Written by dandan
It’s not easy being a dinosaur you know, not in the instant digital world we now have to inhabit. Now this dinosaur’s brain might not be what it was, if indeed it ever was, but to me twitter and face book seem like forums for airing your dirty linen in public.
Numerous sportsmen from diverse disciplines glory in posting their no longer private thoughts out in cyberspace without thinking it through, then wonder why the world goes pear shaped and falls on their head. It’s also not easy to say you were misquoted when it’s in cyber writing, so to speak.
They say it’s their way of connecting with the fans, but do we fans need to know the ups and downs and intimate goings on of club life. Is it that important? What about loyalty to the club and your mates, shouldn’t these things stay in the dressing room or on the training ground?
Why would anyone want to follow the minute-to-minute musings of a club footballer? Unless of course, you are a Journo looking for tomorrows copy, or an agent after making a buck, from a disaffected player
Transfer window closing day sort of brought this home to me, every time a news channel went “live” to a club or training ground gate, there, behind their own man was a gaggle of people all busily entering messages into mobile phones, or holding one clamped to their ear.
What is the matter with us fans, we can see these guys are in and out of cyberspace looking for info and yet when they regurgitate it, on air or in the paper, we then discuss it on blogs like this one, as if it is really so, even though we know that much of it probably started life on a blog in the first place. What goes around comes around I guess.
All right, ok, I agree, maybe I am a Dinosaur, although I am on face book because that’s a way to keep up to date with the kids and grandkids, but help me out here guys, what should we call you twitter lovers, other than addicted.
Arsenal News 24/7
arsenalarsenal.net 
Dandan- dinosaur or not, you are a “Bastion of Arsenalness” (Arsenality? Arsenalism?) and the link you put up this morning comparing Wenger to Shankly brightened up my morning no end!
As to where I stand on twitter- it’s obviously a two-edged sword as most new technology seems to be. I like the fact that we can see good humoured banter between Jack and Cesc or Lansbury and JET. I like that we get a feeling of who some of the characters are and I think that, done properly, the players actually become closer to the club through their interactions with the fans- they can see clearly what it means to us and how much support they have, even after a loss. The outpouring of pride directed to the players after the Barcelona match was phenomenal for example.
Not living in the land of Twitter I cannot really comment, but an enjoyable read nonetheless.
In an age when we get video footage of events on the other side of the world within minutes of them happening, I guess it is inevitable that social groups take advantage. As far as I understand it, young men like JW rty to attract people to their account and then brag about it to their mates (Lansbury often talks about 50k adherents). I read that Stephen Fry has over 1 million twitter followers – why? No idea., I have enough trouble keeping up with my friends and family!
But if Twittering is your thing, then there are worse ways of wasting the day.
The problems arrive when people are fed dis-information which will inevitably occur once the agents get their grubby hands on their clients accounts. How soon will it be that X tells the world his club are holding him to ransom, or that Y is in talks with Z. Thereby influencing the fans viewpoint.
Such is technological advancement, As Carlito so wisely said “new technology is a two-edged sword”
The other side of the coin is that I sit here 1000 miles away and watch High Def pics of a live game from the Grove. Swings and roundabouts..
Morning,
Excellent topical post dandan.
Nothing stands in the way of progress when there is money involved. Mark Zuckerberg made himself a millionaire from his Harvard lodgings when he launched facebook.
Twitter is here to stay until another more accessible platform is developed, in the meantime it has made millions for the mobile phone industry – the Blackberry or Iphone are the must have accessory for every young person.
In relation to footballing matters, I agree with Carlito, twitter does give us an insight into the character of the players and their relationships with one another. So far with the notable exception of Eastmond, what I’ve read on twitter from our players has increased my admiration for them.
Rasp- do you follow JET? He’s equally incomprehensible though for reasons of slang rather than illiteracy. Also seems to have precious little to say on football matters 😦
BR
Stephen Fry loves the Arse as well apparently.
