Everyone has the right to give their opinions, they are allowed to talk about it, to write about it and to share their thoughts to people in any way, be it a respectful way. Football in England is still, no doubt one of the best to watch in the world. The rivalry, the tenacity, the competitiveness is just marvelous and you wont be able to find a better league in Europe or the world.
Having said that, there are a lot of negatives in that as well, one of them being the English media and the other being football fans on Twitter.
To talk about the English media first, millions of people around the world read English/ British newspapers daily and the sports section particularly to check on the latest news for their favorite clubs and for any transfer rumors. Sadly, not all newspapers have the most professional of writers and rather than expressing facts or opinions, they fiercely attack, accuse and imply false accusations.
For example, I tend to read the Daily Mail every morning to see the latest Premier League news and to check on my beloved Arsenal.
What I have noticed is that most English journalists love attacking certain teams, teams who don’t have the chaos, the sackings and the problems others have. What I have particularly noticed is that most journalists love attacking Arsenal and their players, their manager and their staff. But why?
Jose Mourinho accuses the referees, he talks about the Premier League having an agenda against Chelsea and he disrespectfully attacks most Premier League managers. But what does he get from the media? Praise. They say he’s a winner, a fighter, a tactical genius, the ‘Special One’…
Manchester United were in 7th position last season, they sacked David Moyes, appointed Ryan Giggs then made him Assistant to Louis Van Gaal in the summer. They bought Radamael Falcao, Angel Di Maria and Marcos Rojo and instead of concentrating on the core academy players they have, sold Danny Welbeck to their top four rivals. What do they get from the media? They praise United and Louis Van Gaal for doing the right thing and spending millions and millions rather than focusing on homegrown talent.
Manchester City bought Eliaqium Mangala for £32 million, have a squad with an average age of 28 years and are far from winning the title again. Manuel Pellegrini still doesn’t know who his strongest XI are and they have failed to qualify for the quarter finals of the Champions League. But the media still praise their management, their style of play and their disastrous transfers.
Yes Arsenal were disappointing this season, yes they should have beaten AS Monaco and qualified for the quarter finals of the Champions League, yes they needed a decent defensive midfielder this year and yes they should be fighting for the title rather than fighting for a top four spot, but look at the circumstances.
Jack Wilshere, Matheui Debuchy, Olivier Giroud, Mesut Ozil, Alex Oxlade Chamberlain, Theo Walcott, Laurent Koscielny, Mikel Arteta, Aaron Ramsey, David Ospina Danny Welbeck and Mat Flamini have all been out injured for a very long time. Arsenal have now just started catching up financially with other clubs and have bought two world class players in Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez.
Arsenal have a host of excellent, exciting English talents in Jack Wilshere, Calum Chambers, Kieran Gibbs, Danny Welbeck, Alex Oxlade Chamberlain, Theo Walcott and Carl Jenkinson.
Arsenal are one of few clubs who match UEFA Financial Fair Play rules.
Arsenal are the most stable club in Europe, with a manager who has been there for 18 years, consistently competing and qualifying for Europe every single year.
Yet they get bombarded with accusations in the media… But why?
No one likes to see a club who is financially stable, a club who built a world class stadium on their own and didn’t sink into financial trouble. They hate seeing Arsene Wenger building a legacy and even though he hasn’t been successful with “winning things” still keeps his job. They love to see a team spend millions every single window, sack managers for fun and “win things” at all costs.
My favorite article came last week from the famous Adrian Durham.
He was talking about how huge Arsenal is as a club (even though discussed how they were not that huge a couple months back) and that Arsene Wenger should be sacked because of his “embarrassing” failings in Europe.
Adrian Durham loves to write about Arsenal every week, and he selects a department in the football club every week. One week the players, next its Arsene Wenger and then the staff, all the way to Sir Chips Keswick. He of course also talks about then every day on Talksport Radio.
Similar to the English media and the famous Durham comes “so called” Arsenal fans who wait until Arsenal lose a game to attack Arsene Wenger and use the #WengerOut hashtag. They attack Arsenal players’ Twitter accounts and use disgusting words to try and make them win more games (like that’s ever going to help) and they talk about other managers and how if they were in charge we would have conquered Europe.
Arsene Wenger once said: “We live in a world where everybody has an opinion and we have to live with that. We have plenty of tacticians in the world who have managed zero games”.
I guess modern football is really that complicated. Your football team has to “win things” every season or they’re just rubbish. And a team who is renowned for having stability throughout the club is doing it wrong…
Would you take Adrian Durham to be a football advisor? Not me.
Thanks for all the support.
Let me know what you guys think.
Cheers
Daniel is a 24 year-old Arsenal fan from Lebanon. He was born in Orlando, Florida, but grew up -and now resides – in war-torn Beirut. He has a degree in Business Marketing and is currently studying for a FIFA Sports Management Certificate.
I am one of those who wanted Arsene to leave. Not because he wasn`t winning trophies but because the world and his dog could see the flaws in the team and the way it was set up so that the big teams would take them apart.
He would not listen to anyone especially the fans who deserved better. They pay top money for the privilege of watching Arsenal so they are entitled to complain when the solutions are so obvious and he still would not listen. Now he is listening and he is more adaptable in his tactics and he has demonstrated that he can out -tactic Pellegrini and LVG. It is a pity that he did not do this earlier. We would have been challenging for the title.
The Man Utd. defeat cost us dearly.
