And so Arsenal march on once again; next up it is Chelsea
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By Tony Attwood
To answer that question in the headline, I took a look at the s Daily Telegraph football website on the morning of 12 January. There were 17 stories there, and all were predominantly negative and thus together gave an overall 100% negative view of football today. Here they are
I wentto seethe worst team in English football
‘This clubis finished’:A trip to Upton Park shows why West Ham’s future is bleak
Arsenal fanstaunt Gary Nevilleas hat-trick hero Martinelli silences critics
Pictured West Ham playerdenied debut because of earring
Man Utd’s trophy hopes dyingin January is an indictment of a once proud club
A genuineFA Cup shock:TNT Sports does a good job
Vinnie Jonesturned up at our houseand could barely string three words together
Spurssporting director to leave clubjust four months after returning from ban
Jonathan Barnetttold alleged rape victimshe was his ‘slave’ on company email
Datathat shows why Gyokeres is strugglingso badly in Premier League
Roy Keaneis wrong,Sir Alex Ferguson is not a problem at Manchester United
Why it makesno differenceif you sack the manager
Walkergetting away with ‘stamp’on Dorgu shows why footballers play-act
In 72 hours,‘emotional volcano’Amorim finally erupted and lost his job
Gordon StrachanEveryone has excusesfor their bad behaviour nowadays
LiverpoolWomen have ‘regressed’and finger must be pointed at owners
Arsenaldogged by inconsistencyas Beth Mead boosts European knockout hopes
Now I know, of course, that fans like to moan a bit about football, and about how their club is doing, but we also go to matches to celebrate, have some fun and be positive. So why does the media primarily give us an unending series of negative stories?
One answer could be that football is utterly negative, dull, boring and relentlessly awful. But if that is so, why do we go and why do the media cover football? And come to that, on exiting the game, why are we not utterly negative? For I know that in walking away from the ground, I am not completely pissed off with football, Arsenal and everything else. And that is true if I go to watch a match not involving Arsenal, or indeed watch something on TV.
So why does the media – in this case, the Telegraph – give over so much space to presenting football in such an utterly negative view?
One argument is that fans like to read negative comments about other clubs – and of course, it is true that my pals and I do enjoy some of the wilder nonsense that emerges from Tottenham Hots. The building of the new ground and the decline of the team – that was quite a combination.. Finishing in their worst position last season since rejoining the top league in 1978; that was a good one.
But really, I don’t spend that much time reading about the Totts – I scan the papers for football news, and of what I find (especially in relation to Arsenal) there is little that is positive. Which is odd given that we are top of the league, six points clear, second highest goal scorers in the league, best defence in the league, most wins in the league… and, well you know.
The reason for all this negativity is explained by some as being the nature of football itself – there are many more losers than winners. Only one club wins the league, one wins the FA Cup etc. So maybe four clubs win something, and 16 don’t, so it can be argued that by its nature that is how Premier League football is: mostly losers.
But in reality, it is more than that. It is the going to the ground or watching down the pub, being with one’s friends, some of the funny chants, and for Arsenal supporters, winning more than losing.
Yet all of this is missed by the media – they are reporting something that I simply don’t see or share. Most of the time in each case, they see something awful and negative, and I see something positive and fun. For example, they note that Viktor Gyokeres is not scoring, but not that, despite this, Arsenal are winning. So they don’t ask “how this can be?” (The answer is Gyokeres endlessly draws defenders to him, leaving more space for others. He probably doesn’t enjoy that too much, but it is a major part of why Arsenal are the second highest scoring team in the league, with the best defence.)
So why is that? The most obvious example is that newspaper sales and readership are in decline, while football is booming. The print media is being left behind, and it knows it, and so is now intent on telling us that despite what we feel, we are not havinga good time, and all this football we watch is rubbish. In short, you don’t need to go to matches – it is all rubbish – buy a newspaper instead.
I am not sure there are other aspects of life where this is so clearly expressed, although of course, we have to acknowledge that it isn’t just football that newspapers have turned into raging and rampant negativity. One only has to look at the front pages as well as the back to see that.
The argument can then be put that we should stop reading the papers. Which is ok until one realises that many of the commentators on football who appear on TV and radio are also newspaper columnists. If they can’t spread their negativity in print, they will expand their dark commentaries on the broadcast media as well.
This is really not how it should be.
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And so Arsenal march on once again; next up it is Chelsea
Next Post Coming Soon...