Do you love Arsenal for Arsenal’s sake, or just for the trophies?

By Walter Broeckx

When we look back at the seasons gone by and all that has been published on this blog we have seen a few things coming back. As this site openly proclaims to support not only the club and the players (that itself is already a crime for some) and we do have the nerve to also openly support the manager.  A capital crime for some.  We have received a lot of abuse about this. Insults and threats come our way from time to time,  both for the writers over and the people who commented on our articles in a positive way.

In the past we have seen many discussions going along the lines I will draw now. We wrote an article about something good of the team, club or manager. Some people came along and threw the usual garbage at us. One of the most popular things they shouted was that we showed ourselves as losers. We had a losing mentality.

From our side of the fence then came the question: do you love Arsenal for the club or for the trophies? In other words are you a trophy hunter only – a plastic fan as it is also called. When this question was asked the answer was usually a mention on how many years they were fans (not something we could check of course) and that they were absolutely no trophy hunters at all.

They said they were just sick of the X years without and wanted us to compete. Forgetting that we were competing in the 2007/2008 season. Forgetting that we were competing in the 2010/2011 season (would have gone top if it wasn’t for Dowd and his antics at Newcastle). We were in a few semi finals of the FA cup, CL, and were in two finals of the League cup. So saying we didn’t compete at all was a bit strange.

But let us accept that they didn’t see that as competing. Which is utterly wrong of course. But let us just for the sake of it accept it and that they were not the glory hunters or plastics they seemed to be.

What is strange then is that now this season still the same people come over here or on other websites, social media, phone ins from radio stations etc and express what a bad manager we have, how our team is useless. You know the usual crap.  I thought they only wanted us to compete. And if you look at this season and having been 18 weeks on top of the league I do think you might say that we are more or less competing.

But now the word is: it won’t last. We will still end up empty handed. Yes we might. I will not deny this. There are so many factors in order to win it that there is a chance we could end up empty handed.  If we take the 3 teams on top as the title candidates it is clear that 2 of them will end up empty handed. At least one team that has spend £billions over the last decade will end up empty handed. I hope it will be two of them of course.

Now of course saying we end up empty handed is the easy gamble.  There is only one chance in 3 that we will win it. So the chance of not winning it is bigger by default. I think most of us Untolders believe we can do it and we believe that the manager and the team will do all they can to do it. We hope but we also know that external factors can have a big impact. As we have found out a few times in the past. Game 50, 2007-2008, Dowd at Newcastle, Dean half a dozen times, Probert all the time. It can all influence the outcome of a season.

But those people who said that they were not really in it for the trophies are now saying that if we don’t win at the end it all is worth nothing. So suddenly it is only the end result that counts. Forgetting that when we asked them about it they firmly denied it and said that they are not trophy hunters at all.

But now if we don’t win it then all is lost and we are doomed for ever and eternity. The manager has to be sacked, the players have to be shipped out, the deadwood has to be cleared, hundreds of millions have to be spend on whoever is the the flavour of the day.  We have to pay whatever they ask in order to bring us that so much craved for trophy.

Now don’t get me wrong. The day that Arsenal wins a trophy I have promised myself that I will leave my home and go to London to celebrate with the other Gooners in London. I hope I could do this in the last home match of the season as I usually attend it and just imagine if we could win the title in that match. I will not go home that night and will stay in London till the last Gooner has gone to bed before returning home.   And if it is on a day I am not in London I will take the car, train, whatever transport to go to London to joy in with the celebrations.

So I do long for that trophy I will not deny it. But if it all goes wrong it will not bring me down that much that I will start abusing or insulting the manager and the players.  They will be as bitterly disappointed as I will be.  So I will see no need to put them further down.

For me the route to glory (or failure) is 95% of the fun.  I will enjoy each win we register. I will bemoan each dropped point.  I will be in heaven when we do better than the others.  I will take it on the chin when things go wrong.

