Gunners in the gutter
MICHAEL HENDERSON
The footballers are fighting again. The tribes of Manchester United and Arsenal are unruly and resentful, and defying the world. Oblivious to the scorn of others and the besmirching of their own reputations, they have sought that most challenging of restingplaces, the moral high ground, unaware, despite many centuries of bitter human experience, that the winds blow chill there, the nights are long and dark, and there is no respite from their enemies. (Keep going — Ed.)
Or, to put it a simpler way, what a mardy bunch of mummies' boys Arsenal have become (we can leave Manchester United off this charge-sheet, pausing only to note that Ruud van Nistelrooy, their Dutch centre forward, worships all too frequently at the shrine of Thespis). And what a deluded man their French coach, Arsene Wenger, is if he thinks that the world has suddenly taken against the Gunners on a whim. In an attempt to divert attention away from the appalling disciplinary record of his gifted, pampered players, who have been ordered from the field no fewer than 52 times on his watch, he has blamed the media, visual and written, for the invitations issued to six of those men by the Football Association to answer a full set of disciplinary charges.
Diddums. The FA should act with conviction in this matter, and conviction means banning Martin Keown, the ringleader in the fracas at Old Trafford for, oh, shall we say ten matches? The defender's ugly behaviour after van Nistelrooy had missed a late penalty was the work of a child who doesn't get his way rather than of a man who has spent 20 years in professional sport. It was unpardonable, and to hear his manager pardon it with words of sheer sophistry (Wenger, like all football managers, sees only what he wants to) was to be reminded why the game stinks to high heaven.
There was a time when Arsenal's players knew they represented a great club, and behaved with the self-respect that usually accompanies such knowledge. If they fell short of the standards that were expected, the directors would let them know. Now, it is fair to say, the players and the club's guardians deserve one another. Keown gums like a demented adolescent because an opponent misses a penalty, and other players assist him, seeking a physical confrontation. Golly, how brave these boys are! How long do you think actors like Robert Fires and Ashley Cole would last on a rugby field, where there is real physical danger every time a player gets the ball? A minute, did somebody whisper? That long? Or would they take one look at who they were up against, and catch the next bus home?
Sadly, few people within the game will use the words that need to be spoken. No sooner had Alan Smith, who once played for Arsenal, issued the gentlest of rebukes to the players than he offered himself as Mr Valiant-for-Truth, the man who can't be gagged! 'I'm not very popular in the dressing-room,' he bleated. They think I should have been more supportive.' To whom? To what? Get off your knees, you feeble time-server, and for once in your life, just once, tell the real truth, which is: Arsenal have behaved like pigs, and the biggest trotters belong to the manager. It's time for the FA to get the spit out. Let's all have a bite.
Previous page
