By Tony Attwood
The media seem to have gone quiet about Arsenal, with barely a mention of January transfers and nothing about tomorrow’s game. It is as if the club doesn’t exist, although of course, there are tucked away one of two stories.
Such as that in the Telegraph under the headline “Midfield monster Declan Rice the ultimate disruptor as Arsenal win ugly”. Yes it is Arsenal so there can’t be anything positive doing the rounds, although moving away from Arsenal I was rather taken by that paper’s headline “Man Utd’s troubled youth are a product of their environment” followed by the lines, “Ruben Amorim has discovered the challenges of dealing with young stars, but he must also look at his own behaviour.”
It’s normally the sort of approach reserved for Arsenal, so it is good to see it spread out elsewhere. Although not so good to see the start of the notion that “Arteta needs to leave, or Arsenal need to sack him” stories. We are only in the prelims of course, but the rest will come soon enough, now that we have, “Mikel Arteta admits long-term future at Arsenal dependent on winning silverware.”
The reality is Arsenal are so much further ahead than they were under previous managers, it would be crazy to “do a Tottenham” as it is now called, and get another manager.
Am I the only person who remembers that between 2005/6 and 2021/22 Arsenal could not finish above third in the League, and we have now just had three second places in a row? Somehow, there seems to be the idea that all Arsenal have to do is get a bit better, when in fact that is what all the clubs have to do, and at least one of those clubs has money that Arsenal can’t even dream of having, to buy in new players.
In fact, I really don’t quite understand how some writers about football don’t quite get what a massive task it is, moving up to being top. It is not just about Arsenal, but about how long the Premier League allow Manchester City to walk free.
For surely it can’t just be me that notices that we still have not had a conclusion to the 115 Manchester City cases. The hearings began on September 16 2024 and concluded in December that year, with as ESPN said at the time, “the reputations of both sides on the line.”
So here we are a year on, and still Manchester City march onward as if they have done nothing wrong, and even if they have, there is nothing anyone can or will do about it. Certainly, the media don’t seem to mention the cases anymore – it’s pretty much Untold and a handful of other bloggers who remain interested in honesty, integrity and those other things that people used to care about but now don’t.
The problem for the rest of the League is that Manchester City have vowed to tie the League up in legal tangles until it goes into financial liquidation, if the ManCs are found guilty of any single one of the 115 charges. So we all sit and wait.
And I should add that, to their eternal disgrace, the media seem to have dropped the issue as well. Is anyone else reporting the anniversary of the hearings being over and done? Not that I know.
No, instead we have “Mikel Arteta admits long-term future at Arsenal dependent on winning silverware” as the headline as if somehow the whole ManC shambles is the fault of Arsenal, rather than it being the fault of Manchester City’s action, and the league’s inability to conduct a case against the club.
From the inside, the whispers are that the League is not going to resolve the issue, having gained an agreement from the media that, in return, they will drop the story. But there are still one or two making a fuss and not accepting the City deal, which says, “just leave the issue, and we’ll bring our spending from now on into line with everyone else. While of course keeping the players and trophies that we have won and spending what we like in the future.
And to be quite clear, of course I can’t prove a thing – I’m just a blogger not a journalist with the resources of a national newspaper behind me. I am just pointing out that as we used to sing “it’s all gone quiet over there” – the tragedy of football being it has all gone quiet everywhere – except here.
As the Manchester Evening News reported (knowing as they do, far more than I, about what is going on): “A final verdict regarding Manchester City’s alleged breach of Premier League financial rules is now unlikely to be delivered before the end of the season.”
But what I can say is that anything that Mancheseer City has won from 2018 onwards should always be reported with an * and a comment that says “Legal case ongoing.” But the fearful, cajoled, battered and beaten media can’t even manage that.
If they close their eyes it will go away.
You are probably the only person who remembers that Arsenal didnt finish above 2nd between 0225/6 and 21/22. Everyone else probably remembers it correctly. What about the second in 15/16? When Leicester won it…
The rest is just tosh…the notion that the press have it in for Arsenal especially. When Arsenal do well the press generally goes too far with the positivity (it wasnt long ago the press was saying that Arsenal winning the PL is a done deal). Lately they have been distinctly average, and the press says that too.
God only knows which member of the media tortured you when you were a kid but they are not the demons you constantly make them out to be.
Of interest, if you didnt write articles about the media, is there anything else you could write about?
Of course I mean 2005/6 – 2021/22…but point made…
Try reading them Andrew – it is all there. I write about the media because I do think the media has unified view which is very misleading, but because it is amplified across the media, many do believe it. I really don’t understand your viewpointr that if one sees or reads something that is wrong, one should be silent. After all, I just publish on a blog – which you could easily not read if you so wished. And yet you carry on reading. I am of course grateful because it adds a fraction to my readership rates, but I never quite understnd why you do it and keep on complaining.
It wasn’t that long ago that the media created and perpetuated the “fourth is not a trophy” nonsense. Then when we continually finish above fourth they just invent another stick to beat us with.
And when the hell are you going to bar Andrew Banks, his annoying drivel is of no value to anybody!
Mikey
Twas ever thus – ‘Arsenal are always wrong’! The difference now is a sizeable number of Arsenal fans BELIEVE the media narratives much more than they ever used to!
We used to pride ourselves on being different and defying everyone on the outside; I still do!
Even The Invincibles got stick from the media. “It don’t take a weatherman to see which way the wind blows.”
Or an Andrew Banks.