By Daniel Finton (Deputy Editor)
What up, Pimps?
Welcome one, and welcome all to the 28th installment of the Finton's Frolic Right Opinion Zone. In today's edition, I will be discussing whether or not fan mediums such as AFTV are responsible for Gooners' thunderous presence on social media.
For the past few years now, fan channels have taken the football world by storm with the ever-controversial, AFTV leading the charge. I'm not gonna lie either, from time to time I splurge and watch their videos. Generally speaking I find them to be consistently captivating. There is actually a surprising amount of supporters on the platform who know ball and those who aren't as blessed with knowledge make up for the shortcoming with charisma and funniness.
The faces of the platform right after the main man and founder, Robbie Lyle, who go by the names DT and Troopz, actually have quite an impressive conglomeration of both understanding of the game and an eye-catching presence too. As for Robbie, he is an incredibly loveable and gifted presenter who steers the ship that's home to over 1-million digital passengers.
So really, there is no doubt in my mind as to why platforms like AFTV and numerous others are so well-liked by an abundance of people. It's quite refreshing to see normal people draped in normal clothes discuss the team they love rather than being decked out in a suit that costs half of my Honda Civic. Often times the professional pundits on TV come off as dismissively pompous and as the British Pimps out there would say, "posh". When it's normal fans in front of a camera rather than former pros who have a multi-hundred pound trim, that aura of arrogance is not nearly as potent and normal peasants like you and I relate more to them.
That's the geniusness behind AFTV and other fan mediums summed up though and because of that relatability they are thriving and seemingly promoting being a super fan. I hold the belief that the introduction of fan mediums has lead to Arsenal supporters in particular having an even greater booming presence on every social media platform than it has ever been. Arguably the most prominent in football and sports as a whole.
Gooners have always been a wildly passionate bunch but in my opinion it seems like the craziness has been accentuated since the arrival of AFTV in particular. While many old school fans find the dialogue of our fans somewhat negative, which at times it admittedly is, I have to say, I find the insanity of our support oddly charming. Say what you like about Arsenal fans, especially the incredibly controversial ones that which I don't like many of, but they are never afraid to put themselves out there and have their voice heard.
The presence the Reds Of London have around the globe is made obvious on social media almost every single day. On every post from every news outlet and even other clubs, if it has even the tiniest of somethings to do with Arsenal, Gooners will flood the comments flexing their pride for the side with hilariously useless comments like "Arsenal" or a pattern of red and white circle emojis, and that's literally all they will say.
Recently, Dani Ceballos posted a picture with Sergio Ramos on international duty and I wanted to see just how many comments I'd have to rummage through to find someone saying "Ramos to Arsenal" or something like that, I was not left disappointed. Four. Four comments and there it was. A Gooner made the top four but his football team can't. We're a different breed as supporters though, as the football twitter accounts of every club say, "we're gargantuan".
Fan mediums have made passion and madness "the thing" to do from my perspective and honestly, it makes for good fun and long may it continue. Rivalries are more intense than I've ever witnessed as an Arsenal fan and the love, passion, happiness and despair one can feel in just one week because of the avidness of others who also support the club has increased tenfold. I mean, with Gabriel's long-running transfer saga people were cloud tracking and plant studying for fucks sake. That is just awesome.
Well anyways, that's the philosophical Finton's view on fan channels and I know many will disagree because a great deal absolutely despise the channels but remember, if you disagree, you're wrong because this is the FFROZ (Finton's Frolic Right Opinion Zone).
That's all for this week's edition, folks. As ever, thanks for the read and be sure to keep being maniacs on social media and in general as well. Until next time, I bid thee a bat shit crazy, flight tracking and cloud watching Toodloo...!
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