by Tony Attwood
Some people are game changers. Some people like Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan (born Piers Stefan O’Meara now known as Piers Morgan) are name changers. He’s the man of whom the Leveson enquiry said,he was “sufficiently unembarrassed by what was criminal behaviour that he was prepared to joke about it”.
Anyway he was at the GQ Men of the Year awards ceremony, as were Jeremy Corbyn and Hector Bellerin. The leader of the Labour Party (that’s Corbyn not Bellerin – do try to keep up) was there to present Grime star Stormzy with the best solo artist prize.
Now you’ll know Mr Corbyn is the MP for Islington North, wherein lies Arsenal, and that I’m very much a supporter, which is why there is a picture on this site of said Mr C and me at the launch of one of the little books I have co-written, but in case you missed it here it is again.
Anyway during the party Morgan, being his normal boorish self, lectured Hector on Arsenal’s “poor form.”
According to Mr Morgan’s Daily Mail column, he had been seated at the same table as Mr Bellerin, and earlier in the evening had been lecturing him on Arsenal’s recent run of poor form (that would be the 13 wins, 3 defeats and 1 draw in the last 17 competitive games I guess).
When Mr Corbyn and Hector started a private conversation the Morgan character tried to interrupt the conversation, as he always does, and so Hector and Mr Corbyn switched to Spanish leaving the journo completely in the dark (although undoubtedly pretending he understood what was going on). Later Mr Corbyn told Morgan, that he asked Hector to “please send Arsène Wenger my very best and assure him he continues to have my full support, even if he’s lost yours, Piers. In fact, particularly because he’s lost yours…”
Morgan then said, “He’s lost mine because we keep losing. You and Wenger are the only losers in football and politics to keep their job… no wonder you love him.”
I am not sure if the Leader of the largest political party in Europe (in terms of paid up members it is actually the largest political party ever in Europe) then pointed out the statistics of the last 17 games but Morgan did admit in his column that “Corbyn got a huge cheer when he presented an award. His extraordinary popularity shows no sign of abating.”
Subsequently Hector tweeted, “Come on mate, don’t take it personally @piersmorgan” along with an emoji weeping tears of laughter.
Meanwhile elsewhere among what are laughingly called “reporters” in the British media, a Mr Ronay (who is not Mr Rooney star of the community work rosta) has taken to calling Arsenal players “gnomes”, which I think is rather insulting. He uses the word multiple times in his commentary in the Guardian including at one point calling the team “dinky little Velcro-touch skill-gnomes”.
It is always sad when a journal that has in the past been known for its campaigning on important human rights issues is reduced to this level, but in the world of contemporary British journalism, that is how it goes.
However I suppose that is not quite as silly as the Telegraph which claims today to have “an exclusive” via which the newspaper favoured by ex-admirals, rural vicars and retired colonels claims it has an exclusive showing that almost half of all Premier League clubs do not meet guidelines set out in the Accessible Stadia Guide.
What is fascinating here is the use of the word “exclusive” in this story in which they claim that clubs (they name Chelsea and Man U in particular in their headline) are facing “the threat of legal action”. So not actually legal action, but the threat of legal action. And this for not implementing the recommendations for disabled supporters made in 1998.
The problem for the Telegraph is that on 20 Apr 2017 (ie five months ago) they ran the story “Exclusive: Premier League clubs face legal action if they do not address ‘unacceptable’ progress on disability access”. But even that earlier exclusive which preempted this exclusive wasn’t actually exclusive in that in October 2016 the Premier League ran the story on its web site that Lord Holmes had told MPs that legal action against clubs and the Premier League remains an option if standards are not met.
But it still goes much further back than that, because a BBC report in 2014 not only covered the same ground but also got there three years before the Telegraph’s repeated exclusives.
Much of this raises the question about just how pathetically stupid and lacking in attention the British media thinks football fans are. Clearly they believe we are silly enough not to remember a story that we have heard before, and that we obediently go slavering at the mouth when we read the word Exclusive attached to what is a rather old tale. And come to that a tale that the Telegraph has itself run before.
Now some people who are kind enough to glance at Untold from time to time do sometimes ask me why I keep reading newspapers when they clearly publish so much tripe. One reason is that they are still getting away with treating us all as if we had the IQ of a semi-skilled dung beetle. Calling them out from time to time still seems like a good idea to me.
