Why do Arsenal fans hate Piers Morgan

People retweet him, players talk to him, and others think that he’s the voice of Arsenal fans.  More people than is acceptable don’t know why he is so universally hated by Arsenal fans and a lot of those who do know we don’t like him simply think we don’t like him because we disagree with his opinions on Arsenal.

WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG.

If you are connected with Arsenal in any way, then you need to know what follows. You need to make it your duty to ensure that anyone and everyone connected with Arsenal knows the truth about Piers Morgan when it comes to Arsenal.  Here are some facts for you:

Piers Morgan was responsible, while he was at The Daily Mirror, for printing false reports which resulted in 35 Arsenal fans being branded hooligans and thugs after the trouble between Arsenal and Galatasaray Fans in Copenhagen.  Many lost their their jobs and all lost their season tickets.

The truth? These were ordinary Arsenal fans who happened to be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and were simply trying to protect their families as the trouble unfolded around them.

Piers Morgan and the Mirror eventually admitted they had gotten it wrong (eight years later) but they did it quietly.  These people are still tarnished with the lies that Morgan printed about them and they are still banned from Arsenal.

(LadyArse)

…

And if you think that Piers Morgan learned his lesson with this Arsenal ‘story’ don’t forget that this is the man who eventually lost his job because he printed fake pictures of soldiers abusing prisoners in Iraq.

Don’t let anyone think he is the voice of our club when it comes to celebrity supporters. He doesn’t speak for me. He never has and he never will.

…

(LadyArse)

Read the entire report by LadyArse on her website: LadyArse: It’s in your face.

Q&A With Piers Morgan and DarrenArsenal1

(Getty)

1) Hi Piers, so let me start by saying that it seems that to many Arsenal fans you don’t have the greatest of reputations … So is the purpose of this Q&A to convey the real Piers or just to build some bridges?

I don’t feel any need to build bridges. I’ve been an Arsenal fan for 40 years, have held a season ticket for the last 20, and currently own four season tickets and ten Arsenal shares. I’m entitled to my opinions as much as any other Arsenal fan. The difference is that I respect everyone else’s opinion, even if I don’t agree with it, whereas some Arsenal fans refuse to respect mine. That’s their prerogative but I think it’s silly. It’s football, not war. I’m never going to stop supporting Arsenal, nor am I ever going to stop expressing honest opinions.

6) I believe you were on the last shareholder roll at Arsenal, are you still one, or did you sell to Kroenke or Usmanov?

I still own ten Arsenal shares, though I recently transferred one of them to my eldest son his 18th birthday. It’s his proudest possession. He’s an Arsenal nutcase.

7) So why haven’t you sold to either?

I don’t want to sell them –I want to be invested in the club financially as well as emotionally. Gives me the right to express proper opinion, critical and praiseworthy.

10)  Ok so you know this one is coming, and you have recently said sorry regards the Mirrors coverage on Copenhagen , so what happened, why the false coverage?

I was at the game, and it was complete carnage in the square – the worst violence I’ve ever seen at first hand. At one stage I had to run to avoid being caught up in it, as glass was smashing everywhere – a very scary experience. The Mirror did exactly the same with the story as ever other paper – and, as with the sports stories, I didn’t let my Arsenal allegiance get in the way. All the papers, not just the Mirror, slammed many Arsenal fans for behaving like hooligans and causing trouble, and it certainly seemed that way at the time. That was what the police in Denmark were telling everyone. The Club felt so too, which is why they banned 37 of them from the ground. Not because of anything the Mirror published, but because of their own photographic and video evidence. Later, as more facts emerged, it appeared that many of the Arsenal fans involved had been provoked and were defending themselves. And at that point, I realised that all the papers, the Mirror included, had probably jumped to a few wrong conclusions. I’ve since apologised for this, on several occasions publicly, and in private to some of the fans concerned. And those apologies were sincere. But to blame me personally for the bans is ridiculous – just ask the Club.

11) When you say ‘’At that point’’ does it show a disregard for consequence. As seen with some of the points with Levison, it seems the truism of today’s headlines is tomorrows fish and chip paper, has been the case within the newspaper industry, rather than correcting mistakes that have been made, as it doesn’t sit with a business interests to do so. I.e..it doesn’t sell papers.  Do you feel that because of that its fair to say sometimes and with this Copenhagen example there was a journalistic disregard for reporting or correcting errors. No matter what those consequences may have caused?

Daily newspapers have to work at ferocious pace, and occasionally mistakes are made. I think some of those Arsenal fans in Copenhagen were treated very unfairly, with hindsight, and the media have to accept some of the blame for that – including me, as the then editor of the Mirror.

12) Just this week you have been involved in a dispute with an NBC’s Toure about journalistic propriety on the Trayvon Martin case. You told him no proper journalist pre-judged a person’s guilt. So why did the Daily Mirror do that to many Arsenal fans who were in Copenhagen in 2000 often with serious consequences for them?

I’ve answered this above. The photos and video that came out of Copenhagen were very damaging, and looked terrible. That was why so many fans got banned. The real story took a while to come out.

13) Why did it take so long to say sorry?

The facts of what happened took a long time to emerge – there was a lot of claim and counterclaim. The Danish police blamed Arsenal fans for a long time.

14) Are you saying the stories were written on the basis of what the Danish police had told the reporters?

Partly, yes. They were definitely steering the media to blame Arsenal fans.

18) My last question is somewhat aimed at those that believe the coffers are full and the club make a lot of money. Which is not the case at all, the club barely breaks even past transfer dealings. So when explained to most, people start to see what an achievement Arsene has overseen while we have built a stadium and kept competitive. So I ask, given these fact is it not all too easy to criticise without looking at a fuller view?

It’s always easy to criticise, but that’s also the right of every fan – to express an opinion. It’s always been that way, and should always be that way in the future. When I go to games, everyone’s screaming advice, criticism etc to the players and manager – it’s part of the game, part of the fun. My issue with Wenger is that we haven’t won a trophy for 7 years, and I think his strategy of dumping all the Invincibles so fast and replacing them with kids, the best of whom – Fabregas etc – then left the moment they matured, was wrong. We went from being a big, tall, powerful team to a small, technically good but easily-intimidated team. And it didn’t work. That was Wenger’s decision.

19) Well the history of Arsenal as a club, has always been to dismantle teams to early, you can trace that back through the history of the club. You say its Wenger’s decision, but that decision was based on a strategy to pay the bills, build a stadium and stay somewhat competitive. Wenger is a lightening rod for many for a club decision to stay competitive with his hands in his pockets.

I don’t believe money has been the real issue. I think David Dein leaving has been a much bigger problem – without him, Arsene has been dithering in the transfer market and then panic buying. That’s not how you win trophies, as we’ve seen.

Read the entire interview by  @DarrenArsenal1 hosted by www.arsenalvision.co.uk.