Another week, another well-received podcast. Geoff: the Guardian stopped caring about actual journalism a long time ago. GoonerRay: So-called journalists begging for clicks CLOWN EMOJI CLOWN EMOJI CLOWN EMOJI. Peter: the Football Weekly pod has become garbage. I have enjoyed it for many years, but it’s time to say goodbye. ScottishGooner: unless they get a grip of this gaslighting podcast I’ll be cancelling my subscription to the paper. Grant: c-word. Robbo: c-word. Arsenteta: Arteta needs to start creating lawsuits for defamation of character as the media pile on is constant!! José, Pep, Klopp, Conte, all loves for their sideline antics, Arteta however has to stay silent & be a good boy. C-word.
You never really know what reaction you’ll get when you turn off Zoom, close the laptop and sit down to watch series four of Slow Horses with a pad Thai on your lap. Anyone who’s been on the internet in the past decade knows that it isn’t necessarily the most wholesome place to spend your time.
So what caused this latest excoriation from what I thought was gentle run through the weekend’s games? A clip from Monday’s Guardian Football Weekly had been posted on X. One minute and nine seconds of me and Jonathan Wilson discussing William Saliba’s red card at Bournemouth and whether Arsenal’s disciplinary problems may cost them the title.
It’s probably worth giving you the gist of the conversation. Max: “They’ve dropped points in three games this season. In all of those games they’ve had a player sent off, three red cards in eight games … But when we are talking, as we always do with Arsenal, about the fine margins of three or four points, this could cost them the title.”
Wilson: “If you’re going to win the title, you’re going to have to get 90 points. That means you’ve got 24 points you can afford to lose, and they’ve just given away seven of them by getting players sent off for stupid stuff.
“It’s that scrambling of the brain which is so characteristic of Arsenal under Arteta. They’re just really bad at dealing with adversity … But I do wonder whether his [Arteta’s] petulant touchline behaviour sort of creates this culture of: ‘We’re being persecuted, we’re being cheated, there’s nothing we can do here.’ You’ve just got to get on here and win the match.”
Why write about this now? Criticism comes thick and fast for anyone who dares to have an opinion, or occasionally not have a strong enough opinion, on any aspect of football. Perhaps it’s the clickbait accusation that cuts deep. I spend my life trying not to bait for clicks. I once went on a radio rant about how boring I found the Lord of the Rings trilogy, prompting the boss to text to ask whether I’d ever considered being as impassioned about football.
I have some sympathy for Arsenal. They are a brilliant team. They are not bottle jobs for falling just below Manchester City twice. Arteta is clearly an excellent manager and certainly not the only one to act up on the touchline.
Lots of players haven’t been booked for kicking the ball away. Some (incorrectly) get yellow cards for denying goalscoring opportunities similar to that of Evanilson’s at Bournemouth. Inconsistency is annoying, but doesn’t mean either the decisions were incorrect or that there’s a conspiracy.
When you are that close to winning the title, dropped points are extremely significant. A discussion of Arsenal or Manchester City is different from one for teams even a rung below – Tottenham, Aston Villa or whoever. You can debate why Arsenal get more red cards than anyone else and whether it has anything to do with Arteta without calling someone a **** or encouraging the Arsenal manager to book Lord Pannick when he’s next free.
There’s an interesting conversation about podcasts, TV or radio shows being clipped up for social media. Is it worth bringing your content to more people if it means doing it without some of the context, the flow and nuance that comes with a show that is an hour or two long?
Clicks matter to a lot of people in the industry. To whoever’s running the social media channel so they can show their boss they got lots of them. They matter on YouTube because they make money. Clicks often equals followers, from people who love or hate your content. Followers can equal endorsements, or shows, whether that person knows how to host one or not.
One consequence is that a lot of genuinely interesting but uncontroversial content doesn’t make it on to social media. Another is that it is often hard to find, let alone consider, any sensible criticism you receive. It feels too arrogant to ignore it; your viewers and listeners matter, even if those who are generally happy with the content don’t bother getting in touch to tell you. But if you open your laptop to find 50 people calling you a moron, the one that says “Oh, I’m not quite sure about that” can get lost in the yelling.
We shouldn’t ignore the doors that have opened for fan channels and club podcasts that can go into so much more detail than we mainstream media types – even if some of those are the ones calling us morons. Social media has enabled so many different people from different backgrounds to cover the game. That can only be a good thing.
I get great content from listeners during radio shows and questions and points for Football Weekly that I wouldn’t otherwise receive. Nevertheless, it is tempting to delete it all and live in a glorious vacuum.
At the start of my radio career, the only real feedback you got was from letters. I recall one excellent note I received at TalkSport perhaps a decade ago – all green pen and no full stops.
It went something like this. “Dear Max, for years and years I watched you on Soccer AM and thought you were the most boring, uninterested presenter I had ever seen” – so far, not the best. “And then one day … ” this feels more positive “… I heard someone on TalkSport filling in on Drive discussing yesterday’s games – and I worked out it was you … ” OK, I’m listening, this guy’s seen the light “… and from that moment on, my opinion of you … ” I know what you’re expecting “… didn’t change.” DIDN’T. Spectacular.
He absolutely reeled me in, went to the effort of getting a stamp and everything. For that I have to respect him slightly more than someone just calling me a gaslighting clickbaiting prick on X. It would be really useful, even if just for my mentions, if Arsenal could avoid any controversial red cards on Sunday.
