How a single hashtag came to represent a broken internet #Fraud

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I know this is going to sound a bit pot-calling, but my pet peeve online at the minute is the fauxpert. Someone with just enough education to perform, taking a micro-moment and wrapping a story around it that isn’t there. Every detail pored over into some sort of divine insight.

‘Emery always gives his instructions to the right ear of his subs. More science to this than meets the eye. He’s trying to create a faster communications path to the analytical side of his brain. He’s saying, ‘this isn’t about emotions today Mr Rightside, this needs you to step forward, this is YOUR moment. Devil is in the detail, and the detail always needs the right ear.’

The fauxpert.

They quite often thrive in finished moments, because anything they say carries resonance. Like, say, going 2-0 down to a Simeone side. So you can imagine my ABSOLUTE delight last night when Allegri and Ronaldo double-teamed to put Simeone to the sword.

How many dickheads last week flooded the internet with ‘Ronaldo is the biggest fraud in the game.’ Giving in-depth 280 character assassinations of one of the greatest players EVER to have graced the planet? (yeah, I’ve read the accusations but we are ‘presumption of innocence’ until there’s a really good documentary about it)

How many nonsense machines went to town on Allegri?

‘How’s ur boyfrend pedro, dont look so elite now’

A manager who has made TWO Champions League finals in the last 5 years! Juventus are a huge club, sure, but they have nowhere near the financial power of City, Chelsea, United or Madrid. For him to power through to the final twice is a fucking miracle of exceptional management.

Anyway, I took a lot of pleasure in that game last night. Plenty of muppets scrubbing their social media presence of the worst hot takes of the year. Opinion sells, I understand better than most, but there is so much cheap extreme opinion out there these days.

The other game of the night saw City crank up into DESTRUCTION mode as they flicked Schalke away like you’d kick a feral dog away if no one was looking… right? You do that too? Anyway, all eyes on Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool side this evening. I would like to see Liverpool push through to the next round because that’s my shot of patriotism when I’m out here. That said, the increasingly wonky press conferences are starting to look like the friendly Ibiza loving German is losing control of his season. This response to whether it’d be a good idea to tank tonight against Bayern.

“This only happens if the manager is of Liverpool and the pundits are from Manchester United,”

“It is so easy to sit in an office or a studio and talk about things like that.

“We draw a season and say the best way to go through it is to go out of all the cup competitions early. You do that and in that moment the same people go for you like mad. It’s like: ‘You are disrespectful to the competition’.

“Now it is closer to the end of the season and it is allowed to go out of the Champions League without even trying to go through? That’s really mad.”

Though I agree with what he’s saying here, he should just keep those thoughts to himself. It makes him look week and unfocused.

GREAT NEWS for the Arsenal fans… Lacazette had his ban reduced to 3 games so he’ll be available to torment Rennes on Thursday. That’s a huge bonus for the team, he was MOM material against United. We need his swagger and edge if we’re to deal with Rennes in comfortable fashion. Mikhi may also be available.

This Thursday, Emery has the luxury of being able to go balls out again. International break arrives straight after, so any tired legs will be the challenge of the international coaches. Then it’s Newcastle at home when we return, which is a bloody lovely gift to come back to.

Right, more tomorrow, see you in the comments where you shall agree with everything I say all day. x

 

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Marko

A certain VVD was at Celtic and until Liverpool paid £70m he was cheap.

Very true. But a certain Arsene Wenger was afraid to pull the trigger on those types of transfers so we didn’t get him or Vertonghan or Alderweirald or whoever.

Guns of Hackney

The value of a footballer is no different to the value of a house.

It’s only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it.

I know that whoever makes values must algorithm various things like age, marketing, health, goals, saleability etc but fundamentally, if I say my house is worth £5m so what? Unless someone wants it, it’s technically worth nothing. Same with a player. PSG thought that Mbappe IS worth £165m. However, if he gets a broken leg or wrecks his knee…game over. Worth the insurance. Nothing more.

Guns of Hackney

To get £2m for Cygan after his horror of an Arsenal career was probably Wenger’s best ever transfer.

