THE 93:20 NEWSLETTER:- ISSUE 25

Author

Howard Hockin
February 07, 2025

Hello, and welcome to Issue 25 of the 93:20 Newsletter. Regular readers will know the drill by now – Chapter 2 of my Thriller script set in the fictional town of Ashburton Grove has once more been delayed for a week, because Arsenal keep being Arsenal, so I have to talk about other stuff, to the extent that this Newsletter has now been renamed Gunner Chat. Geddit? Don’t worry x 2, because I want to talk about some wider issues around football that Arsenal have triggered, and I promise to remain humble whilst doing so. Secondly, that script will be out at some point, this is not a Football Manager 2025 scenario, and I need to pitch it to City and Netflix ASAP.

So off we go.

Another ridiculous week at Arsenal football club, which unfortunately involved City being mentally weak again. Much of the fallout revolved around Arsenal’s simmering feud with Erling Haaland, staying humble, a certain goal celebration, and what we as fans are supposedly allowed to celebrate.

Now, can I surprise you? I had no problem with any of it. If someone had bounced a ball off my head after a late equaliser, I would probably have a simmering desire for revenge. What Halaand did was an impulse action in the heat of the moment towards the end of perhaps the feistiest match of the season, but nevertheless he can’t complain about Arsenal players wanting retribution, and more to the point, Haaland is big enough and man enough to deal with it. Hopefully it will spur him on for future matches. The caveat is that this is separate to the overwhelmingly correct assertion of what utter wet wipes many of Arsenal’s fan base are, what an arse their manager is, and how many of their problems are a natural conclusion to how he sends them out to play. Karma, if you will. But stick around for one final word at the end of this newsletter on the Arsenal fanbase – and thus don’t take the following statement as entirely factual - Arsenal fans are all pussies, and Erling Haaland is their catnip.

My main point was this though – incidents like this, feuds, fall-outs and the like used to be- oh, what’s that word now…? Yeah, that’s it – FUN. Because we all know that the phrase “you don’t want to see things like that” is actually code for “I really, really want to see things like that, but have a moral obligation to pretend otherwise in the modern world in which we live.” It was all handbags, and it was all fun, but it cannot be enjoyed in 2025, only underground. When a game is on your TV in the background, and a couple of players start grappling, our ears prick up like a dog who has heard the word walkies. Ultimately, we want it to end with claret on the shirt, six red cards, managers post-match claiming they didn’t see anything, FA charges and feuds that last for decades.

And now there are threats of punishments for mocking other players with goal celebrations. This may be the sort of media campaign that is almost entirely based on fabrication, but it is increasingly hard to separate fact from fiction nowadays. The idea is of course complete nonsense, and more pertinently, it’s impossible to enforce, because someone needs to decide where the line is drawn, which is like asking Arteta to remain in his technical area at all times. And it is rather ridiculous that pretending to shoot a weapon into the crowd has always been perfectly acceptable, but sitting cross-legged may result in a three-match ban. Make it all make sense. But perhaps the authorities feel the need to constrain footballers, because the fans themselves cannot be trusted. We all know and have seen too many times the archetypal scene of the manwhogoestofootballtoescaphisdisastrouspersonallife stood at the front, veins bulging out of his forehead because an opposition player has scored a goal and then decided to celebrate said goal in his general vicinity. Thus, we must sanitise the sport further, to avoid another kung-fu attack.

Fun has been removed, but then it was removed a long time ago. But the internet is brutal, and Haaland has unwittingly created a meme that will hang over Arsenal if they do not succeed, for a long time. He’s so cool, and ultimately, I cannot deny that Arsenal’s fall from grace on Wednesday evening, perhaps beckoning another trophyless season, was social media at its best. A relentless mocking of humbleness, arrogance and more, that was juvenile, immature, and went too far. I feel guilt for enjoying it all, but then we all possess very basic traits when you boil it down. Maybe I enjoyed it for one simple reason – it was just fun, right?

This week and many previous ones also have got me thinking once more about rivalries, which is where all this online nonsense originates and revolves around. As any City fan reading this will know, rival fan bases have spent a decade both fabricating and denying a rivalry with City, whilst claiming City fans themselves are trying to create them. Thing is, rivalries are shit. Absolute dog shit. In the modern world, that is. Rivalries are created online so that children (and sadly some grown men (almost always men) who should know better) behind anonymous social media accounts can meme their way to recognition and likes, and if really successful, monetise their terrible takes. I would much rather City had no rivals an we could just concentrate once more on the football and winning trophies, whilst others can celebrate individual results, stats, and Tik Tok likes in the 4th quarter of the year (we’ll never sing that). Now back in the real world, City have had a good few big rivalries in recent years, because the absolute definition of a rival is met when you are competing for big trophies with said “rival”. The Liverpool rivalry is real, and the fight for trophies was an apex of managerial genius and football the likes of which have rarely been seen at the top level of English football, as the two teams slugged it out for a few years, waiting to see who blinked first. City’s true rival is naturally United, for obvious reasons, but a rivalry works best when the two teams are on an equal footing, and there has only been a brief sweet spot for that, from 2010-13, in the last 30 years. I’d be perfectly happy if that sweet spot never returned.

