Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger in all he does » 2010 » August » 06
By Walter Broeckx
If you ask me what is the most depressing on being an Arsenal fan I should have to have a deep thought before answering. The reason is simple: I don’t find many things depressing when it comes to Arsenal.
Would it be the fact that we haven’t won anything in 5 years? No. I have known larger periods in the past where we won nothing. I think it is part of football that sometimes you don’t win things. And I even think it is a healthy part of football. If a club wins everything all the time you lose interest and the spectators lose interest as well. And that is in general a bad thing. If the excitement goes away the fans will stop watching. Unless you are a supporter of the club that wins it all. But even then it could get boring after a while.
Is it the fact that we don’t buy world class, top class, superstars or whatever you want to call them? No. I really like the fact that the boy from around the corner makes it to the top. And that it is your own team that has worked with him for a long time, has learned him his skills. And when that Cesc, Jack, Jay or Emmanuel becomes a world class player the joy of having seen it come over those years is much more satisfying for me than to buy Kaka and have him do the same that Cesc, Jack, Jay or Emmanuel are doing. And besides I’m not one of those people who wants to have the shiniest car, the biggest house just to show off with it.
But there are a few things that depress me as an Arsenal fan. And you could sum them up in a few words: some other Arsenal fans.
One thing is the fact that even when the transfer period has some 3 weeks to go some fans are complaining as if it has finished. Every day they whine about the fact we didn’t buy anyone that day. And yes it is nice to buy a player every day but where would be put them? There is not enough room for that much players. I know this is a bit exaggerated but every day they make the same complaints. Every day they want the manager to be sacked because he didn’t buy a player.
Another thing is the fact that they believe every rumour that is being printed on paper or written on the internet. That good old internet, well it isn’t that old in fact, which has brought me so much pleasure and has brought Arsenal right in my house whenever I want it or need it.
But this internet sometimes is like an invention of the devil. But when ever somewhere an agent starts a rumour about a player some fans jump around like madmen and wave their arms and legs around like John Cleese did in Fawlty Towers when he played Basil (and also in much of the rest of his career).
If player A is rumoured as a transfer prospect and he is unknown they are cursing and swearing because ‘he is unknown’. Most of them haven’t got a clue on players outside the EPL but if they don’t know him in person he must be rubbish. They consider themselves as the centre of the universe and they are God in person.
Well they could be the centre of their universe but that doesn’t make them God and almighty and knowing it all. I do follow football in the EPL, and also follow football in Spain, Belgium, Holland, Germany, France and sometimes I even look at an Italian game. But even I would never say that I know for sure that player A is good or is not good enough for Arsenal.
But some hear a name and if they have never heard of him he is not good enough. I would leave it up to the people who have looked at that player for a few times and if they think he has a chance of being good enough than it is fine for me and I will support this player when he plays for us.
But on the internet we have people who start articles full of disinformation about rumoured players just to show how bad he is. The followers jump on this disinformation and believe if as if it was the Bible or the Koran or what ever other Holy book there is, and declare the player as shit. And then they continue to bad mouth our manager and the board because he/they is/are so dumb even to consider that extremely bad player. And never it comes in to their mind to even think: “Now wait a minute, this rumour who has brought this up? Is there any truth in it? Or is this just a manager who is trying to make some extra money on a transfer of one of his players?” No, like I say they believe every word that is written somewhere.
But the thing that is the most depressing for me is other Arsenal fans giving names to our own players. This really is something that makes me throw up. Giving names is part of football. You can have names that express love for a certain player. You can for example call Arshavin after his four goals against Liverpool : Arshaboom. This is a nice name. You could call Vermaelen the Verminator. This is a name that expresses our admiration for the way he is playing his football and his no nonsense style. Those are not the names I hate.
The name giving that I cannot stand is that fans give names that insult our OWN players. Now maybe some people are really inventive with those things but I really would advise them to use it for players who are not ours. Me too I can grin when the call Rooney “Schrek” or something like that. I used the name Christiano RoVALdo in my language. The VAL word in Dutch is “falling” in English so in English I could have made it Rofalldo. This is part of the game and I’m sure supporters of other teams would do the same with our players and I don’t mind that they do this.
But why on earth would you as a supporter of Arsenal do this to your own players? I must say this is beyond me. I know that every fan has its own way of looking at players. For some Clichy is the best left back and others prefer Gibbs. Some like Denilson and others don’t. This is normal and I admit that I also have players I like more than others. But whenever a player puts on an Arsenal shirt I will respect him. I will use his name like it was given by his parents and I will not add words like “shit’ ‘wank” or whatever you can find. But constantly calling him by a name and add shit or wanker with it is disrespectful for not only the player but for the whole Arsenal.
Those people ask Barceloanus to give us respect and in the next sentence they say : “Can Barcelona not have Denilshit for free?” Now how do you want Barcelona to give us respect when even some of our own fans, fans not supporters, cannot give respect to our own players?
So the thing that is depressing me even more than a defeat of my beloved Arsenal is the fact that our own fans give our own players disrespectful names. It just shows a big lack off class from those fans and if there is one thing Arsenal have in the way we do things it is class. Unfortunately not all our fans are up to the same class as our club. And thank God we only see the odd character every now and then coming over here and do this over here.
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