Fans v Pundits

Following the Chelsea v Arsenal game this week, an interesting side story developed which I thought worthy of writing a blog on. It brought up the issue of 'Fans v Pundits' or 'Fans v Media' which is something that is finally being addressed of sorts in the wake of Chelsea's win over Arsenal.

It started towards the end of the game when an Arsenal fan - following Giroud's consolation goal in stoppage time - held up a banner saying "WENGER OUT!" which prompted commentator Gary Neville to describe the fan as 'an idiot' for pre-meditating the situation and bringing the banner into the ground before the game despite everything Wenger has done for the club.

Wenger of course has led Arsenal to great success in his first nine years at the club, winning three titles and four FA cups, including an invincible season. However the eleven years that followed have brought only two FA cups - both of which followed an eight year haul without a trophy, and no titles. Crucially though, Arsenal have qualified for the champions league - and reached the knockout stages - every season and have remained financially stable as well. This is likely why Neville believes Wenger's achievements should be respected - however it is the lack of progress and titles that has angered a large section of fans creating a Wenger in/out divide.

The main issue that seems to have derived from this is the issue of opinion - that fans opinions should be respected. This is what Neville got the most criticism for - although afterwards he made it clear he was not insinuating that the Arsenal supporter did not have a right to his opinion. In fact Gary Neville has a right to his opinion so if he thinks that Arsenal fans that want Wenger out are idiots then fair play to him - but I think it's all about perspective.

Fans pay money to go to games - and going to football now is expensive. I'm a Chelsea fan and no  one needs to tell me this - I made a judgement call based on circumstances not to renew my membership this season (boy am I regretting that now). But fans will literally pay money they barely have, wake up ridiculous hours and travel all over the country to watch their favourite team - they clearly care. While pundits like Neville and the rest of his team at Sky, as far as I'm aware, would not have been paying to attend Stamford Bridge on Saturday, they would have been getting paid to be there in fact. So is it right that Gary Neville can be so dismissive and patronising to a fan for expressing his opinion that he believes it is time for change? Especially as that fan would have been paying to be there. Surely we should respect his opinion?

I was watching a video on YouTube channel "Ball Street" the other day, which had Robbie from Arsenal Fan TV and Sophie from the Chelsea Fans Channel on there as guests - and Sophie made a point about how fans how currently disillusioned with how 'corporate' the game has got. You can't stand at games, at least not without stewards telling you to sit down (something a concerned Chelsea fan reached out to John Terry about on Instagram a few years ago) you can't sing in certain pubs - its all starting to feel corporate. I would add that I can relate to those points myself as a Chelsea fan but also that certain pubs that usually contain more 'atmosphere' are being closed down throughout Fulham (the famous Shed Bar being one), the influx of the prawn sandwich brigade and the prices themselves which are pricing ordinary working class fans out of the game. But this doesn't mean fans don't care less and to have Neville and co all suited and booted sitting in their corporate TV studio dismiss them as idiotic or a disgrace is, as Sophie mentioned, very patronising.

I am however, going to play Devils advocate - just for the sake of it :)

On some level, I can understand Gary Neville's particular singling out of Arsenal TV - as can anyone who has ever watched it. We have something similar at Chelsea and I believe Man City have their own version too, amongst other teams. But no one outside of Chelsea is talking about watching it, especially when we lose, but everyone wants to watch Arsenal TV when Arsenal lose. Why?

Simply that - without sounding rude - the kind of characters that are on Arsenal TV are so ridiculously over the top they set themselves up for ridicule. Hell even I watch some of their videos - it IS comedy gold in all fairness. Some of the points they make, can be easily dismissed. "We lost to Watford because of the rain". Really? To be fair the Arsenal Fan TV presenter did make a point that those fans do get interviewed every week, even when they win and are mostly positive.

The point is - do fans really know better? Just because they pay money does it necessarily mean they know better than the professionals of the game and that their opinions should be heard? Not always the case, although of course everyone does have a right to an opinion. A famous example that surfaced just recently in the wake of Frank Lampard's retirement was the 1997 video from the West Ham fan forum. In case you've not seen it, a West Ham fan tells then manager Harry Redknapp that two players they recently released - Scott Canham and Matt Holland - were both better than Frank Lampard and firmly disagreed with Redknapp, prompting Harry to famously and correctly predict that Lampard would go 'right to the very top', which he very well did. Redknapp's arguments were that Scott Canham 'definitely wasn't good enough as he's gone to Brentford and can't get in Brentford's team' (Scott Canham's career after that would be mostly spent in non league football) and Matt Holland 'might bounce back as a good First Division player' (Matt Holland did indeed bounce back as a good First Division player with Ipswich Town) so that's two more predictions Mystic Harry got right. The West Ham fans logic was 'I go to a lot of games and Reserve team games so I clearly know what I'm talking about'. He clearly didn't.

My point is fans don't know what goes on behind the scenes in training, with players attitudes and mentalities etc so do they really know better? If they don't is it then therefore understandable why the likes of Gary Neville would be so (even if they don't mean to be) easily dismissive? Perhaps he shouldn't have been so rude and at least worded it differently but maybe it's not hard to see his viewpoint. Fans don't have the insight professional and ex-professional footballers have - it's like the saying 'if you know, you know' etc.

I remember a few years ago I was mystified we sold Daniel Sturridge to Liverpool - especially as he started scoring loads of goals for them. Couldn't believe we let him go. But fast forward to now and we are hearing that Liverpool aren't happy with him either as he apparently 'doesn't work hard enough in training' and apparently doesn't have the right mentality. Seems unlikely they will keep him beyond the summer - which means he will have been moved on from Man City, Chelsea and (potentially, looking likely) Liverpool.

Yet four years ago I could not believe we let him go and i was very angry.

But then what do I know? I'm just a fan :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0GShEWw5x4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAjd_jTvURc