Unease
Don’t get me wrong, I’m delighted. To have taken 10 points out of 12 against the only four teams who could reasonably challenge us for the League title is no mean achievement. That calamity against Inter Milan seems a long, long time ago now – a necessary blow responded to in the best way possible, with an adaptation of our style and a series of performances mixing steel with class to great effect. These are good times all of a sudden for Arsenal Football Club – and will get all the better if we can turn on the same combination of grit and Henry-led brilliance against Kiev on Tuesday. But these are bad times for football, and the dark clouds under which the game as a whole lingers can only partly be dispelled by our 2-1 victory over Chelsea today.
Alongside the horror-show of Keown’s vampire act at Old Trafford, Alpay and Beckham’s spat in Istanbul; in the background of Ferdinand’s non-appearance for his drug test and Gary Neville’s leadership of a threatened revolt within the England camp; a menacing trait in the allegations against professional footballers at Grosvenor House and in a layby outside Leeds, is the same figure: Money. We all know Premiership footballers earn more in a year than most of us will earn in a lifetime. That they’re ill-educated and that their ignorance extends further than an inability to pronounce a new team-mate’s name. But all these events have called into question the validity of football as a whole as being worthy of the time, love and physical and financial investment we all make into the teams we care about. I’ve seen footballers out on the town in London; know people who’ve witnessed directly the abuses of power and privilege they’re prone to. And the stories aren’t pretty. Worse than the worst clichés of personal misadventure some small-town Kevin could dream up. Worse because the cash sums involved are so much higher, displayed with such purposeless vulgarity.
That vulgarity tarnishes the displays of togetherness and collective spirit that Gary Neville called for, that Manchester United have shown in their backing of Rio Ferdinand beyond all manner of reason. And it tarnishes our achievement in beating Chelsea today. I’d like this to be a victory for older football values of teamwork and mutual development over the smash and grab input of Mr Abramovich’s billions. I’d like this to be Princes defeated by Paupers. But it’s not. Not at all. Paupers don’t earn 65 grand a week like Thierry Henry, or go to meetings of the G14 group of the most powerful clubs in football as David Dein and Arsène Wenger do. Arsenal aren’t Hereford Town, Shrewsbury Town, Sutton United or any of those other dreamy victors of the past in the FA cup third round. Beating Chelsea means a lot to me, bragging rights over Blue friends, a reason to read the papers tomorrow. But it doesn’t diminish my unease about this game. And I’m not sure anything can.
It’s not that they get paid so much, or that they whinge in public about having their hobby as a profession. Watching Rustu axe-kick Kieron Dyer clean across the Bosphorus last Saturday was such a close imitation of that terrible incident from the France-Germany game over two decades ago that it served as a timely reminder to everyone that ‘professionalism’ has always had vile connotations. It’s just, quite simply, that sometimes you have to doubt the things you care about, and football’s provided endless reasons this last month to dislike it and everything it stands for.
So how can Arsenal Football Club, the part of football I care about most of all, help to dispel these doubts? Because I’m not giving up on the game, not for some bunch of dumb idiots who do a disservice to the Thierry Henry’s, Michael Owen’s, Gary Speed’s and Paul Scholes’ who do nothing but credit to themselves every time they set foot either on or off a pitch. I hesitate to use the word fight, given all the unfortunate contexts it’s arisen in, but it’s fight that will see off these doubts of mine. Arsenal have outfought Manchester United, Newcastle, Liverpool and Chelsea in the last month. Not been better, just outfought them and carried the day. Fight has won because it has been focussed, absolutely, on winning and nothing more. Not at any cost, but by working and working and working, relentlessly, remorselessly working to win games. Work helps you forget. If Arsenal keep on working, and don’t fall into lethargy or disinterest or over-confidence, the time of doubt will pass.
It was interesting to hear Wenger speak about this self-same issue today. Sporting Life quotes him on the image of the game, its purpose and its promise in these dark times:
"I don't think it's a shamed profession at all, I think it's a remarkable profession. It's one of the few jobs in modern life that offers hope to people from poor backgrounds, … Every little boy who is six can dream of being a top-class player and making something of his life. It's not the sport that is responsible for the behaviour of individual people.
"Of several thousand professional footballers, it's the first time I have heard about a rape case and it's not proven. It's not the sport that is responsible for that.
"You can have many people with a lot of money who have not even worked for it. But to become a professional footballer at the top level, you must be a special individual who is dedicated and motivated.
"You must work every day and not go out every night and prepare for your under-18 game. It's not easy.
"Young kids are not stupid. They aspire to imitate their heroes, not the bad guys. Kids are very objective, they don't want to be in the newspapers for bad reasons.
"When you are 10, you want to be Zorro or Robin Hood, not the gangster.
"I also think the opinion that players earn too much money is not necessarily right. You could also say that the rest of the people in the world don't have enough money. I would say I want everyone to get more money."
I like that, that makes me feel a little better. Wenger has been at fault recently, right to argue against the over-reaction to Old Trafford, wrong to not admit our failings more willingly. But this is right. Football is hope – that’s what its best effects mean. Street kids from the favelas of Rio and Sao Paolo coming home with the World Cup; Zinedine Zidane almost single-handedly changing French cultural attitudes towards immigrants by captaining his adoptive nation to glory in the 98 final; Wayne Rooney coming out of the tough estates of Liverpool to light up a country. Hope. Hope that things can be better than they are.
