Anyone else starting to feel really depressed this transfer window?
With not a lot to talk about this time of year, I can understand why the likes of Sky Sports present the transfer window as a special event, like the Americans do with the Draft. Yet if you’re a Gooner, is it entertainment?
That’s not a reflection on Arsenal. For decades, I’ve become used to the club being indecisive and haggling over every last pound. For the record, I maintain there’s already a week scheduled next month where lots of new faces will be unveiled on our website in the space of a few days (probably coinciding with some sort of Adidas launch).
Social Media’s Role in the Transfer Circus
Yet it’s another example of how the rise of social media has harmed the sport. If you wish, you can get content 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It means nothing feels unique anymore, with the product overexposed.
I’m old enough to remember my Nan giving me money to pick up her daily newspaper (you wouldn’t believe how cheap the Daily Mirror used to be!). I would be excited to check out the back page and see what the writers were speculating. Crucially, if the word “exclusive” was next to the journalist’s name, my naive mind believed the story had credibility. It legally meant there was a source involved and it wasn’t simply a rumour being repeated in every tabloid.
Some YouTubers have grown to the point where it’s become their career. The dream job for anybody must be talking about your passion while getting paid for it. Yet like any profession, the priority becomes making as much money as possible. If there’s a market for sharing links, it would be financially irresponsible not to seize the opportunity.
For any content creator, it’s easy material. Most of the time they’re getting clicks for simply informing others what they’ve read, or they can garner views by telling subscribers what they want to hear. If you know you can manipulate your audience with a headline that’s intentionally misleading, why wouldn’t you? It’s called clickbait. If you don’t do it, your competitors will.
It used to be mainly fan channels that did this, but now those who actually work in the media will upload updates too. Some pride themselves on how accurate their intel proves to be, while others care less about credibility.
In the last week, supporters have really been sucked in. And this will only intensify in July. I’m not picking on one outlet either, I’ll give a few examples where the title of a video appears to claim something serious, but you quickly realise the host is saying something entirely different.
That’s not judging the individuals or their body of work, because as I’ll show, they all follow the same approach:
- Football Terrace: “Eze To Arsenal On” and “Gyokeres Close”
- AFTV: “Arsenal In Talks For Lookman” and “Eze Agrees Terms”
- That’s Football: “Deal Done – Gyokeres To Arsenal”, then two days later “Huge Isak Offer!” Shock Arsenal Transfer!”; Friday it was “Arsenal Double Swoop!” (featuring Rodrygo)
- Florian Plettenberg: “I am convinced Sesko will join Arsenal”
- Fabrizio Romano: “Viktor Gyokeres forcing move to Arsenal”
- Sky Sports: “Zubimendi deal to accelerate” (three weeks ago!)
- Di Marzio: “Arsenal will sign Gyokeres”
- David Ornstein: “Arsenal working on a deal for Mosquera”
- Mail Sport: “Real Madrid have set their price for Rodrygo”
As you can see, the wording is very careful, because when you dig deeper, there’s not much substance. None of the above mention the selling club being close to any kind of agreement, which surely is crucial to any transaction.
Call me old school, but surely a player accepting certain terms is irrelevant if a fee with his club can’t be sorted? Andrea Berta likes to talk to various candidates at once to keep his options open, but eventually he has to decide whether he agrees with the asking price. If he doesn’t plan to get close to that value, then it doesn’t matter how much a player wants to live in London.
Arsenal Fans as the Internet’s Prime Target
Let’s use Eze as an example. Of course a former member of our academy would be open to rejoining from Crystal Palace. Obviously, he would welcome a higher wage than he’s on at Selhurst Park. But none of that means we’re close to getting the Eagles to accept anything other than his £65 million buyout clause.
It’s like Rodrygo. What evidence is there that the Brazilian is leaving Real Madrid, outside of Arsenal liking him?
I like a castle, it doesn’t mean I’m buying one.
Of course we don’t have to read or listen. Yet this is a clever business model that our billionaire owners benefit from, so of course if you’re trying to grow your own company on the internet, you’ll follow the same model.
The Kroenke family make money off the brand. They know that no matter the league position, title drought, or even if they don’t buy a striker this summer, the Emirates will be sold out and merchandise will be bought.
No one forces a grown adult to make that choice, but when you love something, it’s hard to walk away. How many of us have stayed in a relationship based on our heart, even though our head tells us to leave?
Have you noticed how many fan channels who don’t even like Arsenal still debate our recruitment policy? That’s because our fanbase has become the target audience. That’s not arrogance; I realise life exists outside of North London where other clubs have false rumours and links that lead nowhere.
But since the launch of AFTV, our supporters have grown a reputation for being reactionary. If a teenager has a decent pre-season, he’s already better than Lamine Yamal. If our captain has a poor season, he should be stripped of the armband.
Naturally, those making videos know we have a large community that doesn’t take much to bite.
Arsenal also just so happen to negotiate in a manner that makes them the gift that keeps on giving. It’s the perfect marriage. At Man City or Chelsea, the first time you hear any gossip surrounding a player, days later it’s official they’ve moved to the Etihad or the Bridge. Yet at Arsenal, there’s always at least one mole leaking information so that at least one saga plays out in public.
Remember, talk of Benjamin Sesko and Viktor Gyokeres moving to the Emirates started this time last year!
At Christmas, our manager made it clear our attack was struggling and needed help. If you’re the press and struggling to find any fresh news, how easy is it to name any striker Mikel Arteta might admire?
I wouldn’t be shocked if the Rodrygo chatter lasts until September, just to keep us engaged.
We’ve got over two more months of this!!!!
