It’s a familiar sight at Arsenal these days.
Fans, faces contorted by the kind of anguish that can only be caused by a perceived lack of net spend, confront each other on a sprawling concourse of concrete and chrome.
The scene is like some post-apocalyptic Speakers’ Corner, as fans jostle for position to get their moment under the spotlight of a hundred camera phones and make their point that Arsene Wenger should have got his chequebook out and signed Antoine Griezmann when he had the chance. Or Paul Pogba. Or N’Golo Kanté. Or Jordy Clasie.
Or whichever player they’ve plucked out obscurity to conquer all on their latest game of Football Manager.
Arsenal are not alone in hosting this fan-led phenomenon, but there’s a special kind of madness when it takes place outside the Emirates, and not just because it looks like a scene out of Blade Runner.
Andy Tate may be the most well known graduate of this particular phenomenon but there’s no sense that Tate’s ramblings are filtering through to Louis van Gaal and his players.
It’s only really at Arsenal where the disparate voices of Claude and Co correlate so deeply with the atmosphere around the team.
Maybe this a victory for fan power, a sign that Arsenal, a club who through their ticket pricing have done more than most to alienate the traditional supporter, have a bond so close between player and fan that the mood of one as he trundles back to the train after an uninspiring home draw greatly effects the other as he speeds away in his matte SUV.
This week Arsene Wenger described this situation as “a farce” and urged fans to wait until the end of the season before judging him.
That coincided with videos of Arsenal fans coming to blows outside the Emirates after the home defeat by Watford, a loss that meant that Arsenal had just one win in seven games, and that was against Championship side Hull.
Arsenal fans trying to fight each other outside the Emirates 😳 pic.twitter.com/d4BWTB1Pwn
— Footy Away Days (@FootyAwayDays_) March 13, 2016
It was also reported that the Arsenal manager is concerned that this bad atmosphere, generated by fans and media, will lead to the likes of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez leaving the club.
To say that the likes of Ozil and Sanchez are more likely to leave because of the indignation of fans rather than, say, being at a club where to all intent and purpose, it seems there is a culture where second (or fourth) best is acceptable is at best nonsensical and at worst delusional.
These players have arrived at Arsenal from Real Madrid and Barcelona. They know all about hysterical fans and high expectations.
Tonight Arsenal travel to the Nou Camp for the second leg of a UEFA Champions League tie that is already “95% gone” according to Wenger.
“I built the club and I did it with hard work,” Wenger said last night. “I had no external resources. If you compare the club when I arrived and how it is today it is moved forward, and without any help from anybody. I am more motivated than the day I arrived and I feel even more the pressure [than before] and the responsibility to keep this club moving forward.”
It’s another statement of defiance from Wenger, but his excuses are wearing thin.
Top of the Premier League on January 1, his side are now 11 points behind leaders Leicester City.
They will most likely exit the UEFA Champions League tonight. It will be the sixth season in succession that they will go out at the last-16 stage.
Their hopes of a historic third FA Cup win in a row were ended by Watford.
There will be no silverware this season. There may not even be a top four finish.
It’s hard to argue that there is any other situation around the club that is more farcical than that.
PepsiCo has kicked off the next phase of its UEFA Champions League sponsorship with a new on-pack promotion that gives you the chance to win prizes every hour with #GAMEREADY Doritos packs.
Prizes include official UEFA t-shirts and footballs to tickets to the quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final in Milan on May 28th.
