One of the least edifying spectacles in modern football is that of managers attempting to deflect criticism for a defeat by making spurious attacks on the opponents who beat them.

I like to think of myself as a connoisseur of this phenomenon, having watched our own otherwise distinguished coach, a certain Mr Arsène Wenger, pull the very same trick on numerous occasions.

But even Arsène’s excuses (which have ranged from the opposition being too tackly to having the wrong sort of leaves on the line) have seldom been as crass as those trotted out by the Ginger Whinger following our last couple of meetings with his team.

Remember when we played Villa at their place back in December? We won 2-1 and the Villans’ thuggish fullback, Alan Hutton, was sent off. According to Alex McLeish he was “conned” by van Persie.

How was he conned? Well, the first of the ex-Spud’s two yellow cards came after he squared up to our captain after fouling him. The booking was totally correct. Being fouled by an opponent does not constitute “conning” him, nor does standing your ground when he shoves his snarling, bestial face into yours.

The second booking could have been a straight red. In fact a better manager than McLeish would have spotted that his pit bull had lost his head and would have pulled him off. But I guess it’s too much to expect one pit bull to find fault with the slavering aggression of another.

Now we move forward in time to last Sunday.

Of course McLeish must have been gutted at throwing away a 2-0 lead in the FA Cup – but why not take the defeat like a man?

It’s not as if Arsenal did not deserve to win. We had been the better team in the first half despite conceding two goals. And in the second half we stepped up a gear and completely dominated.

But instead of praising his own team for making a game of it and complimenting Arsenal on a hard fought win, the Taggart look-alike made not one, not two, but THREE ridiculous claims of injustice.

Claim Number One: Theo’s ingenious goal (Arsenal’s second) was handball.

According to McPitbull, the spectacular score in which Walcott played an out-of-this-world one-two off the hapless Hutton to put us level in the match should have been disallowed. Quite apart from the fact that, from every angle I have seen, the ball appeared to strike Theo on the chest or ribs, Hutton blasted the ball at him from about a yard away. Theo’s reactions would have had to be faster than Concorde to have avoided the ball.

Claim Number Two: Darren Bent’s foul for our second penalty was “harsh”.

Sorry Alex. Bent’s was a typical forward’s challenge. He almost certainly did catch Koscielny before the ball, but even if (as has been claimed) he got a tiny touch on the ball first, he had overcommitted himself and failed to move the ball any significant distance, so Kozzer would have been able to continue with the move if he hadn’t been brought down. Penalty, any day of the week.

Claim Number Three: Robin van Persie should be punished by the FA for an “elbow” on Carlos Cuellar.

The trouble is GrumpyGingerJock, the replays show that Robin was watching the ball all the way and that his arm movement was entirely for balance and body readjustment. Maybe there was a shade of trying to hold off the inevitable clattering challenge that Robin must have known was coming, but he can hardly have expected Cuellar’s head to be lunging in at waist level. Robin was on the ground and Cuellar’s head was at midriff height. It really was a case of head to elbow and not the other way round, as the FA seem to have recognised when confirming yesterday that they would not be taking any action against our Captain. Perhaps they should consider censuring McWhinger instead.

So, three spurious claims.

The last of them was a particularly vindictive one, aimed at trying to harm a great player in a way that can bring no benefit to Aston Villa.

The actions of a man?

Or the actions of a frothing latex puppet with a giant hand shoved up his jacksey?

I think we all know the answer: Alex McLeish, you are, indeed, a Muppet. And you probably use Preparation H.

The serious point in all this is that the sort of garbage that McMuppet comes out with gives fuel to the more sensational elements in the media who prefer nothing more than to focus on a “scandal” rather than on a great game of football.

And where Arsenal is concerned, they will latch onto anything negative if it means they don’t have to write about how well our team did to pull themselves round from a 0-2 deficit to force their way into the Fifth Round of the Cup.

Stirring fight backs don’t fit their preconceived agenda of Arsenal as a team in terminal decline. It’s just one more reason why we owe it to the world to win something this year.

RockyLives

Do you ever expect to win the league again while Wenger is manager at Arsenal?

I was listening to Talk Sport the other evening (I know, I know) when suddenly they posed that question and it struck me like a bolt of lightning. I don’t usually take too much notice of the anti-Arsenal rhetoric that Adrian Durham spews out. I realised recently that they only ever allow phone calls on their show from the kind of Arsenal supporter whose sole aim is to slag off the club and Wenger in particular; some may say what has taken you so long to work that out, to which I would say, fair comment.

The answer to the question came to me after a flash of the deepest soul searching I have been forced to make in the recent past and I realise that, in fact, I don’t expect to win the league again while Wenger is at the helm. And yet, even after questioning how and why I ever became a fully paid up, card carrying Wengerite in the first place I remain just that. Why, are you mad, I hear 99% of those Arsenal supporters who are likely to frequent Le Grove say?

