The 2018/2019 English Premier League season kicked off on 10-8-2018 and for the fans of arsenal football club like me, this season was meant to be a start of a new era. The man who led us through the last few troublesome years, Mr Arsenal, left and by natural progression it’s time for a new era. Our new leader Unai Emery is meant to bring new life into the team and lead into a future filled with glory like that of yesteryears. Well things didn’t get off to rosy start as we lost our first two games. However, we won the other two that followed but none of the games were impressive and the team didn’t look special, leaving fans with the all too regular feeling of same shit, different day. That feeling was quickly quelled as the team went on to go on an 18 game unbeaten streak across all competitions.
I started supporting arsenal football club on the 21st of December 2001. I didn’t know this date until I researched it for this piece, but I do remember that I was still my father’s favourite child; because my siblings were probably too young and annoying to deal with. My father has been an avid supporter of Liverpool football club all his life and he wanted to do what all men try to do with their kids, introduce them to his favourite sport team and pass on the tradition of support from one generation to another. It was Liverpool vs Arsenal, their main title rival at their home stadium of Anfield, no better time than a high leverage passion filled game to introduce your son to this game, it didn’t go as planned; A ten man arsenal team beat Liverpool 2-1 and unfortunately for all parties involved I fell in love with Arsenal and football.
Being a sports fan is an amazing feeling, there is this sense of pride when your team is doing well that you cannot duplicate anywhere. Supporting a team for years on end is a thing of pride and it’s something that society has celebrated, you are meant to support one team through thick and thin. You’re meant to wear battle scars, I once believed that but as I grow older I continue to doubt the validity of such a tradition. I’ve started to believe that supporting one particular team doesn’t really mean anything. Supporting one particular team is like a relationship where one is person completely in love and invested in the relationship and the other person is in the “let’s see how this goes” stage of the relationship. You put your all into the relationship; time, money, heart and soul into this and get little out of it every once in a while. I’ve often joked that the undying support people give to a sport team has the same dynamics of a one sided relationship because that exactly what it is. Only the fans are thoroughly emotionally invested in the team because owners have an investment that stem primarily from a business perspective. It is cold and unpassionate; very much like a frigid winter and completely unlike a burning flame in the middle of summer in Texas. Stan Kroenke, the major shareholder for Arsenal, is an American billionaire who owns Kroenke Sports and Entertainment(KSE) the holding company for several sports clubs including the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams, and the NBA’s Denver Nuggets. This man probably loves these teams, but my best guess is that he doesn’t love them just from a fan’s perspective, he loves them because he owns them, and he owns them because they are profitable businesses. I’ve read a lot about Mr Kroenke and I’m yet to find anything describing him as passionate about sports. As such, it is safe to conclude that that’s why he doesn’t care if Arsenal wins a trophy or if one of their best players leaves cause that’s not what he’s after, he’s about his profit and it’s not particular to just him. Most of the sports franchise owners are like that. The players are also not as invested in the club as the fans, sure they put their bodies on the line, sacrifice time with their families to play but they are doing that cause of the life it affords them, the money and the fame, they aren’t loyal to the clubs, it’s a job to them and they’d leave once they get a better offer like most of us would.
Fans should be able to freely change the teams that they support, the owners are here because of the money, the players are here for just the same thing too, the team isn’t loyal to the players, the players aren’t loyal to the team, the team isn't loyal to the fans, the players aren’t loyal to the fans. One can say this fair because of all the people involved, the fans have the least to lose and I would not be opposed to that argument. But I say, staying loyal to a team through the good times and the bad isn’t what being a fan should be about. As we grow older as individuals our stance on different things in life change, from politics to religion to sexuality, why can’t it be the same for what team we support? I shouldn’t be bound to Arsenal football club for the rest of my life for a decision I made when I was 7 years old. Arsenal as a football club is currently trying to find its identity, the team seems lost from top to bottom, in a year where the team is to get better defensively, they’ve seem to have done the complete opposite. In a bid to run more and make the team fitter and in better shape, the team is going through an injury crisis. The coach and the management seem to have a grudge against the best players in the club. I’m lost as a fan, I don’t know how to feel about the club I love, and in a matter of months I’ve gone from being happy that Arsene Wenger left, to being an avid defender of him and wanting this new regime to end. Like Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Ozil, I love Arsenal but the club does not love me back and it may be best for us to part ways. However, it’s human nature to do what’s not best for us so here I am.
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