Richard Lancaster, Arsenal Centrist
As a reader of The Gooner for many years it is becoming increasingly difficult to stomach your publication. First team results and lack of transfer activity aside, the amount of what my mother would call ‘malarkey’ is actually worrying. Every single day there is an article in your fanzine (I presume this means the website - Ed) lamenting the situation because a certain group of people have not ‘spent any f*****g money’. I am fine with this, after all, as a paying fan you expect your club to spend the resources it has. However, what I cannot stand is the ignorance. I would like to raise a few points I have regarding this ‘ignorance’. You may disagree with me and that is totally acceptable, after all this is just my honest opinion.
1. ‘Fake bids’
Many people that comment on your articles are under the influence that there has been no ‘actual’ attempt what so ever to bring players in. They have the audacity to even suggest the bids for players such as Suarez were just to make fans renew season tickets. Does this theory have any logic? From where I am standing I cannot understand why Wenger (a busy man at the best of times) and the board would even bother bidding for players without expecting
2. Wenger’s comments regarding ‘brainwashing’
As a frequent Daily Mail reader (God help me) I have to agree with him. Many of you will not but I will try and explain why I agree. You do not have to go very far to find an anti-Arsenal article, perhaps all fans will at one time think there is a media agenda against their club but with Arsenal there is an abundance of evidence. For example in one article ‘experts’ (and I use the term extremely lightly) were asked to share their thoughts on the transfer sagas of Bale, Suarez, Rooney and Fabregas. To shorten a long story almost all wanted Fabregas to move to United, one ‘expert’ even had the audacity to suggest he wanted Fabregas to move to Manchester and ‘score the winning goal at the E******s’. Such negativity towards our club and manager has created problems. After any defeat the media will jump on Wenger’s back and kick him while he is down. Defeats are often described as disasters and the club described to be in disarray. I do not know if it is or not, how can I? To all Arsenal fans defeats are painful, that I do not debate. Aston Villa was especially painful but to call it a disaster is a little far fetched. This is what Wenger means when he says we are all brainwashed. He means that the media create a mountain out of a molehill almost all of the time. This has an affect on fans because it makes them think the club is in trouble when really it is not. This is evident in The Gooner.
3. Negativity from the ‘Brainwashing’
When I read The Gooner feedback I often see negative comments. Sadly, most articles on The Gooner are now negative. The majority will describe anything and everything about Arsenal in a negative way without a hint of optimism. Even when we win comfortably ‘the cracks are still there’ and ‘its just Fulham/Fenebache’. It is not as if people even care about results anymore, they have just become fixated on outing the manager. If we beat Manchester United 5-0 at Old Trafford people would call it a fluke. If this happened now I actually think people would say: “Think what this squad could do with a competent manager”. The whole situation has become ridiculous and I am not even AKB! On the odd occasion that a positive article comes up it is shot down with negative anti-Wenger comments. This is not normal or healthy for a football club as fans should always be optimistic. Perhaps you are naturally pessimistic, who knows? I am not forcing you to smile or be patronising, just try having a different outlook on the situation. The Gooner is a very valuable resource for Arsenal news and views do not get me wrong here, just try and get a variety of views not just negative ones. I do not doubt that many of you are angry, and rightly so. I want to see players like everyone else, we seem to have waited long enough.
Ed’s note – The Gooner and onlinegooner.com publish what is submitted to us. If we get positive pieces, we do run them. The truth is the amount of critical pieces we receive outweigh the positive ones significantly, especially the online up to the minute stuff. We certainly cannot tell people what to write in the comments section. My feeling is that this generally reflects the fan-written Arsenal content online elsewhere. There is positive and negative stuff, but I’d say the critical content generally outweighs the positive. Why is this? Draw your own conclusions. However, anyone wishing to submit positive pieces to The Gooner and onlinegooner.com is welcome to email me – [email protected] - with their submissions. When Richard emailed this article to me, he started by saying - This is just my thoughts on the current Arsenal situation. Publish if you like, I doubt you'd want to but I just wanted to bring these points to light. The perception that I would not publish the views of fans that have a more optimistic outlook is one that I cannot control. However, as I often say on the website – contributions are welcome from all sides of the Arsenal supporting opinion spectrum. This is your platform, should you wish to use it. Everyone gets shot down in the comments, especially me. That is the nature of putting anything online.