Morning Carlito,
I’m not actually signed up to twitter myself – I have so many other obsessions occupying my time, but I keep up with it via the link on here and through my kids.
Somebody disagreed when I said yesterday that twitter was another nail in the English language. In retrospect, I would say that it all started when teachers in subjects other than English stopped correcting spelling/grammatical errors.
In which way GG?
When our friend Eduardo left AFC I thought his career was on a downward trend and yet I have just realised he is through to the last 8 in the CL with Shaktar.
What this tells me is that I am not at the top of my mental game because I watched him score against us at the Grove!!!
This is a fine demonstration to AW that to win your group in the CL is very, very important. We would have beaten Roma with ease.
Imagine we had played Barca in the final and won 2-1, scoring twice in the last 20 minutes …… (… and with that locked tight in my fantasy bank, I bid you farewell for a few hours!)
The battles between Alan Sugar and Peirs Morgan are very funny on all sorts of levels but the bashing of each others football team is often hilarious and quite true to form with scum v gooner.
I think most of us would struggle to understand a text message from JET and so its no surprise that his tweets are pretty incomprehensible too.
…… sometimes I struggle to understand my own 20 year old sons text messages 🙄
New avatar 🙂
Hi Raddy,
I have made the same point about winning our CL group many times. I am uncomfortable about some of the criticism of AW of late, but I am not afraid to state that I think one of his failings is apparently not learning from his mistakes. In terms of revenue alone, we would probably be more than £10m better off if we’d won our group stages the last two years.
Morning gm – nice avatar 🙂
Thanks Peaches. Same as my tattoo 🙂
Morning all.
Interesting read Dandan.
I use twitter mainly as a news feed, and then supplement those feeds with people who I am interested in. I find it gives me a broader view of the world, with links to other articles that I may not have read yet.
I also use it as a conversation base to communicate with friends, the benefit of Twitter over text is it allows an open conversation for all who follow to participate in.
I don’t use Facebook at all, I prefer the relative anonymity of Twitter and as such am able to moan about clients etc without fear of them being followers.
With regard to the players I like that it gives me access to them, to feel closer to hear what they want, something that is not clearly seen or heard through PR controlled interviews, it also gives me a direct opinion not a rehash by a journalist.
Morning all. Utd had the rub of the green again last night, I don’t know what Fergie stepped in but is sure is working for him.
Have you noticed how many rubbish headlines begun appearing on News Now via Talk Sport, they must be feeling the pinch. Personally I have just put them into ignore. I take umbrage at having what little intelligence I have being insulted by those charlatans, posing as journalist’s
CIE> There is obviously more to twitter than I am aware of, seems I will need to get my cyber chatterbox daughter and grand daughter to give me lessons.
Looking at the Arsenal players tweets they must be eating for free in Nandos the amount of plugs they are giving them 🙂 There I go again cynical me, does anyone know if they are any good
I’m trying to persuade some of the doomers on twitter that not winning a trophy would not be the end of the world (They are using Arsenal Truth as a source to argue their opinion with phrases like “Maniac Manager”!!!)
Does anyone remember the stat put up in comments recently (I think by GunnerN5) saying that Arsenal have ended the season trophyless 80% of the time? I’ve been back through the last few posts and can’t find it…
Here it is Carlito
In our 118 year history we have only won trophies in 23 seasons therefore we have won ZERO trophies 80.5% of the time.
@BigRaddy
We could had played Barca in the final, but i’m pretty sure FIFA will tried everything to ensure us didn’t win the game.. 🙂
Excellent! Thank you Peaches 🙂
Dandan re your 11:14;
Et tu DD, am I to be the only one who does not give a stuff about twits? 🙂
I shall continue my Canute like stance until the waves of technology either sweep over me, or move on to something new…….next week!! 🙂
The late season curse of injuries due to fixture congestion may now be beginning to work in our favour, I understand that manu picked up more injuries yesterday and Gallas is out for a month with a hamstring strain – happy days 😛
LOL Rasp you are incorrigible 🙂
Just think if Gallas had been injured before, he could not have cleared off the line. Such are the margins of fortune.
