By Walter Broeckx
I think that the most used word this week on any Arsenal blog, twitter account, facebook group will have been “guard of honour”. Hell we even wrote about it. I have stayed out of this debate for a while. Because well I think that this “guard of honour” thing is irrelevant.
First of all this guard of honour is something that doesn’t matter in a way for us supporters. It is up to the players to form that guard of honour. And apart from the die hard Gooners we have in the squad most players are just professional football players. It is up to us supporters to do the hate/love stuff. It is up to us supporters to cry outrage or not. We supporters don’t form a guard of honour.
But do you really believe that apart from the die hard Gooners in our team that those professionals lost one minute or even a second of sleep about this guard of honour? They are professionals and they just perform their job. Now it is United that won the title so they get the guard of honour. If it were City or Chelsea it would have been the same for them. They have to stand there for some 15 seconds and then it is over.
And even the die hard Gooners in our team don’t hate the players of United. Some might have bad feelings towards some but I think that in general the players know each other and get along with each other. Why wouldn’t they? After all they are colleagues. Like it or not for us supporters the other team are the enemy. But for the players they are just colleagues who at the moment play for another team.
Do you really think that after his transfer RVP has had no contact with his former colleagues? Do you really think that Evra (whom I dislike very much) is not on speaking terms with Sagna, Giroud….? Do you think that Wilshere doesn’t talk with Ferdinand or Cleverly? They have played together in national youth teams and the national team. If you really do believe that they don’t communicate I feel sorry to break the news to you: they know each other and they do talk with each other outside the playing field. This is also the case with other teams of course.
Do you think that Vertonghen and Vermaelen broke up all their contacts after Vertonghen joining the lot down the road? Of course not. Why should they? They grew up together in a foreign country when playing for Ajax, they still play together in the Belgium national team. This might sound like blasphemy but it just is that the players developed friendly relations with each other and playing for different clubs will not stop those relations even when the clubs are enemies.
So I think that for 95% of the players it will be not big deal to perform the guard of honour. Like it or not. This is the reality. So they should do it. Because Arsenal is a class club. And it is not because other are classless that we should behave like them. I don’t think that this has been an issue amongst the players at all at training this week. Apart from the odd exception maybe.
But what should we do while the players perform their professional job in forming the guard of honour? What should we as supporters do? There are a few options and looking at the internet I think the 4 options most named are:
- Do a poznam and turn our backs
- Clap in a polite way
- Freezing silence
- BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
All have their pro’s and con’s. By turning our back we let them know what we think about them. Clapping our hands is something we do as we want to come over as a polite club and with class. Freezing silence is what I thought I would do when I first thought about it. And boo them is maybe the most natural thing to do as an Arsenal supporter.
But by focussing on this guard of honour we are forgetting one thing. And that is the most important thing. On Sunday there are 3 points to win or to lose. And that is what we should worry about. Getting those 3 points.
So I think that on Sunday the Arsenal players will come out first and form the guard and then the MU players will walk past it. I think that from the moment that we form our guard of honour we should do what we should do for the whole 90 minutes: SUPPORT ARSENAL!!!
So from the moment the guard is formed we should start shouting : ARSENAL ARSENAL ARSENAL ARSENAL ARSENAL. Shout it without interruption. Over an over again. ARSENAL ARSENAL ARSENAL ARSENAL ARSENAL ARSENAL. No stopping while the Utd players walk through the guard of honour. And we continue while the teams shake hands. The only thing we, the players of both teams should hear is our name ARSENAL ARSENAL ARSENAL ARSENAL ARSENAL ARSENAL!
No clapping, no booing, no back turning to the field: We don’t do anything wrong at all to the outside world and in the mean time we show that for us there is only one club, our club.
The media will not be able to say a bad word about us. Why could they? It isn’t forbidden to support your club from the moment they step out of the tunnel.
And the good thing would be that for the Arsenal players it will be clear that the supporters are where they should be: right behind them.
So my plea is support the Arsenal from the first second. Ignore the players doing a guard of honour as they are supposed to do. Just focus on our own team and on the only important thing: try to help them to get those 3 points!
So shout with me: ARSENAL ARSENAL ARSENAL ARSENAL ARSENAL ARSENAL ARSENAL ARSENAL ARSENAL ARSENAL ARSENAL ARSENAL ARSENAL ARSENAL.
Recent posts
The full index of articles in order of publication is now available here.
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The books…
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal FC: crowd behaviour at the early matches
The sites from the same team…
- Referee Decisions – just what are the refs up to this season?
- The Arsenal History Blog from the AISA Arsenal History Society
- An open letter to Brendan Rogers about Luis Suarez.
- When Chelsea get a new manager they spend big.
- Match Review: Michael Jones – Arsenal Vs Norwich City (3 – 1) [13/04/2013]
- So what is wrong with PL refs: case study – Dowd
Great idea Walter.
I feel like puking whenever I hear that word GUARD OF DEVILS for Christ’s shake I’m a Christian and I will never ever support a devil, period.
In total surpport of that,let us all shout ARSENAL
I like.
“The media will not be able to say a bad word about us. Why could they?”
Because no matter what happens they have already written their stories as per usual in advance of the facts. The facts continue to be an irrelevance to the scum media who will not be deflected from their ongoing anti Arsenal narrative.
We will clap the united players as they come on because that is the tradition.
Thereafter. Van Persie will be vilified like the common or garden Adebayor that he is.
I have an even better idea. Arrive just after kick off. Leave the ground as empty as possible for their poxy guard of homour.
It will also point to all the areas of the sadium their fans will be. Not the fans in their own end but those who Asenal fans have given or sold eir tickets too.
