Media Sycophancy And What Football Must Learn From Arsenal
ByLast night was somewhat surreal as the football on offer left my emotions and thoughts split three ways.
Firstly, there was the reality check being dished out in its coldest and most ruthless form at the Santiago Bernabeu. Secondly there was the shift into the overdrive of media sycophancy about Manchester United’s supposed ’World domination’ and the collective kissing of Alex Ferguson’s and Wayne Rooney’s rectal passages.
The media establishment were so far up the said asses, it was hard to see how the fumes and operating conditions would have allowed them to offer some objectivity.
It was only yesterday that all and sundry tried to portray Arsenal’s annihilation of Porto as not worthy of the Gunners, citing a supposedly tame dragon that was Porto. This third aspect really pissed me off.
Well, I thought I was pissed off until my wife, an ardent Chelsea supporter, came downstairs remonstrating about how she had been let down by AC Milan. I tried to convince her that Milan weren’t the team they used to be and that their contingent of senior citizens has passed their sell by date.
She was having none of that as clearly, her issue was that in the next week or so, she’d have to cope with the media barrage of ”Rooney this, Man United that, Ferguson this, Man United that”. The thought of Rooney, Ferguson and Man United being shoved down her throat by the media felt like it was going to make her physically sick.
I’ve got to tell you, that when even Chelsea fans complain about the media sycophancy towards Sir Red Nose and his charges, then something is clearly amiss.
Perhaps it’s just naive to expect that the establishment’s darling won’t get its customary treatment – and what, with just around 12 weeks to go to the World Cup – it’s even more naive to think that Wayne Rooney isn’t about to get the media endorsement to become a Knight of the Realm.
Of course, he’ll have to score the winning goal at the World Cup before Aunt Liz and Uncle Phil take the Royal train from Buckingham Palace to Carrington to personally endow the next Knight in waiting with the right to use Sir Wayne on his personal stationery.
I don’t know which is more scary – having to live with Sir Wayne for the next I don’t know how many years, or having to live with the vanity of Lady Coleen.
If you haven’t noticed yet, I was obviously tuned into Sky Sports 1 last night watching the events at the Santiago Bernabeu. Florentino Perez, the Real Madrid president has to be one of the biggest platinum idiots this side of the Mediterranean. I would have had sympathy for him under different circumstances, but Perez has form for breath-taking recklessness in spending an obscene amount of money to try and buy titles.
There can’t be any more spectacular ways to burn 260 million Euros – and what, for the sake of winning the Champions League in your own backyard? He tried it before and it didn’t work, and he should have heeded the famous Chinese saying that suggests that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
The truth is that Real Madrid has just become the perfect case study of the fact that there is no place for reckless and brazen cheque book management of football in this day and age.
Arsenal and Arsene Wenger have been constantly derided and ridiculed for supposedly being tight fisted and anal about not spending money they haven’t got. While this is going on, the recklessness of other comparable clubs like Man United and Liverpool have been hailed as the way forward – only to turn out to be basket cases of debt riddled clubs that are running on the fumes of history and reputation.
Chelsea and Manchester City on the other hand are play toys for sugar daddies who let’s face it, have to be candidates for the lifetime stupidity award for business acumen.
I hear the argument that these folks are billionaires so they must have done something right in business. Actually, they haven’t done anything that spectacular like build a software empire from scratch or something dramatic like that.
Abramovich benefitted from the Russian economic revolution in the 90s by being in the right place at the right time to pounce – and the Abu Dhabi Investment Corporation are pretty much sitting on top of an oil mine that allows them to print the money themselves.
Despite this, the reality that you can’t buy titles, history and tradition by throwing money at middle table mediocrity still doesn’t seem to sink in. Abramovich has already lost £700 million (and counting) – and all he has to show for it is 2 league titles and a few FA cups. If that’s a good return for £700 million,, then clearly we all need to fold our tents and move on.
The new trend seems to be that of shifting the obscene amount of debt from the liability column on the balance sheet to the equity column. Manchester City have followed this pathetic route – but it doesn’t mask the fact that it’s bad business. They’ll of course say they have the money – but if ever there was a definition of doping, then this has to be it.
Heads are rolling this week in the Spanish Capital, and heads will continue to role. One disadvantage for Arsenal of course is that Wenger will now become a target sought after like a nonsense as Madrid try to save face and justify burning the money they’ve burnt in the last year.
Football today couldn’t do any worse than take a leaf from the philosophy and approach of Arsenal’s Professor who holds a Masters degree in Economics. He masquerades day to day as the Arsenal manager, but in Wenger, football has a sage who balances the virtues of football with the discipline of business.
Wenger is the reason why Arsenal leads, and others follow. If the footballing world didn’t learn anything from Real Madrid’s exit out of the Champions league yesterday, then I suspect a bigger tragedy in football must and should happen for our game to be in a better place.
