A book review of Dave Seager’s latest football book – Supporting Arsenal is a Funny Old Game. Book review by Anushree Nande for Football Paradise.
Dave Seager’s first book was the excellent Geordie Armstrong on the Wing, a perfect tribute to the man, the footballer and the legend that was George Armstrong. His second treads very different, but equally enjoyable ground based around the premise that as football fans, we need two things if we are to survive long-term with any semblance of sanity – the chance to share our football stories and thoughts, and discuss the same with fellow fans…and a sense of humour, however dark. Otherwise one’s “just an idiot who loves feeling like crap for a large part of the year”.
The tagline is “Seriously funny, yet funnily serious” because, well, surviving as an Arsenal supporter definitely falls into the category of serious business, requiring, demanding even, an enduring and long-suffering sense of humour, an ability to laugh at oneself and one’s team (in this case, ze Gunners).
For some reason or another, the North London club (well, the right one anyway) has a rather baffling association with a long line of fans of the comedic variety. And not just those who have a Twitter account, loads of time and aren’t as funny as they think (though there’s plenty of them too), but professional comedians. Not just that either. Arsenal Football Club can also boast of the most number of fan-sites, blogs and podcasts, as well as actual acronyms for their deeply-divided fanbase (I’m neither an AKB nor a WOB; where does that leave me?). Maybe it’s because the club’s recent years have been “darkly comical, full of farcical potential” as Boyd Hilton, the editor of Heat Magazine, points out in the preface.