Arsenal News 24/7Writer: Rocky7 
Date:Wednesday July 23 2008
Time: 11:32AM
UK time is: 04:40:55
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So Many Arsenal Sites: Surely They're Not All Bad?
The Internet is a wonderful tool, it allows you learn about pretty much everything, to keep in contact with relatives on the other side of the globe, to balance the bank account, to share pornography and houses wonderful sites such as the Vital network.
However, as with all things, this has a price to pay. With Internet access pretty much common place in almost every household in the Western world, it means that the Internet nows offers, anybody who wants one, a voice, and whilst some put this voice to good use, others do not.
Summer can be a frustrating period at the best of times, but as an Arsenal fan, this has become excruciating, it's probably best to curl up and hibernate. Things however get infinitely worse when you are treated to the mad ramblings of Internet warriors and sites who are just in it for the hits.
Whining about a 1-1 draw in the second pre-season friendly of the season, misleading article titles followed with some highly annoying catch phrase, slating extremely young players and ridiculous claims about our manager's ability to lead are club forward are just some of the delights we've been treated to in the past day or two (all summer really).
The sad thing is, that whilst all this is going on, genuine Arsenal blogs written by genuine Arsenal fans are missing out, and whilst I like to think that the majority of Gooners are sensible enough to avoid these sites I know that many people's eyes are drawn to the more spectacular headline whilst the good honest hard working blogger is left alone.
Far be it for me to divert fans away from Vital Arsenal, but sites like Goonerholic, Goodplaya, East Lower, A Cultured Left Foot and Arseblog (not that he needs any advertisement), along with us of course, need to be the links that you click, because I can assure you they can bring you the gossip just as quickly (and definitely more accurately) than the unmentioned. It's these guys that we need to be supporting, proper Arsenal fans.
Vital Arsenal is no angel, our halo does slip from time to time, but we have lived and learned from our past mistakes, and as we approach the end of our third year I like to think I have assembled a fine writing team that is not only objective, well structured and from the opinion of true Arsenal fans, but it's also bloody funny to boot. My own writing skills may leave something to be desired compared to Tim Stillman and company, but hey, you don't expect Arsene Wenger to lace up and lash home a 25 yarder every Saturday do you? ;)
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For those of you struggling to trawl through newsnow these days, here's a reminder of the link created by Rocky (nice name) over at Arseblog that filters all the crap of the NN feed. Click Here
Vital F1 Prediction League - Join now for Monaco
Your Comments
Well said. I really want to name the nameless but its an advert to be honest.
Tom14
Gooner Talk's good as well. But yes, the others shall remain nameless.
adamski243
Exactly Tom! Though everyone knows who they are anyway. It's best we focus on the really good Arsenal sites out there!!
Rocky7
There are plenty of fans that buy into that stuff though. Reading through the comments section even on some of the decent sites and you'll find those that do really think that unless we win back to back to back PL & CL titles the world really is coming to an end. Those that maintain the quality of their game and stay true to the principle of a decent balance will survive and prosper over the longer run though. Bit like the club itself in many ways.
Amos.
Agreed 100%. Exactly how I felt yesterday seeing some of those idiotic and incredibly unfair headlines - didn't bother to read the content. I like to think it's just the minority who read that D&G, attention-seeking stuff. But like Amos said, I'm not sure about that. Why don't those people just get a job at the Sun or something instead?!
Lou the Gunneress
Some fans put their supposed honesty and realism before supporting the club. Like them being honest and realistic makes them better fans than us AKB's.
Tom14
They may be what appears to them like they are being honest, but it's all been distorted, that or they have very little knowledge of football and how it works. Too many people think you can just get rid of a player for £25M pounds, bring in a replacement and everything is hunk dory ...... there is so much fantasy ***** going on out there. Championship Manager has a lot to answer for!
Rocky7
Yeah, my G.C.S.E. grades for one ;-)
shewore
Seriously though without wanting to sound criticial i think it's stating the obvious, you can easily sift through the **** on the comments section (on Vital i'm talking about) and after a while you see who's comments are actually worth reading - there's a lot of people out there who know more than Arsene yet have never even been to a game.
shewore
The online Arsenal is probably the best Arsenal site on the net www.onlinearsenal.com least you can have a decent debate on there.
Yido_Lee
most intelligent gooners know which articles to ignore but there are some naive gooners out there who actually beleive everything they read. I worry for their sanity.
gazzap
Always look for integrity. It's the only thing that lasts forever, everything can be won and lost in an instant. The sites mentioned in the article all have integrity. (I disagree with arseblogger a fair bit, but recognise that it's only really in opinion and not in approach as such. Plus, I still read it every day).
