THE ARSENAL TRADITIONS

[LDB]

Have to admit I’m saddened and sickened by the way our traditions have been cast aside. The blazers on match day, the team wearing the same sleeve length as the captain, yellow and blue away kit, red and white home kit, the proper crest with Latin motto... Not sure which of you chav fans ( ) mentioned the 80’s but it’s not just that. I think the 80’s is probably just coincidentally the time when our traditions were at their best and most popular.

Or possibly it could be that the 80s were when the grumpy old gits of today ( ) were in their misty-eyed yoof stage?

The crest developed over many decades but what the board did in 2002 was to totally redesign it PURELY to maximise profits (they even admitted this). This is not the same as the way we went from the old single cannon to the cannon with 3 cannonballs to the shield and cannon with Latin. That was development.

I would argue that it all comes back to profit in the end. Why would the club ever change badge if it weren't to make the club more appealing to potential new/current fans and hence make more wonga? I hear what you're saying about the copyright issue but my take on it was that if people were really so offended by the change of badge then they should have kicked up an almighty stink to get the club to reconsider or at least keep some of the gothic elements of the old badge. Like always Arsenal fans did fuck all but moan.

I'm not saying I like the new badge, I much prefer the old one, all I'm saying is that changing badge, for whatever reason, does not herald the end of days.

I hate to see players strut in with their scuzzy trackies and headphones on. They look like a shower of arseholes off a housing estate. The blazer was class. It made a statement. Agree with augie about team spirit too. The bus trip to the stadium should be about players getting each other motivated, not sitting locked into their own little world on their iPod.

Again, I'd much prefer to see us suited and booted, especially for cup finals. That was a fucking shambles when we rocked up to the League Cup final against Birmingham in our pyjamas, the day somehow got more embarrassing from there.

However, was turning up to every match in club suits really an Arsenal tradition or just something that we did in the 80s? I can also see how it's a matter of different management styles, I get the impression Wenger prefers players that are calm and (as he sees it) focused rather then the hare 'em nd scare 'em approach. I guess allowing players to wear what they're comfortable in and listen to music if it helps them focus is a part of that. Without necessarily agreeing with that I think the manager is welcome to make that decision without it being some massive violation of Arsenal tradition.

I went from viewing us as “The Arsenal” to just another team where we threw away our traditions. I don’t give a shit if a few people want to act all pragmatic about this and say “who cares?”. Great, you don’t care. Fuck you. Some of the rest of us do care though and it pisses us off.

Fixed that first bit for you

And fuck you too.

[Herd]

I was with u all the way until the hairy arse bit . I lotahed Gallas from that day when a better manager would have read the *word censored* the riot act fined and benched him ,stripped of captaincy too.

[rodders999]

I'm not going to excuse Gallas for his actions that day at Brum but I can relate to them. I actually believe I had a combined heart attack and mild nervous breakdown that afternoon, a truly horrific experience all round. I remember still being in a spin the following day, I thought my head was going to explode. Clichy you fucking prick

[clockender1]

Nothing new there then. How many badge and name changes have we had down the years? how many stadium moves? how many dodgy kits? hell, we even moved boroughs!

I have no problem with changing the shirt badge, but that crest and the latin were almost as old as Highbury, and Highbury was where modern football was born, it really was the crucible of modern football in so many ways and unlike the previous grounds and crest which were around for 5-10 years each, this is generations of history we're talking about being wiped away - the Chapman and Tom Whittaker Legacy, George Allison (who gave us "one Nil to The Arsenal", the Arsenal of the 1950's, the first Double team of the 1970's - there was a continous progression of those teams and the club's History at The Home of Football.

When you went to Highbury and walked around the stadium and saw the pitch you knew that decades of legends had walked that turf, Highbury was Arsenal, harking back to a unique history in the world game - the first team to win the World Cup (okay actually its predecessor but still...).

The sense of History was everywhere, it was a large part of the clubs identity - even when we were consistantly poor, we were referred to as a 'sleeping giant' in the press and we were known as "North London Giants, Arsenal" , our giantness founded on our History not our consistent success, you can't ever imagine Man City or Chelsea being called giants can you ?

The teams of the late seventies with Brady and Stapleton destroying the opposition, backed by the industriousness of Young, Price, Rice and Devine and the direct play of Sunderland, played the "Arsenal way" it wasn't just under George, it was under Terry Neil too.

