By Tony Attwood
I am not sure if it is just my perception that is changing, but it seems to me that of late the media has lost a bit of interest in endlessly knocking Arsenal.
I guess the idea started to develop on reading the Daily Mail piece which I reported yesterday – it was so pathetically stupid that my main feeling was “If this is the best they can do in the Anti-Arsenal department, they really have run out of ideas.”
A glance at this morning’s scribbles from the lower levels reveals these headlines in the Telegraph:
- Wretched United gift Greeks easy victory [no journalist can do a story about anything related to Greece without the word “gift” in the headline. Its the law.]
- Toil and honesty fail to conceal Cleverley’s flaws
- Now Moyes needs Glazers to show real steel
- Moyes: This is the worst we have played
- United fans’ 10 darkest days
And its not just the Telegraph. It is much the same elsewhere. The Guardian for example runs
- Van Persie hits out at United team-mates after defeat
In relation to this one, apparently on Dutch TV RVP said, “Our fellow players are sometimes occupying the spaces I want to play in. And when I see that it makes it difficult for me to come to those spaces as well. So that forces me to adjust my runs, based on the position of my fellow players. And unfortunately, they’re often playing in my zones. I think that’s a shame.”
Meanwhile back with the Telegraph, but now thinking of Chelsea…
- Angry Mourinho rises to Mancini’s taunts
- Mourinho: The media should all be embarrassed [And I thought that telling people they should be embarrassed was a Ferguson line]
- Atlético tell Chelsea to forget signing Costa
- Mourinho fury over leaked remarks
Even Tottenham, who are not normally deemed worthy of such commentary get one:
- Misfiring Soldado has much to prove
Of course we’ve suffered from this type of anti-publicity for years, with Arsenal repeatedly being written off, criticised and downgraded (and that’s just by supposed season ticket holders attempting to tear up plastic cards with their hands and exciting rubbish bin collection teams with the chance of more finds of the valuable cards).
But back to our Joel…
There have been stories that he wanted to leave Arsenal and stay in Greece, but an interview on Sky Sports he said…
[Man U] “showed an interest in me when I was moving to Europe but I have been an Arsenal fan since I was a child and that’s why I chose them. There are a lot of good players in Costa Rica. Many of them like me think only of being a footballer and it was very exciting when some of the most important clubs in the world started to show interest in me.
“As soon as Arsenal came, I wanted to join them and I believe I am ready to play for Arsenal next season. “I know I have the capacity to play there. I am only waiting for the opportunity. With hard work I know I can get there.”
The Daily Mirror, a left leaning tabloid and the enemy of the wretched Sun, also took up the tale before yesterday’s game:
“Campbell is expected to start against David Moyes’ men in Greece tonight, where he will hope to impress the Gunners’ manager as well as other potential suitors.
“He will also be part of the Costa Rica squad which faces England in Brazil this summer, with Wenger expected to run the rule over the striker and decide whether he fits into his plans at the Emirates.”
So do we get Campbell next season, along with Sanogo as our backups to Giroud? If that is the plan it is easy to see why no alternative centre forward was purchased this year.
Here’s what he has been up to since joining Arsenal
| Season | Team |
Games |
Goals |
| 2011–2012 | Lorient |
25 |
3 |
| 2012–2013 | Real Betis |
32 |
2 |
| 2013– | Olympiacos |
24 |
7 |
|
Costa Rica |
|||
| 2008–2009 | Under 17 |
9 |
8 |
| 2010–2011 | Under 20 |
13 |
10 |
| 2011– | National team |
30 |
8 |
Reports suggest that by the start of the current season he had a work permit for England, and by my reckoning he can also get dual nationality in Spain for living in Europe for over 2 years. But I’m not that hot on the rules.
Campbell will be 22 this summer and this must be the moment when he either joins us or leaves us. He is certainly aware of the way the media will treat any promising player who comes to Arsenal, for when a video of a dive of his was distributed and commented upon to a level far beyond its merit. Such was the upsurge of knocking copy that there was even suggestions that based on this one incident there should be an investigation into the whole of the refereeing in central America.