That is for me the way it has been all these years.  What I will not do is change my tune like some do. Saying, for example during this season when we really are competing, that it counts for nothing if you cannot win it in the end… Then they are changing their tune and that is something  I don’t like at all.

We support to the best of our ability. We try to create a positive surrounding for the players and manager to do their part of the job. It will not be us that writes them off. We will support them, come good days, come bad days.

Time to make up your mind: do you love Arsenal for The Arsenal, or do you only love us for the trophies? I know which side I am on.

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52 Replies to “Do you love Arsenal for Arsenal’s sake, or just for the trophies?”

  1. I just wish all these ‘plastic’ fans including those acting as such lately read this, not once, twice – or more. Yes we should get a trophy, but everytime the brainless yelling if a game is lost, manager out, players out, buy this one or that one – we become fcuking Chesky or ManShitty. So I suggest those ‘plastic’fans, join THEM, jump on the bandwagon for some trophies. I’m happy if you’ve gone lost. I am a happy Arsenal fan, lose or not, and that shall remain until eternity.

  2. I dont agree with everything u say, but ur bqng on point. there were a few blog sites who repeatedly emphasized that they want us to see competing. Not winning – just competing for the league at the start of the season. Now after one loss in 10 games hv gone back to their old whining ways. What i dnt understand is the hypocrisy.

  3. I have a friend who is a Sunderland supporter. He is totally committed to the club, he is the complete supporter. Yes, he gets frustrated, yes he despairs about them , yes, he hates it when they lose, but would he waiver from his ‘team’ – not a bit of it. They have won their share of trophies but nothing like Arsenal. We have been in the top flight for longer than any other club, our history is extraordinary ( there was a actually a form of football before the Premier League ) . I have been a supporter for nearly sixty years since an uncle took me to my first game. I was born in South London so I really should not have gone north for my team but after watching a 5-4 win on my first visit I was hooked. I still am , yes it is great when we win trophies but supporting a team is sbout doing just that…supporting them. Inevitably when we moved to the Emirates new supporters would join us but like you I fear that we have become a venue more than a club, watch the sapeats empty in the final ten minutes , listen to the comments and you will realise our fanbase is changing. It is up to those of us who were there in the bad old days ( and boy were there some bad old days) to bring a bit of perspective.

  4. Fantastic blog, well argued and you make a decent argument about whether fans are supporting for the love of the club or trophies. It sickens me that fans can absolutely disrespect Our best manager ever! Liverpool & United would never doo that! Never!!!

  5. Well said Klaus. I suppose that other than Nicky, I’m one of the oldest supporters (66 years of Goonerdom in May) but trophies, for so many years, were things other people won. Too young to know what a championship was (let alone spell it in 1948) all I knew was that we were the best team in the country. And 1950 & 1953 confirmed it. Then it tended to be ‘out of the league race by March and out of the cup by Feb! Ah but the wins were so much pleasure.
    Of course, the diet of doubles, championships, Cups and Europe was at the time caviar,Chateaubriand and champagne but who’s scared of fish’n’chips and a good beer? And let’s face it, our fish has tended to be a lot more salmon than cod!

  6. nice piece. particularly like the point were you emphasized the fact that of the three clubs contending two have spent billions yet 1 will be champions and i hope with you that its us. Arsenal all the way in good and in bad times.

  7. It is interesting that Man Utd appear to have gone down the short term “trophy” route in recent years at the expense of building sustainably for the longer term (buying an aging Van P being a classic example of a short term decision). I don’t want to tempt fate ahead of this evening, but it looks like the chickens are coming home to roost. Their sheer financial firepower should mean their transition is relatively short-term – but I, for one, am very happy at the consistent focus on the longer term displayed by our management. It won’t be another 9 years even if we do fall short this season.

