They broke the news today, oh boy …
Another day, another sporting dollar and so the week begins with many column inches in newspapers filled with a certain kind of journalistic copy.
Whatever is written in one outlet is rarely too far removed from what will appear elsewhere. The fear of being separated from the media herd is a great motivator for all but the bravest and most established writers to avoid delving too deeply into what may actually be going on in the lives of the players, their managers and our clubs. Instead, we tend to get a perpetual rehashing of last week’s news with new added ingredients intended merely to support the existing ‘wisdom’ rather than challenge anything too seriously.
Unlike, for example, the financial media, whose journalists’ entire raison d’etre is to seek out and identify development, trend and change, the sporting pack is an altogether different beast.
The football media in particular is largely dominated by simpletons writing for, dare I suggest it, simpletons.
There are worthy journalistic exceptions to this observation, just as not all football fans are thick and/or illiterate. The hallmark of any simpleton is the degree to which they are comfortable with the realities of their world (or sporting) view being represented in black and white terms.
As we know from too many of our own agenda-fed fans, players are either ‘rubbish’ or ‘brilliant’. Yet the reality is prone to impact from all manner of variables I don’t need to list here.
So at the moment, it’s Martial Awe time and the fall guy is Giroud.
But the crowd-following mentality is no respecter of reputation, form or even history, no matter how recent. One of the most shaming media moments was the scandal of Mesut Ozil, whom we were most unreliably informed was one caught bang-to-rights not earning a living. According to the headline above Neil Ashton’s low-point Daily Mail article back in March 2014:
“Lost and lazy Ozil might have cost Arsenal £42.5m but he isn’t worth two-bob … and he’s nicking a living.”
So there you have it, one of the finest footballers of his generation, with almost 100 caps for Germany at all levels, 105 caps for Real Madrid and the small matter of a World Cup winners’ medal, is (at at least in 2014) not worth “two-bob”.
Theo Walcott, miraculously playing at the highest levels despite, according to Alan Hansen, doing so without a football brain, is also one who effortlessly decries the reputation of sections of our sports media, themselves widely guilty of multiple write-offs of the player over the years, simply by his very presence in the current Arsenal and England sides.
The kids that you supposedly could never win anything with, went on to win a European Cup-led treble, defying the hapless Hansen defined odds and providing the former Liverpool defender with little to defend his somewhat shredded reputation. The only surprise was how long Alan’s media career managed to continue; ironically, maybe that might be considered a heist of sorts.
But when someone with a media profile like Hansen could condemn players largely on a whim and without troubling themselves with detail such as ‘evidence’, then it is far easier for lesser lights like Ashton, Durham and others to come out with unsupported, unsubstantiated judgements which has the potential to do real and lasting damage to the careers of their chosen targets. This becomes especially true as their myth-making gets picked up by those of a less critical disposition and repeated over and over until they either become ‘true’ or, as in Ashton and Hansen’s cases, are shown up for the short-sighted and, frankly malicious comments they originally were.
Where it gets marginally more entertaining is when players are appearing to move from being ‘brilliant’ back to (relative) ‘shit’ as currently appears to be the case with Rooney and last season Spud-wonder Kane. There is that delicious opening up of a journalistic no-man’s land as the media shy away from the evidence of their own eyes of Rooney’s decline (legs’ gone?) and Kane’s apparent loss of confidence (head’s gone?).
The reality?
Probably neither have turned to ‘shit’ overnight but Wayne’s decline is likely matched by his struggles to motivate himself in the twilight of a patchy career that saw his international form in tournaments never truly replicate his club contribution. Kane is young enough to bounce back to form though he could help himself by finding a decent club to play for.
But the media, in the meantime, struggle to digest and assess what is in front of them. To the extent that you have to wonder if they are really trying.
We are unlikely to find a non-headline grabbing assessment of where Wayne and Harry really are anywhere in today’s media outlets. Maybe the credibility of this small army of paid observers would be salvaged were they better able to provide a more measured response to the vagaries of player form and development. Then, at least, the state of Theo’s footballing brain may never have become ‘a thing’, to Hansen’s enduring embarrassment.
Brilliant or rubbish. Rubbish or brilliant.
The disservice done by this linear approach to describing and understanding players who are seeing out their careers in one of the most competitive sports environment on the planet is as shaming as it is impossible to justify.
One can only wonder how many players were casualties of the burden of being (mis)judged in this manner. As the press play out their agenda and the crowd, instead of getting behind players get on their backs instead, we are left to wonder whether the likes of Denilson, Eboue, Arshavin, Bendtner and Gervinho, might have seen careers thrive rather than dive. Flapihanskii and Sanogoals provided cheap headlines at one time or another and it was hard at the time to imagine their careers surviving this kind of ridicule. Maybe they weren’t ‘good enough’ but we will never know for sure how far these players might have gone with a more sophisticated appraisal of their contributions.