(Now I want an enquiry into referees in England – but not based on one incident).
This event will be picked up again by the media if Joel does come back to England, and supporters of other teams with little better to do with give him a hard time. But the reality is that all he got for the incident was a reprimand for unsporting behaviour and with luck he’s matured a bit.
The goal against Man U was a beauty, with that lovely moment of waiting just for the right second to strike the ball, and getting it to bounce exactly under the keeper’s dive.
My view, which in terms of predictions is never worth that much, is that we should take him back, and let Sanogo and Campbell slog out the second striker slot, with Campbell there as insurance in case Sanogo gets further injuries.
———————
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal
What a sweetly struck shot for that goal .Hope we get to see him in the EPL .
Maybe he’ll impress enough in the WC to merit a place in our squad.
I like him and I wish he can join us after a season loan here in the premier league.
Physically remembers me The early days of Theo.
He look like he had some Ozilish thing on him.
Tony thanks for the Piece. But Tony that not the they treat us,disaster,crisis,Wenger should go,they never bought and then they would pickup one let me say like the Vanper$ie miss,what a waste of money,how can you miss such a sitter,blah,blah,blah.
I slept like a baby, and i wanted to see today’s tabloids reaction its not as i expected.
But the good thing we will have a breather for several weeks now,whooosh what a world.The sewer rats will cease to exit for a while and the whore-lists blind folded as always when talking about the devils. Campbell is the name ringing the bells in oldshitford.
He plays anywhere across the front 3 so why not? We still really need one more main to add to our striker options. But with approximately 10 possible first team squad departures I think this is how our 33 man squad could line up.
Rw – Walcott, Campbell, gnabry
Am – ozil, cazorla, rosicky
Lw – chamberlain, podolski, ryo or signing
Cf – giroud, sanogo, bendtner or signing
Cm – wilshire, Ramsey, diaby or signing
Dm – Flamini, arteta, coquelin or signing
Rb – sagna or signing, Jenkinson, bellerin
Rcb – mertesacker, djourou or signing, ajayi
Lcb – koscielny, vermaelen or signing, miquel or signing
Lb – gibbs, Monreal, ormonde-ottewill-ottewill
Gk – Szczesney, fabianski or signing, martinez
It’s a delight reminiscing over the goal. The most which is the toeing of the ball inside Carrick’s goal post legs just before curling the ball into the net using Ferdinand as a blockage for De Gea’s sight.
So so glad ManU lost. Well well, it seems like losing 2.0 is the destiny of UK clubs in CL this year, wait for Chelsea tonight anyone? Anyway, lets see who can turn it over.
If AW wants Campbell, well we all know enough now to be excited about it, so bring him on in summer.
Just feel our squad is getting to a size now that allows us to be even more competitive in all the games we have to play every season, which is good.
Still think Arsenal are going to surprise us all this season though.
Forward Arsenal.
The ultra bias and anti arsenal sky have run out of steam lately sure they will be back years of gutter press BBC bosses and sky knocking arsenal are not going away easily
Good piece Mr Attwood. The media is not changing at all. If they had not turned to manure and chelski, they wouldn’t be media at all. Even then, the bile and negativity (as expected on Arsenal) are missing in their manure and chelski stories. So the bias against us is real and still very much around.
And for Cambell, why would anybody suggest him coming to play for us next season? Have you forgotten that we are spending more f*ckin monies on ‘world-class’ strikers this summer if not we’ll be relegated? Lol
COYG
I really like the van Pursey line: –
“Our fellow players are sometimes occupying the spaces I want to play in.”
Sounds like the egos of a number of players are in conflict leading to a dysfunctional approach on the pitch & wrecking team spirit.
Last season the Manures were past their peak, despite with the addition of van Pursey & it took a major ref effort to achieve Don Fungus XX. This season they are looking more & more like a spent force. Lets hope they slide some more.
Thats a weird statement to make. What does that mean?? “Players in a position I want to be in”. Aaahh…..Rooney. RVP wants to be the highest paid player in the squad.