  8. When I hear some Fans shout down the manager nd players I just pity there life. So many people can’t explain what a Fan is nd meant to be( Walter please through your hard fixed time can u just help us on an article about what been a Fan is all about thanks) this season is a big example of how fickle fans can be. A team that has top thee league for 18weeks is in crisis says the media while a team in 7th for same 18weeks is work in progress(man utd pointing @ u) oillers has gone 180minute of football no goal yet the league is there for them(mancity) Hazard the magician has just 11goals while Ramsey out wit injury since december has 8goals yet he is nobody.
    I support Arsenal with all my heart so that I can cry when we lose nd Enjoy when we WIN THE LEAGUE. Gooners till I say bye bye to this world.

  9. @Pete, I’m not sure Manu’s transition will be short term. They do not have the money that Chelsea or City have and they also have a rather suspect squad that needs an awful lot of investment and even if they do invest heavily they probably need a better manager than Moyes to make them title contenders. I can’t see them winning the league for a long time. Maybe the vagaries of FFP will rescue them.

  10. I love Arsenal because of Arsene Wenger, and by that I mean ” the philosophy” of the club
    I love the “Class is permanent” and “you can’t buy class” things of it

  11. It is very clear from the article that there is difference of opinion between what different fans would categorise as ‘competitive’ for Arsenal. And that fans have different levels of expectations for the club.

  12. A most stimulating article, I concur with your sentiments.

    May I add my personal perspective.

    I am a former supporter of York City, Man U, West Ham,York City again and now The Arsenal.

    Quite a mixed bag, the underpinning aspect being the quality of football played by ALL the teams I have been enthusiastic about.

    Although I have an historical connection with Arsenal I certainly was not in love with quality of their football, especially in the Graham era.

    Arsene Wenger has changed that, since his arrival I have been enthralled by the quality of play his teams have produced irrespective of trophies.

    The sheer enjoyment Arsene’s teams produce is immense, as a fully qualified UEFA ‘A’ Coach I feel I am experience enough to make value judgements.

    Like so many people on this site I will continue to follow The Arsenal in a positive way, certainly as long as they employ such an enlightened manager as Arsene Wenger, and embrace the present playing style.

    I congratulate you on the quality of this site, which I find to be most interesting and stimulating.

    Well done, and keep up the positive thinking.

  13. Even when every one is criticizing the team for being obsessed with the “perfect goal” by all those play making with passes, including myself for sometimes!, I realize that this is really like me!
    This is how I want to do my every task of my own life!

  14. I am the former….

    If I wanted to support a club for trophies……then I would have picked Liverpool when I was 6 years old.

    Supporting the club is in the blood, 34 years later. But pointing out bad decisions and debating them amongst other gooners is not immoral.

    Wenger is human and is mortal.

    I hope we win and are a success with him. But if we are not I am more than happy to freshen up the waters….just like we did when we appointed the french maestro back in 1996.

    Things change, things in life change. Sometimes you have release the strings of loyalty and realign.

    Looking for a fabulous end to the season….

    ARSENAL4LIFE

  15. Great article, great comments.

    Chelsea by dropping 2 points at WBA yesterday just shut those pre-installing them as champions up. The result, more than any other (despite Man city and us dropping points last weekend) shows the unpredictability of this season. Chelsea and Man City have lost 4 and 2 points respectively to the lower teams in their last 4 games. These are the sort of points that people scoff at when Arsenal acquire them. All points count for same irrespective of opposition. There are 12/13 games to go and I cannot see any team looking more capable than the other 2 (amongst the top 3) to win it.

    I have a great sense of satisfaction from just knowing that we are mixing it up with the 2 billionaires. We’ll see where we are by mid May but this team has already exceeded the expectations set for it by its critics at the beginning of the season.

    Trophies or none, I remain a proud Gooner!

  16. For me, my love and support for Arsenal has absolutely no correlation with trophies, or even winning really, whatsoever.

    I grew up in a household of Arsenal fanatics. From as early as I can remember Arsenal where a part of my families life. They where part of the family. They still are.

