Last Saturday, in the words of Black Eye Peas, "I got that feeling!!! " and it definitely wasn't that sort of feeling which would have me up in the clubs swinging from the crystal ball, pants down screaming "WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!"... Nope! Not at all.
I had that sinking feeling; the smug look had officially been wiped off my face. Sitting there behind my laptop waiting eagerly to see the response from a question I had posed to a good friend of mine but in the footballing world an arch nemesis. (A bit like Magneto and Professor Xavier from the XMEN). “Go on then, what have you got to say??” was what I had typed and with that there was an eagerness that loomed over me. I was expecting a barrage of insults and I was well prepared, ready to jump in hard; thinking it's on, time to defend my beloved GOONERS. I was expecting at any moment he would reply with some sort of smack!! Leading me to hit him with an enraged rant. I was just waiting, waiting for right moment; the slip up, the wrong thing to be said. I watched the speech bubble ticker along the base of MSN, my eyes wide open, static and without any sign of movement in sight. It was at this point that a torrent of counter arguments raced through my head! “How many Title’s have you won?”, “Wow you beat us today.... Oh and you won more Carling cup a couple years back did you? but have you ever won the premier League title???” the killer question i was hoping to lay before him was “I swear your boys are moving out of ends after 100 odd years?? ”. But that moment never came because after ten minutes of waiting for a reply, all that was said is “NAH! Man I’m happy with the quiet times from the arsenal fans enjoying the silence!”
The sinking feeling first made its presence felt deep down from within, those words flashed on to my laptop screen and my whole pattern of thinking was thrown into turmoil. I was no longer that cocky, brash, free talking Arsenal fan; where an excuse was in place for everything. Just to give you an example of what I'm talking about, Fan who chats (S): "What happened to your goalie blood?" with that i would reply "Ah! don't watch that blood, at the precise moment of bundling the ball in to his own net the goalkeeper looked slightly left and was hit by a ray of sunshine which blinded his judgement". Fan who chats (S): " But blood it was an evening match!" and my reply of course stating the obvious "Have you ever won the premiership blood?"... But yea there was none of this, I had been humbled by his humble approach to victory, I was lost for words, all I could do was “lol” in reply. At this point I was a shamed man, in agreement with a SPURS FAN (forgive me my Arsenal faithful), but it's all I could possibly do. I was reduce to sitting like a little school boy, being schooled about the outcome of the match. I was forced to listen to the pros and cons of playing sexy football and I made to listen to yet another know it all! About how Arsenal are not ready for a title. By the time I finished speaking to him those feelings from within went from sinking to almost drowning, I was immersed in sorrow. All that could possibly save me now was the meal I was getting ready to go out for and a couple bottles of 1664.
I woke up the Sunday just gone, with a slight hangover, hoping I would have forgotten the events of the day before but for me trying to dodge football on Sundays is like trying to dodge a bus inspector on the old route master busses NEAR TO IMPOSSIBLE. Sunday 10am is when I awake up to watch 'Sunday Supplement and Goals on Sunday'. This Sunday was the worse! Not only did I have to endure an hour of silly pundits criticizing my beloved team but I also had to re-watch the shambles that unfolded before my very eyes the day before. I was and still am a man in pain right now. Like Arsene Wenger and the billions of Arsenal fans from around the world, I could not and cannot understand how we endeavoured throw those 3pts away. Especially to the old enemy, who for 17 years have not come to our territory and beaten us in a League game! "It's been 17 years!!". As for being beaten at home, again we fall at the Emirates this season; the third time this season. The Emirates is now looking like the home of the AWAY TEAMS, West Brom, Newcastle and Now Spurs have all come to the Emirates and we’ve allowed them to violate the code of the home team!! In fact I dread to say this all have given us a footballing lesson and verified one thing 'WE JUST AIN'T GOOD ENOUGH!'. I’ve never been to Highbury for a match day but I have been to Emirates where I’ve been told by a disgruntled group of Arsenal Fans “Highbury may have been small but it’s better than this big piece of S***” . The old faithful seem to think that Highbury as a smaller venue was more like a home of the true supporter and had more of an atmosphere. When you think about it from that point of view, that means the home up against it as much as the away team. We play in a World Cup chartered stadium, which holds up to 60,000 fans but it seems to be a stadium that inspires opposing teams to want to play well if not better than usual, due to it being a bigger stadium, bigger attraction and a bigger place to make a name for themselves...
