something came to my attention, a group of people have become very defensive about the way they slated Ramsey’s performances and called for him to be dropped over the last few years, they have also gone on, to defend in which the manner they slated his performances and questioned Arsene Wenger for playing him. So, not only were they completely wrong in their judgement of him, but on top of that, they add that they were right to be dismissive of his skill, his quality and dismissive of what currently is the best manager in the league saw in him. Some minorities went further than being dismissive, but abusive, and took pride in the abuse or stick they gave the player

Today’s guest post comes from a good Twitter friend of mine, Alex @The_Beck_, he has some thoughts on Ramsey and the Arsenal support. Should make for interesting debate. Take it away.

I love the player, I enjoy what he is doing, I enjoy the manager’s faith in him, I enjoy his growth and I enjoyed his promise, especially in the last year, he’s been the best player in the league so far.

But something came to my attention, a group of people have become very defensive about the way they slated Ramsey’s performances and called for him to be dropped over the last few years, they have also gone on, to defend in which the manner they slated his performances and questioned Arsene Wenger for playing him.

So, not only were they completely wrong in their judgement of him, but on top of that, they add that they were right to be dismissive of his skill, his quality and dismissive of what currently is the best manager in the league saw in him. Some minorities went further than being dismissive, but abusive, and took pride in the abuse or stick they gave the player.

I’m afraid they are missing the point entirely; I can encase this in my example.

The example:

Ramsey has a bad game, he only passes the ball sideways and doesn’t score, simple folk don’t really see the greatness in a player until he scores, they generally ride on the conclusion of others.

As a supporter, a fan, of this club, even someone that just likes Arsenal and wants Arsenal to do well, you would think that they would know that there is a huge difference between:

“Take him off he’s shit”

And

“He’s having a bad game, probably shouldn’t be on the pitch (who am I to say that anyway) but he’s young and players under Arsene tend to get better so let’s give him our support anyway”

See logic comes to me in situations like this and it says:

Alex you’re a loser for thinking I would ever come to you, but also, why do people do that, why do people forget that they are supporters and turn into unpaid pundits who collectively slate their own players when they need them the most.

They then celebrate unkindly when these players turn good and state that it was great that they were proven wrong or, more embarrassingly say they believed in the player all along or say nothing.

Effectively, to me, these supporters are like this: “If I wasn’t proved wrong then I was right to help collectively destroy morale and team and player performances at the club.”

People who were wrong about Ramsey,  you wouldn’t be surprised to find them wrong about Giroud, Koscielny, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Sagna, Per among many others that Arsene Wenger has brought to the club.

I was once told, “I was right to abuse them and slate them at the time, it was warranted, footballers are paid to withstand abuse”

See that right there is pure ignorance, footballers are paid to play football, any support they get, they may take seriously, especially if they are new to a club, players have moved because of supporters before and they have played badly and had terrible morale because of bad support and vice versa.

It doesn’t take a genius to read a few sport psychology books to figure out why our away record is so good when the Emirates has been so nervy, our vice-captain brilliant hairstyle magician Arteta touched on that last week.

Also:

“They deserved the abuse they got at the time, their performances warranted it”

No, just no, no player deserves abuse (source: Beck Bible 21:34), if you want to be passionate that’s your call, passion is everywhere in football, but I can be passionate and not be an ass about It at the same time, just because I’m high on emotion during a game, it is never going to make me swear at players in public, nor in front of my friends or family and never at the stadium.

This isn’t about taking the higher ground, abuse is vile, most of it is not even constructive, lay into players of other teams, but why ours? We got to look after our own, this isn’t the bleeding Arsenal Hunger Games.

We spend more time abusing each other and our team/manager/finance model/medical team than supporting in my eyes, but this is a generalization of what I see from social media and these things called people that I rarely get to see these days thanks to GTA V.

If you take to constructively criticising, that’s great and its part of football, discussion and what not, heck I even think we should make fun of as many things we can, but I truly think that with abuse, people are missing the point, it’s not just about Ramsey.

It extends to everyone at the club, and the bigger your voice is, the bigger your responsibility.

