The Life, Death and Life of a Football Hero For The Gooner, Arsenal Fanzine summer 2011 So, it’s that time of year again; the opening of the rusty transfer window. The whole affair is like one huge, multimillion anti-Christmas with the poor clubs expecting a sausage and some stuffing for dinner and a stocking full of Senderos while those with a rich daddy can look forward to a full, slap up feast and a tree full to toppling over with presents stuffed underneath. This leads me to the presents themselves; the players. Now, a player can lift a stadium beyond the rafters with one piece of skill, turn a game around and change the atmosphere with but a flick of the toe. They can be the beating heart of a team, its vitality even and you could never imaginable the team existing without that familiar name and number appearing in the starting eleven. Look at Thierry Henry, at one point this club was an engine built around him and marvelous it was too. However, when that player left it was difficult to see how we’d cope without him. Now we find ourselves in similar hot water with both Nasri and Cesc looking to spend their days in the sun away from us and we panic and bite away at our pre-season nails with anguish, woe and a heavy heart. “How will we cope? The team is falling apart!” This is just a cycle of life, death and life for the player arrives as an unknown quality; they show abundant potential and receive plaudits from their home crowd and start to develop a role within the team, even turning that flair on as mentioned above and delivering one of those out of the seat moments that keep us swiping our tickets through the gate each week and bring that player to life in the media and in our house. Then the season ends, head ringing with applause and a stomach of ambition the player’s head is turned and in most cases he will move on thus dying, metaphorically, in the eyes of their old crowd who cannot deal with the lose. But then the team starts playing again and new faces take up old roles, they show skill and determination and we look good, just for that flicker of a moment it looks like we could go all the way. Thus the old player, now no longer ‘essential’ to the team’s success is thought of in fonder terms, their good days remembered. So if Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas want to move on from the Emirates then yes, we’ll go through the same cycle of love/hate with them, maybe the odd boo will emit from certain sections, they’ve paid their money it’s up to them but when all is said and done those two players have been great for this club and have both produced rafter lifting moments, so let’s get past the ‘death stage’ and head straight for life and rejoice in their contribution. Remember; no one man is bigger than the club and this cycle of life, death and life will continue as it has always done. We’re Arsenal for life; let’s honour our club by wishing the best to whoever may move on, after all there is always someone ready to take up their role. By Grant Tarbard
Posted on: Fri, 05 Jul 2013 08:57:01 +0000
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