- Transfers 27 June: Finance guru impressed by Arsenal’s buying power. 24 players arriving!
- Can you imagine England paying you to support England at the WC? (And just say no).
By Tony Attwood
It is commonplace to hear and see football supporters denigrate a player on the team they allegedly support simply because he has made a mistake. The fact that they, the supporters, would never even have got into the position of playing for a Premier League team, and so never make such mistakes, is neither here nor there. The player, for whom perhaps millions of pounds have been paid and who probably earns more in a week than you or I earn in a year, is seemingly paid not to make mistakes.
But the reality is that mistakes happen. Bergkamp made mistakes, Henry made mistakes, Wenger made mistakes. So did Chapman, if the records of his matches and the newspapers of the time are to be believed. But what these men had in common was that they made fewer mistakes than most, and balanced those errors with moments of sheer genius.
Countering that, we have the old adage on the notion that some people’s best is not good enough – they should get out of the way and let a real expert take over. And yes, sometimes that is right.
But still, perfectionists can be lauded and celebrated because it is felt that aiming for perfection is a good thing, and so we celebrate the unbeaten season, ignoring some of those drawn games in that campaign, which were not always that good to watch.
Yet there is another problem beyond this, because most research in the subject seems to show that perfectionists are often likely to suffer from poor mental health and higher levels of anxiety, which suggests that it was rather good that the defeat in the third game in the last campaign stopped any such talk before it started.
But a defeat or even a draw against a club thought to be less able than Arsenal can result in criticism, and the statement that we should not be losing to the likes of such a club becomes commonplace. Yet all it does is increase anxiety – it doesn’t help Arsenal at all.
However, research from psychologists has found that rising rates of aiming for perfectionism can be seen among university students, and I would suggest among professional footballers, and it is also demanded by fans. We have seen Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry deliver perfect passes and goals, and we demand it again from whoever is on the pitch now. But that doesn’t help.
In the public at large, this leads to growing mental health issues – and although of course, I have no evidence on this issue, I would suspect the same is true among footballers. So we have people talking about last season’s champions not being as good as the 2003/4 team. It’s an opinion, and the tradition in our country is that we are all entitled to our opinions, but I can’t see that such an opinion helps anyone.
Perhaps it is easy to forget that PSG lost half a dozen league games last season and maybe there is too much focus on Bayern, who lost only one game last year (and two the season before).
But in our society, there is a rise in the drive for perfectionism and certainly in their negative reports of any game that Arsenal fail to win, the media are very much part of this.
And this is not good in any regard since the drive for perfectionism is seen to be a fundamental cause of the youth mental health crisis that most researchers working with young people agree we are facing.
In fact, since the turn of the century, researchers have found a very great increase in the fear of failure among young people, and this of course, can affect those watching a football match played by others as well as those actually on the pitch. This in turn leads to anxiety, depression, and concern about the mistakes one makes.
Now this is very recognisable in football, where crowds will of course, openly make fun of opposition errors and groan at errors made by members of the team they support. Unfortunately, most people (obviously including footballers) react badly to making a mistake. Pointing out a mistake to a player only makes things worse.
This suggests that jeering a mistake by a player in the opposition can be helpful to our team, but groaning at a mistake from one of our own players is never a good move. It raises anxiety and reduces accuracy.
To try to understand why young people are in general, becoming more perfectionist, researchers look at trends over time in broader social and cultural factors: it seems social media has quite a bit to answer for here, along with slowing economic growth which can make it harder for people to reach their (increasingly unrealistic) expectations. If economic opportunity declines, people strive more for success, and become depressed if they don’t achieve it.
In regards to football, I think we can help the Arsenal team by recognising that they strive for perfection, and this undoubtedly helps them achieve better results and makes the football more enjoyable to watch. But criticising anyone when an inventive or even audacious approach doesn’t quite come off, never helps anyone at all, and simply encourages players to be more mundane in the way they play.
Tottenham supporters are good at jeering their own players in such situations. I think we should just let them get on with it, while cheering adventurous play from Arsenal, whether it comes off or not.
Interesting post Tony. If I see my team say, miss a penalty I’m more inclined to be philosophical about that . If I was at a match when a ‘certain goal’ becomes a near miss im more likely to encourage . Surely the whole idea of a supporter not supporting his given club can only end in a negative way. That’s why it’s important that when we see a so called mistake then we need to actually increase the support . Why ? because that in itself can rattle the opposition. We sound confident our team plays better and Mikel actively encourages the same thing and know what ? It actually works and we’re stronger for it.
Good article Tony. I’d like to throw in my own thoughts for what they are worth.