Little Dutch
Been on a lot of Arsenal sites have you YL? I knew you were a Gooner really!!
Rocky7
This is the best Vitalfootball arsenal site I've ever seen.
k_chelski
In fairness the sites that you have'nt mentioned really don't bother me. Its the old yin yang thing, good and bad have to co exist and all that. Fact is a good percentage of you read these sites you profess to hate in the same way you'd rubberneck a car crash, sure you feel wrong afterwards and hate yourself for it, but you can't help yourself. And when alls said and done it just highlights the strength of the knowledge and writing on the VA team.
nikolaijns
Bless your heart Rocky! That filter is the most useful thing i have seen for ages. Normally i only have a spare few minutes each day and have to waste half of them looking through NN for the above sites (plus a few others).
without the risk of sounding sycophantical, this remians the best site there is for genuine fans, and genuine arsenal related news.
nice work lads, keep it up.
P.S. For what it's worth, i'd prefer to sign Alonso than Barry...
bean
I just read on the sun that Toure has contracted Malaria. MALARIA FFS!!!
united4life
I tend to read 2 blogs regularly and scan the others… what I relish is the variety, from the irreverence of Arseblog to the earnestness of A Cultured Left Foot. There is no end of annoying claptrap sites, but by far and away the most irritating blogger on the planet must be Myles Palmer. Anyway, Vital Arse is the richest site and there are 3 reasons why VA does it for me: 1 – the diversity of people posting on here… I love reading good discussions with opinions from all sorts of folk, ranging from the philosophical through to the daft... 2 - the quality of front page articles really is superb… and they are improved by the comment-sharing following each one… 3 - on what other forum can you one minute be having pain-staking discussion over the intricacies of fine-tuning our midfield followed by a couple of rounds of Spud-bashing with pictures thrown in? I say, well done team!
Andy-bayor
I regularly visit all the blogs you recommended. You've hit a neve with me with this piece. I know I shouldn't let the Gooner Idiot Contingent get to me, I don't read the blogs that are the worst example of this type of fan but occasionally one of them will invade one of the blogs I do read in the comments thread. Or I'll frequent a decent blog that has multiple writers on it and they're all perfectly rational writers -- except for one who's the most frequent writer, and he's an hysterical moaner. Or I'm on a blog where the comments are full of perfectly rational posters -- except ONE lunatic who posts constantly and very long rants and throws insults at AW all the time. I am really fed up with these people -- the nail in the coffin is their hysterical reaction to yesterday's friendly. What gets me is that not all these so-called gooners are stereotypically plastic gloryhunting teenagers who know little of football. Some of the claim to be longtime gooners who've followed the game for decades. That's their claim anyway. I stopped going to a well-produced, well-written blog when I found that the most frequent writer there was becoming more and more knee-jerk hysterical, whining and bitching about everything. The comments section was being ruined by one regular poster in particular who regularly throws insults at our manager. I'm probably too defensive about Arsene--I criticize some of his choices myself but to throw cheap potshots at him like "overrated," "*****er," laughing at the "genius" label, dismissing what he's done for Arsenal, scrutinizing every little thing he does and says to fit some twisted picture of the man...it's just disgusting to see gooners do this. Bad enuf he gets crap from rival fans and pundits. Another long post from me, sorry.
jaelle
its all freedom of speech. some of the "doomsday" arguments are pretty good anyway. Its all abt respect. you may not like their pov, but u can accept as theirs. afterall, homogenity is not an arsenal trait!
korodon
i expect wenger to lace up and lash home a 25 yarder....
bootoo
After some time, you learn to filter out the poor sites. I visit the blogs listed in the article, and also youngguns which is excellent for reserve/kids news. Although Vital Arsenal remains my 1st click of the day.
prits
Youngguns has my vote. Always seems to be ahead of the rest for reliable news. It's run by one guy who is so well informed I think he might be Wenger in disguise.
VanPersie11
I used to visit a lot more sites, but after a while you know the ones where you will get a bit of balance. I don't have a problem if others see things differently to me, but I do object to the constant harping on about the same issues and the disrespectful tone of some posters towards our manager and players. By all means criticize but be constructive about it not destructive. It's so easy to make throw away comments that sound hilarious in your head but these negative nick-names have a way of sticking and becoming currency and in the long run they are not conducive to the success of the team you claim to support. I know a lot of people laugh at the spurs fans who year after year believe this will be their year and they will break into the top 4 etc etc, but I actually admire their optimism and belief in their team. Surely that is what football fandom should be about? If you have so little respect for the manager and the players, what is the point? I've seen a few posters who are happier when we lose just so they can be proven right in their negativity rather than celebrating our victories - that is just beyond me!