Do you want to be the supporter that says:

1 “He overcame the abuse and became better”

Or

2 “He just got better because he always had the support”

Or

3 “He left cause he couldn’t take the abuse and probably wasn’t good enough and we won’t ever find out anyway cause I’m sure he was shit cause I’m an unpaid Twitter Football manager, I know stuff”

Obviously I am in number two, where do you think you are? (of course there are other kinds).

It also falls into the category of rash judgement, thousands and thousands laughed at Arsene Wenger for re-signing Flamini, for playing Giroud, we don’t see the players in the way the manager sees them sometimes and I think that is a flaw of a supporter, amongst the many I’m sure.

I didn’t know how good Gnabry could be or will be, but rather than to take the form of criticizing Arsene for Gnabry getting a game or ruling out his future, I just wait to see what the lad can produce, if its good, I praise, if it’s bad I just try to stay encouraging and constructive, it’s a rarity it seems.

It’s the same with Ryo, many were ruling his future in the Premier League due of his physique, a few said he wasn’t good enough for Arsenal, but it’s an entirely rash thing to say, the kid is 20 years old and might make it at Arsenal or he might not, but turning your back on a youth player that early when a lot of players don’t really hit a rich vein of form until 23-24 seems very rash.

You can see that this team has defied quick rash judgement, so in turn I find it a mystery as to why some would constantly make new rash judgements on other players, and this includes myself.

“If they can’t take abuse, they don’t deserve to wear the shirt”

When Thierry or Vieira or Anelka came, the club was totally different, there was no social media, social media was teletext whilst listening to the radio. The players did not have the same expectation levels as they do now, nor the same patience given to them and pundits wouldn’t spend hours highlighting individual player mistakes with an ipad.

A player would easily get a few months if not
a full season before being totally branded awful or useless if at all, players barely get a game now, their youtube videos tell twitter managers all they need to know, they are in effect awful signings before even having played for our club.

Yet he makes them better, he makes most of them better, even at the age of Giroud, I am still amazed at what he does and how he finds who he finds.

And it happens every year, he buys someone for good low value, media underrate them, fans underrate them, they turn good and some won’t accept how good they are until they get sold.

And part of this is down to the over stated trophy drought, but should our players feel the wrath of our own expectations, is that helpful to their overall development?

I’m not so sure it is.

Our new found sponsorship deals will not only make us one of the richest in the world on paper, but we will also be boxing heavy weights over the next few windows, even with Arsene being as *frugal* as he is, we’ve seen that with Ozil, he knows how to spend big when the right player is available.

I gave my club the benefit of the doubt this summer and they repaid me, they repaid all of us to some extent and it’s only the beginning, yet I feel, somehow that through reading a lot of people’s thoughts, that I was wrong to have done so, that I was the one who wasn’t really thinking things through.

Why do people try to make you feel wrong for having faith in players until they leave us?

People also seem to have a problem with understanding that you can, in effect not rate a player or recognize his abilities as useful but still be supportive and constructive in criticism; I have been that way for a few players.

I always leave room for interpretation and possibility, I find it irrational for myself to say: “this player will never make it at Arsenal”, I’d rather say: “it doesn’t look like he will but there’s always a chance, you never know in football”, even if it was Andre Santos, Bendtner, Denilson, it is purely because it’s a condemnation, it is turning your back on players who at the time could have played better for your club.

I don’t believe you should turn your back on them until they have gone, or in some cases, until the manager has himself turned his back to them for justifiable reasons.

I don’t get paid to condemn players, it is not in my interest whether I am right about them not being good enough or not, my interest is in the club first and foremost.

It’s not about one player, it’s about the team, once a season starts, every player in that dressing room has to fight harder to make up for the mistakes of another player or the bad positioning of another player or in some cases a terrible miss by another player.

So once the season starts, I don’t want them to carry on more weight because of the abuse of a few players, who were already was vulnerable confidence wise or had gone through something terrible and had a bad spell.

A player who thrives on confidence will look great when he knows he is supported, I could write a lot about Gervinho in Rome, but it’s unnecessary and it is not so black and white.