Your thoughts appreciated in the comments.
Dan Smith
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Social media doesn’t just ruin the transfer window, it has the power to ruin every aspect of our lives lol. I have mostly quit social media except for professional reasons. And I haven’t been tracking what’s going on this transfer window as well, for at least 3-4 years now. And it’s peaceful. I will know what Arsenal will sign at the start of the season, so pretty chilled right now.
It’s not just social media though is it. It’s the endless bot-in-the-know media bloggers who perpetuate rumours .you indulge in it it yourselves.
Personally I long for the days when you knew about transfers when they were announced in the press by the club and us fans didn’t have to put up with people just making a living out of talking nollox
Keep calm and carry on… checking the Arsenal website. Everything else is a wind up! (I did secretly wish we was signing Messi though 😂)
Social media has ruined everything. Internet and smartphones should have stayed in the early 2000s level.
The only one thing social media has been useful for is exposing the mainstream media for what they truly are.
👍👍
True
Honestly, I’d say social media is awful for the overwhelming most part, and footy transfers have definitely put that in concrete… however, I have to also take some of the responsibility for how it makes me feel as I make myself obsessed with transfer news regarding Arsenal, checking my phone hourly some days. As such I have to say it’s 50/50.
The people picking the signings are ruining the gooners window.🙈we’re looking worse than last year so far.
Great article Dan, I really should stop clicking on the latest rumours, looking at ‘News Now Arsenal’ every hour and then clicking on the clickbait headlines to read 5 minutes of rubbish before getting to a recycled ‘rumour’ I read the day/week before. We all know that until it’s confirmed on the .com or the BBC / Sky then it’s just rumour, speculation and clickbait fluff. The thing is, it’s the hope that kills you!
No it hasn’t necessarily ruined our window and it’s still early days.
Surely social media fuel transfer rumor and relentless speculation, creating excitement and anticipation around potential deals.
In my opinion this can be both positive.
Personally I see this as sheer entertainment as some fans enjoy speculation, and negative, with potential for misinformation and inflated speculation.
In fact despite the anxiety shown by a few fans, the window itself may have become a little more exciting due to the increased engagement and speculation on social media
Calvert Lewin released by Everton and he’s now a free agent. Ehh Arteta .. will you revise your recruitment schedule?
Not for me. The football media as a whole knows that Arsenal is almost certainly in the market for players in certain positions and, so far hasn’t bought them. So, it adds new names to freshen up the story and keep it “alive”.
If it was, as it could be, say, only Gyokeres and Sesko in the frame for the striker position, it would soon become pretty boring – just “will he/won’t he” x 2. Why not add two or three more then you’ve five names and five options. If you do the same with, say, wingers, even better – lots of options, and now in two positions.
What I think we need to be a little wary of though is jumping to the conclusion that because so many players are linked with Arsenal now (and the reports are usually so “positive” that they are, of course) it indicates there’s a lot of indecision/drift at Arsenal as to who they actually want. I don’t think that inference can be drawn.
The people running the club ruin the transfer window for me. Every time. They won’t cough up the extra 20M for Gyökeres but will blow that and more on unproven defenders and old midfielders. It’s a small-minded approach that will never see the club achieve what it’s capable of. The player is worth it but they want to appear to be playing hardball for some reason. We don’t want hardball, we want a striker!
The real reason they won’t sign Gyökeres is the same reason for the pathetic last ditch bid for Watkins. Arteta wants Havertz up front. That’s it. I like Havertz, I think he does a lot right and is a great team player, but just watching the way Gyökeres bullies defenders you realise what we are missing out on. Kai will never have that in his game.
Ruined nothing as far as am concerned. Just a matter of detecting which reports are fake or genuine.
Social media is good but only people that are very rational and self aware can get the most out of it.
Many people seems to get so easily manipulated and sensationalised by the constant bullcrap click bait gossip.
It’s only Calmer and rational minds can handle this virus (social media).
😊
Regarding news on our continuing striker search.
Concerning breaking news:
I’ve just read that Calvert Lewin is leaving Everton after nine years there. His contract runs out tomorrow, (Monday June 30th). And he will be available on a free.
Arsenal wouldn’t, would they?. 🙄🤦♂️🤷♂️
Really good article
Yes. But not just social media. Rumours websites and fake or unreliable news flashes too
They give false hope and hopelessness
I just hope that people learn to not just believe all the nonsense that is being reported. Know what rumours are more solid / believable than believing nearly all of the reported nonsense.
I believe Arteta wants too many changes in this window, and it seems we might be stuck spinning our wheels on the striker.
Concentrate on just the striker and the defender. Pay what they want, and if there is any money left over, then work on any other possible needs
Keep Martinelli and even Kiwior, if we cannot afford more than the striker.
JUST GET THE STRIKER IN NOW, so he can bed into the team before the season starts
Thanks Dan, great article.
Yes, for me personally it’s a big issue, procrastination tool of note! I would get so much more done if I didn’t spend so much time checking my phone for any news.
I was thinking similarly while watching YouTube content. It became very repetitive, with the creators constantly repeating their opinions. I was thinking, geesh, how many times have you said this, not just about the transfer window, but more in general
This looks a cheap shot.
What do we read here?
Sesko – maybe 30 stories here.
Gyokeres – stories even before the close of last season.
And we know more news would appear here concerning them . . .
Zubimendi gas been on for more than a year.
Eze, Madueke, Nørgaard, , , , with many more to come.
So what’s this article about?
I think birds build their nests differenly 😉
With some similarities.
Subject to materials.
Well maybe nothing should be said of any recruitment until it is officially DONE DEAL!
Here We Go.