Is it just me or are others infuriated by ignorance and stupidity?
Now I don’t blame people who are stupid, simply because they are. I mean they are born stupid. Nobody chooses to be an idiot. Mostly they can’t help it. Such is life.
No, what annoys me is that some stupid people insist on thinking they are smart. And smart to the extent that they know more about a given subject than a top professional.
Of course this likely happens in all manner of activities, but I want to talk about football – and Arsenal in particular.
I am told all the time “I am entitled to an opinion”.
Of course when I claim that in that case, I am entitled to hold the opinion that they are idiots, that same ‘entitlement’ doesn’t appear to hold true for me.
If an opinion is formed from a position of almost total ignorance or built on falsehoods and misinformation, what is it worth? It is in fact worth less than nothing. I would prefer to hold no opinion on matters, rather than one which proves I am a foolish halfwit.
If I have a heart complaint I’d go to see a specialist heart Consultant. If he tells me I am in decent health and half an Aspirin per day and some light exercise will see me well would I then insist that I need a quadruple bypass simply because my plumber mate down the pub says that’s what I need?
Or if I read a blog by an accountant in which he insists he has strong opinions on the matter, and I should therefore accept what he is saying, would I?
No!
Well why does anyone who watches a football match and follows Piers Morgan on twitter think that they know better than Arsene Wenger? The reality is that in all likelihood, Doris the Tea Lady knows more about football and Arsenal than them. I get told “I am a season ticket holder, 30 years of watching Arsenal, that entitles me to an opinion.” Well I have been watching Westerns for 50 years but I would not presume to tell John Ford how to direct one. (I know he is dead by the way.)
Buying a ticket entitles you to nothing more than a seat and a game to watch. It does not buy you the right to pick the team, choose formations or set tactics.
If someone tells me the world is flat, I don’t feel the need to debate the subject with them. There could be only two reasons they believe that.
Complete stupidity. Or ignorance.
Ignorance can be excused. But if they have been told the facts and shown the evidence, ignorance can be excluded and stupidity is all that is left. So when someone says something like “Wenger does not understand defence” they immediately fall into the stupid category. And they should not complain when I tell them that they are a moron.
Or when people insist that Arsene has refused to spend money.
Again, idiot.
The annual accounts over the past 10 years prove there has been no money. Arsene has said there has been no money. So if they are going to ignore the facts then they can only be stupid. There is no alternative.
The biggest problem is not people like bloggers claiming to understand things that they clearly don’t. There will always be people who hugely overestimate their knowledge and intellect. No, the problem is the masses of ill-informed halfwits that accept and repeat as fact, the opinions of these leaders of opinion. Hitler was not the problem. It was the millions of followers he attracted that was the problem.
Some want-to-be manager writing a blog about Arsenal is not the problem. It’s the pathetic halfwits that believe that what he is saying has some real value, who are the problem.
People claim to know why Mata did not sign for Arsenal, for example. When in fact they have no idea at all the reasons for him going to Chelsea.
Here is the thing.
I have opinions about players, formations and tactics. Ask me on a Saturday morning to pick the team and I will have a go. But the difference is that by Saturday teatime, if we have lost I won’t claim it was because the manager was too stupid to pick the team that I did.
Pointing to an outcome and claiming it would have been better if your advice had been heeded Is nothing but evidence of your own arrogance and stupidity.
I really can’t understand why so many people believe that their one field of excellence is football and Arsenal.
But I can understand why they infuriate me with their ignorance and stupidity.
You can railroad George on Twitter @blackburngeorge
Positively Arsenal 
nice one george.
So no mention of transfers from someone you vaguely heard of on their way to magaluf at Luton airport who swears they saw Dick Law with a suitcase full of £50 pound notes who told them he was on his way to Iceland to thrown the lot into a Volcano at Wenger’s insistence as he is too scared to spend it?
I’m prettily sure I’ve read that story on Newsnow. from reliable sources too. Haha.
At my tiny local football club (back in Europe! And sure to be playing against the spuds in the Uefa league) there are small signs up in the main stand:
“Please do not try to coach the players”. Simple, polite and effective.
As for the shits who shout abuse at our own players, why the hell aren’t they escorted out of the ground? Other clubs would not tolerate it. Some season tickets should be called back in, they are neither a right nor a privilege.
AND as for a bunch of 14 year olds blogging (and their Fagan like leader) that they know how to run a club with a £335m turnover better than Ivan and Wenger?
Yes George your right, that’s not even wrong it’s seditious.
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Can I edit that?
prelltily please.
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What do you want changed DC?
