1 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
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Arsenal is/was my local club. At least where I was born and started life. But yeah, I guess my club is Ridgeway Rovers now. Which is the club my kids play for haha. Also the club where Kane and Beckham started their careers. I'm way more into England these days though. I find the passion and excitement is still there with international football.
why did it fizzle out?
2 reasons really.
1. Arsenal won the league a good few times and it kind of killed my excitement. Not many people talk about this but when your team does what always dreamed of... There's not much left to dream about.
2. Over commercialisation of football combined with the rise of social media. Every one with a pulse is into football these days. It's diluted the sense of community, created a huge army of consumers rather than fans, who demand trophies and many of whom actually don't know much about football. This creates a really toxic atmosphere for me and the amount of absolute nonsense being chatted drives me nuts. I preferred the tight knit community aspect of supporting your local club or the club your family supports. And I prefer talking about football with people who know the game and have a level headed analysis. Both of these are very difficult now with so many people into football, both in the UK and abroad, itching to spout their opinions, as everything is a crisis in the social media age. Some of the takes I hear at work from people who don't have a clue, really do my head in. There are a lot of good players where I live who have played at a very high level, who I have played with, there are a lot of very knowledgeable coaches who breathe football. I much prefer talking with them, from a neutral perspective these days. I still love football though. Playing loads still, taking both my kids to their club, watch a lot of games. Just don't really care about who wins with club football.
Comment by tjaldhamar at 08/01/2025 at 18:21 UTC*
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
That’s interesting. I hadn’t really thought of your first point. I believe a lot people, myself included, can really relate to your second reason about over-commercialisation in football. Though, people disillusioned by the development in top football have dealt with it in different ways. I love hearing stories from people who have fallen in love with football again watching the lower leagues. I intend to read “You don’t choose your football club, it finds you: A season rediscovering the true soul of football fandom” by Gareth Platt at some point. He watched all Leyton Orient’s home games one season, fell in love with them, and gave up his Arsenal season ticket.
I am (or was?) an international Arsenal fan. I’ve been an Arsenal fan since childhood, having watched all their games in television since the mid 2000’s. But as I have grown older, I came to the realisation that it’s just much more exciting and satisfying following the top division in my own country (Danish Superliga), and I now have a season ticket at my local club (top 3 club in Denmark) and it’s so much fun. Honestly, even though average attendances at my club’s stadium is only slightly more than a third of the full capacity at Emirates Stadium, the atmosphere at the Emirates can never match Brøndby Stadion at its best.