As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
UTU The Arsenal wrote:German Fans take Action while English Fans continue to complain while allowing themselves to robbed by 'Corporate business's posing as football clubs.
Have mentioned examples of boycotts etc from the continent before only to be shouted down about it "not being the English way" or "the club have us by the balls" or some other such nonsense. Complete & utter bollocks.
Sadly, a boycott at Arsenal is likely to be even less effective than at many other grounds simply due to the amount of tourists they can get in to fill empty seats. Come to London, visit Tower Bridge, ride on the London Eye, catch a game at Arsenal etc etc.
Dan. Our fans are pussies. Plain and simple.
The AKBs are the biggest bunch of wet flaky-arse maggots you have ever seen. I have seen more resistance in a peanut brittle, Diaby's femur is harder than these people.
'The club have us by the balls'. HOW? By paying Gazidis more than all the Chelski directors combined? By paying an overrated mediocre manager a king's ransom? By consistently screwing the fans over with transfer window lack of ambition? Or by charging £125 to watch Chelski hump us? How then? It's bullshit and an excuse for weakness is all.
I know season ticket holders who want Wenger out more than anything but still go to every home game and put money into the club. Throws your bullshit 'AKB' theory out the window.
Yes. And your friends sound like very intelligent chaps too.
You know what? Weshoulda had these friends of yours handle apartheid South Africa in the 1980s.
That way, they could have sent a really strong anti-apartheid message and registered their utter disgust with that regim, by tripling their trade agreements with them and helping them grow their profits.
Yes. Sure is a way to make a stand, now why on earth did the likes of Che Guevara not ever think up such outstanding tactics...
You do talk some bollocks Baba apartheid indeed
Cant you see (or maybe you dont feel) peoples almost addiction to Arsenal? Its a love that most of us have of the club whether they are doing it on the pitch or not, whether youre happy with the management or not.... Its a love you grew up with and you love till the day you die unlike many girlfriends and wives even. As i said maybe you dont have those feelings but most do and i would NEVER knock them for going to Arsenal even though they are unhappy with certain aspects of the club.... Apartheid pah
mikeyb772001 wrote:yeh thats right! Im no AKB and anyone that knows me or has gone a game with me can confirm i air my views loud and proud. I get in rows with so called akbs all the time
i will never stop going as it would leave a whole in my life. I guess moaning so much fills that hole for some. But for me drinking with great mates and having the odd great moment sways it for me
All of which are things that can perfectly be done outside the confines of the space dome. It's quite simple really: if you pay for it, you endorse it. Simple as.
If I think my local Tesco are taking liberties and jacking up the price I don't as a 'customer' (which is what you are at Arsenal) moan about it...before emptying my wallet to pay a fiver for a loaf of bread...
Youre comparing going to Tesco's with going to Arsenal?
You know less about football than i ever took you for, incredible
I dont like the fact im being mugged off B, but as i said i enjoy my weekends too much. Ive got a great seat in the grove, i can stand up and go any away game i like. Every game im with close mates getting smashed and getting away from normality at home.
Fucked if i wana go clubbing at 34 years old so what else would i do?
I agree with everything u say and all your views. But at the same time there are some of who still go who just cant help it.
If people like me and my mates didnt go anymopre, then the situation would be even worse. The place would really get over run.
For a club that preaches their morals to the rest of football, the prices Arsenal charge are nothing short of scandalous.
The move to the Emirates was dressed up as a noble thing. We probably were not used to Arsenal lying to us as much back then but the move was a big con by the club and for 2 key reasons.
Firstly they told us it was to compete with the elite of Europe - I think we all know how that one has turned out.
Secondly they told told us the bigger capacity was so more fans could see us. All the ones that couldnt fit into Highbury. But what did they do? They set the prices so high that it priced most of those same people out of going.