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So glad I’ve just been supporting the Gooners for well over 60 years and have gone through love, hate; exasperation and bliss without knowing how to do it better! And Lord knows, it’ll be the same this coming season. Keep the faith!
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Nice piece George. It is certainly something that can cause one some level of infuration; I think the trick is to know that and accept it. Makes it so much easier.
The reality is that folk who truly believe the drivel they spout are in fact in the very very very small minority. They seem more prevelant online – as they sit at their sticky keyboards getting a thrill each time they write something they consider unique and considered and funny when they are in truth, just a little sad and insightless, their self satisfaction swelled by any response that ‘lols’ or nods in agreeement in even the slightest way. The reward they get from a response (good or bad) to their nonsense gives them some justification (albeit misguided) for saying whatever they said and increase the likelyhood they will pour further ridiculousness from their fingers through the keys to the screen in front of you – they probably type one handed of course, they other hand occupied elsewhere no doubt.
They look for that feeling of justification again and, like chasing the first hit one apparently gets from heroin, they spout more and more fantastical tripe and find themselves spiralling down and down a miserable hole to become some miserable moaning little hooded figure in teh corner, who has lost all touch with the reason they exist in the first place.
The most vocal are the most fickle and have long shouted their anti wenger pish and nonsense simply because they them selves are not mature enough to deal with the frustrations that following a football team can bring. Some, fortunately I believe, a miniscule percentage, are perhaps beyond help and will even be whining after we win something that “we should have won it sooner! blah blah blahdy blah” Most however, have blindly followed the wrong path and will be redeemable —- I have faith.
If something is frustrating and makes one angry the thing is to channel that frustration appropriately. I get angry and miffed when Arsenal loose but it is a mere transitory emotion that I am mature and insightful enough to know will pass and a sullen silence on the way home from such a game is all I need to let the acuteness of that emotion pass. I then start to look for – and find – the positives and they have never failed to show themselves yet where The Arsenal are concerned and will continue to do so until Long after I have passed and indeed Arsene has passed to. The difference between he and me tho’ is that he has had a huge part in ensuring those positives will remain. My part has been easy, I just have to look.
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Brilliant George, very well put.
I argued with an “ex-pro” in a pub because he and his mates were telling me that because he used to be a footballer he knew more about Arsenal’s finances and Arsene’s refusal to spend money and generally running a football club than me.
They were all really confused when i said, i’m a musician and i don’t claim to know anything about running a record company. “You know more than us about it though” they said. “No i don’t, i know nothing about it, you know nothing about it, my job has nothing to do with it, we both know nothing about running a record company, we both know nothing about running a football club”.
“but…..but….”
“NO, YOU AS AN EX-PLAYER, KNOW NOTHING ABOUT RUNNING A FOOTBALL CLUB”.
Bottom line is, you just can’t argue with stupid people who think that because you own and listen to a lot of music, that some how qualifies you to be a music producer or because you watched football since you were 4 years old you are a tactical mastermind.
Anyway, i’m off to become a dentist, after all, i’ve been brushing my teeth twice a day for nearly 40 years!!
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PG – I am sure you are aware that by telling the blunt truth you are among a small minority in the goonersphere where getting thousands of hits or followers is the mark of acceptance. Unfortunately being nice and platonic in public debate simply gives credence to those loud and aggressive in spouting their ignorance and stupidity e.g. the widely held opinion that Arsenal is seriously in for Rooney. The end result is come Sept 1st there is anger and recrimination that Arsenal missed their targets. B.S. from the start. Trust George to say it like it is.
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Nice post and follow up comments PG . The main point being leave the talking and discussion of all matters that concern you to the off season and specially when said matters can be dealt with constructively without causing irrepairable damage to the team ,the club and the cause. In the middle of the season and games the players must feel nothing but unconditional praise and support from their fans. Anything else is destructive and not helping issues at all. For the most part the majority of our fans are respectful and supportive. All we can ask is for those with trash bags on their heads to giveup their seats to be purchased by others who will actually support and help their team . Not hurt them…
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i am entitled to an opinion = i reserve my right to behave and talk like a dick without any consequences.
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when otherwise mature responsible educated people feel the need to create blogs to discuss and debate the “problems” of Arsenal and the “underperfomance” of manager and players in the middle of the biggest transition in the clubs history…one wonders what kind of fans these people think they are….
you know something….its intentional…whichever blog ive been to defending the club i get kicked out..hehe…they dont want the fans of arsenal to be calm …even the bloggers want their hits….
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Everyone is an expert on everything these days George. Stupid/Deluxe is not far from the mark there. You regularly fly on a plane? bingo, you’re a pilot. Simples.