    I just couldn’t wait for the time I was old enough to go.

    I could tell from a young age how important Arsenal where to my family.

    They filled such a massive part of our lives. Going to games. Talking about them. Watching them on TV.

    I loved and supported Arsenal through good times and bad. Victorious and disastrous.

    I can say irrefutably with hand on heart that I still loved them as much traveling back from a humiliating FA cup defeat at Middlesbro’ in the early eighties, as I did on the occasions we won the double.

    Of course I enjoyed the victories more than the defeats but again I say, it made absolutely no difference as to how I loved and supported them.

    THAT FOR ME IS WHAT BEING A FAN IS.

  17. TJ

    How can you expect, or be expected to, finish above teams that have spent 10 times the amount of cash on there squad that you have?

    Whether you agree or not with the ‘oilers’ money or not, or think Arsenal should go down that same route as opposed to the self sustaining model they have is a different argument, and opinions differ greatly.

    But as things are, remaining competitive with Chelsea and City is almost impossible.

    If you cannot see that you tend to be in the ‘Spend some fucking money’ AAA camp.

    If you can see that you tend to be in the AKB, Untold camp.

  18. I watch football because I enjoy it. I support and watch Arsenal because they were my local team as child – it was a family thing on my Mother’s side. My formative years as a supporter were really from 74 onwards. I actually went to my first game in 1970 with my dad ( a Spurs fan!)but I really started to understand and follow from 74 onwards. Point being there wasn’t much to cheer about from 74 until 1979 and then from 1979 until 1987. As for winning the league, I had no real memory of that and no experience of that until 1989. For these reasons I was going to see Arsenal and supporting Arsenal because I wanted to. Also I didn’t go often; we couldn’t afford it. Itt was a treat so I tried to just enjoy it. I loved/love all of it: the pitch, watching the warm ups, the crowds, the noise, the colours and so on. I was pleased if we won a game I attended, as a game was what I went to see. We were rarely competing for the league. I still try to hold onto this now. Enjoy each game for what it is. Enjoy watching the great players, not just those of Arsenal either. Sometimes I fall off the wagon and take it too serious but on the whole I do it becuase I enjoy it. I would love us to be the dominate force in football and to win everything going but it isn’t the be all and end all and frankly I dont think it will happen. Now that might be defeatest in some people eyes but given the mix of priorities that I have and we all have in our lives I try to keep football in perspective. So no, I don’t follow for the trophies.

  19. I love the Arsenal but looking for a perfect goal with a team like Manure will be hard for us,we need to shoot and attack counter attack but believe me not Giroud cant do that we need a podolski or Gnabry or the Ox,Giroud can come in latter and put the icing on the cake,let rosicky start plus gibbs I,m no coach but we need an ambush and i know we can do it.

  20. jambug at 1:09 pm

    Please point out where I said I expect us to finish above teams that have spent 10 times the amount of cash on there squad that we have?

  21. @Bob Mac, u are always welcome on here pal, wouldn’t mind if you can join the untold team of writers so that we all could enjoy from your vast knowledge a
    of the game as a coach.

    @Walter, seems you are a mind reader these days. Every of your recent articles are like directly from my heart. keep it up pal.
    …under the sun or in the rain, a gooner will I proudly be…

  22. TJ

    Sorry. Misunderstanding.

    I didn’t mean ‘you’ personally. It was the collective ‘you’, as in anybody who thinks as such.

  23. Would be delighted to receive an invitation to join the writers,maybe I could help the understanding and enjoyment of the many positive Arsenal fans in some little way.

  24. @bob mac at 11:35 am

    Correct me if I am wrong but your post seems to suggest that you used to support Man U and West Ham, and didn’t like Arsenal under George G, but now you support Arsenal under Arsene?

