It’s been difficult to ascertain how I feel about the European Super League over the last 72 manic hours.
I support Arsenal because, well, I was told to. There are Arsenal fans and Chelsea fans in my family and the Gooners won the battle for my soul.
When we moved to Ireland from England, Arsenal became my link to the family and the country I’d left behind.
I was raised on tales of Rocky Rocastle, Tony Adams, George Graham, Robert Pires, The Invincibles.. And so much more.
Read: European Super League – Proposed Format And How It Will Be Pulled Off
I learned about Arsenal’s involvement in the European Super League last Sunday. We were 1 – 0 down to bottom-of-the table to Fulham at the time. It was another arduous watch in an arduous season in which we will finish in our worst league position in two decades.
We’re the European elite, are we? Pfft. It was gut-punching news.
A part of why it’s so difficult to figure out how I felt at the time is this sense that I was surprised a European Super League was happening now, while simultaneously having seen it coming for years.
Read: European Super League Proposal Collapses
It’s a grotesque corporate pantomime, funded by nefarious billionaires whose aim is to make even more money and have an inbuilt protection against the fact they’re bad at running their football clubs. Not quite the romantic, innocent image of football I was raised on.
Are we not already there, though? Haven’t we been for years? Arsenal play their home games at the Emirates Stadium, for christ’s sake. It was a slap in the face that I’ve been able to see coming at me in slow motion. It’s been in the periphery of my vision as I’ve ignored it. WHAM.
Before the Super League fiasco, I’d been wondering whether or not I like the Premier League anymore. I like Arsenal, I’ll always like Arsenal. But I don’t like Arsenal in that feral, child-joy, fandom way anymore. It’s impossible. That’s gone.
The Super League isn’t going anywhere. We may plod along for a few more years, pretending this is real football. It will come back. I can only hope that when it does, Arsenal will have declined sufficiently that we won’t be invited.
