Pundits and supporters have recently taken to bemoaning the loss of the traditional football

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

fan; the working-class salt of the earth supporter who paid 2 and 6 to stand on the terraces after his factory shift finished on Saturday morning. In his place we have the dreadful middle-class JCLs like monty who add nothing to the atmosphere, spend most of the game using their selfie-sticks and read Camus at half-time.

I have an amount of sympathy with this view, actually; and then I remember the 1970s and the 1980s, when the salt-of-the-earth working man types were so intent on battering the living **** out of each other and throwing bananas at black players that the game became toxic and could easily have died.

Your fat skinhead Chelsea lad is a case in point. He is nothing more or less than a reminder of times (almost) past, and the outrage he has occasioned a heartwwarming pointer to the progress we have made.

wd middle class football fans.

[Monty91]

impossible for some people ever to go a football match. This is horse****. Even someone on a modest salary will still be able to afford go to the occasional game, just not all of them.

And if they can't, then I'd say they have bigger problems than not being able to go to a football match. Such as, say, feeding themselves.

[Snin]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

Going to a game must cost 100 of your English pounds, with travel and food for the day; yet the fellows one sees on ArsenalFanTV are surely not in a position to spend this much money, unless benefits for the mentally retarded are MUCH more generous than one imagines.

[71 Guns - channeling the spirit of Mr Hat]

from f**king Cornwall.

[Snin]

social life, meals out, car or ambition except to sink 4 cans of tennants and go to a football game and talk to arseweb ?

[Snin]

[Monty91]

or twice a month.

[Snin]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

Drive the yobbos back to their council estates, Wetherspoons and dog fights.

[Pokster]

[Monty91]

[redgunamo]

[Luis Anaconda]

His house is worth less than Cat A game ticket

[Pokster]

[Luis Anaconda]

http://ezeedictionary.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/hovel.jpg

[Pokster]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

[redgunamo]

[Luis Anaconda]

[Pokster]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

What is the politically correct terminology, oh Guardian reader?

[Monty91]

than not being able to attend a football match.

[Pokster]

[redgunamo]

http://www.filmnav.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/The-Firm-Das-Original-DVD_image3.jpg

[Monty91]

[Pokster]

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

I would imagine it to be a costly affair based on ticket, travel and whatever else they deem appropriate.

They don't pursue other interests in life that you or I may choose to do - eating out for example in your case, or foreign holidays.

Arsenal is pretty much their life, every week home and away.

Not for me I should add.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5wE-Ybr14A

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

The only solution is to price them out.

[ArseMart - Enjoy every sandwich]

"OK not quite good enough once again. 3rd or 4th place again. See you next year".

:-)

[redgunamo]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

And perhaps a striker.

[redgunamo]

How much, for cash?

[Dorset Gooner]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

[redgunamo]

[Pokster]

[Pokster]

[Dorset Gooner]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

Him, not you.

[Monty91]

[redgunamo]

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

Or should I say some of them, of course the better the seat the higher the cost.

I know we get a lot of abuse for them but mine for example was about 950 this year so an average of 36 per game. That is not bad, less for example than attending a concert by a major act at the 02 or wherever.

Where it does become expensive is regular ad-hoc attendance where you are at the mercy of the ******* box office and their game classifications of A, B etc.

The chaps you see on Arsenal TV would I assume have away season tickets but I am not sure how they work, the price being set by the home club. What I don’t really understand is how the ‘characters’ always seem to find themselves front and centre. Years ago it was Beret Man, not it is the bloke with the long hair and nose rings. Do they have an agreement to always receive front row seats.

Anyway I digress.

Ah f**k I don’t even know what my original point was anymore.

*******s.

[7evens]

T'is a truly ugly thing sc but I can't see it being wiped out.
The middle classes will still be cowering with disdain for a while yet.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

For the first part, I agree absolutely - mine is upstairs so a little more expensive, but still less than a seat at the theatre, for example.

Your further points, while, I am sure, perfectly valid, were somewhat confusing. Let us draw a veil across the whole episode and try to move on with our lives.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

[redgunamo]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

That'll make men of them.

[Dorset Gooner]

[Classic Jorge]

..E-I -E-I walked as lonely as a cloud

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

Just make sure it is a good pint.

[7evens]

Should save the Govt and the taxpayer a few quid over the long term too.

[redgunamo]

*Other genders are available.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

You can't expect a woman to smash someone's face to a pulp with an entrenching tool. I mean, it would ruin her outfit.

[Peter]

Of each other and were just as disgusted by most of that behaviour as the 'likes of you'...

I think its the atmosphere tbat has changed as much as the individuals involved. And i also agree with monty below. You dont need to be on a handsome salary to be able to afford to go. You need to make a few choices here and there and those hardest up certsinly cant afford it. But then there are plenty of things they cant afford that are more important. Heating for example.

You forgot to add that the football has also got a lot better.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

And it wasn't generally chaps with cut glass accents handing out the dry slaps.

[Peter]

And experience :-)

Yes, i am calling you old.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

[Berni]

it in the rank, flabby, sweaty flesh.

Honestly, the idea that any pursuit could be improved by the addition of large numbers of ignorant, bigoted hominids with habits that would choke a dog is so patently ludicrous as not even to be worthy of consideration.

[barrybueno]

honest B, you f**king loved it didn't you?