But when George came back to Arsenal after we'd gone 17 years without a title, he was "An Arsenal Man" , he knew what a privilege and honour it was to pull on the famous red and white sleeved shirt and grace the holy turf - and he inherited a team of underperforming international superstars - Nicholas, Mariner, Woodcock, ViV Anderson, Samson, etc who had been pampered by former England Coach Don Howe, and he made them cut their hair, put a tie on , or he shipped them out, believing that you had to earn the Arsenal shirt and behave with class when representing the Club.

Like Liverpools 'boot room' of the 70's GG believed the clubs past had a part to play in its future - which is why club Legends like Geordie Armstrong, Bob Wilson and Pat Rice worked with the kids to instill Arsenal values of hard work, grit, determination, fair play, and putting the team before yourself, which produced diamonds from the rough edges of Adams, Keown, Thomas, Davis, Rocastle, Smith, Bould, Dixon, and Winterburn.

Of the team that won up at Anfield, only Marwood, Smith, Keown and Lukic came from other 1st Division clubs - and Keown was an Arsenal schoolboy anyway...

The run to the 1994 ECWC Final win was part of Arsenal's History too - Highbury on a European Night was magical, the Torino and PSG wins "Arsenal-like" victories a mixture of graft and skill.

Wenger inherited the famous five from George, and that was the foundation of the first Double and the springboard for the young talent that Wenger brought in.

So the History ran through all that, it ran deep and because of that we were known worldwide as THE Arsenal, singular, only one - there's no THE chelsea, united, liverpool or everton in the English vocablulary is there ?

But hey, it was okay to trash 80 years of history to make a few extra quid in the good times off the JCL's, tourists and those that would buy a hat for a tenner off the street stalls huh ?

I mean, in 1998,1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 it wasn't like we weren't competing was it ? - and its not like Marseille, Lyon, Valencia and Sevilla can't consistently challenge at home and in Europe can they ?. Or that LIverpool with their 'small ground' didn't win a European Title in 2005 and reach the final again in 2007 is it ?

We sold our soul.

[Chippy]

Nothing new there then. How many badge and name changes have we had down the years? how many stadium moves? how many dodgy kits? hell, we even moved boroughs!

I have no problem with changing the shirt badge, but that crest and the latin were almost as old as Highbury, and Highbury was where modern football was born, it really was the crucible of modern football in so many ways and unlike the previous grounds and crest which were around for 5-10 years each, this is generations of history we're talking about being wiped away - the Chapman and Tom Whittaker Legacy, George Allison (who gave us "one Nil to The Arsenal", the Arsenal of the 1950's, the first Double team of the 1970's - there was a continous progression of those teams and the club's History at The Home of Football.

When you went to Highbury and walked around the stadium and saw the pitch you knew that decades of legends had walked that turf, Highbury was Arsenal, harking back to a unique history in the world game - the first team to win the World Cup (okay actually its predecessor but still...).

The sense of History was everywhere, it was a large part of the clubs identity - even when we were consistantly poor, we were referred to as a 'sleeping giant' in the press and we were known as "North London Giants, Arsenal" , our giantness founded on our History not our consistent success, you can't ever imagine Man City or Chelsea being called giants can you ?

The teams of the late seventies with Brady and Stapleton destroying the opposition, backed by the industriousness of Young, Price, Rice and Devine and the direct play of Sunderland, played the "Arsenal way" it wasn't just under George, it was under Terry Neil too.

But when George came back to Arsenal after we'd gone 17 years without a title, he was "An Arsenal Man" , he knew what a privilege and honour it was to pull on the famous red and white sleeved shirt and grace the holy turf - and he inherited a team of underperforming international superstars - Nicholas, Mariner, Woodcock, ViV Anderson, Samson, etc who had been pampered by former England Coach Don Howe, and he made them cut their hair, put a tie on , or he shipped them out, believing that you had to earn the Arsenal shirt and behave with class when representing the Club.

Like Liverpools 'boot room' of the 70's GG believed the clubs past had a part to play in its future - which is why club Legends like Geordie Armstrong, Bob Wilson and Pat Rice worked with the kids to instill Arsenal values of hard work, grit, determination, fair play, and putting the team before yourself, which produced diamonds from the rough edges of Adams, Keown, Thomas, Davis, Rocastle, Smith, Bould, Dixon, and Winterburn.

Of the team that won up at Anfield, only Marwood, Smith, Keown and Lukic came from other 1st Division clubs - and Keown was an Arsenal schoolboy anyway...

The run to the 1994 ECWC Final win was part of Arsenal's History too - Highbury on a European Night was magical, the Torino and PSG wins "Arsenal-like" victories a mixture of graft and skill.

