An Apology To Our Loyal Subscribers

This is what was sent to the 10,000+ Arsenal supporters on our mailing list on Thursday afternoon and specifically apologises to our loyal Gooner Fanzine subscribers for the late delivery of issue 300 of our publication. 

Getcha Gooner: An Apology 

This special newsletter is to apologise for the late delivery of issue 300 to all our loyal subscribers. 

Unfortunately, we have been let down by our Mailing House which has meant no issues of 300 have been sent out yet. 

I only found this out today, Thursday, after taking a short break after burning the midnight oil getting issue 300 to the printers in time for Chelsea last week, after a very long season. 

Upon my return I received a large number of messages from loyal subscribers enquiring when issue 300 would be received, so I checked with our publishers.

Who in turn did some digging only to find out that the Mailing House (the people responsible for putting finished copies into envelopes and getting the Royal Mail to pick them up and send them) completely and utterly failed in their job, which has meant boxes and boxes of Gooners simply lying around at their end.

I’m a loyal person but I feel really let down by such poor service. We have had a few issues in the past where we have covered up for the Mailing House, but not this time. 

Our whole strategy around the Save the Gooner campaign has been based around loyal subscribers receiving our celebratory issue No300, which has returned to 68 pages in full colour.

But that has now been delayed, because, well, nothing has been sent out yet by people who couldn’t be bothered to let me know. 

They didn’t even have the decency to let me know so I could let everyone know last week. It was only when I checked today that they admitted that they had been sitting on them for a long while now. 

The Gooner is a labour of love and I live and breathe it as do so many people associated with it – and I feel so utterly let down by people who have proved they simply don’t care about what we do.

Please note this is nothing to do with our publishers, who have always done their best for us. This is to do with the Mailing House, which is a completely separate entity in the process. 

If the Mailing House had just told me that there were going to be delays then we would have dealt with it and informed you all last week.

Everyone has problems, everyone makes mistakes and I would have accepted that.

But to not give a flying so-and-so about their job – which is get the Gooner Fanzine out to people in time – is simply unforgivable in my book, because it shows they don’t care about something that I live and breathe. 

I won’t be naming names because that’s not my style, suffice to say, without going full Elon Musk about it, I’ve sacked them.  

However, I take full responsibility for this problem. The buck stops with me, the editor and we’re taking steps to remedy the process of getting the copies out to you all right now.

In the meantime, please accept my sincere apologies for the unnaceptable delay.

To confirm: We are now in the process of getting all copies out to subscribers from today onwards. 

Please note if you are a matchgoing subscriber and would like a copy on Sunday at Arsenal vs Brighton instead of the one that is now finally in the process of being sent, then take your subscriber number (or subscription receipt) with you to show one of our sellers and they’ll give you a free copy – which I will fund out of my own pocket. 

If you are not at the ground on Sunday, please accept my apologies once again for the delay which will mean you should now receive issue 300 by the end of next week at the latest, touch wood. 

Once again, please accept my apologies for this problem and thank you for your patience – and hopefully your continued support of the Gooner Fanzine. 

Sorry,

Layth 

Gooner Fanzine editor