Back to the future and at some point the current media generation will twig Wayne’s game may finally be up and possibly Kane’s development has stalled or even gone backwards.
But all the while legions of football fans rely on mainstream media for their footballing verdicts, we shouldn’t be too surprised at the quality of the arguments of those same fans, or be too puzzled by the limits of their understanding of the game.
We should remain unsurprised, too, at continuing reports of the declining numbers of readers, viewers and listeners of the perpetrators of football’s black and white world.
Slowly and surely, possibly helped by social media, more and more are waking up to the limitations of the writers of the headlines and the weasel words underneath them.
Positively Arsenal 
Then AFC bloggers regurgitate
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I’ve said it before and I will no doubt say it again: what makes these people “experts”? What have they done, where are their medals? Who have they managed? They are all experts in one thing and one thing only = hindsight …… even then they get t badly wrong. They are in fact #nonexperts #mills #durham #claridge #jenas #redknapp #murphy #ashton
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[…] Source: STOP PRESS! Martial Awe Declared, Giroud Officially Rubbish #nonexperts […]
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It’s a Tony Atwood says: these sycophants and extreme right old whingers, that’s not a opinion for that is what they are, they think of football fans as the great unwashed. Plenty of evidence for that understanding. Plenty.
If they could they’d slam us all into the workhouse (coming to a Tory borough near you soon – next door to the food “bank”) and then get back to their favourite sport: Horse/Mendez mule/ and in-bred Corgi dog racing (before the last track got sold off to fund a block flats being built by a cayman mafia cartel), they would. Whatever you do just don’t mention Godolphin for heavens sake have some mercy upon these sporting heroes.
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It is easy these days to tune out, turn on and drop into a feed from alternative sources if you like your football.
That explains the growth in popularity of Opta etc. which reflects the development in analytics in all sports. Something that has to be of course ignored by the transfermongers, and we all know why that is.
It wouldn’t do to be admitting that AFCs alogorhitims outfoxed their crack teams of Football Transfer Experts with their digging up gems like Koscielny or Gabriel who even though as Grimandi reminds us his scouts also knew about Kozzamundo before the boffins approached him with there spreadsheets.
I’d say the sport (the physios and coaches not including the administrators or officials) is about twenty odd years ahead of hacks like the one mentioned by Andrew and that’s me attempting to be kind.
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In contrast to the gibberish of the hacks we have writers like Hornby or David Pearce (the Damned United), subtle and interesting works for us to reflect upon.
Specifically Pearce’s (made up?) conversations between Clough and his chairman at Derby on the future of money in football. Really, quite intersting stuff.
Yup. There’s no need to pay attention to these hack dwarves save for the impact they have upon those who waste their time in reading their “work”.
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Sign of the times when some drooling sycophant asks the cheque book manager par excellence to write an intro to a book about Forest under Clough. Is it just me or is that a leeeetle bit weird?
“There was no plan,” the great right‑back Viv Anderson says in the film. In essence, there was only a single instruction: “This is the ball. You pass it to your team-mate.”
vs.
“Shit on a stick”
Is that contradiction a little bit obvious, ignoring the Specialist’s first three months last season and his first Gazprom squad before Robben and the then still useful Duff dug their tunnels and escaped, or is it just me?
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Sir Fergus Rednose was given a knighthood for managing the biggest wealthiest club in the UK.
Clough got an OBE for taking not one but two clubs up the leagues and to European recognition and eventually glory.
One is the manager everyone copies when playing football games, the old Football Manager, the other is not.
Then there is the history of that sweet and much loved and respected FA in ignoring Paisley, Cloughie etc.
When you think about it, when it comes to the hack dwarves etc. A.Wenger is in good company!
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Blimey
Barkley beats a man and they’re comparing him to R.Baggio.
Gibbs beats two or three on a mazy run and not even a whimper from the braveheart itv plundits. They even hate the Arsenal when they’re playing for England!
Those older and wiser will probably remind us that nothing has really changed there
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Chambo’s playmaking from CM in the build up for the second England goal was also ignored…
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I look forward to the game at Vicarage Road
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Commendable effort thus far by Watford who I thought, I admit, would find coping with the greater physical challenge of the PL a step too far.
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That’s excellent Andrew. Thank you. The fact is journalists don’t care what they write. They work in a factory which produces newspapers and the only reason for their employment is that their bosses can sell papers. They are no different than someone making boot laces for Doc Martin. They simply contribute to the creation of a product with which someone else hopes to make a profit. I see no reason whatever to give any more credence to the views of a newspaper worker than that of a shoe maker. They deserve no more respect and no more attention.
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Mike Jones with the whistle
Nothing recent on his record
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First of the ‘big’ Watford have played at home this season – surely they will start on the front foot?
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*4
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Steve⚽Gooner⚽Martin @HarlowGooner 5h5 hours ago
@DBerry1974 @Stillberto amazed that the very people who say Arsenal FC not Arsene FC champion Graham FC.