  25. Sogloirous,

    ever read The Shining? From Stephen King? 😉 LOL

    oh well great minds think alike I would say ;)thanks anyway

  26. We’d all love to see Arsenal win some silverware again, but it’s not a pre-requisit for our support. Trophies don’t always equal longevity. Portsmouth, Birmingham, Swansea & Wigan have all won domestic competitions in recent years, yet I don’t envy them in the slightest & wouldn’t want my club to swap places with any of them. Same goes for any of the other big clubs in the UK.

    For a club to compete with the very best & keep on competeing seems to be the harder thing. This is probabl our managers most overlooked & under appreciated achievment. Stability. Because of this, we’re one of the very few clubs in the UK that can be confident of where we’ll likely be in the next 5 years; at the top or thereabouts.

    Meanwhile in the majority of the premier league, clubs, players & managers will continue to come & go.

  27. And as an aside, isn’t it funny how the critics of our match at Anfield (we all agree it was bad day!) have gone quiet now that we have a chance to go top again this evening? 😉

  28. @Bob Mac

    On the front page, in the second grouping of text, is the following:

    > Do you fancy writing for Untold? Here are the guidelines.

    LibreOffice/OpenOffice is capable of writing the appropriate files, if you happen to not be a M$ person running Windows and don’t have Office/Word installed.

  29. On a day like this, who approved Brickfields sabbatical?
    As an Arsenal lover not resident in UK, I had to wait for technology to connect the whole wide world to international football to become a regular follower of the game.
    My choice of Arsenal is therefore a matured and considered one – even though in retrospection, it wasn’t obvious that the process was going on.
    I could have become Ajax, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid or Man U fan but, out of the lot, I became an Arsenal fan.

    I didn’t even realize I was a fan until it began to pain me to watch them lose; until I noticed I was never calm or casual watching them play as I would be, watching the other clubs play. Until I started counting down for their next match and seeking out available materials to read about them.
    Its not about the trophies they won or failed to win; if it were so, I would have moved on. It is about an emotional connection that somehow happened and – as with a love and that becomes a journey with the object of the love.
    Of course, it has helped to find Arsene at the helm of the club’s affairs when the connection happened; the quality of their play and club philosophies have also helped but the love, really, is impervious to whether or not we win trophies in this or that season – except for the exhilaration and the opportunity to celebrate that winning in this or that season will surely elicit.

  30. Shakabula Gooner.

    Thank you for a lovely insight into how your particular ‘love affair’ with Arsenal evolved.

  31. Will always support Arsenal, win, lose or draw. My first experience of Arsenal was when they lost to Real Zaragoza in some European Cup, by a freak goal that caught David Seaman off the line. Tuned in to Euro Sport that night and saw what was the last kick of the game. They say you can’t help who you fall in love with. That manner of the defeat and seeing Ian Wright’s dissappointment just created a soft spot in my heart. Loved the club ever since…even when I’ve seen terrible defeat and wondered why I bother and making up my mind never to watch another football game with Arsenal, I’ll be the first looking up the next match. Fans, I mean ‘Fans’ can’t and shouldn’t be in it just for the glory of trophies, but for the experience of being part of a community who share an appreciation for the club itself and the history we build together. After all, spending your money in the club really doesn’t bring any monetary gain, but an emotional one…ecstacy when there’s success of some sort, deep disappointment at some failures. Bragging rights aside, I’ll support the club with or without trophies. If that’s all that mattered, I guess fans of the other teams that go trophyless might as well call it quits. We can learn from Liverpool Fans, their commitment to the club is unflinching. How long has it been since the won the Championship, let alone the Premier League?!

  32. In fact, thanks to many of you who have took the time to enlighten us as to how you came to be an Arsenal ‘Fan’

    A thread full of people exuding there true love for Arsenal that’s strangely bereft of many of the usual antagonists. Funny that.

  33. In response to TJ.

    The basis of my support has always been the quality of the football played,ie Man U with Law, Best and Charlton; W.Ham with Moore, Hurst and Peters.

