Arsenal’s players have been branded ‘entitled, overpaid and rude’ after the club shared footage of them ‘ignoring’ a young mascot as they signed her shirt before their game against West Ham on Sunday.
The video shows manager Mikel Arteta and his players filing past eight-year-old Olivia and writing on the replica top, but apparently failing to acknowledge the youngster as she gazed at them in admiration.
One of the stars was Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard, picked out by Olivia as her favourite player in the matchday programme, who approached her with his earphones in before briskly signing the shirt and walking away.
Other players including Aaron Ramsdale, Bukayo Saka and Granit Xhaka all signed the shirt, but despite the girl being sweetly heard saying thank you, they appeared to hardly acknowledge her.
The ‘classless’ behaviour drew the ire of social media users including lifelong Gunners fan Piers Morgan, who wrote: ‘Come on guys, at least one of you say hello to her?!!’ It is unclear whether Olivia enjoyed any further interactions with the players before or after the Premier League leader’s 2-2 draw away at the London Stadium.
Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard appears to ignore a young mascot in footage shared by the club at the weekend
The Gunners have been heavily criticised on social media for appearing to ignore the girl
Arsenal fan Piers Morgan was one of many who took to Twitter to slam the club over the video
Arsenal captioned the video ‘making memories with our mascot’ and shared it on Twitter on Sunday.
But it prompted an instant backlash, with critics including TV presenter Nick Knowles.
He wrote: ‘I suggest @Arsenal you get her and her family back and give your players another go at being decent human beings – admittedly they’d have to be coached into it but it might be something that sticks with some of them if it’s pointed out’.
Another fan wrote on Twitter: ‘Not even a quick “hello”… if this is the sort of player-fan interaction you think is social media worthy, I dread to think how the players behave when the cameras aren’t rolling.’
A second said: ‘Would help if they acknowledged the poor little girl!! Clowns,’ while a third called the players ‘entitled, over paid and rude’.
Emily, a Manchester United fan, wrote: ‘She’d have far better memories if one of them gave eye contact or were bothered to acknowledge the girl. Rude and entitled springs to mind!’
Meanwhile, a supporter of Championship club Middlesbrough tweeted: ‘Embarrassing… Think Ben White was the only one who made some sort of gesture toward her. Before people moan saying “what do you expect them to do” a simple “Hello” would suffice’.
Fans also slammed Arsenal stars over their abrupt interaction with the young supporter
Television presenter Nick Knowles called on the club to invite her back to another match
Mail Sport has approached Arsenal for comment.
Radio host Laura Woods weighed in on the debate this morning, saying the incident is ‘symptomatic’ of modern football.
‘It doesn’t take a lot just to acknowledge somebody and [give] a little smile,’ she said on talkSPORT’s Breakfast show. ‘It’s quite symptomatic that video I think of football now or footballers now.
‘What’s a bit disappointing is, and to add a little bit more context to it, I actually messaged the club because the club put it out and I think they put it out thinking “they’ve all stopped and signed the shirt, this is great, look what they’re doing”. But maybe that in itself is the problem, that somewhere along the line there’s become a disconnect between what you’re meant to do for those kind of mascots.
But she also defended the club, saying the exchange would have only been one part of the mascot’s matchday experience.
‘That’s not the only interaction she had with the players. She was a mascot, she went out on the pitch with them as well, they would have been on the pitch during warm-ups, and I think sometimes with these things with footballers there’s a lot of things we don’t see.
‘That’s not excusing that video, because I watched it a couple of times over and after I watched it I went, “oh wait but was it cut off after?” But I went back and watched it and they didn’t, they carried on.
‘So I think maybe it’s quite a good lesson, just the reaction of the normal fans, what they’re seeing and what we’re seeing. Perhaps it’s just a lesson that I understand it’s a pre-match routine and perhaps you’re in your little bubble and I get that, but how long does it take just to make eye contact or something?’
Some Twitter users attempted to defend Arsenal by saying it was before a big game in a title race, but others said this did not make any difference
One fan also echoed Woods and leaped to Arsenal’s defence on Twitter, insisting mascots are treated to a wide range of luxuries on the day.
They posted: ‘My younger brother was a mascot for Arsenal. This is just one part of the whole experience.
‘Once the players are settled, the mascot meets them all, has chats and gets pictures. The reaction to this has been absolutely mental’.
Later that afternoon, Arsenal suffered a major dent to their Premier League title hopes when they blew a two-goal lead for the second successive week.
Having also been held to a 2-2 draw at Liverpool after initially leading 2-0, Arteta’s men were again pegged back by West Ham despite scoring twice inside the opening 10 minutes.
Gabriel Jesus and Martin Odegaard fired them into an early two-goal lead at the London Stadium, only for Said Benrahma’s penalty to bring the hosts back into the game.
Arsenal went on to suffer a huge setback as they blew a two-goal lead against West Ham
And when Bukayo Saka sent a spot-kick of his own wide in the second half, Jarrod Bowen went down the other end three minutes later and netted what proved the all-important equaliser.
As a result, Arsenal now lead Manchester City at the top of the table by just four points having played a game more than their title rivals, and with a mouthwatering showdown between the two clubs to come at the Etihad next week.
‘We made a huge mistake to stop playing with the same purpose to score the third and fourth one and just thinking we could play around them and just looked too easy,’ Arteta said after their latest setback.
‘We didn’t understand what the game required in the moment. We need that ruthless mindset in those moments to go and kill a team. When the game is there for the killing you have to do it. Today we haven’t.’
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