Opinion: Has Social Media Ruined The Transfer Window for you Gooners?

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·29 de junio de 2025

Opinion: Has Social Media Ruined The Transfer Window for you Gooners?

Anyone else starting to feel really depressed this transfer window?

With not a lot to talk about this time of year, I can understand why the likes of Sky Sports present the transfer window as a special event, like the Americans do with the Draft. Yet if you’re a Gooner, is it entertainment?

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That’s not a reflection on Arsenal. For decades, I’ve become used to the club being indecisive and haggling over every last pound. For the record, I maintain there’s already a week scheduled next month where lots of new faces will be unveiled on our website in the space of a few days (probably coinciding with some sort of Adidas launch).

Social Media’s Role in the Transfer Circus

Yet it’s another example of how the rise of social media has harmed the sport. If you wish, you can get content 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It means nothing feels unique anymore, with the product overexposed.

I’m old enough to remember my Nan giving me money to pick up her daily newspaper (you wouldn’t believe how cheap the Daily Mirror used to be!). I would be excited to check out the back page and see what the writers were speculating. Crucially, if the word “exclusive” was next to the journalist’s name, my naive mind believed the story had credibility. It legally meant there was a source involved and it wasn’t simply a rumour being repeated in every tabloid.

Some YouTubers have grown to the point where it’s become their career. The dream job for anybody must be talking about your passion while getting paid for it. Yet like any profession, the priority becomes making as much money as possible. If there’s a market for sharing links, it would be financially irresponsible not to seize the opportunity.

For any content creator, it’s easy material. Most of the time they’re getting clicks for simply informing others what they’ve read, or they can garner views by telling subscribers what they want to hear. If you know you can manipulate your audience with a headline that’s intentionally misleading, why wouldn’t you? It’s called clickbait. If you don’t do it, your competitors will.

It used to be mainly fan channels that did this, but now those who actually work in the media will upload updates too. Some pride themselves on how accurate their intel proves to be, while others care less about credibility.

In the last week, supporters have really been sucked in. And this will only intensify in July. I’m not picking on one outlet either, I’ll give a few examples where the title of a video appears to claim something serious, but you quickly realise the host is saying something entirely different.

That’s not judging the individuals or their body of work, because as I’ll show, they all follow the same approach:

Football Terrace: “Eze To Arsenal On” and “Gyokeres Close”
AFTV: “Arsenal In Talks For Lookman” and “Eze Agrees Terms”
That’s Football: “Deal Done – Gyokeres To Arsenal”, then two days later “Huge Isak Offer!” Shock Arsenal Transfer!”; Friday it was “Arsenal Double Swoop!” (featuring Rodrygo)
Florian Plettenberg: “I am convinced Sesko will join Arsenal”
Fabrizio Romano: “Viktor Gyokeres forcing move to Arsenal”
Sky Sports: “Zubimendi deal to accelerate” (three weeks ago!)
Di Marzio: “Arsenal will sign Gyokeres”
David Ornstein: “Arsenal working on a deal for Mosquera”
Mail Sport: “Real Madrid have set their price for Rodrygo”

As you can see, the wording is very careful, because when you dig deeper, there’s not much substance. None of the above mention the selling club being close to any kind of agreement, which surely is crucial to any transaction.

Call me old school, but surely a player accepting certain terms is irrelevant if a fee with his club can’t be sorted? Andrea Berta likes to talk to various candidates at once to keep his options open, but eventually he has to decide whether he agrees with the asking price. If he doesn’t plan to get close to that value, then it doesn’t matter how much a player wants to live in London.

Arsenal Fans as the Internet’s Prime Target

Let’s use Eze as an example. Of course a former member of our academy would be open to rejoining from Crystal Palace. Obviously, he would welcome a higher wage than he’s on at Selhurst Park. But none of that means we’re close to getting the Eagles to accept anything other than his £65 million buyout clause.

It’s like Rodrygo. What evidence is there that the Brazilian is leaving Real Madrid, outside of Arsenal liking him?

Rodrygo (Photo by Angel Martinez/Getty Images)

I like a castle, it doesn’t mean I’m buying one.

Of course we don’t have to read or listen. Yet this is a clever business model that our billionaire owners benefit from, so of course if you’re trying to grow your own company on the internet, you’ll follow the same model.

The Kroenke family make money off the brand. They know that no matter the league position, title drought, or even if they don’t buy a striker this summer, the Emirates will be sold out and merchandise will be bought.

No one forces a grown adult to make that choice, but when you love something, it’s hard to walk away. How many of us have stayed in a relationship based on our heart, even though our head tells us to leave?

Have you noticed how many fan channels who don’t even like Arsenal still debate our recruitment policy? That’s because our fanbase has become the target audience. That’s not arrogance; I realise life exists outside of North London where other clubs have false rumours and links that lead nowhere.

But since the launch of AFTV, our supporters have grown a reputation for being reactionary. If a teenager has a decent pre-season, he’s already better than Lamine Yamal. If our captain has a poor season, he should be stripped of the armband.

Naturally, those making videos know we have a large community that doesn’t take much to bite.

Arsenal also just so happen to negotiate in a manner that makes them the gift that keeps on giving. It’s the perfect marriage. At Man City or Chelsea, the first time you hear any gossip surrounding a player, days later it’s official they’ve moved to the Etihad or the Bridge. Yet at Arsenal, there’s always at least one mole leaking information so that at least one saga plays out in public.

Remember, talk of Benjamin Sesko and Viktor Gyokeres moving to the Emirates started this time last year!

At Christmas, our manager made it clear our attack was struggling and needed help. If you’re the press and struggling to find any fresh news, how easy is it to name any striker Mikel Arteta might admire?

I wouldn’t be shocked if the Rodrygo chatter lasts until September, just to keep us engaged.

We’ve got over two more months of this!!!!

Your thoughts appreciated in the comments.

Dan Smith __________________________________________________________________________________________ ADMIN COMMENT

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