A much later than normal blog today as it has been a busy morning in the Keenos household.
The grass is cut, meat is bought for the BBQ and car has been given a run out. It is only now I am getting a moments rest.
In all honesty, I am glad I have had a busy morning as it has taken my mind off what might or might not happen tomorrow. It does a feel a little like the eve of a cup final and the nerves are beginning to creep in.
The obvious difference between tomorrow and a cup final is it is not Arsenal v Manchester City. We face Everton whilst they are at home to West Ham. It is not a case of “we win, we lift a trophy”.
I have seen a few people make comparisons with this season to 1989. That what we did in Anfield should be enough to give us all hope. And yes you are right. But also wrong.
In 1989 it was still in our hands. We knew if we won by two or more clear goals we would lift the title. Tomorrow it is not in our hands.
We could beat Everton 10-nil and still finish 2nd if Manchester City get the victory. The only way we are winning is if we win our game and City fail to beat West Ham. And I just can not see City failing to beat West Ham.
Tomorrow is more like 99 than 89 to me. We are relying on others rather than ourselves.
But that does not mean I think it is a foregone conclusion. Like Mikel Arteta, I believe the dream is still alive. And I will certainly be laying there in bed tonight thinking about what could happen tomorrow.
So plans for tomorrow?
For me it will be head to Islington for 11ish (it is a 4pm kick off remember). Go to a cafe on Upper Street before heading to The George (now called the Stag) for around 3 hours of drinking.
Sadly, The George is once again up for sale, and has been for some months. I would not be surprised the 13ish weeks of no Arsenal will see the end once again and we will return in August to see it boarded up. Once again I will be looking for a new home for my pre and post-match beers (and no, I am not going Brewers!).
If tomorrow is the last day for the second incarnation of The George, hopefully we see it off well regardless of winning the league or not.
For the rest of today it will be a case of keeping myself occupied. A few ciders in the garden before the BBQ goes on. And then it is a focus on tomorrow and the biggest question – will it be shorts weather?
The equation is simple. Win and we are taking the title race down to the last day. Lose and Manchester City can win the league at Tottenham mid-week.
I had said throughout the season how proud I am of the boys. And whether we win the title or not will not make me any more or less proud. We have done brilliant.
I always tell people do not define your football supporting life by the trophies you win. Do that and you will be more disappointed than delrious.
Those that will base how they rate our season on how the next 2 games go miss the bigger picture of what football is about. Only one team can we each trophy and, Manchester City aside, no other club should see finishing a season trophyless as a failure.
It can not be underestimated how Manchester City, and their spending, has changed our game.
City have raised the bar. To (potentially) win 16 of our last 18 games and still finish 2nd is incredible. Part of me has respect for Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City winning team, the other part of me sees them for what they are – a state funded team bankrolled to success based on outspending every other team.
And we are not talking about net spend, we are talking about total spend which has been huge under the Shiekhs, their gigantic wage bill to attract the best players, coaches, doctors, etc, all whilst financed by questionable sponsorship deals. Although I will always have the stance that if a billionaire wants to blow his load on football, he should be entitled to do so.
Nothing highlights City’s wealth more than Matheus Nunes.
City spent £53million on the Wolves midfielder to basically start 7 Premier League games. Nunes replaced the £42m Kalvin Phillips who also saw very little game time. Imagine a world where a team spends so much on a player (and the wages to go with it), to then play just 656 minutes of football.
Yes, those with half a brain will be saying “but Arsenal spent double that on Declan Rice”. Rice starts for us and is well worth the money. Nunes is not even a squad player for City. He is a 1st team fringe player, and in 2-years he will probably be loaned out to West Ham and they will buy another £50m midfielder to not play.
If you want the definitive proof of the difference between City and the rest, just look at how much they have spent on central defenders.
They collect £40m centre backs for one. And basically every season they sell one of them who has ended 5th choice, and spend another £40m+ on a replacement. Rinse and report stockpiling some of the best central defenders in the world whilst we have to make do with Jakub Kiwor as cover (no disrespect to Kiwor).
Finishing 2nd to City is not failure. It is not Arsenal bottling it. And if you are one of those that will claim Arsenal have bottled it, give your head a wobble and stop feeding into the TalkSport/PaddyPower narrative.
If Arsenal bottled the Premier League this season due to not winning, then so did every other team in the Premier League. It is not logical that we end up in a world where anytime someone finishes 2nd, fans of teams in 5th or 8th laugh saying “bottled it”.
These fans are like the single virgin living in their mum’s basement mocking someone online they do not know because they have split up with their misses. Take a look at your own lives and issues before pointing the finger at others.
Today we need to put everything around us out of our heads and get the win.
Man U are in horrendous form. As poor as Tottenham. But we know how they like to raise their game against us and many fans my age will be scarred from those defeats against very poor Alex Ferguson teams.
Mentally, we need to be looking at them not as Man U, the big red machine, but as a team who have won just 2 of their last 9.
Mikel Arteta will know this, and he will have his players focused.
