When I was a child I played football from one end of the day to the other, when I became a teenager I still played football but started to watch football on tv any chance I got, I would watch any game that was televised. Now though I seem to be losing my interest in watching football on tv, bar the Arsenal. This season I have watched 5 games, the four Arsenal League games and Everton v Man Utd. No champs league, no other prem games as I literally turn the tv off as soon as the Arse are finished playing on the Super Sunday.
I work in a pretty male centric workplace and of course most of the talk at lunch and break times turns to football; this season I havent been involved much in the conversation as I haven’t been bothered to watch other games, I even have taken to skipping to the Arsenal highlights while watching MOTD. I’m not sure if it is due to an over saturation of football thanks to the largely poor in my opinion Euro 2012 coupled with the constant Olympic coverage but my interest in sitting down to watch a game has seriously waned. However when it comes to our club I seem to be getting worse in my desire every game that I can manage to see.
I literally will not leave my house on a Saturday if I wont be back in time for the 3 p.m. kickoff just in case I miss anything and I’m not even watching it on a big screen tv or anything. Just as well my missus is very understanding and comes from a football mad household too. My viewing is taking place on a 13″ laptop screen watching a blurry screen & I’m loving it. Give me blurred Arsenal streams over 50″ HD pictures of some other club any day. This Saturday I go on holidays to Spain for a week and will be seeking out some sort of drinking establishment to watch the Citeh game, I will also be doing the same before my flight home for the Chelski game. Why do I do this? Because I genuinely don’t feel right if the Arsenal are on and I havent managed to watch the game, sure I can follow twitter or listen on the radio or perhaps follow along on the excellent and always funny Arseblog Live but I feel the team just wont manage to play as well as they could if im not sitting down to watch them.
While I will head out when im away to watch the game it’s not something I generally do. I don’t like the company of others when im watching my team play( bar my Arsenal supporting brother and the missus for her well intended but usually misplaced encouragement) and the local pub provides plenty of other people including supporters of whatever team of twats we are playing against. The local pubs also presents 4 other drawbacks.
1.You can’t pace around the room nervously in a pub
2.You can’t make 3 cups of coffee during half time just so you don’t have to listen to Jamie Fuckin Redknapp shite out of him
3.My pub doesn’t actually serve any beer that I like to drink, craft beer FTW
4. Most importantly you can’t sit in your match day chair.
I feel that the rest of the season will follow much of the same pattern for me of ignoring all other teams bar the Arsenal and having a sense of demonic possession in my need to watch the team, how many of you will be the same?
Till next time
follow me on twitter @wicklowgooner
Oh dude you and I are so very similar. I used to like watching other teams play as well as Arsenal years ago. But lastseason and this one I am feeling like I don’t care for it at all. When utd are playing on (fox 1 for example) the Arsenal are playing on interactive channel (press red button to see 5 other games) I will purposefully avert my eyes so not to see those horrible strips. When it is city or Chelsea I do the same but not as bad as UTD with the scummy Dutchman. If for the few seconds that UTD are (on before red button pressed), I were to see said ‘scumbag’ lying on ground injured I would watch, otherwise no.
When the highlights are on I watch until arsenal are shown, then flick channel. My mrs is no football fan but she likes Arsenal (obviously) and does give misguided encouragement when we lose/draw any game god love her.
It is football saturation and I wonder if this will catch on and see the EPL wane?
Too much of anything isn’t good!
Good article indeed!
Come on you Gunners!!!
I can’t stand ManUre either. Just moved from Boston, and I hate the red devils as much as I hate the yankees…
Fuck Yes!!! My thoughts echoed exactly. The only problem I have is that I’m in Colorado, usa, and its almost impossible to watch some of hear games due to the time zones, but I’ve woken up at 530, ON A SUNDAY AFTER DRINKING ALL NIGHT, and still scream my face off with joy when they score (my sleeping roomates love this mind you).
Couldn’t agree more with you!
exactly the same for me. I do not care for any other team. I genuinely get sleepy when watching other teams play. But when Arsenal is on, my eyes go wide and I get very passionate, screaming at the top of my lungs whenever a goal is scored on either ends or when the ref makes a call against us(which is as always, very often).
Thanks for the entertaining read. I have been an Arsenal supporter for at least 40 of my 46 years. My interest in football has waned over that time but rarely my love for The Gunners. It has always been a rare event for me to sit down and watch 2 other teams play and my ability/desire to watch highlights of the other matches is always dependant on the Arsenal score. If we lose I would rather watch anything other than MOTD.
Dude u got it right, jus right.
I was in the same state when I was a bachelor in India, watching games at 1 or 2 am in the morning and sleeping half way through Sunday. Before we got cable TV, it was listening to bbc radio [following Arsenal since 1984]
Once I got married and had kids, it changed completely. Now my Saturday / Sunday afternoons are spent playing in the garden or some child friendly place or watching cartoons with my kids. Is someway, its good, as I don’t get frustrated / irritable or use foul language in front of them if we don’t play well or loose.
Generally I get very very tensed while watching us play because I hate when we loose or play badly or even a miss pass, or if they don’t for a 50-50 header, hence me screaming at the TV. Not good with kids around, thinking their dads an idiot screaming at a screen. When I hear on the news that we have won, I get more pleasure in watching the highlights. If we have drawn or lost, I don’t bother.