Shooting one of your own isn’t wise

I’M unsure whether it’s a change in attitudes of a Reality TV-driven society in general, or the nature of football fans in particular, that accounts for the abhorrent “pays your money, have your say” behaviour from so many Arsenal fans last weekend.

It’s certainly not my idea of “supporting” the team, to hear our own crowd lay into a player with such vociferous venom, that Wenger felt forced to sub the sub, saving him from further punishment by withdrawing him from the fray. Having failed to secure that all-important second goal, as the Gunners contrived to shoot themselves in the foot during the nervy closing stages, believe me, I was no less angry than anyone else, with Eboué’s succession of calamitous interventions.

But from a purely objective point of view, it can’t possibly benefit the club to slaughter one of our own assets, to the point where he ended up leaving the field as damaged goods, with Manny suffering the sort of psychological damage that’s far less straightforward to heal than any physical injury.