Yes the season has already started over here and exclusive fixture announcement on Untold Arsenal

By Walter Broeckx

This really is the most frustrating part of the season. No I’m not talking about the Brexit. Not even the transfer rumours that I don’t follow in fact so I haven’t got any clue about who we are after (supposedly) and who has snubbed us (supposedly) and who will snub us (supposedly) and who will… Lucky I have the funny articles of Sir Hardly Anyone to keep me up to date on how the media is making us all want to eat bullshit. You can have my portion, not very keen on it to be honest.

No the really frustrating bit is for me to have no Arsenal football. Not even training… I don’t give a damn about the European championship or the Copa America centennial or whatever. I just check the scores and try to find out if no Arsenal players are injured.

And for the rest there is no football in my life as other things like work, home and such stuff is taking up most of my time.

As president of the Arsenal Belgium supportersclub we had finished the season 2015/2016 in style with our annual members meeting on June 11. A meeting that also had a BBQ as the final moment of the season. And as the first meeting was almost a flop with very few members attending, this season was the complete opposite with many members coming over to our local pub in Leuven where we usually gather.

We even made one of the biggest national newspapers in Flanders who came over to take a picture and they would have sent down a reporter to do an interview but that fell in the water as the reporter got an injury and couldn’t come to Leuven on the day.

After the general meeting we had the BBQ and despite the weather being very wet and stormy over western Europe the weather gods were kind to us and made it a rather warm day and most of all it stayed dry for the time we had planned to stay outside. Nothing better to eat the stuff from the BBQ in the open air.

We even had an Arsenal quiz that was won by me but as the president everybody expects me to win this as otherwise I would be thrown out they said before the quiz. So I had to do my best to win it. But it was all great fun with the nice friends we have over here.

And then going home late at night I said to Carine: and now the season is over and time to relax and forget about football and Arsenal for a while.

But look at that… hardly half a week later the fixture list came out. We started buzzing again, checking who we play in the early moments of the season. And before I knew it I was writing mails, putting posts up on the website, putting posts up on Facebook to announce…. The first group travel we will do in the new season.

And so since the fixture list came out we also started asking our members to renew their membership and they did “en masse” as the French say. So checking out the names, payments (our accountant does that part), checking if we have all required information we have to give Arsenal….

Even with the football season being completely absent the workload for me and the board of our supporters club is still at a very high level. I like to think that this will be the same at Arsenal itself. If you would believe the media of course.

People running through the halls, running from desk to desk carrying offers with them for all kinds of players all over the world. Offer carrying people being snubbed, left right and centre of course as this is how the media reports it. I sometimes wonder what do they do with all those snubbed offers? Is there a big garbage bin at the Arsenal house where all the snubbed offers end up? And do the Islington council services pick them up each week and take it away to wherever they take it?

Of course we are just a small bunch of supporters compared to the massive company that Arsenal is but at times it sure takes up a lot of our free time to make sure that all goes smooth for our members. I think they know how much work it takes as none of our members volunteered to join the board when we gave them the chance earlier this year.

But here it is. Arsenal Belgium will come to the Emirates (if we are still allowed in after yesterday’s vote – add winking smiley) when we play Southampton. The only thing that can go wrong is the TV companies placing it on an impossible day like Friday or Monday and Arsenal not giving us tickets.

But if all goes well we will be there. But not me. Not because I don’t want to come because of yesterday’s vote (I swear someone who has been a member of our supporters club said that he wouldn’t come to England no more because of the vote) but simply because I will be returning home that weekend from some 10 days holiday in the South of France.

So in a way it is a bit sad I cannot joy the rest of the gang but that is just a personal thing for me of course. The most important thing is that for us as supporters club the new season has already started.

Now if only we would be so far that the players could also start their season.

Oh and to stop this article I want to give an exclusive not even on Arsenal.com! Arsenal will play a friendly match at Lens on July 22 on a Friday night, kick off at 20.00 local time.  Norht of France, not far from Lille… tempting to get a ticket. Just 2 hours away from home.

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