 View Post
Fair point and you are correct this is an open forum so you are quite rightly entitled to share your thoughts.

Apologies for upsetting you. It's just when you are top of the league, the current FA Cup holders and through to the last 16 of the CL it's hard to understand what there is to complain about. If you can't enjoy those moments and show your appreciation then when can you?

But my biggest concern is that if/when things don't go as you would wish then those fans who feel we should win everything all of the time playing football of the finest quality (and I don't mean the quality of George Graham, Bruce Rioch, Mourinho etc but the flowing intricate style that has been the hallmark of Arsene Wenger) will not get behind the team but would rather criticise and blame.

For me, the definition of a true fan is to show your support, allegiance and encouragement in the good and the bad times. There are too may "fans" who will only do the former.

Don't get me wrong, I am not condoning mediocrity but in my opinion we are far from mediocre (but you are free to have your own definition)

I know what type of supporter I am - it would be interesting to know what type you are?
Fair play to you, a reasonable response under provocation.

What sort of fan? The 40 year sort just like yourself. Well, 37 to be precise. I always support the team, I'm not such a big fan of the club any more though. Don't like the non-football owner and his crew, I respect but don't much like the manager either. What he did in the past can never be taken away from him, but he's been a shadow of that for at least a decade. In my view (which is not unique) he's been the primary factor in us falling short season after season and he's outstayed his welcome. All over the forum you'll find argument to and fro that goes into the details so no point going over that again. I never demand we win trophies and certainly don't feel entitled to them. But I realise it will be the team that has given maximum effort on the most occasions in combination with having decent players that will lift the big trophies come May. We have the decent players so it's a shame to watch the effort rise and fall to suit the minimum we can get away with. What I demand is the maximum possible effort win, lose or draw, every game. That's actually the starting point for me, anything less than that is inexcusable negligence. I hated, hated, hated the way we slacked off and let the gypos overhaul us last season. That was a scandal. Whenever I see the same slacking off it pisses me off, mightily. Loved the performance midweek against the Greeks, said so, hated the non-performance against Villa, even though we won, even though we went top for a few hours, said so.