日期：二零零六年三月八日 作者：Norrie Hernon
我并非毫无条件的支持兵工厂，我的支持需要几个先决条件：
首先，枪手必须努力成功。值得欣慰的是，迄今为止枪手没有放弃过任何一场英超、英冠、足总杯甚至联赛杯的比赛。对于英超的二十支球队来说，这不是能够轻易做到的，但是这是每个球队的每个球迷的信仰，无论天空(sky)体育为联赛引入了多么巨量的资金（我们的信仰依然如故）。每年八月，我们看着球赛日程表心里念叨“如果x,y和z都表现正常，我们会有机会的。”大多数情况下，这只是错觉而已。维拉能赢英超冠军？算了吧，这跟格拉兹赢欧冠一样荒诞。然而，这种错觉支持着整个球会和球迷们一起前行，经历了一次又一次失望。
其次，那些被选入大名单的选手，无论什么比赛，都尽心尽力，全力以赴的争取每一场比赛的胜利。二十年前，他们仅仅是“足球运动员”。现在，在天空体育的尽力渲染和数十亿英镑的合同影响下，对普通大众和那些头脑发热的狂热拥护者来说，他们不只是“足球运动员”了，他们是“表演者”。电视转播需要的不止是场上90分钟的努力拼抢。然而可笑的是，天空体育在萧索寒冷的周一晚上转播博尔顿的比赛怎么解释？锐步球场的上座率还不到一半...他们把这称之娱乐，也许把。令人钦佩的夸张手法。
还有，当普通球迷提到自己的球队时，美学享受相对来说总要放到第二位。虽然对比格拉汉姆、梅和查普曼，阿森纳球迷更欣赏旺热的足球，但是球迷们对以上的几位都充满敬意，同一个理由：胜利。在无法实现的情况下，那球迷们至少希望能够看到－努力。桑德兰每周仍然能够吸引三万球迷到场助威－－即使在英冠－－球迷们能够看到球员们仍然在努力。当然，努力不是唯一的要求（如果是的话，任何人都能成为职业足球运动员），但是这是最重要的。一支没有技术的球队不会永远赢，但是一直不努力的球队会永远输。
在这个赛季前，阿什利科尔是这个原则的最好的范例：技术和渴望之间的平衡使他成为最伟大的球员，并得到了相应的酬劳、赞美和崇拜。今天，他的形象被严重损坏了。他坚持周薪必须超过五万五千英镑，在某些人眼里，这是合理的要求－当然是对那些在俱乐部拿顶薪的球员来说。科尔对阿森纳的承诺和忠诚与他的薪水要求没有关联，但是他随后与切尔西之间的眉来眼去，对他与俱乐部和球迷之间的关系产生了毁灭性的打击，他可是俱乐部为未来准备的队长人选！他从枪手球迷那里得到的支持有谁能及的上？甚至当全国性的报纸将他指责为英格兰国家队最弱的一环时我们依然坚定不移的给予他支持。他竟然要转回去一个在任何方面都与我们作对的俱乐部。为了什么？更多的薪水？阿什利，薪水和足球，哪个更重要？科尔应该感谢永贝里，皮雷和吉尔伯托本赛季的持续低迷，他们吸引了公众的注意力，他们使我们无暇去回想这家俱乐部历史上最无耻的事件。当他获得七万磅周薪的合同，并暂时留在海布里之后，我甚至想这辈子都不再看球。
李迪克逊曾说过“一九九五年布鲁斯里奇来了，然后我们又签了丹尼斯（博格坎普）和大卫普拉特，最后旺热来了－俱乐部差不多用光了所有的钱！有一天下午旺热把我叫道办公室里，告诉我他对我只赚那么点钱感到尴尬和不安。他说他会尽力提高我的工资，我简直不敢相信自己听到的！”我得承认，我真的很怀念“后方五老”那个时代：全英格兰班底，长传冲吊...当然我不是怀念他们的国籍，我欣赏的是他们的态度！我很幸运能够与皮雷、永贝里、亨利和维埃拉交谈，但是我始终无法真正的欣赏他们：他们将各自天文数字般的薪水视为当然，而非感激自己生活在一个好的时代，好到顶级球员赚得比首相要体面的多。迪克逊知道感激，懂得什么叫做全情投入，这从他这辈子踢的每一场比赛里就能感觉到。迪克逊的这些话吉尔伯托会说么？或者维埃拉？特别是他在俱乐部最后十八个月所踢的任何一场比赛里能看得到这种感激么？
当然，现代的足球明星们普遍赚得很多，薪水自然水涨船高。这是必须的。尼尔奎因在自传中提到他刚到阿森纳时的薪水比他的室友（租住的公寓）还要低，他的室友是个建筑工地的工人。我无从比较奎因和永贝里，永贝里每周能拿七万英镑。我希望永贝里的状态更好些，注意力更集中些，更不知疲倦的下定决心去赢得每一场比赛。换句话说，我不奢望他每周都能表现的跟踩死皇马那么强悍，但是我希望他能够复制那两场比赛里的努力。然而，一周前他被看到穿得花枝招展的享受伦敦的夜生活－－这个赛季不是第一次了－－在安菲尔德之战之后他也这么干过。
大卫本特利三个赛季前接受过一次采访，应该是4－4－2采访的。在把成吨的溢美之词送给旺热之后（那时他还是阿塞纳的最爱之一，是DB10命中注定的继承者），本特利被问及他的纪律性：本特利说基本上很好，但是他提到自己曾几次因为训练迟到被罚款，甚至每次“仅仅”迟到了五到十分钟。
“仅仅”？