Big fucking hoax. As were the lies about not being able to increase the capacity at Highbury because of the obstacles involved. A multi -purpose corporate friendly arena was what they wanted. There was nothing noble about it. As we've seen there is nothing sacred about Arsenal's home ground anymore. From Blue concerts to X-Factor auditions ... if it makes money Arsenal will sell out.
Wouldnt be as hard to swallow if this extra revenue earned by cheapening our name meant they kept our ticket prices down but not a chance. Greedy and contemptible fuckers the lot of 'em!
mikeyb772001 wrote:yeh thats right! Im no AKB and anyone that knows me or has gone a game with me can confirm i air my views loud and proud. I get in rows with so called akbs all the time
i will never stop going as it would leave a whole in my life. I guess moaning so much fills that hole for some. But for me drinking with great mates and having the odd great moment sways it for me
All of which are things that can perfectly be done outside the confines of the space dome. It's quite simple really: if you pay for it, you endorse it. Simple as.
If I think my local Tesco are taking liberties and jacking up the price I don't as a 'customer' (which is what you are at Arsenal) moan about it...before emptying my wallet to pay a fiver for a loaf of bread...
Youre comparing going to Tesco's with going to Arsenal?
You know less about football than i ever took you for, incredible
Yes I equated it. The reason being, if you'd ever picked up a book in your short life, you'd realise that a club that bases itswhole model on corporatisation, and calls fans 'customers', selling a corporate product, using the prrimacy of 'balance sheets' and 'self sustainability', whilst remunerating board members and directors to a massive degree - whilst fleecing the customer - is exacty the same corporate model Tesco's is run on.
Then again, you're too mentally redundant to grasp such a concept, so I thought I'd simplify it for your wee Essex brain
flash gunner wrote: You do talk some bollocks Baba apartheid indeed
Cant you see (or maybe you dont feel) peoples almost addiction to Arsenal? Its a love that most of us have of the club whether they are doing it on the pitch or not, whether youre happy with the management or not.... Its a love you grew up with and you love till the day you die unlike many girlfriends and wives even. As i said maybe you dont have those feelings but most do and i would NEVER knock them for going to Arsenal even though they are unhappy with certain aspects of the club.... Apartheid pah
Addiction? What are we talking about here - methadone and crack addiction? Or a football team that will still be here long after the wankers running it into the ground are departed?
Who sounds like a muppet now?
What makes it even funnier is that I've supported the club longer than most of the kids on here, so I know what it means to support Arsenal - except that Arsenal FC is kinda dead isn't it.
So no. I cannot see the 'addiction' peple have to a faceless mendacious corporation of supine egotists. If your life is so hollow that not shelling out a fortune to watch a bunch of preening flouncing dilettantes taking the piss, when that same money could be spent on good causes like mentoring children, helping a worthwhile cause or perhaps doing something that might even increase your brain capacity like oooh....Paying for a trip to go see the Prad etc (all things that can be done for the price of a Cat A fixture) hen it is YOU who fails to see how sad a situation you reside in.
Last edited by Babatunde on Wed Oct 03, 2012 3:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
mikeyb772001 wrote:I dont like the fact im being mugged off B, but as i said i enjoy my weekends too much. Ive got a great seat in the grove, i can stand up and go any away game i like. Every game im with close mates getting smashed and getting away from normality at home.
Fucked if i wana go clubbing at 34 years old so what else would i do?
I agree with everything u say and all your views. But at the same time there are some of who still go who just cant help it.
If people like me and my mates didnt go anymopre, then the situation would be even worse. The place would really get over run.
I completely understand where yuo're coming from - but is the place not overrun already? I sure don't hear a single iota of dissent towards that idiot manager at games. Only audible chants are the 'One Arsene Wenger' chants.
So what difference are the likes of you making? Not a pop, but a genuine question?
flash gunner wrote:Youre comparing going to Tesco's with going to Arsenal?
