Veteran's View - Sing up for the Arsenal!
By Samuel Mowbray
There was only one thing wrong the other night as our teenagers, with the sheer exuberance and innocent joy of youth, blunted hardened blades that the dour Home Secretary should have witnessed if she really wanted to stop knife crime.
Well, if you believe the figures (which none of us do - come on Arsenal give us the bums-on-seats number not the cash-in-club-coffers amount) there were 56, 632 things wrong.
Yes, the crowd. So, you, if you were there.
We were pathetic. As dour and leaden as Jacqui Smith.
This was one of the great nights in our Emirates history. The alchemist that is Arsène at the peak of his wizardry. Have you ever seen him smile - no, beam, shine - like he did on Tuesday?
And what did we proffer? "StandupifyouhateTottenham", "Byfarthegreatestteamintheworld" rubbish.
God - by far the youngest team in the world would have lent not just some staggering truth to the moment but some unknown wit and irony that seems to escape us.
NOT JUST DID WE WITNESS A TEAM WITH AN AVERAGE OF 19 BEAT A BUNCH OF RELATIVELY HARDENED PROS - WE SCORED SIX GOALS IN THE PROCESS.
DO YOU NOT REALISE HOW BLESSED WE ARE? HOW COULD ANYONE LEAVE A GAME LIKE THAT EARLY. NO NOT A GAME - A TEAM?
IT WAS SHAMEFUL. For anyone that left early on Tuesday, of all nights, it was, if you are a parent, like betraying your children.
I got dewey eyed. I saw ghosts. I saw John Hartson in Nicklas B. I saw John Matthews in Marc Randall. I saw Liam Brady twice!!! In Jack Wilshere and Aaaron Ramsey. And how does Arsene clone Gael C in Gibbs and Gallas in Djourou?
But that's not the point. We saw pure blissful football. Blissful. Professionals don't play like that.
And in Carlos Vela, we saw genius.
[Incidentally not the youngest hat-trick by an Arsenal player. That goes to the great John Radford who on January 2 1965 at the age of 17 years and 315 days scored 3 in a 4-1 win at Highbury versus Wolves. I wasn't there sadly but the fading cuttings from my scrapbook didn't herald him as they should have.
I have three - one from the Express ('This Scoreline Flatters Gunners/Young Radford Does the Damage'), the Telegraph ('Woeful Wolves Toppled By Eastham's Scheming') and the Sunday Times ('Arsenal boy wrecks Wolves Morale').
Strangely that 64/65 season was one when poor Billy Wright tried to bring through youth. Looking back (again in my scrapbook) to October 17, 1964, we beat Burnley 3-2 at Highbury with six teenagers and in the Daily Mail report, it says that nine of the squad of 14 who after the game went up North for training were teenagers. This is the crucible of the first double year: Armstrong, Radford, Storey, Sammels, Simpson were amongst those numbers.
I digress in the mists of time.
Vela was extraordinary. And not all the pundits picked him as man of the match. I have seen his goals now countless times and the second just brought me to exuberant joy - "I have thought about doing that quite a few times before but I never dared try it". He said.
Perhaps as a crowd we should dare to try a few more things out of sheer honour and respect not just for this team, but the first team and the wonderful afternoons and evenings that lie ahead.
If you weren't there on Tuesday, you missed something very very special. Enjoy it - but SHOW that enjoyment.
DA
Reader Comments (8)
Tottally agree 100% was their it at times it was very quiet
That Spurs shit pisses me off.
Why are fans worrying about an irrelevant two-bit team during Arsenal games?
I am a season ticket holder in the third row of the lower tier opposite the dugout and people look at me like I'm crazy (which I am about the gunners) when I sing out. Oh how I miss the north-bank. Have tried to get into the red action section but no joy yet. Those boys know how to have a party!
