Make booing at Arsenal taboo
After 94 dreary minutes of turgid football at home to Red Star Belgrade there were very few talking points. We qualified, we got to see a few of our youngsters, Jack got another game under his belt, and we rested all of our 1st team without even putting any of them on the bench.
On the face of it this seems pretty good. We have set ourselves up well for the next couple of months. Job done. Nothing much to talk about really.
However………..there was one talking point that came up again, and keeps popping up. The booing.
There was a splattering of booing on the half time whistle and a little more on the full time whistle (although others heard more than I did). The question is why??
Some will say that there is never a place for booing your team, others will say that they have a right to boo if they want to express their dissatisfaction. I can understand both points of view and I’m not going to sit in my ivory tower and claim that I’ve never done it, but last night’s booing was odd.
Let’s take the half time booing first. What is it going to achieve other than enabling one to vent one’s frustration?
Is it going to help us win? Is it going to help the team come out and perform better in the second half? Is it going to communicate something to Arsene that he can’t see with his own eyes? I’d suggest that it does none of the above. The game was still there for the taking, there had been no calamities, and there were still 45+ minutes to go.
The worst thing about the half time booing last night was that it took no account of the fact that we were playing our kids. These are young guys learning a tough trade under immense pressure. They are learning their craft playing against experienced game hardened men in front of 35,000 fans.
They are going to make mistakes. I’d go even further to say that they need to make mistakes to learn and develop their game. Surely the last thing we want is for our youngsters to come out in the second half scared of trying anything and intimidated into playing the safe ball. I want them to express themselves without fear. I want them to play with the same freedom and confidence that they must have shown to get selected in the first place. There were a few occasions last night when there were promising moves that broke down because a safe pass was made instead of a difficult pass. It would be a shame if our kids were too scared to try the tough pass because of a fear of being booed.
So booing at half time was totally unproductive, but what about full time? The game is over so why shouldn’t fans vent their frustration? My question to those that booed would be………what the hell were you frustrated about last night? We had just qualified while playing our kids and resting all of our first team just before the busy Xmas period.
Maybe they are frustrated about paying all that money to see a dull 0–0. Well I’m afraid that sitting through dull games is part of being a fan. That is sport for you. That is why sport is so exciting. If you knew what you were getting every time, you would never get that ‘edge of your seat’ feeling. If you want the ups, you’re going to have to take the downs. If you want to be guaranteed excitement you may be better off going to the cinema where the production company can spend months doing take after take to make sure that each scene is as exciting as possible.
Sport is temperamental. You may pay to see a world championship boxing match, only for the opponent to be knocked out in the 1st few seconds. You may go to a Grand Prix only to see your hero’s car break down on the warm up lap.
0–0’s and dull games are not new. Even our greatest teams had awful games. Looking through the Invincibles’ season I can see that we drew 0–0 at home to Fulham. My memory is awful when it comes to games so I can’t remember if this was one of those amazing 0–0’s that defy reason. Maybe it was, but I can guarantee that there were dull games and bad performances that season. I can’t imaging that the 1–1 draw at home to Portsmouth was that exciting.
That brings me on to the Premier League booing of our 1st team. It is becoming a regular thing. As I said before, I can’t plead innocence here. There have been a few times that I have found myself so angry and frustrated at full time that I have shouted at the players, shouted at the manager, and probably booed. The only defense I have for this is that it has only ever happened at times when we have hit rock bottom. The last occurrence I can remember was a rainy home game against Watford last season that we lost in abysmal fashion. I lost control that night and couldn’t hold my frustration back.
Most of the time I will applaud the team off the pitch. If I’m mildly frustrated I will give them a cursory applause. If I’m very frustrated I will withhold my applause. It’s only that rare occasion that anger gets the better of me. For some, my behavior is unacceptable. For some, venting is never an option. I can understand that. I can understand wanting to support your team come what may. But however much I’d like to be that way, when my anger gets to a certain level it has to come out.
I do think that a lot of the booing lately is more about the state of the club in general rather than the performance on the pitch. I think that we have won the last 14 home games, so results have been perfect. Maybe there are fans that don’t feel that they have a voice that is listened to anymore, so all they are left with is booing. You only have to look at the awful way the fans (in their guise as minority shareholders) were treated at the last AGM.
I also think that there is a generation of fans that have only ever known these frustrating times. They have heard the booing when we have hit rock bottom and think that it is acceptable. They then use it at times when there is no possible excuse for it, like last night. If that is the case, then I’d implore those fans to reconsider. Don’t boo at everything just because you heard an angry old man like me lose control one night. If you really have to do it, make sure it is saved for the time that you cannot physically hold it in any longer. And if you have more self control than me, try to never let it out, and be a better supporter than I am.
