Hector Bellerin has called for club unity as Arsenal look to get back on the horse after a disastrous six weeks that has seen Unai Emery’s men tumble from third to sixth in the Premier League table.
The Gunners haven’t won a game in the league since beating Bournemouth 1-0 in early October and have looked increasingly bereft of confidence since frustrated supporters turned on captain Granit Xhaka during the 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace.
We are all humans, we all have emotions, and sometimes it's not easy dealing with them. It's time to lift each other up, not to push each other away. We only win when we are together. #COYG pic.twitter.com/dkDI7M3xew
— Héctor Bellerín (@HectorBellerin) October 28, 2019
Bellerin took to social media to call for unity in the aftermath of that headline-making moment and has reiterated his belief that rifts need to be healed if Arsenal are going to achieve their aims this season.
“I think it’s important as a club, as fans, as everything [to know that] being divided is never the way forward,” he told Arsenal Player.
“Everyone demands different things, everyone demands different changes, but I don’t think that’s the way. I think the [right] way is accepting who we are, what we have, getting everyone together, supporting each other, and that is the way that we can reach our goals.
“One doing one thing, one doing the other… that’s never going to work, so that [tweet after the Crystal Palace game] was my call for unity in terms of us as a club, as a family, everything that Arsenal is. To get together… when things don’t go well, that is the time for us to tap each other on the back and be like ‘come on, we need to do this better but we’re going to come back on top’.
“That is what we need, not to start pointing fingers and blaming someone for doing this, for doing that… we’re a club, we’re a team, we’re a family. What we need is to be there for each other.
He added: “We are Arsenal Football Club, we always need to be at the top. Whenever we’re not at the top that means there’s improvement that needs to be done. That’s it, that’s what you get when you play for a big club like Arsenal. There’s no other choice.”
Our Spanish right-back stopped short of going full Joe Marler – no Irish Luzhnys here – but you get the picture.
Although I largely agree with Hector here and he was simply answering a question, I do find all of this hand-wringing about fan attitudes so strange, as if football fans haven’t always been emotional, reactive, belligerent etc… For better or worse it’s always been part of football culture. I keep thinking about what Wenger said about it being the team’s job to win the fans over on the pitch and I wonder if this anxiety from within the club about fan “noise” and disharmony stems from a deeper anxiety about our ability to perform and turn the tide of opinion… Read more »
Took the words out of my keyboard, the line “We need to accept who we are, what we have” really doesn’t make me feel good, it would probably come across ok in a normal scenario, but in context of recent events feels like another jab at the “noise”.
Where was this quote when we were struggling under wenger??
The board must of welcomed the fan noise then. And in all honesty baying to fan demand then made a rod for their back now.
Less people wanted wenger out than now want emery gone I’m pretty sure.
I wonder how does Emery puts his words to bring back motivation to the team. By listening to his press conference on how he communicates his idea, it must be hard for him to convey the message to lift up the mood to the team.
Like.., ‘ Good ebening team. Southampton is a err..’
I agree. And one of the main differences these days is that we hear far too much from both sides, us and the players. This forum is an example of that, so too Twitter, and everything else like it. It’s information overload and not for the better.
In a sea of narcissism, tons of money and horrible performances, it doesn’t take much to come out as a leader. I really like Bellerin, but it almost makes me sad that someone has to say this, and even sadder that it seems like a beacon of hope. It should be bloody obvious and self evident to anyone who wears the shirt, on or off the pitch.
I’m glad Hector went out there to say something positive, no matter how “simple” the message.
Don’t care if we have one or 8 captains. We need leaders. Hector is one.
Oh captain my captain
Win a few games and start playing better and all this will go away. It always does. Fans are easy in that respect.
That will happen when/if we replace Emery.
By definition, fans are reactive. We want strong performances that reflect the identity of the club we support. However, when the fans can see that the ownership and management don’t seem to understand what that identity is, or even have a plan to win games, the frustration and apathy of the fans win out. If the board and owners fancy themselves our betters (as their statements seem to suggest), then they should have a plan which inspires the supporters to get on side. At present, we don’t have the right people in place to make this happen, and wheeling out… Read more »
It’s a bit ridiculous right. Seems as footballers wallets get thicker their skins get thinner. All this rubbish I read about “in the good ol’ days it was about support your team with respect…blah blah blah”, that’s utter BS. I’ve been around sporting fields long enough to know there were knobs in the 80s and 90s at sports grounds at all levels yelling obscenities at players generally at opposition players, but if their own team were terrible home players often copped it too. Some fans went WAY too fan then with racisms, threats of violence and sexual acts towards players… Read more »
It’s not just footballers who become insulated from reality with wealth- everyone who is beyond comfortable loses touch with reality to some extent.
I’m not saying Hector is one of these people, but the recent comments from the club and players all seem a bit out of touch with the supporters’ feelings about the direction (or lack thereof) the club seems to be taking.
Platitudes and soundbites won’t win us the league, only smart decisions from the board and manager, and strong performances from the players wearing the shirt.
Just win the game Hector and we’ll start on the road to togetherness. If not, you can join every fan and together we ask Momento to leave the club.
Momento ?
Would love if it were Memento… so we could forget what happened before the match was over!
