The social media

As a child who really became interested in football, and Arsenal Football Club in particular, during the 90's, I had two main outlets at home from which to get up to date news and information from. I could hope that my dad had brought a paper that particular day, or there was Ceefax. My parents didn't have the foresight or nous to see how important the internet was going to become, so online fan forums were out of the window, and we didn't even have the most basic of cable packages, so no Sky Sports News. Ceefax therefore became my preferred choice. My morning routine before getting ready for school every day and at the weekends was wake up at around 6:30, TV on BBC, hit the Teletext button, channel 302 for football, scan the headlines for anything of relevance, and then channel 312 for the "news in briefs" section. A kind of primitive gossip column spread across multiple pages, where you play Russian roulette with the hold button, hoping you can read all the information on the page and un-hold within one full number cycle, or else you will be re-reading the same pages again and again and again, just to make sure you haven't missed anything related to your club. And there best thing was there was nothing overly, or deliberately, controversial, save for the odd article that called the signing of Dennis Bergkamp a waste of money. Halcyon days indeed.

Fast forward to now, and here I am. A 32 year old, internet using, smart phone owning grown up with a plethora of options from which to get my fill of news. There's the aforementioned round the clock news coverage in the form of Sky Sports News. There are multiple apps on my phone I can click on to. The newspapers are obviously still there, and there is even TalkSport should I need to get the news whilst I'm on the move. Then of course, there is social media.

Social media. And in particular, Twitter: The place where all of the aforementioned media outlets converge to compress a full story in to a bite-sized snippet designed to grab your attention and generate as much "engagement" as possible.

In theory, it sounds like a brilliant concept doesn't it? Journalists can publicise their latest incisive articles explaining tactics or exposing corruption in the game to a larger audience. TV and radio shows can show snippets from in depth interviews with legends of the game sharing stories from their glory days and offering their insight in to the modern day product. 

That's the theory anyway. But unfortunately, as time has gone on and followers have gone up, it would appear the standards have gone down. And this past transfer window we seem to have plunged to new depths.

At this point, I'd like to be clear that I don't see this as an issue that solely affects Arsenal, although it is hard to argue that we've been subject to some incredible "journalism" in the past few weeks. You only need to look at transfer deadline day. With Arsenal closing in on Takehiro Tomiyasu, the hybrid CB/RB from Serie A side Bologna, Sky Sport's transfer "expert" Kaveh Solhekol went live on air, claiming to have just received a text from one of the agents trying to find Tomiyasu a club. Apparently, he had been touted around to every club in the premier league with no one taking him, and that he wasn't even that good a player. Whilst this was being spouted, his colleagues are sat in stitches at the fairy story that they've just listened to. You only have to ask yourself why on earth an agent tasked with finding a club for a player would send that guff to a journalist, knowing full well it would be regurgitated on TV within minutes.

But of course, the whole point of this is to create the "content" for the social media platforms. Clip this up in to a 90 second vignette, and watch the likes flow, the mocking retweets from rival fanbases rack up, and the comments, and arguments, drive up in their thousands. Mission acomplished!

Then there is the curious case of Danny Mills and his analysis of Ben White. When arsenal were first linked with the £50million centre back, Mills was full of praise for the player, claiming he could do much better than Arsenal and should even be aiming for a Champions League club. " He's certainly not gone there to win trophies" claimed Danny. Yet interestingly, when White was confirmed as an Arsenal player, all of a sudden he wasn't even sure if White would improve Arsenal. Spinning more than his head was after a Thierry Henry nutmeg. 

But, as I said, this is not purely an Arsenal issue. Step forward Trevor Sinclair. TalkSport's go to guy when they want an expert/ex-player to talk about their former club. Trevor's club of "expertise" is of course Manchester City and late in the transfer window they were very strongly linked with one Cristiano Ronaldo. According to Trevor, "Ronaldo is exactly what City have been looking for" and "This could go a long way to getting City over the line in the CL". Very fair analysis you would think. It's not unreasonable to expect one of the best players the game has ever seen to have a huge impact at a club that is already winning trophies by the bucket load, even at the ripe old age of 36. Unfortunately for Sinclair, Ronaldo joined the red half of Manchester instead. But have no fear. He was again on hand to provide his fair and balanced views on Ronaldo. SUrely, he'd just repeat the lines from literally a couple of days previously, singing Ronnie's praises. Right? Wrong. Suddenly, the intensity of the league would be too much for the player, and he wouldn't always be available to play every game, or even be that good all the time. Outstanding stuff!

And there in lies the problem. These days, media outlets don't seem to be only employing people for their expert analysis, they want controversial views to generate clicks and interactions. And the issue then is that the more controversial views you spout, the more likely you are to forget what you have said and contradict yourself, and ultimately make yourself look very silly. Now, that may take a few weeks, such as with Danny Mills and his irrational loathing of the Arsenal, or a few days as with Trevor Sinclair. It may also be just one performative moment as put on by Kaveh. But at the end of the day, if you have got the engagement on social media that your employer was looking for, then who cares? Only the fans of the club being made fun of I guess. But then, they aren't the real target of the clip anyway, are they.