Arsenal: If you can’t support Freddie Ljungberg, you’re hopeless

The amount of criticism coming out against Freddie Ljungberg since being appointed Arsenal manager is stupid. If you can’t support him, you’re hopeless.

If you scroll through the recent hits in the Arsenal news sphere, you will see a ridiculous amount of ire directed at Freddie Ljungberg, who has been manager of the club for—let me check my watch—about 74 hours? Give or take (I’m terrible at math).

Of course an interim manager is supposed to change the world in less than a week. That’s completely realistic.

Norwich City was not a good look for the Gunners. Freddie was all smiles before the match and he was still smiley after. This is exciting for him. And while he and everyone would have wanted a different result, have I mentioned it’s been less than a week?

The worst part is the level of criticism out there. People saying that the Gunners should “immediately” move for Mauricio Pochettino. People saying that Freddie should be fired? Really. People are actually saying that.

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Or that he should have worn a suit. I can’t make this up.

I get that we’re frustrated. We should all be frustrated, Freddie is too, by his own admission, but to turn on the guy after such a short period of time is to show the true ugliness of a vile and toxic fanbase. These same fans turned on the legendary Arsene Wenger. These same fans made fun of Unai Emery’s progress towards learning English as a second language. Now these same fans are ripping into a club legend for not being able to change the world after one training session.

It’s pathetic, it’s trending on Twitter, and this is what our fanbase is known for. We are known for our inability to unite and support the club. We are known for certain YouTube channels. Because these fonts of hatred are what so many feed off of. Maybe it is a select few who are the loudest, but that doesn’t make it any harder to stomach that there are actual “fans” of the club out there who are so quick to turn on their own and cannibalize each other.

You want the players to unite? You want the manager to unite the club? Try uniting your own damn selves before you start pointing fingers at someone else. Otherwise you’re just like Pochettino, the man who’s never done anything wrong.