“I’m entitled to my opinion” has become something of a modern mantra. Thing is they ARE entitled to their opinion. Thank God. However ill-informed, crass, ignorant, morally bankrupt and/or just plain f*cking stupid that opinion may be (in, er, my opinion). Just as I’m perfectly entitled not to listen to them give it.
I’m happy just being a fan of footie. That’s all I’ve ever been. It can be great fun to have a bit of banter, that’s an essential part of it, but I know I’m no expert. Far from it. Put me in charge of Arsenal and we’d be in the relegation zone in a matter of weeks (I think we’d score a lot of goals though. Just probably concede even more, like.). And football is not politics to me, it’s not life and death. It’s entertainment. I’m absolutely bloody passionate and borderline obsessed about my club, but hopefully still sane enough to realise Arsene’s decisions, whether you agree with ’em or not, do not impact on people’s lives beyond frustration and happiness, depending on the result(s).
Sadly, the stupid will always be with us George. Like the poor.
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Yes George. YES.
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George has a good point (among the many).
Sadly the disciples of the doomers are not just keeping their flawed analysis and mendacious bull shit to themselves, what’s I really hate is that they have nerve to go out evagalisically doorsteping into sensible blogs and try to ruin the places and poison the debate. (you all know the examples, no need to mention ’em).
There is no point showing them that their ‘opinion’ is nothing more than a malignant collection of deliberate falsehoods purely aimed at perpetuating their own belief system that Wenger is wrong and the club has failed.
What is the point of explaining to a teenager who couldn’t borrow money from his mum for a computer game the difference between nett and gross debt payments on a €450m football stadium or the difference in an operating profit versus turnover and having a wee bit of money left over to buy a player to two every season.
Its not that I get a buzz out of spreadsheets anymore than the next football fan (he says half lying) but the whole point is that Wenger is in a football club that has not had the same money pumped into it as our main rivals, and we have had to cut our cloth for the last few years to suit. FFS Chelsea have had ONE BILLION EUROS pumped in by the Russia.
sure Ivan Gazidis has talked up the transfer money for the last few years when we didn’t really have it (can’t be seen not to be able to compete) , pity that this year we should have been more circumspect with the money seeming burning a hole in the wallet.
If you like spreadsheets Swiss is yer man:
http://swissramble.blogspot.ie/
my only quibble with his would be that Spurs, Chelsea’s and Manure waste bills would have gone way up last season 2012-2013 whereas ours should have remained around the same.
The dodgy commercial input into City’s revenue is evident too.
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Harry,
The poor will always be with us.
Spoken like a true conservative.
Who else will clean our toilets?
I prefer socialist wage structures, comrade!
And get some rubber gloves.
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Actually I’m a life long “socialist” DC. I would have thought that was obvious.
And yes, the poor will always be with us. Sadly.
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There is a difference between how i might wish the world to be, and how it actually is.
C*nts are still running the world. Comrade (insert banned smiley thang).
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Pleeze Mr Wenger,buy some good player and make all goonurz happy, I like Mr Ronaldo and Messi and make Mr Mourinho yr assistant too
fank you veri much x
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Banned smiley thing accepted.
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In fact to be called a “true conservative” is possibly the single biggest f*cking insult you could lay at my door. Short of accusing me of a being a closet Spurs supporter that is.
I am genuinely narked now, which doesn’t happen very often.
Clear blue sky Harold. Clear blue sky..
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Hmmmm.
Something about this Spain Nigeria game tonight doesn’t ring quite true.
Harry, they are indeed still fucking up the world for their own benefit.
And running a few football clubs nowadays too.
l liked your old Ollie Reed icon, who’s the new guy?
Keith Moon?
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Harry
Wasn’t the slogan “Clear Blue Water”?
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Brian Wilson!!
First he accuses me of being a Tory boy, and then he doesn’t recognise God (no 2, after Denis). I dunno.
I’m only yanking your chain. Still if you are going to call me anything, never let it be THAT.
I’m sure George could give you a few creative suggestions.
Laters.
x
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Sorry Harry
I obviously hit a ‘blue’ vein!
Speaking of Ignorance and stupidity:
http://clearbluewaterconservatives.tumblr.com/
Sorry to everyone else, politics or religion should have no place on a football blog.
Nawwww. Only joking.
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You are not supposed to link to Tory porn.
I actually clicked on that. #Shudders#.
No matter how many times I shower…I will never be clean again. Cheers DC!
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As someone wiser than me once pointed out – a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing …
Combine that with the penchant for most social media platforms to bring truth to that other great saying about empty vessels ringing loudest, and you have a recipe for ‘intellectual’ anarchy.
One feature that puzzles me about some of those that would have us believe their poorly thought out reasoning, is the level of aggression and general unpleasantness associated with their various outpourings. It’s almost as if there is a correlation between their ignorance and their aggression.