Wenger inherited the famous five from George, and that was the foundation of the first Double and the springboard for the young talent that Wenger brought in.

So the History ran through all that, it ran deep and because of that we were known worldwide as THE Arsenal, singular, only one - there's no THE chelsea, united, liverpool or everton in the English vocablulary is there ?

But hey, it was okay to trash 80 years of history to make a few extra quid in the good times off the JCL's, tourists and those that would buy a hat for a tenner off the street stalls huh ?

I mean, in 1998,1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 it wasn't like we weren't competing was it ? - and its not like Marseille, Lyon, Valencia and Sevilla can't consistently challenge at home and in Europe can they ?. Or that LIverpool with their 'small ground' didn't win a European Title in 2005 and reach the final again in 2007 is it ?

We sold our soul.

Wow. That brought a tear to my eye. Best post this year! Please tell me it was all your own work.

[arseofacrow]

Nothing new there then. How many badge and name changes have we had down the years? how many stadium moves? how many dodgy kits? hell, we even moved boroughs!

I have no problem with changing the shirt badge, but that crest and the latin were almost as old as Highbury, and Highbury was where modern football was born, it really was the crucible of modern football in so many ways and unlike the previous grounds and crest which were around for 5-10 years each, this is generations of history we're talking about being wiped away - the Chapman and Tom Whittaker Legacy, George Allison (who gave us "one Nil to The Arsenal", the Arsenal of the 1950's, the first Double team of the 1970's - there was a continous progression of those teams and the club's History at The Home of Football.

When you went to Highbury and walked around the stadium and saw the pitch you knew that decades of legends had walked that turf, Highbury was Arsenal, harking back to a unique history in the world game - the first team to win the World Cup (okay actually its predecessor but still...).

The sense of History was everywhere, it was a large part of the clubs identity - even when we were consistantly poor, we were referred to as a 'sleeping giant' in the press and we were known as "North London Giants, Arsenal" , our giantness founded on our History not our consistent success, you can't ever imagine Man City or Chelsea being called giants can you ?

The teams of the late seventies with Brady and Stapleton destroying the opposition, backed by the industriousness of Young, Price, Rice and Devine and the direct play of Sunderland, played the "Arsenal way" it wasn't just under George, it was under Terry Neil too.

But when George came back to Arsenal after we'd gone 17 years without a title, he was "An Arsenal Man" , he knew what a privilege and honour it was to pull on the famous red and white sleeved shirt and grace the holy turf - and he inherited a team of underperforming international superstars - Nicholas, Mariner, Woodcock, ViV Anderson, Samson, etc who had been pampered by former England Coach Don Howe, and he made them cut their hair, put a tie on , or he shipped them out, believing that you had to earn the Arsenal shirt and behave with class when representing the Club.

Like Liverpools 'boot room' of the 70's GG believed the clubs past had a part to play in its future - which is why club Legends like Geordie Armstrong, Bob Wilson and Pat Rice worked with the kids to instill Arsenal values of hard work, grit, determination, fair play, and putting the team before yourself, which produced diamonds from the rough edges of Adams, Keown, Thomas, Davis, Rocastle, Smith, Bould, Dixon, and Winterburn.

Of the team that won up at Anfield, only Marwood, Smith, Keown and Lukic came from other 1st Division clubs - and Keown was an Arsenal schoolboy anyway...

The run to the 1994 ECWC Final win was part of Arsenal's History too - Highbury on a European Night was magical, the Torino and PSG wins "Arsenal-like" victories a mixture of graft and skill.

Wenger inherited the famous five from George, and that was the foundation of the first Double and the springboard for the young talent that Wenger brought in.

So the History ran through all that, it ran deep and because of that we were known worldwide as THE Arsenal, singular, only one - there's no THE chelsea, united, liverpool or everton in the English vocablulary is there ?

But hey, it was okay to trash 80 years of history to make a few extra quid in the good times off the JCL's, tourists and those that would buy a hat for a tenner off the street stalls huh ?

I mean, in 1998,1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 it wasn't like we weren't competing was it ? - and its not like Marseille, Lyon, Valencia and Sevilla can't consistently challenge at home and in Europe can they ?. Or that LIverpool with their 'small ground' didn't win a European Title in 2005 and reach the final again in 2007 is it ?

We sold our soul.

yes, yes we did.

Thanks mate. Genuinely.

[clockender1]

its just how i feel about them, what we've lost is irreplaceable.

West Ham and Everton fans will go through it too, but with all due respect it will be 10 times less for them.

The Old Girl was up there with the Camp Nou, Maracana, Bernabeu, OT and Wembley as to what History was made on that pitch.

