Have you ever been so disillusioned ?

[goonersid]

I have felt disillusioned and apathetic for about 5 years now to the point where it has manifested to anger and indeed hatred, which I think is a healthier way to be.
I haven't been to a game in over 3 seasons and won't go again until Wenger goes or there is a protest organised which will embarrass him in front of the footballing world, where I can let out the anger and pure hatred I feel for the man.
I honestly don't love the club anymore and care little when they lose and don't feel much joy when they win.
Maybe I can't even call myself a gooner anymore, I don't honestly know, but something that came second only to my family now means little.

[Bradywasking]

AS a Red Member I didn't get to Highbury often enough, when I did it was usually sorted out for me by a Silver Member that couldn't go. I didn't renew my Red Membership this season because of unemployment rather than any form of protest.
As a Red Member I was happier not to get a ticket for Highbury to see Adams, Keown, Vieira, Sol, Henry , Bergkamp, Pires etc , than being able to get a ticket for the Emirates to see Santos, Gervinho, Chamak Ramsey etc.
We hear today that we will be competitive in two years times. Fuck off Ivan we left the most historical stadium in football six years ago to be competitive. Wenger is at fault also, he is happy to follow the company policy. If he had any footballing principals he would walk.

[Lee1]

I have felt disillusioned and apathetic for about 5 years now to the point where it has manifested to anger and indeed hatred, which I think is a healthier way to be.
I haven't been to a game in over 3 seasons and won't go again until Wenger goes or there is a protest organised which will embarrass him in front of the footballing world, where I can let out the anger and pure hatred I feel for the man.
I honestly don't love the club anymore and care little when they lose and don't feel much joy when they win.
Maybe I can't even call myself a gooner anymore, I don't honestly know, but something that came second only to my family now means little.

Keep being a gooner,once and always, Rest is transient...could rant for ages on the way i feel about recent (and longer!) years. I am culpable in a way. Renew my season tickets every year, why?.....financially/ethically, really shouldn't. Emotionally ? - attached. All the way back to my grandads( god rest their souls) and all the family since. it's a shit bag situation - love my team and despise at same time. What a dilemna...or more likely I'm just a soft touch,idealstic fucking idiot...my Arsenal back please (sadly not probably in my life time)

[Bunting14]

I remember being pretty disillusioned in 1985/6 after we lost to Villa and Luton in the cups and if George Graham hadn't changed everything i might have given up my season ticket. However it was only about £100 a year to get in so financially it wasn't onerous on the wallet (less than 1 weeks pay for me after tax then). In fact we were the cheapest team to watch in London until about 2002.

Now it costs that every two games and someone doing my old job now would pay a months salary to get a season ticket.

But what makes me angry at the moment is our injury list. We seem to have at least 5 players with long term muscular injuries all the time. And this is with a manager who talks about resting players when they reach the 'red level'. And when they get fit and play their 5 games a season they get a new contract.

[Topside Northbank]

The slow way we are just eroding away when everything should be pointing to the club going from strength to strength is what's killing most people.The yearly profits which could make us compete better squad depth competition for places just lying unused.The arrogance of the manager & board to any constructive criticism from supporters paying top prices & being told we can't compete when a wage bill of 130-40m+ should be giving us a fighting chance of challenging.That is the disillusioment for me you can see how it's going yet no-one wants to change anything the balance sheet taking preference over the team sheet the best assets a club can have are the players that should be honoured to play for a massive club like Arsenal.

When GG left i was sad he had transformed the club from overpaid slackers into a side that could play football fight when required and even when we lost you knew they had put a shift in.That day at wembley in 1987 against Liverpool for people of my age the first time i had been there when we won something against the dominant team in England.Ferguson rightly gets lauded for his achievements but Graham was the first manager in many years to break the Merseyside stranglehold on the game.He obviously had to go for the bung situation the club still competitive in cups was sterile to watch it was the end of an era.Times change & things move on the older you get the more you understand that imo!

