It also says there are temporary test sites and home testing may also be an option and that will be covered as part of the booking process. 
It does but it doesn’t fill me with confidence.
Yeah I don’t know what else to say really. Maybe they should make footballers perform a double axel on ice before being shot out of a canon and landing on a bicycle with no seat. It’s only fair that they be challenged before they can be tested.
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That’s not what I was getting at and you know it
Pampered cunts.
We have lost the gist of this thread
Ffs lol
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I miss football. I don’t miss it as much as playing it but that’s always been the case, even when there was always football and I was injured/ill.
But yeah, I definitely miss it. Especially champions league…those beers with friends on a warm spring night watching CL are sorely missed. Basically something I associate with good life.
I also miss hungover Saturdays/Sundays watching football. It’s the closest I get aside from playing football to basically switching my mind off and nowadays on Saturdays and Sundays my brain is often like fuck off, I’m tired of you working me so much (and who is this other human around us all the fucking time?).
In short, yeah, I miss football as much as I always do when it’s summer or there’s a long break of international bollocks. Closed door football does not appeal to me very much though, sad to think it’ll be like that for a while.
I don’t think romanticism is the problem but rather nostalgia. We all miss the football we grew up with. Why? Nostalgia. It’s really that simple. The rest are just after the fact justifications.
All the things you’ve described there are literally just the natural evolution of the sport. It’s like me when I was in my 20s I spent like 10 years not paying much attention to basketball, which I loved as a kid almost as a close 2nd to football. Why? I said the NBA wasn’t the same as it was in the 90s, with NBC and Bob Costas. I literally couldn’t hear these new ESPN/ABC commentators, it made the sport impossible for me, and watching it on Canal+ in Spain wasn’t any better. Anyways, at some point you end up accepting the fact that the game like any form of entertainment or art evolves, and at first, it’s jarring, but later you get used to it or even appreciate the evolutions without losing any of your nostalgic love for the period you’ll always be most nostalgic about.
I read an article a few weeks ago that I’m not gonna post because it’s by a site that represents the lamest of yank indie culture but which was quite a good article, called Why Do We Even Listen to New Music? It’s worth a read, it does a good job explaining why we have to go through the actual pain of accepting new stuff, instead of just loving what will always be familiar and nostalgic to us. I think that’s frankly precisely what is happening with every one of these types of posts I read, which are so common here and everywhere, bemoaning what football has become and how it’s not like it was in X era.
For instance, Messi is perhaps the most artful player to have ever lived. Özil is an extremely artful player while being a modern player. Fábregas, Silva, Isco…there are loads of them, even if they just don’t happen to be Italians anymore. 
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I sincerely hope this break has done him a favour and reaccessed his life and priorties, but I doubt that somewhat.
Anyways, this thread feels very timely and must say, I’m honestly quite relieved to see something like this. I thought I was the only one who just simply stopped caring about Arsenal and Football matters. I think @Craigie summed it up perfectly. Everything over the past decade has just taken the fun and joy out of it all. But also as well, as we get older, I guess hobbies, interests and priorities change.
I mean, I do like Football still, I do keep loose tabs on what the standings and reaults are, but I don’t watch many games anymore, and Arsenal matches this season I’ve probably seen about 3 maybe and I was just throughly bored, and ended up doing something else lol. At least when we weren’t winning trophies during that 9 year period, we either had stylish football, or so many likeable players, that was at least something.
But now in the last few seasons that’s all been ripped away. And I really don’t like current Arsenal. I haven’t given less of a toss about an Arsenal side like this one. Maybe things will change under Arteta, I hope they do as he’s a lovely guy and would love for him to succeed, but even if he does, does it really mean anything? Football’s not the same anymore. You still get some surprises here and there, but I think money has just ruined the fun element of the game. And I guess as well, I don’t really feel like I really relate or connect to the new generation of players.
I’m sure they’re nice lads, but I don’t really care much for the social media side that a lot of them are into. I guess when you’re younger, it’s easy to look up to players much older than you and not knowing any different. I guess after 25 years when you’re no longer young, some of the magic just kinda disappears. With so many other things going on during lockdown and other distractions, I really haven’t been fussed missing Football, although maybe it would’ve been different if we were fighting for something. (I guess there’s top 5 and FA Cup but meh, we’ve been there, done that got the t-shirt).
Probably comes as little surprise to you all, for me to write all this, considering I’ve been off the Forum for yonks, but just haven’t felt the point in discussing the dire and sad state of Arsenal and Football. I guess things and life just move on.
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Following Arsenal is such a negative influence. Like a hundred great things can be going on for me but I tune into an Arsenal game and it immediately puts a dampener on things. Can’t help but care about how embarrassingly shit we’ve become. The smart ones avoid this shit like the plague.
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You are taking football too seriously then
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Says the guy who doesn’t do anything but watch football haha
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This match was a fine example of negative energy. I don’t think we did a single thing right that would give way for optimism.
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Yes but it doesn’t affect my mood if we lose
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It is , it is !
When the Arsenal of old were a force to be reckoned with the expectations were high , supporters felt great and all was good
Now
It’s a case of ‘ what shit will we see today ‘
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Ash, you’ve lived through many versions of The Arsenal. Successful, piss poor, in between, exciting, boring, functional. You’ve gone to how many games?..is this the worst version you’ve ever seen?
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It used to bring me down way more. Maybe I’ve gotten soft.
Oooooooooooo
Blimey that’s a good question
I must admit it is .
We’ve been through years of mediocre and piss poor teams but they all played for the badge . They played as a team , win , lose or draw .
Personally, I think we lost our soul when we moved to the Emirates.
It’s sad Shammy, it hurts fella .
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Yes mate I’d imagine it does.
I had a bit of a similar thing with Shamrock Rovers a few years. I’ve only been going regularly since 2009 having followed from a distance before that but that season and the two that followed were some of the best in the clubs history. What followed was 6-7 years of absolute dross and one bad managerial appointment after another. But we finally hit the right note again by bringing in Stephen Bradley (former Arsenal youth player). He is a bright young coach who has got the team ticking again, playing some truly wonderful football and not just being in the mix for honours but actually winning some. It’s genuinely beautiful to watch your team rise up like that after close to a decade in the wilderness. It seems impossible to me that Arsenal will ever be capable of that. I think that’s the really upsetting part.
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Yeah man I hear you, I’m just glad to have football back in some capacity for now though.