The media and their influence over the football community is enough to make one vomit.
People are discreetly, and at other times forcibly, brainwashed into believing what the newspaper or online headlines say is the gospel.
Outlets now possess the ability to contribute to the malaise of a manager’s tenure, and essentially usher them out the door by maximising every inch of column space afforded to them.
While football fans have become accustomed to nonsensical and unfounded transfer rumours over the years, that’s not the real issue.
What’s most infuriating is watching some of the leaders in football media become increasingly irrational over the years, regarding a club’s on-field performance.
Now, more than ever before, they make outlandish and exaggerated statements that have the capacity to turn a clubs’ supporters against their boss, and sometimes each other.
And this season it appears to be Arsenal, who are primed to be the whipping boys so to speak.
After a barnstorming finish to the last campaign, the club accumulated 26 points from a possible 30 in their final 10 matches – title winning form in anyone’s book.
Glowing off-season reports of a side that could potentially win the title a year later have now faded into the background.
Humiliation on home soil to a plucky Aston Villa outfit would ensure that they would be the media’s elect.
The context of the match was overshadowed by the final score line and the club’s abject summer in the transfer window.
A game changing and incorrect penalty led to a Laurent Koscielny yellow card that would ultimately see him sent off for a second bookable offence moments later.
Moreover, without any retrospective action against that first yellow card, the Gunners have no choice but to begrudgingly accept a one-match ban.
Such a cruel decision effectively killed off the home side’s chances of rescuing the situation – where was the discussion point of that woeful referring decision?
Instead, the media decided to shroud Paul Lambert’s burgeoning Villa team in praise and trigger a staunch attack on Arsene Wenger that had been brewing all summer.
Traditionally, the opening day of the season throws up surprises, so why the vehement criticism?
Arsenal does deserve a fair degree of condemnation for their poorly handled transfer market dealings, or rather lack of non-existent activity besides a few failed bids, but after just one game of the season it’s comical to label the situation as a “nightmare” as various publications did so with such careless rhetoric.
The foundations were laid for a crushing blow Wednesday evening in Turkey.
All of the pre-match build up to their first Champions League qualifying tie against Fenerbache was centred on a potentially fatal trip.
Sadly, for the media it didn’t work out the way they would have liked, especially football reporter John Cross from the Daily Mirror.
In his pre-match ramble he said that the “Gunners are teetering on the brink of a disaster”.
Post-match and the pundit explained the team in a stark contrasting light: “If Arsenal actually had a top quality centre forward to finish off their approach play they may yet be a force to be reckoned with.”
An emphatic 3-0 win will all but seal Arsenal’s passage to the coveted European group stage, and dispel the negativity for surrounding the club, for now anyway.
Why pundits – and it’s not just Cross in fairness, there are an array of different examples – opt to write on a spur of the moment basis is beyond the realms of logic.
Where’s the accountability of media reporters?
At the very least, fickle reporting on a personal level aids their respective publications’ debate, but detracts from the most important journalistic value of all; integrity.
What a farce the media circus has become in English football.
Regrettably, the fans heed the saturation of slanted reports nowadays and after just one match, where has the virtue of patience vanished?
Administrative issues and a reluctance to spend money on players gives the ardent Arsenal fan base every reason to vent their discontent after an elongated trophy drought.
But booing at the final whistle is not the answer.
As for the fans, who made the weak decision to leave early on Saturday and provide the media with more ammunition, that is equally as poor.
Whatever happened to supporting the club through thick and thin?
Thin it must be noted usually means an extended period of despair, so after just one competitive 90 minutes of football, it’s pathetic to see such a reaction.
Normally, it would be unwise to delve into a hypothetical situation, but in this case it’s pertinent.
Let’s say Arsenal pick up the three points at Craven Cottage at the weekend, and repeat the dosage against bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur a week later.
Cue the “revival under Wenger” or “the tactical genius” – what a grossly hypocritical situation it would be.
It’s August, enough said.
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