I do question if a lack of atmosphere at the Emirates is going to bite us in the ass one day. Whilst no doubt we have a wonderful stadium, great team, great manager and great fans (sometimes) I wonder if playing for Arsenal is just not special enough at the moment. I mean we all saw the love inspired in a certain Robert, Thierry and now a little Spaniard called Cesc.
However I'm left feeling somewhat jealous when so many players go on and on about how special Liverpool and Anfield are. Whilst they do have a great history, Liverpool are generally a pretty tedious outfit, with a lack of genuine ambition (terrified of playing offensively vs most good teams) and every year they run up predictable losers again. Whilst we haven't won anything recently either I still really feel we are quite some way ahead of them in ability, ambition, self belief etc. even if the past few years haven't always reflected that.
So what frustrates me is when we have Flamini drooling over the chance to play for AC when they were in a highly unimpressive state and Torres is saying he dreams of being a legend for the same club who I find it hard to watch for 90 minutes because they're so often boring or straight out shit.
And having thought about this quite a while I start to wonder if our lack of recent success is anything to do with it at all. More likely in my opinion is that our often underwhelming atmosphere at games contributes to a feeling that we aren't such a special club.
We are special and yet you so often wouldn't know it.I was at the Twente game and regardless of what figures they quoted at the Emirates there were a LOT oif empty seats. An awful lot of fans didn't care enough to turn up. As for those who did the end I was in (I don't know the name) was making about 80% of the noise of all the Arsenal fans- and that was hardly much at all. There were long periods with just a dull murmur from the fans during what was an interesting game with plenty of goals then someone behind me would start a chant and 20% of the people around me (myself included of course) joined in before it would subside again into quietness and the other side of the stadium contributed shit all. You could have removed 3/4 of the stadium and not heard a volume difference it was appalling. The Twente fans were 3x louder than the entire Arsenal fans put together and it was frankly embarrassing.
I can start to imagine why a player who doesn't already feel some special alliegence to Arsenal like Flamini would have not been too bothered about leaving- even if the moneybags were a big factor.
Big Dave I agree. Whilst singing about the SPuds isn't always so bad, what bothers me is how rarely real songs are sung about our players. Gone are the days when every time Viera put in a great challenge or went on a great run (every 5 minutes) a huge chorus of VIEEEERA WHOA! would sound. 'We love you FREEEDIE' was a regular, 'Thierry Henry, you're having a laugh!' etc. whilst the other songs were sung as well.
It's not JUST a lack of volume which is fucking annoying, it's a lack of singing about OUR players. I remember reading an article last year where Rosicky was saying he loves it here but he only wishes the fans would sing his name. Whilst he obviously isn't playing enough to sing about at the moment I doubt he'll have his name sung much if at all when he does return.
It's a big let down, really
Get off your high horse mate... bloody gooners always find something to moan about...
It was a game played by the youth for the youth... there were plenty of kids there and good on Arsenal for promoting it in such a way.
"Are you tottenham...." etc etc are fun ironic songs for the kids to sing and whilst you may want to say "cunt" a "whore", for one night only we had to keep it down.
Believe me I would love for the Emirates to erupt, the major problem is that Red Action are penned into one corner, so where in Highbury there were people up for the crack all around the stadium its now much harder to spread the noise...
"Come to see Eboue" cracks me up now especially because he is coming good.."Arsenals number 9" great they are out there its just a matter of getting them going...
What was totally embarrassing was the fans went through the back catalogue towards the end of last year... cringe worthy singing about Freddy Ljunberg and Veira in 2008...
As for comparing us to other clubs, there is only really one place to envy and that is Anfield. Man U isn't really load anymore Chelsea is an absolute joke...
And away fans are always louder because the are the hardcore travelling contingent... it's just the way it is!
i completely agree. i was at the game on tuesday and i sang the entire team despite me sitting with a load of people who were quiet which meant that i looked like a weirdo. i also fail to understand the benefits of leaving a game early. i have never left a game early.