@ReverendGooner goes easy on the media
Now I’m no fan of the weekly pantomime that is Arsenal Fan TV but for now they are here and here to stay or until Robbie gets picked up by one of the majors to become a real football reporter which I’m sure is his dream job. The former reggae boy from the BBC created this monstrosity with his mate and AFTV cameraman Tai to supposedly take on the established professional pundits who comment on our games from a position of detachment in their finely appointed studios. In fairness if you look at the likes of Robbie Savage, Michael Owen & Jermaine Jenas et al its not difficult to disagree with the boys from AFTV. Some of the collective lack of wisdom from the established punditry genii makes you want to give your kids a damn good thrashing for not finishing their homework. Who can forget Owen’s immortal quote ‘whichever team scores the most goals normally wins the game’. Stone the crows if that quote isn’t full of divine wisdom from a man who played the game for 20 years and its living proof that you don’t need to be intelligent to be successful at football.
Based on this there was a definite need for a fan based TV punditry collective to put across real unbiased views from real fans. Well that’s what was supposed to happen but to be honest that would have been as boring as bats s**t and Robbie the brains of the outfit knew this. If you look at AFTV’s early offerings back in 2012=13 it was all pretty mundane stuff but they soon worked out that nothing sells like bad news. The shock jocks of the online fan tv had arrived. Robbie the skilled facilitator loads the proverbial gun and then gets his carefully selected Arsenal experts to answer the questions. These so-called experts are fans just like you and me but in the main they are anti establishment and anti Wenger. This is the crucial ingredient to the mix that either makes or breaks the YouTube views. The original go to pair were Claude & Ty the ‘Who’s on First’ duo of AFTV. Ty is one of the those rarest of species on AFTV, the eternal Optimist whereas Claude is just as he looks, Mr Grumpy. Its not a big stretch to think this is all partly scripted in an ad hock sort of way. I have it on good authority that Ty is a genuine sort of guy who truly loves the Arsenal and has followed them for over 20 years. Claude on the other hand is a bit harder to get a handle on because of his outward persona of just being perpetually miserable 24/7. Let’s face it the majority of their viewers are not Arsenal fans they are opposition supporters who want us to lose so they can watch the shenanigans unfold like a carefully scripted soap opera. Research has proven that when Arsenal win their views drop dramatically and I’m talking in the 100s of thousands which is a pretty compelling statistic so of course from AFTV’s stand point its better when we lose and even better when we lose badly like at Bayern and Liverpool.
I have been a harsh critic of AFTV at times because I’m a bit old fashioned and I believe in loyalty to the cause even under fire but hey that’s just me. The new Arsenal fan circa 1990 comes from the ‘want it now’ generation and are little less forgiving when we don’t spend half a billion every transfer window and don’t match their line up on FIFA 18 or fantasy football manager. Now before all the hate mail starts pouring in I’m not knocking those supporters its their right to support the team anyway they like but it is also very clear that we have two very different types of fan within our fan base. Robbie knows this and he knows his apples and his favourite apples come in the shape of DT and Troopz and I got to hand it to DT because I think he missed his calling in life, the man should have been an actor. Some of his rants are legendary and have football fans from across the different leagues and right across the globe tuning in for a laugh. Even celebrities like Gary Neville and Liam Gallagher tune in for a dose of the giggles because of the entertainment value they get from watching Robbie and DT do their Morecambe and Wise stand-up routine. Unfortunately for us its at the expense and dignity of the Arsenal football club and usually involves personal insults aimed at Stan Kroenke, Arsene Wenger and any number of players. These are not captains of industry or titans of the game dishing out the verbal battering’s, they are blokes off the street who until now have not tasted any fame or success in life. They want to be stars and have online fame I get it, they are trying to get their names out there in the media, I get that too. What I don’t get is all the hostility and agro that comes with it. Fights at the lane the lads from AFTV employing minders to get them in and out of the ground and Arsenal Fans turning on Arsenal fans on the Emirates concourse. This is not entertainment and its definitely not funny football is a family game these days and we don’t need or want the terrace wars of the 70’s. AFTV are well established now and have the real power to do some real good. They are not going to influence who owns Arsenal football club that’s done and dusted and as Stan Kroenke and his son Josh pointed out in their recent interview with the Daily Mirror they will never sell and they are here for generations. They are also not going to influence who manages Arsenal despite DT’s banner waving, marching and on line stamping of feet Wenger still got a new 2-year deal.
Instead of building the whole AFTV premise around Arsenal negativity, division and conflict why not promote the club its players and the fans. Sure, deliver constructive criticism where its due but be balanced in your opinions and display a measure of objectivity in your analysis. If you need to rant for content and views sake then rant about how many times the referee failed to award us a penalty or how many fouls and dives the opposition got away with’ Surely the FA and their inconsistent application of the rules deserve some measure of rage & of course the premier league for trying to schedule games at midnight on Christmas Eve in Siberia deserve a large slice of DT mania. Surely you can still build up an inarticulate rage frothing at the mouth while turning blue at any of these topics so why oh why do Arsenal have to be the butt of all the jokes?
