There isn't much left at all. Too early to say about Wilshere, Jenkinson is a Gooner, but at best he is promising. There really isn't anyone else in the side that even has the prospect of being the type of Gooner allied to ability that we had in the past.Originally Posted by Suarez Is Boss
I don't think it is just us this is happening to. Most other teams are either in the same boat or heading in a similar direction.
Another player true gooners can feel an attachment to
The stagnation of football and its descent into a money game coinciding with a general economic landslide can't help either. Priorities are easily ordered these days. Even so, it's certainly not that alone because football was there during the last big economic shit pile and Arsenal was just as ordinary as it is today performance wise. But back then football was a very welcome escape mechanism. Not now. Having to pay £100 for a ticket put paid to that.
As for Wilshere, in reality can he really afford to play the martyr? Because that's what he will be if he stays, a bit like Gerrard. The centrepiece in something of little note. So you could say you would understand if he left, but left for what? Real Madrid, Manchester Utd? Those clubs are more about selling shirts now from what I can see.
It's a collection of small changes, for instance I used to look at the clock during a game and think wow, that went fast, only 20 minutes left and the football is over, having waited all week to see it of course. Now I look at the clock and think, really, only 20 minutes gone? Shit, this thing is dragging.
Last game I genuinely enjoyed was Celtic vs Barca. A throwback to the underdog thing I suppose.
The mention of the RvP sale, that was probably it for me too. Not in terms of a sudden shift but more the underlining or rubber stamping of on ongoing loss of connection to the sport.
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The RVP sale was a clear indication of where we’re heading as a club. I can understand why players want to leave the club and especially in RVP’s case but the club showed themselves up with that sale. They have no pride or integrity. We sold Man Utd the league with that sale. The fact that we’ve sold our best players to the two Manchester clubs just shows this club has lost its soul.
Oh I still love the game, but at the top level it's not a game any more, it's a business.
We're not fans of a club any more, we're customers of a business which, like most businesses, have made it increasingly clear they value profit over everything else. The club treat as customers and, worse, they know they have a monopoly over us in the sense that we can't go down the road and start giving Spurs our custom. We're Arsenal fans, we're customers who can only use one supplier. All we can do (and what many are doing, myself included) is withdraw our custom. But there are enough mugs out there to take our place, or have been. How long that will remain is questionable.
There's little passion in the ground these days, Arsenal have relentlessly marketed themselves at the middle class fan (the silly prices, Club Level) and that's what they've got. The tradional support have long since been priced out.
People have mentioned us being little bit shit and not playing great football. Those are undoubtedly factors in my ennui with football but in the mid nineties the football was far worse but there was one major difference - it was still a sport, we still felt connected to the club. Yes, they were a bit rubbish but they were our rubbish - we felt they cared, we felt they'd run through walls for us and the club. Yes, they got good wages but not such silly money that they had no connection with us fans. Cole's infamous "I nearly swerved off the road" neatly sums up the modern footballer's complete lack of self-awareness and connection with the average fan.
I'll never forget the day I met Ian Wright when dad and me picked up our Bond certificates. I was completely star-struck. It was all I could do to blurt out "you're king of the world, you are!"
Now. Meh. I'm not the least bit bothered about meeting any of them. They couldn't give a shit about us*, why should we care about them?
(* - I think Jack is a rare counter-example but most of the rest of them...they'd be off the moment the right person waves a big enough cheque at them)
IMO the rot started when Sky got involved. They promised us a 'whole new ball-game', they certainly delivered that. And then UEFA expanded the European Cup into the 'Champions' League. Then, as success in football became increasinly correlated with money, the billionaires got involved and started buying up all the major trophies.
UEFA's half-arsed 'financial fair play' policy is far too little, too late and pretty much unenforceable.
In brief: Balls to it. Balls to it all.
Oh I still love the game, but at the top level it's not a game any more, it's a business.
We're not fans of a club any more, we're customers of a business which, like most businesses, have made it increasingly clear they value profit over everything else. The club treat as customers and, worse, they know they have a monopoly over us in the sense that we can't go down the road and start giving Spurs our custom. We're Arsenal fans, we're customers who can only use one supplier. All we can do (and what many are doing, myself included) is withdraw our custom. But there are enough mugs out there to take our place, or have been. How long that will remain is questionable.
There's little passion in the ground these days, Arsenal have relentlessly marketed themselves at the middle class fan (the silly prices, Club Level) and that's what they've got. The tradional support have long since been priced out.
People have mentioned us being little bit shit and not playing great football. Those are undoubtedly factors in my ennui with football but in the mid nineties the football was far worse but there was one major difference - it was still a sport, we still felt connected to the club. Yes, they were a bit rubbish but they were our rubbish - we felt they cared, we felt they'd run through walls for us and the club. Yes, they got good wages but not such silly money that they had no connection with us fans. Cole's infamous "I nearly swerved off the road" neatly sums up the modern footballer's complete lack of self-awareness and connection with the average fan.
I'll never forget the day I met Ian Wright when dad and me picked up our Bond certificates. I was completely star-struck. It was all I could do to blurt out "you're king of the world, you are!"
Now. Meh. I'm not the least bit bothered about meeting any of them. They couldn't give a shit about us*, why should we care about them?
(* - I think Jack is a rare counter-example but most of the rest of them...they'd be off the moment the right person waves a big enough cheque at them)
IMO the rot started when Sky got involved. They promised us a 'whole new ball-game', they certainly delivered that. And then UEFA expanded the European Cup into the 'Champions' League. Then, as success in football became increasinly correlated with money, the billionaires got involved and started buying up all the major trophies.
UEFA's half-arsed 'financial fair play' policy is far too little, too late and pretty much unenforceable.
In brief: Balls to it. Balls to it all.
(apart from the gay bit about Ian Wright, and your rehashed titanic quote, which he probably still laughs at today)
It's better to burn out, than to fade away.
ennui
Never heard of that word before tbh.
French
Waiting for Ollie's post tbh. If anyone can find a good angle he'll find it. But so far I can't help getting the feeling everyone is less than ecstatic at the state of modern football? If we get 30-40 people responding here then why not batch the whole lot up and send it to the club? Okay, so not the club because they'll have an auto-delete procedure in place and they'll probably charge us handling fees. Send it to Wilshere maybe or how about Wright because that way Letters could be humiliated all over again! It could go viral. Letters could be the laughing stock of all footballdom (not a made up word). In fact fuck football, for me this is now all about Letters and his infamous quote.
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