“That is what we need, not to start pointing fingers and blaming someone for doing this, for doing that…” Sorry Hector, but, that is exactly what the defence does whenever we concede. The vision of guilt free Mustafi, with his outstretched arms looking around at his teammates, is forever burned to memory.
To your point, Emery is the king of pointing fingers- at fans, at the opposition, at his youth players…
Just start producing some results and let the fans worry about togetherness.
The way Ballerin keeps coming up with these comments makes me think he is just angling to win the next players’ vote for #1 captain!
So fun that the team has decided to hang the players out to dry… I genuinely don’t know if the club doesn’t understand or doesn’t want to understand that at the moment supporters problems aren’t with players but with manager and others above him. Xhaka thing is with the player, but in reality Xhaka thing became a thing mainly because of Emery. It is quite sad that club sends out players to fix things, when in reality they are the ones who can fix it. Arsenal fanbase isin’t divided. I think that might be the most united we have been… Read more »
Xhaka clearly is trying to force a move in January, and doing everything he can to drive his price down. If we let him go due to some non-apology theatrics after a temper tantrum, it will only send a message that other players who are unhappy can do the same.
He should face some sort of repercussion in his professional life for this behavior, as you, or I, would surely face the sack at work if we behaved in such a way in front of the customer (the fans).
I do find this strange. Fans feed off performances, if you want “unity” you should focus on that. Everyone says Anfield has an unbelievable atmosphere and it gives their players a boost, but no one was talking about Anfield when Hogdson was in charge and their best player was Ryan Babel! Play well and unity will come. It really is that simple!
“but no one was talking about Anfield when Hogdson was in charge and their best player was Ryan Babel!” And they’re fans were booing their own players left, right, and centre… https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/lucas-the-boos-at-anfield-were-my-worst-moment-1812145.html https://www.theanfieldwrap.com/2017/11/anfield-negativity-is-not-a-new-sensation-liverpools-boo-boys-down-the-years/ If the players and manager will not call out the team for performing shite fans sure as shit will…and rightly so, they pay good coin to be at games and the players and manager earn what they do because of the fan support. if players don’t like the boo boys then either (1) do something about it on the pitch, or (2) find a new career. And… Read more »
They have to perform on the pitch to get the crowd roaring..
That’s captain material right there.
I agree with Hector but this argument that supporter disunity is the main problem here is a strawman. Weak leadership from the manager is the main problem. The Xhaka incident was ugly, and no one comes out with their reputation improved, but it was essentially the supporters taking over and doing the managers job because he was unable or unwilling to do so. Xhaka is a huge problem in our midfield. We need to move on from him. Yet the manager stubbornly kept with him despite the obvious. So the supporters stepped in and de facto dropped him. If the… Read more »
Bang on big arse
That Bellerin chap has a rather utopian view of football.
Simply, if you don’t win tomorrow, you’re all a bunch of c**nts.
Truth hurts. But yes
So don’t demand changes, lets accept what we are, what we have. So lets accept the suffery, the straining, the mediocrity.
I just can’t.
As the guys said earlier in one podcast: we are not cheerleaders we are fans.
It seems the club and players think it is the fans’ fault. Depressing.
Surley, Xhaka is not the first player who got shit from the fans online. I am sure there has been many, many cases were this has happened. But I don’t remember many cases were a capitsn lost control, told fans to fk off, and refused to properly apologize. This situation is getting very silly now.
The match-going fans’ frustration is years in the making, this goes back to the Last Days of Wenger, when performances started to slip and no one was being held accountable until finally the axe fell (several years too late). I feel like there’s this bizarre chicken or the egg argument emerging: is it the fans’ responsibility to inspire great performances from the players, or is it the players’ responsibility to get the fans fired up? I mean, is the team coming out to a rain of boos as they take the pitch? Like hell they are, and Xhaka can p*^s… Read more »
Absolutely right.
There are emotional fans and then there are those who are spoilt, and let their emotions get the better of them, ruined the clubs atmosphere.
Instead of uplifting the squad when it needs it, they rather tear down in hope of (likely temporal) solutions.
…they are prey to crisis manufacture and all too ready to imagine issues far worse than they are or amplify faults in some whilst conveniently (shifting goal post on others they deem favorites for no apparent reason)
As much as they demand to be respected, they should also show some class.
Just a shame.
Again : 1)Some fans wanted Arsene gone. They showed him disrespect last season and made things worse for us. Enter Emery. They said they’d give the new gaffer 3 or 4 seasons to turn things round, lauded him a specialist in the europa, didn’t mind us outside top 4 bc it was getting boring and wanted to win something for a change… I mentioned as much as it could get better it also get a lot worse. and here we are barely into second season with Unai, throwing toys out of the pram already Schadenfreude. 2) Did not like Mustafi.… Read more »
I read this as Hector addressing the team as much, or more, than the fans. He seems like a legitimately good person.
The club messaging during this crisis has been so bad. They should just say something like this and we would respect them way more instead of blaming the fans for the “noise”: “We know our performances have not been anywhere near good enough and honestly we understand why the fans are so disappointed and upset. This has been the worst league start since 1982 and we have to correct this. We got ourselves into this hole, we have to dig ourselves out of it. We can only recover the enthusiasm of the fans by trying to play out of our… Read more »
I read this unity report after the Emery comments on Torreira – poles apart in approach.