Dissenter

It was laughable reading all the gushing praise of Van Dijk yesterday because he scored his FIRST every champion’s league goal
I mean…er..[cough]…is he the first defender to ever score a headed goal in a key game.

If he is this never-seen-before extra-special species of defending, why did it take three transfers to get him to a top team?

Dream10

Leipzig have three CBs that will be stars. Upamecano, Konaté and Mukiele are all tall, have decent speed and read the game at their young age (under 21). They seem to be able to defend in open space like Campbell, Touré and Koscielny in his younger days. It’s a major requirement for an Arsenal CB to defend without help because we play high risk football. That being said, we probably won’t sign any of those three as we’re now shopping in the second and third tier. Signing someone like Ismaila Sarr instead of Nicolas Pépé fits our current plan. That’s… Read more »

Leedsgunner

It’s a combination of players and coaching that is carried on at the club. We leak too many goals at the club, period… because we keep making the same mistakes.

Along with new players we need to have a “root and branch” look at the defensive coaching held at the club.

Why have we conceded so many goals especially after we’ve scored? Why can’t we generally hold a lead? Why are we so mentally unfocussed and frail? These questions are only answered by looking at the coaching side of the equation.

Marko

Dream you must have missed where we’ve been linked with Konate.

Champagne Charlie

Dissenter

On a rampage because I don’t agree with a couple of statements? Sounds legit.

De Bruyne was 21, Salah 22, also had some title contending players ahead of them in the pecking order so it was slim pickings. Szczes was a brat.

Bailly is 25, up against Phil Jones and Chris Smalling, with no history of a difficult character. Not exactly a true comparison, and certainly not representing a POV I’m offering (that all unwanted players are crap).

So VVD is overrated according to you?

Dissenter

Dream
I think the likes of Ismaila Sarr are probably gone too far to even fit out model.
We need to be the ones that bought him from Metz in 2017 for 20 million. Now Stade Rennais will be asking for double that sum.
We need to get to such talent earlier

Ismaila Sarr doesn’t need scouting anymore, everyone knows him already.

Marko

Leeds it’s worth noting it’s certain players or certain types of players who keep making mistakes the same errors. Sure coaching and tactics can have an effect we’ve seen that in certain games this season and yet these same players continue to make errors in practically every game. And it is the same players and they’ve been doing it for the last few years and it comes to a point where you’ve got to say enough is enough it’s not us it’s the individual. I mean you compare the regularity of Errors Mustafi and Xhaka do to someone like Sol… Read more »

Dream10

Marko

We’re linked with him? Good news. That’s the quality we need. Seven or eight of that standard over the next three years. Zaniolo as good as the hype?

Marko

We need to be the ones that bought him from Metz in 2017 for 20 million. Now Stade Rennais will be asking for double that sum.
We need to get to such talent earlier

He was what 18 then. So 18 and 15 million pounds what do you expect of him there and then? Cause remember while this is the type of signings that we need to be making going forward they also need to be able to make a difference straight away improve us inside a matter of months in fact

Marko

We’re not getting Zaniolo. He’d be too expensive now and you don’t get a lot of Italian players travelling these days. They get homesick I think

Dream10

Dissenter

Yeah. Think Rennes paid 16m Euros for him. They’ll sell him for twice that at least. More if he stars at the Emirates later on.

With the way Kroenkes will spend, you’re correct that we need to buy them earlier. We need to buy them before Leipzig/Ajax/Dortmund sign them and sell them to City/Real/PSG/Barça.

Dissenter

CC “So VVD is overrated according to you? “Overrated” are your words, not mine. Excessively praised for doing the basics any top defender ought to do..YES He’s at the top level of his game no doubt but not stratospheric to the point that no one else can touch him. I’m old enough to have seen Baresi,Jaap Stam, Maldini, Puyol, Marcel Desailly, Blanc etc play. I wouldn’t even put him in the elite group of Sol Campbell, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Vincent Kompany or Vidic in recent premier league history yet. When he has actually won something and maintained that top… Read more »

zaco

Those of you blaming Wenger for not signing VVD when he was at Celtic act as if you already knew what the future holds, I’m sure you people would have preferred Arsenal signed a “proven premier league players” instead of going “cheap in a one-team” league. You also blamed Wenger for taking the same risk by signing Sanogo instead of a proven goal scorer. The truth is that buying a player from a lesser competitive league is a risk that can go either way, when it works out well, you are a smart guy but when it goes wrong you… Read more »