Hope too is about forgetting. And I hope now that Arsenal can put the ghosts of the last few weeks behind them and use the very real achievements the team have made to build towards a league title win that doesn’t come stained with dishonour. I hope that can happen, for football’s sake. Because finally it’s the game that counts. Working. Winning. And moving on.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m delighted. To have taken 10 points out of 12 against the only four teams who could reasonably challenge us for the League title is no mean achievement. That calamity against Inter Milan seems a long, long time ago now – a necessary blow responded to in the best way possible, with an adaptation of our style and a series of performances mixing steel with class to great effect. These are good times all of a sudden for Arsenal Football Club – and will get all the better if we can turn on the same combination of grit and Henry-led brilliance against Kiev on Tuesday. But these are bad times for football, and the dark clouds under which the game as a whole lingers can only partly be dispelled by our 2-1 victory over Chelsea today.
Alongside the horror-show of Keown’s vampire act at Old Trafford, Alpay and Beckham’s spat in Istanbul; in the background of Ferdinand’s non-appearance for his drug test and Gary Neville’s leadership of a threatened revolt within the England camp; a menacing trait in the allegations against professional footballers at Grosvenor House and in a layby outside Leeds, is the same figure: Money. We all know Premiership footballers earn more in a year than most of us will earn in a lifetime. That they’re ill-educated and that their ignorance extends further than an inability to pronounce a new team-mate’s name. But all these events have called into question the validity of football as a whole as being worthy of the time, love and physical and financial investment we all make into the teams we care about. I’ve seen footballers out on the town in London; know people who’ve witnessed directly the abuses of power and privilege they’re prone to. And the stories aren’t pretty. Worse than the worst clichés of personal misadventure some small-town Kevin could dream up. Worse because the cash sums involved are so much higher, displayed with such purposeless vulgarity.
That vulgarity tarnishes the displays of togetherness and collective spirit that Gary Neville called for, that Manchester United have shown in their backing of Rio Ferdinand beyond all manner of reason. And it tarnishes our achievement in beating Chelsea today. I’d like this to be a victory for older football values of teamwork and mutual development over the smash and grab input of Mr Abramovich’s billions. I’d like this to be Princes defeated by Paupers. But it’s not. Not at all. Paupers don’t earn 65 grand a week like Thierry Henry, or go to meetings of the G14 group of the most powerful clubs in football as David Dein and Arsène Wenger do. Arsenal aren’t Hereford Town, Shrewsbury Town, Sutton United or any of those other dreamy victors of the past in the FA cup third round. Beating Chelsea means a lot to me, bragging rights over Blue friends, a reason to read the papers tomorrow. But it doesn’t diminish my unease about this game. And I’m not sure anything can.
It’s not that they get paid so much, or that they whinge in public about having their hobby as a profession. Watching Rustu axe-kick Kieron Dyer clean across the Bosphorus last Saturday was such a close imitation of that terrible incident from the France-Germany game over two decades ago that it served as a timely reminder to everyone that ‘professionalism’ has always had vile connotations. It’s just, quite simply, that sometimes you have to doubt the things you care about, and football’s provided endless reasons this last month to dislike it and everything it stands for.
So how can Arsenal Football Club, the part of football I care about most of all, help to dispel these doubts? Because I’m not giving up on the game, not for some bunch of dumb idiots who do a disservice to the Thierry Henry’s, Michael Owen’s, Gary Speed’s and Paul Scholes’ who do nothing but credit to themselves every time they set foot either on or off a pitch. I hesitate to use the word fight, given all the unfortunate contexts it’s arisen in, but it’s fight that will see off these doubts of mine. Arsenal have outfought Manchester United, Newcastle, Liverpool and Chelsea in the last month. Not been better, just outfought them and carried the day. Fight has won because it has been focussed, absolutely, on winning and nothing more. Not at any cost, but by working and working and working, relentlessly, remorselessly working to win games. Work helps you forget. If Arsenal keep on working, and don’t fall into lethargy or disinterest or over-confidence, the time of doubt will pass.
It was interesting to hear Wenger speak about this self-same issue today. Sporting Life quotes him on the image of the game, its purpose and its promise in these dark times:
"I don't think it's a shamed profession at all, I think it's a remarkable profession. It's one of the few jobs in modern life that offers hope to people from poor backgrounds, … Every little boy who is six can dream of being a top-class player and making something of his life. It's not the sport that is responsible for the behaviour of individual people.
"Of several thousand professional footballers, it's the first time I have heard about a rape case and it's not proven. It's not the sport that is responsible for that.
"You can have many people with a lot of money who have not even worked for it. But to become a professional footballer at the top level, you must be a special individual who is dedicated and motivated.
"You must work every day and not go out every night and prepare for your under-18 game. It's not easy.
"Young kids are not stupid. They aspire to imitate their heroes, not the bad guys. Kids are very objective, they don't want to be in the newspapers for bad reasons.
"When you are 10, you want to be Zorro or Robin Hood, not the gangster.
"I also think the opinion that players earn too much money is not necessarily right. You could also say that the rest of the people in the world don't have enough money. I would say I want everyone to get more money."
I like that, that makes me feel a little better. Wenger has been at fault recently, right to argue against the over-reaction to Old Trafford, wrong to not admit our failings more willingly. But this is right. Football is hope – that’s what its best effects mean. Street kids from the favelas of Rio and Sao Paolo coming home with the World Cup; Zinedine Zidane almost single-handedly changing French cultural attitudes towards immigrants by captaining his adoptive nation to glory in the 98 final; Wayne Rooney coming out of the tough estates of Liverpool to light up a country. Hope. Hope that things can be better than they are.
Hope too is about forgetting. And I hope now that Arsenal can put the ghosts of the last few weeks behind them and use the very real achievements the team have made to build towards a league title win that doesn’t come stained with dishonour. I hope that can happen, for football’s sake. Because finally it’s the game that counts. Working. Winning. And moving on.
