Quote Originally Posted by Marc Overmars View Post
Can honestly say I’m not looking forward to any of this coming back. I was already in and out of love with the game but now fans won’t even be involved that’s pretty much killed it for the time being. There’s only so much you can consume of anything before it becomes a bit sickly and I don’t think football is any different. I’ll always be an Arsenal fan and I’ll never stop rooting for us, but the all encompassing coverage of the game, overpriced tv subscriptions, tickets, merchandise etc can do one.

Football is definitely an addiction and it does seem to create an unhealthy relationship with fans. I’m pretty sure in my early 20’s I was heading the way of the loopy fans you see on YouTube with how up and down I was with results. Thankfully I managed to take a couple of steps back and can now enjoy the highs when they do come and get on with my life like everyone should when the lows happen, because it’s not important and it really doesn’t matter in the slightest.
Yeah, I took a big step back from all things football about 5 or 6 years ago, and I feel like my relationship with the game and the club is much healthier now. At the time I was really angry with everything about football - the state of the club, the detachment with the players, the corruption, the coverage and reporting, etc - but looking back at it now, I guess the truth was life just got serious in the middle, and I suddenly found that I didn't have the time (or energy) to be a super-fan on top of everything else. Something had to give, and it wasn't going to be my kids or my job.

I'm sure it will creep back into my life at some point, and I'll end up getting way too invested in it again (maybe years down the line when the girls have left home and I have nothing but free time again), but right now being a casual, armchair fan suits me very well. The game gets very little of my time or money at the moment, I can walk away and do something else whenever it's pissing me off, and because of that I've stopped taking everything quite so personally - I don't feel constantly cheated and betrayed by it all (which was always a ridiculous way to feel about it, but there you go - you can't see it when you get that close).

I've got to say, I'm almost looking forward to next season for the first time in a long time - Arteta intrigues me, and I'm hoping the club are finally going to be forced into reform, even if it's in spite of the executive team. But I have almost zero interest in seeing out this current season, and I really couldn't care less about any of our remaining games. At the most, I'll be viewing it as an extended preseason for 20/21, and keeping an eye out for any interesting call ups or deployment of players.