Do our job on the field and take it to the last day of the season. I still do not expect a “favour” from Tottenham or West Ham, but stranger things have happened!
Luckily for She Wore, I have a legal background so when we set up the blog I was already upskilled on what we can and can not write. Unfortunately, it seems like other platforms have not learned over the years about what content they are allowed to publish without fear of reprisals.
It was no surprise to me that Manchester City have issued numerous blogs with cease and desist letters in the last few weeks.
For those unaware on UK law, a cease and desist letter is used to stop alleged or actual infringements, such as copyright, trademark or libel. They are often used by bigger companies against “smaller” companies or individuals as an initial warning.
Their aim is to encourage the receiver to halt their activities without the need of costly (to both sides) more formal legal action. If the receiver does not halt their activities, the fact that they received the letter will be frowned upon in court as they were fully aware what they were doing might infringe copyright or be libellous.
The letters from Manchester City would have by sent out to inform the receivers of potential libellous comments.
In the UK, you are innocent until proven guilty. If you accuse someone in public of being something (such as a nonce), and they decide to take you to court of the comments, you then have to prove that your statement was correct. Impossible if it was untrue.
Thousands on Twitter make libellous comments everyday, not realising that they are potentially opening themselves up to civil proceedings. Former actor turns activist Lawrence Fox was recently told to pay £180,000 in libel damages following comments on the social media platform.
To put it simply, you can not say or write things that are untrue and might damage another reputation without infringing defamation law (the law that libel (writing) and slander (spoken) sit within).
Most of us get away with making these comments all day long because we are insignificant. A 17-year-old with 367 followers is not worth going after from these company’s point of view. The amount it will cost them to find out who the individual is, their address, issue the letter and so on just is not worth it.
But when you get big enough, with huge influence (or in terms of copywrite make big sales / have a product go viral), you will quickly end up on the radar of big businesses or individuals willing to pursue the matter.
AFTV, for example, were pressured to remove “Arsenal” from their name due to the damage they were doing to the club’s name. Many other clubs use Arsenal within their blog names, but they are deemed either not big enough, or not damaging enough to the club, for them to act.
The United Stand (TUS) are the highest profile company that have allegedly received a cease and desist letter from Manchester City with regards to their 115 charges.
TUS are basically Man U’s version of AFTV – like Robbie Lyle, Brent Di Cesare (AKA Mark Goldbridge), was not a boyhood fan of the club he talked about, and instead spotted an opportunity to make himself a lot of money. The former police officer then created a platform of hate and ridicule to profit from Man U’s demise. And for those wondering, this is not libellous. It is factual.
And that is the thing with libel. You are allowed to write the facts. And Manchester City’s cease and desist letter does not stop people talking about the case.
You will always notice that mainstream media outlets always have a different commentary to blogs and vlogs. They are more formal and do not speculate. That is because these institutions are aware of what they can and can not say, and that you can only report the facts that have been made public and are verified.
The simplest example of libellous comments made against City is calling them “cheats”.
As it stands, they are not cheats. They are innocent until proven guilty remember. They have been charged, but it has not yet been proven they have done anything wrong. So anyone that calls them a cheat right now would be making a libellous comment unless they can prove that City did cheat.
As the Premier League are currently trying to build a case to prove that City cheated, I would be highly surprised if any individual can defend their comments. They will be reliant on the Premier League winning their case which will be the concrete proof needed to label City cheats.
If City successfully defend the accusations leveled against them, we might see them step up their legal action against the likes of TUS, if they decide to continue with their comments.
Labelling a football club (or any sporting individual) a cheat is cleary damaging to reputation. This will be a lesson to those online that you can not just say anything you want without fear of repercussions. Stick to the facts and follow the law (and we have not even got onto injunctions yet).
A few City fans have said things like “the media have changed their tune” since the letters allegedly went out. This is incorrect. The media always acted within the law.
A quick Google of “Manchester City Cheats” shows that no media outlet ever accused them of cheating. They all merely said they had been charged, and what they have been charged with.
Whenever they spoke about Manchester City and “cheating” they always quoted another party such as Stan Collymore. This is not them calling Man City cheats, but them quoting an individual and reporting what that individual said. Still sticking to the facts!
Big fish often do not like strong-arming the little guy. It is bad and also frowned upon in court. That is why they will send a cease and desist letter first rather than going straight for legal action, so that in court they can at least say “we warned you”. It takes away the chance of the little guy presenting themselves as a victim.
For transparency, a company I am involved in (not SheWore.com), received a cease and desist letter from the club over the use of Mikel Arteta’s “Transparency, Energy, Clarity” drawing on t-shirts.
We went viral very quickly and were selling 1 a minute at one point. Within a week the club had sent us a letter asking us to stop selling the product. We complied but were also frustrated that others were still selling (and continue to do so). It is an example of how the clubs can not go after anyone, but will go after those who are bigger, or have gone viral.
Some will try and label all this as bullying, and claim Manchester City are trying to change the narrative. The truth is, you can not say anything that damages another reputation unless you can prove it is true. And those labelling City “cheats” can not prove that is is true.
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 