Over-reacting ‘fans’

10 days since I last posted, and I haven’t missed a thing. I’d like to say plenty has happened but in reality some people who claim to like Clichy have continued to trash talk him, despite a very good independent article supporting him (obviously I’m long past being considered independent when talking about him, even though I don’t deny his faults). Still…..

The biggest thing that’s happened of course is that Twitter has gone into overdrive on the rumour-mill. Or should that be bullshit-mill? Of course it should, stupid question really.

More and more media outlets are using Twitter as a source of news – and with good reason, often real celebrities and people-in-the-know are using it as an outlet for their “inside knowledge”. It’s no surprise really that Twitter now generates more news stories, than actual ‘real’ news.

It’s also no surprise that there are plenty of mischief-makers willing to take advantage of this by starting false rumours. It may even be that they themselves don’t realise they’re false (maybe they overheard something and are just repeating it), and certainly they don’t realise the IMPACT it will have.

The latest impact is to do with Nasri. Sky Sports News have picked up a story from somewhere that Man City have bid £20m for Nasri and are willing to pay him £180,000 per week.

Now that sounds like the kind of thing City would do so it has an air of plausibility, and I can hardly blame those vultures over at Sky Sports News for picking it up and running with it. That is, after all, what they’re there for.

Who I can blame is the ‘fans’ (and I use the word in quotes to imply that they’re not behaving in a very fan-like manner, of course) for their reactions to this rumour.

Nasri has been called variously: a c*nt, greedy, a money grabbing b*st*rd, rubbish, a traitor, and others some with less swearing, equally unsavoury, and said to him like telling him to “f*ck off”. Bad enough that those things are said about him on twitter anyway, but some have even been tweeting him directly with those things. How awful.

How awful to be an Arsenal player and have your ‘fans’ saying those things about you and to you! It’s disgraceful, it’s disgusting, it’s downright maddening.

If I was an Arsenal player and I saw those things, I’d want to get out. Even if the rumours weren’t true I’d be calling my agent and saying “get me out of here, they clearly hate me anyway”. And if any Arsenal player was saying that right now I couldn’t blame them.

Others have said “he could have ended all this himself by signing“, well how naive is that? The lad (and he’s still very young remember) might want his agent to sign up for all we know – this is a game that is often out of a players hands. He might genuinely believe he’s worth more money, and he may be right (despite the sudden spate of people saying “well he wasn’t that good anyway“). Either way, this is his career, his life, his livelihood, and his long term future – this is NOT something you decide about on a whim, or merely because someone has offered you something you clearly don’t agree with.

I’ve tried in the past to persuade people to see these kind of things in light of their own behaviours with regard to careers, promotions, pay-rises, performance and the like. While it’s not a perfect analogy because most of our lives are not played out in the glare of publicity theirs are, it’s close enough that people should understand. They obviously don’t though, judging by the shitstorm raining down on Nasri.

This is aimed at the fans who are giving Nasri real grief over this – stop and think what you’re saying and doing. For one moment. Think.

That’s it. The morons of course will never get it. Those of you more intelligent who do, thank you for listening, and I hope this has given you pause for thought.

I love Arsenal very very much, and the club is more than one player, or manager – it will be there long after the current team are old and gray. That doesn’t ever mean a player should be treated like that while he’s still an Arsenal player.