Arsenal have never in their entire history been a European power house and even after Wenger goes in 2019 who is to say we will. We have won the old 1stdivision/Premier League in patches through our history and our most successful period was in the 1930’s winning the league five times. We have never been consistent like Utd and we were mostly considered a cup team in the 70’s and 80’s so why try to make out we are something we are not. Money? Its all about the cash, because there is so much cash in the game now and so much more in clubs like Utd, City and Chelsea some people think we should be matching them dollar for dollar. In their 112 year History Chelsea have won 23 trophies 14 of which they won after Abramovich took over from Ken Bates in 2004. Manchester City were playing in the 3rd division as recently as 1999. The game has moved on in to a new era of even more money and sadly for many teams they are never going to win any trophies let alone the FA or league Cups but AFTV and many of their fans say that the domestic cups are worthless or secondary trophies yet Chelsea, Utd and City have won the EFL Cup a combined 9 times in the past 12 years so they obviously don’t think so. We all want to win the league but because of the influx of cash it’s getting harder and harder every year. Leicester was a one off and its highly unlikely that will happen again. A supporter from one of our most bitter rivals told me that they love watching AFTV because they have turned our club into a sad pathetic joke where are own fans and fan tv hate us more than our rivals do.
Food for thought.
Positively Arsenal 
Thank you Phil and your fairness in your treatment of these loud mouthed, self-interested
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And having been enlightened by Phil about the dark spaces of “fan” media those who enjoy a little light banter might review this entertainment from an old friend of the Blog @BabaGrumpy who scrutinises the expertise of the idiots season by season;
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This was an exceptional read Phil. You exposed AFTV and other know-it-all loud mouths for the egotistical dip shits they really are… at the expense of our club.
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Brilliant Phil, although as Andy said your far to nice.
In years gone by these Anti Arsenal fans who provide so much click bait for our rival fans would have swiftly dealt with and ended in the gutter.
Strangely now it’s fashionable to slag your own club and we are certainly the leaders in that field.
When talking football with other fans they never slag our club as much as these fakers.
It’s amazing that some will spend good money and time following the team up and down the country just to slag them off all the time. That’s got to be some kind or perversion surely.
Maybe they sit at home jerking off to the reruns of opposition goals or our strikers missing easy chances. It all baffles me but then some people like toes so there you have it.
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Great stuff. My son (13 and fellow ST holder) laps their stuff up. He says ironically (hopefully). But if not then I have failed as parent and will hand myself into the authorities.
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Yeah i hear you bro and cant disagree with you but hen i write an article I try to be as objective as possible. Glad you enjoyed the read
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I think I’ve only ever watched one youtube video by AFTV and that was before they became famous. (Did I just claim to be an Aftv hipster?)
I’m with Phil in that it seemed like a good idea initially to get the mood of the common matchgoing fan. A true extension of the pub discussion. The caveat of course is that most people are still prone to being affected by the media coverage, whether they agree with them or not. But still, it was a good idea. For a while they may have even managed it.
But now, based on some clips and screenshots I’ve seen on twitter it is another ‘reality show’. You have people clearly playing their part, whatever that part might be. Not that big a deal in the larger scheme of things, but anyone who takes their avowed ‘voice of the fans’ nonsense seriously is an idiot. It’s as real as honey boo boo, and unfortunately, probably as damaging to society as a whole, because it lowers the bar further. I just prefer to ignore them and hope they’ll go away one day.
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Nice and enjoyable piece, thank you.
I rarely view AFTV because it’s the same old, same old…
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AFTV is aimed at the lowest common denominator of the fans, The braindead fans that are only interested in trophies and think they’re won by the team playing with ‘Pashun’. They’re the ones that moan about us not using tactics because they can’t understand that tactical changes can be really subtle but they ‘don’t do subtle’…
Basically they’re doing the same thing as Sky/BT/Motd by asking idiots to talk about stuff they don’t really understand. Whilst Shearer does actually know some of the things necessary to be a good striker (Unfortunately that’s more than Wrighty can manage), he doesn’t have a clue about much else. The AFTV boys don’t even know that much…
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‘Arsenal have received the most dodgy ones’
‘We’re on minus 2 for last 5 full seasons and even for this (27 for, 29 against), while other big six clubs are typically plus 10-20, so I’d love to know what you reckon would be the right figure for us, without benefitting from dodgy pens. Minus 10 or 20 maybe. that sound right?’
The Internet has plenty to answer for. Above is a little exchange under a Mail article (don’t judge me!) there about Everton enjoying plenty of pens this year.
The first comment proved popular with the readers by 24-8 at the moment, the second, mine, not so much. 2 for 4 against.
The Mail’s a particularly blighted and benighted internet spot, of course, but still…Facts and logic aren’t popular, and the idiots are winning, there, and while you have to hope people and society on the whole are so so much better than that, on average or whatever, I don’t know if it is by nearly the margin you’d hope for.