The feeling i get is that we can all see where we are going at present but there seems to be no natural end the manager has given us some unbeliveable times in the past they have long gone but like many can see they won't be coming back under this manager.He posts profits yearly & has no net spend in the market an absolute dream for an owner living in the USA sadly for fans that is the frustration.The excuse of City,Chelsea,Utd can outspend us irrelevant when we won't use the resources available.Arsenal always used to fight back not lie down and accept second best thats why i am disillusioned.

[skipper]

AS a Red Member I didn't get to Highbury often enough, when I did it was usually sorted out for me by a Silver Member that couldn't go. I didn't renew my Red Membership this season because of unemployment rather than any form of protest.
As a Red Member I was happier not to get a ticket for Highbury to see Adams, Keown, Vieira, Sol, Henry , Bergkamp, Pires etc , than being able to get a ticket for the Emirates to see Santos, Gervinho, Chamak Ramsey etc.
We hear today that we will be competitive in two years times. Fuck off Ivan we left the most historical stadium in football six years ago to be competitive. Wenger is at fault also, he is happy to follow the company policy. If he had any footballing principals he would walk.

They definitely "don't want your sort" at the Emirates.

[potter]

Graham was sacked to prevent further action from the F.A and probably the courts.

[hugh jardon]

The new stadium is a big source of discontent to me - does anyone actually enjoy going there? I know I don't. They really fucked up the basics to begin with - coloured quadrants rather than NB, CE, ES, & WS and no home 'end', just an undecorated identikit soulless concrete bowl. This demonstrates the club's incredible lack of relationship with it's own fans who they expect to fill their new stadium!

The 'arsenalisation' has improved things but the atmosphere is generally absolute shite. They play dreadful pop music at full blast before the game so any chance of the crowd singing is drowned out before the game has even kicked off. At Highbury the North Bank would chant players names whilst they warmed up or start singing at the opposition fans to create atmosphere, which is the thing people really went for. So sad that this culture has all but died out now at Arsenal.

Ticket prices are frankly insulting. But whilst the stadium continually sells out despite the crap atmosphere they will only go up. The food and drink prices inside are also appalling but again people must be happy to pay them. The club is able to sell a large number of tickets to overseas fans or tourists on a once in a lifetime trip. These fans are desirable as they will also spend their money in the club shops but only add to the woeful atmosphere, whereas the average local fan might not even buy a programme but is a genuine lifetime supporter and more likely to want to sing.

The move to the new stadium was sold to the fans as being necessary to enable the club to compete with the best in Europe. Instead since we have seen a huge decline in playing staff and thus trophies won.

The stadium debt was behind the doomed youth experiment that saw us fall behind the rest and has finally been ditched in favour of signing more experienced B-List players, in he hope Arsene can develop them into world class talent. However the squad remains bloated with average players on big wages: Fabianski, Mannone, Arshavin, Diaby, Djourou, Squillaci, Gervinho, Chamack and Eastmond, Denilson, Bendtner, Park all out on loan with their Arsenal careers all but over. This deadwood is disheartening.

A large part of being a football fan is having heroes - players who you idolise and you hope will stay at your club forever. At Arsenal us fans no longer enjoy this. Recent seasons have seen us sell countless players to our main rivals including all of our captains! No doubt Theo is the next to be moved on (replacement 17 year old Serge Gnabry!) and so we cannot even enjoy building relationships with our own players as we no longer trust them or the club's ambitons to want to stay at Arsenal. Does anyone even dare dream Jack Wilshere or Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain might stay forever? No, because it is now expected that our top players will leave and join our biggest rivals... A right mess!

There is so much wrong with the club at the moment and today's AGM has only made things worse. PHW and Gazidis have made themselves look ridiculous. I usually stick up for Wenger but he should never call 4th place "a trophy" (an "acheivement" is more accurate) as that just invites ridicule from other club's fans.

And I don't trust Usmanov either so fuck knows what the future will bring!

