Press Semiotics Violently Upended by Men with Hyphenated Last Names

Is Peter Wood-Hogg or whatever his name is actually giving Arsène Wenger the dreaded vote of confidence?

“Of course he has my backing. What he has done for the club over the last 12 years has been fantastic,” Hill-Wood told Arsenal TV.

“We are only a third of the way through the season and we have had a few disappointing results – but you do not lose faith in a man like him after three or four bad results. It is a ridiculous suggestion really.”

What he says is of course literally correct: it is a ridiculous suggestion. But the chairman of Arsenal is surely aware that in the modern media statements of this nature cannot help but mean the opposite of their literal content. Isn’t he? Why is he making a statement like this to Arsenal TV, if not to apply pressure to Wenger?