Angry fans
PREMIERSHIP football is played at such a frantic pace because most teams in the league lack the skills to slow the game down. Just look at how an old side like AC Milan are able to control the pace of a game by keeping possession of the ball. Milan are no longer able to do it week in, week out, in Serie A but I have a feeling they are really going to turn it on for the big european games. Starting tonight against Arsenal.
TICK tock, tick tock. Lose tomorrow against Olympiacos and it’s goodbye and good luck to Avram Grant.
In fairness, Mike, if ever there was a Premiership side which favoured the fluent over the frantic, it's Arsenal. But that said, I agree that Milan will have too much know-how for them in the San Siro tonight. As for Chelsea - one Carling Cup final defeat and the knives are out for Avram Grant. Did the win over West Ham make him a genius again? Crazy old-fashiomned idea, I know but why not give the man a chance.
THE Met Police want clubs to pay the costs of policing football matches. This might be fair enough for the half-dozen of the richest clubs in the Premier League but it will be disastrous for lower echelon organisations. And it’s likely the costs will be passed on to fans. Why should football clubs be penalised? Nightclubs and pubs are open seven nights a week and the annual bill for dealing with drunkenness far exceeds the €10m for stewarding football fans.
Good shout, Stephen. On the other hand, the cops probably deserve a few bob for having to watch Derby v Sunderland.
ANOTHER weekend, and another rotten set of refereeing decisions involving Chelsea. Setting aside the perfectly good goal by Anelka which was disallowed, the sending-off of Lampard by Peter Walton and his inept linesman was ludicrous and caused entirely by the rabid and baying hordes at West Ham who can’t forgive Lampard after hounding him out of the club. The red card should be rescinded. Lucky for West Ham he was dismissed however, they could have been on the receiving end of an 8-0.
WHAT’S the point of the FA having an appeals procedure if they then punish individuals further for making an appeal? The additional game’s ban given to Jérémie Aliadière of Middlesbrough for an innocuous push is totally wrong. His opponent, Mascherano of Liverpool, who also raised his arm and started the incident has escaped without censure. Neither player’s actions were violent or remotely dangerous. And Aliadière is now missing for four games. No wonder so many people hold the football authorities in contempt.
Indeed. Another weekend, another rotten set of refereeing decisions in the Angry Fans column. Cork Blue knows what's coming. He's already turned his back and is striding towards the tunnel. What are the chances of a successful appeal, do you think?
THE dreadful injury to Eduardo has given a lot of ammunition to all of those who want to turn football into a non-contact sport. But whatever the 30,000 people who have signed the online petition organised by a Croatian paper to get Martin Taylor banned for life might think, the tackle was simply a part of football which went wrong. Wenger didn’t help the hysteria with his intemperate comments and although he retracted them later, there is a part of his statement that he didn’t withdraw when he said “if this is football, it is better to stop it.” He’s as wrong in that as he was in his original demand for a lifetime ban. The pressure is getting to him.
WHAT a bunch of sick fans they must be supporting Villa and Tottenham and chanting about the injury to Eduardo. How right was Wenger in his post-match comments: “Intelligence and stupidity have no limits, but stupidity is sometimes noisier.”
Don't think sick fans are exclusive to Villa and Spurs Tom but I'd like to think that even their noise is drowned out by the general mood of sympathy and goodwill - at all clubs - for poor Eduardo.
I HAVE been waiting all season for the signs that Arsenal are going to crack, and now they’re coming thick and fast with a very lucky draw in added-on time against Villa. Their squad is not deep enough when it’s compared with the depth at Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge, and this really was apparent at the start of the season. Since then Van Persie has been regularly injured, Eduardo sadly removed from the equation, Diarra moved on in double quick time, and Gilberto has been increasingly malcontent. It might be pretty football but can Arsenal really go for a fourth season without lifting some silverware? And they still have away matches to come in the league against United and Chelsea.
Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that Arsenal are still top of the table?
SO Andriy Shevchenko wants to move back to Milan, and is house-hunting there already. Most of us have forgotten that he even existed. Has there ever been a more expensive failure or greater warning about the dangers of buying once-golden players who are past their date. How much money will Chelsea lose on this deal? How much have they lost on others? Their transfer policy is a joke.
Always nice to hear from you, Jose.
SO Liam, how much longer do you give Kevin Keegan before the great Geordie axe falls on his head? Seven games played. No wins. Three points above the relegation zone. Isn’t a period on the Championship exactly what this club needs to put its house in order?
WHAT does Mike Ashley expect? He spent nil in the January transfer window to strengthen a team which was already under-performing and where confidence was rock-bottom. Bringing in the football equivalent of an ageing rock star wasn’t likely to turn that around was it?
How much longer before Keegan falls on his 'head'? Surely that must have happened before he took on the Newcastle job?
HAVEN’T seen anything in this column about the mentally-ill Paul Gascoigne. Sure, he was always said to be “as daft as a brush” but the reality was much more serious than that. With hindsight perhaps the press and the public did him no favours by feeding his image as a loveable japester. All the warning signs were there that he was a seriously disturbed personality. They were ignored, to everyone’s discredit.
This week's prize goes to Sean for his Letter of the Week.
WELL done to the Examiner for getting Fergie over to Ireland last week. De paper surely must have some clout.
Yeah, Tiger Woods was really disappointed when we had to bump him off the guest list.
DID Tim Cahill’s handcuffs celebration really do anyone any harm? I had no idea that he had a brother who was serving a six-year jail sentence. And I am still not bothered about it.
Hmm. I suppose we should be grateful that they got rid of capital punishment in Blighty.
