Arsenal To Sign Midfielder To Big Money Contract?

The thing about headlines is by and large they are designed to grab your attention, not a one line synopsis of what you are about to read. If headlines weren’t sensationalist to a degree then most people would have no reason to buy a newspaper or click a link. The problem with using sensationalism to garner traffic for your website is it often leads to a lot of anger. Some are angry because they feel hoodwinked into visiting your page whilst others are angry about what the headline infers and usually miss what the content is conveying.

Yesterday news broke that Arsene Wenger would consider offering Diaby a new contract if he proved his fitness. If being the operative word. Now if that was the headline most people who clicked on those links probably would not have done. Those who did click on the title are split mainly into two groups, those who read the actual comments and are quite serene about the whole thing, and those who took the headline to heart and started posting diatribe about wasting money etc.

Headlines such as ‘Diaby Set For New Contract?’ or ‘Wenger Hints At New Contract For Diaby’ make people click because they want to know why.

“Why is Diaby being offered a new contract? He’s not fit at the moment. I hope Wenger isn’t going to say he’s our new CDM and he won’t be buying anyone in January. I must click on this link and find out what has been said.”

The actual, quite tepid, comments from Wenger on Diaby make for less interesting – albeit more accurate – headlines and thus will procure fewer clicks. The headlines used are intentionally misleading but not overly mendacious. They contain a dash of verisimilitude albeit tempered with a large helping of prestidigitation. A truth-lie if you will.

My own headline today was specifically written to highlight this. By using a question mark I can make the argument that the headline is a question not a statement and therefore is not misleading. However, it is misleading and deliberately so. I have used punctuation to reduce my mendacity knowing full well that the majority of readers who clicked based on the headline would not have read the headline with punctuation.

I have replaced Diaby with ‘Midfielder’ to attract more interest as I know people will click hoping to see confirmation or a rumour that Arsenal are signing a player we desperately need. It is disingenuous but not entirely false because Diaby is a midfielder. Similarly ‘Big Money’ contract is deceptive but containing an element of veracity if perception is taken into account.

The money footballers earn is technically ‘big money’ to the vast majority of people whom earn less in a year than most of these players make in a week.

So with a little punctuation, a pinch of perspective and a heap of specious intention I have turned the headline “Arsenal Could Offer Diaby New Contract If He Proves Fitness” to the more inciting “Arsenal To Sign Midfielder To Big Money Contract?”.

I have deliberately mislead many of you into reading this post and for that I apologise however many reading this article may have, or will know of  people who have, taken to social media, or to their fellow fans at work or in the pub, to rant and rave about the running of the club and their views on the manager and how the Diaby contract epitomises everything that is wrong with the club etc etc.

We all have views on the way the club is run and managed and people are angry or concerned at our perceived regression this season however we don’t have to get angry over such exiguous issues. Our inter-fan interaction is baleful enough as it is at the moment without arguing ad nauseam over deliberately disingenuous headlines.

Diaby isn’t getting a new contract unless he can prove his long-term fitness and surely we can all agree that a fully fit Diaby is a boon thus rendering the whole if argument defunct?

Thanks for reading! Please comment on this post, subscribe by email, share with friends and follow me on twitter (@thedanielcowan). Please check out the official NLIR Facebook page http://facebook.com/northlondonisredblog for news, views, freebies and more. 

Don’t forget to tune into the funniest Arsenal podcast around “Goonersphere Podcast“