You know less about football than i ever took you for, incredible
Yes I equated it. The reason being, if you'd ever picked up a book in your short life, you'd realise that a club that bases itswhole model on corporatisation, and calls fans 'customers', selling a corporate product, using the prrimacy of 'balance sheets' and 'self sustainability', whilst remunerating board members and directors to a massive degree - whilst fleecing the customer - is exacty the same corporate model Tesco's is run on.
Then again, you're too mentally redundant to grasp such a concept, so I thought I'd simplify it for your wee Essex brain
What's with the childish insults and name calling Baba? Come on have an adult conversation.
Now the club might regard us as customers but thats not the point, the point is what we make of the club. Arsenal fans will love the club come what may in a totally different way Mrs.Flash (and all the other ladies ) love Tescos. Arsenal will always mean more to me than any shop or organisation you want to equate it with and thats my/our strength and weakness and you really dont understand that?
UTU The Arsenal wrote:
BANG ON.
Laugh my arse off at ppl complaining about the regime whilst handing over thousands in ST fees. Like those green and gold Manc jokers who made protests (in full £80 replica kits, eating OT hot dogs with match programme in hand).
Be like Martin Luther King making a stand whilst paying the KKK membership fees...
I can see this side of the argument but I dont think it is as black and white as it makes out.
Yeah I feel like a mug for paying for my ST every summer. And yeah I know I am part of the problem I complain about.
But I've been going to Arsenal all my life. Its something I share with my dad and his mates and the same for them with their dads etc.
So to just give it up is not as clear cut an option as its made out to be. I repsect the people who have been able to do it after decades of going and I wont deny I have thought long and hard about doing the same.
But what have they achieved other than saving their money? Their boycott hasnt affected how the club is run one bit. All that happens is someone else buys the ticket and things carry on.
If I give up I save over a grand but it would leave a void that nothing else can fill. Pathetic maybe but sadly its true.
The club blatantly exploit us, no doubt. But there is no simple answer.
mikeyb772001 wrote:I dont like the fact im being mugged off B, but as i said i enjoy my weekends too much. Ive got a great seat in the grove, i can stand up and go any away game i like. Every game im with close mates getting smashed and getting away from normality at home.
Fucked if i wana go clubbing at 34 years old so what else would i do?
I agree with everything u say and all your views. But at the same time there are some of who still go who just cant help it.
If people like me and my mates didnt go anymopre, then the situation would be even worse. The place would really get over run.
UTU The Arsenal wrote:
BANG ON.
Laugh my arse off at ppl complaining about the regime whilst handing over thousands in ST fees. Like those green and gold Manc jokers who made protests (in full £80 replica kits, eating OT hot dogs with match programme in hand).
Be like Martin Luther King making a stand whilst paying the KKK membership fees...
I can see this side of the argument but I dont think it is as black and white as it makes out.
Yeah I feel like a mug for paying for my ST every summer. And yeah I know I am part of the problem I complain about.
But I've been going to Arsenal all my life. Its something I share with my dad and his mates and the same for them with their dads etc.
So to just give it up is not as clear cut an option as its made out to be. I repsect the people who have been able to do it after decades of going and I wont deny I have thought long and hard about doing the same.
But what have they achieved other than saving their money? Their boycott hasnt affected how the club is run one bit. All that happens is someone else buys the ticket and things carry on.
If I give up I save over a grand but it would leave a void that nothing else can fill. Pathetic maybe but sadly its true.
The club blatantly exploit us, no doubt. But there is no simple answer.
Completely see and respect your points.
What I don't agree with though is this "someone else will take my place"
Sorry that's bollocks. If this was Barca or Real we were talking about then I'd agree. Problem is, bigger clubs than Arsenal have organised boycotts and succeeded.
Arsenal aren't so huge that the club has an unlimited stream of fans, it's naive to think so.
Remember, this is a club with no household names at all, not one single established world class player, and no trophies in eight years!