[DB10GOONER]

I am frustrated rather than disillusioned.
Numb rather than angry.

I am frustrated, disillusioned, numb and angry.
Have been for quite some time

With respect, I don't accept that at all, mate..

With respect...? Theres a first!

Only for a fellow mod. The rest of ya's are kúnts!

[REB]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/footba ... didas.html


an extra 13mill or so a season compared to nike. will keep the bank manager happy i suppose.

[Bradywasking]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/footba ... didas.html


an extra 13mill or so a season compared to nike. will keep the bank manager happy i suppose.

A new kit deal is more important than winning the domestic trophies.

[shu]

This is one of the low points , the agm , Silent Gormless Stan and that twat PHW , and Wenger saying the champsleague spot is 3rd on his priority list. How many other managers would settle for not being really competitive these days ?????????( oh one , nearing retirement , on a cushy number and 7.5 mill per year)

I have had the silver reg since day one but had 3 years when it was hardly used as i was pissed off each summer with Wenger saying he had £30-40 mill to spend and not spending it
to make matters worse if he did spend any he would sell the best players (what other top teams do this ????)

Last season i went to 7 games , i have a young son ,so i need to take him as hopefully the tossers up top will be gone and Usmanov in.

[I still Exiled-Gooner]

I became disillusioned after 2007/08 when instead of buying the 3/4 experienced players needed so we could go that one step further and WIN the P/L Wenger brought Silvestre and then i wanted him out as it was,to me,the first real indication that finances were the aim not trophies.Now it's a state of resignation to the fact that until things take a dramatic turn we stuck with this hierarchy .

I watched our struggles in the mid 70's and the fall of Bertie Mee then a surge in fortunes with Terry Neill etc but as always we faded and Don etc etc but this time all the circumstances are totally different.We always had money hence being called the ''Bank of England'' club but never wanted to spend but these days players are mercenary and money talks unlike the old days were honours were the carrot to attract quality,we have the money to attract the quality needed but the hierarchy refuses to speculate to take us those extra few rungs and actually WIN a trophy.

Not only is it the refusal to spend on quality but do our shopping in 2nd/3rd tier club aisle's i:e Ligue 1 it's the blatant lies told us about the stadium and the revenue from it,transfers,finances ,players contracts,performances etc etc etc and also the total disrespect and disregard of fans who money paid is feathering their nest.I've come to expect nothing more from Wenger and bum-chum Ivan but deceit,lies and loads of bullshit,so until there all gone my state of resignation will continue......

[highburyJD]

This is one of the low points , the agm , Silent Gormless Stan and that twat PHW , and Wenger saying the champsleague spot is 3rd on his priority list. How many other managers would settle for not being really competitive these days ?????????( oh one , nearing retirement , on a cushy number and 7.5 mill per year)

Liverpool fired King Kenny for a cup and no CL, I think the general consensus of money men is CL qualification > cups

[Eboue-Why?]

40 years of following AFC and no I haven't been this disillusioned. It's got nothing to do with the lack of trophies, we've all been through lean spells and as has been said, we've had far worse teams than currently. But there has always been honesty at AFC and that's something I now doubt.
I think yesterday did cement how pissed off I feel with the whole Board and Manager. You only have to look at Wenger's comment about CL Qualification v Winning a Cup. 'Top players aren't interested in Cups, only whether you're in the CL.'
Yet again this is a prime example of Wenger treating us like fucking village idiots. Where the fuck are these 'TOP' players who a) are interested in joining us and more importantly b) we have signed?
I don't understand why Wenger wasn't given us much grief as the others at the AGM. It's just constant bullshit and bollocks from a man paid £7.5m who most sensible AFC fans know has no motivational skills, no tactical nous and sends his teams out without coaching because he believes that we will always score more goals than the opposition.
That's why I'm disillusioned. Stewart Robson describes Wenger as a Dictator and that he runs Arsenal FC with nobody to question anything he says or does. I can believe that's allowed to happen, that he is not answerable to anybody and that's why it stinks.