Marko

Excessively praised for doing the basics any top defender ought to do..YES Yeah I kinda feel this is total bullshit. He’s just scored an important goal away at Bayern and he’s transformed what has been a poor defence for a number of years into the best defence in the league and challenging for the title. I would say that the praise is warranted. You also have to factor yes on the one hand it’s to be expected for the fee they paid but that also comes with massive expectations and he’s delivering. Way I see it Dissenter respectfully you have… Read more »

Dissenter

zaco
You make a good point about how fallible we all are when judging talent. There is always that a dud like Yaya Sanogo will be signed.
The problems is that we then then try turning water in to wine when it’s clear it’s not working out,
Once Yaya Sanogo was found out, he should have been moved on, not started ahead of Giroud [another story] in the biggest game of the season at home to Bayern.

gonsterous

say what you will but the likes of TV5, Arshavin, Rosicky, Cesc, will always have a special place in my heart.

Champagne Charlie

“ “Overrated” are your words, not mine.
Excessively praised for doing the basics any top defender ought to do..YES“

No, overrated is literally a word that summarises your view that he’s “excessively praised for doing the basics”.

Name a better CB in Europe right now.

Also, you’re scoffing at praise of a player because he’s not Maldini, have you any idea how strange that appears?

‘Fuck Neymar, he’s no Pele’ ok….but he’s still Neymar…which is fucking good

Marko

Those of you blaming Wenger for not signing VVD when he was at Celtic act as if you already knew what the future holds, I’m sure you people would have preferred Arsenal signed a “proven premier league players” instead of going “cheap in a one-team” league. He was a highly rated prospect and very much affordable one of those risk signings but not really risk signings cause he was relatively cheap and it’s the kind of signings we need to be doing now going forward and that we should have been doing years ago. In fact it was much easier… Read more »

Dissenter

Marko VVD is the best in the continent? [head shake]…lets assume it’s true. Even then, I’m not going to be blushing because he scores his first headed goal, 4 months short of being 28 years old. When he has maintained that level, then I will put him in with the all time premier league greats like Vidic, Tony Adams, Sol Campbell, Terry, Ferdinand and Kompany. You’re right that I don’t get fazed easily and like to have a larger sample to use to judge people. My Mavros view is actually very simple, straight forwad annd logical; Two games of competitive… Read more »

Dissenter

CC
Regarding VVD
I repeat that “when he has actually won something and maintained that top level for 3-5 seasons, only then will I gush over him”
He’s 28 years old this July, the clock’s ticking.

Marko

You also blamed Wenger for taking the same risk by signing Sanogo instead of a proven goal scorer. The truth is that buying a player from a lesser competitive league is a risk that can go either way There’s a massive difference between the old goat taking a chance on Sanogo and not taking a chance on VVD. For one thing VVD was highly rated from his time in Holland and then Celtic and Sanogo wasn’t. And also VVD had made his debut for Holland prior to 2015 so he was technically a Dutch international and that should be an… Read more »

Valentin

If you look at Liverpool stats the six month VVD arrival and the six months post his arrival, there is very few differences. However this season Klopp made two major changes Tactically And in Personnel. I would say those are the real reason why Liverpool defensive record has dramatically improved. Tactically the gegen pressing that left them open to quick counter-attack is gone. Liverpool is a lot more cautious than they used to. They very rarely concede goal via counter-attack. In personnel as at last they have a goalkeeper who can catch more than a cold. Mignolet and Karius are… Read more »

Graham62

VVD has been one of the best central defenders in the world over the past five years.

Even when he was with Celtic, his abilities were there for all to see.

Unfortunately, our knowledgeable clan weren’t able to see that.

Graham62

He is not “overestimated”.

He is a class act.

