{"id":2857,"date":"2021-04-24T09:02:47","date_gmt":"2021-04-24T08:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=2857"},"modified":"2021-04-25T04:24:52","modified_gmt":"2021-04-25T03:24:52","slug":"love-arsenal-loathe-kroenke-the-revolution-will-be-televised","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=2857","title":{"rendered":"Love Arsenal \u2013 Loathe Kroenke \u2013 The Revolution Will Be Televised!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A placard produced by fans on the day<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was decided as soon as I heard Arsenal fans were going to demonstrate against the ESL- I ought, needed, had to turn up to register my feelings.  Given that I can get to the ground fairly easily it really wasn\u2019t a sacrifice. My great grandfather whom I never met and my grandfather whom I did and who loved the Arsenal as Islington born and bred would both have wanted it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming out of Drayton Park station I was rather surprised to see police vans, 5 or 6 of them full with officers, parked up.   Why were they here?  This seemed to me to be something of a replica of the 70s and 80s style police provocation we were so used to. It smacked of a complete misunderstanding of the mood. Or a good way to get some overtime in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On walking past the imposing, Stalinist concrete installation art that is the \u201cArsenal\u201d sign and over the Danny Fiszman bridge and you could already hear the noise.  Unmistakeably a football crowd \u2013 with those recognisable rhythmic expressions of support for our club, burned into our brains over so many years, ringing out loud and clear. On clearing the new Clock End, the vista over the Armoury Square became apparent.  And it brought back those memories of how things used to be pre-match before this evil virus took away our ability to inhabit our habitual place of worship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

And the first thing I noticed was the mix of fans.  Men, women, youngsters, old sweats, black, white and everything in between.  At one point there were even a couple of what the fanzine \u201cOne Nil Down\u2026\u201d, sadly long defunct, christened \u201cThe Brinkley-Smythes\u2019 of Highbury N5\u201d.   As with many of the recent wave of incomers to the area which has become gentrified out of all recognition from when I grew up there, they looked somewhat bemused by it all and as though they were there as part of an anthropological research study, but bless them anyway for turning up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the crowd was very good humoured.  United in its focus but, without the opportunity to get in to see the game there was a rather calmer, less testosterone-filled charge to the proceedings.  We all knew why we were there. It was to register our loathing of an ownership which had sought to sell out our dreams. The songs rang out. Adaptations of our familiar standards, but with the object of derision amended to include the ownership. Some suitably scatological.  All heartfelt and passionate.  More than that though, because it needed to be said that we love our club and that we were there not to bring fire down on the team. There were renditions of many songs dear to our hearts \u2013 Rocky was remembered very early in the proceedings. A fitting tribute. Banners and placards were there in abundance. All with a common message. Time to go, Mr Kroenke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From Twitter. A brilliant photograph by AFC_GLEN<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There were no speakers, which might have been nice but might also have been a rallying call for some of those with motives beyond the peaceful protest I\u2019m glad to say we observed. Round about 7pm, with the police beginning to mass and thoughts of the ridiculous treatment of the women who marched in Clapham a few weeks ago and the, shall we say, over-zealous policing they experienced I decided it was time to leave. I had registered my protest. More than that, I had done my duty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to my great grandfather and granddad \u2013 of course I have no way of knowing if they would have wanted me to attend, but that\u2019s the story we tell ourselves.  We are connected to the club by bonds of time and family. The club is part of our own personal history. And that is something which the shameless acolytes of Mammon who own the club now recognise only in part. The part which will see us turn up, regardless of cost and time and buy overpriced tickets and over watered beer to be part of the experience and connect with something which is more than an architectural edifice, a part of our heritage.  Well, now they are beginning to understand the other side of that coin. We will tolerate a lot. But if you seek to interfere with our shared past, you do so at your peril. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The people have spoken. Long live the revolution!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A placard produced by fans on the day<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The owners may be disingenuous, the manager may still be finding his feet, the players may be accident-prone but we can still celebrate our history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Radford scores again! One of Arsenal\u2019s greatest centre forwards. 54 apps, 18 goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was decided as soon as I heard Arsenal fans were going to demonstrate against the ESL- I ought, needed, had to turn up to register my feelings.  Given that I can get to the ground fairly easily it really wasn\u2019t a sacrifice. My great grandfather whom I never met and my grandfather whom I did […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2857"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2857"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2877,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2857\/revisions\/2877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}