Sad news about a fine footballer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/mar/16/bryan-robson-throat-cancer
[quote] Danddan said…Looking at the Arsenal players tweets they must be eating for free in Nandos the amount of plugs they are giving them There I go again cynical me, does anyone know if they are any good[/quote]
Arsenal players or Nandos? LOL
Sad about Robson but at least he is in a country with decent medical care and not reliant on the NHS (or is that too political?)
It is my fervent wish that Aaron Ramsey becomes our Robbo. They have similar playing styles and physiques – we can but hope.
Sad news for Robson.
Abidal has a liver tumour according to reports.
Sad days for football fans
But then the FA cheer me up by handing SAF a 5 match ban. 😀
Dandan,
Your article questioning the need for twitter and subsequent acceptance of its place in today’s society, put me in mind of a learned comment by non other than Confucius.
‘The common man marvels at the uncommon, the wise man marvels at the commonplace’.
How astute is that? 🙂
Trouble is, he also said; ‘Ability will never catch up with the need for it’.
Bugger! That puts me in my place! 🙂
@Rasp 1035 . I read yesterday (I think) on one one of the blogs – Le Grove ? – that had we beaten ´barca this year we would have been 8 million quid better off ! True or not I have no idea but it was written in a way that had me convinced.
Also uncomfortablw with some of the criticsm of AW but believe he alone carries the can for not winning our group .
On another note , all the news I see here in Valencia regarding Wellington is VERY negative . By all accounts a bad boy !!
OK SAF got a 5 match ban, but Rooney should have received a 6 match ban which would have been far more relevant to our quest for the title.
Quality news on SAF- if their game against Newcastle remains postponed he’ll be in the stands at the Grove Woop Woop!
Hi valencia, I agree.
Paradoxically though, Arsene has been criticised for not going for the cup competitions in previous years and yet this season he has fielded strong sides and it has been in some of those games that we have lost important players to injury who were sorely missed for CL and prem games (Djourou) – goes to show that sometimes you just can’t win!
Another point on the injury front; I don’t have the stats, but I get the feeling that our injuries have been no worse than those at manu, totnum or the chavs, only city seem to have got away lightly.
For anyone interested, Liverpool TV, Channel 434 on Sky, are showing their Reserves playing our Reserves, from 6:30, KO 7 p.m.
One of my big bugbears is with that plonker Silent Stan’s dead hand on Arsenal TV. Even paying a monthly subscription that cheapskate has stopped showing the reserves playing live, and we have to make do with ‘highlights’.
It’s all money grubbing with that guy. Me no like!
I agree RA.
I cancelled my subscription for that very reason and wrote explaining why.
Thanks RA for that info, I was about to dress up warm and head to Barnet but maybe I’ll watch it from the couch 😳
I might have seen you there, Peaches. My first trip out for a while! 🙂
Actually, I am probably best sitting watching on TV for a while.
Haha, Dandan, I’ve just been on Twitter and it’s “over-capacity”. Must be all the new tweeters who’ve read your post.
I’ve only just started using it and it’s a good newsfeed as Carlito says.
Keiththegooner is currently give a tweet-by-tweet account of the game at Underhill (with photos).
The Gooner Twitterati is fairly massive, as you might expect by our online blogging presence.
Hmmm, Madrid v Lyon or Chavski v Copenhagen…….tricky choice.
chas the reserves game is on sky 434
The left-back Angha is a great find, really skillful and has pace to burn – probably isn’t a left-back really 😀
He really is a defender!!!!!!! Martin Angha – Swiss
Peaches, I watch most games on my laptop; this site lists all the live games and most of them work fine, inlcuding reserves
http://www.freefootball.org/upcoming.php?id=a
Still nil all, bit slow….
soz, 1:0 to us 🙂
No 9 has just missed a penalty, pssshhhhh….
Thanks peaches, but I haven’t got Sky.
Now that is Jurassic period!