Man City have made this question far easier to answer recently. It is much clearer for Arsenal supporters to see that their spending power restricts our ability to buy the best players who come onto the market, it is now generally understood that Arsenal cannot compete with their financial muscle.

The frustrating thing is that people like me have been trying to point out that we have been handcuffed in the transfer market for years, ever since Abramovich arrived in fact and things are not getting better. We are no longer just being financially dwarfed by Man City and Chelsea,  we are now about to have the free run we have previously enjoyed in the French transfer market squeezed by the arrival of more Middle Eastern financial heavy weights to Paris St Germain. For years we have had first choice of pretty much all the top talent that appeared in the French league — that is about to change.

So if it is finally realised that no matter who is at the helm of Arsenal that they would still be financially restricted by the lack of ability to work in the transfer market then why would you want to change what we already have?

Go through all the managers in the EPL and ask who you would prefer, there is no one, that being the case we would have to take a chance on a young up and coming European, in the same way as Chelsea have been forced to and even with a vast transfer chest available to AVB look how that is working out.

We have a manager who wants to be with us, is proud of the club, is determined to do the best he can and has the kind of experience that most other managers only dream of achieving in their life times.

Coming back to PSG, it was never reported in the papers but is there anyone who really thinks that the new owners didn’t offer that job with twice the wage (yes, twice the wage Herb) to Wenger, of course they did and yet where is he?

As Arsenal supporters we are slowly and painfully coming to terms with where we fit in the new financial football world order, realising that gone are the days when Wenger could attract and pay the best players on the world stage, gone are the days when we shared financial dominance in the EPL and the cold realisation that we have no divine right to win the league stares us in the face and yet even though, as I have said above, I do not expect to win the league again while Wenger is manager, it is financialy impossible for him to do so, I still believe that he is the best man for the job.

In Wenger I still trust

Do you?

Written by LB

Written by MickyDidIt89

I do wonder how difficult all this football management malarkey really is. You see, I’m a Rocket Scientist and even that, which is so often used as the benchmark clever dick occupation, is not that hard either.

However, for the purposes of this article, I think it would be fair for me to clarify my qualifications as a Rocket Scientist. Picture this. November 5^th 1989, on the flat roof of a top floor flat in West London, and I have decided to host my own fireworks display. Well, when I say fireworks, what I mean is firework singular. I pooled my then very limited resources into securing ten of the largest rockets I could find. I then thought what a brilliant idea it would be to dismantle them and construct one enormous rocket to amuse and entertain myself, my chums and anyone else in the W11 area of Notting Hill Gate. With the aid of the top section of a police cone, some gaffer tape, the suitably firm inner cardboard tube from a roll of carpet and some fuse-like string, I thought to myself how simple but effective this was going to be. I could illuminate the night sky to whoops of joy from all around, and how clever they will all think I am.

All did not end well. The pointy bit did enter the night sky. The remainder, unhappily, did not. The down blast from the launch pad, or chimney pot, caused much discomfort to the pervert below in Flat 4 as his sealed chimney re-opened, while events that followed became known locally as the The Elgin Crescent Affair. I cannot for legal reasons go into what followed, other than to say that my knowledge of my neighbours’ less than savoury “hobby” was enough to ensure a settlement was reached.

Now onto this Football Management stuff. No stats man me, but my money says that there is most probably a close correlation between amount spent and final league position. You finish above your allotted slot, and you have done well. Below, not so good. I have no idea what our final place should be on account of this formula, but we cannot be far off. Then, throw in the hand of Lady Luck with her non-penalties, intervention of woodwork, injuries and so on and it’s easy to see what a fickle mistress Lady L can be.

A few seasons ago, we finished about ten points behind the eventual champions, and I realised that an additional five goals could have seen us winners (turning a 0-0 draw into a 1-0 defeat of close rivals would have been transformed into two extra points for ourselves while denying them one).

While we approach the business end of the transfer window, I ask myself what it is that would enhance my season. The answer is a light dusting of magic. Nothing too practical, but someone to help lift the gloom during these shadowy and austere times. Someone to illuminate the dark winter skies above The Emirates. Unlike my rocket.

Even us brainbox Rocket Scientists get it wrong occasionally, but you know what, it’s about giving it a go. So what’s a Football Manager to do? Entertain, perform with dignity and style, give it a go and lighten our weekends with a sprinkling of hope and anticipation. We may end up above our allotted place, and then there’s always the possibility of a Trophy along the way. It’s all a bit like building a rocket to entertain your chums. There’s always the chance that it might come off, but so long as you are aiming for the stars, who knows, it may work.  I think we are doing alright really.