Stop supporting the club if you want to save it.
“Arsène – thanks for the memories, but it’s time to say goodbye.”
Could anyone (and especially the ones still pro-Wenger) point out what exactly is offensive about that banner? I understand it’s not in line with your wishes with respect to Arsène’s future, but that’s not the question I’m asking. I’m asking if there’s anything demeaning, insulting or untruthful about the nature of the banner. I’m asking if it is a juvenile and cheap way to remove a manager – any manager – from the club.
I don’t think it is. The banner is perfectly gentleman-like and one of the most courteous way to convey ones sentiment while maintaining some order of dignity. By no stretch of anyone’s imagination does the banner suggest “Sod off Wenger and take your fraud board with you”, or anything uncouth of the sort. Twist it whichever way you want, but in the end, it’s impossible to argue that banner’s a reasoned, rational way to ask for change for a man who, despite his obvious irrelevance from the footballing elite, was once the man who brought us in this position in the first place.
We weren’t rude. We weren’t condescending. We weren’t in any shape or form behaving like a bunch of ungrateful little toddlers. We posed a question, fair enough in the context. And how does the club react to that?
After the Hull away game, Arsène Wenger quite clearly said that he “does not care” about the banner. Let me be clear that he did not say “I understand the feelings of certain Arsenal fans and I always want to do better for the club by improving” etc etc, to at least appease a sizeable chunk of the Arsenal support, as most deferential managers would say. He said, and I quote: “There’s nothing disappointing for me. I do my job. Look at the history of the club, since the club exists, and you will see that I have nothing to be scared of. I don’t care.”
How can the fans possibly express their true sentiments to the manager and the board if they so openly don’t give a shit about our opinions? How can there be a co-existence between the supporters and the administration, if the administration try their level best to refute changes that the majority of the public want?
If politeness won’t work, what do we do? Keep supporting the club and hope they fix the deep-rooted problems they have? We tried that for five years, didn’t work.
This has gone too far. We’ve lost our club. We love Arsenal, but Arsenal doesn’t love us back. Every minute you are supporting this club, you are NOT supporting the passionate, trophy-hungry footballing beauty you had fallen in love with. You are, instead, supporting a profit-making deceiving bunch of corporate giants who laugh at you through their pearly white teeth, and have taken you on a ride with an arrogant manager whilst charge the highest ticket prices on the planet.
On. The. Planet.
There are people who saw this coming. There are fans who applied simple economics to the situation and concluded that, quite simply, Arsenal FC are taking us for a ride. The promise that Arsenal would reduce prices was a lie. Ivan’s promise that Arsenal would be on par with Bayern Munich by now was a lie. Arsène Wenger’s promise that he would leave the club on a high was a lie.
In the wake of all these lies, what do we do? Trot polite banners and hope for the board to care?
How would that even change things, realistically? Stan Kroenke has already had fan discomforts from his other sporting ‘franchises’ and hasn’t moved a muscle to solve it. When polite banners show themselves, the entire Arsenal administration ignore it and hope everyone forgets about it. They’ve done so for the past two years and will continue to, the cheats.
This is why the 75th minute walkout needs to happen. People need to show a damning and collective reaction to startle the board into action. Let’s face it, we are fed up of another season of lies, missed opportunities and incompetences on almost every level. The time has past for believing in an incompetent manager who won’t be sacked by greedy board members. Now is the time for the fans to take action.
People who chide the imminent walkout by saying it’s not supporting the players are missing the whole point. We aren’t abandoning the players! We’re abandoning the manager, the board, the ideology and the ambition. We’re abandoning a baffling cycle of purgatory that will not stop unless the fans are ruthless enough to do what is necessary.
We are showing the world that we are Arsenal and we won’t settle for anything lesser than a winner’s mentality.
Revolution won’t happen if the fans aren’t united, and make no mistake, this club badly needs a revolution. It’s been groaning under orthodox ideologies and orthodox methods for too long. You’re worried abandoning the club might mean Arsenal lose to West Bromwich Albion? Well, not abandoning the club would mean Arsenal lose accountability from the fans, possibly forever.
Tonight might be a historic night in the rebuilding of the club. When tons of fans act in ways to put direct pressure on Arsenal’s top dog, they don’t deserve slack. They don’t deserve to be called moody, fake Gooners. On the contrary, they deserve applause and respect because they’re doing what is necessary to ensure Arsenal have a better future. They’re voting with their feet and scaring the shit out of the board, just like Liverpool did months ago. Le Grove coined it well – it’s not fans vs fans anymore. It’s fans vs club. All I ask is that on this night, all the fans stand together.
I’ll obviously be watching the game, but not for the performances of the players as much as the performance of the fans. This is the time when Gooners decide if they’re getting their Arsenal back. This is the time when Gooners are going to sacrifice their personal reputations and footballing passions for the greater good. This is the time when Arsenal try to begin their revolution.
When it starts, don’t fight it. Join it.
—
P.S. Good luck to all the Gooners in London. Do us proud!
-Santi [Follow me on Twitter @ArsenalBlogz ]
コメント