UNTOLD ARSENAL » Blog Archive » Do you like being treated like an idiot?

Every day the newspapers of England (and for all I know, the rest of the world too) create stories.   Like…

• Peter Crouch will join Arsenal  (I always quote that one because it is so funny)
• Cesc is about to leave – ok maybe not today, but next year certainly.
• Hleb calls Cesc selfish
• Toure will be out for 3 months and Arsenal will fall apart
• Arsenal in major cash crisis and must sell now to pay off debts despite the fact that the certified accounts say exactly the opposite
• Arsenal have to sell two big players a year just to balance the books.

So my question today is why do we still read this gibberish?   Or perhaps I should rephrase this and say, why do I still read this?

Quite honestly I have no idea – I suppose it is because every now and then something is true.   Like

• We are going to sign Nasri – yes we did
• Hleb is going – yes he went
• Gilberto is going – yes he did, and I just wish I could have shaken him by the hand and told him how much I had appreciated everything from him, from his playing ability to his style as a gentleman.
• Ramsey is coming – yes he did

But really, is it worth all the rubbish for a few confirmations?  To answer that I would have to bring in my psychotherapist and she charges me such a fortune per hour I can’t afford it on such a trivial question.

And yet I raise it because underneath all this idiocy that I and (I suspect) most people can see is tripe, there are some true supporters who start believing it.

As a result they now believe that it is not the likes of me who needs medical attention, but Wenger himself – that he has had a mid-life crisis, that he is too stubborn to admit he is wrong, that he clearly can’t see where the problems are in the side, and that he really needs to be moved on before the club sink into mid-table obscurity.

Now I know that all people have their sell-by date, and that there is nothing sadder than seeing great men of the past still trying to do it when their time has long since gone (Brian Clough comes to mind).   But does Wenger really fit this image?

IF a couple of those dreadful draws after the Birmingham City attack on Eduardo had turned into victories, our confidence would have been higher and we could have been there.  And then Wenger would have been a god.  Again.

Of course it is up to each supporter to have a point of view, and mine, very clearly is that he can and will deliver us another championship.

Meanwhile I think the press will get worse.  Until last weekend I generally thought that drunken reporters sitting in public houses in Wapping sat together and said, “got an Arsenal story?” and someone said, “Crouch to Arsenal” and so they all wrote it down.   Now I start to worry for the first time ever that maybe there is something more sinister going on.

Not in relation to the pieces of tittle tattle about who’s being signed or not, but about the finances.

After all if you wanted to undermine a big company, the first thing you would probably do is start circulating rumours about its financial stability and the sanity of its top man.
Now who would want to do that?  Who would benefit from players being nervous about signing for Wenger?  Who would benefit from shareholders thinking, actually I think I will sell out now?

The answer to the former is: other big clubs across Europe.

The answer to the latter is: someone who wanted to buy lots of shares.

Of course I have no evidence and I make no accusation.  This is speculation done while I should be writing some more of my next book.   But still, it’s a thought, and I think maybe its worth a little more contemplation than the tittle-tattle in the tabloids this morning.