My feeling of connection with the club and football in general has been decreasing for years (since even before Arsene left) for a variety of reasons - oil money, super agents, toxic fans, transfer trophies etc

The Unai/Raul years have basically made it almost a total disconnect

I keep thinking back to Arsene's parting line "take care of the values of the club"

He knew it would erode and the way we've treated the scouts and staff who were laid off, Gunnersaurus, Özil, Ramsey, Koscielny - all of it suggests the values of the club are almost totally gone

In a FIFA and FM influenced world, players for too long have hardly been seen as human beings, just as assets who are paid to meet every demand and deal with any and all abuse that goes with it

Arsene was likely the last one standing against that tide and looking at the human

Like the part where he offered Santi a contract extension while he was going through his injury nightmare, that is the kind of class that I've grown accustomed to and almost spoilt by.

I took it for granted as being part of the core ethos of the club. But clearly that was wrong

We're just another club in that regard now where we don't seem to care about the human side of things and I'm not sure I'll ever get to a point where I can find that palatable.

And it's a big part of why I continue to feel increasingly disconnected from even the actual games

It's also starting to feel like we're just another corporate entity that takes on causes, not just because it's the right thing to do, but rather because they are either commercially valuable or won't hurt their bottom line.

So BLM is ok but Özil speaking about China wasn't

And yes, I know it's naive and wrong of me to expect any different from a corporate entity, but in all my years supporting, that was the standard I'd have expected from the club because those are the kind of values that Arsene's Arsenal exuded

And now all that just doesn't exist

All this means I struggle to feel connected or even care as much as I used to. There are just a few tendrils of connection that remain now, particularly around Arteta and players like Bellerin who I believe still represents those values.

But even Arteta, I'm hopeful we're in good hands in the long term, but I'm disappointed in his part in mistreating Özil

And yes, I believe it's intentional mistreatment to force him out and it isn't just "oh he's not good enough in training" as so many have convinced themselves

The club seems to have lost the ability to look at the human side of things and lost the kind of values I'd grown up associating with them over 20+yrs

And that disconnect is why I've gone from planning my life around our fixtures, to only having a vague idea of when we play next

There's no real point to this rant really. It's just me lamenting the fact that I don't care for the club (or football) anywhere near as much as I used to

I can't imagine the current version of our club would ever do what Arsene did for Santi, and that makes me really sad.

I might come to terms with it and things eventually get better.

Or I might not and just give up on football completely.

For now, I'll continue to hate how we treat Özil and how it's just another indicator of how far we've gone from the values Arsene wanted us to protect