Live Sport 4: In league with the enemy
As if it wasn't bad enough that I revealed the extent to which I'm a secret Manchester United fan, I have an even graver confession to make as a Spurs fan. I have enjoyed Arsenal. I have cheered Arsenal. Just the once, but it happened.
I've never been a regular on-the-terraces football fan. I became a Spurs fan when I was 7. My brother was, my dad was, it made sense. They were in London - at that point I didn't grasp quite how far Tottenham was from Ealing. They were also pretty good and pretty fun then - Hoddle, Ardiles, Waddle, Clive Allen etc. 86-87 was a particularly exciting, albeit eventually crushing, season to be a Spurs fan. They could conceivably have had a treble, but ended with nothing.
But White Hart Lane was a long way from Ealing. It was never going to be possible to go regularly. In particular, by the time I was 10, I was playing sport on an awful lot of Saturdays, and by the time I was 13, almost every Saturday.
The geographical thing bothered me, too. I looked around. Brentford was very much the closest ground, little more than a mile away, so they became my second club, but I thought I needed a second Premier League club too. I considered QPR, I even considered Chelsea. Thankfully, neither stuck. My loyalty stayed to Spurs and Brentford. I got around. I made it up to White Hart Lane a couple of times, Griffin Park a few times, Loftus Road quite a few times, Craven Cottage once or twice, I even once went to the old Plough Lane to watch Wimbledon vs Southampton in 1989. That was a pretty star-studded match actually. Southampton had the three Wallaces, Jimmy Case, a young Le Tissier (I can't say I remember him on the day, sadly). Wimbledon had Dennis Wise, John Scales, Phelan, Curle. And there were two stars of major Hollywood films. Russell Osman for Southampton, who of course was an extra in 'Escape to Victory', and Vinnie Jones for Wimbledon, one of our finest classical actors.
Anyway, so it went on, the odd game here and there as a teen, but very little. I envied the regular football fans I went to school with - mainly Wimbledon, Brentford and QPR. I envied the passion and tribalism. Truthfully, those have never been my thing. I'm a little ambivalent. I'll watch anything going and I'll usually end up rooting for someone, even if it's Bolton- Sheffield United. There's always a reason to develop a sympathy or an antipathy, whether long-lasting or transitory.
Still, you'd never catch me supporting Arsenal, would you? Even the 2006 Champions League final, I was ambivalent. I admired Thierry Henry without loving him. By this time, Chelsea had replaces Arsenal as the great enemy, but still, support ... no, not quite.
Friends acquired corporate tickets to Arsenal-Fulham at the Emirates and asked me if I wanted to go. Why not - by that point, I'd seen Fulham a few times and had some affection for them as a relatively local to Balham where I lived then. Not cheap. £55. And it was a wretched game. A nadir. 0-0. Fans booed at the end, and it was noted this was pretty much the first time they'd ever booed Wenger. Hmmph. Arsenal. Overpriced shambles.
Same friends acquired tickets again a few months later. Arsenal-Blackburn. Same price. Actually in a box this time. OK. And my sister supports Blackburn, so I can get on board with that. The Arsenal players looked tiny. Not because the seats were far away, far from it, it's because they were tiny. Little imps, Arsenal had - Arshavin, Rosicky, Walcott as sub, Clichy, Rosicky, Song etc
I was phlegmatic, I was relaxed. Come on, impress me. And they did. Blackburn played their part in the first half, indeed they led twice, but gradually Arsenal took over.
Van Persie, Arshavin, Fabregas, sensationally good football, endless possession, flicks, grace and joie de vivre. It became enjoyable. If it had been close, I'd still have supported Blackborn, but it stopped being close, so I got sucked in. When the 5th and 6th goals went in, I still remember, as a cold dread runs down my spine, me ... cheering. Cheering goals by Arsenal. Not just clapping. Cheering. I'm sorry.
That's sport. It carries you away. But stuff like that shouldn't happen. I wished I'd been made of sterner stuff, that I'd developed a proper engrained obsession with Spurs over years of attendance that could have prevented that from happening. I weakened at the first stirring of trouble. The horror.
It's strange, though, isn't it, the business of supporting. Like I mentioned in my post on Ayrton Senna, Brits had to somehow kids themselves that they'd rather support Nigel bleedin' Mansell than Ayrton Senna - so fans of slightly rubbish, dull football teams maybe have had to pretend themselves that they'd rather watch their own brand than the scinitillating brand being played by another time. I had to pretend through all those Wenger years that they weren't playing some of the most pleasing football imaginable, while Spurs stuttered away.
I think football fans have got more choosy and i'm not sure it's a good thing. West Ham fans booing their team even though they won a recent game 2-1 because they weren't playing with sufficient elan. I think Sam Allardyce has a right to be a bit miffed. We all get to watch Barcelona now. We all know how the game should be played and wish our team would play the same. But we can't all support Barcelona. We can't all support Brazil.
There's some flexibility but not too much. The stereotypes have been inverted. Boring, boring Arsenal have been the most aesthetically pleasing team in the UK for over 10 years just as the clinical, efficient Germans have become one of the most vibrant, exciting national teams. If my own team's not in the running, as will inevitably be the case with both Spurs and England, to what extent can I bring myself to support the enemy? Well, I can, if there's a worse enemy (e.g. Chelsea, Italy). I can do that logically. And, beyond logic, if those teams perform with beauty, if they're thrilling, sometimes it turns out that being in league with the enemy is a little beyond my control
I've never been a regular on-the-terraces football fan. I became a Spurs fan when I was 7. My brother was, my dad was, it made sense. They were in London - at that point I didn't grasp quite how far Tottenham was from Ealing. They were also pretty good and pretty fun then - Hoddle, Ardiles, Waddle, Clive Allen etc. 86-87 was a particularly exciting, albeit eventually crushing, season to be a Spurs fan. They could conceivably have had a treble, but ended with nothing.
