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2018/19 Football Season

Lamont D said:
@zand, I'm quite confident that you will beat chelski.
And I do hope you have a better trip, than you envisage.
I know what it's like to travel distances away, hope it goes well for you.
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Getting nervous now, so I guess I still care more than I want to care. Really ought to be going to bed now, but just been notified that our flight is now scheduled for 2 hours after the original time. We will be coming back before we get there at this rate. :rolleyes:
 
zand said:
Getting nervous now, so I guess I still care more than I want to care. Really ought to be going to bed now, but just been notified that our flight is now scheduled for 2 hours after the original time. We will be coming back before we get there at this rate. :rolleyes:
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US supporters who travel all over, will always find a way to get where our teams are playing! There are great stories of this.

For instance,
A supporter of the swa, (super white army) (soowitearmee), a postman by trade, walked from PP, to the Crabble (Dover f.c.) for a child cancer charity. This is the game that was postponed an hour before kick-off! (Typical!)
 
Lamont D said:
US supporters who travel all over, will always find a way to get where our teams are playing! There are great stories of this.

For instance,
A supporter of the swa, (super white army) (soowitearmee), a postman by trade, walked from PP, to the Crabble (Dover f.c.) for a child cancer charity. This is the game that was postponed an hour before kick-off! (Typical!)
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According to the newspapers Chelsea have sold 2000 tickets and Arsenal 3500. Really can't sleep now, and how can anyone still be packing when they can only take a carrier bag? lol.
 
Never seen that coming @zand.

Hope your long journey home is more enjoyable than the second half!

This concludes the 2018-2019 season.

Thanks to all that have contributed to the thread.

As always, there have been winners and losers, but we have the beautiful game and there is always next season!!!

Best wishes for next season everyone!
 
Lamont D said:
Never seen that coming @zand.

Hope your long journey home is more enjoyable than the second half!

This concludes the 2018-2019 season.

Thanks to all that have contributed to the thread.

As always, there have been winners and losers, but we have the beautiful game and there is always next season!!!

Best wishes for next season everyone!
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Unfortunately we did see that coming, and weren't at all surprised by the result.

My main gripe is about the choice of goal keeper. There is no room for sentiment in a final. At half time I was thinking that the best we could hope for would be to hang on for pens. Cech has always been hopeless at pens for us. I have only ever seen him dive the right way once. Emery should have played Leno not some retiring has been who is now working for Chelsea ***. We would still have lost with Leno in goal but not as heavily. Still at least the best team won. We weren't cheated out of a win by bad refereeing decisions or bad luck. We always knew Hazard would be unstoppable. Felt privileged to see Iwobi's goal. My family like Iwobi and it was good to see him come on and prove his worth within minutes. Some Gooners had left before he scored it. Idiots.

Got home just before 3 pm today. So that was a 37 hour day trip lol. So tired. But happy now, glad we went, it was a great adventure and we have lots of great memories to treasure from the trip. Shame about the result and it's a shame we just don't have the money to compete with the big teams! I guess most teams feel like minnows at times. ;)I read one article that said that Arsenal don't have any real characters in the team anymore. We don't need another 'star' to let us down, we need 3 or 4 new good premiership standard players with enough character to build a real team.

Yep, I guess I am still a footie fan after all. :) Out in Baku with Gooners of all nationalities I realised what was important and what makes footie great. Yes, the beautiful game, of course, but also the fans. We're what's really great about footie. Never mind the overpaid 'stars'. It's about us, I just wish the authorities and clubs would give us the same level of support that we give them.

Off to bed now, so tired, but it was worth it. :)
 
zand said:
Unfortunately we did see that coming, and weren't at all surprised by the result.

My main gripe is about the choice of goal keeper. There is no room for sentiment in a final. At half time I was thinking that the best we could hope for would be to hang on for pens. Cech has always been hopeless at pens for us. I have only ever seen him dive the right way once. Emery should have played Leno not some retiring has been who is now working for Chelsea ***. We would still have lost with Leno in goal but not as heavily. Still at least the best team won. We weren't cheated out of a win by bad refereeing decisions or bad luck. We always knew Hazard would be unstoppable. Felt privileged to see Iwobi's goal. My family like Iwobi and it was good to see him come on and prove his worth within minutes. Some Gooners had left before he scored it. Idiots.

Got home just before 3 pm today. So that was a 37 hour day trip lol. So tired. But happy now, glad we went, it was a great adventure and we have lots of great memories to treasure from the trip. Shame about the result and it's a shame we just don't have the money to compete with the big teams! I guess most teams feel like minnows at times. ;)I read one article that said that Arsenal don't have any real characters in the team anymore. We don't need another 'star' to let us down, we need 3 or 4 new good premiership standard players with enough character to build a real team.

Yep, I guess I am still a footie fan after all. :) Out in Baku with Gooners of all nationalities I realised what was important and what makes footie great. Yes, the beautiful game, of course, but also the fans. We're what's really great about footie. Never mind the overpaid 'stars'. It's about us, I just wish the authorities and clubs would give us the same level of support that we give them.

