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On Swapping Arsenal For Shrewsbury on e Bay!

Crispin Thomas

Saturday, September 9th, 2006

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Ashley Cole Thierry Henri
finally got the best of me
all my struggles all my my pain
all that money down the drain
they earn more in just one day
than I can get in a whole year’s pay
there’s no connection left for me
I shell out for their luxury

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 I’ve been a Gooner all these years
been through the good times been through the tears
followed the Arsenal thick and thin
count the cost where do I begin?
so I put myself on the old e-Bay
I’ll take any club that comes my way
offered my services as a true fan
said i’d go any place in the land

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 and I got bought by a club fanzine
so I’m gonna follow my new team
ten different countries tried for me
but come this Saturday guess where’ll I’ll be?
’cause bids came in from all around
but I got bought for Shrewsbury Town
could be the best move i ever made
a hundred odd quid was all they paid

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 all those games and all those days
all that cheering and all of that praise
I’ve run dry on my loyalty
and I’m getting out now finally
but I’m so excited that I could cry
it’s not just Highbury waving goodbye
’cause Ashley Cole and Thierry Henri
finally got the best of me

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 and call it the ultimate act of treason
but I”m gonna follow the Shrews this season !

© CT06

Notes

True story…Steve Brown’s strange auction tale follows as kindly related in The Guardian by Paolo Bandin September 8, 2006
“USED LOYALTY FOR SALE ONE FED-UP OWNER”…..
With top-flight players less and less in touch with their fans, one supporter has auctioned off his footballing allegiances.
Guardian Unlimited.-Paolo BandiniSeptember 8, 2006 04:59 PM

The growing divide between top-flight players and the fans who fund their existence is by no means a new complaint, but while most of us have grumbled at some point or other about over-inflated ticket prices, wages and egos, few can have felt as strongly as former Arsenal supporter Steve Brown this summer.

According to vitalfootball.co.uk, Steve was so sick of Thierry Henry’s contract faffing and Ashley Cole’s public pouting, he decided to put his loyalties up for sale on the internet. Shrewsbury Town fanzine Blue and Amber beat off bidders from 10 different countries to win the eBay auction with an offer of £102.63, and Surrey-based Steve now hopes to attend his first game of the new season when the Shrews take on Lincoln City at Gay Meadow this Saturday.

“This summer I have sat and watched the Thierry Henry saga and then the Ashley Cole situation unfold and it just highlights how far Premiership football has drifted from us, the fans,” he explained. “These players earn more in a week that 99% of their fans earn in a year and yet all you hear about is flash lifestyles, demands for more money and the real fans have to pay through the nose for tickets for games. This has meant many long-term supporters can no longer go and watch games live. So I decided to put my support for this season up for auction and the lads from Shrewsbury came in with a last-minute bid and they have won me. I have already been learning about the club and it is the most excited about a new season that I have been in a long time.” Blue and Amber spokesman Dave Matthias said “footballing solidarity” was behind their decision to join the bidding. “Shrewsbury is a lower-league club with a loyal fan base and we are proud of who we are and where we are from,” he said. “When we saw this bloke down south was losing his love for the game we thought it was only fair to show a bit of footballing solidarity and let him experience a club where good young local players come through the ranks, you can afford to go and watch games and you see a committed young team fight for the shirt.”

Matthias said the winning bid would be given to Brown in the form of a shirt, scarf and match tickets, so as to ensure the club benefited from their purchase. “All the money and marketing in the world cannot replace the genuine enjoyment of football as a fan, and that is something the bigger clubs are losing sight of,” he added.

After sitting through the £90,000-a-week-earning Cole’s patronising “I’m not greedy” press conference this afternoon, it’s hard to disagree.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/on-swapping-arsenal-for-shrewsbury-on-e-bay/