August 1st 2011 e-mail to Arsenal Marketing Department
To whom it may concern,
This afternoon I was contacted by a member of your staff, (Marco, I think) who informed me that my membership had lapsed and asked if I wanted to renew. I didn't and was asked why. As I was at work I fobbed him off by saying, "money's tight".
I thought it better now to inform you that the reason I gave Marco was in no way the full story. The main reason I am not renewing is because I don't like the direction the Club is heading and have not done so for some time now. The lack of investment in playing staff and the repetition of the same mistakes season after season with no apparent material effort being made to address them are much bigger factors in my reason not to renew.
I'd explain what the same mistakes are and the excuses offered by the Club over and over again are, but that would just be insulting your intelligence. You know what the problems are - everyone does, but nothing is ever done to address them.
We (the fans) are being told repeatedly, that the funds are there to address weaknesses in the team. Yet no investment is made by the Club. The only people required to increase investment are the fans of the Club - to the tune of 6.5%. And for what? To see the same failures, the same weaknesses that will produce the same results.
This in no way implies that I think that the Club needs to spend ridiculous amounts on players. There are all sorts of points between the stupid amounts Man City spends and the parsimonious approach that our Club takes. If the fans are required to invest more, then so should Arsene Wenger be required to do so by the Board.
If fans show their displeasure at matches, and there is much to be frustrated about, we get critisised by Peter Hill-Wood and Arsene Wenger as if we are ungrateful Phillistines who don't realise how good we have it. While I agree some of the fan reaction may have been counter-productive during matches, I fail to see how people within the Club cannot understand it. Quite frankly, I'm amazed at the disconnection between the people running our Club and us, the fans. I place the blame squarely for this at the hands of the Club.
I'm not going to matches to be negative, I can't do that. But what other way is there to show the Club my displeasure? So I am demonstating my displeasure with my wallet. I'm not investing any more in this team until you do so - either investing in playing staff and/or coaching staff that can address the deficiencies that we have all been aware of for the last six years.
Yours faithfully,
GB. (ex Member - No. xxxxxxx)