Arsenal FC: 10 Reasons it Sucks To Support The Gunners

As a lifelong Arsenal fan, there isn't too much about the club which bothers me—but there are, of course, a few things which I wish were different.

I'll attempt to list 10 reasons why supporting Arsenal can be an annoyance at times in this article.

1: Few Opportunities To See Arsenal Play

I only live a few hundred miles from London. That may not seem like a lot to fans living far overseas, but it severely limits my ability to see the team play live.

The Irish Sea is a great barrier to my ambitions, as flights to London are never too cheap and accommodation has to be paid for, too.

When you factor in a trip to the club shop and a beer or two with some friends, a trip costs a minimum of €350.

That's not an easy sum to come up with on more than one or two occasions in a season. It's generally easier to get tickets for home games against teams who aren't challenging near the top of the table, but of course the tickets for big games are more desirable.

I would love to make a trip to an Arsenal away game, as the atmosphere among their traveling fans seems to be quite magnificent.

I was lucky enough to see Arsenal visit Dublin three times in the George Graham era for preseason friendlies. However, since Arsene Wenger took over, their preseason tours have taken a different direction.

2: Ticket Prices

Arsenal have a fantastic new stadium, but it has to be paid for—and this has led to their ticket prices being among the highest in all of Europe.

A rise of 6.5 percent for the current season was roundly criticised by their fans, but the vast majority of seats are still full at the Emirates. With the current international recession, football fans are struggling to cope with the costs of attending their clubs matches weekly.

Unfortunately, teams like Manchester City and Chelsea have skewed the transfer market with the vast amounts of money their owners have put into them. This has resulted in higher wages all round, and when it comes for the time to meet the costs of those wages, the fans are the ones to suffer.

I would love to think the new financial fair play rules will put a stop to "sugar daddies," but I severely doubt it.

3: Arsenal's Inability To Kill Off Games

I have lost count of the number of times I have sat through the last few minutes of a match involving Arsenal and just waited for the opposition to equalise.

Of course, it doesn't always happen—but it feels like it at times. Arsenal seem to have a habit of making their fans suffer until the very last minute far too often for my liking.

There have been some famous instances of Arsenal blowing leads in the last few seasons, with the 4-4 draw away to Newcastle being the ultimate submission. Arsenal tend to score more late goals than any other team, but from a fan's perspective they seem to actually conceded far too many.

I long for games when Arsenal go into a good early lead and maintain that lead until the final whistle.

4: Slow Information From The Club

In the fast moving world we live in, it seems like the Arsenal club website has forgotten about their fans at times.

The latest news on Arsenal can be found all over the Internet, but the wait for official confirmation can take days at times. I have often thought that the staff on the club website all get the entire weekend off during the summer.

5: Arsenal Have No Real Local Rival

As the Premier League table stands, Tottenham Hotspur are above Arsenal, but nobody believes it will last until the end of the season. Since Arsene Wenger took the reins at Arsenal, they have finished ahead of Spurs in every single season he has been in charge.

Surely a real rival would at least finish above them once in 15 years.

The rivalry with Spurs is based on geography only, as their near neighbours have not managed a league title in over 50 years. In fact, they have only won two league titles total compared to Arsenal's total of 13, which is hardly the record of a real rival.

6: Arsenal Haven't Won A Trophy In Six Years

I have sat through longer trophy droughts for Arsenal in the past, but rarely during those years did they look like winning a trophy. In the past six years, Arsenal have challenged for at least one trophy almost every season. They have lost three finals in that time, as well as competing in the Premier League despite the huge costs involved in building their new stadium.

When this current season ends, Arsenal will have gone seven years without a trophy if they don't win one this time around. But they could go another seven years without a trophy, and it still wouldn't affect how I feel about them.

7: Arsenal Are Perceived As A Selling Club

The recent departures of Cesc Fabregas to Barcelona and Samir Nasri to Manchester City have only added to the perception that Arsenal are a selling club.

Both players went for very different reasons, but there is no doubt that Nasri would have probably stayed if Arsenal were able to offer him the money Manchester City did. The Cesc departure was a little different, but if Arsenal had enough money to build a team around him, he might have been convinced to stay a few more years. 

Wenger has never spent large sums of money on any player, and usually he sells them to other clubs when he decides it's time to let them go. If Arsenal are to lose the tag of a selling club, they desperately need to hang on to Robin Van Persie. The vast wages being offered by City are very tempting to players, but the grass isn't always greener on the other side.

In the past, the majority of players who have left Arsenal under Wenger have gone on to achieve very little, and others would do well to heed that. He is one of the main reasons some of those players have become as good as they are, and other managers don't always treat their players in the same way.

8: Arsenal Have Never Won The Champions League

Supporting a club should never be dependant on trophies won, but it is sometimes frustrating that Arsenal have never won the "Holy Grail" of trophies.

They did manage to reach the Champions League final in 2006, but they fell to two late goals from Barcelona after playing most of the match with 10 men. That was a tough night for Arsenal fans, but hopefully the next time they reach the final, things will be different.

It's a huge task for any club to reach the Champions League final, and other English clubs with a lot more money than Arsenal have also failed to win it. If the vast amounts of money Roman Abramovich has put into Chelsea have failed to win them the trophy, then what are the chances for Arsenal?

However, Wenger continues to build team after team which can challenge at the very highest level.

9: Infighting Amongst Arsenal Fans

Over the last couple of seasons, divisions have arisen among certain sections of Arsenal fans. The main divide seems to be caused by either pro- or anti-Arsene Wenger factions, who cannot tolerate the opinions of their opposites at times.

All Arsenal fans want the very best for the club, but not everybody can always agree on the same methods.

It has led to the unfortunate sight of blows being traded between Arsenal fans at the Emirates, as they disagree over aspects of the management. I'm certain that Wenger has made some mistakes at times, but I am also certain that he has the best interests of the club at heart.

I simply cannot understand some that Arsenal fans aren't able to have different opinions without coming to blows.

10: The Football Season Is Only Nine Months Long

It's not easy for the fans of any club to find something constructive to do during the summer months. There are international tournaments every couple of years, but real club fans usually only have a passing interest in their national teams.

English fans of Arsenal can find it particularly hard to support their national team when the likes of Ashley Cole and John Terry are permanent members of that side.

I'm from Ireland, and even though my national team has qualified for Euro 2012, I would gladly give it up for an Arsenal trophy. It's hard to associate with a team which includes players from teams like Stoke City, Spurs and Birmingham, and even harder to cheer those players on when my real loyalties belong to Arsenal.

I know the players need to have a rest during the summer, and the transfer speculation can sometimes make for a little bit of interest, but you just can't beat real football.

That's it for today, and hopefully my reasons won't have been too critical of the club I love.

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See you tomorrow.