    Arsene with his quality of play irrespective of personnel.

    Hope that clears up any confusion.

  34. I was taken to watch the Arsenal at the age of 7 by my father in the late 50s i think the game was against Leyton Orient i was on the pitch after we beat Standard Liege (sorry Walter)in the inter cities final at Wembley for the 1971 double.
    Since AW has been at the Arsenal there has many better days than any other time ARSENAL IS FOR LIFE

  35. I became a fan when as a very young child my class mates (grew up in North London) were talking about some entity called “Arsenal” winning something called “The League”. After further ignorant listening it became apparent that something called the “FA Cup Final” was being played on that Saturday, Arsenal were in it, and it was on television! My mother allowed me to watch it and I don’t remember much of it at all – except that I was running around the garden with a beach ball being Charlie George! In 1971/2 my Dad took me to my first match, along with my younger brother; Arsenal vs Chelsea (my younger brother, for some unknown reason, had decided to support the other lot – probably to spite me!). Don’t remember it at all – but do remember the cup final, sadly.

    In 72/3 we lived overseas in Malaysia for nearly the whole season but I used to avidly check the scores in the small print of the local paper – usually days after the match. My father’s contract kept being extended and my brothers and I were getting more and more anxious we would not be back in time for the Cup Final. In those days it was the ONLY game live on TV (other than England v Scotland) – and it was a must see even if it was Leeds v Sunderland. We finally landed on the morning of the match!

    In terms of what I enjoy about games now, like bob mac, I really enjoy looking at the tactics, technical skills etc. I am also a qualified coach (not close to Bob’s level though) and have played and watched many hundreds of games down the years – so really appreciate the beautiful game. Matches against the likes of Barcelona and Bayern I admire from an aesthetic sense – as well as desperately hoping Arsenal win.

  36. STEVE VALLINS wrote:

    “Since AW has been at the Arsenal there has many better days than any other time”

    Well, well, well what do you know? I stated that fact in one of my articles and some argued with me that it isn’t so. I was not following the club in the 70s (I was a child in Africa who had no idea Arsenal even exist) but I have looked up the club history and no time was Arsenal as successful and consistently a top club as we have been in the Wenger era. I am not talking about the quality of football, just the results. On the quality of our game, there is no statistics to back that but all oldies (affectionately used) agree that Wengerball is the best that Arsenal has ever played.

    Long may it continue!

  37. Now in my 91st year, I tend to reminisce with quiet pleasure, the many years of following Arsenal FC.
    The heady days of the late 1930’s when The Arsenal were THE Club in the land.
    The players’ home lives were in every picture magazine.
    A record £14,000 paid for a new signing.
    Seven of the Club’s players selected for an England team.
    Schoolboys copying the hairstyles of their Arsenal heroes.
    A murder mystery film centred around the Arsenal Stadium and the players was being shown in cinemas throughout the land.
    We who followed Arsenal were never fickle. We were nurtured to triumph and disaster in equal measure. Steeled to accept defeat snatched from the jaws of victory and vice versa.
    Our sole aim was supporting the Club, its players and its Manager at times good and bad.
    We had a healthy rivalry with Spurs as our nearest neighbours but nothing more than that. After all, during WW2, we played all our home games at WHL.
    Today, we old crumblies regret the fickle nature of many of the younger fans, in their desperate need for
    silverware as the means of demonstrating the Club’s success.
    We, on the other hand, enjoy the attractive attacking football, the fitter players, better ball control, new tactics.
    And above all, a loyal determination never to fail to support whoever is selected to wear the Arsenal shirt.
    Following our great Club is NOT for the fainthearted, never has been and never will be. The younger, perhaps impatient, supporter should bear this in mind when results don’t go our way.
    The answer is not to sack the manager or sell the players.
    Better by far to continue support in sure and certain hope of better things to come.