Dissenter

Valentin
“Yes, VVD is better than what they used to have, but I also tend to think that he is slightly overestimated. He was part of the solution, not the solution to Liverpool defensive woes.”

Thanks
It grates my heart when I hear commentator raving about VVD like he’s the second coming of Maldini or Baresi.
I mean, he’s almost 28 years old and scored his first ever headed goal in the CL…it’s like the heavens parted and angels started to sing.
Give me a freaking break.

Marko

VVD is the best in the continent? [head shake]…lets assume it’s true. Shake your head all you like it’s true. When he has maintained that level, then I will put him in with the all time premier league greats like Vidic, Tony Adams, Sol Campbell, Terry, Ferdinand and Kompany. Define maintain? And I don’t know why you’re bringing up those specific players nobody else has. Fact is that he has Liverpool finally competing for a premier league title this season, he has transformed their defence, he makes big contributions in big games and he is currently the best CB in… Read more »

Dissenter

Graham62
“VVD has been one of the best central defenders in the world over the past five years.”

so you’re saying he was already one of the best when he played for Celtic till 2015?

Thanks for proving my point about VVD.

Valentin

@Graham,

If I remember correctly, Wenger wanted to buy him, but our heads scout Steve Rowley (who is now back at Arsenal after being kicked at the same time than Wenger) thought he was too nonchalant.

Mind you Brendan Rodgers had the same opinion and Liverpool turned down the chance to sign him from Celtic as well.

Marko

Yes, VVD is better than what they used to have, but I also tend to think that he is slightly overestimated. He was part of the solution, not the solution to Liverpool defensive woes. He was absolutely 100% the solution to their problems credit to Robertson he’s done well since joining even though I think his form has dropped a little this season and also you have to factor in the progress of both Alexander Arnold and Joe Gomez in particular but VVD is the glue that holds it all together and is the heart of that defence. You take… Read more »

Receding Hairline

Good defender but calling him the best in Europe at the moment is an exaggeration to put it mildly …

He has Liverpool competing for the title is also a ridiculous statement

Dissenter

Marko, Like Valentin stated, VVD is only one the pieces of the jigsaw that’s made the Liverpool defense stronger His Liverpool entrance also coincided with their young and pasy fullbacks beginning to tick It also coincided with a certain Salah running wild with goals. We all know there’s nothing better to ease pressure on defenders like an attack that’s on fire. VVD wasn’t enough to win them the CL finals because — they had a shitty keeper Then the bought a good goalie and got even better. VVD is at the top of his game but stop all the histrionic… Read more »

Marko

but our heads scout Steve Rowley (who is now back at Arsenal after being kicked at the same time than Wenger) thought he was too nonchalant.

Where are you getting Steve Rowley is back at Arsenal from? This is one of those times where truth and facts will need to be shown

Dissenter

We all hated JohnTerry, shagger of his team mates wives etc
However the guy was a CONSISTENT top class defender who stayed on that form until his body fell apart. He dragged his team again and again to win stuff, even as we all hated him more.

How dare anyone compare VVD to him just yet.
…and I still dislike John Terry

Then you think of Sol Campbell, to come to Arsenal and succeed for several seasons even as the the loud noise from our empty neighbors carried on.
Same story, VVD isn’t in the league just yet.

Champagne Charlie

Dissenter

Going off piste now to defend your POV. You started by saying people are overrating his ability as a defender, now you want to talk “consistently” with your caps lock on for max effect.

If he’s not the best CB in Europe right now I’d love to hear some votes for alternatives from those dismissing opinions. Offer one up for dismissal yourselves.

zaco

Marko,
Good to see that your opinion has changed from what they were last summer, I remember clearly when you argued against the signing of Guendoizi saying the club should have signed Max Meyer, so do you admit you were wrong then or do you still believe the club should have signed Meyer rather than Guendoizi?.