The other is that sometimes they do publish some rather jolly headlines like this one, also from the Telegraph: “Jurgen Klopp backs Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to shake off baggage and thrive at Liverpool.”
I do love these amazing revelations. Klopp bought the Ox for £35m just a few weeks ago and says he will do well – and that is news? It would be news if Klopp said, “nope, I got that one wrong, which is why I have relegated the player to the League Cup squad,” but Klopp backing a man he has just paid all that much for?
I don’t think the Telegraph has quite got the hang of what “news” actually is.
- What exactly does it mean when Arsenal are on red alert over a player spotted at the airport?
- Arsenal are not going to match the expenditure of the Manchester clubs no matter who is manager
- Chelsea on track to get 23 red cards this season and Arsenal to get 53 yellows.
Arsenal in Wartime
@Tony
I must admit I was disappointed with Bellerin who, according to Trump’s Intestinals’ Intruder also known as Piers Morgan, made a promise to TII that Arsenal would improve. TII is arguably the worst Arsenal-related person in the media, he has repeatedly abused Arsenal players (mostly Aaron Ramsey) and the manager…and now an Arsenal player calls him “mate” and gives him “a promise”!?
All Arsenal employees should take the page out of Ramsey’s book regarding TII. When he was asked about Morgan’s negative comments about him, Ramsey made a deadpan reply:
“Who is Piers Morgan?”
And that’s, Mr Bellerin, is how TII aka Piers Morgan should be threated.
Agree with Josif. Far from calling him mate he should have called him out to his face for being the two faced traitorous bastard that he is.
Similar situation as Ray Parlour cosying up to the arch Arsenal hater Adrian Durham on Talksport.
Bellerin’s use of “mate” is just being polite. If had written W****r , though accurate, the FA would have him up on a charge.
Gooner S
He could of kept the sense of the message simply by ommiting the word mate.
Not too long ago, we were enamored by the good cop/bad cop by Per and Holding on Costa in the FA cup final. Bellerin is now the “good cop” in the Piers situation.
To add context to Mr. Ronay’s article, he was praising the effect that Sead Kolasinac had on our match at Stamford Bridge at the weekend but in order to praise one Arsenal player he had to cut down almost all the Arsenal players of the last 10 years. Critiquing a team is one thing, trying to ridicule them is another. The little man wearing a tall hat is the one behind the pen at the Guardian.
Meeting Piers Morgan and Jeremy Corbyn on same night double nightmare for our Hector.
Tony,
I confess your post left me full of laughter from start to finish.
I choked on my pre-lunch Muscadet and lost it completely over Rooney described as “star of the community work rosta”.
Really, at 93, I would like warning of such gems, especially while holding a drink. 😉
A certain lack of evidence in that supposition John
There are clear similarities in the way in which the British press treat both Mr. Corbyn and Mr. Wenger. (ie with prejudicial hostility). This reinforces my admiration for them both.
I feel sympathy for Hector at finding himself sharing a table with Morgan.
A wider reflection on this week’s general football media coverage:- There is obvious disappointment that the widely forecast (and eagerly hoped for) stuffing of Arsenal by Chelsea did not happen. Thus, very little mention of the game (contrast to the tirade that would have followed an Arsenal defeat) and a switch of attention to the glorious Manchester clubs, who have already got the PL sewn up between themselves.
I wouldn’t read to much into Hector’s use of the ‘mate’. It’s just his way of expressing himself in his glorious spockney.
For all it’s good intentions GQ MOTY still manages to flush itself down the toilet every year without fail. For every Nick Cave there’s a Stormzy. For every Brydon and Coogan there’s a Clarkson and his crew of halfwits. Notwithstanding the absurd decision to give Corbyn a public platform to open his mouth about anything, the outrageous audacity of presenting Sadiq Khan with an award for Politician of the Year completely discredits this event into perpetuity.
Our Hector needs to exercise some quality control over his public engagements. Being seen in the company of Corbyn is bad enough, but actually engaging with Piers Morgan on any level represents a serious error of judgement. The man is a buffoon and should be treated as such, in print and in person.
