What is the point of it all anyway???

[Flavs]

Money


that is what has ruined football at the top level. Agents, Billionaires, Sky, The champions league, business concessions, premium seating, TV rights, mercenary players and an absence of leadership from FIFA/UEFA/The FA.

Was talking to a Wimbledon fan the other day, a real one, and he said the best thing they ever did was split from the McDons and start again, i am pretty sure the reds of Manchester would say the same. I envy them. Without going all romantic and nostalgic about having a pint with Kenny Sansom after a game or jumpers for goal posts (isn't it?) the game has become very much like an Apple product...it's very shiny and whizzy and brilliantly marketed but when you get down to the nuts and bolts of it its just the same as the old stuff just a bit broken.

[Özim]

Think the OP was talking about football as a whole not just Arsenal. if wenger has runied your enjoyment in the game then you really need to get our more. However if he as runied your enjoyment in Arsenal then fair enough. there is plenty of football to enjoy still it may not be arsenal but its footie.

from your frustation your more fan or Arsenal then football itsself if that makes sense.

When I saw football I mean Arsenal, but as a fan that's what you want to watch your own team. Watching other teams play is OK but you can take it or leave it.

The world cup and euros' being the exception.

[Flavs]

Winning breeds 'heroes' and a 'connection with the fans'.

This part smells very much like poo

[Olivier's xmas twist]

When I saw football I mean Arsenal, but as a fan that's what you want to watch your own team. Watching other teams play is OK but you can take it or leave it.

The world cup and euros' being the exception.

Fair enough then you have a point, thought you may have meant AW was spoiling footie as a whole

[Olivier's xmas twist]

Money


that is what has ruined football at the top level. Agents, Billionaires, Sky, The champions league, business concessions, premium seating, TV rights, mercenary players and an absence of leadership from FIFA/UEFA/The FA.

Was talking to a Wimbledon fan the other day, a real one, and he said the best thing they ever did was split from the McDons and start again, i am pretty sure the reds of Manchester would say the same. I envy them. Without going all romantic and nostalgic about having a pint with Kenny Sansom after a game or jumpers for goal posts (isn't it?) the game has become very much like an Apple product...it's very shiny and whizzy and brilliantly marketed but when you get down to the nuts and bolts of it its just the same as the old stuff just a bit broken.

totally agree flavs

[fakeyank]

Not really balls. The day football 'died' for most should have been in 1992/93 when the PL was formed but no one complained then because we were still one of the top guns.

Posts seen on GW have all been after Arsenal started getting shite (2006 onwards) so 'similar threads' don't really have much merit. Although I was very young when I used 606, I don't remember much complaining about how much football was changing etc etc when we we winning stuff. We were still getting outbid for top players and there was still a shitload of money in the game (mainly due to Man U, Real Madrid, Barcelona and the Milan clubs - RM pretty much got their stadium for free and everyone remembers Man U mega spending on Veron, Ferdinand, RVN and later Rooney) and there was still financial doping, it's just on a much more exposed level now.

As for testimonials, again it's all about people getting nostalgic. We don't have testimonials because players don't stay at clubs for ten years anymore; more importantly Arsenal players in particular don't have testimonials because Arsenal don't win trophies so they can't be bothered to stick around. Winning breeds 'heroes' and a 'connection with the fans', don't think many on here worshipped players in the 60s and 50s when we weren't winning much.

Testimonials in the modern game that will happen soon: Terry, Lampard, Gerrard, Carragher, Giggs, Ferdinand - that's just the English ones off the top of my head. Testimonials are hardly a commonplace happening in the game, even ten years ago and although we're garbage we could still have testimonials for players like Van Persie / Almunia / Djourou (3 years left) or could have had them for Fabregas / Eboue (8 and 7 years respectively) it's just that no one would want to see them because they haven't really won anything.

Winning changes everything.

Pretty much