Rubbish Support

[StaffordshireGooner]

I'm sure there's loads of threads on this already, but I basically signed up here to have a rant about how crap our fans have been this week.

I hope everyone who got up and left after the third goal on Tuesday night hung their head in shame when the Chelski were singing "3-0, time to go home" yesterday. If any shame was felt it didn't prevent a similar exodus yesterday, albeit of smaller proportions. How do you think it makes us look in the eyes of real fans who sit and watch their teams get thrashed week in week out, but sit there and support their players through it all? A bunch of part time glory hunters, thats how it makes us look.

Mind you, if these part timers are the same ones who booed Adebayor every time he touched the ball yesterday then perhaps it's a blessing they leave early. He's wearing the red and white yet I swear some morons gave him more grief than Cashley Hole. Unbelievable, the hell with questioning the commitment of the players, where is the commitment from the fans?

[Eboue-Why?]

Welcome to the Forum matey. Put your tin hat on as no doubt some will be replying shortly to justify the exodus.
For what it's worth I'm with you 100%.

[REB]

no one like to see the grove empty but it has to work both ways, i have never left a game before the final whistle but the team and manager need to get the support behind them and for that to happen it has to be on the field of play which they are just not doing, it im amazed that worse hasn't happened and that shows the loyalty the fans have for the team that a walk out is the only reaction to another crappy end of season, for what its worth i think people have the right to do what they want and if people are pissed off with the team and this is the only way for wenger to notice then so be it.

[Vince]

Wenger doesn't care, he said yesterday after the game that 'everybody is free to leave when he wants'. That doesn't help the team, they won't give 200% to come back in an empty stadium, they need support especially in this kind of time. And that show a very bad picture of the Arsenal fans in England and even in the world.

[digger]

There aren't many stadiums in the world that would be more than half full if the home side were being spanked 4 - 1. I have more of an issue with supporters who leave when it's still game on, 1 - 0 down, or a 0 - 0 draw, or because they want to catch an earlier train to "avoid the crush".

[goonersid]

Fans leave early from every ground in the country, and as for the chavs yesterday, they can't even sell their ticket allocation for most games.
Although I do agree that too many leave earlywhen things aren't going our way, I had to leave 10 min early yesterday otherwise I would simply have missed my flight home, however my day out for the game began at 6-30 am and ended when I got home at 30 min past midnight, it consisted of 2 flights 3 taxis 3 coach journeys and a train journey. So I will excuse myself for leaving 10 mins early. Given the shite I was being served at the time.

[12thGooner]

Its does seem there are now two seperate causes for the early leavers issue.

For pretty much the whole season there's the last 10 minutes wehre the stadium just seems to empty so everyone can get in the crush for the tube earlier than waiting for the final whistle.

In the last week we've seen this change from being all of the above, who would leave regardless to people leaving due to being completely disaatisfied with whats on offer on the pitch.

When you see your team knocked out the CL with only 10 minutes gone, you can't be too suprised to see people leaving when we concede another.

And yesterday, we didn't actually play that bad, once the 3rd goal had gone in what do you expect some of the less patient fans to do.

No team has the right to win trophies , but we as fans should expect The Arsenal to be competing to the wire for at least 3 a season. Were promised that week in week out, but then to be shown such pitiful displays of football, people have had enough and they just leave.

were not a mid-table team that are pleased to make the knockout or final stages of a cup run, we're a top 4 team that should deliver to justify their status in the league and global stage.

[DB10GOONER]

I've never left a game early, never will. But it's a fan's choice - if they feel betrayed or let down by the shit on the pitch it is up to them. Personally, I find an exodus like that embarrassing but what can you do? Lock them in?

[NBN]

All this early leavers debate is getting silly now. As far i'm concerned you pays your money you make your choice.

Never used to leave early at highbury as i used to enjoy being there. In the new ground if we are 3 nil up and have the game wrapped up i will leave and get in the pub, same as if like yesterday we have clearly lost i will get back in the pub.

Don't really think early leavers is the problems, it is the divs that populate our ground either sitting on their hands all game or wearing their sombreros singing 'is there a fire drill' like they are some kind of die hard supporter rather than a spotty geek from surrey.

[Rob]

the hell with questioning the commitment of the players, where is the commitment from the fans?

Firstly Staff Gooner - welcome to the forumn and if you come down all the way from Staffordshire every 10 days or so, then you're a better man than I am. It's hard enough doing 60 miles let alone 160 miles.

As to your point about the fans - this really has been done to death.

1992 North Bank Stand ? - we paid for it !

Away allocation ? - sells out every game.

You'll never get the Emirates built - said the critics. It was.

It will never be filled - said the same. It is.

The ticket prices are too high ! They are but we come anyway.