周薪一万磅，甚至不用担心合同是否会终止，当人们注意到某个球员“可能”会被替换时，一份光鲜的合同出现了。丹尼斯博格坎普是全欧洲最富有的球员之一。他大部分的财富来自于精明的投资，但是我认为，主要是来自于他的态度。博格坎普可以在五年甚至十年以前就退役，但是他没有。相反，他，一个百万富翁，每天早早起床赶去基地训练－－注意－－不是准时，是提早。两个赛季前旺热曾经想把他卖到克拉文农场，博格坎普自动降薪以求留在兵工厂。上赛季他合同到期，他又自降身价续签了一个一年合约。无疑，他魔术般的双腿正在离我们远去，他的身体每次赛后都咯吱作响，即使参加的比赛越来越少，但是他仍然奋力拼抢，拼尽全力在每个后卫的面前胡搅蛮缠，因为他的直觉告诉他敌方后卫的头脑发热会带来本方的胜利，虽然他被一次次野蛮的放倒（想想四年前卡拉格在海布里被罚下：完全是因为丹尼斯全场狡猾的挑衅带来的过激反应）。无论踢的好不好，博格坎普每场比赛都会这么做；他是兵工厂的永动机。就像迪克逊，博客坎普明白每个球迷所期望的只是球员的全情投入，仅此而已。
我想讨论的是当我们手握价值三千英镑的季票时，我们对球员的爱戴不应只是盲目的因为他们身着红白色的球衣（今年例外）。球迷们的要求并不过分，他们不会得陇望蜀。我觉得现在是时候球迷们置疑一个球员的的忠诚是否足以让他出场。这个赛季枪手输了十次，是很令人沮丧，但是这只是故事的一部分。图雷，莱曼，劳伦和塞斯克（也许还有桑德罗斯和弗拉米尼）这个赛季都没有被过多的指责（尤其排除技术层面的评价的话），他们毫不吝啬的给予对手一次次凶狠的铲抢，奋不顾身的与对手一对一死磕。亨利，到这个赛季为止，也是如此：这个地球上最有天赋的足球运动员，但是他不停的跑、跑、跑。他本赛季不知疲倦的奔跑甚至让我感到有些伤感。
在古迪逊公园面对埃弗顿时，当皮雷确确实实的逃避一次铲抢时，我的心沉了下来。我希望这是第一次也是仅有的一次我看到一个职业运动员这样做。这种表现不可接受，甚至令我怀疑他的忠诚。同样的还有雷耶斯，永贝里，坎贝尔和吉尔博托，还有，有时候是亨利。这已经成为恶性循环，如果你们想要顶薪，你们必须表现出顶级的水准。如果他们每次参赛既不能也不想努力表现出最佳状态，那么让他们走吧。如果这真的是一个过渡性的赛季，那么即使排第九也行，但是别让我们因为在不同的球场，不同的比赛，不同的选手而去选择是否100％的投入。这个俱乐部将技术和流派发挥到了极至，将整个英超的水平提高了不止一个档次。现在，让我们并肩努力，让博尔顿和布莱克本因为枪手而不寒而栗吧！
Stand up, stand up, we are the arsenal boys！
8 March 2006, Norrie Hernon
Mine is not an unquestioning support. There are in my eyes two prerequisites to supporting Arsenal:
One, that they attempt to be successful. After all, there is no point being in a competition such as the Premiership, Champions League, FA or even Carling Cup if the team playing is not going to make an attempt to win it. With twenty clubs in the Premiership, this is not always possible but it is, despite the Sky-induced influx of mega money into the national game, still the belief of every supporter of every team that, each August, one can look at the fixtures and think ‘if x, y and z go right, we could have a chance.’ In most cases, this belief is little more than a collective delusion; Aston Villa have as much chance of winning the Premiership as Sturm Graz have of winning the Champions League. Still, it is the belief of the manager, players and supporters that enables the club to carry on, throughout a generation of barren seasons.