Chas, use this site: http://www.freefootball.org/upcoming.php?id=a
I am watching the game and it is as good as on tv
Sorry chas 😦
Great goal by Freeman.
Peaches is right Angha is really a CB but playing really well.
We have some excellent players in the Reserves, with 16 year old Rees on the wing looks like one for the future.
BTW, Freeman looks the spitting image of Arshavin!! 🙂
I always thought Shea was too small in the youth team, and he hasn’t grown, so too small for a premiership goalie.
Thanks Evonne, have tried but everything’s buffering all the time. Think my broadband connection must be slow tonight.
I like that Boateng, a ball passing Centre Half who can hit thirty yard passes to his man.
Chas, did you try the DartsWeb, it is not best quality, but ok to watch uninterrupted
Good man Freeman, lovely goal 🙂
We slowed down in the 2nd half, but what a great winner by Freeman/Arshavin. Another star of the future? 🙂
Enjoyable game.
Where did Paul Ince get a son that tall. 🙂
Nice post dandan.
Like you I have not embraced Twatter. I just don’t seem to have the time.
My son created a Facebook page for me but I never look at it (again, don’t have the time).
Any idle time I do have is usually spent chewing the fat with the fine folks on AA.
Is it too early to start speculating about the West Brom game? Are we likely to have any of our walking wounded back?
By the way, Fergie will definitely be in the stands for the Mancs’ game against us (his ban starts after this weekend’s Bolton game).
And I know it’s against policy to have a pop at other blog sites, but has anyone noticed that Myles Palmer is invisible after an Arsenal victory, but all over Newsnow whenever we have a bad spell? Baffles me.
Rocky I have him filtered out, he has nothing to say worth hearing
Agreed dandan. I stopped reading him long ago. He seems a bitter man to me. Maybe when he wrote his biography of AW he thought he would have a special relationship with him and it didn’t turn out that way. Now he just seems desperate to see him fail…
BR
I’m glad Arsenal didn’t top their group in the Cl coz we’d be still in it, the players would be getting more jaded/tired & the PL would not a realistic goal.
Also, I got my Matt Lucas mixed up with my Stephen Fry. Its Matt Lucas who loves Arsenal.
Danda
Next time we’re on together can you tell me how to filter that twat out too? Thanks
Why can’t we have a free channel like the bindippers? Maybe the commentator would have known our players names as well as the scousers. You all in bed?
young jack! cute!
Morning,
Working away from computer screens is very nice, but it does make Micky a bad blogger.
All well with the Utd, Chelsea, Spuds and City fixture pile up. However, it is now time for the Spurs to say bye bye to the CL (for many years to come) so I am rooting for a tough draw. Barca would do, then again Utd or Chelsea could get ugly!
Micky – let’s hope that Spuds don’t get Barca. What would we do if they win???
johnQ – aaaahhhhh, what a lovely boy, our Jack 🙂
The most important pending fixture in the football world is WBA v Arsenal. Nothing else matters
Gnarley – we don’t play WBA till Saturday afternoon!!! What are we supposed to do until then?
Morning gg – agree totally with you on that – West Brom here we come. I assume that The Yummy One won’t be playing against us ………
Nice to have you back micky 🙂
Don’t worry Evonne I can always find some video footage of Thierry to keep us busy …… or The Yummy One 😉
I’m confused about the CL draw. I always want the English teams to go out but do we need them to stay in, to add to their fixture congestion?
I’ve got a feeling it’ll be Madrid v Barca if they don’t warm the balls up properly. 🙂
Peaches – you are terrible!!! The Yummy One….honestly… Watching DVDs of past glory makes me feel nostalgic and sad, can only do it on good days, which are few and far between.
Another important fixture to lift our spirits is of course Scum v West Ham, come on you Hammers!
New Post
Thats a good point Evonne, I only ever get the DVD’s out when we’re winning 😉
He leido vuestro post con mucha atecion y me ha parecido interesente ademas de claro en su contenido. No dejeis de cuidar esta web es buena.
Saludos