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Interesting to see discussions resurface around Partey and views of his signing- particularly from, quote unquote, the analytics community. The first thing to say I think is someone can be a good player but a bad signing from a squad build perspective.
(I’m not necessarily saying that’s my view on Partey, I haven’t really made up my mind). But I think it brings up other interesting issues. We’re always sensitive about criticism or perceived criticism of our clubs. This is nothing new.
But increasingly, the most important thing for fans is big money signings, so if someone has a sceptical view of an exciting new signing or contract, we react especially emotionally and negatively to that.
One of the reasons fans love new signings so much is because they fire our imaginations. In our minds, the new signing fixes all of our issues and we don’t like that fantasy being pricked.
Also, increasingly, online discussion is so polemic and there is a determination to view every perspective as either ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ and this is very reductive-often perspectives are neither negative nor positive and aren’t to be undertaken or opposed.
It’s possible to entertain a thought without accepting it. But this binary prism leads us to ‘gotcha’ moments. So when Partey has a great game, lots of people rush to the mentions column of the dude who cast doubt on the signing to point fingers and call them a dickhead.
All of which is to say, discussing things on the internet is often tiring because of these binaries we create and football and politics are two of the most fertile grounds for it.
And of course, everyone is welcome not to care about this stuff and just watch the games. Nobody is preventing anyone from doing that. We can all take the option to ignore discussions that don’t appeal to us.
I guess as a final coda, a lot of people seem to think analytics or discussing squad building is somehow a ‘killjoy’ activity and it isn’t at all. Lots of people (myself included) really enjoy these discussions. Again, not everything is ‘negative’ or ‘positive.’