Let the Stewards throw them all out and give them something to really complain about.
I am sorry but I have no respect for a team who cheat their way to the title year after year.
I have no respect for a Manager who thinks he runs the whole of football.
I have no respect for the most arrogant and vile fans in English football, most of them glory hunters and many who have never seen them play live, not even once.
Of course we should put all our support to the Arsenal, I think that is a given and it will happen. I would ignore that scummy Dutch traitor too, no anger no boooing him, we are not Spurs fans. Just leave him in silence and show him the same respect he showed us.
Whoever was to blame for him leaving was no excuse for his words of wisdom on his web site. He could have gone quietly. No he gave his new side a leg up with those damning comments that shat on our support and his team mates, the same guys who supported him through his good and bad times.
Tomorrow we should arrive late, really late, then let the boys know we are behind them with constant noise of support.
Come on you Gunners.
Good idea
Give em the Arsenal, then kick the sh*t out of em. F*cking hate Manchester as a city and anything to do with it. Sh*thole is Manchester. City fans are arrogant as f*ck and United fans are mostly moronic assholes.
Rant over.
Lets get over Fergie’s 20th title and Manure’s twisted and rigged EPL season and do the right thing, the Arsenal thing. If it is a tradition, then lets respect it and our opponents as we always do. A guard of honour is just that…a fitting recognition of the EPL Champions….maybe a 1-2 minute affair that will soon be forgotten in the heat of battle.
Good idea Walter. Let’s get tweeting and get the word around.
All that matters is our team. Some of the AAA sites seem to want a gesture seen as a protest to the clubs management, but having perused their sites this week, seems like a fair portion of the AAA have become Utd fans, or maybe these people are just depressive grovelling sychophants
@Mandy
Don’t you mean “depressive le grovelling sycophants”?”
What a bunch of begrudging moaners. Some here wouldn’t know sport if it bit them.
Man U are league Champions – live with it!
Man U have been the best team consistently over the over the last 20 years – live with it !
SAF has proven by building from the youth AND by buying quality that he’s worthy of his status – live with it! We don’t have to like it but we do have to live with it.
As an Arsenal supporter of 40 + years it doesn’t give me any pleasure but it’s fact nonetheless.
As a sportsman of 45+ years I recognise that at any given time there is one winner and the rest. Currently we’re the rest. If we want respect when we eventually get back to the top we must show respect now.
Walter’s absolutely right, support Arsenal at ALL times and don’t let the club down by childish tantrums as suggested above and elsewhere. Get the 3 points and move on.
@El tel,
Empty ground to feed the media scumbags??….
I like Walters idea. There should be a deafening cry supporting ARSENAL. Sing songs of the players present. Sing songs of glory days. Fill the stadium with energy……Gunners lets bury them fair and square. AND lets ignore the dutch skunk.
Or just get over it and treat it with the respect we would expect if it was the other way around.
Complete silence is not a bad idea? When they come on, just be silent?
The fans should do the right thing and applaud United for their achievement. In every sport there should be respect and sportsmanship regardless of your allegences. Booing would be petty and probably motivate the United players to put it up us. As the saying goes – credit where credit is due.
Very true c4
Support the team, eh Walter? Who would have thought. Well put as usual.
Incidentally, has anyone seen the alternative league table without goals from each clubs top scorer recently compiled by the BBC? Arsenal come in at 2nd place
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22285545
I quite like the Poznan:)
That table shows we are not a one man team, Stuart:)
off topic: an own goal and a clown goal keep the spuds in the race for a CL spot. Still dropping two points is better than taking 3
Exactly Walter and now if they are to stand a chance of qualifying, we (or Chelsea) MUST drop points so once again, it’s back in our hands.
I thought atkinson was trying to do spurs over
It’s back in our hands again.
@ Walter
Nice Idea but I thought it would be better to do the same as that dutch skunk did, he Hug Fergie, and spent all year praising him as if he was the one who stood by him , and that was a knife in the back of Wenger, so although I love your Idea of screaming Arsenal, I would love for the fans to scream Arsene, or there is only one Arsene Wenger, I dont know if that is possible due to the fans outrage, but that would be perfect to show that we dont buy persie or the media bullshit, we stick with who fight for us.
Yassin,
would be a good idea but I think that even the AAA could have no problem with shouting Arsenal. Unless of course….
“We don’t do anything wrong at all to the outside world and in the mean time we show that for us there is only one club, our club.”
With all due respect, I think you should be less concerned about telling fans how to behave toward the outside world and to run scared of the media who hate us anyway. I think everyone should protest or advocate in whatever way they want. From me, the frozen silent treatment and holding up red cards in protest every time RVP touches the ball is the way I’d go.
Walter, sense on the subject at last, Ill have to shout very loud as I am in Bolton this weekend, not at the Emirates.
We really must put an end to this hatred of Van Persie.
The professional footballer has a right to ply his trade wherever he wants, with, of course, the agreement of his employer while he is under contract.
His security of tenure is strictly limited by age, health and performance.
Players, as family men, have a duty to provide for their dependents during the two decades they are earning and shouldn’t be criticised for seeking the best return possible while they are able.
Imagine the reaction if RVP scores and then goes and hugs Wenger.
@Dec and Nicky, well said both of you.
Arsenal fans need to accept the fact that Manu have won the league easily and have not cheated. One day, maybe even in our lifetimes, Arsenal will become a big enough to club to challenge Manu and their like.
The amount of whinging and whining over Manu is pathetic. We are a club that doesn’t want to spend to compete and so we are where we are.
We do really sound like a bunch of sore losers. Bottom line is that in the real world you have to spend to procure quality, not baulk at spending an extra million or two for a good player.