Very interesting stats circulating about the record of the big European managers over the last 100 games. It appears AW is ahead of Jose, the Klopp and the Poch in matches won. He’s also acquired more trophies within that century than the last two massively hyped and seemingly untouchable titans of our game (combined score = 0).
http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/856073/Antonio-Conte-Jurgen-Klopp-Jose-Mourinho-Arsene-Wenger-win-rate-sportgalleries
Flares
Thanks for the link.
The point about stats like this, are not that they necessarily ‘prove’ Wenger is better than this or that manager, or worse than this or that manager, but that the ridiculously negative way in which he is portrayed in the media is just that, ridiculous.
But even worse, that doesn’t stop many of our own supposed fans from jumping on that particular bandwagon, or indeed coming on here to inform us just how deluded we are to actually believe in him.
Just read the Barney Rodney article that offends Tony so much. It’s actually in praise of Kolasinac & lamenting the lack of physical players at Arsenal in recent times. The ‘gnomes’ is in the headline & jut once in his article. So yes, ‘multiple times’
Barney Ronay
http://www.101greatgoals.com/news/social/arsenal-fans-rip-into-one-liverpool-star-after-burnley/
I love the Tweets, Piers can kiss my ^%&*6*^*^*%&*^&(*^&*(^(*&^(&*^*^
I’m going to sue the Guardian for libel if they don’t write my fluff piece to make up for it , with some compensation! So…. misquotes and impish references, I couldn’t care if it was once, thrice, lice or full on Crabs, they appropriate big issues and then shrink like cotton socks in the tumble when it matters. Meanwhile asking you for a fiver to keep them open because they didn’t put up a paywall, which can be circumvented anyway!
the Liverpool game and Leicester, where he gambled to avoid injuries because, we were selling Gabby and are a little light in Defense, aside, we have conceded just once in 3 and have suffered how many defeats in how many competitive games?
Sead, is going to be a Sagna, 2 best RB in a row until someone broke his leg and he cashed out to City sensibly and fairly given what happened. Cohen is our next Hector, which means we need a good Sead at RB.
Poor Danny and Theo out also, well, does that mean we can see Nelson now????? 😀 😛 :O 😀
God bless Liverpool, currently the gift which keeps on giving. Two dull draws down they’ve now gone out of the League Cup at the tea and biscuits stage to Leicester, with the power of Coutinho and the Ox steering them no less. As so often happens, the media hysteria over our 4-0 reverse at Anfield is being seen for the sham it was. Arsenal with the bouncebackability, the Scousers flattering to deceive as usual. I feel like I’m becoming mildly obsessed with the laughable attitude to Liverpool Football Club; I’m just fascinated by the endless free passes they keep getting for achieving absolutely nothing and being, putting it bluntly, mediocre as f**k. With the full weight of opinion behind them, a cup final appearance should be a given, shouldn’t it? Watch them drop out the top four after one season. Just watch.
Liverpool are out and I can see Spurs going early in CL and dropping ecerythinf to make top four, with Chelsea taking the hit to justify Hazard sale. PSG could seriously come in for Kante, I would laugh and that would peace Moratta and Ceasar and nothing else. And Coutinho ain’t trying all season, no CL then I get mh move. Henry (Liverpool owner) is a fool.
Leicester just dumped Liverpool, Coutinho was on but got replaced BG woodburn, a story which sounds more accurate is they wanted £170m+ for him. Woodburn don’t sign mate.
Spurs scraped past Burnley and City can give WBA the midweek runaround for us. Lets make Doncaster light work, 3 stars on bench if its getting long.
Rio Ferdinand is taking up boxing.
I would like to see Rio take on Pierce Mrgan!
Or, how about 😈 Mike Riley?
Or, whoever gave Rooney a ride to work today?
untold just keeps getting better and better.
is that the same Ronay who runs the Celsea fanblog for the Guardian? What did arsenal ever do to him? his last report on chelsky-arsenal was a complete essay about how chelsea should have trashed arsenal and how utterly strange it was it didnt happen, but it was all the fault of bringing on Hazard too late. Not a single word on arsenals exquisite defensive display, let alone our squandered opportunities. sad biased cynical fake reporter he is