Two, that the players selected to represent the club, no matter the occasion or context, put their absolute and complete concentration, effort and focus into winning, as far as they can, each and every game they play. Twenty years ago, they were only footballers. Now, in an age of Sky saturated coverage and billion pound contracts, to the general public and ‘armchair fan’ they are not merely footballers but entertainers too. Television expects more than simply hard graft. This explains Sky’s sometimes laughable levels of hyperbole when presenting a non-entertaining Bolton as pure entertainment on a cold winter Monday evening in a half-empty Reebok: Forget the quality, they say, and feel the width.
Still, to the average fan, aesthetic considerations are of less importance when it comes to their own team. Arsenal fans prefer Wenger’s style to Graham’s, Mee’s or Chapman’s, but they accepted them all for one common denominator: success. In leaner times this demand is then reduced to one fundamental: effort. Sunderland still attract over thirty thousand per week for one solitary reason, and that is because they can see that the team – for all its woeful inadequacies – is still giving its all. Of course, effort is not the only requirement (if it was, anyone could be a professional footballer) but it is the most important. A team without skill will not always win, but a team without effort will always lose.
Prior to this season, Ashley Cole was a prime example of this principle: He seemed to understand the necessary balance in all great players between technique and desire, and was suitably rewarded, lauded and adored. Today, his standing has diminished considerably. Cole, in insisting that he be paid more than fifty five thousand pounds a week was, in the eyes of some, only asking for what he deserved: parity with the other top earners at the club. One wonders now how much he wishes that he had kept this difference of valuation in-house. Cole’s commitment, loyalty and desire to play for Arsenal were not necessarily compromised by his wage demands, but his subsequent and blatant flirting with Chelsea did enormous damage to his relationship with the supporters and the club: Here was a potential future captain – whose support from Arsenal fans had been as consistent as it was unquestioning, even when the national papers tried to depict him as a ‘weak link’ in the England side - flaunting a move to a club diametrically opposed to everything Arsenal represent. And for what, more money? Which comes first, Ashley: The money or the football? Cole should be thankful to the likes of Ljungberg, Pires and Gilberto for continually underperforming this season, for their sub-standard performances have taken the spotlight off one of the most undignified episodes in this club’s history. Hearing his ‘restraint of trade’ argument whilst being on £70,000 per week is the closest I have ever come to walking away from football.
Lee Dixon said: "When Bruce Rioch came [in 1995] and we signed Dennis [Bergkamp] and David Platt – the money just went bang! Then Wenger came and the money went up even more. He called me into his office one afternoon and told me that he was embarrassed by how much I was earning. He’d do his best to get me some more money, he said. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing." I have been accused of sentimentalism on this site - hankering after a period when all the players were English and all balls were long. I have given this some thought as reading back over previous articles, there is a definite slant towards the ‘famous back five’ era. However, it is not their nationality I miss but, as is abundantly clear in Dixon’s quote, their attitude. As much as I appreciate how privileged I am to have witnessed players of the calibre of Pires, Ljungberg, Henry and Vieira I simply cannot fully empathize with them: They view their astronomical wages as a right, rather than as being incredibly fortunate to be playing in an era where a competent player now earns substantially more than the Prime Minister. Dixon understood how lucky he was, and this was reflected in his wholehearted attitude to every game in which he played. Can the same be said of Gilberto, or of a Vieira who seemed to pick his games in his last eighteen months at the club?
