I’ve Found My Arsenal

Written by Lindsay Melrose Tuesday, 17 May 2011 22:18

I’ve Found My Arsenal

(Warning – Sentimental)

By Lindsay Sheehan

Apart from 95 odd minutes I had a really good time at The Arsenal on Sunday. I got all political early doors and went with the GT crew for a chat with the BSM before they went off a-walking. As you know I’d felt a bit cringey-nervous about the whole thing. The forums had been full of ‘us and them’ vibes and in all honesty I thought it would either kick off or be a damp squib. On the train up to N5 I mused over the statement “Where Has Our Arsenal Gone?” and what it means to me.

I realised I have been slightly blinded by the shininess of The Arsenal these days. The beautiful new stadium, the technology, the Aps, the tweets, the screenings, the fan forum, the global reach, ATVO, Arsenal Mobile, Arsenal.Com, the Wi-Fi, the superstores - how very modern, how very inclusive, how easily available Arsenal are. I can immerse myself in THEIR services, THEIR information and THEIR viewpoint. They can be my world assaulting my senses via every kind of media 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

But who am I to them? Sadly I feel I'm a £2000 ticket. I'm a shirt. I’m a programme. I'm a plaque on my chair. I'm a brick outside the stadium. I'm a pre-match meal. I'm an after-match beer. I’m a bride. I’m joining a tour. I'm a pop concert bum-on- seat. I'm a consumer. I’m a pound note.

I don’t know if Sunday’s protests will have any impact, maybe times have changed and the world has moved on, maybe our voice will never be as loud again no matter how many of us shout, but at the least we’ve been offered an alternative to the outstanding hard work of the AST. Someone said on twitter “If you don’t like the 6.5% increase don’t pay it. “Simples” Er right. And give up watching the club I’ve loved since childhood, whom I support above everyone and everything else, where I’ve been going for over 26 years? Great Plan Stan!

Anyway, just under 500 people milled around the Cannons Bar. I don’t belong to any group so I am here to speak as I find and this is what I found. Very few of the ‘Walkers’ mentioned the current players or manager. On the pitch was not really their concern - sounds absolutely mental to say that after this season but it's true. Many expressed the opinion that if we finished say 12^th they wouldn’t give a fuck, they were Arsenal through and through and simply wanted their experience back, through thick and thin and come what may.

They told us stories about what they've seen and where they’ve been throughout their Arsenal years. Each fan was as vehemently passionate about their personal relationship with the club as the next; all ready to explain why they were now standing in black and gold. These were die-hard fans (in the honest sense of the phrase) that just want to feel part of the club they adore again. Since the removal of the terraces and onto the modern day money orientated game, our belonging has been slowly eroded. We have been replaced by others - ones who can afford the prices, ones that have different concerns, and sadly a child that was once the first ever Junior Gunner no longer goes to matches. The players who would chat to them, be one of them have gone, the traditions of Arsenal Football Club seem to have been forgotten, discarded as easily as mottos, crests and shirt designs. Many of the new breed of players, unaware of their Arsenal obligations, never fully forge the bond we enjoyed with their past counterparts. Jack Wilshire is lauded as the only example of a ‘Gooner’ in the current team. The players aren’t blamed for their ignorance, they should have been educated like those before them were. Never before has the gap between The Arsenal and its people felt so wide. Their pride in our club and our history was over whelming.

But please let me not patronise here. No one is stuck in a time warp looking at the past through a pair of rosy glasses. These fans are realists. They understand the finances, the demands of a stadium, a wage bill and debt. They just think that the powers-that-be are taking the piss and knowing we can be replaced twice if not thrice over is making us disposable. The 6.5% increase is too high, obviously with VAT now at 20% some rise was expected, but wages haven’t gone up and the average football fan is already being squeezed by all and sundry in every area of life. Why should it be the little man that pays again? (And through the nose.)

They want measures to turn the home of football back into a home not an ‘experience’. They want to take the next step in ‘Arsenalisation’. Proposals such as having the Clock End solely for ClockEnders without the diluation by away fans. Measures that mean that fans wanting a sing/swear/atmosphere choose the North Bank or the Clock end, those wanting a more sedate experience visit the West or East and those who fancy a prawn fuck off to Club Level. (See you there, Block 52 you’ll hear me before you see me.) They want us to be seen again. For the club to be flexible with regards to individual cases. To pay back some of the loyalty and patience it’s been shown.

There was lots of misinformation, mystery and rumour surrounding the walk and their motives for it, but I found nothing more sinister than a big bunch of proper Gooners.

Their punt on the walk was certainly rewarded by a unanimous televised “6% you're having a laugh” chant ringing out from the 60 000 (boooooo) in attendance. Another example of fan genius and unity.

Anyway your mind is your own. Those unaffected by these issues or new to the Club will wonder why the fuss but I for one enjoyed it. It seemed like remembering a great friend I once knew and that old friend was my club.

So they walked to pay their respects to our ‘Old Girl’ Highbury and beyond to the new stadium, we filmed, I had a vody and put on my hat. Then I went to watch that shower of shit. Least said about that again the better and besides George handled it perfectly here.

Did I walk out before the lap of appreciation? Yes I did. I struggled with my decision all day. I believed Jack, Nasri, Chezza, RVP and the deserving would be hurt by this betrayal. Not supporting is alien to me, and, considering I got out my pram about people leaving early last season, dangerously hypocritical. But then I sat through our last home game…… so I stood in the corridor and watched it through the glass, not able to leave, not willing to stay.

Vody, beer, good company and a rant were in order. I got all that plus some new friends (Mike, John, Joe, Keith) and a fucking fabulously rousing set by the Away Boys in the now potentially defunct Gunners Pub. Belting out anthems together you'd have thought we'd won the league. As the alcohol started to work its remedy and I busted my lungs to ‘Are we human or are we Arsenal?” I looked around the room misty eyed at the sweaty mental buzzin crowd.

It's been a long draining season, one that would test the patience and loyalty of a Saint. And yet here, after yet another painfully blatant mugging off, were we jumping about like loons on crack smiling at each other screaming out our love for The Arsenal so the world could take note.

And in that room and thousands like it all over Goonerdom I found my club again. In there. In you. In me. In us. Where it’s always been. Players are bought and sold, managers leave and are replaced, ownership changes but only one thing is constant.

Us. The fans. Only a fool would forget that.

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