The thought of a child betraying the family allegiances to support the same clubs as his school chums is too much to bear for some parents. As a result, one Arsenal fan who found himself in this position went so far as to forge a letter from Arsene Wenger in a desperate bid to win back his son.

My lad said he wanted to support Liverpool so I wrote him this! Sorry for nicking…. https://t.co/ILSvSKPEUA pic.twitter.com/u8yDGUXE6Q

— Paul Gardiner (@PaulGardinerDJ) January 21, 2016

The “private & confidential” letter reads:

Dear Charlie,

I spoke to your dad this morning and was upset to learn you want to support Liverpool FC & 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 win 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 2 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

Putting aside the irony of his attempt to dissuade his son’s switch by citing Liverpool’s trophy drought after Arsenal only recently overcame an even longer drought of their own, Charlie’s dad tweeted the letter he wrote, along with his apologies

“My lad said he wanted to support Liverpool so I wrote him this! Sorry for nicking your letterhead @arsenal and your signature @Alexis_Sanchez,” he said.

It’s unclear if the letter worked…or if one of Charlie’s friends wrote a fake letter from Jurgen Klopp offering to send Kolo Toure to his house to help him wash dishes in exchange for his support.