Passenal
I like YoungGuns too like VanPersie11 said. Hes very honest and always has good coverage. GoonerTalk is good too along with all the ones metioned above.
gunnerkid107
Rocky your news now filter is fecking godlike! It's firmly replaced the swamp of hot air that is news now unfiltered. Dribbly McNoscore hahahaha! killer.
nikolaijns
I find these sites rediculous, but rather amusing. Only yesterday I came across a site that shall remain nameless advising that Arsene Wenger should have done a swap deal with Athletico Madrid with Hleb for Aguero. They just couldn't see the problem with that suggestion...
ArsenalRob
sorry for the change of topic, but does anyone else think that these hleb quotes are a bit disrespectful for our club: "Arsene Wenger, for me, is like a father. He gave me a lot and I learned a lot from him and I need to say thank you to him for the fact that I now play in Barcelona."
ArsenalRob
Rocky at Arseblog created the newsnow feature. Is he the same Rocky7 on our site?
gunnerkid107
Rob I saw that one and found it a bit awkward too. But if you watch it on TV (SSN), the guy doesn't speak perfect English and we can't read too much into his quotes.
Lou the Gunneress
Nope - not me GK!! Some other genius!!
Rocky7
YoungGuns deserves a mention here as well. very good blog. As for Myles Palmer/ANR, he has been announcing for the past 6 months that Bendtner will be sold this summer as a sure thing. Gotta find it funny. Only Arsene knows.
Gael-Force
Haha well it was only a thought Rocky.
gunnerkid107
I dont mind gunnerblog either now he has gotten rid of the comments section.
Ozi Gooner
For instance, there's this one called Le Grove. I gather it's manure. Never bothered to check the fact for myself, coz if good folks on here say it's manure, it's probably manure. Arseblog, read him everyday, don't always agree with him. Myles Palmer, you just need to be wise to his "eccentricism", otherwise he is readerable. And if he gets to ****y, just ignore him. The hits will fall. Then he'll grow up a bit. It happened some time last year or the one before, he'd gotten to world record lows, I completely ignored the site for a wide berth for a few months, I guess I wan't the only one, and when I went back, he appeared to have grown a few more brain cells. Bottom line, it isn't too hard to filter the fools.
Gaga
Oh really Ozi? I read Gunnerblog regularly and have always ignored it. Didn't even know GilbertoSilver removed the comments section. Hehe well done I say..
Lou the Gunneress
Arseblog, ANR, Arsenal.com, Young Guns, Gunnerblog and ACLF. The remainder are tripe. Don't even start me on LeGrove. Biggest load of crap I've ever had the misfortune to read, full of doom and gloom merchants and if you post a comment that disagrees with the post they remove it!!!! I wouldn't mind if they we're well written but there garbage
d11gunner
Surely not the same ANR that has Myles Parmer writing for it. If i had a liscence to kill then i would be making a trip to somewhere in Chelsea & Kensington to unload a 15 shot, semi automatic.
paul_ownz
Ditto re youngguns! You learn some fascinating things on that site -- like the fact that Wenger is good friends with Glenn Roeder (who'd have thought?) and that AW personally helped Norwich to get Lupoli back from Italy for Roeder's team -- despite the fact that Lupoli turned his back on Arsenal (Lupoli hadn't even played a game in Italy). Also, an excellent blog is UNTOLD ARSENAL:
http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/ Fascinating stuff there, news and analysis I don't see anywhere else (like Everton's desperate finances with some Scottish bank and the fact that the media never covered Milan's obvious hoax PR campaign for Ade once they got Dinho).
jaelle
This is my favourite site by a long shot. Even when there isn't a new article to read I enjoy clicking back to read the comments on previous articles. I've been visiting (sometimes leaving comments), for over a year now and there's quite a nice community of regular posters here. If I'm honest I quite like Allgoonerdup and Arsenalshorts too because they appeal to my sense of humour. I must ashamedly say that in the heat of the moment I felt like having a whinge about the 1-1 a couple of nights ago, but I calmed down after an hour or so. I think that the lack of Arsenal for a few months can do bad things to a guy. Ah well, at least I know that me and my big gob are ready for the new season even if the guys aren't quite there yet. 8-)
flv
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