VAR officials arrested, while Arsenal not thiniking straight

 

• How an Arsenal start that gives the same results as last season will be a disaster
• At last the media catch up: football is in more than a crisis

By Tony Attwood

There are news stories and there are news stories.  Some expected, some not, some make me smile, some make me groan, some I just shrug.   

The smile came from “VAR officials removed from Champions League qualifier involving Rangers after being ‘caught by police stealing a road sign and then spending the night in a drunk tank’.”

Not because it is good or clever to get drunk, but I really did get a bit fed up with VAR officials on occasion last season.  Now at least when there is a ludicrous delay we can just take it that the VAR people are drunk, have knocked over their monitors and are throwing up on the floor.  I am sure someone can come up with a suitable chant.

Somehow that seems to make the eternal VAR fiasco just a little bit more acceptable.

Of course much of the time in the media there is just the usual arrogance as with the Guardian’s story from the Guardian Football Daily column which says that “Arsenal think they are in the running for the title but showed some worrying weakness Stateside.”

That is what I think can be classified as mindless twaddle.  Arsenal is not a sentient being, but is the name of a football club, and thus “Arsenal” doesn’t think.   Some people within Arsenal might have certain opinions, but so what?   Opinions are everywhere, and what actually counts is what is done.

I could say “The Guardian thinks that Arsenal’s record-breaking second place last season was a total fluke and in the coming season the club will be relegated.”   I could say that but it would be nonsense because like Arsenal, the Guardian is not a sentient being.

The story then states that “Despite defeating United 2-1, someone insisted on a penalty shootout, with Ten Hag’s men winning the spot-kick battle.”

Well, if they can’t be arsed to find out who decided that virtually all the games in the States should end up with a penalty shoot-out, what is the point of the story?  It’s just pathetically lazy journalism masquerading as some fractionally funny.

But worst of all, “If Arsenal do not wise up once the season begins in earnest and offer opponents the chance the win via a loophole, then they could struggle to mount a serious challenge at the top.”   Which is meaningless because games in the League don’t end with penalty shoot outs.

And again that treats Arsenal as a thinking entity which it is not, it is a company and a football cluh full of people with varying opinions.   But look at the get out line that journalists are so much in love with.  Arsenal COULD struggle.    Yes if Manchester City don’t win their legal cases against the league they COULD be kicked out.  If a meteor strikes the Earth tomorrow the start of the football season COULD be delayed.   If I don’t finish this article soon I COULD be late for my first appointment.

Another approach of course involves the telling of Arsenal what they should do by a person who knows so little about football he’s not even employed by any football club but instead scrapes a living with a newspaper.

So from the same media we have “Arsenal should now turn their attention to strengthening the frontline. They have been linked with Pedro Neto and Nico Williams, but they should be targeting Leroy Sané.”

Personally I’d prefer the headline “Arsenal should kick out all the journalists who write twaddle but then want free tickets.”  For it can be argued that Arsenal are working for the future in a consistent manner, which involves signing young players (in footballing terms) and Sané is 28.   OK he did more dribbles than anyone else in his League last season but does that make him a “must buy” player?

Of course as a writer I believe in the freedom of  all of us to be able to write what we like within a few legal limits but writing such twaddle can become dangerous when in essence that is all we get.  Thus when clubs don’t do as the journos predict, the journos claim it is the club’s fault rather than the inaccuracy of their reporting.

So here to finish this morning, (and rather late since I didn’t get home til the early hours) is my ten-point plan for improving the football media.  Writers should stop….

1. Knowingly publishing false stories except when pointing them out to be wrong
2. Publishing stories without checking their validity or the accuracy of the report source
3. Causing unwarranted public concern over clubs’ alleged stupidity
4. Raising the level of national anxiety and anger
5. Deliberately misleading the public through headlines that have no relationship with the story that follows
6. Failing to acknowledge the publication of stories elsewhere, that turn out to be totally true
7. Deliberately seeking to raise or lower the expectations of fans
8. Deliberately seeking to raise or lower the transfer value of a player
9. Deliberately or inadvertently seeking to increase the anxiety of a player
10. Deliberately seeking to disrupt the working of the football transfer window

Put together that little lot could make things better.