As the transfer window continues to fly past, fans are getting increasingly irate as to the lack of incoming players to Arsenal.
Fans have themselves to blame for this level of frustration (to an extent). The media run stories about transfers again and again because that is what gets hits. They have to fill column inches, even when there is nothing to write about. When there is nothing to write about, they either re-hash old stories or simply make them up.
The best example was a piece in today’s Daily Mail that really got to me. The initial title was: “Cesc Fabregas says he is a Manchester United fan”. This was a (non) story about comments that he made (while still at Arsenal) in 2009 before the Champion’s League semi-final. That was one comment over 4 years ago, about respecting their team, with the likes of Ronaldo and Rooney.
That was barely a story then, let alone now. The reason they ran the story was that it was something that sounds like an exclusive new story when there was nothing else going on.
Now the title of the article has been changed to say that “Cesc’s staying” after some comments by Vilanova. The second that there was some form of new information, the paper decided to adapt (/ditch) the non-story in favour of comments that were said at least in this decade. The few hours that the old title was up, saw lots of Arsenal fans worrying that Fabregas was one step further to joining united because he was a United fan.
The misleading articles that many papers write have caused lots of anger towards Arsenal for not acting. A paper reports that Arsenal are interested in a player, the player then not being bought within the next 48 hours and Wenger is “dithering” and ruining the club’s chances of success. Despite the complete lack of interest from the club in the first place.
The club’s kit unveiling was another example of people deciding that a player would definitely be unveiled because the club announced there would be an “audacious stunt”. People got their own hopes up due to a slightly ambiguous comment, and blamed the club for not announcing a new player… despite the fact they never said they would.
BBC sport releases a gossip column summarising all of the day’s transfer rumours published in the major papers. Here is a complete list of all the players that the club have been linked to since the end of the season.
Higuain, Rooney, Jovetic, Suarez, Williams, Fellaini, Benteke, Fabregas, Grenier, David Villa, Julio Cesar, Mignolet, Wanyama, Mendy, Gareth Barry, Cabella, Aurier, Skrtel, Capoue, Gundogan, L.Bender, Ahmedov, Nani, Papadopoulos, Corchia, Deulofeu, Torres, Cabaye, Brown, Ngoy, Draxler, Flamini, Kondogbia, Krul
Anyone saying there is genuine interest in every single one of those 34 players probably needs to get their heads checked.
Yes other clubs have signed big players already, and yes it would be nice to have already signed someone, but the benefit of having a player for the first few pre-season games is not worth being forced into overpaying for said player.
There is still around a month to go before the next season starts, and almost 7 weeks before the window closes. While many of the individual reports can be dismissed as rubbish, the pattern is that there will be a “big money” player signed this window.
If September the second comes and Wenger still hasn’t signed any players other than Yaya Sanogo then something will have gone terribly wrong… until then, be patient and try not to read too much into anything that isn’t announced on Arsenal.com, or at least take it all with a pinch of salt.
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