I used to love The Arsenal...One Wilf Copping
02-16-2013, 09:26 PM
I used to love it for what it was, what it meant to the fans, the community around me growing up in north London, the history, the values, the traditions, the stories, the players, the managers.
I grew up with Neill and Howe, Brady and Jennings, but it was Graham and his brave team of young local heroes that sparked my imagination. I sold GG a cinema ticket once, while doing a weekend job as a student... I was awed:
[Nervously] "Good luck on Saturday, George."
"Thanks, son. The boys will give it everything."
Before that I'd once chatted to my hero David Rocastle on Barnet High Street. Mickey Thomas was with him, taking money out of a cashpoint. Both were in England tracksuits and on a break fom England training at West Lodge Park. Rocky talked to me like his kid brother, never condescending, but friendly and upbeat. A true gooner, desperately proud to wear the red and white and now excited to be in the England squad.
Fast forward a decade and then Wenger arrived...
He brought new ideas for a new decade and represented everything that Arsenal could and should aspire to in the new millennium. He was an inspiration and, most amazingly, he added speed, grace and poetry to our game, while still honouring and retaining the club's tradition of guts and determination.
Move on another decade and Wenger has destroyed his own empire. If anything as trivial as football can ever be likened to a tragedy, then Wenger's story and the dismantling of his own legacy at his own hands is a footballing tragedy.
Now, watching Arsenal depresses and frustrates me more than it inspires. It's not so much the results. It's more the attitude of the players, the endless bullsh1t from Wenger in interviews and the manipulation and commercial exploitation of the fans.
Arsenal used to represent everything I loved about football and now it represents much of what I loathe.
Without the likes of Jack Wilshere I'd probably have lost all hope. I can trace Arsenal supporters in my family back exactly 100 years from the move to Highbury and I'm a gooner for life and will always love Arsenal, but Wenger has destroyed my affection for his team.
I'll watch against Bayern and I'll still follow the results, but I don't think I can watch the team more than that. Wenger's agonisingly slow and unremitting decline is the longest and slowest suicide note in footballing history. And it's painful and uncomfortable to watch.
I won't love the club that The Arsenal has turned into until Wenger has gone and probably until the current owners have sold up.
The lunatic fringe at Awimb - Mohamud et al - doesn't make things any easier to take. In fact it makes it worse. It's just not much fun anymore...
See ya, Awimb.
PS. Come on Arsenal, at least we're better than Spurs. Aren't we?
:banghead:
I grew up with Neill and Howe, Brady and Jennings, but it was Graham and his brave team of young local heroes that sparked my imagination. I sold GG a cinema ticket once, while doing a weekend job as a student... I was awed:
[Nervously] "Good luck on Saturday, George."
"Thanks, son. The boys will give it everything."
Before that I'd once chatted to my hero David Rocastle on Barnet High Street. Mickey Thomas was with him, taking money out of a cashpoint. Both were in England tracksuits and on a break fom England training at West Lodge Park. Rocky talked to me like his kid brother, never condescending, but friendly and upbeat. A true gooner, desperately proud to wear the red and white and now excited to be in the England squad.
Fast forward a decade and then Wenger arrived...
He brought new ideas for a new decade and represented everything that Arsenal could and should aspire to in the new millennium. He was an inspiration and, most amazingly, he added speed, grace and poetry to our game, while still honouring and retaining the club's tradition of guts and determination.
Move on another decade and Wenger has destroyed his own empire. If anything as trivial as football can ever be likened to a tragedy, then Wenger's story and the dismantling of his own legacy at his own hands is a footballing tragedy.
Now, watching Arsenal depresses and frustrates me more than it inspires. It's not so much the results. It's more the attitude of the players, the endless bullsh1t from Wenger in interviews and the manipulation and commercial exploitation of the fans.
Arsenal used to represent everything I loved about football and now it represents much of what I loathe.
Without the likes of Jack Wilshere I'd probably have lost all hope. I can trace Arsenal supporters in my family back exactly 100 years from the move to Highbury and I'm a gooner for life and will always love Arsenal, but Wenger has destroyed my affection for his team.
I'll watch against Bayern and I'll still follow the results, but I don't think I can watch the team more than that. Wenger's agonisingly slow and unremitting decline is the longest and slowest suicide note in footballing history. And it's painful and uncomfortable to watch.
I won't love the club that The Arsenal has turned into until Wenger has gone and probably until the current owners have sold up.
The lunatic fringe at Awimb - Mohamud et al - doesn't make things any easier to take. In fact it makes it worse. It's just not much fun anymore...
See ya, Awimb.
PS. Come on Arsenal, at least we're better than Spurs. Aren't we?
:banghead: