in the wake of the disaster in baku or wherever the fuck the match was yesterday, and really for the last few months, we've been talking about which players will stay, which will go, if the manager will stay, how attractive we are as a club, what formation we should play, and where it all went wrong. but beyond all of those individual conversations, some of which are more tedious than others, i believe the glaring issue right now is that we have no identity as a club. for years, we were the club who managed their finances better than anyone else, who bought young talent and groomed them, and then managed to build a new stadium while maintaining a team with a lesser budget, all while playing attractive, if not sometimes reckless, football. when people talked about arsenal, they immediately thought about the intricate possession play and the brilliant team goals. and for a long time, our identity was tied firmly to wenger, his longevity, and it always ended up back with the invincibles.
but now, do we even have an identity anymore? we're no longer the team with the new big shiny stadium that we're so proud of...the emirates is 13 years old or whatever. we're no longer the team everyone mentions when you say "beautiful football"....we're not lauded for our brilliant tiki taka goals, we're not praised for our brilliant counterattacking, and we're certainly not praised for a revitalization of the one nil to the arsenal days. we're no longer the team that identifies the hidden jewels and develops them. we're not known as the club of stability anymore, after what has happened in the last year with key figures (not wenger) leaving mid-season. the reality is, we have no identity at all. i supported emery for a long time, when he was getting beat up constantly...but if we are being honest, he did not create any kind of identity in this team. i understand that rome wasn't built in a day, but this season we played some of the most dreadful football i can remember, and ive been following this club, in some capacity, for close to 25 years. even after the invincibles when things started to decline, we played tons of matches where we scored a bunch of goals, and though it was frustrating how bad we were defensively at times, at least the prospect of scoring goals was there, and you often saw some spectacular team goals. this season felt like an absolute slog, with only a few actual games i can even remember off the top of my head. sure, we didn't lose 6-1 to man city or united or liverpool, but honestly, does that even matter when the footie in the other 34 league matches was so uninspiring? you'd maybe even be willing to live with pragmatic, solid football if it meant lots of 1-0 and 2-0 wins where we just handled things professionally, but we didnt even have that for much of the year. on any given day, it felt like we could concede 3 or 4 to a sunday league team.
its not like you can just flip a switch and stop caring about arsenal. this club has been a big part of my life for a long time, even as an idiot american who cant be immersed in the culture like a lot of you are. when i was in london a few years ago, i actually got to go to a game, and it was one of the highlights of my life. but if im being honest, this club has really sucked a lot of the life out of the sport for me in the last 5-6 years, even as we actually broke our trophy drought and won a bunch of FA cups. wenger stayed too long, and the culture he built at the club turned out to be toxic. but beyond that, it doesn't feel like the club is equipped to make hard decisions, to make decisive decisions, and to actually forge an identity. city may be a soulless, financially doped club, but you cant say they arent committed to what they are trying to accomplish. right now, i dont even know what arsenal football club is trying to accomplish. we're not going to spend like city, chelsea, united and liverpool. we're not committed to youth. we're not committed to trying to play an exciting brand of football. we're not committed to trying to build a rock solid defensive team that handles things professionally. in other words, we don't seem committed to giving the supporters of the club a reason to be excited and a reason to care. ive set an alarm on saturday and sunday mornings regularly for the last decade to wake up and watch arsenal, sometimes at 7am, even when its meant having to risk getting a virus on my laptop to find a stream for a game when it wasnt on tv. i've re-arranged social obligations so i could watch big arsenal matches. and for the first time, right now, im wondering why i should even bother to go out of my way to do any of that.
i was proud of being an arsenal supporter, in a country that doesn't really give a shit about football. when i encountered a man united fan or a liverpool fan or whatever else, i was proud to say i supported arsenal, a club that stood for something and was committed to playing beautiful football, win or lose. right now, im not sure what this club is committed to. i'll support the club until the day i die, because that is what sports does to me, but fucking hell, this club really needs to re-discover their mojo and figure out how to snap out of his malaise. because its been really mentally exhausting, and i think we as supporters deserve better from the club that we give so much to. if winning isnt possible, the club at least needs to have an identity, a positive identity, that fans can get behind. right now, in that sense, we feel bankrupt.
