Forgive my recent absence in blogging. When my naive hope of Arsenal fans boycotting the West Brom game fizzled into a bottling, catastrophic pile of utter failure, I was livid and not really in the mood to write. If Arsenal could reach the realms of such unaccounted despair and still not have the fans react, was there any hope for any reaction, ever? It’s no unique idea that this club needs a revolution, but it doesn’t seem to be coming from the fans.
However, perhaps I was too premature in hoping for a revolution so soon. After all, the record low attendance against West Brom was not really planned. It wasn’t a protest to put pressure on the club. It was, quite simply, a sizeable bunch of supporters not half-arsed enough to use their season tickets and give their support for the club they love.
That wasn’t a protest. That was boredom. And in some ways, the fact that so many regular season ticket holders were willing to chuck 30 odd-pounds down the drain really says something. The fans have caught on to Arsene Wenger’s incompetence and – after knowing there’s nothing anybody can do about that – have slowly sunken into a sense of detachment and genuine indifference from the club.
In a passionate sport like football, a phenomenon like this is a rarity. Highs and lows are always tolerable, but the uniqueness of this ‘low’ is that there doesn’t seem to be any promises to reverse it. Despite having a solid infrastructure, some very good players and a large enough fanbase, the imminent realization that Arsenal can never achieve what people want from them has been too much of a burden to ignore. Familiarity bred contempt, after which it bred boredom.
In hindsight, we’re not dire. On paper, we’re a profit-making club with valuable assets like Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez who make the Champions League every year. However, the root of the problem is not that Arsenal are dire, it’s that the club simply cannot do better. In twelve years, despite being given numerous opportunities, the club has never bettered the top-four-and-occasional-FA-Cup cycle. It really and truly feels like a broken record now.
Six or seven years ago, drawing away to Sunderland wouldn’t be treated by as visceral a reaction as yesterday was. But that’s just a representation of where we are right now. Every failure to perform at optimum yet not learn from it over the years has been so predictable, that the backlash to it has increased tenfold every time. Never have I ever seen a club so deep in purgatory, a fallen legend so entirely past it, a board so frightened for change and a fanbase so emotional, yet so emotionless. The fact that the club in question is our beloved Arsenal makes it all the more unfortunate.
I’m just going to say it – this is the worst time to be an Arsenal fan. I don’t know about you, but the hopelessness of the situation has taken its toll over me. I’ve ceased to feel the very rudiments of what a football fan is supposed to! I don’t really feel joy, sadness, frustration and hope while watching football anymore. Every dropped point is all a bit ‘meh’. Every missed transfer reeks of ‘been there, seen that’. Every fan fight has become tedious to the point of being soul-destroying. The odd success is clouded by the ‘silver lining in a black cloud’ feeling of despair. The first thing I could speculate of Jack Wilshere’s return was how many games he’d muster before promptly getting injured. Again.
Arsenal aren’t feasibly going to drop out of the top four. Every rational fan with a modicum of long-termism and a smidgen of ruthlessness knows that deep down, finishing below fifth is better for this club. But the familiarity that Arsene won’t stoop so low and leave has yet again, taken its toll.
We all know how this story goes. Arsenal finish fourth. Wenger spends enough to give the club hope for the next season (thus selling season tickets and raking in profits), but doesn’t spend enough to compete for the league. There will be a ‘good’ half in the season and a ‘bad’ half in the season. The club kick themselves out of the Premier League and the Champions League. Arsenal finish third/fourth. Suggestions of more money, more ambition and more players engulf the club, and the frightened board give the manager one more chance as a token of appreciation for what he did ten gazillion years ago. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Welcome to purgatory. Sit down, buckle up and I hope you don’t fall asleep along the way.
-Santi [Follow me on Twitter @ArsenalBlogz ]
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