My final few words are on TV. Some of you who frequent the likes of Twitter may know a Crystal Palace fan, and all-round good guy HLTCO, who this week released a video on YouTube about how TV coverage is broken. It is worth a watch, and discusses the obvious bias towards the “bigger” teams, as we all know that much journalistic integrity has been replaced with the absolute necessity for hits and likes and retweets of two-minute bad-take videos from Rory Jennings et al. But even if you yourself support a big team, I think it is ignorant to suggest that we are therefore only interested in our team and its rivals. I have had Leyton Orient and Salford City fans on the Opposition Fan podcast in recent weeks, for obvious reasons, and they were easily as interesting as any I have done with other Premier League fans (who themselves have been relentlessly brilliant and interesting), it always being one of the highlights of my week. I have grown up in a hotbed of football, the North West of England, and teams like Bolton Wanderers, Bury, Stockport County, Rochdale and more are part of my journey, not just City. The lower leagues, however far down the pyramid you wish to travel, are fascinating to me, and not just due to my weekly losing accumulator. They are also more interesting to discuss because we know less about them. Ultimately, what is the Overlap going to educate me about Arsenal and Liverpool? I feel I know them well enough already, thank you very much. But a 10-minute Overlap video on Brentford will not get the numbers like a Liverpool one will, or one questioning City’s financial doping.

But this chat does give me finally an opportunity to discuss one particular TV programme, and how we as fans are patronised and dumbed-down, in a way I am fairly sure does not happen in other sports. A classic example in what we have lost as fans is the BT Sport/TNT Goals Show.

Now this show used to be a jewel in the schedule. Imagine a big night of Champions League football. There are quite a few interesting games on, and you are not sure which to watch. Simple solution – watch the BT Sport Goals Show, ably anchored by James Richardson, a show like Soccer Saturday but with panellists who know what they are talking about, and one that showed the goals as they went in. It was excellent.

So naturally, it had to go. Yep, Richardson et al were disposed of, and now we have some cheap imitation, with the likes of Joe Cole waffling on about absolutely nothing, everyone talking over each other and a vibe that totally flops. Occasionally one of the old gang is included, which just exacerbates the issues, as they sit there wondering what they have done to deserve this. Why has this been allowed to happen? I can only speculate that the old show wasn’t getting the numbers, that marketing had interjected and complained about the right demographics not being appealed to, or TNT just wanted to cut costs. So now we get something far inferior, because this is the world we live in. Where quality is no longer important, just advertising revenue. Rory Jennings wondering if Erling Haaland is actually any good will bring in a whole lot more attention than James Richardson eloquently explaining in two minutes how Gian Piero Gasperini masterminded a win at Anfield. And perhaps this is all inevitable in a world where advertising revenue is necessary because, as I have found out all too well, most people want and expect all their content for free. So - you get what you pay for.

A final, final word as promised, for last week’s opposition fan – Paul, a friend/colleague of Lloyd and Arsenal fan. A lovely chat was had, he was a true gentleman and at the end he complimented me on my questions (just thought I’d drop that in). A timely reminder that the internet is not real life. It does not reflect the wider world, thankfully. Not all Arsenal fans wear tin foil hats, not all City fans think the media is out to get them (they are) and not all Liverpool fans sleep with a huge flag that they wave on the Kop. We just like to think all that. Because, at the end of the day, it’s fun to do so.

WHAT WE HAVE DONE THIS WEEK

THE 93:20 REVIEW – HUMBLED

Ahsan and Lloyd try and make sense of the awful capitulation to Arsenal.

STATE OF PLAY – FEBRUARY 2025

Ahsan is joined by Howard and Lloyd to look at the state of play at City. Rating the transfer window, squad, rest of the season and more.

NO HISTORY – SPAIN

Howard and Joe look at the past and present of the Spanish players who have worn the short of Manchester City. A mixed bag perhaps, but when they were good…

OPPOSITION FAN(S) – LEYTON ORIENT

Howard is joined by Steve and Paul from the Orient Outlook podcast to talk about the O’s. Rise and fall, a manager going places, magic of the cup and much more!

THE HUB:- EPISODE 25

Special guest Miguel L Pereira joins Bailey to discuss the differences between Spanish and Portuguese football, the development of Nico Gonzalez, and what kind of an impact he could have for Manchester City.

THE WEEKEND SHOW

You know the score. A bumper show, looking at ticket prices, the week that was, a trip to Leyton Orient and more!

COMING UP

Two more Hub shows on the way, looking at Pep and wingers, and City’s transfer business. Plus, the usual reviews, previews and more as Real Madrid head to town, for a change.

If you are not a subscriber to our player shows, then enjoy some free samples of what we are about. Every show we do will have a 15 minutes sample on Soundcloud, along with a full, free weekly Friday show, jam- packed with content. Give it a try!