Paul Gardiner from Kent was not impressed when his son Charlie, aged 6, said he wanted to start backing Liverpool or Man City over the Arsenal. The dad, an ardent Arsenal fan, thought of a way to stop his son from shifting allegiance. He penned a fake letter to his son from Arsenal players Arsene Wenger and Alexis Sanchez.

The letter in full reads:

Dear Charlie,

I spoke to your dad this morning and was upset to learn you want to support Liverpool FC and Manchester City FC like your friends.

Both myself and the players, especially Alexis Sanchez who I know is your favourite player, love having you as an Arsenal supporter and hope you carry on supporting us for many years along with your Daddy.

We hope we can the league & FA Cup this year, we are currently top of the league and as I am sure you know, we have won the FA Cup in the last two years. Why would you want to support Liverpool – a club who haven’t won anything for many years?

I have told your daddy to bring you and your sister Evie to watch a game at Arsenal soon, Alexis has told me he can’t wait for you to see him play and he will try to score lots of goals for you.

Listen to your daddy when he says Arsenal is the best – he is right!

We look forward to having you at Arsenal very soon.

Kind regards,

Arsene Wenger and Alexis Sanchez

Paul’s letter went viral with many applauding the dad’s originality. And it worked too!