MONDAY DEBRIEF

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES AND MEAN FANS

In my most Lock Stock accent: ‘COULD EVERYONE JUST STOP GETTING INJURED?’

Martinelli has apparently felt pain in his calf and is in contact with the Arsenal team back in London.

I really hope these issues are precautionary because Gabi has a bit of a poor record of stop/starting through the various phases of the season. He has had a very jittery start playing-wise and desperately needs a run of games to get him back to the very top of his game. If he slips out of the side, we have great cover in Raheem or Jesus, but the break-out season from Martinelli is what we’re all desiring.

There were more positive rumblings around the return of Bukayo Saka, I think it was The Mirror that made reference to him being back in the mixer for the Bournemouth game this Saturday. The Athletic has also followed with a similar story.

The international break has been really interesting from an online perspective. By interesting, I mean absolutely grim. It’s like these games are mainly there to destroy really good players with out-of-context comps and outright slander. How can we be in 2024 and I’m reading things like ‘Saka ain’t world-class’ or ‘Declan has no football IQ.’ What are we doing here?

I do wonder if we’ll look back on this decade as a bit embarrassing with regards to how we treat athletes online… or whether this is just what the human race is like. We feel ownership of athletes and such a deep emotional connection, we behave wild and unfiltered online?

I suspect if people knew these athletes had feelings, they might not be so vicious. But then again, I saw the reaction to Beth Mead and it was hardly empathetic.

On the one hand, the Women’s game coming into line with the same sort of vitriol says something darkly positive about the progress of the game there. People really, really care, which is a precursor to money. But this is a top-level athlete pleading for kindness because it’s rocking the dressing room. How can anyone feel good about that?

One of the biggest pivots for the men’s team was when the fans decided they’d just go all-in for the squad regardless of the results. We lost three on the bounce, fans supported players in need, players in need grew rapidly, the rest is history, the future is bright. Criticise by all means, but DMing death threats is for weirdos.