A lot of our players will have injuries and will play badly when coming back, a lot of our players will dip in and out of form, a lot of our players have been coming so young (I’m so sorry if this is too dirty) at this club and need guidance and games and confidence and support before reaching their level.

Support they’ll always need, even after they have a bad game or a few, this is what the manager sees, this is why he’s brilliant, he continually deflects fan criticisms of players and so he should, he only sticks stubbornly with players he is sure quality will shine out of.

These professionals are not robots, yes they should have confidence, confidence that is instilled by their coach too, but with some, it only goes so far, players do react to verbal abuse, especially racist, we’ve seen them stop games because of it, they do hear it and most choose to ignore, but when it’s from your own fans, I could understand that it would feel overwhelming and probably affect your own performances.

Mikel Arteta : “So we’re delighted to have him. The atmosphere was terrific, one of the best I’ve seen in the Champions League.

“And when you feel that, it is positive, instead of everyone being nervy every time someone misses the ball.”

It surely can’t get any clearer than that, can it? It seemed like a clear message to the fans, perhaps I’m reading too much into things, but I’d feel like if it was another player who wasn’t generally liked, this may have been a tabloid news story:

“Bendtner reveals all and tells Arsenal fans they make the players nervous”

People think I’m on the high horse, I’m not, I’m on that low-rider donkey, riding back from the darkness that is my logic.

I’m reminding people that they can’t get away with acting like they are unpaid armchair managers and unpaid pundits without facing the free criticisms that those unpaid jobs will attract.

I feel that if you are constantly waiting for players to show you quality without giving them support or encouragement or even the benefit of doubt, you are missing out on the whole “being a fan” thing and totally got yourself involved in the “show me the money and I’ll say you’re alright” thing.

I am a very narcissistic person, I’ve always thought I’d be a great tap dancer, but I’ve never felt it was my job or duty to act like I knew better than professionals who’ve experienced more than I have in that field, it’s a guessing fun game for me, I don’t enjoy asserting divine answers that really I have no professional basis on.

There will be another like Aaron Ramsey, not quite the same player I’m sure, but a young player, riddled with injuries, coming back, needing the support of the fans. It probably won’t be Wilshere as he is the one who seems to have the endless support, the kind of protectiveness that should extend to every player who wears the red and white.

In regards to Wilshere, remember how many reacted when Chamakh was smoking shisha? I did, it its interesting how they reacted to that, compared to how they reacted to his cigarette.

With the way social media is and each player having different reactions, it’d be horrible to think that a player would leave the club or play badly because of a varying degree of online abuse and personal abuse by his own fans.

Because imagine for a minute if Ramsey developed depression after all that happened around him (although unlikely it is plausible, especially after Gary Speed) and fans kept calling for his exit and continued to abuse him and Ramsey became unable to think about his ability and ignored Arsene’s belief in him and was left out of the side.

” There really does seem to be a cult of critical savagery against national football icons in our country. You almost sense the gleeful zeal as journos mentally mutilate the already confidence deficient. They behave like those despicable parents I recall in my youth who lambasted small children during games for failing to meet their own high expectations/personal fantasies.”

“Yet all too often in football a residual serpent’s head rears up and exposes a cold dumb brute masculinity: careless, compassionless, unsympathetic and believes it virtuous to crucify in public in the pursuit of a survival of the fittest vision of a football dream team. They care nothing for long term perspective nor former service, they only demand to be instantly gratified with an impatience for anything less than perfe
ction.”

Footballers are people too, that’s the one thing a lot of us forget, this is why I feel that it is important we back them when we can and find right a balance to our constructive criticisms, in the hope that we are never the cause for our team’s lack of confidence, because when Wengerball is in full motion, you can just see the confidence is sky high.

After we dispatched Napoli, I was so happy, the Emirates finally felt like home again, north bank and clock end, one AW chants, I wish it would go on and on and on all season.

Anyway, you’ve been you, the reader and I’ve been me, the obnoxious guy that you’ll never give a pint of vodka and red lipstick to, have a great afternoon.

With love The_Beck_