Monday 5 November 2012

Psychic Son

As I walked past The Tollington I peered through the window to see a close up of you know who. I was on my way to the car park of a sports centre no more than a long ball away from The Arsenal. My son was inside playing football. I was poised to race home to watch the game the moment he arrived. Suddenly he opened the door.

"1-0. Van Persie," he said but I couldn't tell if it was fact or a question.
"How do you know?"
"I don't," he replied, "I guessed!"

And that ladies and gentlemen are where we are. It was so inevitable my son just knew. Granted he was surprised by his psychic powers but not by the events. 3 minutes gone and we were finished.

Yet who amongst us really gave us a chance? That's not being disloyal just honest. The Internet is full of reasons why we are where we are and I'm not about to bore you with another rant (I probably am you know!) We all have our opinions about what's wrong. The board? The manager? The players? The move to The Emirates? Some think all. Most think some. Me? I'm starting to think its a bit of all of them and that pains me. But if I had to pick one it would be the club's desire for profits over success on the pitch. Us fans stand so far away from the aspirations of our club it's frightening.

Now none of us want to see the club go all Rangers on us. It needs a good business head steering the ship but as the seasons go by it does seen to be at the expense of any on field success. They seem to have missed the point that everything stems from that. Had we not been so successful on the pitch a new stadium would not have been necessary. We won cups and we did it in style. 60,000 plus people wanted to see that. The style has gone and the cups are unreachable and less than 60,000 want to see that. Much less.

The club is slowly being dismantled before us. Year after year the best players leave. Selling him to them was the last straw. £24 million in the bank. Bollocks. We were so far behind them last season that selling them out best player was a good idea for "footballing reason!" Utter utter bollocks and a clear indication of our stature. He's been 'replaced' by Giroud. I rest my case.

I'm sorry for this but there really doesn't seem to be a silver lining. Too many average players have seen to that. I'm sure most football fans kick off seasons thinking they won't win anything. We are now among them. But as long as we keep qualifying for the money making champions league that's like a trophy and we should celebrate it. Call me old fashioned but I like my trophies to be trophies rather than like trophies. What's next? A DVD of our best throw ins called 'Little Victories?'



I was in the club shop on Saturday and a few things struck me. Who thought 'Keep calm I'm a Gooner' was a good idea? Anyone who's calm about what we are witnessing is clearly not a Gooner. A spud wouldn't even be calm. They would be excited. The same bell-end in some idiotic marketing department probably thought 'we don't buy superstars, we make them' was clever. 'We don't buy superstars, we make them and sell them on for a huge profit making the board happy and the fans angry' probably only fits on a XXL.

The words of 'Sit down' by James keep playing in my head.

"If I hadn't seen such riches I wouldn't feel so poor!"

We were spoilt. We won loads. I'm not taking it for granted that we should win things just because we are The Arsenal but we should at least be competitive. We should have hopes and aspirations and we don't. We are so far from even challenging for the league it's pitiful.

So onwards, sideways and probably downwards to the next game. My goodness we need a good performance on Tuesday. We probably need a striker too. And a keeper. And a left back*

Enough.

*Santos. Man U's new kit man and massive idiot. Discuss. I just don't have the energy anymore.

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