I would say however that I would never have wanted him sacked. He did so much for the club. His legacy has been to put us up with the best in a stadium that ranks with the best and a club that is respected for the way it conducts its business and plays its football.
Victor Thompson
A shame Victor that AW refused to listen to you with zero management experience until now. You say even a dog can obviously see what was wrong with Arsenal. If club management were that easy, surely, you would have joined the system and ear millions for doing so little or do I say obvious things.
Most people think throwing in a bunch of strikers, midfilders and defenders will win a football match. What they do not know is that its not so easy or else Man Utd would not be berated for playing badly afterall super strikers Van Persie and Falcao, super midfielders Herrera and Di Maria and super defenders Marcos Rojo and co are also there yet???
Stop kidding yourself, you and I know nothing about football tactics and management except what we read online and watch on TV.
Hi Nonny, I don`t want to be facetious but you should have gone to specsavers.
Against Liverpool, the whole team bombed upfield and left wide open spaces at the back. Against Chelsea and, Man City they did the same. Perhaps you suffer from the same myopia as Wenger. In hindsight, his famous reply to questions “I did not see it” was probably true.
Against Monaco the same old failings appeared again. Bellerin deserted his post to attack up the wing, Mertesecker wandered upfield or over to the vacant patch left by Bellerin and it only took two players to run through the Arsenal “Defence” not once,but twice. When I say “run through” you have to remember that one of them was Berbatov!
Those are repeated failures down to bad tactics. It is AW`s job to eliminate repetitive mistakes, preferably during the match when there might still be time to rescue the situation. He was notorious for saving substitutions until the 70th minute.
By the way, I did give full credit for the tremendous legacy AW leaves behind and I recognised his “Road to Damascus” reformation.
I admire your loyalty and it is good to share different viewpoints but if a person is praised for his good achievements, he has to expect to be criticised ( criticised not pilloried ) and it is unrealistic to expect people to pay huge prices to watch Arsenal and not be annoyed when they see foolish and childish naivety being provided at times.
Victor Thompson
Who the hell is Nonny?
Sorry Dave,
I may have made a mistake, I thought that I saw that name on the comment.
My apologies.
Victor Thompson
Hi Dave,
I dont know how you got my reply. I have checked my messages and the comment that I relied to was made by “Nonny”
Victor Thompson
Apologies. I did not scroll down and assumed you were responding to the author.
Hey Victor,
I’m glad you enjoyed it.
I think Arsene Wenger knew long ago that his tactics weren’t working vs. top teams, but lets not forget he didn’t have the budget he now has to buy players.
We now have serious talent in our squad, and they are starting to play the way Wenger really wants them to.
Lets not forget we beat AC Milan at the San Siro with a young, inexperienced squad. We beat AC Milan 3-0 at the Emirates with a much weaker team. We beat Bayern Munich 2-0 at the Alllianz Arena with a weaker team as well.
Of course Wenger makes mistakes, but lets not forget our squad depth and the players we had compared to now.
Thanks again.
Hi
I agree is general but even if the criticism is not as bad as is maybe made out, why is it there at all?
As Baz states, Wenger has issues BUT the positives STILL Outweigh the negatives.
Yes, we didn’t win much in last 8 years and Yes, Wenger can be stubborn BUT…
Jose, never mentored young players because Jose looks after HIOS CV so must buy players at their PEAK.
Chelsea developed 1 player – Bertrand – then sold him
Jose won NOTHING Last year and is the most well paid boss in Euro football – some £6million MORE Than Wenger so he should do better – stands to reason.
Abromovich fired Mourinho for playing NEGATIVE football, spent years trying to be successful AND play exciting football, finally won the CL after making 2 attacks in the Semi+Final and then showed the lack of class by sacking the man that had finally done what he wanted – Not JOSE but Di Matteo and boy, must Jose be sick that his understudy has won the CL with Chelsea but he cannot! Anyway, after these years of searching, Mourinho is back and the CL match at home against PSG showed everything that Abramovich never wanted has come back to haunt him!
Arsenal were criticised for fielding a team with ZERO English players. everyone remembers that BUT we now have the backbone of the England team with youngsters of 18-24 years who have already played 100+ 1st team games + European football – people do not praise Arsenal for this though
LVG spent £175million this year and the 2 players who cost most of that have hardly featured – even Fergie had record of signing expensive flops whereas Wenger’s record in more recent years is impeccable – he had a few cheap bit part players who were not so good Luzney, etc but even the “Late signings” on deadline day when he was massively criticised – Arteta (Cl;ub Captain), Mertesacker (Vce captain) and the Brazilian who was NOT good admittedly! but cheap!
LVG has turned Utd’s proud record of developing youth inside out and still people think he is doing better in 4th than Wenger in 3rd – bizarre!
Add to Wengers record the New stadium WITHOUT DEBT and the multitude of rebuilt teams and you can start to see why he IS Such a good manager and IF Abramovich had the chance, I bet he would love Wenger at Chelsea
Nice report Baz
JIm
Hey Jim,
I’m glad you enjoyed it.
That is exactly what I think. Any top football team in Europe would love having a manager like Wenger. He is one of a kind and a manager that never really looked at his CV, but wanted the best for his club.
One reason why the Premier League isn’t succeeding in CL now is because the English media seem to push all the top foreign talent away. Luis Suarez, Mesut Ozil, Angel Di Maria and also top quality managers.
Thanks Jim.