Went to see Arsenal play today....stange experience!

Today we went to see Arsenal play Wigan, at the emirates stadium. I've not been to a premiership match for many years. Myself, my partner (shes the true Arsenal supporter!) and our 8 year old son went. It was a surprise for my son and amazingly we were walking down Gillespe Road with all the other fans and he still didn't twig that we were going to a match. He thought everyone was out for a nice Sunday walk! Ahhh the innocence of childhood.

We had paid a friend of my partner's for the use of 3 season tickets from her family, we were seated behind the Goal where all three goals were scored, Block 07, rows 5 seats 220, 221, row 4 seat 220.

Now that the scene is set here come my thoughts on it...

Going down on the train we overheard a conversation (friendly banter) between an Arsenal fan and a sometimes Tottenham fan. The Arsenal fan was a proper fan, working class man attending his teams matches week in week out, truely loyal. Knowledgeable about the game, his team and indeed knew more about Tottenham than the man he was having the conversation with.

Anyway the conversation got round to the price of season tickets and it was clear that both men felt that they were too expensive, indeed Arsenal fan had clubbed together to buy his with a mate. Tottenham fan couldn't afford one and occassionaly borrowed his brothers. In fact Arsenal fan is not going to buy one next year as he doesn't feel it represents good value.

Tottenham fan left the train at Stevenage at this point and we continued our journey to Finsbury Park, us enjoying our sons blissful ignorance of the purpose of the journey, Arsenal fan lost in his thoughts as the train gradually filled as we stopped at the remaining stations on the rest of the journey.


So we get to the stadium and find our way across to the "orange quadrant", its all very impressive from the outside, in fact I'd even go as far as to say it has a majesty and presence that I felt was lacking once we were inside the stadium.


So we queued up to buy a couple of small bottles of water, a hot chocolate, and two kit kats.....little change from a tenner. Train journey £27, tickets £120. So then we went to our seats. I read some of the programme (£3, thought that was reasonable) and was astounded to discover that the band of seating that runs below the boxes and above the lower tier of seats is called the Club Level and costs per SEAT somewhere between £2500 and £4750 per annum!. Theres' over 7,000 of these seats and to get on the waiting list for one costs £250!

The seats we were in cost about £1000 each for the people who own them, (one of them waited 13 years on the waiting list to get one). The views are not great, one's eye level is about player hip level. There are probably cheaper season seats available but I'll bet they aren't much cheaper. So this is what's happened to the working mans game........its got bloody expensive. Wigans season tickets by comparison are about £350 per season.


On to the match itself. Overall I thought it was pretty disappointing and I couldn't lose the thought that a number of the men on the pitch were running around quite daintly for £75,000 plus per week! I could run around just as daintly for a lot less per week!

In particular a number of players appeared lazy and unfocused and to be fair the Arsenal fans were appropriately critical of their teams performance. Unfortunately our day out was marred by the abuse dished out at the Wigan Goal keeper by the chap in seat number 222 in row 5 block 07. He obviously didn't like Mr. Kirkland and in true gladitorial nature wished to make this fact known. Generally I've no problem with this desire, what I do have a serious problem with is the language with which this individual chose to make his feelings known. The air was lumious blue and laced with a violent intent that was over the top. All of this in presence of a number of children under the age of 10.

My son's jaw dropped a number of times and at others he was quite clearly frightened by the obviously violent intent he could see in this mans face. This man should be ashamed of himself, he was clearly not interested in the sporting spectacle merely in venting his latent inner violence. (He wasn't a regular in that seat either)

We went out for a day out to see the beautiful game, to give my son a taste of the exhilaration of a live mass audience event. Instead I certainly came away disappointed wondering what has happened to the football, it certainly appears to be drowning under the weight of corporate finance, the working mans game is now the business man's and greedy capitalists game.

It is a real shame and I hope my son will still enjoy his football and not be fazed by the attitudes we saw today. For me, well I dispair, the money is spoiling the game and preventing the working class people who invented it actually enjoying it live due to cost.

The last point to disgust me was the Arsenal senior squad of 25 players or so only consists of 4 English players, (Wigan have 11 in their squad). Maybe it is just me but I'd expect top flight UK teams to consist of a larger number of national players. FIFA should do something about this and the FA need to do more for grassroots football at school level to nuture talent and create desire to play football for one's country, when I was a kid that was the ultimate goal, that and winning the FA cup.

Nowaday's young boys are dreaming of all the money, the cars and the pretty girls, football itself seems to be something of an appendage.........NOBODY should be paid the silly amounts of money these guys are paid for kicking a ball on a rectangular piece of ground.

Its a shame the game itself and its spirit is disappearing before our very eyes. Arsenal don't have a family atmosphere anymore. Such a pity.