Well – what can I say about football? This season has been the best of times and the worst of times for me. As a football fan in my second year of holding a season ticket I am learning the game fast.
I used to think I knew it all from watching the game in the pubs, MOTD and dodgy internet streams but I was wrong. You have to watch the games live to appreciate exactly what is going on out there.
Let me state this now and clearly as I possibly can:
The pundits lie.
The papers lie.
The media in general is full of shit.
Next time you watch a match, turn the volume down and make you own decisions – remember them and do not allow them to be swayed by anyone – no matter how much of a self proclaimed ‘expert’ they are. Watch the games, believe your eyes, trust your instincts - that is all.
Last season I had niggling doubts as to some of the decisions that were going on - on the field of play... but now I am in no doubt that Premier League football is crooked. I support Arsenal and right now we are out of every competition. I am NOT a sore loser. We HAVE been robbed.
Let me step back a few months - the game that finally woke me up was the Birmingham Vs Arsenal match in February (2-2). I had just got home from taking the kids out (swimming I think) and I was in the kitchen sorting out a beer so I could settle down for the game when I got a phone call from my brother PieFace. His voice was shaky – he said:
“Are you watching?”
I said no.. was just going to switch on.
“It looks bad – Eduardo been injured.. it looks bad.”
How bad?
“I think he’s out for the season... it’s very bad, broken leg.”
Jesus man – I’m going to watch it now – I’ll get back to you…
...it was bad – I switched on to see Ade looking scared and sick, Fabregas was in clear distress, nobody knew what to do – Gary was fussing about and waving for backup and oxygen and that shit-kicker Taylor was just sitting there.
Taylor got sent off – it was the only correct decision that the Ref (Mike Dean) made that day. The rest of the first half was a disjointed affair, the players clearly had their minds on what state Eduardo was in and not on the match.
Birmingham scored from a free kick which wasn’t a free kick... or was it? I don’t know – it seems that Arsenal can’t get a free kick for love or money (unless we are breaking in a dangerous position and the boy in black blows his whistle to give the other team a chance to get the whole fucking squad behind the ball before play continues) – where as our competitors get free kicks and penalties for tripping over their own shoe laces... I say ‘love or money’ but I suspect that ‘money’ is more important in getting referee decisions these days than the increasingly irrelevant emotion in this league for the ‘love’ of the game.
The experts at half time reckoned that Taylor must be in a terrible state, imagine how poor Taylor must feel – it wasn’t a ‘bad’ tackle apparently. Bullshit – he went in hard and straight legged with the shit-kicker tactic of the shit-kicker teams that play us: “hoof Arsenal off the ball for the first 10 minutes as the ref won’t even card you for it” – well done Fergie for giving the premier league that gem of “footballing genius” – I guess that’s what you call progressive football, all good for the game eh?
Taylor ruined Eduardo – and Arsene has been saying that this would happen for years... Arsene was proved correct. Nobody cared as Eduardo was just a foreigner and played for Arsenal – if that had happed to Rooney then effigies of Martin Taylor would still be swinging from lamp posts. Eduardo is quality and class. Eduardo is a gentleman. Eduardo loves football. Eduardo is a foreigner. Eduardo is all the things Martin Taylor isn’t.
I don’t feel sorry for Taylor – Wenger was correct, he should never play football again… what was he even doing on the field? If you go out on national television and destroy something beautiful then you should not expect any sympathy for it.
The second half was better, Theo scored 2 and we were up – Gallas and Wenger had clearly got focus back in the dressing room as we were flying. They wanted to win this one for their colleague and friend and they got on with it despite the best efforts of Dean and his henchmen – we were going to win. Then – Ade got fouled in the area – it was a clear penalty under the eyes of Dean – 1-3 to us. Good. Fuck you very much Birmingham and fuck you very much Taylor.
What happened next destroyed any faith that I had in this league as a fair competition. The penalty was not awarded... instead in the last minute of extra time Birmingham hoofed it up field and Clichy let it drift before clearing it under a speculative challenge from McFadden. A giddy with joy Dean could not wait to whip his whistle out and award a penalty – McFadden scored and Birmingham equalised.
Well done McFadden you cheated twice and got your rewards as a shit-kicking lackey in a bent league... tell your grandkids about it why don’t you?
Alas – the cameras didn’t focus on your smug face for long... the cameras moved to William Gallas. Our captain.
Gallas knew the score, he knew as captain his team, our team, had been cheated not only out of 3 points but out of a result that might have made some sense of that tragic fucking bloody day – you could see it in his eyes as he cried - it had dawned on him too:
Football has broken.
Since then we have been robbed game after game after game after game.
Tomorrow I’ll go to watch us play Reading at Ashburton Grove – as we have been removed from every major competition and we are no longer a threat to Man United’s title (that was in my opinion bought and paid for last summer) then I have high hopes that we might see a match worth watching... not that it means anything in terms of trophies – but, saying that, trophies these days don’t actually mean anything in terms of football.