Off to bed now, so tired, but it was worth it. :)
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It is about the fans, -- players, managers, chairman come and go. Supporters are there for ever! They put there time, money and energy into going to the games.

Loyalty first and foremost.

So glad you got your 'mojo' back!
 
Lamont D said:
C'mon spurs!
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We're on the same side then @Lamont D ! (Again, don't tell my family)

When we were at Burnley v Arsenal the fans around us were asking each other what they would prefer as results in the upcoming European Finals...
1. Spurs and Arsenal both winning
2. Spurs and Arsenal both losing
I was the only one in earshot to say option 1!
The Arsenal fans TV guys were incredulous that I could say such a thing.
The guy behind me said he had sat near me for so very many matches and up till then had thought I was OK lol. I explained to him that my first love in footie back in the 70s was Leeds United because I once watched them on MOTD and from then on I was smitten (I was also pretty keen on a boy called Richard who was a Leeds fan, but that's another story... any girl who thinks the way to a man's heart is though his stomach should think again, it's deffo through knowing all about his footie team lol).

So I have a theory - that whilst my first love in footie was Leeds, even though I have rarely seen them play, the teams I loathed back then in the 70s were Liverpool, Man Utd and Chelsea in that order. So I reckon the loathing you feel for those opposition teams back when you are a newbie fan is even greater than the love you feel for your team.

I tried to explain to the guy behind me that Arsenal and Spurs both winning would be great, because it would mean that Liverpool and Chelsea would lose and they were 2 of my 3 most hated teams back in the 70s and remain so even now. He still wasn't impressed :rolleyes:

I saw the fans of Spurs and Liverpool on telly this morning. I thought the Spurs fans were sweet, the way they made an effort to get there. The Liverpool fans...well just seeing the shirts made me upset and turned me against them. With hubby it was the opposite.

But really how could all those gooners turn on me because I wanted option 1?! I wanted their/our team to win, but to them Spurs not winning was even more important. I will admit it's pretty horrid to go to Chelsea and hear them singing "Champions of Europe, you'll never say that!" And it would be even more horrid to hear Spurs fans singing the same song, but really they wanted Arsenal to lose so that Spurs would lose! Unbelievable Jeff. :banghead:

Personally I can't bear the thought of Liverpool winning it yet again, C'mon you Spurs. :):bag:
 
zand said:
We're on the same side then @Lamont D ! (Again, don't tell my family)

When we were at Burnley v Arsenal the fans around us were asking each other what they would prefer as results in the upcoming European Finals...
1. Spurs and Arsenal both winning
2. Spurs and Arsenal both losing
I was the only one in earshot to say option 1!
The Arsenal fans TV guys were incredulous that I could say such a thing.
The guy behind me said he had sat near me for so very many matches and up till then had thought I was OK lol. I explained to him that my first love in footie back in the 70s was Leeds United because I once watched them on MOTD and from then on I was smitten (I was also pretty keen on a boy called Richard who was a Leeds fan, but that's another story... any girl who thinks the way to a man's heart is though his stomach should think again, it's deffo through knowing all about his footie team lol).

So I have a theory - that whilst my first love in footie was Leeds, even though I have rarely seen them play, the teams I loathed back then in the 70s were Liverpool, Man Utd and Chelsea in that order. So I reckon the loathing you feel for those opposition teams back when you are a newbie fan is even greater than the love you feel for your team.

I tried to explain to the guy behind me that Arsenal and Spurs both winning would be great, because it would mean that Liverpool and Chelsea would lose and they were 2 of my 3 most hated teams back in the 70s and remain so even now. He still wasn't impressed :rolleyes:

I saw the fans of Spurs and Liverpool on telly this morning. I thought the Spurs fans were sweet, the way they made an effort to get there. The Liverpool fans...well just seeing the shirts made me upset and turned me against them. With hubby it was the opposite.

But really how could all those gooners turn on me because I wanted option 1?! I wanted their/our team to win, but to them Spurs not winning was even more important. I will admit it's pretty horrid to go to Chelsea and hear them singing "Champions of Europe, you'll never say that!" And it would be even more horrid to hear Spurs fans singing the same song, but really they wanted Arsenal to lose so that Spurs would lose! Unbelievable Jeff. :banghead:

Personally I can't bear the thought of Liverpool winning it yet again, C'mon you Spurs. :):bag:
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I get it!
Around here, the same question is often debated.
If you're a blue or red would you want the other team to win?
1. If you're a red, then a Merseyside win is palatable, but would prefer the reds to win everything. There is a difference between reds, who are season ticket holders who are footie fans, and you get a great discussion about topics far and wide, these are usually the fans with tickets. Then there are the armchair sky supporters, these are preoccupied with just winning and not appreciative of other football clubs. Then there are the so called fans that travel without tickets and give footie a bad name. Also these fans are the ones that would use any excuse to put one over man u. The most important game of the season is man u!
2. Blues are usually not so enamoured with the reds, and would usually want the other team to win, over the years, they have tried to ignore the worst sort of reds. But there is always lively debate between good evertonians and good reds. It has always been claimed that blues are jealous of reds success, and they are bitter and twisted. I have found the opposite, because of the lack of success, the blue half of Merseyside are more likely to want the best team to win.
3. If you asked a red, who is the best player, he would without reservation, say a Liverpool player. I give you Steve Gerrard as an example. If you asked a blue, it would be Messi, Ronaldo or someone who had impressed lately!