But White Hart Lane was a long way from Ealing. It was never going to be possible to go regularly. In particular, by the time I was 10, I was playing sport on an awful lot of Saturdays, and by the time I was 13, almost every Saturday.
The geographical thing bothered me, too. I looked around. Brentford was very much the closest ground, little more than a mile away, so they became my second club, but I thought I needed a second Premier League club too. I considered QPR, I even considered Chelsea. Thankfully, neither stuck. My loyalty stayed to Spurs and Brentford. I got around. I made it up to White Hart Lane a couple of times, Griffin Park a few times, Loftus Road quite a few times, Craven Cottage once or twice, I even once went to the old Plough Lane to watch Wimbledon vs Southampton in 1989. That was a pretty star-studded match actually. Southampton had the three Wallaces, Jimmy Case, a young Le Tissier (I can't say I remember him on the day, sadly). Wimbledon had Dennis Wise, John Scales, Phelan, Curle. And there were two stars of major Hollywood films. Russell Osman for Southampton, who of course was an extra in 'Escape to Victory', and Vinnie Jones for Wimbledon, one of our finest classical actors.
Anyway, so it went on, the odd game here and there as a teen, but very little. I envied the regular football fans I went to school with - mainly Wimbledon, Brentford and QPR. I envied the passion and tribalism. Truthfully, those have never been my thing. I'm a little ambivalent. I'll watch anything going and I'll usually end up rooting for someone, even if it's Bolton- Sheffield United. There's always a reason to develop a sympathy or an antipathy, whether long-lasting or transitory.
Still, you'd never catch me supporting Arsenal, would you? Even the 2006 Champions League final, I was ambivalent. I admired Thierry Henry without loving him. By this time, Chelsea had replaces Arsenal as the great enemy, but still, support ... no, not quite.
Friends acquired corporate tickets to Arsenal-Fulham at the Emirates and asked me if I wanted to go. Why not - by that point, I'd seen Fulham a few times and had some affection for them as a relatively local to Balham where I lived then. Not cheap. £55. And it was a wretched game. A nadir. 0-0. Fans booed at the end, and it was noted this was pretty much the first time they'd ever booed Wenger. Hmmph. Arsenal. Overpriced shambles.
Same friends acquired tickets again a few months later. Arsenal-Blackburn. Same price. Actually in a box this time. OK. And my sister supports Blackburn, so I can get on board with that. The Arsenal players looked tiny. Not because the seats were far away, far from it, it's because they were tiny. Little imps, Arsenal had - Arshavin, Rosicky, Walcott as sub, Clichy, Rosicky, Song etc
I was phlegmatic, I was relaxed. Come on, impress me. And they did. Blackburn played their part in the first half, indeed they led twice, but gradually Arsenal took over.
Van Persie, Arshavin, Fabregas, sensationally good football, endless possession, flicks, grace and joie de vivre. It became enjoyable. If it had been close, I'd still have supported Blackborn, but it stopped being close, so I got sucked in. When the 5th and 6th goals went in, I still remember, as a cold dread runs down my spine, me ... cheering. Cheering goals by Arsenal. Not just clapping. Cheering. I'm sorry.
That's sport. It carries you away. But stuff like that shouldn't happen. I wished I'd been made of sterner stuff, that I'd developed a proper engrained obsession with Spurs over years of attendance that could have prevented that from happening. I weakened at the first stirring of trouble. The horror.
It's strange, though, isn't it, the business of supporting. Like I mentioned in my post on Ayrton Senna, Brits had to somehow kids themselves that they'd rather support Nigel bleedin' Mansell than Ayrton Senna - so fans of slightly rubbish, dull football teams maybe have had to pretend themselves that they'd rather watch their own brand than the scinitillating brand being played by another time. I had to pretend through all those Wenger years that they weren't playing some of the most pleasing football imaginable, while Spurs stuttered away.
I think football fans have got more choosy and i'm not sure it's a good thing. West Ham fans booing their team even though they won a recent game 2-1 because they weren't playing with sufficient elan. I think Sam Allardyce has a right to be a bit miffed. We all get to watch Barcelona now. We all know how the game should be played and wish our team would play the same. But we can't all support Barcelona. We can't all support Brazil.
There's some flexibility but not too much. The stereotypes have been inverted. Boring, boring Arsenal have been the most aesthetically pleasing team in the UK for over 10 years just as the clinical, efficient Germans have become one of the most vibrant, exciting national teams. If my own team's not in the running, as will inevitably be the case with both Spurs and England, to what extent can I bring myself to support the enemy? Well, I can, if there's a worse enemy (e.g. Chelsea, Italy). I can do that logically. And, beyond logic, if those teams perform with beauty, if they're thrilling, sometimes it turns out that being in league with the enemy is a little beyond my control
Do you gamble on sports ever? I wonder if just by investing hard cash can give a spectator the same visceral thrill of really wanting someone to win, as opposed to enjoying the aesthetics of a game well played. Gambling feels insidious to me, but perhaps it does function as a way for a person to get more out of a sport sepcifcally by championing a team/individual they don't like, but do think is the best?
ReplyDeleteI do not gamble on sport. That would be a big bad idea. I gamble my understanding of self - if I invest in an outcome and it goes against my expectation, it chips a little bit away at my self-image as the all-knowing being. It is far more positive to lose that than several thousand pounds ...
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