A few days ago Just Arsenal published an article critical of the Arsenal Youtube channel AFTV by one of our excellent and highly valued contributors, Marco.
It sure did cause much debate and passions were high with some vehement responses and I personally popped into the comments section defending the article.
You see, no article is published without the admin’s final approval and once it goes out we will defend our contributors and their right to express their opinion through this site to the end of the earth, even if we disagree with what they write, we are not here to censor opinion unless it breaks common decency rules.
But there is the key phrase “even if we disagree with what they write”
Because I absolutely disagreed with the article.
I rate AFTV very highly and watch it almost every day.
I have very little time for the ranting and ravings after we lose a game and rarely watch those videos but when I do I have no issue at all with Arsenal fans venting their feelings.
It is not like we are much better on here when Arsenal lose is it?
Neither do I care if Troopz uses words like Blood and Fam, who am I to judge anyone on how they speak? And the way he speaks in no way distracts from his opinion, in fact, when you listen to him when he is calm on the podcasts the guy is extremely knowledgeable and speaks a lot of sense.
Then you have your other AFTV contributors like DT, yes he is a mouthy sod but anyone watching Blud Bruvvas will see him for what he really is, just a mouthy sod but that does not mean he is an idiot who does not know what he is talking about.
Watching DT and Robbie Lyle doing All Guns Blazing is excellent viewing, they have some excellent debates and again show their deep knowledge for not just Arsenal but the game in general.
I could go on about the other characters, podcasts and so on but the point is that AFTV is not just about the ranting and ravings, there is so much more to the channel and if you pick and choose what you watch you will be awarded with some excellent and entertaining TV.
Before I close this article out I will say one thing about Robbie.
I find him very reasonable and level headed, if he earns a good living then bloody good luck to him, he is never derogatory to our rivals and is not shy to tell the truth without the usual myopic tribalism, as an example openly admitting that in his opinion Tottenham is the better side right now.
He is very critical of Arsenal on a technical level and his analysis is excellent, I have a lot of time for the man.
So, in conclusion, has AFTV ever added anything productive to the club? of course it has, anything that allows the fans an outlet is positive for the club even when it is critical.
Clubs cannot ignore the fans and when the voice is loud enough they will hear the fans and AFTV are one of the loudest outlets out there.
Well said @admin,
we all deal with an Arsenal loss differently…Those that calmly analyze what went wrong, those that go a bit over board with the rantings and swearing.. Then the lots that go straight up into the UNWARRANTED PANIC MODE TERRITORY… I have seen meltdowns that are strange, a tad creepy and those that a downright hilarious…
The one constant variable being that we all have Arsenal in our hearts…
Agree, we are all fans and express it in our own way. Beware of anyone saying “a fan should do this” or “a proper supporter will always behave this one way”
People are deverse, support will be deverse as well. As long as we are respectful of one another, don’t silence different viewpoints, and understand we are all on the same side after all.
How boring and droll if we all said the same thing and behaved in the same manner.
Loweys paintings from 10920s is beautiful. It depicts workers leaving the Saturday floor on a Saturday and going in their numbers to the footy match. Supporting is a religion for many fans.
In the past clubs have had their eras. Liverpool Man U Leeds Everton Aston Villa and we had ours. It was one of the best against the run of others clubs success. We changed football from little old Highbury.
Today, in this changed environment we start another process. For some this will mean fierce difference of opinion.
But religion is made up of difference of opinion, and so too lots of things in life.
But as fans. I hope we all want the same things.
Yes I agree, and I’ll add, AFTV is the most developed and most popular football program on youtube of that genre. DT and Robbie are famous in indonesia for christ sake. It attracts attention from our players and offers a sort space of communication between fans and players alike. Robbie is a smart level headed guy and it wouldn’t work without him. He provides balance to the sometimes reactionary opinions and he’s developed into quite a good journalist, getting shows on mainstream TV as well. AfTV doesn’t always get it right and deserves criticism from time to time, but its too big to disappear now so we may as well make our criticisms constructive coz AFTV is here to stay.
I also want to praise rather than defend Troopz’s English. Arsenal fans should be enormously proud of how a popular fan site of ours gives voice to a diverse section of the community. Contrast this to the overly white ( in terms of faces and cultural tropes) coverage you get on main stream media. The fact that Arsenal fans around the world are learning English from Troopz, makes me extremely proud.
Robbie is the real “diamond eye” for being capable of recognising talent where others can’t. Personally, I find the man himself boring (the straight man)and cannot watch his “Transfer Daily” but in terms of modern media the man is a living legend. Oodles and oodles of respect for the man and what he has achieved.
“It is not like we are much better on here when Arsenal lose is it?” Of course not, you lot are just as bad, 90% of the comments written on here are negative. Not even just constructive criticism, but absolutely needless and painfully ignorant insults directed at literally every single aspect of our club.
The thought of a JustArsenal regular (not all, but most) complaining about other Arsenal fans being too negative is just ridiculous.
Some fine comments defending Arsenal fan TV. Personally I stopped watching a while back SIMPLY BECAUSE it was FAR too much CONCENTRATING ON THE SAME FEW WELL KNOWN FANS. All had passion and considerable Arsenal knowledge and even though only a very few could speak passionately AND rationally,especially when we lost, they were good to watch. BUT, ANY platform NEEDS a huge variety of fans to retain deep interest. They chose NOT to do this, so I ceased watching. Simple as that. Be multi inclusive or perish, through being samey and boring, is what I believe!
Great so pleased to see this balanced, accurate and generous hearted article. As a passionate defender of Robbie and AFTV I was kind of feeling like distancing myself from Just Arsenal…but not anymore…faith restored!
Well done AdMart. A superior post to the normal suicide inducing transfer rumour posts !
AFTV is entertainment, so I like it and I agree with you in good luck to Robbie…………….he saw a hole in the arse` market and penetrated it !