Good ebening Gooners! I watched some old David Seaman clips yesterday and began to reminisce on how close the players felt to us Arsenal fans.
Today this could not be further from the truth. It’s a shitty state of affairs when Gooners – in large part – have no strong feelings for the majority of the squad. It’s even worse when the club belittles and disregards us at every opportunity they can find.
So I asked myself: Why and how did it become so bad between the Arsenal players and fans? What needs to change to restore harmony?
Football has changed: Arsenal is Culturally Dead
Primarily the dynamic between players and fans has changed because football is a cash cow. Owners know it, clubs revel in it, and players thrive off the back of it. With huge wages at the top level, non-stop global fan/media attention, and active encouragement from ex-pros and the PFA, players have never been more enabled to engage in activities beyond football.
None of these things are bad. Yet, they don’t exactly lend themselves to a common understanding with the average match-going fan. Here is where the problems start to arise.
Not Understanding A Fan's Perspective
A 17-year decline
Arsenal fans have been frustrated for a long time. We’ve watched our team slide from unbeaten in the league and champions league finalists, to BBFC (Branter & Brexit Football Club), finishing outside European places. We know that Arsenal has lost its DNA, and speaking as a fan, it hurts to see what our club has become.
Conduct after losses
Players routinely fail to consider the situation at this club and how fans will be feeling relative to results. Arteta seems to have ironed out players failing to thank fans after games. However, there are still accountability issues, such as our captain shafting interviews after poor results.
Social media pages are also suspiciously quiet after losses. But the second the team does well, you can’t hear or see enough of these players on the various platforms at their disposal.
How about engaging with fans regardless of results because you recognise that it’s not about you? The players that made this club what it is never used to be silent when results were poor. They felt the pain of loss alongside fans. We won and lost as a unit because they cared about the club.
Dismissive of Criticism
A common issue with the current crop of payers is arrogance. Granit Xhaka is a prime example. There are so many of Xhaka’s past interviews which display a superiority complex it’s ridiculous. This is specifically true when commenting on critics in the fanbase.
The gist of it is “I do what I do. If you don’t like it, tough shit”, a perfectly valid attitude when responding to abuse or online trolls. A litany of errors that cost the team points every season, and you can see why fans will start to get annoyed.
Ulterior Motives
Convenience Players
This ties in with recruitment, but there are too many players at Arsenal who have joined because it’s convenient. We all know the type. They add no quality to the squad and are not the targets we needed to elevate the team. They join because it makes sense for them.
Perhaps they want to remain settled, or Arsenal represents an easy, high-profile end-of-career move. Regardless, players without a mental edge have no place at Arsenal, particularly in our current state. If you’re here, get down for the cause or get out. This is not a food shelter or retirement home.
Winning Needs To Be the Number One Priority
All I have to type is “he wanted to win too much”. You all know what I’m referring to. Multiple players make it abundantly clear that winning is not the number one priority, with their comments off-pitch and behaviour on it. If this is the case, Arsenal is not the club for you.
I hold Wenger accountable for a lot of the mess plaguing this club right now. Even a declining Wenger referenced being “physically sick after losing games” earlier in his career. So, for players in the middle of their careers to come out with statements like this is astounding.
This lack of drive is clearly evident in the failure of Arsenal to win anything beyond the FA cup since 2004. Being the best team across an entire season requires a mentality that many in this squad simply lack. Ex-players and pros have said as much for over a decade. Results have proven it. Fans are sick of players who are driven by ulterior motives.
External Pursuits
Players are entitled to do whatever they want to do outside of the sport. In fact, doing so actually enhances your ability to perform. However, the team is underperforming, and fans are frustrated. So when players appear focused on other interests via social media and fan interaction is non-existent, it sums up the disconnect in a nutshell.
There are plenty of elite athletes and winners with external interests. CR7, David Beckham, Rodger Federer, Floyd Mayweather, Michael Jordan, and Lewis Hamilton all have very successful lives away from respective sports. Yet, each has an unquestionable dedication to winning above all else is.
Past players had this mentality. They had to win; it was not optional. They left it all on the pitch as winning games of football was the sole motivation. Too many players in this squad seem undedicated, happy to be paid and live it up on social media. Becoming the best and winning trophies almost seem like secondary ambitions. This needs to change – rapidly.
Air of Superiority
A common theme throughout this article has been the arrogant and dismissive nature of player-fan interaction. But there have been instances where this has ramped up. Players have disowned mistakes and dodged responsibility for poor results. There is a lack of accountability within the club overall, and players making condescending statements aimed at fans.
Xhaka and Bellerin again are prime examples. Consider the infamous “profiting from failure” interview. How can a player who’s been profiting (being paid), from failure (underperformance in a declining team), come out and have a go at fans for commenting on what’s happening at the club?
Literally, every Journalist, pundit, and football writer does the same thing! No one would come out and say to Henry or Ian Wright “you profited from failure when you did that piece; you’re not an Arsenal fan”. Yet underperforming players think they have the right to say that to fans?
More amusing is that in the years following said interview, fan coverage has exploded. More fans than ever before are publicly voicing their opinions on how their cub is performing. This shows just how out of touch the modern player is with the POV of a modern fan.
I cannot recall a player of note being condescending until the current crop of players. I genuinely cannot imagine the club, manager, or other squad members tolerating it. This shows how lost the culture at Arsenal really is.
Separation from fans
English footballing culture is broken. Clubs exist, players are contracted, fans just happen to be around. No synergy exists. Off the top of my head, Wilshere and Aubameyang are two players who have a standout connection with fans. One joined Arsenal at age 9. The other had an infectious personality and went out of his way to build a relationship with fans. Notice I said connection, not liked by fans.
In his Autobiography, Mertesacker speaks about how strange the English approach to fan interaction felt when he joined Arsenal. Germans clubs have a much closer relationship with fans. They are more involved in club matters, given opportunities to speak to the club, and are permitted to interact with players directly. This ensures that club culture is retained and leads nicely into my final point:
Problem Goes Above The Players
Virtually every bit of criticism levelled at the players could be applied to the senior hierarchy. Our technical director Edu Gaspar has made some remarks which are alarming in my eyes. Ivan Gazidis also spewed diarrhoea throughout his Arsenal tenure. Sanllehi parted ways after a review on performance, and Lord Harris treats us like peasants. Now the Kroenke’s undermine fans and treat us like idiots virtually every time they speak in public.
The environment at Arsenal is all wrong, and it’s being grossly mismanaged. There’s no pressure to succeed because winning is not the primary goal for those in charge. Even the hallowed Arsene Wenger -“Nothing’s Good Enough”- covered up the incompetence and malpractice stemming from the board at the expense of his own reputation.
Arsenal is not a high-performance environment. It excretes comfort and convenience. And although there are early signs that this may be changing, an air of complacency remains. Is it any wonder, therefore, that the players reflect this?
Final Thoughts
There are a lot of cultural issues at this club. But some bright sparks hopefully represent the future direction of the squad. Tierney, Luiz, Saka, Smith-Rowe, Martinelli, and Lacazette are great examples of players who have shown nothing but respect toward fans.
More players should take a step back, and appreciate that fans are the foundation of their current position.
- Our thoughts and feelings are relevant and to be respected.
- Open and genuine interaction is appreciated
- Raw passion builds trust and understanding
- The actions of a few idiots isn’t representative of the entire fan base
We want to support you. Show that you give a sh*t about us, and we’ll give a sh*t about you.