Even Pele in 1980 took his shoes off to walk that Holy turf. (sponsored by Atari though lol).

[arseofacrow]

its just how i feel about them, what we've lost is irreplaceable.

West Ham and Everton fans will go through it too, but with all due respect it will be 10 times less for them.

The Old Girl was up there with the Camp Nou, Maracana, Bernabeu, OT and Wembley as to what History was made on that pitch.

Even Pele in 1980 took his shoes off to walk that Holy turf. (sponsored by Atari though lol).

They won't understand mate. But you can rest assured, some of us do.

[g88ner]

Nothing new there then. How many badge and name changes have we had down the years? how many stadium moves? how many dodgy kits? hell, we even moved boroughs!

I have no problem with changing the shirt badge, but that crest and the latin were almost as old as Highbury, and Highbury was where modern football was born, it really was the crucible of modern football in so many ways and unlike the previous grounds and crest which were around for 5-10 years each, this is generations of history we're talking about being wiped away - the Chapman and Tom Whittaker Legacy, George Allison (who gave us "one Nil to The Arsenal", the Arsenal of the 1950's, the first Double team of the 1970's - there was a continous progression of those teams and the club's History at The Home of Football.

When you went to Highbury and walked around the stadium and saw the pitch you knew that decades of legends had walked that turf, Highbury was Arsenal, harking back to a unique history in the world game - the first team to win the World Cup (okay actually its predecessor but still...).

The sense of History was everywhere, it was a large part of the clubs identity - even when we were consistantly poor, we were referred to as a 'sleeping giant' in the press and we were known as "North London Giants, Arsenal" , our giantness founded on our History not our consistent success, you can't ever imagine Man City or Chelsea being called giants can you ?

The teams of the late seventies with Brady and Stapleton destroying the opposition, backed by the industriousness of Young, Price, Rice and Devine and the direct play of Sunderland, played the "Arsenal way" it wasn't just under George, it was under Terry Neil too.

But when George came back to Arsenal after we'd gone 17 years without a title, he was "An Arsenal Man" , he knew what a privilege and honour it was to pull on the famous red and white sleeved shirt and grace the holy turf - and he inherited a team of underperforming international superstars - Nicholas, Mariner, Woodcock, ViV Anderson, Samson, etc who had been pampered by former England Coach Don Howe, and he made them cut their hair, put a tie on , or he shipped them out, believing that you had to earn the Arsenal shirt and behave with class when representing the Club.

Like Liverpools 'boot room' of the 70's GG believed the clubs past had a part to play in its future - which is why club Legends like Geordie Armstrong, Bob Wilson and Pat Rice worked with the kids to instill Arsenal values of hard work, grit, determination, fair play, and putting the team before yourself, which produced diamonds from the rough edges of Adams, Keown, Thomas, Davis, Rocastle, Smith, Bould, Dixon, and Winterburn.

Of the team that won up at Anfield, only Marwood, Smith, Keown and Lukic came from other 1st Division clubs - and Keown was an Arsenal schoolboy anyway...

The run to the 1994 ECWC Final win was part of Arsenal's History too - Highbury on a European Night was magical, the Torino and PSG wins "Arsenal-like" victories a mixture of graft and skill.

Wenger inherited the famous five from George, and that was the foundation of the first Double and the springboard for the young talent that Wenger brought in.

So the History ran through all that, it ran deep and because of that we were known worldwide as THE Arsenal, singular, only one - there's no THE chelsea, united, liverpool or everton in the English vocablulary is there ?

But hey, it was okay to trash 80 years of history to make a few extra quid in the good times off the JCL's, tourists and those that would buy a hat for a tenner off the street stalls huh ?

I mean, in 1998,1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 it wasn't like we weren't competing was it ? - and its not like Marseille, Lyon, Valencia and Sevilla can't consistently challenge at home and in Europe can they ?. Or that LIverpool with their 'small ground' didn't win a European Title in 2005 and reach the final again in 2007 is it ?

We sold our soul.

Great club. Great memories.

But Highbury was too small. Sadly we'd outgrown our home and I genuinely understand why we moved.

Anyway, this is a tired old agument. Some understand the move, some don't. Some think we could have competed for the next century at Highbury, some think we'd eventually lose out financially and struggle to keep up. Some will point to our shitness in recent years as proof that we were wrong to move, whereas others will say it's too soon to write the stadium move off as a failure. Either way, it's a moot point. We did move, so lets hope we make a success of it in the coming decades.

