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.