Disdain is the new football chic « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
By Tony Attwood
We have had racist and anti-Semitic chanting, the calling of Arsenal fans paedophiles, and the jeering of managers. Now it is all a bit more chic, a bit more refined, and negativity has turned more into disdain.
Mr Wenger was not booed or jeered this time when Francis Coquelin came on, and the 1-1 result away to Everton looked reasonable – if it were not for the fact we are 7th which is disappointing. But we are getting the possession – 57% in this game. In the end it must turn into some victories. Except that we are now back into the injury run – as one player comes back another goes out.
Rafael Benítez didn’t get booed that much either – or at least not so much as last time round, as he managed to play to 180 minutes without conceding. And without scoring. It wasn’t so good all the time as some Chelsea fans started to sing for Roberto Di Matteo.
The manager set up a rigid system that more or less pumped all the creativity out of the team, with everyone standing more or less where they were told to stand for the kick off. That is called being well-organised. It has nothing to do with flair or unpredictability or creativity.
It also doesn’t start to deal with the fact that he works for an impatient man, nor does it consider the problem that if the players are told to play this rigidly in the end boring will become their style and approach, just like flair, excitement and the unexpected were the style and approach of players like Henry, Piries and Bergkamp.
Elsewhere Sam the Slug at West Ham failed to say anything else highly embarrassing about the anti-Semitic sentiment of some of the supporters of his club.
Fifpro the players union claims that some clubs are blackmailing players into signing new contracts by just leaving them on the bench for games they should be playing in, until they sign. It is hard to feel much sympathy though for anyone who earns more in a half a week than I do in a year.
Meanwhile in Birmingham no one knows whether to laugh or cry as a Hong Kong judge granted the club’s owner a postponement, not to a football match but to his trial on money laundering charges, which was due to start on Wednesday.
The district court judge granted a request by Yeung’s lawyer, to adjourn the trial until 29 April. The case centres around the well-being or otherwise of about £58m. The lawyer in question is the sixth one that Mr Yeung has used in order to unfreeze his assets so he can pay… his lawyer.
Mr Yeung, a former hairdresser, bought Birmingham City FC in 2009 for £81.5m. The club is controlled by Birmingham International – and their shares have been suspended from the Hong Kong stock exchange. BI is trying to sell the club. Mr Yeung’s only previous experience with football was as chairman of Hong Kong Rangers Football Club for one season.
Which makes it odd as to why anyone believed his promise of millions and millions to be invested in Birmingham City.
So what do we make of all this?
Obviously there is the eternal danger that if the AAA ever were able to push out Mr Wenger, then we could end up with the same sort of football that Chelsea now play. If they managed to overthrow the ownership of the club and bring in someone with supposedly a lot of money we could end like Leeds (recently just sold again) or Birmingham (see above) or perhaps Rangers of the Scottish Third.
I don’t like being 7th in the league with the Manchester clubs pushing further away from us, but I am also aware that there are situations that could be a hell of a lot worse. If we want change we should never just push into it, regardless of who we are getting into bed with.