rodders999 wrote:
Money no, freebies and junkets yes.
Although he must have gotten a few quid for the book to be included in the membership pack.
Hello, someone told me about this thread, feel rather like a christian in the lion's den, but still need to clarify a couple of things.
1- Yes, I did a deal with the club regarding the book and the membership pack. I think it's a good book about Arsenal, it wasn't done to get in with the club or anything else. It was just business. Everyone's gotta eat.
2 - I've never had any kind of freebie or junket. Ever. I've been invited to a few things which might have included tickets/watch a game from a box, I've always turned them down.
I did attend a 'look around' of the medical facilities, but I paid for myself to travel from Dublin and back because when the hell else am I ever going to look at the training ground or get to talk to Colin Lewin etc? It was just interesting from a fan's point of view. I wrote a piece about it, and was quite up front about the fact I was aware they were doing it as a bit of PR. Other bloggers attended, I did my tour with Goonerholic, after me was Le Grove and Real Gunner and there may have been others.
3 - I've never met Ivan Gazidis. I did an interview with him once which was supposed to be for a podcast but the club wouldn't allow me to broadcast it so it had to be done as a transcript instead.
4 - I may not be as harsh as some people but I'm certainly critical when I think it's merited. I just can't get into the abuse that goes with so much of the criticism these days.
5 - It's not my full-time job but it is a big part of what I do. I realise it's not to everyone's taste, there's plenty of other blogs and sites out there for people who don't like it. But I also do it because I'm an Arsenal fan, I have been for as a long as I can remember, just like all of you, I guess.
6 - The official site links to a lot of blogs, not just mine. They have 13m Facebook fans, 2m Twitter followers (I have 32000 FB and 100,000 Twitter), they don't need me or anyone else to do their job for them.
And while you can now tear me to shreds if you want, I just wanted to make it clear that accusations freebies/payments/junkets etc are off the mark and I hope you appreciate why anyone would want to do what I just did.
cheers.