Those are impressive figures, esp for the national team, for someone that young. His goal was well taken, a quality goal and you could see what he exactly wanted to do, and that he pulled it off shows what a talent he is. Thought he has a Carlos Vela in him, only he is more powerful.
Also, the way he nutmegged Carrick for that goal seems to have sparked a war of words between Roy Keane and Carrick and his missus 🙂
Great goal from Joel Campbell.
Man Utd in turmoil. Have to love that.
Bookmakers are reporting a huge plunge this morning on David Moyes to be the next EPL manager to get the sack.
It seems that apart from collecting £24m from Man U for Van Persie for a one-season command performance, we have used him to ruin the player balance on the field and ego-balance amongst the players, based on weekly earnings.
Rooney, after a year-long pout has now re-established his pre-eminence but, perhaps at a higher cost to player balance on the field.
Rooney’s pay is also bound to be used as guide for current and prospective new players that enter negotiations with the club – at a time when the risk of missing EUFA Championship football have never been higher for the club. When is everyone going to acknowledge Wenger’s genius, starting with the nay-saying supporters of Arsenal Football Club?
Luis Van Gaal to take over from Moyes. Any takers?
United. Sounds familiar….LEEDS
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/winning-the-title-on-last-day-of-season
Tony is conquering arsenal.com 🙂 😉
Rooney is starting to look like a beached whale (a big fish without a pond).
When it comes to sports journalism, it seems the balance is not so much left/right (whatever that means) but sensational/factual.
Strangely, the Daily Express, which always appeared to me like a paper materialization of Hello magazine, runs quite sober and sensible sports articles.
Great goal from Joel.
Love watching Utd at the moment, what is happening there lifts the spirit. Moyes should be recognised for what he is doing for the masses that follow football! RVP I believe can be a real problem in the situation in which he finds himself,not good for his club!
Pound for pound, Utd are now the worst team in the league over the course of the season, just a shame we could not put them to the sword.
As for the media, they have not gone away, just we do not give them so much news this season. And as you say, other stories have taken over!
Being obsessed with the league as I have been, my greatest joy about us dumping Liverpool out of the FA cup is that it stops the media going on about that Anfield loss. It is a big deal, much bigger than our loss to Bayern Munich which was cushioned by Man City’s similar if not slightly worse performance against Barcelona. But that victory just cut the Anfield story short.
Walcott, Chambo, Gnabry and Campbell.
Possibly Arsenal’s future pace attack, an alternative to Giroud/Sanogo.
The good side of Joel Campbell’s performance: when he is finally absorbed into the Arsenal team in August, 2014, no journalist, blogger or whining Arsenal fan will be able to say, “Campbell who?”.
Yay great Tony!
If joel comes back to arsenal and join in the first team next season, he will definitely improve to be a better player. Dont know what Arsene has in store for him but I hope he can cope with the media assult here. He will always have our support if he works hard and focus on football.
RVP fake media outrage is overblown. He is asked by a journalist immediately after the game why he does not drop deep to get the ball more. His reaction is to answer honestly that he can’t do it because otherwise he would overcrowding the midfield. He even said, we are in it together and I am not blaming anybody.
The problem is not so much his answer, but the reality of the cold fact. Manchester United are not winning enough games. Moreover performance do not offer any reason to think things will get any better. They are not playing well. David Moyes has Manure play in a rigid structure way where real talent such as RVP can’t express themselves.
The problem with Arsenal is that there is sign of an immediate meltdown. Journalists have been commenting on the February meltdown and it did not occurred. None of them are willing to risk their credibility on a March collapse when there is a very real crisis at Manchester United. They will dine on that corpse before resurrecting the same fallacy Arsenal always collapse during the second half of the season.
I must be blind. What sign of an immediate meltdown at Arsenal?
Florian….I think Valentin meant to write ¨there is NO sign of…..¨
Right. Thanks OMG.
Yeah…but only yesterday on Sky (don’t remember this gentleman’s name) was sure that Arsenal is not going to win anything this season, so did a DM journalist…All their prophecies have failed so far this year but they are still betting on us not winning anything…!!! Good for us…takes that pressure off the players a bit!