This website has been designed to commemorate why we as football fans have chosen to become supporters of The Arsenal.
It is here to celebrate a shared love, to honour the club that gets us excited at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon, to reflect on the achievements of managers who have engineered victories, to pay homage to the heroic efforts of great players, but also to reminisce about those whose achievements may have been forgotten in the passage of time.
The site exists to bring to life past glories, but also to make sure the bad times are never forgotten. It is about doffing a cap at the stamina needed to ride the football rollercoaster season after season. Fanaticism is a journey with no end, but whether it’s unbridled joy or utter dejection we recognise that it is an experience undertaken together and one which stimulates a 'culture' all of its own.
WHAT WE ARE NOT
The Arsenal Collective will not be about transfer rumours, or complaining about referees, or slamming an apparent inability to defend corners. It is not designed to share breaking news stories, to hammer a perceived hatred of the club in the media or to bring you behind-the-scenes gossip. It won’t tell you how many misplaced passes Nicklas Bendtner made in 2007, it won’t moan about commercial deals and nor will it post leaked snapshots of what might be a new kit. It’s not going to do any of the above because there are many exquisitely written and passionate websites which do so already.
CONTRIBUTING
If you are a writer, poet, journalist, photographer, artist, graphic designer or work in any other creative media and have been inspired by Arsenal, then we want to hear from you. Send us examples of your work via the contact page and we’ll happily link back to your website and/or Twitter account.
FEATURES
We are open to all editorial suggestions for the features section. However, if you are looking for some basic guidelines, the following could be for you...
In depth player profiles (past / present / legends / villains / cult heroes / forgotten men)
Interviews with players, coaching staff and officials
Anecdotes relating to the club’s history
Analysis of famous games and memorable seasons
Book reviews
If you are feeling brave we’re even open to fiction and poetry.
THE MEMORY BANK
If you are a dyed-in-the-wool Gooner but don’t fancy yourself as a feature writer, you can still contribute to this site. The Memory Bank aims to collate and share anecdotes from Arsenal fans around the globe.
Tell us how you came to support the club, what you love most about Arsenal, your experiences both good and bad and reflections of specific matches, players and action. Your entry can be as long or short as you like and by all means, send us more than one.
Please be patient once you have sent in your contribution. While we will endeavour to upload your work as soon as possible, there is a good chance publication of entries could take up to a month.
BITS & BOBS McNAB, WILSON & PIRES
Just because you send us work doesn't necessarily mean we will feature it. We uphold the right to be selective but will let you know either way.
As you’ll have noticed The Arsenal Collective is free of advertising and the aim is to keep it that way. At the same time, it does cost us a monthly fee to keep the site running (website hosting / domain name registration etc.). If you wanted to show your support for what we do, you can buy us a ‘coffee’ via the link below.