Moving on swiftly I just want to say I know I keep using metaphors about Arsenal, i posted literally yesterday on my facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/DAT.MAN.G).
Arsenal be that B**** in your life that your trying to get rid of and you just want her to go away. At the best of times she sexy, so sexy she's all up in your head ,messing with your mind but deep down you know she aint no good for you, got everyone running up through her home f***ing with her... KMRT "I HATE you Arsenal, I LOVE you Arsenal"
Moving on swiftly I just want to say I know I keep using metaphors about Arsenal, i posted literally yesterday on my facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/DAT.MAN.G).
Arsenal be that B**** in your life that your trying to get rid of and you just want her to go away. At the best of times she sexy, so sexy she's all up in your head ,messing with your mind but deep down you know she aint no good for you, got everyone running up through her home f***ing with her... KMRT "I HATE you Arsenal, I LOVE you Arsenal"
I apologise for the explicit language my French was never that good but as I sit here and alter my blog some more I just thought of another one again literally how I feel about Arsenal at times.
Arsenal are like a friend! That snaky friend who is safe with you, however you don't really trust them. They are not who they really say they are; they never say what they actually thinking; they fling on a whole charade to keep you around them just long enough to make it beneficial to them (I.E Profits, New Stadium etc or even being 2 nil up and then bang lose 2-3 in the dying moments..) then they go and screw you over.
Arsenal are like a friend! That snaky friend who is safe with you, however you don't really trust them. They are not who they really say they are; they never say what they actually thinking; they fling on a whole charade to keep you around them just long enough to make it beneficial to them (I.E Profits, New Stadium etc or even being 2 nil up and then bang lose 2-3 in the dying moments..) then they go and screw you over.
The sinking feeling just isn't going away, and in terms of looking at Arsenal I can't believe them anymore. When Wenger is in that press conference being poked and prodded about title credentials and he claims “I believe I have a talented crop of young players... I believe they are ready to challenge for the top table.... I believe they can compete in the champions league...” , it all just flows through one ear and out of the bum crack! You have to ask yourself, how comes the high echelons at Arsenal only "BELIEVE" and never "KNOW".
I just want to end with a cry of realism peeps, to all fellow fans and haters. The next generation of players coming through are going to be less experienced than the ones currently playing. Arsenal "BELIEVE" they will be able to win, but what they really mean is they "KNOW" they can challenge. Don’t expect too much unless we buy big, that is a fact one I've slowly come to realise, it's not likely but it is what's needed. The future have been invested in well but it's the present we need to start investing in. I’m not saying Wenger's Arsenal doesn’t have a chance of winning the league in the near future but with the youth he is grooming, they are young and skilful on the training ground and to everyone surrounding the club this looks promising but as we know looks can be deceiving fact at present is in battle, on a consistent basis their inexperience leaves them unproductive.
Arsenal play Wenger’s ideal sexy football to showcase their natural ability; for entertainment and this is a way of flirting with us drawing us in on the dream. The worse thing is we the fans know this "It's a dream", surely we must all know this. Nevertheless if you’re like me you also have that glimmer of belief that change is amongst us. This is why Arsenal is the team for me, this is why "I HATE you Arsenal, LOVE you Arsenal!"
This Blog of Events has been brought directly to your screens
by Gavin 'Gman' Henry
I just want to end with a cry of realism peeps, to all fellow fans and haters. The next generation of players coming through are going to be less experienced than the ones currently playing. Arsenal "BELIEVE" they will be able to win, but what they really mean is they "KNOW" they can challenge. Don’t expect too much unless we buy big, that is a fact one I've slowly come to realise, it's not likely but it is what's needed. The future have been invested in well but it's the present we need to start investing in. I’m not saying Wenger's Arsenal doesn’t have a chance of winning the league in the near future but with the youth he is grooming, they are young and skilful on the training ground and to everyone surrounding the club this looks promising but as we know looks can be deceiving fact at present is in battle, on a consistent basis their inexperience leaves them unproductive.
Arsenal play Wenger’s ideal sexy football to showcase their natural ability; for entertainment and this is a way of flirting with us drawing us in on the dream. The worse thing is we the fans know this "It's a dream", surely we must all know this. Nevertheless if you’re like me you also have that glimmer of belief that change is amongst us. This is why Arsenal is the team for me, this is why "I HATE you Arsenal, LOVE you Arsenal!"
This Blog of Events has been brought directly to your screens
by Gavin 'Gman' Henry
No comments:
Post a Comment