In a diversion from my usual (attempted) humourous analyses of cultural minutiae I feel compelled to comment on an extremely important issue regarding my football club of choice, Arsenal (although I hesitate to call myself a supporter due to lack of connections to the club, fuck it I like them and have been living a half mile away from the ground for 6 months now). This entry will, of course, be about Aaron Ramsey's injury and various arguments flying around about treatment of Arsenal players, but also about the general culture of recklessness within British football and its associated media and audience.
I watched the Stoke v Arsenal match live and the injury to Ramsey midway through the second half turned my stomach in a number of ways. First of all it was, needless to say, pretty horrible to see that happen. What was and is infinitely worse is the hysterically idiotic media and fan reaction to this incident. When Arsene Wenger came out to speak to the media at the end of the game and called the challenge "unacceptable" and said that it was "no coincedence" that these types of injuries happen to Arsenal the assorted gaggle of morons who form the mainstream sporting press immediately grabbed the wrong end of the stick and got their knickers in an almighty twist. "He's just not that type of player" harped the self-righteous blowhard of a cunt that is Alan Green on BBC radio 5Live about Ryan Shawcross, as did Stoke manager Tony Pulis who insisted that Wenger was wrong about something that had never been said, saying that "he doesn't know my players and I know Ryan isn't that sort of lad." I suppose he wasn't that sort of lad when he snapped Franny Jeffers' ligaments in 2007 or when he forced Emmanuel Adebayor to miss 8 games after another one of his 'hard but fair' challenges last season. While I am not for one second saying that Shawcross intentionally set out to hurt Ramsey - well, at least not that badly - he does have previous in making reckless and mistimed challenges. Spoony, lord and master of the parade of halfwits that is 5Live's football phone-in 606 added his idiotic 2 cents to the 'debate', questioning Wenger's imaginary statement that Shawcross is a malicious player. Luckily, Gab Marcotti, who provides brief flashes of sanity during an otherwise infuriating programme, instantly pulled him up on this and made a very succinct point: Wenger's point was that if teams are encouraged to play in a physical manner against sides with a higher skill level then to a certain extent injuries such as this are unavoidable. All it takes is for a player who "isn't that type of lad" to become that type of lad for a second and something extremely horrible can occur. It's scant consolation to Ramsey that poor Shawcross was so "distraught" when he is lying in a hospital bed with his leg being held together with steel pins due to this man's second of idiotic recklessness.
The fact that this same injury has happened to Arsenal three times in four years also highlights the susceptibility of Arsenal's style to agricultural opposition. This is not down to Arsenal players being foreign fancy-dans with porcelain limbs who need to grow a set - the way Arsenal retain the ball in midfield is absolutely unique in British football, and their nimble feet and quick minds often render themselves vulnerable against opposition who are less quick and thus try to compensate with excessive force. As seen with injuries to Diaby, Eduardo and now Ramsey, sides who do employ forceful tactics (Sunderland, Birmingham City and Stoke City) - all of which deemed legal by the Football Association and Premier League - will unintentionally inflict bad injuries on better players if they lose concentration for a very short period of time.
In the wider picture this stems from a culture in which these teams are positively encouraged to target certain players (as seen in Porto's rough treatment of Fabregas or Anderson's hilariously awful display of man-marking against Iniesta in the CL final in 2009) or in this case an entire team. The old credo of mid-to-low table ugly northern sides facing Arsenal - "they don't like it up 'em, that bunch of weak-limbed foreigners with their gloves and tiki-taka passing football and their diving. Stop moaning! These things happen!" This culture is encouraged and praised almost universally across the mainstream sports press, as the plucky English underdogs overcome their limitations, fuck the foreigners who actually try to play creatively and intelligently and wear gloves because it's fucking cold. We need look no further than England saviour Wayne Rooney, who never dives, never makes any reckless challenges, never wears gloves for the perfect embodiment of English football. Or perhaps the Scouse Messiah Steven Gerrard, who is "too honest" to dive despite his ridiculous trademark starfish flop and Hypnotoad stare. Or even John Terry, who is prepared to get kicked in the face for club and country but can't keep his penis to himself who now has Craig Bellamy reeling off zingers about his infidelity.
This culture of endorsement of negative tactics against fancy foreigners and blinkered, xenophobic coverage in the press all contribute to the sickening situation that presented itself across fan forums and radio coverage on Saturday night. It was Ramsey's fault for trying to tackle Shawcross. Ramey's leg was broken before Shawcross kicked him. It was a Stoke player who comforted Ramsey not an Arsenal player, all of whom apparently instantly waved imaginary cards at the ref. Nice to hear the Stoke fans singing "cheating, cheating Arsenal" as a 19 year old kid is rushed to hospital with what could have been a career ending injury. "You've only got one leg." Poor Shawcross? Fuck Shawcross. Poor Aaron Ramsey.
Well it's been a while hasn't it. Unfotunately (...?) I've been procrastinating less and less these days so this blog has suffered a bit. Anyway, don't fear, I'm back, with more pointless babble that noone will read!
