If Highbury was the library then the Emirates is... whatever's even quieter than a library. At least Highbury as a ground had presence, heritage, an aura. But this... it's the ultimate symbol of football's Faustian pact with the capitalist forces of globalisation.
Fair enough in money terms it was a no-brainer. For as long as Wenger's Arsenal have been the most pleasing on the eye Premiership team by a mile, they've had 20,000 fans-worth of unrealised income just sat there on a waiting list whilst Man U have been steadily expanding away to a fat 70,000+.
In architectural terms, the Emirates is an impressive site. Its undulating 3rd tier gives it a character and unique signature that any number of identical Premiership modern stadia can't match. But it's in the vast hypermart of a club shop "The Gunnery" when you know that football has gone to hell in a handcart.
Writ large on a wall beside an astonishing 17 separate checkouts (including 2 express lanes for the 5 items or less) is the kind of testimonial that you'd expect a bank or an estate agent to have to plaster in lights. Which makes sense because someone has to spell out why we would ever happen to like them. But when it gets to this - when they feel the obligation to somehow spell out the virtues of Gooner "fandom" as a former Canadian colleague of mine used to term English football culture, then I'm afraid all is lost.
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Arsenal, Emirates Stadium
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