I've been a fan of Arsenal Football Club since 1988. It
has been a long journey for me, and I can remember many seasons. Of course, the
golden age was during the time of Arsène Wenger, and during that period,
Arsenal played the most entertaining form of football. I still support Arsenal
and follow both their men's and women's teams. Because of this passion, I
started this blog but never took it seriously because we used to cover Arsenal
on another blog.
I do not have a plan to come back to this blogging platform
and make the blog active again. I am just doing this for practice because today
I have a plan of writing 10 such long posts on different blogs. It is just
practice for me so that I can become a professional blogger again. We never had
any significant success with this blog but enjoyed it nonetheless. I want to
write not about the blog itself but about Arsenal Football Club in the last 30
years. After Wenger took charge, he did something magical with the club, and it
had its best time under his management.
Before he took charge, Arsenal believed in winning
"ugly." Most of the time, the score line was a narrow one-nil
victory, and they played defensive football. So, even if they became League
champions or runners-up, they did not always play beautiful football. Most of
the fans were not always excited and used to chant "boring, boring
Arsenal." Wenger wanted to change the football philosophy and hoped that
his players would present attacking football for the fans. He achieved this
goal within a short time, and he focused on bringing attacking strikers from
other parts of Europe.
He encouraged players to become physically fitter and
changed their diet system. He also urged them to do physical exercise regularly
and improve their running speed. He taught them to play an expansive and
passing style of football. So, whenever Arsenal played, most of the time it was
a very enjoyable and mouth-watering spectacle for the eyes of the spectators in
the stadium. This really changed the way they played, and they became a serious
contender in English Premier League Football. They also started playing well in
Europe. Within 10 years of Wenger taking charge, they won the championship of
the Premier League as well as the FA Cup and reached the final of the Champions
League.
Sadly, that fairy-tale run came to an end rather
abruptly because Arsenal was facing serious financial problems as they were
building a new stadium. The club went under huge loans, and Wenger did not have
a lot of funds to support him in the transfer market. So, he had to sell
top-quality players and could not buy adequate replacements for them. In any
case, he had to focus on getting young players at a very inexpensive price and
then work on developing them. This strategy worked for the next 10 years as Arsenal
could achieve a top-four finish each season and qualify for the Champions
League. Qualifying for the Champions League was, however, not enough for most
fans, and they demanded the departure of Wenger. However, by that time, Arsenal
had overcome the pressure of building the new Emirates Stadium. Wenger
eventually had to leave, but he guided the club through every difficult
situation. Now, Arsenal does not have any shortage of money in the transfer
market, and they have already spent 100 million on a single player. This has
been possible because of the fact that Arsenal had been in the Champions League
continuously under Wenger.
After one year had passed, the new coach could not
perform well, and for the next two years, it was a very difficult and troubling
time for the club. Then, the current coach took charge and started a new era.
For the last three seasons, they have been playing well in the Premier League.
They are again back in the Champions League, and for the last three seasons,
they have been the runners-up. Even this season, they will most probably end up
finishing second, which is a great achievement. Arteta is the current coach,
and he was a former player of Arsenal. Under his tenure, the club is doing much
better than the other top 6 clubs in England. For example, Chelsea and
Manchester United have struggled this season. Manchester United and Tottenham
are not even in the top 10 positions in the league table. Arsenal is doing much
better than all of them this time. Even in the Champions League, they have
reached the quarter-final stage.
Now, I should say something about the women's team of
Arsenal. I have followed them for the last four years, and they have been
impressive. They have not yet won the championship in the Women's Super League,
but their performance is consistently good. They need some investment, and if
they receive some, they will be able to buy some top players. Despite this,
they are doing very well in Europe and have reached the semi-final by defeating
Real Madrid in the Champions League. In the Women's Super League, they are
expected to finish as runners-up.
The women's team has a huge fan following, and Arsenal
has already committed most of their home games to be played at the Emirates
Stadium. As a result, they have huge attendance figures, and most of the
attendance records in the Women's Super League are under their belt.
I have reached almost the end of this blog post. This is
the 7th blog post of today, and I am very happy that I have been practicing
this way. I feel that I am close to becoming a professional blogger again.
I have no particular interest in writing about Arsenal
regularly and keeping this blog going, but I surely would love to write a
research article about Arsenal someday and speak at a conference about the
club. I am hopeful that I will be able to do it in the future because I have
been following the club for at least 35 years.
Finally, I'd like to thank you for reading this post,
and I am hopeful that one day I'll be able to write more extensively about Arsenal.
