From what I experienced growing up in the area there was kinda an unwritten rule Millwall’s support was exclusively for white working class English people native to south London and they wanted to keep it that way.
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Its starting to feel like we might become Everton of the last 20 years or so.
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Been thinking kinda similar too. While it isn’t a case of me diverting my resources elsewhere, because I’ve not really been giving my money to the club anyway for quite a few years, I have been thinking that my local club Southend are going to be hit really badly by all this disruption, given the reliance on gates, and that they more than ever will need the support.
It’s literally ten minutes down the road and about twenty quid a go, so I could afford to go a couple times a month at least I’m sure. Only barrier for me personally will be that I don’t really have anyone to go with, and going to the football is very much a social activity for me, but I figure that the ground being so close makes it a bit better, cos I can just come home and have a drink with my gf and I guess that’ll be OK (that’s what I keep telling myself 
)
Part of why I stopped going to Arsenal was because I no longer had a reliable crowd to eat and drink with before and after any more. It didn’t feel worth spending all the money and travelling across London to do it on my own. I guess that won’t be the case so much when I don’t have to travel to get to matches.
I think that watching Arsenal via mates and families BT and Sky log ins and dodgy streams but following a local team might provide me with the right balance and help me reconnect with football in a meaningful way.
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It’s an interesting discussion, and one I was sort of worried to touch on on an Arsenal forum previously but since you guys have opened the door so gracefully.
I’ve been thinking for the past year about what to do about my boy, on the chance he wants to get into football like I did. I think you should support your local club, and for me that was (as far as I know) Arsenal, and because my family are Benfica, I was told we had to support the reds of North London.
But I haven’t lived in London proper like for 12 years, so to try and manipulate him to be an Arsenal fan from a distance, going to an Emirates Cup or B team League Cup game every year or two is a bit shit.
While I lived in London I only managed to get to 2 games at Highbury (and only because my neighbor was a ST holder) and I’ve done at most 8 at the Emirates, but I always liked the idea of going every week and supporting the team and I’d have loved to do it with my dad.
Unfortunately my local club is now no longer a lower league charmer and is just another PL club owned by an oligarch, so I’ve been hoping they go bankrupt or something because you can’t get a ticket. But if he wants to support them and I’ve got to take him every week then I can’t see how I’m not going to be becoming a fully fledged Bournemouth fan at some point.
We’ve got a 7th tier club nearby which is probably my official closest, but I’m not sure if that’s too unglamorous for a kid to care about if all the kids at school are talking about Bournemouth or Liverpool or whatever but it would give us the chance to go every week and care about something.
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This is the future I think. As much as I miss watching Arsenal matches, what I really miss is having an excuse to log on to OA and argue about something connected to football. So in a sense, I don’t really miss Arsenal at all. Football is just an excuse to connect with other people.
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The social aspect to football is definitely the driver behind my continued following of it tbh. Can’t beat going to the pub to watch a big match or going with your friends to matchday. But I’ve slowly been losing the emotional aspect behind it, could be because I’ve accepted we’re bang average but I struggle to get emotional with most any victories or defeats now.
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Argh, I know it sounds odd, but how frustrating that your local club have had some success and now sit at the top table haha.
Reading your posy, and forgetting where you hail from, at first I was thinking… the answer is simple. Let him know Arsenal is his family team and that you’ll be watching them on the telly most weeks, but that football is also about your local team and regularly going to matches, and that it’s basically OK to support your local team but also have a Prem team you follow too. And then let him naturally come to the conclusion about which team it is he wants to more passionately support as his primary club.
But that works for me with Southend, who let’s face it, are not likely to ever be in the same division as Arsenal (not impossible, but very unlikely) . I don’t think you can raise your child to support two different Premier League teams haha, it’s just not on.
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What are they saying about the mutilation of that journalist?
That is why Arsenal needs to be sold to Russians or Arabs too. Any sort of authenticity is gone anyway.
You could be right because the connection is getting harder to make by the season.
It’s a brand and a product that’s so far removed from it’s roots and history that you can only repackage so many times too fool yourself it’s the same thing.
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If your’re Arsenal, you’re son is Arsenal first and foremost. Anything less is a failure in parenting.
Haha, in seriousness, he’s gotta know Arsenal are his team but there is nothing wrong saving a soft spot for a local club.
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Owners, players, sponsors, managers, even stadiums. It’s all foreign anyway at this point.
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Yeah it isn’t ideal.
The Newcastle subreddit is already in full blown Kool-Aid mode. 
It’s pretty gross.
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Don’t think I could ever tap dance on behalf of an evil regime. Everybody has a price I guess.
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Where would you guys stand if Arsenal were the one who got owned to a SBU owned by tyrannical government?
I would continue to love Arsenal but I wouldn’t continue to support Arsenal. That would most likely be the end of my Arsenal journey with occasionally checking in for updates.
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I’d probably enjoy our games a lot more on match day.
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Look at the mental gymnastics on this geordie fucking hell lol
I had a thought this morning and I just want to see if it’s right or not…
Saudi Arabia is a Kingdom, hence a King is in charge.The major shareholder in the PiF is a Prince, he is also the one who’s been pushing the 2030 image (regime) change, yes?
So he is not in charge of Saudi Arabia… his dad (the King) is right?
Yes he’s next in line, but does he actually do any decision/policy making or just advise what he thinks?
It would be like Prince Charles (yes he is next in line, unless I’ve missed him abdicating to William) being a major shareholder in a company that want’s to do something and then people saying it’s the UK government wanting to do it.
I know there are differences, the UK has the parliament that runs the country and the royal family are just figureheads, but the PM still has to go to the Queen to go to war, call a general election and such like. Where as Saudi Arabia is ruled by the King and he makes the decisions, laws and policies (guided by advisors, etc).
My train of thought is; yes, Saudi Arabia’s views on gay rights, capital punishment, etc is not in line with the rest of the “civilised/western” world (not saying it’s right or wrong, not discussing their actions here), but it’s not the King who’s a major shareholder in the organisation that’s buying NUFC, it’s the Prince and he is trying to change things, but he is not in charge and so can’t just make changes (which would cause backlash internally in the country, in a similar and greater fashion than being told to stay indoors has in USA and UK, etc). He is trying to lead them down that path though (be it actually trying to change things or by “Sportswashing” everything).
Am I way off base here?
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Yes
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