It is precisely because modern players earn so much that the bar is raised. It has to be. Niall Quinn recalled in his autobiography how his wages when he first broke into the Arsenal team were inferior to his flat mate’s – a labourer on a building site. Consequently, I simply cannot judge Quinn by the same standards as a player like Ljungberg when Fred is on £70,000 per week. I expect Ljungberg to be fitter, more focused, and absolutely tireless in his determination to win each and every game. In other words, I don’t expect him to repeat the superb performance he gave against Madrid on a weekly basis, but I do expect him to replicate the effort. Instead, only a week before he was to be seen casually walking out – late, and not for the first time this season – for the second half at Anfield. If clubs are insistent on raising prices season after season in order to pay for their players wages, I expect as an absolute minimum every single player to be out at the start of each half, ready to let loose the hounds of hell.
David Bentley was interviewed three seasons ago for, I think, 4-4-2. After pouring lavish praise on Wenger (this was at a time when DB was considered a favourite of Arsene’s, and an almost inevitable successor to DB10. How times change!) Bentley was asked about his discipline: Bentley said that it was fine generally, but that he had repeatedly picked up fines for being late for training, even though he was ‘only’ 5-10 minutes late each time.
‘Only’?
£10,000 per week, and he couldn’t even be bothered to turn up on time. When one looks at the player who he was ‘supposed’ to replace, a shining contrast is presented. Dennis Bergkamp is one of the richest players in Europe. Much of his wealth stems from shrewd investments but, one likes to think, mainly from his attitude. Bergkamp could have retired five – or ten - years ago, but did not. Instead, a multi-millionaire gets up every morning and gets to training not only on time, but early. When Wenger decided to sell Bergkamp to Fulham two seasons ago, Bergkamp took a pay cut in order to stay. When his contract expired last summer, he took another one. His legs have gone, undoubtedly, and his body must creak even after fewer and fewer games, but he carries on, jumping for every ball, getting in the face of every defender because he intuitively understands that what irritates players more than anything else is irritation itself, death by a thousand cuts. (Witness Carragher’s sending off at Highbury four years ago: a red-mist reaction descent caused chiefly by Dennis’ subtle provocation throughout the entire match.) Whether playing well or not, Bergkamp will do this in every single game he plays; he is a model of perpetual motion. As with Dixon, Bergkamp recognizes that every supporter would give their right arm just to be in his place for one game, and so he plays as that supporter would play – with absolute commitment.
What I am arguing is that in a time of £3000 season tickets, it is no longer sufficient to ‘blindly’ follow the players simply because they wear the shirt. Football fans were less critical previously because they were not asked to pay Albert Hall prices for Ewood Park or Reebok quality. Now that they are, I think it is every fan’s right to question whether a player is deserving of loyalty simply for turning up. Ten defeats this season tells a story, but only a partial one. Toure, Lehmann, Lauren and Cesc (and, arguably, Senderos and Flamini) have all rightly escaped criticism this season as regardless of the technical levels of their performance, they have not shirked a single tackle, or shied from a single challenge. Henry, up to this season, was absolutely the same: One of the world’s most gifted players, but he ran and ran and ran. His lack of that same indefatigability this season has been painful to watch at times.
Something of a nadir was reached against Everton at Goodison when Pires actually ran away from a tackle (the first and, I hope, only time I will ever witness a professional footballer do this). This is simply not performing to an acceptable level and, by extension, is not worthy of loyalty. Ditto Reyes (who should stay on his feet where possible, rather than fall where able), Ljungberg, Campbell and Gilberto and, occasionally, Henry. It’s a reciprocal thing now, guys: If you expect top money, you have to give top performances. If they are either not capable or not willing to perform with maximum levels of effort each time they play, then they should be dropped. If this is truly a transitional season, then let us finish ninth, but let us at least do so with a team that does not perform depending on which stadium, competition or opposition it is but gives 100% regardless. This club has raised the bar in style, skill and technique. Now let us ally that to a level of commitment that makes the likes of Bolton and Blackburn fear us once more.
[此贴子已经被康康于2006-3-13 12:43:24编辑过]