For many young, particularly male, supporters nowadays, they will no doubt be used to online games. As such a large percentage of them will have “won” the Champions League or World Cup several times within a few days of playing some game or other. Or maybe it’s something like Call of Duty where they complete the whole game because every time they “die” (lose), they don’t have to start again, they simply respawn from the last checkpoint and have another go without having lost at all..
An alternative view for the non-gamers is that if you have/had a question, for example, “what was the name of the detective in such and such film”, or. “who was the drummer in such and such band”. These were the sort of questions that in our day would make us think and chat for hours over a pint. Nowadays, just google it. Instant success!
And “celebrity” status also makes things look easy too. Somebody who’s only achievement was being filmed watching tv, being third in a talent show or being the sister of somebody who was once in a reality tv show can achieve “celebrity” status and significant wealth with relatively little experience (or in some cases talent!). Young people see this and many aspire to such “achievements”. The concepty of instant success seems very real for people and, for some, their desire to wait or achieve something through hard work and learned experience is virtually an alien concept.
I believe this is why many think the world has fallen in when one game is lost, expectations are such that as more of life can be seen as being an “instant success”, the craving for all life to be like this becomes much greater, hence the significant rise in mental health issues for young people.
You suggest that, “if economic opportunity declines, people strive more for success, and become depressed if they don’t achieve it.” I’m sure this is true but I also believe it is compounded by their increasing belief that success should be easily achievable in every walk of life because that is what they see around them. Hence some people still moan if we only win 4-0 whilst a few would no doubt moan if, next season, our record were to be P38 W37 D1 L0!
There, that’s my septuagenarian, amateur ramblings over for another day!
I’d say that after seeing the outpoor of positive vibes coming from Arsenal fans towards Gabriel after the missed penalty, many support Arsenal more that they are fans.
I’ve never been at the Emirates, but at least from what I see on TV the mood has shifted significantly in the past years and I think now the public in attendance is more a cheerleading public then an always criticizing public like it used to be.
Somehow the message from Mr Arteta and from the players to ne fans asking for their support got through.
I hope it stays that way and even gets better… !
Mikey, your ,’septuagenarian ramblings’ made a great deal of good sense to this 73 year old . Thanks mate.
Chris , as you say a few too many ‘fans’ in the past were critical of say Skirton or Sammels and a couple of others as well. Thankfully, that’s a thing of the past .
I imagine you might recall Mikel saying in December 2019 that he wanted to restore that connection between Arsenal and their supporters. Well, we can now say that mission has been accomplished during the last 6 years or so. I’m guessing the trick is maintaining it now we’ve reached the summit. Anyway, here’s to The Arsenal surpassing every team that came beforehand and that support being something all opposition respects or even fears
LeMmy, I remember the treatment Skirton got, and it seemed to me it became a thing in itself. People jeered Skirton because that is what Arsenal fans did. But ultimately there was a real movement against that, and a development of a feeling among many fans that no, Arsenal suporters did not jeer their own men.
LeMmy
“….why it’s important that when we see a so called mistake then we need to actually increase the support “.
I remember a great example of this back in the day. Sadly I cannot remember the exact match but it was definitely at Highbury.
To the best of my memory it went like this. Our then Goalkeeper, Jimmy Rimmer, went out to the Right hand side of the box to retrieve a simple ball under no pressure. He didn’t look up and played a ball across the box to the centre half, who sadly wasn’t their. Alas, the opposing forward was, resulting in a simple tap in. After the initial shock the crowd started singing his name and gave him a round of applause the next time he picked up the ball. The support for him continued for the rest of the match.
I always felt that that is what we were like back then. By ‘we’ I mean Arsenal fans. At least it felt that way to me. Unfortunately my bubble has been somewhat pricked by things I have read on here suggesting that wasn’t the case.
Either way, then or now, I simply cannot comprehend the idea of ‘booing’, let alone ‘abusing’ one of our own. Of course I know when a player has messed up. Or I have my own ideas as to who is and isn’t up to muster. BUT, I keep it to myself. In all the years I have posted on Untold you will not find a single criticism of one of our players.
Does that mean I don’t think any of them have ever played poorly? Of course not. But the way I see it is it is my job, nay, my JOY to SUPPORT each and every player in an Arsenal shirt, especially when things are going bad. Especially then.
Of course, if I were the manager I would have to call them out. Make tough calls. Drop players. Move players on. That’s the job.
Just like yourself LeMmy, I believe it is our job to SUPPORT. The clue is in the name.
Mikey
“The concept of instant success seems very real for people and, for some, their desire to wait or achieve something through hard work and learned experience is virtually an alien concept.”
There has been some wonderful content here, from within Tony’s article, through to the comments, but that sums everything up in one sentence.