As an avid Arsenal fan I scour the media looking for the latest updates and news on my beloved club and I absolutely expected fierce criticism to come our way following a string of poor performances, however, the press is going too far in some quarters and the latest hatchet job is starting to look a little sinister to me.
Matt Law of the Telegraph has written a piece making a whole bunch of claims which in turn was regurgitated by the Metro with their customary twist on words.
For starters, the original piece by Law uses the word source just once and that is attributed to the claim that little headway has been made in recent meetings over possible summer signings.
In fact, Law does not even use the words “according to” which is standard fare for journalists these days.
So, no sources, please take note of that as we consider the claims made by Mr Law.
He claims that some players are baffled by team selection, in particular, Mohamed Elneny being selected next to Matteo Guendouzi in midfield, and Carl Jenkinson starting at right wing-back in the game against Crystal Palace but offers up no proof whatsoever to back that claim up, not even an unnamed source or someone close to someone.
He further claims that the players feel he worries too much about the opposition when Arsenal play away from the Emirates, again, he offers up no evidence to support that claim.
He makes a statement that Emery has backed defender Shkodran Mustafi, without actually saying if that is causing any issues in the dressing room and the Metro then turns that into the squad being baffled by Emery’s faith in the German.
Who in the squad is baffled? surely we would have “sources” claiming that but nope, nothing, just a statement from the author.
There is nothing to substantiate the claims that any of this is what the players are thinking, there is absolutely no proof at all that the players are baffled, confused or have lost faith in Mustafi.
There is a whole section dedicated to potential summer signings with the conclusion being drawn that we are in disarray and that there is chaos over who will be named technical director.
Yet it has been reported for months that we will have just £45 Million to spend rising to £70 Million if we qualify for the Champions League, that is absolute clarity.
As for the role of technical director or sporting director, whatever name you want to give that position, it is well known we are searching for the right candidate and yet that is being used as some sort of evidence that there is chaos behind the scenes, why? What is wrong with taking your time to get such an important role right?
What Matt Law has done is take an opinion and turn it into fact, why else would his entire article be devoid of sources or quotes or any of the usual cover your ass wording from the press.
The reason I believe this is a little sinister is that just four days before a very important Europa League semi-final a so-called respected journalist runs an article that basically has the players turning on each other and the manager and we all know that the players and club officials read the newspapers, especially highbrow papers like the Telegraph.
These sort of articles undermine team solidarity and what British journalist does that to an English team days before a massive European game?
What Matt Law has written may well be what some of us are thinking, yes, Mustafi is a liability, yes, Emery has confused the hell out of us with some of his team selections, yes, there does appear to be confusion over our transfer policy but when you are a respected journalist that does a write up masquerading those opinions as actual facts with zero evidence then you are acting in an unethical manner in my book.
But let’s be honest, certain parts of the press have a long history of attacking us and there is no sign that will be changing any time soon.