Thursday, May 17th, 2012 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
by Mahdi.
“We haven’t won anything in X years. Sack the manager as he has lost the plot and is not ambitious enough and won’t spend any money. I don’t care about finances but trophies. That is what football is all about.”
Now how many times in the last 7 years have we had the above thrown at our faces by the media and a section of our fans? Wait did I say fans? I meant the doom monging, misinformation spreading and defeat wishing AAA.
The media and the AAA alike have accused Arsene and Arsenal in general for the lack of ambition just because of our self sustainable model which means we won’t go out and spend stupid money on average players just because certain “journalists” said they were good or just because certain bloggers think they will suit us just because they played well in their Football Manager/FIFA teams.
As you must have heard by now Kenny Dalglish has been sacked by Liverpool owners even though he delivered the club`s first trophy in 6 years which is what the heading is all about. What is wrong here? Why did Liverpool sack their manager even though he met the supposed priority of playing football?
You know he won a trophy after all so are the Liverpool owners stupid or what? If you used a section of our fan base logic then Kenny was a perfect manager as he ticked all the boxes they have been demanding from Wenger. Let’s look at them shall we?
1. Spend, spend and spend
This has been a big cry among of the dear AAA. They have always accused our club on lack of ambition just because we don’t spend stupid money on average players. They always think that Arsenal should sign this and that player just because a certain paper linked us with him and had certain bloggers endorse them.
Also the availability of 5 minutes footage of said X player on YouTube doesn’t help either. From Lorik Cana, Felipe Melo, Miguel Veloso to Taiwe Taiwo and Joey Barton(ffs) all were a must sign for Arsenal just because the media linked them to us (or linked themselves in Barton`s case) to sell papers. No logic should be used just because I used him in football manager and he fits the bill
Well Dalglish did exactly what these people want at Liverpool. He spent a lot of stupid money on average players overhyped by the media and overrated by the fans. According to transfer league website he spent a total of £114,400,000 since he took over in January 2011. That’s a hefty amount considering the ones signed were not the likes of Silva, Aguero and Messi but Henderson, Carroll, Downing and Adam. Dalglish doings would make a certain blogger proud as he was showing ambition wasn’t he?
2. Win a trophy
This is another stick the media and their AAA counterparts use to beat us and in fact its their favourite one. The manager, the assistant manager, the physio, the groundsman, the board and the players should all get sacked because we haven’t won anything in 7 years.
The fact that we built a new stadium and that rich oil billionaires decided to take up football as a toy and play with it however they want. No we should compete with them why should we act sensible and not use money that we don’t have? How does it matter if our club ends up bankrupt as long as we win a few trophies on the way eh? That is what football is about; trophies and nothing else so we should just buy ourselves ones so we can gloat about them in short time while we suffer in the long haul.
Kenny Dalglish won Liverpool what they craved…a trophy and that also came after 6 years wait. Everyone was happy about it and they couldn’t have cared less if it was Carling cup or that it was a championship team they luckily beat on penalties. Of course our dear friends went completely mad with it claiming that Liverpool are now better than us and that they are more ambitious than us. The league table didn’t matter as it is all about trophies.
So what happened next?
He got sacked, but why? Didn’t he win a trophy at Liverpool? Isn’t that what football is all about? Well apparently not. The owners at Liverpool saw something else. They saw a fortune spent on a 6th & 8th placed finishes. The trophy to them didn’t matter that much and who would blame em? You get more money for qualifying in the champions league than winning the carling cup and to make matters worse Liverpool finished below Everton for the first time during the PL era. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that they had to sack him when they allegedly asked him to put himself in the fans shoes.
Now I’m going to ask this question again; are trophies all what football is about? Is there absolutely nothing else that matters? If that’s the case why are there teams remembered even though they won nothing? The 1974 Holland team comes to mind.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that Arsenal should not try and win trophies and nor that I want us to stay trophy-less but its high time some people go back and learn the definition of being a football supporter. It is not only celebrating with your team in the good times but also sticking by them in bad phases, giving them SUPPORT when they need it and not acting like complete twats (can I use that Tony?) [yup – Tony] when things are not going your way.
This is just a bad phase and it will pass as the saying goes no matter how long it is there is always light at the end of the tunnel. I’m sure we are going to win trophies in not so distant future but that should not be what support is based on.
Trophies should not be your definition of football but the memories (good and bad) and the experience should. We didn’t win any trophy in the last 7 years but how many times have we been ecstatic due to the results we had? How many times have we been so happy that even not winning a trophy didn’t matter?
If football was all about trophies then perhaps Kenny Dalglish would have a job today.
You can follow me on twitter (@mahdy_gooner)
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