Arsenal balls: Sanchez and Wenger meet in secret and all about that handshake
Alexis Sanchez Watch: an at-a-glance look at the Arsenal striker in the media. Today the Mail leads with a question: “Was this the moment Alexis Sanchez ignored his Arsenal manager ahead of training?” We, of course, adhere to Ian Betteridge’s law of headlines, which states: “Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no.”
So, no. And, indeed, after clicking the link, the Mail delivers a further headline:
Alexis Sanchez appears to snub Arsene Wenger at Arsenal training as contract dispute rolls on
The dispute is, of course, nothing of the sort. Sanchez has not gone on strike. Arsenal are not sacking him, nor suing him. The Gunners want him to stay. Sanchez wants a lot more money to play for the Premier League’s fifth best team. Negotiations are ongoing.
Sam Morshead then adds:
Was this the moment Alexis Sanchez ignored his Arsenal manager ahead of training?
No.
The Chilean striker, whose Gunners future remains up in the air, appeared to blank his boss prior to a session at the club’s London Colney facility on Wednesday.
Wenger, who was embarking on his ritual of shaking each of his players’ hands before putting them through their paces, was acknowledged by Nacho Monreal and Mesut Ozil – but a short video clip shows Sanchez apparently walking on by.
Take a video clip. Remove it from context, Stick it into a pre-ordained narrative. And write a clickbait headline. Bingo! And having seduced Arsenal fans with total ball, Morshead then notes:
They saw Sanchez head on towards a group of his team-mates instead of approaching Wenger, though the Gunners manager did not offer his hand to his star striker and appeared to say ‘I’ve already done you’.
To put it another way, then:
“Arsene Wenger appears to snub Alexis Sanchez at Arsenal training as contract dispute rolls on”
Or:
“Wenger does not shake Sanchez’s hand twice”
Or how about:
“Sanchez happy with team-mates and life at Arsenal”
Or as Morshead puts it:
…given reports about a frosty relationship between player and coach in the past, moments like these always give rise to speculation.
What frosty relationship? Oh, the one the tabloids keeps harping on about. Because no sooner has one tabloid conjured total balls from a non-event than the rival organs are reporting the tosh as fact:
We do like the Daily Star’s idea Sanchez is “troubled”, in the manner of a recovering drug addict or a Hollywood wild child is ‘troubled’.
And here’s the video of the huge happening that excited the national Press:
Alexis snubs Wenger on a handshake 🤔 pic.twitter.com/Y6Wni4xjMG
— Kolasnator (@Kolasnator) October 18, 2017
So, what really heppened? Well, Sanchez was one of the first players who arrived at training, and Wenger greeted him well before the video was shot.
In other words: “Wenger and Sanchez meet in secret!”
Such are the facts.
Posted: 19th, October 2017 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, Sports, Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
