I've given up on football

[Olivier's xmas twist]

That would be true at any period in the past, but it's not necessarily true now. Depends if such a thing as Arsenal Football Club exists in reality any more. Yeah sure, the bricks and mortar are there, there are players as such, staff or sorts, owners (provided you can afford long distance calls), fans. But the love of what we grew up with, is that still there? Maybe it is for the diehards, although surely it has waned? There were diehards in the trenches of WWI too - fighting for king and country, something worth dying for. Right? And then there was the truth and a pile of bodies and wasted lives. Loyalty, honour, duty, through thick and thin - always thin for us but stiff upper lip.

There's no way I feel as much excitement about the game as I did in years (decades to be honest) past. There's nothing to believe in in this game any more, no heroes, no character villains (just the real ones like the racists and thugs), no fairy tales (the FA cup is one giant bag of shit), no Roy of the Rovers, no When Saturday Comes. It's just one huge commercialised stream of vomit with everyone drenched from head to foot and hyping the noxious fumes while holding their noses and averting their eyes. From crime ridden governing bodies down through the clubs who fly in the face of the modern struggle against economic depression, the miserable, soulless money automatons that have replaced the players, the revolving door managers - when does loyalty run out? Is loyalty an absolute regardless of the abuse? Loyal like a beaten dog? Where did this flawless adherence originate? From a hangover gained while drinking with the #9 from your boyhood team in the local boozer - him telling you how footie was great because he had a few quid more than you for doing what he loved doing? From the memoires of your father?

I remember sticking with the club through thick and thin. Remember it well. But I look now and I don't see a club any more. And I wonder, should I just be loyal out of habit? Loyal when there's nothing to pin that loyalty too? The red and white shirt - oh and now the blue bits too. Fuck that for another game of soldiers and fuck all the ****s who stole something good and turned it rancid. Scum that know the price of everything and delight in destroying as much value as they can. The fucking devil's spawn. Is it the trait of a glory hunter to point a finger at a fat, thieving fuck and demand it give back what has been stolen and debased? Maybe. In which case, after all these years, I'll take the tag of "Glory Hunter" and wear it without a blush. If that's a glory hunter then we need more of them - in sport, politics, economics, education. Enough is enough isn't is?

Do you feel this way about Arsenal for footit in General have you lost the love of the game or just the club.

[Niall_Quinn]

Why is cunt still censored? How can you talk about footballers when the most relevant words are removed from the language?

[Olivier's xmas twist]

What i do care about is players giving a fuck and today to go with last season and the season before, its clear they dont.

The players dont give a fuck about the fans and we feel no connection to them.

Well

Football is at its lowest ebb it has ever been on in my 70 years of watching this sport. Oh for the days of Chapman and Mee

Of course players don't care about the fans they have not for at least 10 years tbh. And since money came in it has ended that connection.

Footballers and managers only care about themselves not the fans even though they say they do. The game has changed and its for the worse and i hate it now.

[Olivier's xmas twist]

70 years

Oldest poster on GW who knew.

[Niall_Quinn]

Do you feel this way about Arsenal for footit in General have you lost the love of the game or just the club.

Football in general, but in terms of Arsenal I just don't recognise the club any more. Mercenary owners, mercenary brats wearing the shirt - not that the shirt was ever a mystical artefact handed down by Jesus Christ, but the people who used to wear it (for all their faults) were still on the same planet as the people who cheered them on. Today it's like cheering for an alien entity I understand nothing about and have nothing in common with. It;s been like that for ages but history and habit is a great fuel for delusion.

[KSE Comedy Club]

Did i spell 70 wrong?

No, I just didn't know you were so fucking old.

[Xhaka Can’t]

Pretty much my thoughts when asked by my seven year old why Van Persie was playing for Manchester United now. He'll never know the game I knew.

Sent from my HTC One S using Tapatalk 2

[Olivier's xmas twist]

Football in general, but in terms of Arsenal I just don't recognise the club any more. Mercenary owners, mercenary brats wearing the shirt - not that the shirt was ever a mystical artefact handed down by Jesus Christ, but the people who used to wear it (for all their faults) were still on the same planet as the people who cheered them on. Today it's like cheering for an alien entity I understand nothing about and have nothing in common with. It;s been like that for ages but history and habit is a great fuel for delusion.

Agree football is getting is not the game i used to love and it don't help Arsenal are making it a bore too. The older i get the less i care about it rather watch the tennis tbh.

[tpyo]

...

I totally get what you're saying and I think its the slow and steady divergence of supporters and followers. Where a supporter is more emotionally and financially attached to the club than a follower who adopts a more passive interest. My grandad was a supporter of Arsenal FC, my dad a follower and then myself a follower. Sure I attend games when the rare opportunity arises but I'm not thick and thin. I follow with a keen interest and keep tabs on every match, I also watch some games on telly.
Football used to be exclusively support based but as soon as we formed the leagues this started to change and will forever continue to change. It was about the time that followers started to outnumber supporters that I think the clubs realised they could hike ticket prices without ill effect. Who knows what will happens once they push all the supporters out.... can they get by on just the follower money? As long as the EPL is one of the #1 brands in football I think they probably can.

But it might also be a case of perspective. You've been a fan for ages and can compare the past to the present that gives you this perspective. When you were a kid did you ever hear the same sort of rant yourself from teh oldies? Did they have a similar perspective too? It's also worth bearing in mind that there will be a slew of new Arsenal fans in present and future that will accept this (overpriced, spoilt players) as the norm and find something different to complain about in the future. I'm not sure what my point is though..... did I have one?

[Olivier's xmas twist]

I totally get what you're saying and I think its the slow and steady divergence of supporters and followers. Where a supporter is more emotionally and financially attached to the club than a follower who adopts a more passive interest. My grandad was a supporter of Arsenal FC, my dad a follower and then myself a follower. Sure I attend games when the rare opportunity arises but I'm not thick and thin. I follow with a keen interest and keep tabs on every match, I also watch some games on telly.
Football used to be exclusively support based but as soon as we formed the leagues this started to change and will forever continue to change. It was about the time that followers started to outnumber supporters that I think the clubs realised they could hike ticket prices without ill effect. Who knows what will happens once they push all the supporters out.... can they get by on just the follower money? As long as the EPL is one of the #1 brands in football I think they probably can.

But it might also be a case of perspective. You've been a fan for ages and can compare the past to the present that gives you this perspective. When you were a kid did you ever hear the same sort of rant yourself from teh oldies? Did they have a similar perspective too? It's also worth bearing in mind that there will be a slew of new Arsenal fans in present and future that will accept this (overpriced, spoilt players) as the norm and find something different to complain about in the future. I'm not sure what my point is though..... did I have one?

Times are changing fans want to win things players want to win things that ill play for the fans and be special to them connection is gone now its all about getting good wages or winning things.

Sad really the game i onced love is gone.