Today was meant to be a good day, Arsenal stole a march on Lille (Of all teams) for Park Chu Young, just got him to travel to London instead of Lilles ground for his medical. It was a good sign and progress we were making in the market. But NO. He wasn’t well known enough for you Gloomers, he wasn’t a big enough name, the fee wasn’t big enough! To give you some stats then, he is the South Korea Captain, so a big name in Korea. His fee is £3m+£2m due to Monaco’s relegation, guarantee his

This is my first entry here so if it’s overly long or anything, I apologise.

Well well well, I’m sure you, like I and everyone else, has an opinion whether it be positive or negative, on anything to do with Arsenal at this moment. We’re fans, it’s what we do, openly debate anything, from signings to tactics, even to how the club is ran and how you’d spend the finances. This is all well and good, with Twitter being the medium, everyone has an opinion now. But since when did it become okay to assume your opinion was a fact that you had to ram down peoples throats? Or in this case, onto peoples timelines?

I’ve always been an advocate of the saying “If you have nothing positive to say, don’t say anything at all.” It stands true to this day. Many people don’t know the difference between critisising your club and being a straight up moron. I openly admit, I do critisise Arsenal, some of the stuff I don’t agree with, but I still support them, I was raised this way and I wouldn’t change it for anyone else. But when I see people calling for Wengers head, the very man who put us into Europes elite competition for 14 years straight when we only made 2 appearances before him, it really angers me. Everyone thinks they know how to run Arsenal simply cos they do it on Football Manager 2011, but reality check, it just doesn’t happen like that. With the internal challenges presented to Arsene Wenger, he’s achieved success in them restraints and done it brilliantly. The fact we still have European football with the very best with such limited funds and wage structure is a testiment to just how clever the man is.

I recall a Twitter poll once done by YankeeGunner, it was asking how old people were and their opinion on Arsenal as of now. The general concensus was that older folks were frustrated, they were bewildered but never once questioned their loyalty to Arsenal FC. It was infact the younger generation, the 14-24 year olds that were crying for the £35m signing, the ones crying for a new manager, the ones wanting us to be Barcelona. It made me realise, these fans who were crying for them things don’t have a slightest clue about Arsenal before Arsene Wenger. I’m gonna throw an assumption, these young fans likely had vague interest in football, saw Arsenal during Invincibles and thought, “Hold on, this team is actually amazing, I will support them.” And with that mentality, expected Arsenal to pull that off every year. Well let me put it into check for you,  no other team in modern Football has managed that, not even remotely close, and not even going a whole season unbeaten, yes, even the mighty Barcelona lost twice last season. And because it’s relevant, the Arsenal Ladies went 108 games unbeaten, including a 51 game winning streak, but of course, you wouldn’t know that they’re a pillar of Arsenal FC now would you?

Today was meant to be a good day, Arsenal stole a march on Lille (Of all teams) for Park Chu Young, just got him to travel to London instead of Lilles ground for his medical. It was a good sign and progress we were making in the market. But NO. He wasn’t well known enough for you Gloomers, he wasn’t a big enough name, the fee wasn’t big enough! To give you some stats then, he is the South Korea Captain, so a big name in Korea. His fee is £3m+£2m due to Monaco’s relegation, guarantee his quality would call for £10m minimum on open market and with a top tier team. He scored 12 goals last term with a relegated team, to put that stat into context, Eden Hazard, the much demanded £35m man, scored just 7, yes, SEVEN goals last season. Their ability and quality is uncomparable yes of course, but Hazard has a strong unit of players around him and he managed just 7, no disrespect to Monaco but their team was fairly weak and Park still managed 12 goals, still doubting his quality?

This afternoon, we play Manchester United, the in-form team with a blend of youth and experience, something we’ve tried for years! But our team is depleted, I’m anticipating a loss because Man United destroyed Tottenham Hotspur in their 3-0 win whilst we merried along until the first fluke goal against Liverpool. But even if we lose, it’s no reason to boo. It’s no reason to be negative, we don’t even have a first team recognised defensive midfielder for a start, so another youngster is due a debut (Francis Coquelin). But if we win, I guarantee someone will find negativity in it, why would you?! “Oh it was a narrow win”, “It was luck,” and “It wasn’t a good performance.” If we win and I hear them, I really will go ape crap on people. Why would you nitpick at faults if we won against reigning champions with our thinnest squad to date? Why can’t you just bask in the glory of a win and just accept it for what it is, a victory against a very strong side?

There’s being critical then there’s being purely negative for the sake of it. Positivity is the key to supporting them through tough times right now, if you don’t believe in the players, how are they supposed to believe in themselves? Being negative won’t solve anything and will only cloud your judgement on anything Arsenal do, whether it be something good or bad. Open up your eyes, clear your mind, and realise we’re all fighting for the same cause, all wanting the best possible result for Arsenal FC. Booing the players will only drive them out, we now have a squad of players who want to wear the cannon on their chest, they feel pride everytime they pull on that shirt and walk down that tunnel, don’t take that pride from them and belittling them by being an idiot. The players need you now the most, so stand up, cheer for the greatest team the world has ever seen and just support your club.

(Any needs to debate or argue anything from this article, I can be found on Twitter @AznGooner)

Mean Lean’s Response

Great passionate article thank you, and make sure it is not your last.

I am all for differing views and supporters criticising the club, manager and certain players. We all do it to different degree’s but it really feels more than that for some. It almost feels as if certain people have dropped actually supporting the club for venom at every available opportunity. I find that very strange indeed.

You can see patterns in certain fans behaviour on this blog, other blogs and Twitter. Some only post when we lose and suddenly disappear when we have performed well and come away with three points.

In the George Graham days support seemed very different than it does today. We sat at Highbury through some god awful matches with Martin Keown in midfield whacking balls into the channels and pumping balls long to the head of Alan Smith or Kevin Campbell.

A 0-0 draw at home to Aston Villa was the worst ‘game’ of football that I had ever seen. This was when Graham reverted away from the attacking football that had served him so well and he began to kill the life out of attacking football. Yet, I do not remember a sense of anger that Graham should be sacked and manager x could do a better job. Obviously there has always been a bit of that at every ground at pretty much any time. But on the whole, supporting a club was just that, supporting the club you love. It was about the experience of going to the ground with your mates or listening to the radio praying that Ian Wright could snatch a late winner. It was about the hope that your team would do better than the last. It was just part of life and not a chance to prove you know more than the manager of your club.

I think society has changed, and with that supporters have changed. While we all want the same goal which is winning and ultimately trophies, a sense of entitlement has crept in amongst fans. Not just Arsenal but at many clubs. We all know more than the management, we all think we know the full story in every situation.

I do not have an issue with differing opinions but I do have an issue when the negativity starts to get passed onto the team thus jeopardising our chances of getting results and the possibility of losing more of our best players.

I am just going to continue doing what I have always done and that is support this great club because it is just that. A great club with great traditions. I supported them when we were in midtable under Graham so I will certainly support this young team who haven’t dropped below fourth since Arsene Wenger took over in 1996. It is not about ambition as you can only have ambition if you have power to change anything. It is about support.