Dybala's reportedly going to be available this summer This is the thing I don't like about football reporting in this country, they always focus on a small number of overseas players to perennially link with The Usual Suspects and casually discard anyone who was supposedly the next big thing 2-3 years ago, for example remember about three years ago where Hirving Lozano was the darling of the press and he was being linked with The Usual Suspects? Now the only time you'll ever hear his name in relation to them is if Napoli draw any of those clubs in the Champions League. Look at the speed our press have forgotten about Boubakary Soumare or Victor Osimhen for another couple of examples
Tbh it makes sense. They need a quality replacement and he needs and deserves to be winning trophies I’d bare no ill feeling if he went there at all. In fact I’d rather see him there than Madrid or PSG (rubbish league)
When kane leaves he leaves. Couldn't give a **** what he wins or where he wins it. He (and the others) could have won a league cup and a CL and possibly 2 FA Cups (we lost 2 semi finals) ... but out of those 4 games they only turned up for 1 (semi final v chelsea) so sometimes the players should look at themselves maybe?
I think I may have said this here before, but Pep is a big fan and I think Harry would go to City score shed loads win a couple of titles and return to us to score the goal that breaks Shearers premier league record in a Spurs shirt.
My disconnect is at a point where I'm close to not caring. Unless there's a sponsorship deal on the stadium or ENIC change the habit of a lifetime and invest some money, we're going to be so far away from competing for anything, what does it matter? I'd rather clear the decks and rebuild. If a player (more likely a number of players) want to go...hold an auction and let them.
I agree. And I think Barca and Real will start a bidding war for Mbappe, with Barca possibly having to settle for Neymar returning as my gut is that Mbappe is headed for Madrid. The other big clubs in need of a new talisman are Juventus and Bayern, although tbh Lewandowski definitely has another year or two in his locker as his game has never been based around pace, so I can see them biding their time and waiting to snap up the next young Bundesliga prodigy for free as a long term replacement. And Juve really aren't a very impressive club anymore. Mixture of overpaid journeymen and ageing stars. Other than that, who else could afford Kane? Not going to PSG as Ligue 1 is frankly an insult to his ability. Never moving to Chelsea or United. It's a puzzler. Of the handful of clubs who could afford him/we would agree to sell to, it's difficult to see him at any of them.
I’m not exactly sure who he could go too but I wouldn’t be surprised if he does want out this summer and somehow a club meets Levy’s demands. Unlike KH I would prefer he went abroad though, seeing him score hattricks against Dier and Sanchez once or twice a season would be enough for me to jack in my season ticket I think.
Reads like suicide...was a troubled guy who should have been kept away from the godawful show...he gained them publicity at great expense to himself imho 58 is no ****ing age ffs I ain't religious but hope he has found peace
I find it difficult to lay the blame solely at AFTV's doorstep. True, they blatantly and shamelessly monetise people who clearly have serious issues, but in Claude's case...he was a regular on the show since more or less the off. DT was still fantasising about his own range of caps when Claude and Ty were drawing in the masses. We're going back 8 or 9 years here and there was no evidence that it was affecting him then. If anything, his sudden departure from the show and torrent of abuse he suffered in the wake of his Son "DVD" comments probably led to a deterioration in his mental health. There is every possibility that AFTV was what kept him going for so long but when it abruptly ended, he was left in a very dark place. For me the real blame lies with Robbie for selling him out to the corporate Twitter mob for a comment that warranted a sincere apology and nothing more, the Twitter mob itself (which is an utterly vile entity), and the fact that everyone over the age of around 40 genuinely needs training in how to manage social media. And I mean that point in all sincerity. I've seen far too many friends and colleagues of a certain age who simply lack the nous or understanding to navigate social media without it severely impacting their general wellbeing.
You forgot that AFTV's initial response was to try and make excuses, complete with a video of Robbie interviewing Claude making those excuses being posted to the channel - which also cost the channel one of its sponsorship deals That's why Claude got thrown under the bus, because Robbie pissed away the chance to apologise and doubled down
He talked about his mental health repeatedly down the years and really struggled with it in off-seasons, presumably as he didn't see his mates. He went missing five years ago to the extent that the police put out an appeal, having done something similar the previous year. He was struggling to afford a season-ticket, rather unbelievably given how much he must've made AFTV, so that probably contributed. I've got no idea how they split the money from the channel, but they should've bought him one for life. The Son comment was unacceptable, but they needed to react with a 2 or 3 out of 5, tried a 1 and then flipped to a 4 when people complained. An immediate, unmitigated apology and staying off Youtube for the rest of the season while attending some sort of course would've appeased everyone. They tried to fob everyone else, then ****ed him off, instead.
