Arsenal fans at home and away.by pararealist.
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Arsenal fans are a strange bunch.
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First there are the away fans.
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They sing their hearts out for the team and give vocal support whatever is happening on the field.
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Then there are the home fans.
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Now, the home fans expect to be entertained by a performance and the fact is, they reward the players for effort, common sense, exceptional skill, beautiful goals and above all for effort on the day.
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These two different responses to the game cast many questions as to why this is so.
I dare to suggest that the away fans are aware of being in “enemy” territory and want to let their players know they are there.
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At home it’s another matter. Fans expect home to be difficult for teams coming there, and if it is not so, they feel shame. Of course they are going to boo, especially if they feel that there was not enough effort put in by the team.
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Fans at home do not want to have to carry the players at home. They want to be thrilled by the effort the team makes, the skills the team displays, the flash of brilliance, the engagement and of course the satisfaction of supporting Arsenal and winning on that day, defending the fort.
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Arsenal fans at home are a little spoiled, i would have to say, and not only those who go to home games. I for one must also confess to being a little spoiled.
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Those who lived through the invincibles, have been marked now, not only by the fact of being invincible in that season, but by the quality of the football Arsenal played. There were many close calls where we could have failed, but individual and team brilliance shone through so many times.
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Funny thing watching the documentary on the invincibles, they reported that the last 4 games after winning the PL, were like playing when one did not really want to, and the record was the last thing on anyone’s mind. They just wanted to end the season.
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It just shows, Arsenal, the team, did not set out to become invincible, although Arsene Wenger had different ideas, having proclaimed the season before that it was possible to do it.
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They just found a way of playing total football as often as they could, and the joy they felt shone through when they were on the pitch.
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When i watch football today, I rarely see this anymore, in Arsenal or any other teams. Instead it has become almost like a chore, or job when one looks at the faces of the players today.
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So I can understand why Home fans are this way, and I think the players cannot expect any different, and probably would feel even worse if they played badly and the fans cheered them, they would know in their hearts they did not deserve it.
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So whether you are an away fan or a home fan or even both, I thank you for being able to support in person, unlike many of us who for many different reasons cannot carry that flag.
Anniversary of the day
2 March 1955: Gavin Crawford – our first ever professional – died. He joined Woolwich Arsenal in 1891 just as the club turned professional, and played 138 league games for the club.
Cheers and jeers. Ooohs and aaars. Moans and groans, are all part of crowd involvement in a game.
From the relative amounts of any of these a team, a player, will know what ‘the crowd’ think of there performance.
That is all part of the team/player crowd/fan relationship.
What I will never accept is the ‘booing’ of your own, especially the systematic attacks made on certain individuals.
What does it achieve? Nothing.
Personally I think it is a disgrace.
I can say, hand on heart, that I never ever booed one of my own players, and believe me, over the period I followed us around the Country, I could of been forgiven for doing so.
As for the noise made at home games, from personal experience I have felt self conscious when singing in certain sections.
The ‘vociferous’ need to be in one place. It’s how it was back in the days of terraces. The ‘lads’ all congregated in one area, obviously most notably behind the goal in the North bank.
If people where not allotted particular seats and everyone was allowed to find a seat on a first come first serve basis the same thing would happen.
The ‘singers’ would congregate together, most likely behind one of the goals.
The Em’s is a magnificent Stadium but is very big, very spacious, and lacks that certain intimacy and claustrophobia that helps to create the right atmosphere in which singing becomes spontaneous and free flowing.
Each advantage has a disasdvantage. The fact that the Emirates is big is good for the finances but it can cost in atmosphere. But if it lacks then in the end it is down to those inside.
@pararealist,
I think you have hit the nail on the proverbial head when you say that the professional game is becoming more and more like a chore.
There is so much pressure put on successful players by way of specialised training, tactics, game plan, video recordings, etc,etc as well as no doubt conflicting medical treatment it’s no wonder that by February the end of the season is regarded as a welcome relief.
For example, today when a substitution is made during a game, one of the coaches will often be seen with a tablet or laptop, advising the incoming player what is required of him.
nicky
Every day before I start work I have to sign a book to confirm I comply to dozens of work protocols.
Every day at work my every move is recorder on a ‘data recorder’ and my performances are randomly ‘down loaded’.
If I make a big mistake I will be ‘drug tested’ and it is possible my entire days performance assessed and if it is shown I ‘cocked up’ I could lose my job.
People I work alongside do permanent nights for the minimum wage. Now that’s a ‘chore’
I’m sorry but I do not consider footballers to have a hard life, at least not one that should in anyway be considered a ‘chore’
Many of us work under extreme pressure in our jobs.
A footballer has, in my humble opinion, the BEST job in the World.
To call it a chore is an insult to millions of hard working men and women.
Sorry for the rant but…….well, just but !
@Jambug,
With respect, if you are old enough, recall the days when professional footballers trained in a very simple way, playing 5-a-side games, a bit of running and shooting, even a round or two of golf. Tactics, game plans and shapes were unknown to the players and maybe not even to the coaches.
Medical treatment was left to the Club’s GP or, for more serious hurt, to the local hospital.
Arsene was a forerunner of sensible diets for sportsmen, much to their dismay at the time.
Now, clubs have their own chefs, kitchens and dietary professionals.
It all adds to the pressure on players to literally breathe physical perfection. No-one must be allowed to kick sand in their faces on the beach. 😉
I think it’s the ‘self-imposing soon to be self- destructing’ human nature. On away grounds, fans have opponent fans to go against with. At home, they have only the players and manager to go against with since the Ems is big enough to outnumber opposite fans massively. Probably, just because they have forgotten the stadium was built by Emirates’s money, not their money.
nicky
I don’t doubt for a moment a professional footballers job has changed massively over the last 10/20 years, but so has almost every job.
The pressures under which everyone works in this day and age is enormous.
Okay, professional footballers now have to act in a manner that befits there trade, rather than playing golf in the afternoon and pissing it up in the evening.
To call that a chore is pushing it a bit don’t you think.
That’s all I’m saying.