Nine Jimmy Rimmers – Arsenal and Football

Today we learned that it was all Arsenal’s fault that Alan Hutton got sent off the other night. Well not completely, he does say that Hutton shouldn’t have fallen for being conned into a red card!

Conned?!?!!! Alan Hutton cleaned out Van Persie and Vermaelen. He came through the back of Van Persie, failing to get the ball. Then ninety seconds or so later he bulldozed Vermaelen off the pitch, again not involving the ball in proceedings. In other words he quite rightly got two yellows which makes a red.

The only people conned are the Aston Villa owners when they were persuaded to part company with some cash to bring him to the club. To make matters worse, McLeish then says he doesn’t hold anything against Van Persie for conning Hutton. Apparently that sort of thing is acceptable ‘street smart’ behavior that gains your team an advantage.

McLeish needs to get his thinkin ‘ead on – Hutton wasn’t conned, he’s just too slow, and conning the referee isn’t something premier football managers should be advocating. I know this all sounds a bit ‘preachy’, but surely good football is something worth having?

The only thing I don’t get about Arsenal’s decision on postponing the Wolves game is that they left it so late. The Boxing Day strike has been planned for weeks. Why wait until fans have made all their family plans for Christmas before changing?

The Wilshere red card tackle which, take note, nobody at Arsenal has sought to defend, has had the likes of McLeish sounding off in the Sunday papers.  Why oh why oh why does everyone rate Wenger ahead of us they want to know.

McLeish complains that people haven’t forgotten the Taylor tackle on Eduardo.  Pullis points out that foreigner Wenger hasn’t won anything in a while.  Why oh why doesn’t anyone recognize our talent in the same way they want to know.

Well here are two lessons why.  One is about being remembered for the right things, but the first is about being remembered at all.  Both are about class.

So, Wenger hasn’t won anything in years.  That’s true Tony, and Arsenal fans are a little anxious, but he has won stuff and you haven’t.  He has led a team to the closing stages of the Champions League just about every year, including a final.  He was spotted in relative obscurity and plucked out to manage the Arsenal.  You were spotted and plucked out to manage Stoke City.  What’s more, he’s competed with the likes of Chelsea, Man Utd, Barcelona and now Man City with a fraction of their spending.

That’s why people rate him Alex.  That’s why people will still be talking about him, and let’s face it the Taylor tackle, long after they’ve stopped talking about Alex McLeish!

The second lesson is about wanting to be remembered for the right things. Tony Pullis and Alex McLeish do have tough jobs to do.  Yes, absolutely true.  But so do Ian Holloway at Blackpool and Roberto Di Matteo at West Brom.  All four of them have to keep their ‘unfashionable’ clubs in the top flight on small budgets.

But there’s a big difference in the approach that the two pairs of managers take.  Holloway and Di Matteo send out teams to play football.  They try and close the skill gap through athleticism, concentration and good tactics.  It’s football and it’s admirable.

Now it’s early in the season, and Holloway and Di Matteo may yet succumb to the pressures of survival, but it is clear from the way they have started the season how they want to play the game, how they want to be remembered. Plus they make sure that they are not remembered for whining interviews!

Now Tony and Alex may argue that they’ve never had the breaks in their careers, so maybe we can be sympathetic on lesson one, but they have no excuses on lesson two.   The managers of West Brom and Blackpool are in the same boat as Tony and Alex.  The difference is, they’ve got class.