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Having arrived back from two months in America on Tuesday morning the first thing I wanted to know when my parents picked me up from the airport was how we were getting to Arsenal. Secondly, how could I overcome the impending jetlag that was about to hit me? In order that I could get to Arsenal on Wednesday night. Having paid all that money that equates to about £40 a game there's no way I'm missing a game if I can help it. Fortunately the jetlag never came, 14 hours sleep sorted that out and we drove to Arsenal, which seems to be increasing in popularity. The fact that it costs me £5.20 on the train means that it's a lot cheaper to drive these days, especially when my dad and sister are both coming, who really wants to spend £15 on transport?
So I enter the west lower entrance and am immediately asked if a minded being searched by a policeman. I'm not going to object to a second or two fumble around my person so long as I get to do what I came here for, to see Arsenal. In honest truth I think the Police we're just there for presence, a two second pat down isn't going to find very much. My cousin still managed to get in with two bottles of soda in his pockets, along with those injuring weapons the Bottle Tops!!!! Nothing much had seemed to change in three years, the programme sellers were still in the same place, the McDonalds face painting sign was still there, although I've never seen anyone having their face painted there, and price for food and drink was astronomically high as always. I remember the time in the early nineties when a fiver from my dad would get me a programme, bagel, soft drink and a bag of popcorn. Sadly with the changing face of the soccer industry those times are no more. A tenner last night got me a couple of bagels, a soft drink (albeit without the bottle top) a yorkie bar and a £1 bet at Ladbrokes – which I didn't win.
I had come expecting to see the same people that had sat around me three years earlier. The people that even when I was 15,16,17 or 18 I could have a conservation with or exchanges nods or a handshake. Sadly it wasn't the case. The stewards that I had befriended during my adolescent years were, in the main still there (maybe that's why they didn't ask to see my membership card) but it was the people around me, the supporters that had changed dramatically. The characters of the West Lower that had made it an interesting and fun place to sit we're no longer there. Yet we still sang all the songs and still stood up and berated the referee and many people still left to go home before the end of the game (not much has changed there)
It was then that it hit me, that we as supporters are replaceable. Arsenal, according to the season ticket waiting list could fill Highbury twice over if every person in the stadium never came again. Perhaps the changes in the west lower are a reflection on society as a whole becoming a much more tolerant and acceptable place. There were certainly many more women and members of ethnic minorities sitting within the family enclosure than three years earlier. This can only be seen as a good thing, for football though still dominated by the white male is very much open to all members of our diverse society. As the Arsenal team highlights it is made up of a diverse group of individuals with one aim, to do what is best for their chosen team.
When I return to Highbury for our next game against Everton it will be with a purpose. The people I used to sit with are no longer there so its time to meet and talk to the new people who now sit in their seats. As my dad tells me, when we move to the new stadium the people he's been friendly with that have sat around him for the past thirty years he may never see again. So lets try in the final season at Highbury to enjoy the company of those who sit around us, too sing the songs together and urge our team to success.