Clawing my way back to normality after all the madness we’ve partaken in over the past few weeks.
What have I learned?
I will go to the next Champions League final. I hemmed and hawed over it. I put family over football. I shuddered over the immense cost of it all.
I let myself down. I soiled my reputation. I’ll never do it again. Very rarely do I feel jealousy as an emotion, but all my friends, 9 pints deep before breakfast, sharing their pictures… it got me bad. I’m booking my Madrid tickets tomorrow.
Then there was the game. We’ve all spent too much time this season worrying about outcomes vs enjoying the things that happen before them. The Champions League final was one of the first games I tried to engage with without worrying about the final score. It was a privilege to be at the top of the game, it was an outrageous feeling to know it was Arsenal battling it out with PSG, and the feeling of being 1-0 up for that amount of time was spectacular.
This is the way to enjoy football. The pressure is now firmly off with regards to all the bullsh*t around Arsenal being bottle jobs. Moving forward, it’s all about enjoying this little moment in time where Arsenal might be a force in English football.
There’s a great piece doing the rounds of TalkSport speaking to an Arsenal fan who basically called out the Simon Jordan show, but more broadly, TalkSport for being a primary cause of spoiling the Arsenal experience this season. Raging at a channel designed to have you raging is kind of pointless.
People have accused this site of rage-baiting. I write Le Grove from the perspective of my real opinion because in polite society, the given is that you’ll offer a balanced perspective… but honestly, there’s nothing more boring than looking at something from every angle, especially if you only believe in one of them. When you’re with your friends, you are unfiltered, and that’s why it’s more fun being with your friends than giving an opinion at an office Lunch and Learn. So raging about a sports radio channel for dialing up the rhetoric around the most popular club in the most affluent part of London is going to fall on deaf ears… people like to hear big opinions; we can’t be angry. TalkSport have monetized that.
But… the deeper point here is this… why do we fall for it if it’s making us ill?
Yes, I’m saying ill here. It is a sickness if you look at and listen to things that make you fall out of love with what you love. You are abusing yourself for the wrong sort of dopamine hits. This is what social media does to the body. You look at loads of clips, carefully crafted for your caveman brain, and you walk away saying… is London burning? Are my organic berries stewed in cancer bleach? Are you supposed to say boooooosh after every sentence when you go back to Essex?
But more to the point…
Should I be angry that Arteta doesn’t play the exact brand of football I want?
Are we undeserving Champions?
Is leaving your technical area actually a capital crime?
Are Arsenal fans really annoying and should it be a priority to make sure Chelsea fans like me?
Why isn’t it illegal to make tifos?
Is it cheating if you don’t get a red card?
Is win-at-all-costs mentality not elite when it’s Arteta doing it?
Is it barbaric to scrum in the penalty box?
Should we stop scoring goals from setpieces because we are the best at them?
Should I be concerned that Northern teams don’t like it up them?
Is it actually good for football that plucky nations state-run clubs win the biggest trophies?
Was Laura Woods unprofessional for being the only sports broadcaster in history to share that she favored a club?
Should partisan Arsenal fans be banned from telly?
Is the word ‘project’ an affront to the native Brits?
This list goes on and on.
But it’s not TalkSport’s fault. They are there to engage you, warp your mind, make you join the negative army of Arsenal haters… and they succeeded for chunks of the season.
‘We’ve got to ask questions of Arteta because I can’t handle the football’ after the Wolves game. Booing in the stadium. We can all celebrate how amazing things were in the week we won the Premier League, but don’t forget some of the dark times… and that they were induced by the most terminally online fan base mainlining all the bad commentary about their own team.
You don’t need to listen to it. There are 400 Arsenal podcasts. 200 places to read about Arsenal. You can insulate yourself by unfollowing clippers on short-form platforms that don’t say nice things about your club.
Build up walls. Stop searching out things to argue about. Or train yourself to be better about what the algorithm and the shapers are trying to do to you.
Arsenal just won the Premier League to the backdrop of one of the worst media propaganda campaigns of all time. It’s time to break the habit and realise that you are being taken for a ride. Your emotions are being choked to make you doubt what you are seeing. It just simply can’t continue this way. You are giving your joy away in an era where things really are pretty amazing.
Antonio Conte, one of the biggest sufferball merchants of all time… media darling.
José Mourinho, didn’t want the ball, sufferball king, dark arts monster, savage man… media darling.
Pep G, one of the most overpowered managers in football history… media darling.
Eddie Howe, media darling. Big Ange, media darling.
Arteta, who doesn’t say offensive things, answers questions with depth, gives soundbites, rarely complains, built the club back to greatness the hard way… has media literally saying they want to punch him.
Says it all.
Time to shake yourself down. You saw all the people dancing on the streets. We are undeniably massive. Arsenal are champions. We just made a Champions League final and went unbeaten in open play. There is no doubt, we are one of the best teams on the planet and the club is about to invest even more in taking us to the next level.
This makes me feel alive, and I am not going to let platforms designed to enrage me move the needle.
Propagandise yourself, live the good life, have a great summer. x
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