By Tony Attwood
There is little as dispiriting or come to that sickening and nauseating, as the anti-Arsenal Arsenal, that disgraceful combination of alleged “fans” and half-beat journalists with nothing better to do than knock the club, coming together to destroy yet another Arsenal player.
Goodness knows how many times they have done this over the 130 years they’ve been in operation – but the methods have remained much the same as we all saw with the recent Granit Xhaka affair. Only the technology has changed.
No sooner had the media encouraged Arsenal “fans” to boo and jeer Xhaka than they were telling Xhaka how to sort himself out – often in the most bizarre and ludicrous fashion – before moving on to wholesale abuse and suggestions that he had to leave at once.
And some of the commentary was odd in the extreme.
Football London, for example, ran the headline “The one thing Granit Xhaka must do to get the Arsenal fans back onside” and then they turned to Harry Redknapp for advice on how to do it! (Honest I kid you not).
The Metro came steaming in with “Granit Xhaka must apologise to fans immediately to save Arsenal career, says Alan Shearer” this time adding “and the player needs to come out and apologise sharpish to the fans.”
The Express were in next with “Unai Emery told Granit Xhaka must be sold in January” and they cited (you might want to sit down at this point) “former Leeds United star Noel Whelan.”
Whelan was talking to anyone who would listen as can be seen by him turning up on Football Insider allegedly saying, “The sooner they get one in the better, as Xhaka has to go in January. That might be on loan, as I can’t see Arsenal getting back the £35m they paid for him. He is just embarrassing. I have no sympathy for him. His conduct towards the fans was a disgrace. It shows he’s a big baby.”
Many “outlets” (sewers would be a better word but “outlets” is what they like to call each other), demanded that Xhaka issue an apology, and then marched back in on the attack offering no apology for their own behaviour. The Bleacher Report was at its most Bleachery with the claim that “Xhaka’s “apology” was so “fake and forced. If the guy general gave a shot he would of come out straight away. Your not fooling me granit….” [For “of” read “have”; for “Your” read “You’re”].
And so it rambled on. The Sun then gave us, “Three reasons Arsenal fans don’t want Xhaka to be captain,” once again trying to develop the myth that the wretched rag actually speaks for Arsenal fans.
They also went with “Piers Morgan leads calls for Granit Xhaka to be stripped of…” well you can imagine the rest.
Soccer on Sunday went way out on a limb with “Xhaka Refuses to Apologise for Spurs Tattoo on Forearm” saying in the article “Granit Xhaka has infuriated Arsenal supporters by tattooing the crest of London … “Every time they boo me, I’ll get another Spurs tattoo. … “People say that a captain must be one with the fans, but I’d be lying if I said that I don’t hope they all die.”
Did he say that? Well, Soccer on Sunday was the only place to run the quote so I somewhat doubt it. Does he have a Tottenham tattoo? Maybe he does, although after a bit of a search the only two I have seen pictures of look different from each other, and horribly fake.
But the negatives went on and on and on and on, as with “Granit Xhaka must cut out lazy habit if he wants long Arsenal career” (that from Squawka).
Gooners World and Online Arsenal then went to town with comments from supposed Arsenal fans on a supposed Arsenal website saying,
- ‘£0 would be a great price to get for Granit Xhaka and a super deal for the club. However, I think ambitious thinking we won’t have to pay someone to take him. We’ll likely need to offer a club £10m to take him.’
- ‘Agreed, that’s the trouble with these players who never perform who are on high wages it’s a struggle to shift them, sometimes the only way is to loan them and pay some of the wages. So as far as I’m concerned if we lose him for nothing without having to subsidise his wages that’s a great deal for the club.’
- ‘Our players bar a few are rotten to the core, they come here for high wages and the easy life, which is why they’re getting turned over by lower skilled players simply because they’re more competitive.
- The only players who are worth fk all in our squad are …………Leno, Sokratis, Chambers, Tierney, Guendouzi, Martinelli, Ozil, Lacazette, Auba, Pepe.
- Players like Bellerin, Mustafi and Xhaka etc are literally against the fans, just because they’re so hurt that they copped a bit of criticism once in a while.’
- ‘Xhaka the cu.. can fu.. off, playing the victim card lol.’
- Let’s be honest, we wasted our money on this guy, noone is going to pay good money for a player who hasn’t performed in 4 years for us, these kinda players have no market value, plus his salary is an issue.
- Ironically had we not given him a new contract in Emerys’ first season he’d most likely be gone by now (what an odd decision that was, we let all out top player run down their contracts and yet re-sign this guy up!)’
- ‘Sooner he is gone the better for everybody, taxi for Xhaka.’
- ‘This Xhaka saga is so tiring. He’s more like Bendtner, much ado about nothing. A rank mediocre, should leave quietly. End of.’
- ‘I’m actually surprised the fans have finally found a pair and seem to have so much power over the club, it’s power we haven’t had for donkeys years. I’d much rather this than no control and wrist slitting, slow death like the wenger years.’
