Why it is dumb to moan too much « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager

By Walter Broeckx

After the not so bright start of the season a part of the fanworld ise up in the arms. Well everyone has the right to be a fan as he likes it to be. But how wrong they have been all these years is really amazing.

For years a part of the fans have been crying for “Wenger out” and almost every player we had on our books had to be sold because he was not good enough. Every time we won a game they said it mean nothing. The opposition was poor. The players still weren’t good enough. The manager still had lost it. And every single player got their own special insulting nickname. They had to add “shit” or other not so nice extensions to the name of our players.

And no player escaped from their vile name calling. Even Fabregas was amongst the victims and this was long before the media campaign to drive him out started. I think it started together with the campaign to drive Wenger out. Maybe they thought both of them away and Arsenal would be broken down completely? I even said at a certain point to them that if they talked like that about Fabregas and if he would read it, he would have every right to step on the first plane to Barcelona and go away from Arsenal. Maybe it would be interesting to know how much the constant insulting of our players contributes to players leaving Arsenal.

Anyhow what happened, happened, but the thing is that that part of the fanbase surely must be considered as well not being the smartest part of supporters.

Now these days with our bad start they come out and say: “See now, I told you X years ago and now it happened”. Followed by more doom and despair for the rest of our days. Now I’m not going to say that I am happy with our start this season. I can see many and various reasons for it. But are those who say “I told you so” really that smart?

Let us take the period since we moved to the Emirates as a starting point. A period in which they have been moaning about all and everything. And yes we didn’t won anything in those years. But we have been close to winning on a few occasions. We have played a few semi finals of the FA cup, Carling cup, Champions League. And we had a very strong chance of winning the league twice. Last season we were in contention for the title until we lost our third last game of the season. And we lost the Carling cup final in a heart breaking way. And in 2007-2008 we just have been cheated out of the title race.

I didn’t do the ref reviews in those days but I think it would have been very interesting to have done it by then. I can remember a lot of strange decisions and strange events going against us starting with the Birmingham game.  But in all those years almost every season we had the chance of winning a price. But it didn’t happened at the end and so the fans who are fans to win prices at all costs are disappointed. I consider myself more as a long term supporter and I can live with such things. I like us to win things but as long as the players do their best on the field, there is nothing more we can demand from them. And we have to accept defeat sometimes as it is part of football.

But what really baffles me is the fact that in all those years when we always have been playing for some prize some fans were never satisfied. And in fact this is really sad I think.

Because in the last 6 years (to use the special media Arsenal measurement) when we didn’t win anything I have had some great times. I remember great evenings and afternoons of football that you can hardly see anywhere on the planet.

I have seen us destroy teams with great football. I have seen us score goals as if it was nothing. I have seen the most amazing goals from Arsenal. I have seen great victories. And yes I have known defeats. And yes I have been disappointed at times after a game. And yes I have been angry for a moment when a player messed it up and cost us a game. And I have been very angry when again the ref screwed us and took our points away.

Defeat is part of the game and I can understand every fan for being angry when we lost. I could even understand him shouting abuse at the team for a defeat. Not all of us have the ability to accept defeat gracefully.

But what is important for a real supporter is that he must learn to enjoy every win. Or even a hard fought draw. Because if you cannot enjoy every win then you surely must be a sad person.  How can you be angry about Arsenal for 6 years and say we are worthless? Didn’t you enjoy the wins? Did you never felt joy when we won? I’m not saying that I danced around in my kitchen where I was watching the Olympiacos game last week when we won but I surely was very happy with the result. So I didn’t care at that moment about what would happen the next Sunday.

We would lose by a cricket score the “know it all” said after the Olympiacos game. Now I’m not a person who knows a lot about cricket but I think that a 2-1 score is not really the average result of a game of cricket. Or is it?  But for a lot of fans there was no joy after that win. Or after the Bolton win. Or after any win in fact. Because right away after we won a game they came out and told us that if we would play against “Fill in as you like” like that we would face a heavy defeat.

What I don’t get is that some fans are not really able to enjoy a win. And that is something that most of the “told you so” fans have in common. It looks to me as if it is a really heavy burden to be an Arsenal supporter. For me it is for 80 or 90% a constant source of joy to be an Arsenal supporter and I know and realise how happy I am that I once chose to be a Gooner. And I can tell you that if we only take last season I really had some very great moments as a supporter. We have been trashing a few teams with a high score line. We were the only team that have won against the two teams that played the CL final.

I even can remember the ecstasy after our win at home against Barcelona. Or us reaching the final of the Carling cup. Or us winning at Manchester City. Or us winning against Chelsea at home. Or us winning against Manchester United at home even without Cesc and Nasri. Those were great moments last season. And I enjoyed them. And yet the “I told you so” part of the fans didn’t really enjoy it. Because after those games they still were moaning. They still were calling for the manager to be sacked. They still were abusing the players on the internet.

And by doing this they only show us how dumb they are. Supporting a team means you should be having fun when we win. You should feel happy when we win. Why support a team when you are unhappy when they win? Be unhappy when we lose, fine for me. I’m not happy when we lose. But by just enjoying every win I can promise you, you will feel better. You will feel happier. Just try it for once. Just for once try to enjoy the win and leave the moaning aside.

I have been enjoying Arsenal even in those 6 years. And life is short for us human beings. Not enjoying something for 6 years when you have every reason to enjoy it is really a stupid thing to do.

I will be in front of my TV when we play our next game. I will be there to support our Gunners from afar. And when we win the game I will be thrilled and feel high. Just try it the next time we win a game. But be warned: it might feel good! But that is the way it supposed to feel.