Are you an Arsenal fan? Want to get on TV? Make a banner! It’s easy – type a message on MS Word on Friday lunch time, blow it up to font size 180, print it out on some A3 paper and then take it to the match. Hold it up at full time (preferably when your team has just lost) and hey presto! Your message is read by the masses. Mission accomplished – everyone now knows how unhappy you are.
Therein lies the biggest deception of such protests – it is really only ever the fans with a negative message that bother to go through such a rigmarole. Less malevolent supporters who are fairly content with life are not as likely to tell the world how they are feeling. One very really sees a banner stating, “We’re quite happy at the moment” or “I’m here to enjoy the match and then go for dinner. I hope we win.” It’s not quite as dramatic. Doesn’t really have the same impact.
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What this means is, the counter argument is not aired. There is no antidote to the snarling, and as Gary Neville called them, “embarrassing” characters on Arsenal Fan TV, with their baffling sense of entitlement and strangely misplaced anger.
These people are probably much louder and brasher than many other Arsenal fans. Fans that perhaps may enjoy the way Arsenal play, and have a real love and affection for the under-fire Frenchman and all that he has achieved for the club.
Some Arsenal fans do seem to be rather angry. It seems strange they place such dependence on a football team, whose performances they can in no way effect, for their own happiness. If they are such experts on the tactics of football and how to be successful, perhaps they should consider starting an amateur football team of their own.
They could channel that anger and expertise into something they can actually influence, rather than living vicariously through these brilliant yet flawed athletes.
It is easy to believe that it is all doom and gloom at Arsenal when witnessing such negative outbursts. However, the Gunners have a beautiful stadium and finished second in the Premier League last year. That represents a brilliant season, surely?
Admittedly, Arsenal slumped miserably again at the last 16 stage of the Champions League this season. It is, however, a Champions League last 16 place that they take for granted. Yes, they have failed at this hurdle many times before, but at least they have been there to fail in the first place.
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It is a classic trait of human nature that we only really appreciate something when it is gone. If those at the Emirates who cry for Wenger’s head get their way, they may soon look back through rose tinted glasses at these heady days of regular elite European football. Especially if Manchester United’s recent experiences post-Ferguson are anything to go by.
What percentage of Arsenal fans do these naysayers represent? They are certainly creating a toxic atmosphere in some areas, and must be making poor old Arsene feel unwanted when he steps out into the stadium these days.
Regarding an anti-Wenger protest at last Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final against Lincoln City, The Evening Standard reported that “around 300 supporters congregated outside what was once the East stand”. They then apparently sang some miserable songs, lofted the obligatory banners, and generally acted rather annoyed about their current plight. 300 people. The Emirates stadium holds over 60,000 people!
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Of those 60,000, according to an interesting article recently published in talksport.com, 36,000 are season ticket holders. How about putting Arsene Wenger’s future to an official vote at the end of the season? A simple ‘Should Wenger stay or go?’
The only people that qualify to vote are current season ticket holders, those who have renewed or bought season tickets for next season, and perhaps any fans who can prove that they have attended at least 10 home games or more this season.
Maybe a vote of confidence for the manager could help him build a new set of Invincibles
If the majority votes for him to leave, then his position would become untenable. He would have to go. However, imagine the resounding confidence boost that a remain vote would have on Arsene? Maybe the renewed belief could spur him on to create another set of invincibles. He could lead the team out next season with his head held high.
Perhaps even holding aloft a banner on A3 paper with the message: ‘Enough is Enough – Negative Banner Holders Out!’