Bigger empires have fallen. It's not like Manure who have unlimited fans up and down the country, this is a club with no European pedigree ffs! So no, not as simple as "someone will take my place"
MM99 wrote:I'm just praying for the time when the football bubble finally bursts to come soon. In the meantime I maintain my boycott of home games.
Why do you boycott home games while still putting money into the coffers of other clubs in the Premier League who are just as big a rip off merchants as Arsenal....? I pay an average of £34 per game for my ST. I've paid a good bit more than that at many away games over the last few years.
MM99 wrote:I'm just praying for the time when the football bubble finally bursts to come soon. In the meantime I maintain my boycott of home games.
Why do you boycott home games while still putting money into the coffers of other clubs in the Premier League who are just as big a rip off merchants as Arsenal....? I pay an average of £34 per game for my ST. I've paid a good bit more than that at many away games over the last few years.
Arsenal is unique.
Other clubs are not "just as bad".
No other club rakes in £3m per home game.
No other club can count on years of CL revenue and persistent lack of investment in quality personnel.
No other club shows contempt for its fans as Arsenal does.
No other club has a manager preaching prudence on wages, as he collects £7m per year for doing fuck all.
No other club has a CEO happy to bulkshit fans about prudence, as he picks up a 26% wage increase without a hint of irony.
MM99 wrote:I'm just praying for the time when the football bubble finally bursts to come soon. In the meantime I maintain my boycott of home games.
Why do you boycott home games while still putting money into the coffers of other clubs in the Premier League who are just as big a rip off merchants as Arsenal....? I pay an average of £34 per game for my ST. I've paid a good bit more than that at many away games over the last few years.
Arsenal is unique.
Other clubs are not "just as bad".
No other club rakes in £3m per home game.
No other club can count on years of CL revenue and persistent lack of investment in quality personnel.
No other club shows contempt for its fans as Arsenal does.
No other club has a manager preaching prudence on wages, as he collects £7m per year for doing fuck all.
No other club has a CEO happy to bulkshit fans about prudence, as he picks up a 26% wage increase without a hint of irony.
You make some good points, but I still think the main issue is the Premier League, not Arsenal FC.... Some clubs have maintained success despite ripping off fans and being financially mismanaged e.g. Man Utd. They just got lucky with having a better Manager than us! And some clubs have bought success at the risk of Luton, Leeds, Rangers size sanctions in years to come. And then there are others, like Chelsea, who have an owner who is supposed to be the one bankrolling them to success - but ignoring that their fans pay just as high a price as our own!
MM99 wrote:I'm just praying for the time when the football bubble finally bursts to come soon. In the meantime I maintain my boycott of home games.
Why do you boycott home games while still putting money into the coffers of other clubs in the Premier League who are just as big a rip off merchants as Arsenal....? I pay an average of £34 per game for my ST. I've paid a good bit more than that at many away games over the last few years.
Reading away just cost me 15 quid. I can justify paying that. European away games I use them to visit stadiums I haven't been to before and a chance to experience another country with my mates for a few days and have a laugh. Again, I can justify the amount I spend on that. What I don't accept is paying £65 for the cheapest seat in the house only to be told to sit down every 5 minutes and have people give me aggro for swearing when Walcott makes another one of his dead end runs.
With regards to Babatunde, it's fucking moronic to compare going to watch football with the apartheid. Or the martin luther king and KKK example. FFS people get some perspective
And if it is as simple as not going to watch The Arsenal and giving it all up then answer me Babatunde, why the fuck are you still here? You obviously derive no pleasure from the club and haven't a single positive thing to say, so why haven't YOU given up? Why do you still watch games? Why are you still posting on an Arsenal forum? If it's giving you that much grief use your own 'Tesco' example and go shop elsewhere other than Arsenal.
) love Tescos. Arsenal will always mean more to me than any shop or organisation you want to equate it with and thats my/our strength and weakness and you really dont understand that? 
