(In the style of Dr Nick Riviera) Hi Everybody!
Today is Friday. One of the more glorious parts of the week for so many reasons. Firstly, many of you that are 9to5er’s like me get to have the subsequent two days off to do whatever it is you fancy. But Friday’s are also special because it is normally the day that Arsene Wenger is wheeled out to the awaiting press to tell them things they already know (“player x is a little short”, “we will fight to the end”, etc etc). The good thing about Arsene from the medias perspective is that he always has an opinion and can always articulate it well. And I think that is the main reason they turn up. How many interesting things do you think Tony Pubis or Mark Hughes has said over their careers in Management? Well, you can times that by 50 with Arsene.
The other good thing about Arsene is that when it comes from his mouth regarding players, injuries, etc, you know it is actually true. Which comes to my main topic of discussion today: the dangers of believing anything Arsenal related on Twitter.
I’ve been on Twitter for a few years now. At first I merely watched, observing postings of all manner of Arsenal fans and journos. After six months or so I then started to comment and latterly I’ve informed/promoted my blog on it. My blog is purely a vehicle for me to talk about one of my passions in life: The Arsenal. I don’t pretend to be an ITK (In The Know) nor do I profess to have any affiliation with the staff at the club. I just support them and hold a season ticket, occasionally buying paraphernalia.
Twitter has been great in helping me connect to so many fans and air my views and read theirs. However, one thing I have learned, a golden rule on Twitter: do not trust 99% of what is written on it when it comes to transfers. Last summer, at times, I did indeed fall into the trap of thinking that some people had an ‘inside scoop’ on the inner workings of the club. We heard rumours of so many players joining and it did make me excited. But when I look back now on all those rumours I realise they were fabrications and fantasies made up by sad people who want lots of Twitter followers so they can preach their own gospel to a larger masses. Pretty pathetic I think you’d agree.
So this transfer window we are currently in has meant nothing to me. Like a bit of skin on your feet that has been hardened due to the pressure your body puts on that side of your foot, I am hardened to transfer gossip. Yesterday and Wednesday we had it with the news the Eden Hazard is set to have a medical at Arsenal and that he was at The Emirates on Sunday to watch the Utd game. Perhaps this was true, but I think it hardly unlikely. The news I’ve heard from media journos is that Lille want a pretty penny and a half for their star player, so to me that says that we’d have to double our highest ever transfer fee paid (Arshavin) just to be in with a chance of getting him. The second point that I think scuppers the argument is that the player and his agent themselves have said they prefer a move to Spain. We know that does not normally always mean he will go, but if a Madrid or Barca do sniff around, we would not stand a chance. My third and final point in this is the response of the media to this. I have not heard a peep from any of the gutter press on this story. The media, and print media in particular here, are a lot of things, but not ITK on transfers in today’s accessibility overloaded world they ain’t. There will be journos close to the clubs, the players and their agents. There will also be reporters camped out at airports just on the off chance somebody should come strolling through the arrivals gate. So do we really think that by Saturday lunchtime we’ll have one of the hottest European prospects strolling through Highbury House?
Don’t get me wrong, I would love to be proven wrong and we see a couple of ‘end of the transfer window’ stories come through, but I just think you should be careful of putting all of your hope eggs on a social media platform that is so often wrong.
Until tomorrow peeps.