Marko

Good defender but calling him the best in Europe at the moment is an exaggeration to put it mildly …He has Liverpool competing for the title is also a ridiculous statement

Unquestionable on both accounts. They’ve conceded 29 goals all season on 6 defeats they have one defeat and conceded 17 in the league where he’s been an ever present. His influence has been astounding

Marko

Good to see that your opinion has changed from what they were last summer, I remember clearly when you argued against the signing of Guendoizi saying the club should have signed Max Meyer, so do you admit you were wrong then or do you still believe the club should have signed Meyer rather than Guendoizi? It was more one was free and a fairly established prospect while one was totally unknown and costing money. There’s no real egg on face moment yet on any of that. Max Meyer is still a good player likely to come good at his next… Read more »

Marko

It also coincided with a certain Salah running wild with goals.

What does that have to do with their frankly obvious and drastically improved defence?

VVD wasn’t enough to win them the CL finals because — they had a shitty keeper

Who made individual errors that literally cost them that final. Not to mention the Salah injury. Way I see it you’re trying really hard to diminish his role in their defence this season and you’re trying to downplay the fairly reasonable praise he’s getting. And I’m not sure why cause it’s fairly obvious

Valentin

@Marko,

I have been told that Steve Rowley is currently acting as a consultant for Arsenal. He is not on the payroll as an employee, but they needed somebody to step in when Sven left while Monchi was not yet ready to start.
There is nothing wrong in recalling former employee fora limited temporary work if you are in a bind.
It would be corporate neglect to have nobody to coordinate the scouting department for six months.

Marko

VVD is at the top of his game but stop all the histrionic praise, shall we? When he actually wins a single trophy and keeps this world-class form, he will earn the respect of skeptics. Nobody’s histrionic but you in all honesty. He’s been duly praised and the only reason he’s being called the best CB in Europe right now is because A he’s performing brilliantly and consistently and B you have a passing of the old guard in terms of CB’s in Europe right now. Players like Tiago Silva, Ramos, Chiellini, Pique, Boateng, Hummels, Kompany and Godin are all… Read more »

Marko

I have been told that Steve Rowley is currently acting as a consultant for Arsenal. He is not on the payroll as an employee

Oh so when you said back at Arsenal you can’t prove it as true or not. Can I ask genuinely what’s your background? Like where do you live how is it that you claim to be in the know? Cause sometimes it looks like you just pluck things out of thin air and expect to be believed. I’d be very interested to know if you are in fact legit and not a cronic bullshitter

Valentin

@Marko,

The problem is that the stats of the six months before and after does not support your assertion. Liverpool got marginally better.

The main difference this season is really the entire combination of the points that I made. Tactics and personnel.
Some could argue that the emergence of both fullbacks has had also a significant impact.
It is not diminishing his contribution to state that Liverpool improvement is due to the combination of all.

Marko

Also Steve Rowley back as a consultant seems like complete nonsense when you factor in Raul and the fact that Monchi is currently available while Sven has been gone about a month. So they needed a consultant for a month? We still have Cagigao and others at the club. Yeah I have a feeling that you might have made up Steve Rowley being back at Arsenal and hoped no one would question it

Valentin

@Marko,

When Sven became head of recruitment, Steve Rowley left his role, but was still involved in the club as consultant. Before you accuse me of lying, here is a quote and a link directly from the horse mouth.

“Meanwhile our long-serving chief scout Steve Rowley, who has been responsible for unearthing many talents over his 25 years of employment with the club, has stood down from his role but will continue to maintain his relationship and support us with ad hoc scouting on a consultancy basis. ”

https://www.arsenal.com/news/sven-mislintat-appointed-head-recruitment

It makes sense to call Steve Rowley back for emergency.

TheLegendaryDB10

New post mates.

Marko

The problem is that the stats of the six months before and after does not support your assertion. Liverpool got marginally better. Liverpool have not gotten marginally better. They went from having a poor defence to having a good one that just happened to coincide with his signature. This time last season they were sitting on 4 league defeats compared to the one now and conceded 34 goals in 30 league games compared to the 17 now. Hey look if people think that Matip and Klaven or Lovren would be doing the same thing and the difference is marginal in… Read more »

Valentin

@Marko,

You had already accused me of lying before I could answer. You just shown your true colour. Flat Earther.

I hope that you choke on the link.
This is the official website, so difficult to argue that Arsenal would never use Steve Rowley as consultant, because Arsenal stated that they do.