What Do You Want?

I've got a question for you.

It's a question about this club. Several, in fact.

What do you want from it? Are you just after trophies? Do you want, or expect, or demand, instant gratification in this respect, from Arsenal Football Club?

If so, maybe you are supporting the wrong club.

Arsenal FC has never had a divine right to win a trophy. No club has.

This is not an apologist's musings as to why we have not won a cup or title for a year or two. The reasons why we have not are stark.

We have not competed enough for said pots.

But we have the talent.

But if you are the sort of person who pledges allegiance to a team based on the expectancy or likelihood of success, then please, do me, do us a favour - look elsewhere.

For the same reason that Arsenal FC is not a club looking to sell out to the highest bidder (no disrespect to any potential investor, i cannot know your motives deep down...), Arsenal FC is also not solely about winning trophies.

It is about a family.

Yes, we anticipate these trophies to come our way, during Arsene Wenger's reign, we have become accustomed to it.

but no club has any sort of divine right to expect them.

You have to earn them. We, over the past couple of seasons, have not earned them quite enough.

Painful reading for some Gooners, no doubt. But true nonetheless.

And readers of the Vital Arsenal site are an intelligent bunch, they know the score, they can face such facts.

Because we have not carried home a trophy, do I love my team any less? Do i f***! I do not follow my club for cups and titles, I follow them because they are MY team.

I am frustrated, for I know what they can do, I know what they SHOULD do, I know that given a little more mental belief, application and fortitude, we shall be right up there with the other teams challenging for the title.

If you are looking to be a member of a proud footballing institution, and feel yourself drawn to this club, and can accept that that, for whatever reason it may be, it might be for good or for bad, then i salute you.

As being a football fan is not about the winnings of trophies. It's about your allegiance, nailing your colours to the mast. pick them, stick by them.

Or perhaps you are not a true football fan.

Perhaps you wish for instant gratification, and if your team of the moment finds themselves in a barren spot, you would care to switch to the latest fad of the moment, the big spenders, or the current holders of 'trophy x'.

If so, please question who you want to support, and why you want to support any team in the first place. Maybe Arsenal FC isnt for you. Because we didnt win the title this year. We didnt win the FA cup. We didnt win the champions league, or the carling cup. We finished potless.

You may prefer another team who offers immediate success. So please go and give them the benefit of your fairweather support. For I know that this club offers something special, a unique spirit. And whilst we have not added to our trophy cabinet this past year, we shall do so again, and very soon. I know it, and you, dear reader, also know it.

And when we do, watch it snowball. But if you cannot wait that long, trot on by.

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.