Nah, ******** that shit. You're not a Gunner if you go looking for "other content". I love your posts Jitty, but I just can't agree with you. The fact that are fans are here through thick and thin is what made is "different" from other clubs. We've always known Manu was the glory club, and it shows. I don't want "fans" here who only support us it through the good times. That's not being a fan. I don't mind dissent, but ffs people need to start supporting the club. winger may need to go, but it's not gonna happen during the season. It just won't
Who made you the "fan police?" People are fed up with 4th place battles every year. You just said it yourself nothing is going to change yet you are still going to watch and hope for something better? Sounds like insanity to me. No need for calling people "fake fans" or W/e for posting dissent.
In my opinion, any fan who goes looking for another team, is not a fan. Is that really so radical? You can't switch teams whenever you want and call yourself a fan.
Amen. Real fans don't run for the hills when times get tough. Fair weather fans are of the same ilk as the typical "I wanna pony and I want it now" people that permeate society. Good riddance. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. And you know who you are.
Its common for the modern fan to follow multiple teams and particular players How they self identify (e.g. what team are they a fan of) doesn't necessarily correlate to what they are watching. Hence teams like Barca & Bayern are building following amongst global "fans" who would not have had access to their content previously. Formats like the CL really drive this behaviour.
In the end you are not the arbiter of how TV audiences behave. Competition for fans/followers is much more intense. Look at the near instant popularity of Dortmund - a city you would normally drive around
If the business neglects the fairweather fans then there will be implications but that doesn't change the fact that I'm an Arsenal fan. They can have 1 million fans or a billion fans - makes no difference to me.
Ok - but it will make a different to top players Why will they want to appear in bad quality content? This is the exact issue liverpool have For once Arsenal attracted some top players - it would be a shame if they get pissed and leave because management is incompetent
Very interesting dialog in here of late about what makes a true "fan" and whether a football club, or more specifically Arsenal FC, is essentially "content" for our entertainment. I have to respectfully but strongly disagree with the latter idea, espoused by Jitty. So yes the world is different now with the Internet & cable TV providing unprecedented access to the big leagues and most of the teams in those leagues, week in week out. But NO that does not mean that I feel free to switch off from following or supporting my club, or even worse, as Jitty suggests, to switch my consumer allegiance to a "better product". I have a LONG TERM RELATIONSHIP with Arsenal. A bit like marriage (and 2014 is my 40th anniversary w/ AFC!). But in a way even stronger than marriage, because it's 100% up to me whether the relationship survives... IOW, Arsenal can't really dump me (unless they go out of business... fat chance!). I support the team, watch them every week, sometimes several times a week, most of the time live. And this is regardless of how good their "product" is. And I'm pretty sure there are thousands if not millions of Gooners just like me. Once you reach that level of support, the terms that Jitty uses to describe fandom just go right out the window.
I think he took a gamble that Kos and Mert would stay as healthy as they did last year, which has backfired horribly. They were arguably the best partnership in the league last year, but Mert is clearly exhausted and Kos is going to be battling injuries all year with his chronic condition. I actually disagree about playing worse football- last year, during all that time at the top, Arsenal were a ton of fun to watch, not just because the results were good, but we were playing attractive stuff. Overall, though, the reality is that Wenger has made this club boatloads of money, moved them into a great new stadium and single-handedly brought them into the 21st century. For those reasons (barring a United-esque meltdown of epic proportions), he'll see out his deal and then move into management, where he will continue to maintain a belligerent "Don't you know I made this club into what it is?!?!" disposition.
It isn't about what I believe is the right way to be a fan. I am simply referring to how consumer audiences behave So it doesn't really matter if there are (undoubtedly) millions of loyal fans like you. By far the majority of viewers are not like you and have relatively low loyalty.
I think we've discussed that before, but the problem with that argument is that it ignores the fixture list - Arsenal had considerably tougher fixtures in the fall of 2012 and the spring of 2014. It's the same reason I don't trust Soton right now despite their good data - they've played two clubs from last year's top 8 (Liverpool and Spurs) and lost both games. Once they start playing the bigger sides, their numbers are likely to regress significantly.