I used to think I knew it all from watching the game in the pubs, MOTD and dodgy internet streams but I was wrong. You have to watch the games live to appreciate exactly what is going on out there.
Let me state this now and clearly as I possibly can:
The pundits lie.
The papers lie.
The media in general is full of shit.
Next time you watch a match, turn the volume down and make you own decisions – remember them and do not allow them to be swayed by anyone – no matter how much of a self proclaimed ‘expert’ they are. Watch the games, believe your eyes, trust your instincts - that is all.
Last season I had niggling doubts as to some of the decisions that were going on - on the field of play... but now I am in no doubt that Premier League football is crooked. I support Arsenal and right now we are out of every competition. I am NOT a sore loser. We HAVE been robbed.
Let me step back a few months - the game that finally woke me up was the Birmingham Vs Arsenal match in February (2-2). I had just got home from taking the kids out (swimming I think) and I was in the kitchen sorting out a beer so I could settle down for the game when I got a phone call from my brother PieFace. His voice was shaky – he said:
“Are you watching?”
I said no.. was just going to switch on.
“It looks bad – Eduardo been injured.. it looks bad.”
How bad?
“I think he’s out for the season... it’s very bad, broken leg.”
Jesus man – I’m going to watch it now – I’ll get back to you…
...it was bad – I switched on to see Ade looking scared and sick, Fabregas was in clear distress, nobody knew what to do – Gary was fussing about and waving for backup and oxygen and that shit-kicker Taylor was just sitting there.
Taylor got sent off – it was the only correct decision that the Ref (Mike Dean) made that day. The rest of the first half was a disjointed affair, the players clearly had their minds on what state Eduardo was in and not on the match.
Birmingham scored from a free kick which wasn’t a free kick... or was it? I don’t know – it seems that Arsenal can’t get a free kick for love or money (unless we are breaking in a dangerous position and the boy in black blows his whistle to give the other team a chance to get the whole fucking squad behind the ball before play continues) – where as our competitors get free kicks and penalties for tripping over their own shoe laces... I say ‘love or money’ but I suspect that ‘money’ is more important in getting referee decisions these days than the increasingly irrelevant emotion in this league for the ‘love’ of the game.
The experts at half time reckoned that Taylor must be in a terrible state, imagine how poor Taylor must feel – it wasn’t a ‘bad’ tackle apparently. Bullshit – he went in hard and straight legged with the shit-kicker tactic of the shit-kicker teams that play us: “hoof Arsenal off the ball for the first 10 minutes as the ref won’t even card you for it” – well done Fergie for giving the premier league that gem of “footballing genius” – I guess that’s what you call progressive football, all good for the game eh?
Taylor ruined Eduardo – and Arsene has been saying that this would happen for years... Arsene was proved correct. Nobody cared as Eduardo was just a foreigner and played for Arsenal – if that had happed to Rooney then effigies of Martin Taylor would still be swinging from lamp posts. Eduardo is quality and class. Eduardo is a gentleman. Eduardo loves football. Eduardo is a foreigner. Eduardo is all the things Martin Taylor isn’t.
I don’t feel sorry for Taylor – Wenger was correct, he should never play football again… what was he even doing on the field? If you go out on national television and destroy something beautiful then you should not expect any sympathy for it.
The second half was better, Theo scored 2 and we were up – Gallas and Wenger had clearly got focus back in the dressing room as we were flying. They wanted to win this one for their colleague and friend and they got on with it despite the best efforts of Dean and his henchmen – we were going to win. Then – Ade got fouled in the area – it was a clear penalty under the eyes of Dean – 1-3 to us. Good. Fuck you very much Birmingham and fuck you very much Taylor.
What happened next destroyed any faith that I had in this league as a fair competition. The penalty was not awarded... instead in the last minute of extra time Birmingham hoofed it up field and Clichy let it drift before clearing it under a speculative challenge from McFadden. A giddy with joy Dean could not wait to whip his whistle out and award a penalty – McFadden scored and Birmingham equalised.
Well done McFadden you cheated twice and got your rewards as a shit-kicking lackey in a bent league... tell your grandkids about it why don’t you?
Alas – the cameras didn’t focus on your smug face for long... the cameras moved to William Gallas. Our captain.
Gallas knew the score, he knew as captain his team, our team, had been cheated not only out of 3 points but out of a result that might have made some sense of that tragic fucking bloody day – you could see it in his eyes as he cried - it had dawned on him too:
Football has broken.
Since then we have been robbed game after game after game after game.
Tomorrow I’ll go to watch us play Reading at Ashburton Grove – as we have been removed from every major competition and we are no longer a threat to Man United’s title (that was in my opinion bought and paid for last summer) then I have high hopes that we might see a match worth watching... not that it means anything in terms of trophies – but, saying that, trophies these days don’t actually mean anything in terms of football.