  38. I said it before on one of the threads, but I’ll say it again. You Sir ‘Nicky’ are a class act for us young Gunners to follow…’nuff sed’

  39. nicky.

    Well said.

    I’m not ‘Crumbly’ yet but I’m certainly a little ‘flaky’

    I too regret the fickle nature of some of our younger fans but what saddens me more is the older fans that should know better.

  40. A very moving piece Walter. I love,Arsenal, and I think this club is an extension of me somehow, and trophies or not I’ll always feel the same about this club.

  41. The foundation of my love affair with Arsenal was laid in year 2000. Kanu made a mouth watering assist right inside the 18 yard box at the nations cup. Savouring the assist more than the goal itself, the commentator said ‘that’s what you get from playing at Arsenal’. I told myself, I must love that Arsenal. The affair proper started fully around 2005/6

    Confession; I was stylishly checking on Arsenal result from my phone at my wedding reception. Yes, its an obsession.

    But why Arsenal really? I dont know.

    What is team colours? No, I would have joined aston villa for colour. I know many chelsea fans in Nigeria joined because of ‘blue’.

    What is it trouphies? Naa, madrid, manure etc were more popular with trouphies back then.

    What is the coach? Ah! Well, maybe. But I didnt know AW from Adam, I fell in love with his personality at first sight. And there was this thrilling thing about Arsene managing Arsenal. Club and manager almost sharing same name.

    Utlimately, the brand and philosophy of AW’s football is secong to none imho.

    Let’s re-enact that brand and philosophy tonight whipping manure in the process.

    COYG

  42. why dont u come up with some foorballing anylyse for a change walter?? our manager been a revolution to english football but everyone did catch up. we r slow, boring and trying to win the league without a striker!! but keep the blind faith!! i for myself cant imagine a klopp team down 4:0 after 20 minutes. they eat the gras all over the pitch!!

  43. Hey Marchand….why don’t you come up with something resembling an intelligent Football analysis for a change? You ARE slow,boring and trying to win sympathy from UA Gooners yet you keep on putting your enormous foot into your even more cavernous mouth every time you write a comment! Keep being a blind fool Marchand, keep repeating your mantra and while you’re at it, take a course in proper composition,grammar and spelling so we can actually read your offal and not spend 50% of our time laughing at your ignorance and lack of education?

  44. only blind fools r u blind wenger lemmings. 4 th is not a trophy!! i would prefere a speedy striker so mesut could gigve actually an assist to someone!! but 150 million in the bank is worth something i guess. wenger out!! let him play his penny saving games somewhere else!!

  45. Oh Marchand how United would kill to get to that 4th place right now….
    And don’t worry. Next summer we will buy Ronaldo 🙂

  46. I started to follow the club from season 71-72 just after the double .
    My intrest was piqued when I got my hands on a SHOOT !FA Cup issue of the ’71 final vs Liverpool .This was after the final , but we in Malaysia only got to watch the game a few weeks after that.
    After watching the final, and especially Charlie George , I was hooked .A few weeks later I read a fantastic article in GOAL! magazine which cemented my ‘faith’ .
    I had written an article about my ‘journey’that was out up in Arsenal Worldwide here a few years ago ,but not able to access it now (Walter ?).
    Many of my friends who were Leeds fans deserted them in the mid 70s and switched to Liverpool (and one to N.Forrest !) but through it all I ‘ve kept the faith.
    For me this IS the golden age of this club .I’ve yet to see others play the beautiful game as we do .
    Up the Gunners !

  47. Shakabula Gooner @Feb.12th 4:22 pm – Not taken a sabbatical but was away from the computer ( I don’t own ,a smart phone nor a lap top – don’t need nor want one !)as I had a lodge function to organise and partake .
    But am back and will post some humour later from home- its 5PM now and time to ciao !

  48. I constantly spent my half an hour to read this blog’s articles
    every day along with a cup of coffee.

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