Online football content is having its (comparatively poor) version of Frost/Nixon.
In the red corner, is erstwhile Manchester United workhorse and current Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville.
In the other red corner stand the eternally-antagonized denizens of Arsenal Fan TV. Claude, Ty, Troops, and co. are usually profligate with their anger, and last week they directed some of it towards Neville.
During Arsenal's 3-1 defeat at Stamford Bridge, an Arsenal fan was spotted by the Sky cameras waving a homemade sign reading 'Enough Is Enough, Time To Go', presumably referring to the employment status of Arsene Wenger. Neville branded the fan an idiot:
He’s a an idiot that guy.
Arsene Wenger doesn’t deserve that, obviously the Arsenal fans are disappointed, but to pre-empt by bring a banner into the ground, it’s a joke.
Remember, the consistency of finishing in the top four might not be acceptable for Arsenal fans, but the alternative might be that you finish below those positions.
Think about changing your manager, it might be that you don’t finish in the top four for a few seasons, and actually what Arsene Wenger has achieved is fantastic. So, be careful.
Neville doubled down on his criticism on Sky the following day, and cast his net derision wider, encompassing Arsenal Fan TV:
Gary Neville on arsenal fan tv ? pic.twitter.com/JjNFaJIV1F
— Maxy red devil (@Maxpearce007) February 5, 2017
This brought a typically angry response from Robbie Lyle, the host of Arsenal Fan TV. He accused Neville of not respecting the opinion of the fans:
Gary Neville has a right to his opinion, we hear his opinion all the time and we respect his opinion, but does he respect the opinion of the fans?
It's just, for me, indicative of how a lot of the sort of establishment look at fans. We're just treated as second class citizens.
If there's no fans at football it's a dead game. And still, we get treated the worst. There's never any respect, I mean, the whole reason why I started Arsenal Fan TV in the first place was exactly because of the things that Gary Neville said. I wanted to give ordinary fans a voice, because we never, ever used to hear from them. Never. But we're hearing from them now.
And then on twitter, Neville replied to a call-out to say that he would happily accept an invitation to go on the channel.
It happened today, and Arsenal Fan TV uploaded a behind the scenes teaser.
It's time! @GNev2 interview with @Arsenal_Trooper @ArsenalMoh8 @mrdt2016 and @goonerclaude pic.twitter.com/AfU8bKnEMh
— AFTV (@AFTVMedia) February 13, 2017
It took place in the Sky studios ahead of Monday Night Football, and Claude and co. were given free reign of the studio:
Live on MNF we have @Arsenal_Trooper and @goonerclaude 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/fKjay1EF6M
— AFTV (@AFTVMedia) February 13, 2017
The full video is due to be released this week.
