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By Tony Attwood
Of course, to some degree, one must feel a little sorry for the journalists who are forced to write about England’s World Cup chances after just one World Cup match, but that is what they do, taking the current WC group chart (which shows four countries having played one game each, and two countries having won 1-0). The overall meaning is that England are top of their group and people are getting excited.
I don’t recall Untold getting too excited after the first Arsenal game of last season (a 0-1 away win over Manchester United if I recall correctly), although I think the second match (5-0 at home against Leeds six days later) did really liven the spirits. Unfortunately, they were dampened down a lot by the defeat at the end of the month: 1-0 away to Liverpool.
The headline after that Liverpool defeat of Arsenal was “Liverpool not at best – but still top” and “Jamie Carragher did what his employers demanded”. They then drew conclusions on one match saying, “Szoboszlai has been revitalised. Absolutely outstanding. It’s almost like they’ve found a position for him now, playing at right-back.”
There was much raving about Liverpool not just having “nine points out of nine” as the report put it but also that, “they’ve played two really difficult games – Newcastle away and Arsenal at home. And they’ve been nowhere near their best. What a position they find themselves in.”
Of course, journalists are paid to write wild nonsense like this because they and their editors have the absolutely firm belief that football supporters can’t remember anything beyond the previous match and the previous report. Their job, in fact, is not actually to report on the game, but to get you to read the next edition of the paper.
But sometimes life makes it easy for the journalists (as long as we play their game and don’t look back at what they wrote). Last season, for example, after losing in the Community Shield match to Crystal Palace, Liverpool went on a run in which they won seven consecutive matches.
As a result of that, there was much chatter about “How to build a team” and the “Liverpool way” of doing things, which in essence seemed to be bringing in an experienced player and changing the team around him. Or failing that, bring in a young player and build a team around him. Which is what the media seem to be suggesting at the moment, with the young Ligue 1 player Ayyoub Bouaddi – ignoring the fact that not all players can make the move to another club in another country and be a superstar all in one leap.
But that doesn’t stop articles from saying “Ayyoub Bouaddi is one of the finest teenagers in world football, and he could be moving to Arsenal this summer as the Gunners push to land the Lille youngster.”
Although of course, what often happens with such reports is that each publication tends to blame another as the source, just in case it all goes wrong. As with Yahoo telling us that “Football365 claims that Arsenal are ahead of the likes of PSG and Chelsea in the race for his signature as he continues to shine for Morocco at the World Cup.”
Apparently, he did rather well in the game against Brazil and so “Arsenal want to add him to their squad in this transfer window.”
Now this is particularly interesting as the notion of a possible transfer is presented without any evidence to support the point. Thus, the statement is, “The Gunners are in the market for new stars to improve their team, and they consider Bouaddi one of the top players who can make their squad much stronger than it is at the moment. They will be keen to ensure he joins them, and the report claims Chelsea and PSG are currently behind them in the race.” (Remembering 97% of summer transfer rumours don’t come true).
So you can see where this is going. If Arsenal sign him, it will be noted that the publication called it right in advance; if Arsenal don’t get him, they will fail “despite being ahead in the race”. Meanwhile, “Arsenal have had their first bid for the Leicester City teenager Jeremy Monga rejected.”
It has also been interesting to see a reappearance of Patrick Vieira, who retired just on 15 years ago. He worked with Brian Marwood on youth development at ManC for a while before moving to New York City FC, who had shares in ManC at the time, becoming their director of football. After that, he went to Nice, but in 2020, he was “let go” and joined Crystal Palace the following year, but was sacked after a long run without a win. He then joined Starbourg who were owned by the group that owns Chelsea, but left by mutual consent when results went against him. He moved onto Geona but left in 2025 with them at the bottom of the league, and hasn’t worked in football management since.
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