A major coup for Arsenal to sign Modric? by Neil Watson
One of my pet hates is poor sports journalism. Sadly we are surrounded by it and, like a lot of you, I tend to buy into the back page transfer rumours in order to make me feel positive about the future. Sadly, as is so often the case, it’s complete and utter boolocks.
The press know as fans, not just Arsenal ones, we love to read that “Wenger considers Suarez Switch” followed by some utter claptrap that Arsene Wenger is weighing up a swap deal plus cash involving Luis Suarez and Lacazette which is about as likely as Danny Welbeck winning the golden boot at Russia 2018!
This morning’s latest nonsense comes in the form an article written in The Sun that Luka Modric might be involved in a sensational switch to north London for £53million….Let that sink in.
Who pays £53million for a 32 year old to ‘rebuild’ their midfield?
So, with that in mind, the stories about Jack going to Everton, Ramsay going to Chelsea….. really? If you believe what you read, and we especially know this with Wenger, very few clubs offload multiple high profile players in one transfer window. They may move 2 out, perhaps a maximum of 3, but if the papers are to believed Ramsay, Cech, Jack, Xhaka and Bellerin are all leaving (5 players!!) and not too many similarly high profile players are coming in, save for Real Madrid’s 32 year old midfielder who would be as likely to freshen things up as a soiled pair of Mustafi’s undies.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d be thrilled to see Xhaka, Cech and Bellerin on their toes, moderately pleased if Jack and Ramsay went, but let’s not kid ourselves in order to sell them and replace them with better would mean a summer outlay in excess of £100 million…..by Arsenal.
Media bullsh*t is a huge industry that so many of us buy into. I recently phoned Talksport to discuss something on air and while on hold watch the balance of my pay as you go plummet. By the time I had been put through I’d paid £3 for the privilege of rowing with that Spud idiot Adrian Durham. His outrageous statements are made purely to motivate fans to react, to pick up the phone and hold while the Talksport cash counter is racking up the pennies.
Newspaper back page headlines grab your attention and convince you to buy them, hoping that something John Cross says might eventually be true. The law of averages says ‘eventually’ one thing might come from his column that has the smallest amount of truth in it.
And so, despite being a sucker for this nonsense myself, I am struggling to imagine Modric lining up for Arsenal next season just as I am visualising an image of Comrade Welbeck receiving his prolific goal scoring award from the honourable President Putin…
Neil Watson