Just got home from traveling and watched the match...ugh. Really tough pill to swallow this one. Swansea were pretty good early and absolutely terrorized chambers down our right. He needed some help badly. Our goal was a very nice goal to see. The free kick was quite the wonder goal, but Swansea did enough to deserve it. 1-1 maybe would have been fair, but in view of the no-call 2-1 isn't unexpected. Just blew my mind to see us get caught out on their first. I mean WTF...chambo gets tackled and chambers is a mile up the pitch...Ramsey and flamini try to win it back instead of getting into defensive position...poor defending to give up that counter with a 1-0 lead. The second was basically down to chambers getting run like he had all night and monreal being a midget. So that one is on leboss for 1) having monreal as CB and 2) not changing tactics to contain montero. As to this fan/no fan nonsense....who really gives a ********? Just because one gets fed up and leaves doesn't mean the person was never a true fan. If your wife stops having sex with you and you leave her, does that mean you never loved her? The club/fan relationship is a two way street. The return fans are getting on their time/money investment has been diminishing consistently from year to year with the exception of the FA cup win. We used to at least have the consolation, not of the 4th place trophy, but of entertaining football and the occasional great performance against the mega-spending clubs. Now, we don't even have those despite a "spending spree", the new puma money, and the debt situation under control. If fans don't protest by stopping their watching and spending, why would the club ever change anything? While, I'll be staying, I understand those that jump ship for a while instead of watching this week after week. And, yes, I secretly may be watching some actually entertaining teams play more bc, you know, I actually like watching footy.
If fans will be jumping ship.... than I don't want to be associated with these fickle fans good riddance...
You don't get to support a team as you so choose. You don't get to go support Chelsea one season, and then the Arsenal the next. That's not how it works. You can watch other teams play, but to activley support any of the plastic clubs is inexcusable.
Get off your high horse. Who the hell says they're going to be actively supporting an another team? On the other hand, lots of people are demoralized and have stopped posting and possibly stopped watching. Can you honestly blame anyone for being demoralizd and stopping to watch Wenger's arrogant train wreck ? Because that's what he's doing now he's basically trolling the fans with his supreme arrogance. Starting Cazorla, Nacho and Flamini as if nothing has happened? He can pretty much ******** OFF!!!! I'll be supporting my other team for sure. Go Bulls! And in a couple weeks I'll watch the Arsenal game. And expect NOTHING. It's bette that way.
Fair enough. 11 games does not a season make. However, they've done allright, having beaten the teams currently sitting 4th, 5th, 6th (Us, though this was just in the League Cup), 8th and 9th twice, (again, one win was in the League Cup). Southampton do get Man City in two weeks, so we learn a little bit more about how strong they are after that.
Haha...this made me chuckle. "You don't get to..." Well, my friend, people do it all the time and of statistics are to be believed a huge portion of fans shift allegiances when the balance of power shifts. Does it make them less of a fan? Maybe. If over the summer we traded all our players and coaches for all Chelsea's, who would you support next season?
There's also a growing perception that the club is not really trying to win anything. Clearly the board has the goal of top 4 and get out of CL group. That gets the money they need to tip over the apparatus for another year. For example, give me one good reason for anyone to buy another shirt/jacket/hat/scarf until there's something besides finishing 4th.
There's no question that Southampton are a good side, and I'm hardly suggesting they're about to go into a tailspin. But saying they beat the side that's fourth in the table is pretty deceptive when that side is West Ham, who are incredibly unlikely to be 4th by the end of the season. They're good, but there's no way they're quite this good; not when they have Ryan Bertrand* as their starting LB. *CL final starter and winner Ryan Bertrand
They don't have to win anything, which I've been saying for years. Because people will continue to buy into the Baghdad Arsene line of reasoning about how they're going to be a different proposition in 2054 once Financial Fair Play kicks in. You gotta be a real moron to take anything Wenger says seriously, well or a super fan.
Coach Thibs thankfully has only one weak spot in terms of team selection: Kirk Hinrich. Wenger, however, apparently can't help himself by starting at least 3-4 Kirk Hinrich's. Garage players. Horrible horrible use of tactics and even worse use of substitutions. 89th minute sub. Wenger: Please do the right thing: GET THE ******** OUT!!!!
This is just plain insulting, I'll say this, the Arsenal media relations department is DYN-O-MITE because without fail they get the big papers to publish the same unbelievable Bullshit to feed the fans LMAO http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...January-solve-Arsenal-s-defensive-crisis.html