Norway abandons Arsenal, and Everton beat us again

Here is a letter that appeared on Untold Arsenal on 6th February 2010 at 1036, from a Norwegian supporter…

I love Arsenal since 1976. The beste team ever was with Henry, Vieira, Bergkamp and Pires.
I dont see any of them todays Arsenal.
I am finished with Arsenal now because i dont think they will win anything. Today i delete my Arsenal memebership for first time.
I think the match against manu proof that.
If Wenger buy som older and wise players maybe i buy a new memebership.
The Arsenal fan club in norway have lost over 300 members on 1 month.

I think Wenger must go. Hes vision has failed.

———————————————-

Oh what would all those Norwegian supporters have made of Arsenal 100 years ago – the Arsenal that had to survive to give us the team of  Henry, Pires etc?  Had they taken the view of these Norwegian supporters (and of course I have no idea how many supporters Arsenal have in Norway), then we would have no club at all – they would all be supporting Newcastle and Everton and Blackburn – the top clubs of 100 years ago.

One hundred years ago yesterday, on 5th February 1910 to be exact, Woolwich Arsenal were knocked out of the 2nd round of the FA Cup by Everton by five goals to nil in front of 30,000 supporters.

At the moment when Arsenal desperately needed a good Cup run to help stave off the threat of liquidation, disaster struck and it was all over.

This was the darkest moment for the club.  The two meetings in January (one for shareholders and one for supporters) had revealed to the world that this was nearly the end for Arsenal, and the supporters meeting had made it clear that although some money could be raised it was unlikely to be enough.

The team Arsenal put out was certainly not the best possible – but that was due to injury not team selection.  McKeller was centre forward, playing his last ever game for the club.  He ended his career at Woolwich with two goals.  Lewes the inside forward was the only other really recognised goalscorer – he got five in the season.

In fact it shows you how far down Arsenal had sunk when we recognise that five goals was the most anyone scored that season.   There is a review of the career of McKeller at http://www.blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk/2009/12/28/27th-december-1909-woolwich-arsenal-vs-liverpool/

Our one star of the team was Andrew Ducat, who has also been subject to an earlier review here

So there we were, hoving at the end of the relegation zone, dependent as much on the awfulness of Bolton and Chelsea at the very foot of the table, with crowds declining, and two league wins in our last seven games.

What would the correspondent from Norway have made of that?

Next up (February 12) was Blackburn Rovers at home.   Given that we had already lost 0-7 to Blackburn earlier in the season, there was not overwhelming hope for the result (although it must be remembered we played with a goal keeper who was injured in that match).

But some fans stayed with the club – and one man (Henry Norris) showed absolute faith in the club and his own ability to turn them around.  More of him anon.

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(c) Tony Attwood 2004

5 Replies to “Norway abandons Arsenal, and Everton beat us again”

  1. Every club has fair-weather supporters .. Laughable really… delete my membership.. ‘I may get another one if wenger buys some players.’ lol stick to ice climbing and the northern lights. My Scandinavian friend..

  2. As a fellow Norwegian, it is unfair of you Tony to write this. You make it look like every Norwegian is like this twat. I am a member of The Norwegian Arsenal Supporter Club and every Arsenal fan in the world is dissapointed about that game in particular, there are thousands of members in our country, as there is all over the world. And if he did disband from our membership, he is no better than any glory hunter and certainly not a member since 76′ if he thinks times are tough now.

  3. You are quite right Freddy, and I do accept your point. But I was looking for a simple way to say how silly he was being.

    That’s the problem with blogs – you write them and up they go for everyone to read. What I should do is write and then leave it for a day and think “have I said this right?”

    So my apologies. I have met a small number of Norwegian fans of Arsenal and they have all been terrific people and terrific fans.

    Tony

  4. I always read your articles over here and it brings me much pleasure and I like the way you link our most difficult hours as a club with the present and how lucky we are with the way our club is run nowadays.

    About the Norwegian gooner that told on the untold arsenal blog what is written as opening the problem is Freddy that he gave the impression of talking in name of all those 300. I think he was talking in his own name but wanted to give an impression of the frog that blew him self up. This is just a bad translated Dutch expression.

  5. The Norweagian Supporterclub of Arsenal has not lost 300 members the last month. That part is just bullshit. The guy who wrote this letter couldn’t bee very serious. Well, if he has been an Arsenal supporter since the 70s, this wouldn’t bee the worse period of his time as a supporter.

    Sorry for the bad english…

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