UNTOLD ARSENAL » 2008 » October » 01

This is what I don’t understand: when Eboue did the step over step over soon after he came on, on the right hand side ten yards or so into the opposition half (it was just in front of me so that’s why I particularly noticed it), there was a lot of laughter around my part of the ground (maybe everywhere but it is hard to know).   People were saying things like, “I’ve never seen anything like that before,” – and there was applause too.  It was a display that was liked and welcomed by a man who does not come across (to some of us at least) as very likeable.

(And yes I know we don’t really have a way of knowing if someone is likeable or not just from their body language and the way they appear to get off the team bus, and anyway they are footballers not public personalities – but its just how he seems to me, and when I put that point to my mates, generally they agreed).

As a footballing move, the step over didn’t work, because the Porto player took the ball off Eboue, but as a piece of theatre it was wonderful.  Frustrating too, because it didn’t work in a football sense, but wonderful.  I doubt that you will ever see it on any other ground.

In the “10 Man” post I tried (obviously with zero success) to make a joke out of it – suggesting that Wenger had put on an entertainer instead of a footballer – but that’s always how it is, if you try and go down a different route (especially with humour) sometimes you have success, other times not.

But I really don’t want to give up on this moment, because I just wonder if Eboue did it because he really thought it would bamboozle the opponent, or if he did it just for a laugh.

Obviously I don’t know the guy at all, and I have no insights into his personality beyond his body language, but it would be lovely to think that knowing that he is not the most loved player in the Arsenal ranks at the moment, that he thought, I’ll do something really different – I’ll give those buggers something to smile about.

He tried it again a few moments later in exactly the same spot in front of the same supporters, with the trickery that ended up with the back heel going the wrong way – that second attempt made me think he was having fun, and gave me the idea for the little piece I did earlier.

But my point is this: I really do hope he was having a laugh – a laugh at people who have criticised him – because we always need people who bring the extra fun into football.   Wouldn’t it just be something if Eboue, of all people, started to develop a repetoire of tricks which are pulled out (although preferably when we are 4-0 up)?

Then we would know he was doing it for fun, and that he was one of us, in the sense of sharing the stadium, being part of the broader Arsenal picture.

One other snippet from me: it is particularly interesting that after six months or so of writing this blog, and building up a readership of 60,000 a month with a text which is remorselessly supporting Arsenal and Arsene Wenger, irrespective of what has gone on, being positive about the lack of signings for a defensive midfielder, being positive about Eboue when he played central midfield, and all that, that the moment I write a piece which (if read in a particular way) looks like it is a criticism, I get told what a tosser I am.   I don’t mind – if I were that sensitive I wouldn’t do a blog – but it is interesting – especially since I thought I was writing a funny piece.

I think in part it shows that the blog is constantly collecting new readers – indeed if you search through the recent comments you’ll find there’s even one on an earlier post from a CSKA Fulham supporter (God he must be bored if he is reduced to reading Arsenal blogs).

Anyway, I found the response (many of which are not published because they were either too obscene, or accusing me of being a racist, or just too boring for words) really interesting.   And I still don’t know if Eboue was having a laugh or not.

This irony stuff is harder than it looks.

Tony