Please Come Back, Club Football; plus, Arsene’s Pissed
By: Trent | October 12th, 2006Mercifully, regular club football returns this weekend as Arsenal tangle with Watford. I like to root for Andorra as much as the next fella, but I’m ready for some proper football.
Arsenal gaffer Arsene Wenger can be counted among those who feel less-than-peachy about his players’ international duty. As can be seen here, here and here, Wenger is steamed at international coaches who return ‘his’ players tired, injured and just plain run-down.
Look, this is a legitimate gripe; Arsenal does, after all, sign the players’ paychecks. But international football–even qualifiers against The Most Serene Republic of San Marino–are crucial to the popularity of the game and aren’t going away, ever. Maybe cutting up the Faroe Islands isn’t the best way to prepare Thierry Henry for next week’s Champions League match, but if you’re going to stock your team with international-caliber players, c’est la vie, A-Dub.
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Comments
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Well said. I’m a newly-minted Arsenal fan (and a Lyon fan, and a Juventus fan, etc. etc.) because I fell in love with Les Bleus at World Cup, and have followed the individual players as they’ve spun off into their clubs. International play is the incubator in which embryonic fans are developed.
Posted from
United States
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Good point, Laurie.
Posted from
United States -
i’ve got to agree with laurie. my on-and-off viewing of football was heightened by international matches, namely the world cup; i’ve been following arsenal because of jens lehmann!
Posted from
Philippines -
maybe international football gains the interests of fair weather and part time fans, but for those of that really follow football, club footbal is the pinnacle. right now these international games are a distraction from the real season. Club football is the incubator for real devoted fans, not happy go-lucky every four year fans…
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United States -
I’ve watched both club and international football since I was 5 (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth) and I quite enjoy both equally. I sympathize entirely with Wenger but I do see the other side as well. (And Laurie, my kudos to your taste in national squads). The problem here is the continuing issue of players wasting everyone’s time and needlessly hurting their form against minnows like the Faroe Islands. I think Wenger would be comparatively less critical if there weren’t so many matches against teams that really should be in a lower league of international competition. It’s utterly ridiculous to see all the time, money and player fitness spent on playing against San Marino. He’d still be unhappy but I think he would grumble less if he saw Henry playing up against credible opponents on behalf of France.
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United States -
pretty well said, sandrahn, all these minnows should play pre-qualifiers, and maybe one or two get to advance to the real qualifiers
Posted from
United States -
Today’s fair-weather and/or part-time fan, tomorrow’s season ticket holder. What does it take to create that transition?
Passion, that’s what. I’d be thrilled to see more of my countrymen and -women develop that passion, regardless of how it starts. (Personally, I’d be thrilled to see MLS create passion and a huge fanbase, but it’s not happening yet.) And when you live in a country that doesn’t have a huge ready-made fan base it’s just a lot easier to get larger numbers of people excited about international teams than club teams An England team reaches out to more people than a North London team. It’s simple demographics.
Actually, an England team (or a French or Italian or Brazilian team) reaches out to more people than an American team, and is consequently more likely to create passion. But I digress…
Posted from
United States
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