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At the moment the world is full of hate ( perhaps it always has been) and is strangely favouring dumb ignorance over painstakingly acquired knowledge. Those with the reasons to do so find it easy to enlist popular support, dismissing reasoned argument with homespun common sense, and relying on a visceral appeal to the emotions of those who (often with good reason) feel disadvantaged and disenfranchised. It has happened before and it.will happen again. Aftc is riding a mighty big wave atm but as cult followers of Point Break will know there will always be one tide of opinion that will be unsurfable. And i sense that the breaker that will break them is the continued good governance.of the current AFC regime.
Having said all of.that I can’t see beyond a whistle assisted Hammers win tonight and a predictable explosion of “I know my rights” (but none of my responsibilities) indignation later on.
But a Theo brace would be very nice…..
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AFTV of course.
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COYG.
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COYG
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We attempted to have some hopes for AFTV in the comments section here a few years back.
When they chose to interview Piers Moron for the clicks and of course for the most important considering of all, the Wonga, over an interview with say Davis, or god forbid just a footballer (motd/bbc doesn’t count!)…well…wasn’t shortly thereafter that most of us gave up supporting Robbie’s austerity relief programme (he looks like he needs some extra tucker), and chose to support the Arsenal instead.
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Does anyone have any idea what’s going on ? I’m not at the game – I can’t get shit as far as a reasonable stream goes and (having been required to change my password on Arse.com this week) I can’t even hear it on Arseplayer ?
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I just got home and I can see that guy Welbz has scored!
1-0 to The Arsenal.
Try a search under “Reddit soccer streams”
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Admittedly that allows a fair bit of latitude in the post match write up
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Arsenal lead 1 – 0 from Welbeck via Deburchy via Coquelin
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Cheers Fins – no joy on Reddit – I’ll watch the game on Radio 5 extra
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A billion £ business and I can’t watch it – poor me
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Great read as ever Rev.
We have the right to free speech, but some on that channel are an embarrassment to their channel, to themselves and to humanity, I won’t include the club, as AFC have nothing to do with them.
It’s all me me me, I’m angrier than thou and I’m going to let the world know.
Some of them prove much of humanity really hasn’t developed so much in our relatively short period of existence
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yeah…..eddy is back. nice
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FT: 1-0 to the Arsenal
semi finals here we come
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Marching on together – a semi final beckons
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only down side to the night is Giroud and Coquelin both went off injured
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Happy with that. Back four and mid 3 all had positive nights. Decent youngster involvement. Goal for Danny. Onto next round
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The downside of Tuesday night’s Carabao Cup win was the injuries to Olivier Giroud and Francis Coquelin.
Both players limped off in the final 12 minutes and Arsene Wenger gave an update in his post-match media work.
on if Giroud’s injury is bad…
In his statement [to me], it doesn’t look very good.
on Giroud being out for the festive period…
It looks like that. We have to wait. Nowadays you do the scan 48 hours after the injury. That will happen on Thursday, then we’ll have a precise kind of grade on what his hamstring is. When you listen to him, the pain is quite big, but the grade is not always linked with the intensity of the pain.
on Coquelin…
I would say Coquelin has a chance for Friday night. Giroud definitely looks a hamstring and that’s of course disappointing, let’s hope it will not be too bad.
Read more at https://www.arsenal.com/news/latest-giroud-and-coquelins-injuries#JWlTs041Aik3UkjP.99
Read more at https://www.arsenal.com/news/latest-giroud-and-coquelins-injuries#mmQrx0Qc0HS6k6tI.99
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Evening all
You know my views on the arse fan lot, so I had little to add to the Rev’s fine piece.
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I saw tonight’s game on Bein sport, Arsenal were the comfortable leaders for the majority for game, poor finishing and odd final passes kept the score to 1-0, Hammers only relied on counter attacks, which Holding, Debuchy’ Chambers dealt with well, even Caroll on at 70 mins didn’t perturb them.
Losing Olly could hurt us.
Classic Welbeck mis controlled goal.
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No more penalties for The Arsenal
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BBC picked Calum Chambers as man of the match. He had Chicarito under control for the whole time the Mexican was on the pitch.
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It’s obvious Joe Hart was inside his box for his foul in Welbeck.
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Hope to see more of Callum Chambers
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Woke up this morning after a good win and ian wright is slagging us of that tells you everything you need to know about the man.
Andy, not sure if you got to see any of it but here are some points.
We controlled the game, wham had 1 shot off target from a free kick and had 0 corners.
Hart didn’t make one save our 1 shot on target went in. Of our eight shots off target the biggest miss was Theo when a Sead cross from the left found him with time to have a cup of tea before finishing ( oweing to Oli s movement towards the ball taking defenders away) only for him to head it straight and wide of the gaping goal.
Willock, Elneny and Let Coq rotated well looking to go forward whenever possible and Joe really is a player.
Hi
Rob and Callum were outstanding at the back and you can Thier understanding built from their England youth team days.
Carroll should of been sent off for deliberately tipping Let Coq when he was jumping for the ball, which led to the later injury.
We should of had a pen but ref deemed it to be outside the box, in which case Hart should have walked.
All in all a good win
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New post up
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