[DB10GOONER]

Nothing new there then. How many badge and name changes have we had down the years? how many stadium moves? how many dodgy kits? hell, we even moved boroughs!

I have no problem with changing the shirt badge, but that crest and the latin were almost as old as Highbury, and Highbury was where modern football was born, it really was the crucible of modern football in so many ways and unlike the previous grounds and crest which were around for 5-10 years each, this is generations of history we're talking about being wiped away - the Chapman and Tom Whittaker Legacy, George Allison (who gave us "one Nil to The Arsenal", the Arsenal of the 1950's, the first Double team of the 1970's - there was a continous progression of those teams and the club's History at The Home of Football.

When you went to Highbury and walked around the stadium and saw the pitch you knew that decades of legends had walked that turf, Highbury was Arsenal, harking back to a unique history in the world game - the first team to win the World Cup (okay actually its predecessor but still...).

The sense of History was everywhere, it was a large part of the clubs identity - even when we were consistantly poor, we were referred to as a 'sleeping giant' in the press and we were known as "North London Giants, Arsenal" , our giantness founded on our History not our consistent success, you can't ever imagine Man City or Chelsea being called giants can you ?

The teams of the late seventies with Brady and Stapleton destroying the opposition, backed by the industriousness of Young, Price, Rice and Devine and the direct play of Sunderland, played the "Arsenal way" it wasn't just under George, it was under Terry Neil too.

But when George came back to Arsenal after we'd gone 17 years without a title, he was "An Arsenal Man" , he knew what a privilege and honour it was to pull on the famous red and white sleeved shirt and grace the holy turf - and he inherited a team of underperforming international superstars - Nicholas, Mariner, Woodcock, ViV Anderson, Samson, etc who had been pampered by former England Coach Don Howe, and he made them cut their hair, put a tie on , or he shipped them out, believing that you had to earn the Arsenal shirt and behave with class when representing the Club.

Like Liverpools 'boot room' of the 70's GG believed the clubs past had a part to play in its future - which is why club Legends like Geordie Armstrong, Bob Wilson and Pat Rice worked with the kids to instill Arsenal values of hard work, grit, determination, fair play, and putting the team before yourself, which produced diamonds from the rough edges of Adams, Keown, Thomas, Davis, Rocastle, Smith, Bould, Dixon, and Winterburn.

Of the team that won up at Anfield, only Marwood, Smith, Keown and Lukic came from other 1st Division clubs - and Keown was an Arsenal schoolboy anyway...

The run to the 1994 ECWC Final win was part of Arsenal's History too - Highbury on a European Night was magical, the Torino and PSG wins "Arsenal-like" victories a mixture of graft and skill.

Wenger inherited the famous five from George, and that was the foundation of the first Double and the springboard for the young talent that Wenger brought in.

So the History ran through all that, it ran deep and because of that we were known worldwide as THE Arsenal, singular, only one - there's no THE chelsea, united, liverpool or everton in the English vocablulary is there ?

But hey, it was okay to trash 80 years of history to make a few extra quid in the good times off the JCL's, tourists and those that would buy a hat for a tenner off the street stalls huh ?

I mean, in 1998,1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 it wasn't like we weren't competing was it ? - and its not like Marseille, Lyon, Valencia and Sevilla can't consistently challenge at home and in Europe can they ?. Or that LIverpool with their 'small ground' didn't win a European Title in 2005 and reach the final again in 2007 is it ?

We sold our soul.

Fantastic post, mate. Contender for post of the year.

[spike241]

OR

[LewisT92]

In regards to the suits, we wore those one's above before the match against L'Pool.

Was there a reason why we did that for a change cause against dortmund we went straight back to the tracksuits?

I know some people don't like the fact we wear tracksuits instead of suits but it doesn't really bother me as they're football players, not business men (although I wouldn't complain if we did wear suits, does look smart).

What I can't stand is managers in tracksuits, this latest fad of players wearing tracksuit tops for walking out the tunnel onto the pitch (FFS your taking them straight off in a minute!) and also players wearing short sleeves shirts with the under armour/ thermal shit showing (Looking at you Woj)

The tradition I've always liked and glad they still do it, is the players lining up before the game and clapping the whole crowd.

[arseofacrow]

It's official - g88ner has no soul

[clockender1]

just some old guy with a cup on some grass apparently :



our former club now. yay :

[northbank123]

I hardly think that switching back to suits is going to be a magic fix to our trophy drought and I'm not a professional footballer but in my personal experience having to dress smartly for games instils a level of professionalism and focus that rocking up in trackies just doesn't.