I mean, why do we sit around, spouting off all kinds of possible theories and ideas when we have no idea what goes on in the inner circle of a football club? In fact, even the players have no idea - they are designed that way in order not to rock the boat. It is the likes of Robinho, Adebayor, Ashley Cole and Mascherano who are able to create a bonsai tsunami in their (dis)respected clubs as they stare blankly while fans and employees blame them for the brainless mess in their wake. I have just referred to the sea twice in that ridiculous scenario.
Why do I not include Fabregas in this? Well long ago I predicted that Barcelona would buy the 'idea' of him. He would feel like he played for both clubs and Arsenal would keep a player who, though remarkable, is unhappy. But even so, he is a gent of sorts.
Anyway, so Arsenal started the season and have managed to turn out some good results against weak opposition on the whole. We have played well and the new signings have settled in without shattering expectations.
So far, so great. Chelsea and Man U do what they do. Man City are there and so on. I mean really how can this be worth writing about right now? Who cares? It is just about forming a consistent pattern and hoping you can set some pace without injury. We have injury. Vik Akers looks like he lost the players' sports bras and they cannot measure the load any more. Good thing too as Almunia's 46DDs probably would injure most men's backs.
I have nothing exciting to say about football right now. It is still a beautiful game and the tension up to the 95th minute against Sunderland can only echo how great it must be to watch for all those leagues who's results are predetermined by the team sheet. The EPL is still great and I take my hat off to it.
Instead, why don't I talk about the Pope's visit to the UK? Or the admission of witchcraft by Christine O'Donnell? Both of these stories have given me much food for thought in the last few days. Maybe I will do a non football posting quite soon. A rant I think.
I have to say, I respect the commitment shown by those who choose to blog hard and give their minds over to the content. But the idea of just throwing out words is frustrating me. The concept of a fan is frustrating me. The heuristic 'experience' of the loyal fan is such a contradiction. We can rouse the team. We can spit and moan. We can collect autographs, (if that's what you're about) and recall nice stories of players being kind. We can even make friends with the players. But it never, ever will fill the void of what we are really looking for in terms of sport and psychological fulfillment.
The tribal element of football fandom gives license to those who are prone to defend their right to 'belong' with a fist, a bottle, a Burberry or Stone Island cock ring and a meaningless fight in the purest sense - (another glaring contradiction).
England Expects by Morgan Penn
The tribal nature is not football. It is 'meaning' sought by those not ready for the emotional depth required by the police or the army. Hey, whatever floats your boat as the passion is most certainly there and I am sure that those thrill seekers feel more alive than I do most of the time.
What else is it? The desire to be respected for how much you know about the game? Is it the need to feel that love is returned by the club? Is it success? It can't be, for there are thousands, if not millions of fans who know they will never achieve success in terms of silverware. Is it hope for a better day? Does it become a religion with little evidence of a deity, but plenty of stories substantiated by 'real' events?
What is a fan? Frantz Fanon provocatively suggested that "Every spectator is a coward or a traitor". Can you imagine that hanging above the turnstiles of all stadia? Even better, in the dressing room of the away team.
Making sense of football is like trying to make sense of fashion. Rather than suggest like Barthes, that it is 'change without change', I would add that there is the unachievable glory of "being", but with clothes. If you care, then you can never be happy. And if you don't care, then you can never appreciate the aesthetic of the cut, the fit, the seeming reshaping of your body - with all its promises of the potential allure aimed at whoever and whatever you are dressing for that nestles in the back of your mind.
But the real head-wrecker about fashion and football is the visceral dupe. To be there, to imbibe and consume is a feeling so temporary that you are left in a wonder and daze, trying week in and week out to revisit or recreate the high you once had before. The problem is, this is not for the fan to create. It is created for us and by chance variable circumstances and key components, working together and against each other to amount in an outcome that can bring us both pleasure and pain (as well as other things too). This is a form of diegetic materialism. It is owned by the masses and only measurable in situ. There are no decent tools to measure it and it would never agree to stay still long enough to be measured. All the fan can hope is that people keep providing an arena for this implausible and improbable high to resurface once in a while.
If it all reads like waffle, it is because it is. I don't use that as an excuse, but it certainly helps me comprehend the highs and lows and general ambivalence at times.
I will say this to finish. Football can energise and sap our lives of meaning, and like any good art it feels like the truth. Which in itself is abstract.