The other aspect of how football comes over is dictated by the media and press, sky sports news is biased towards man u and Liverpool. Air time is loaded in the reds favour. The number of times the number of pundits or ex Liverpool players versus spurs is about ten to one.

In our local paper, the echo, the back page is reserved for the reds, then the blues inside the back, then the reds get another double page. My team gets a paragraph at most unless like last week, we got a double page, only because of the final. We don't have a reporter. We use to until we got relegated! It's the same with radio,, only radio Merseyside give us any air time and that is restricted to updates. Radio city are unaware of our existence! Those fans who can't make the game rely on a service from the EFL, that charges for the commentary, but is not the best. They access through the club's website. Of course there are fans website forums, Twitter and snapchat.

Why do I want spurs to win, it's because as a child, my first realisation of football was reading about the league winners in 1961, the very rare achievement of doing the league and fa cup double, that was the spurs great team under Bill Nicholson, with household names. I admired this truly legendary team.
Nowt to do with rivalry or not wanting the reds to win!

C'mon spurs!
 
@Lamont D You got me thinking about what is a fan and the different types of fan.

There was much fuss that the 'fans' couldn't get to Baku. But hey, the reverse of that is that any Arsenal member who wanted a ticket could get one. OK, not everyone could afford to go, but at least some members who rarely get a chance to see a match at all got the chance to go to a European Final! How awesome is that? Red members who have to wait their turn after platinum, gold and silver members for home games and rarely get a chance to see a category A match in the Premiership could go to Baku to see a final. Juniors Gunners could get a ticket. What an experience for them! It's easy enough for a child to get a junior gunners membership, but not easy for their parents to become silver members to attend matches with them ( there's a waiting list of several years and the child has usually grown up by the time the parents get their silver memberships) and now suddenly they can go to a final! Everyone who bought a ticket was a genuine fan. Unlike the FA Cup Final when everyone who is eligible buys a ticket regardless of whether they personally want to go or not. There's always someone waiting in the wings to buy it from them.

Then there's the locals in Baku who absolutely loved having the final there. No fan trouble. I wonder if that's because the hooligan element couldn't afford to go, or if Baku were so gracious in the way they treated us that no-one felt like turning nasty? I suspect mostly the former, but the locals certainly made us feel wanted there. When we arrived at the airport all the staff were lined up to greet us and point us in the right direction. At passport control the queue was managed effortlessly, with all the windows staffed! Not seen that at an airport before. After our visas had been checked we ladies were given a red rose and the guys a key ring. (I would've preferred a keyring which I could keep forever, but it was a nice gesture and we felt valued)

I've heard there was no atmosphere in the stadium, but where we were in the midst of the Arsenal fans there sure was atmosphere. We didn't stop singing at all until we were 2-0 down and even then there was still a lot of shouting lol. We sang a couple of new chants...errr can't type them here though, I would be banned for life lol.

I still think it was environmentally and logistically irresponsible to hold the final in Baku, but the 3 of us thoroughly enjoyed the experience even though we lost.

Edit: Come on Spurs! ;)
 
So sad. I am shaken by the news that Jose Antonio Reyes has died in a car crash in Spain. Fond memories of watching him playing (in gloves :)) for Arsenal in the Invincibles squad. RIP Jose Antonio, we won't ever forget you.
 
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Well those Gooners at Burnley got their wish then. Both North London teams lost. I still can't get my head round the fact that Spurs losing was more important to them than Arsenal winning. That's not being a 'supporter' in my book.
 
@zand when you write about certain types of fans, the ones I do feel sorry for, are those that travel the country and support their club through thin and thinner, those that despite the lack of success are there as much as possible, do whatever to get there despite the appalling motorways, train service and treated like cattle or criminals by police, stewards and the like.
Then success comes, these supporters are forgotten as the glory hunters turn up, the wannabes, and the affluent prawn brigade, tickets are at a premium because the club wants to cash in, even club shop prices rocket, exclusivity becomes the norm, season tickets rise too high for the genuine support. Child's prices rocket. As long as the club is raking money in, everyone else is sacrificed for the club.
I could name a few clubs, because of the stadium size is too small, where this has happened.
It now costs a lot of money to follow your team. How are those left behind supposed to get live football?

I find myself in a privileged position to what is happening in professional football, I have seen behind the scenes, and I am honoured to represent my club, there is a lot to dislike in modern football history.

Still looking forward to next season!
 
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