Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday or maybe Sunday
Saturday
I’ll do you the respect of assuming you understand the difference between wanting to make something “great again” and being bellicose about your own innate sense of superiority. Whilst I think these people were to a degree deluded or led up the garden path, the point is not belief in superiority it’s this sense of loss over what was compared to now what is. Often I think people are guilty of crying for the moon and thinking everything was somehow better at some nebulous time in the past. But it’s usually resulting from a sense of dispossession (economic or cultural)
If you compare the UK to any other country in terms of national pride, we really are very understated with it….largely because there is this middle class elitist attitude exemplified by Remain activists who regard patriotism as meandering between uncool and vaguely fascistic. It’s nothing new, the intellectual class that saw themselves as the vanguard of the left in the 1920s and 1930s right up to the Jeremy Corbyn’s of this world…whilst there is affectation of being sympathetic to the plight of the working class, it’s essentially patronising and paternalistic.
And ultimately when the working class turn against the left, it’s a case of them being called thick racist gammons
Last edited by HCZ_Reborn; 09-01-2025 at 04:18 PM.
Although really I should say England more than Britain. Welsh and Scottish nationalism are actually treated as far less toxic than perhaps they should be. But if England was this triumphalist country and wasn’t actually in the main ashamed of flying the flag, there wouldn’t be this vaccum that the populist right parties have inhabited and at every moment cover their banal literature in images of the flag.
I have no doubt you’ve heard terms like flag shagger, and I can’t think of a term more sneering that accentuates more bile to anyone who thinks of this country in a positive way. The paradigm example of this was someone like Emily Thornberry tweeting an image of someone with an England flag on their van with utter mocking contempt. That’s a politician from a mainstream party, you would never get that anywhere else not with the Scottish Saltire, the Welsh dragon, the Irish or French Tricolour….and certainly not in the United States where they really wear their patriotism on their sleeves
And by the way I’m not going to cite Daily Mail rage bait articles where someone has apparently complained about the flying of the flag on St George’s Day. Because it most instances it’s utter bollocks, or taken out of context and the complainer has turned out to be some curtain twitching little Hitler
Yeah, I agree the wider football world think he's great, but like you also pointed out, reputations come and go quite easily. A simple example is what we did to Emery, we gave the kiss of death to his career when we sacked him, but he appears on that list at least twice after that.
Anyway, on your last point of this being a tricky situation, is it really?
I mean currently we are 2nd in the EPL and could still win it mathematically. We've scored more goals and defended almost as good as we did last season at this stage. WEe are doing pretty well in the CL and are apparently one of the favourites. We're in every competition and could still do the quadruple....(even I've got to laugh at that).
Looking at where we are currently, an outsider who is totally "independent" and maybe not too familiar with football culture, would find it strange that there is this level of discontent among the fanbase.
I feel if Citeh was where Liverpool is right now people would not be calling for Arteta to go.
I feel if Klopp had stayed and Liverpool had managed these same results, there would be still less people calling for Arteta to go.
Our rivals took a risk, changed things, some have continued to fail like (Man U and Spuds) while others are seeing massive benefits like Chelsea and Liverpool. The ones who have failed will keep trying to change things till they get it right..... I think it's clear what's eating us up...
Lastly and clearly figuratively, it's Tuesday, Arterta is Martinelli, we've had that fast break and it's only him and the Newcastle keeper, one on one,.....why are we not celebrating this and doubting that he's going to score?
He's owned the thread about as much as I own this message board.
What is with this ridiculous notion in the Arsenal fanbase, that no one can dare say they want 'X' gone (manager or player) without naming a suitable replacement as some kind of justification for their opinion?!
Honestly, it's fucking pathetic.
Ok I'll say Zidane - thank you very much, where do I collect my Arsenal F.C. pay check for £500,000 from?
But yeh sure, let's wait til the end of the season and see if we finish top 4, suck it up and get over it.
It'll only be another 10 years+ of winning nothing again.