Is the tide turning against thuggish football? « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger in all he does
Celebrating the remarkable honesty of Danny Murphy.
By Ian Trevett
It doesn’t need me to point out that Arsenal have been kicked around a fair bit over the last few years. Three smashed legs in five years isn’t a co-incidence, as everyone knows that ‘the only way to play Arsenal is to get in their faces and let them know you are there’.
The problem for Arsene Wenger is that complaining has often made the situation worse. It is no secret that the northern mafia of useless managers can’t stand Wenger and his refusal to join their chummy golf and post-match wine club. They’ll send out their cloggers and when Wenger complains they’ll attempt ridicule him.
The reason Wenger complains is that his pretty little team can’t cope with the strong tackling in the English game, they’ll smugly argue. And the more Wenger gets irate the more they believe the tactics work. So they pile in harder and become more aggressive.
If they go too far and destroy a player’s career, they’ll tell the world what a lovely bloke the aggressor is and how he’d never deliberately hurt an opponent. Even then, Wenger can’t complain as people actually feel sorry for the poor guy who has broken a fellow pro’s leg. “He comes from a lovely family,” as Pulis loves to say.
But in recent weeks, the tide has started to turn. De Jong breaks Ben Arfa’s leg and not even a card is shown. Predictably the studio pundits says it was just unlucky.
But Newcastle refuse to accept the mealy-mouthed apologies and demand action. And so they should. Holland then refuse to pick De Jong to spell out their repulsion at his ‘tackle’.
When Shawcross smashed Ramsey’s leg, England rewarded Shawcross with an immediate call-up. It was so swift, Ramsey was probably still in the ambulance. It felt like a reward the Stoke player. Of course Holland were no angels in the World Cup final, but perhaps they have decided to make a stand to restore their reputation.
The unhinged tackling of Henry from Wolves has finally provoked a strong response, but best of all was the speech from a most unlikely source – Danny Murphy. He has always been a combative player, but he has decided that the tactics employed by some managers has gone too far.
By highlighting the aggression from Blackburn, Stoke and Wolves, he has now shone the spotlight on the real dinosaurs of English football. He talked about how they just try to stop people playing and how the managers send the players too pumped up.
It was a brave speech as it challenges the English way of play (a way of play that has ensured our national team has stayed light years behind Spain and Germany). Straight away the forces of brain dead football came out to rubbish him. Dave Bassett criticised Murphy for accusing Allardyce, Pulis and McCarthy of sending out players to deliberately hurt opponents (Murphy never said this at all).
The best thing about the stance by Newcastle, Murphy and Holland is that it turns the attention on the neanderthal management of Pulis, Allardyce and co. and they can’t just dismiss it as bleating from Wenger. It is just the start but at last the advocates of thuggish football are having to justify their out-dated tactics.