Is that because deep down they fear they have made a monumental cock-up and are now using their rage as a smokescreen.
What will happen to them once the smoke finally clears?
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I watched a Derren Brown programme last night, and its the first time i have seen deindividuation tackled in such a way (entertaining and recommended), and it actually reminded me of this continual battle between Positive and negative football fans and those who think they are informed. We all fall into the differing categories of perception management but it seems there is a community that has been intentionally mislead, and then they have form a mob mentality in defending the position.
It is a very odd situation to come across, and highlights how easily some are led, which has actually led to some horrendous situations in all of our histories.
Thankyou for the article.
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I suspect they’ll just move the goalposts again Andrew. They’ll keep moving the goalposts. Too many have invested a lot of time and noise (and hate) to possibly admit they may have been wrong all along. And you are right, blind aggression usually takes hold when reason has long since left the building. And then the mob takes the reins.
And yeah It will be interesting to see how some people react, if Arsenal progress as I imagine they will.
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I take it that is a friend taking the piss
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Hey, on a more positive note are any of you positivistas going to the Emirates Cup? Would love to meet up with any one. I’m going on both days….
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Philbet @9:44
Yous is soooo wrong shut yer mouf ya cunf.
weez alls knows Loser Wnger woudz plaz dems outta position and make messy a goalie. Weez neez Joe Kinerer in charge coz he is da proper cockney innit?
I knows dat coz mister peddles says so and he is way ancient and stuff like 29, which is ways olders dan my gran.
Her new boyfriend doh, is some fat scouser wid da stupid hair.
And I knows all about Arsenals finances tooz.
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Good piece George. I’m in total agreement, especially cos I’ve had one too many encounters with ‘proper’ fans who think they “…….know more about a given subject than a top professional.”
Can anyone confirm for me if being a season ticket holder makes you a doomer as I’ve been reliably informed that not having one means I’m plastic and deluded.
“Buying a ticket entitles you to nothing more than a seat and a game to watch. It does not buy you the right to pick the team, choose formations or set tactics.”……………preach preacher!
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@DC, since you mentioned Joe Kinnear. We was nattering about him on Untold the other week. Wanted to share this cock-up.
True story.
As a seventeen year old I started working in a pub in Totteridge called the Orange tree. Rich area full of famous people including (later) our very own head honcho.
Being only Seventeen I was only allowed to work in the restaurant and not behind the bar, so, after a bit of training Im guarding the front of the restaurant when the phone rings.
“Hello the Orange tree” I say,
“Hello” comes back at me “is Joe there please”,
“Joe who, please” I say in my most polite teenage voice,
“Joe Kinnear, is he there”,
Please remember that I was a cocky little shite bag when I was younger, but also knew exactly who Joe Kinnear was, Wimbledon boss at the time.
“Hold the line please” I say,
I didn’t move, as I thought what sort of tw*t do you take me for, “joke in here”, that’s what I was thinking, Im not falling for that.
So I wait a minute then get back on the line and say “sorry no one by that name here” and hang up.
Feeling pleased with myself for dodging a wind-up, I tell my boss of the phone call.
He takes me straight into the bar and introduces me to Joe Kinnear.
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moe: hello, moe’s tavern.
Bart: it there a clothesoff there, first name Oliver?
moe: I’ll check, hey guys, I wanna see Oliver Clothesoff, Oliver Clothesoff right now!
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Such wisdom here today. And on a football blog, too. Who’d have thunk it?
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Georgaki, I’m at the Emirates Cup on the Saturday surrounded by nieces & nephews & other waifs/strays,but I’d love to meet up for a beer at a game next season, oh,and as for Harry- flowers to the people!
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Mel
I rarely get to other matches. I live in Chesterfield and wait for scraps from the ticket exchange. I’ll be with my sister-in-law at the Ems Cup. So, if you think we can at least say hi I would love that. It’s always great to put a face to a fellow positive Gooner!
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PG will be spitting feathers at this:
“Just in case you didn’t see this on the BBC, Keown gives us a glimpse of his teaching expertise:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23013927
I cringe when I watch this because I know that Martin left the club and the players aren’t getting this teaching day to day”.
It’s from ANR again…..I cannot believe the arrogance displayed on a consistent basis by Palmer and his sycophants…..
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Never mind MP what about Mr. Arsenal?
“My fear is that if Real don’t want him, you are coming in under that,” Adams told The Sun.
“If you want to compete with Real Madrid, you don’t get their cast-offs. You need the best players in the league to win the league.”
Not quite as bitter as Robson….
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just Brilliant..
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