Big Willie wrote:
I mean it's been pretty obvious since the Foreign, Foreign Arsenal days. Media bias fed into the bias you see from refs.
It goes all the way back to Norris and Chapman, and a number of high profile incidents & perceptions through the years.
I think people forget how much Norris and AFC were disliked/hated/vilified, and particularly after the move from Woolwich to Islington. We were the brash new money, southern, not part of the established order, and the club was rebuilt from bankruptcy with an agenda that did not conform to the accepted status quo of the game at that time. We were not only the Abramovich and CFC of the time in terms of money, ambition, and being foreign, but we also represented change to the game much the same as The Packer Circus would later change cricket, or even how the games would later be seen on TV. Whilst Chapman made a number of changes to the game the biggest impact he was involved in was the manager becoming 'as God', and having the authority to choose his players for his squad and to pick his team. Chapman was the first to do so in the English game, and in many ways AW was the last to hold as much power (although there is a case to suggest Guardiola continues to hold similar levels of authority/power, with mini-Pep looking to do the same).
I was interested to read we had a reputation as 'spoilers' under GG, and under AW we were 'soft' as we didn't like physical challenges, with the inference being that when we did so we must have done so illegally.
In terms of the Foreign Arsenal days and the backlash associated to this, again it needs to be put into the context that for a very long time we had been seen as being very English and very reliable/conservative, and were called the 'Bank of England' club in regards to our reputation and stoic play, and our continuity/stability of the 3 generations of Chairman from the same family that began with Norris' banning and ended with PHW. AW changed all that and again brought change to the domestic game. At the same time there was our role with DD in the formation of the EPL. In many ways the DD/AW era brought us full circle to the impacts of the Norris/Chapman era, and old grudges renewed.
If that all seems too long ago, an example of old school talk and how entrenched things become is seen in any reference to the club as 'The Arsenal', as we officially stopped calling ourselves anything other than 'Arsenal' after we regained promotion to the top flight after WWI and the controversy that continues to surround it.
Apologies for my off topic ramblings. :saint:
