By Tony Attwood
There is a post online at the moment which has the headline: “‘Circus’, ‘I’m done’, ‘Our board are just a joke’ – These Arsenal fans fume at transfer news.”
But create a story they have for this is one of the most read Arsenal stories running this morning. Basically it suggests that Aubameyang is leaving at the end of the season because he has refused to sign a new contract.
So whose fault is that, if the story is true?
In terms of the reporting, it is The Transfer Tavern of course, but in terms of the story, it is propagated by, AFTV – for who else would do this? Which makes Transfer Tavern simply a mouthpiece for them.
The six supporters of the story are
- @tylerrr03
- @ajklato
- @philstephens18
- @marvellousmikel
- @BerndAFC
- @ChrisA141
Six people taken in by the continuing AFTV Anti-Arsenal propaganda machine and persuaded to tweet their support for AFTV’s stance.
Presumably the board of Arsenal – in particular the chairman or his deputy, who would be laying down the rules in terms of how much money can be spent on salaries next season, and how long the contracts should be. And of course the player, who is refusing to accept the new offer – and that is the sort of offer which if made to any of us mere mortals would probably send us into a coma since in the first year alone it would generate the player around £13m.
That is £52m over four years – quite a lot really given that by the third year the number of games Aubameyang would be playing would be reduced, and his value at the end of the four years would be quite small on the transfer market.
But of course, we don’t actually know if this story is true. It might be and he is doing a van Persie, or it might not. So what should we do?
These six twitterers say that we should walk out on the club and not support them any more, which if it were a mass movement would be interesting. But in fact, it is just six people, all of whom are pseudonyms. That is 0.01% of the crowd at the Arsenal Stadium for a big match. One person in every 10,000. And they can have an influence.
Do they represent the majority? Well, we’ll see because if Aubameyang goes then those Twitterers will stop supporting the club and so have no more to say.
But more to the point, what is the point? What is the point of running this story of tiny extracts from six tweets from real or imaginary (we can’t tell which) disgruntled fans?
Certainly not to change the mind of the club, because that clearly won’t happen. Not to persuade us of a particular way of seeing the world, since it simply states their simplistic opinions: one action they disagree with and they leave. Not to provide entertainment (except perhaps to Tottenham supporters amused by the fickle approach of six Arsenal fans).
It can only be to get an audience for The Transfer Tavern. So the opinion of six fans is being used to get an audience, no matter what damage it does to the club.
That’s not really support. In fact, if it is anything it is anti-support. It is rampant negativity. Which means it is part of the campaign to undermine the club, and make it less and less likely for other players – the sixty or so who have now been tipped as coming to Arsenal in the summer – to refuse to consider Arsenal.
After all, if you were a top player, and you saw how some Arsenal fans were reacting to media invented rumours that one of their best centre forwards in recent years was thinking of moving on, would you come to Arsenal if you had other clubs to choose from?
Maybe the answer to that is not definitive, but you would surely notice, and surely think twice.
Thank you Tony
We have many people like those in today’s society. Some go by the name of social critics others opposition politicians.
I come from Rwanda- a country still on it’s way to development. When we recently partnered with Arsenal in the Visit Rwanda sleeve sponsorship we were attacked from every corner of the world. Each of the critics blamed us for wasting tax payers money or even the little aid that’s meant for domestic use. To them sponsorship or marketing should be left to rich countries. They all have one thing in common, critique everything and provide no solution. We should tell the six guys to do the real supporters job-get behind the team in the thick and thin and leave the rest to management and the players
Interesting article, sounds like far from a representative bunch, but the spirit of the more extreme clowns, sorry, characters of AFTV has to live on elsewhere.
I suspect a lot more of the fan base just cannot wait to see the team up and running again, even if it’s behind closed doors for a while.
Auba , wages and possibly, who knows, even the ownership may take care of itself, but anyone living in the real world must by now realise , a new reality will have set in.
Arsenal might revert to the times of Wenger, great scouting, coaching, development of youngsters, perhaps keeping away from the mega expensive and big agent fees. Luckily we have someone managing who learned from Wenger, some very promising young players at the club, Edu and a scout who seems to know a thing or two about young talents in South America.
This reality will hit all clubs , even those who open the door to mega rich tyrants who might have the money but will look too conspicuous spending too much of it under FFP in the era that is to come
Mandy…….we do have a pretty robust and efficient scouting system but it seems to work best at the reserves and youth level. Our coaching staff is also the most solid we’ve had since Wenger’s era. As far as development of youngsters goes, we simply have to look at the plethors of young Gunners coming through the ranks and the selection challenges they are giving Arteta. I have a strong intuition that Arsenal’s big spending days are coming to a grinding halt and that, with the potential flood of ¨cheaper¨ experienced EPL and championship players looking to transfer to a club of Arsenal’s reputation, the club will be in a buyer’s market and take advantage of it,as they have traditionally done.
You are absolutely right about the oil/gas and whatever tyrants who try to invest in the EPL or the lower league clubs. They will, of course, desperately try and bribe,beg and threaten the FA into llaowing them to take the reins, despite the fit and proper rules still in force. Tony has correctly reminded us about the conflict between Saudi and Oman over piracy of TV and steallite signals, so this is likely to heat up quickly. The Fa will of course pretend that it is an ¨affair¨ for those greasy foreigners and try and hide from any controversy. Afterall, that is what they do best.
Sorry for the typos:
plethora
allowing
satellite
FA
Typing too fast it seems!