- And yes, I am saying loan because like Mustafi, we won’t be able to get rid until his contract expires.’
Thus speaketh the AAA. Always lurking in the shadows, always knowing that they have allies in the media feeding into AFTV and the rest. They are out there, and the media panders to them.
This is OLD news. What is Untold Arsenal doing perpetuating these stories? Just when the man is starting to play again. Is anyone of the a..holes going to stop doing what they’re doing?.They’re not, so just leave them in the gutter where they belong.
In the Xhaka incident I heard a good comment from a fan saying we get abusive to the players and now Xhaka has turned round and told us to fuck off. So what, deal with it. If we stand in the stadia and make ourselves heard we must take what comes back in response. I thought it quite minor and an on-pitch reaction which should have been forgotten with the final whistle but that’s probably too old school and nowadays someone must be offended so it becomes about them and blown out of all proportion. Really pleased with Xhaka’s improvement since Arteta has take charge. Really pleased that Untold take the time to trawl through all this media nonsense as I have long since given up on most sources.
Did anyone notice how the card count dropped this weekend? Could it be that for the first time this season we have not had a single card in a game? Were Cit-eh given a break because they played VARdy F.C. ? I think it may have been their first game of the season uncharted as well. I was quite amazed to find myself agreeing with Garth Crooks on the BBC in his comments about the V A Farce of the Chavs vs Spuds game. Another weekend where poor decisions are more prominent than the football. I do hope some of these new media outlets get some journalists, there might be a story there which merits their vitriolic negativity.
It does seem a little odd to bring this up now Tony but I’m guessing it’s on the back of the piece published today on arsenal.com where he’s saying how glad he is to be back playing for us.
To be honest, reading all them comments you’ve posted made me feel sick, and honestly, ashamed.
Sadly, although I never get used to it, I expect the nauseating drivel pumped out by the media. Some of those guys are beyond contempt. The likes of Read and Custis in the Scum, Cross in the Mirror, Holt in the Mail, in fact far too many to mention, are a disgrace.
And as for our ex players that happily pander to their masters call, they should be ashamed of themselves.
But what really gets me is how way to many of our own fans have allowed themselves to be turned in to these vile haters? I mean WTF. They’re supposed to be ‘supporters’ for crying out loud. The clue is in the name.
All that is why I’m proud of untold Arsenal and the fact I’m a regular contributor. I don’t remember any of our hosts or regulars ever lowering themselves to the level of what we so often see elsewhere in the media and on other blogs.
If their is any critisism of the club or players it is never nasty, always supported with evidence, and open to reasonable contention, which is way way more than is ever the case with those cited above.
Arsenal FC are not perfect, nor are our managers or players, but there is no way any of them deserve anything like the vitriolic, disgraceful attacks such as bestowed upon Xhaka.
As I suggested, they should hang their heads in shame.
Anyway on a brighter note 27th April one night only London Palladium Arsenal Wenger and David Dein and a host of special guests will be taking to the stage to have a jolly old reminisce about there past successes together and invite questions from the audience. Cue Tony with a long list from Untold
The truth finally will be revealed
Wonder how many “ Untolders. “ will go Tickets on sale now
Personally I cant see as to how they can possibly say what they may want to say as neither would want to risk any backlash on the current Arsenal team, which would surely happen should they say what they really think about the shameful display of Riley at OT. The guys in charge of PGMO for pities sake. How can they possibly accuse him of being the cheating b*****D he was/is without serious repercussions.
It will be a nice little chat and not much else.
I really believe that if the AAA comments were/ are considered toxic, and the face of it, well known and unrelenting, any reference or comment against them will not be too much.
I got into the worldwide interaction with fans on blogs and radio phone-ins with the advent of commercialisation of Communication in my nativity, and 2013, I had lot of time, but it was the time, I got the experience of how chaotic the fan base was. Endless comments, counter comments, abuses. I wrote an article in a popular blog then, for Arsenal fans to give place to reason. But since then nothing has changed. Most AAA fans are one dimensional, one view, and that, theirs. However, there are two sides to a coin, which is true for most things, that means, balance. One side moderates the other.
These people are fans only of themselves.
All they crave is self-publicity to show how clever they are.
I have long felt that when one has no arguments, you insult and that is exactly what these people are doing.
Yes, debate what you think may be shortcomings of the team or the players, but once you start insulting it is clear you have nothing really to say and what you say is nothing.
By the way, West Ham leading 2-1 against Pool!… wonder how long the referee let’s this last…
What’s that saying, a rolling moss doesn’t get stoned?
OT: LiVARpool! 3 2 StateAid
Moss is the twit for PGMO, and he let StateAid lead for 14m. Fouls are 4:10, and yellows are 0:3. 2m into second half, LiVARpool! inflict a treatment on StateAid which requires the substitution of the player. Sargeant Moss Schultz sees NOTHING!