You all DO have a common love for Arsenal.
Arsene Wenger is not Arsenal, TT.
I see where you are coming from, but the man is divisive, there is nothing anyone can do about that.
I couldn't just blindly support actions taken by my club that I see as detrimental, in fact in the past I have complained a great deal when Roman sacked Ancelotti or forced Jose to buy Shevchenko.
Like I said, just because you love a club or person, does not mean you have to blindly support every single move they make or that you cannot have a contrary opinion.
This is only ever going to stop when Kroenke and Wenger leave. They are not good for your club and are holding it back.
This is a few shared by most football fans these days, and I dare say most Arsenal fans too now.
I have nothing invested in this, infact Kroenke and Wenger are good for Chelsea, because they all but ensure that a potential rival is hamstrung and not able to fill its full potential.
I always said I fear the day that Arsenal get a decent board and manager, because all the ingredients are there for the club to dominate.
You have a high turnover, no debt, a big stadium, a big fanbase and are financially secure, but luckily for us rival fans, you have Wenger and Kroenke acting as your albatross.
Well that is the difference between us. I trust Wenger is doing what he thinks is right to the best of his ability. I certainly don't have either the expertise or the knowledge of the club's circumstances to be able to even judge his decisions accurately. Half the time we don't even know what is true or false in the newspapers.
Most of the people I see criticising Wenger, I wouldn't trust to tie their own bootlaces, let alone manage a football club. And a lot of others, like yourself have either a questionable viewpoint, or questionable motives.
It worries me when a rival fan advocating division in Arsenal support, gets more likes than an Arsenal fan preaching solidarity. That seems messed up to me.
There is no reason why Wenger should be divisive, any more than Ozil should be divisive. A fan can have a different opinion on the worth of a player or manager, that happens at clubs all the time. But what is unusual is that the fans should divide so easily at Arsenal into such vitriolic, polarized factions. That isn't the fault of the manager.
As I tried to point out, there is no end to this division. Even if Wenger left, the focus would immediately shift to Kronke or Gazardis, and then if the new manager doesn't perform, to that new manager. It will not stop with Wenger leaving. It is the fundamental point that we have established in this thread. That Arsenal fans are the type that only support the club, if the club do what they want the club to do. And it isn't even about winning. The FA cup wins did NOTHING to reduce the division.
The fans are get a thrill out of being correct about their negative predictions, or the success of their faction of the fans, than they do out of the team winning. As soon as we do win, that win is instantly devalued. The FA cup isn't a real trophy, the opposition played badly, and so on. That isn't normal.
This is more about Arsenal fans just being very easy to divide, because as a club our support has grown very quickly relatively recently, during the Wenger era. A lot of the fans chose Arsenal not because of any family tradition, or affinity to the club, but solely because they were winning. Our support is far more like the support for a political party than a football club. People think that they can somehow change the policies of the club, or vote for a change of leader, which is ridiculous. That just isn't the deal, as any Chelsea fan understands. A lot of Arsenal fans just don't know how to support a football club, or what to expect from a football club.
The division at Arsenal is about the fans, not the club. Look at Newcastle. Here is a club run horrifically badly, with an appalling record for winning, yet the fans are more united than we are. They are divided a bit, but not to the extent we are at Arsenal. And they haven't won 3 trophies in 4 years. The Arsenal division is more like the division in the US Democrats over Saunders and Clinton.
Look over the Atlantic, the Boston Red Socks (before recently), Toronto Maple Leafs, teams that have gone years without winning anything, and they have some of the most loyal, passionate and large groups of supporters. Supporting a sports team isn't about winning, or losing, or whether you think the manager is good. It is about being a fan, with other fans, and belonging.
ffs we are having a conversation on a forum.