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I have consulted the oracle as a result of a slight disquiet to discover we have a poor record against Watford – 18 games, just one draw, nine wins for them, eight for us
The only time I was ever accompanied by Mrs N to Highbury they beat us. She hated it, so did I. November 82 – extraordinary. She has never been since.
Who knows?
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The only way Watford can beat us if we take the win for granted, so…
Yes, who knows?
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Good that Theo was given a rest this evening – hope the same goes for Aaron tomorrow. But we don’t have a cat’s hope in hell’s chance of stopping Alexis playing.
Just hope he’s OK for Bayern.
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Excellent article. Really hope you are right in your last paragraph…..get the feeling you are. Football journalism and punditry really does seem to be going down the pan at an increased rate
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Great article, Andrew. Spot on.
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What a superb piece AA, thanks…
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Nice one Andrew,old Red Nose treated the likes of Neil Ashton with the contempt he deserved-one of many journos that he barred from his press conferences-maybe Arsene should do the same-throw em out and say ‘now you know what that’s for don’t you?’
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Football journalism is the original junk food. Cheap and filling. Full of fat and sodium, designed to fatten and kill us with their poison and to distract from us from rich, healthy, natural stuff. How else do you explain the celebration of anti-football and bitter barking sociopaths like Mourinho vs a groundbreaking, modern thinker like Wenger. Unfortunately you can’t break the hold of McDonalds if their was no anti-McDonald movement. That is why I salute Andrew for another excellent piece.
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60 minutes the maximum tonight please Mr. Coleman, your star player(s) deserve the ovation.
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Ten minutes gone and the first Andorran off to sample the delights of Cardiff Royal infirmary’s neurosurgical expertise
Ffs lads it’s supposed to be a sort of friendly
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Clumsy oaf Robson Kanu turns his ankle – Aaron and Gareth in for a long night at this rate
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The Blind leading the Blind in Amsterdam
van Persie on
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I like the Dutch but my God they have relied on Robben for the past 8-10 years
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Quite enjoying the Wales game
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I am wandering back and forth Steve – after a total shambles and finding themselves 2-0 down the Dutch seem to have finally woken up. According to the commentator the visitors have sent out a weakened side. It may have been the stick they got off the home crowd or the Czechs down to 10 men but I’m hopeful
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Akpom has scored on his England U21 debut
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Interesting fact for those Graham F.C. champions ARSENAL have finished tenth or worse only three times in the last fifty years and Graham was involved in two of them, I’m sure the very people who are calling for Arsene’s head now would have had success getting rid of GG had bunggate not happened.
As far as the media go 90% have little or no value to their opinion as their motives control their agenda rather than actual facts
I can’t see who wrote this piece but it was bloody good
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The most perfect own goal from Robin – quite extraordinary 3-0
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Indeed Andrew – can’t imagine a better one from a nicer guy.
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Admittedly the Dutch revival had disappeared down the toilet a while before that bizarre effort
But even so
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Mözart @AFCMozart 4h4 hours ago
‘”I absolutely loved beating Arsenal. They were the best 4 days of my 26 year long, Trophyless career – Sam Allardyce
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Even so Dk – that was an own goal that would not have gone amiss if Shakespeare was the manager !
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Brilliant
Sam Allardyce is back
Quotes Too !!!!!! 😀😀😜👀👌
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Oh my god did I just do that ?
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Admittedly the co commentator who I suspect is the moron Gale has me right behind the Netherlands
Halfwit he is
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AA
The article is brilliant. The journalists are rubbish.
I feel little stabbing pains as I read about the slurs on our players.
Said journos are promoting Sam’s new book, where he slags off Wenger – telling porkys about his past team’s assaults on Arsenal’s players:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/oct/13/sam-allardyce-labels-arsene-wenger-arrogant-bad-loser-new-autobiography?CMP=fb_a-football_b-gdnfootball
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It is perhaps the ultimate insult but England could wipe the floor with the best 11 players out of both of these sides
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Good strong header from Huntelaar but not a patch on Robin’s – completely wrong-footed the goalkeeper.
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Dear me,
Andrew expends his efforts warning readers about the iniquities of the football journalists
A few alleged excerpts from fat Sam from an unpublished alleged autobiography
And all the fish are on the surface with their mouths open
Don’t you GET IT boys and girls ?
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A formidable own goal Dk – precise – virtual slow motion – the crowd went totally silent for about 3 seconds
Cosmic
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Positively Arsenal ?
Gravely Offended Arsenal
Sorted
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Maybe England can wipe the floor with both those teams, but can they beat Northern Ireland?
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If I am not gravely offended by Sam Allardyce I could be offended by some else – Le Grove, The former Walsall supreme or maybe Adrian Durham say, if I ever bothered listening the wankers
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