We don't make an atmosphere. Very true - although there was one and a very good one, on Tuesday evening. And if the Club ban flags and the stewards become hysterical if you stand up - then this conveys the impression that the Club only want our money and precious little else.

Saw Real's support when Barca whacked 'em 2 - 6 ? Not a lot of passion there and they have 9 European Cups to our big fat 0


So please don't come on here bleating about lack of committment or support otherwise people quite inadvetantly get the impression that your concept of Arsenal doesn't go back beyond Wenger's arrival. And that may well be quite wrong.

We match up in cash and numbers to anyone. There's a lot wrong with Arsenal right now but this revolves around the Managers judgement and the players ineptitude. Nothing to do with us.

[Reg Niseth]

[quote="NBN"]All this early leavers debate is getting silly now. As far i'm concerned you pays your money you make your choice.

Never used to leave early at highbury as i used to enjoy being there. In the new ground if we are 3 nil up and have the game wrapped up i will leave and get in the pub, same as if like yesterday we have clearly lost i will get back in the pub.

Don't really think early leavers is the problems, it is the divs that populate our ground either sitting on their hands all game or wearing their sombreros singing 'is there a fire drill' like they are some kind of die hard supporter rather than a spotty geek from surrey.[/quote]

Is that the one that wears hair gel and a replica shirt over the top of his hoodie, been supporting them all his life, goes once a season 'cos he's a student but that doesn't stop him being ARSENAL'S NUMBER ONE FAN?

[StaffordshireGooner]

Lock them in?

Now we're thinking!

OK, now the rant is off my chest, I'll try a more reasoned approach. I know people have trains to catch, I'm one of them. If you've got to go then fine, I know taking the train makes attending a match an all day commitment and frankly a pain in the arse (the travelling bit that is). But that cannot account for more than 5% of fans can it? It's not THAT hard to book a train that allows you to stay for the whole game. On Tuesday night I waited an hour at Paddington for my train because the earlier one would have meant leaving the match five minutes early (and wouldn't have allowed me to stay for extra time, I was that optimistic). And I wasn't the only one, the train was full of gooners who had done the same thing, in fact the train reverberated with grumbling about people leaving early!

As for other reasons, expressing dissatisfaction and all that, I don't really buy it. The players, board members and coaching staff that are worth having don't need a half empty stadium to tell them we're under-achieving. Those that aren't worth having simply don't care either way, they are watching the share prices, T shirt sales and the TV revenue. You've already paid for your ticket so leaving early isn't sending them a message.

I really don't understand this idea of the players needing to lift the fans. We are probably all guilty of it though, I know I am. I sit feeling sorry for myself until that equaliser goes in, then I'm singing like a loon. But that doesn't make it right. We all hear about the 12th man at the Britannia and Anfield (the Kop. The bloody Kop. Every time I hear a commentator singing the praises of the Kop I want to eat my radio), I doubt they sit around waiting to be lifted by the players. If the players need to win over their own fans then we are providing an obstacle to success, not playing a part in it.

I honestly think people leave early because they haven't got it in them to sit and suffer with the rest of us, to tolerate the most sickening disappointment to show the team we are there for them through thick and thin. They'll be there for the glory no doubt, but sitting through 80 minutes of Manc abuse is what makes those glories all the sweeter when they eventually come around, and that's something early-leavers just won't appreciate.

[digger]

Too many of them....

[12thGooner]

Don't really think early leavers is the problems, it is the divs that populate our ground either sitting on their hands all game or wearing their sombreros singing 'is there a fire drill' like they are some kind of die hard supporter rather than a spotty geek from surrey.

Early leaving is ok ??? and you have a dig at the only section of the ground to at least make a constant effort to make some noise.

[StaffordshireGooner]

So please don't come on here bleating about lack of committment or support otherwise people quite inadvetantly get the impression that your concept of Arsenal doesn't go back beyond Wenger's arrival. And that may well be quite wrong.

I don't really see how this relates to going back before Wenger's arrival? This is a very current issue. I sat in the North Bank at Highbury, and the only time I remember people leaving en-masse was the 3-0 defeat to Inter Milan. I'm dredging my memory here, I don't remember the year or the round, I just remember texting the Gooner with my outrage, back when they did that thing where your texts during the match went in the mag. Mine didn't. But I was SO outraged precisely because it was so unusual. Anywho, that was during Wenger's reign so maybe I am proving your point.

Also, I haven't actually mentioned the atmosphere because I don't feel that is something that is ever dealt with fairly. I go with my Dad, who has been going since 1962 and who will be struck dumb with depression for days on end by Arsenal defeats. He can name pretty much every first team player since before his first match, and is far more fanatical than I am, yet he never sings. Its just not his way. And I am certainly a follower, not a leader, when it comes to singing. I am simply talking about the two cardinal sins in my eyes, abandoning your team and booing your players.