Yes I'd forgotten about that. In a way the way it was handled highlights my point about the generation gap. Especially in light of PNP's shocking revelation above regarding Claude's financial situation. The likes of Robbie, DT and Troopz 'get' the system and understand that the price for online fame and fortune is a king's ransom in abuse, harassment and even death threats. Whereas the likes of Claude and Bully probably haven't got the foggiest clue how youtube monetisation works and probably appeared on the show for kicks and out of a love for the club. People of that age group (especially with underlying issues) are extremely easy to exploit by those who are internet savvy, which is exactly what Robbie did to them. As for the effect social media is having on people's lives...it is interesting to read how many current and former players are now openly calling for boycotts unless the big tech firms do more to clamp down on abuse. And while I applaud that, there is still much to be said about th simple reality that so many of the older generations would fare so much better if someone 20 years younger than them sat them down and explained that the attention due to the twitter mob can be measure in milliseconds, if that. I've met far too many people who grew up in an era when words and conversation matters and they haplessly try to apply those values to Dante's twitter inferno, with disastrous consequences.
Didn't mean to sound like I was blaming them...just don't think having him on was doing him good. He has had a long history of very public mental health issues which is why I thought it might be suicide. Re you saying being on that show didn't affect him in the past... he went missing about 5 or 6 years ago and there were public appeals to find him. He ranted in a really unhealthy way. And like you said SM can be a vile ****ing cesspit where people delight in destroying people without any consequences. His comment about son was an example of casual racism born from ignorance (in the true sense) rather than the hate fueled bile being dished out to players and an apology should have been enough...it would have been for a player. I hate racism and have experienced plenty but he could have been used to educate people to unkindness of those types of comments...and as a society we need to have zero tolerance to racist hatred but be willing to educate. As an example... I was a seriously homophobic mofo as a 13 Yr old...one day a youth worker picked me up on a comment I made and said "that's OK, you call me a queer, I'll call you a paki and we can just go on hating or we could just stop." Would love to meet him and thank him for changing my outlook. Have never used homophobic language since and see homophobic abuse as being as serious as racism. Genuinely feel for Claude's loved ones.
It does have to be said that there was certainly a period where Claude was treated like the wacky neighbour from a sitcom, whose only purpose was to walk in to say his catchphrase ("It's time to GO!"), get a round of applause and then shuffle out of frame again And this is the thing: the likes of D(eluded)T(watsack), Troopz and a few others were canny enough that they spun off their own brands which meant they were able to stay relevant on their own Twitter accounts (although the former was mainly by spamming Spurs' Twitter account when we were 1-0 down, which he regularly deleted if we just so happened to win the game...) as well as have a Youtube presence where they made their own money instead of getting a small cut of what Robbie brought in, Claude on the other hand tried to spin off onto his own thing but he did so long after the AFTV bubble had burst and most Arsenal fans outright despised the channel, meaning that when he had to go his own way after Robbie threw him under the bus he didn't have the followers that the others did In a weird way it's similar to what happens with a lot of child stars, as for every Natalie Portman, Christian Bale or Kurt Russell who were able to create their own brands after their time in the spotlight so continue working to this day, there's three or four Lindsay Lohans, Amanda Byneses, Eddie Furlongs, Brad Renfros or Bobby Driscolls - and, just in case anyone is curious, I arranged the list so it goes from pretty ****ed up to apocalyptically ****ed up, so if you're not in the best mood don't take a deep dive on that
All social media is pretty bad, but I have found Twitter to be the worst of the worst. I deleted my profile after several years of trying to justify how it added value to my life. Hand on heart, I woke up the next day feeling like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. It's hard to describe but I actually felt...happier. Started finding joy in life's special moments again. I've also found that my usage of other platforms has decreased noticeably, as if deleting Twitter was some form of 'reclaiming control' from the various bellends at the big tech firms. It actually coincided with my reappearance on this hallowed forum - a set up which I vastly prefer to any of the anarchic 'stay connected' options out there. **** 'freedom of speech' and 'mass media'. Give me a few dozen good men, a common topic and a couple of solid mods who step in as and when anyone starts acting like a cock and sits them back down again, and i'm golden.