Tue 13th September 2011; 19:45, Dortmund
MANURE beat a washed up ageing milan team-no question-that criticism was labelled at us when we were the first english team to win over there in european competition-but you won’t hear that from the media MANURE loving scum-they’ll just kiss their arses all day long-worst offenders being the usual suspects:sky,daily mirror,daily mail,daily star & sun-not forgetting talkshite radio-it’s pathetic-but what can you do?simple..don,t buy their rags,listen to their shit or watch their propaganda-just read “THE ARSENAL BLOGS”end of rant…
this is the most sober article av read for a long time. i will try search for more of your posts.
the football philosophy of wenger (much as i decried it) is way to go. aston villa, everton have followed suit and boy…arent they just doing fine (no danger of relegation and europa league football)
I am not overly worried by this. The fact that media is lapping them up is actually good for us. Arseblogger mentioned it this morning that everytime we are written off or when one of our players is slated in the media, we come back much more stronger. So frankly, I’d rather have the underdog status and work my way upwards.
I know that at the end of the season, when we might have won something actually, this media idiots would be claiming that Man U and Chelsea slipped up and so we won. But so what , at least it will take away that idiotic truism that floats around “You havent won nothing in the last 5 years”.
Does anyone even notice that it is our fourth Champions League QF appearance in the same period ?
first time i’ve read your blog….definitely agree with the majority….good stuff
Darius,
The world didn’t learn from Galacticos episode 1. Odds that they’ll do so now, I’m afraid, are slim.
That’s one of the reasons I want this squad to win a title this season: We can, once and for all, slay the numbing idiocy that claims our fiscal prudence is no compensation since we haven’t won anything.
I’m sharpening my pencils in anticipation.
hi darius…excellent article, you are the blogging embodiment of all of my football values, and reading your pieces is almost like reading my own thoughts, although whether I could articulate them to the same degree is questionable. got turned onto stone cold arsenal from your friday column on ACLF.
I used to be enraged when i trawled newsnow for news, clicking on sites such as ANR (long gone are the days when mr palmer used to be an interesting read), arsenal truth, daily mail etc; despairing at what had become of the arsenal fanbase. Despair which deepened when watching the porto game at the pub and hearing one arsenal fan shouting out and demanding that no one clap bendtner after a shot that had been saved, and where a previously delirious pub just stopped as soon as nicklas scored the pen to take his tally to 3, refusing to celebrate or congratulate him.
i used to despair, but i’ve finally learnt to avoid the doom mongers and focus my attention primarily on this blog, ACLF and Arsenal Vision, with a few forays into other friendly territory. i am almost starting to enjoy this anti-arsenal bias, as for the first time ever it seems to finally be unifying the fanbase, creating a siege mentality which is driving us from strength to strength. i’ve had faith since this summer that we would either do something, or come damn close. i was laughed at by all my man utd, chelsea and liverpool supporting friends…a habit that was repeated when i claimed we were still in it after both defeats to chelsea. now it feels vindicated…we may still end up trophyless, but this team is truly starting to flower. as much as i enjoyed the double winners of 98, and the invincibles…i can honestly say that i have never been as excited about an arsenal team as now. sure, i miss pires and henry, vieira and denis…but this current team has truly won me over. half a decades worth of emotional investment, of watching them stumble around trying to find their feet, visibily seeing the team grow and mature, this team more than any other is something which i can label as ‘mine’ (figuratively of course). when i see them huddle now my skin prickles, when i see them roar and celebrate together i feel dizzy. sod the media, sod the doomers, we are the arsenal and we will achieve everything despite them, and as such the victory will taste all the sweeter. COME ON YOU REDS!!!
one of the best articles I have read for a long time. Excellent stuff.
I, too, have just started following your posts – finding agreement with your perception of football and life.
Arsenal and its fans are so fortunate!
A very sober reflection, Darius.
At least let’s be thankful that it was not ManIOU that beat Real Madness. If ManIOU had beaten Real Madness, the iZombies would not have allowed us ever forget it. If the RM’s defeat, by a team built with less than 25% – 30% of the €260M they spent in one summer, does not teach them anything, nothing will. Don’t expect them to come to their senses anytime soon, unless something spectacular happens. The rabid jostling for position to kiss S’Alex F-word’s “rectal passages” keeps them from reality staring them in the face.
Didnt watch either game last night, having slept late the previous night celebrating our demolition of Porto. Was abit angry when the first thing i saw this morning was how Rooney demolished milan, I honestly can’t stand that team, too bad they won that well. 2-1 would have suited me ok. Now we will never hear the end of it until they lose their next game,it cant happen sooner enough for me.
Anyone who uses “sycophancy” in his headline is alright by me.
Sycophancy is the new orthodoxy.
Intelligence is the new stupid.
Insight is the new ‘who gives a fuck’.
Thank God for Arsene.