For Eduardo read Rooney but don’t read the Daily Mail or listen to the BBC

By 1970’s Gooner

The real victim of the Eduardo incident is Martin Taylor.

This is what you would probably believe when reading the English press. Especially if you have just been released after a few years in captivity somewhere in a war torn region.

Heck he is!

First you have all the Birmingham and related crowd telling us that Taylor is a gentle giant.

Then you get all the English press feeling sorry for poor Taylor who has never hurt a fly in his life.

Then follows the BBC’s Radio Five Live eulogizing about the young Birmingham player and saying what an unfortunate incident it was.

There follows that idiot Gordon Taylor of the FA Professional Footballers' Association. He has written to Eduardo and Martin Taylor offering messages of support after their “ill-fated” clash at St Andrews on Saturday.

"I have written to Martin and I believe he has the strength of character to overcome this. He has shown remorse and he went to see the lad in hospital. He is a good lad and I know how badly he feels about it.

"The incident happened so quickly. It was one of those things. It happened early on in the game and Martin was late but, like I said, he is not a nasty player and wouldn't inflict an injury like that deliberately."

What he is really saying is :

“Yea it was an ill fated incident. Just a quirk of nature. Doesn’t often happen. How unfortunate that old chap Martin Taylor is. Chin up lad and get on with it”!

He in fact exonerates Taylor.

In the meantime the media, especially the BBC and The Daily Mail, have been running a campaign to show Taylor as the victim of this “unfortunate” incident.

They are depicting taylor as an unfortunate lad who has been wronged by the fans sending him threats and by Wenger who after all had the audacity to ask for a punishment that fitted the crime!

Mr Hatchett of the Daily Mail has been running a campaign almost single handedly to discredit Arsenal and Wenger.His fellow journalists at the same newspaper have also been prolific.

Here are some of the headlines from this newspaper in the last few days:


“LET'S get real, Taylor's tackle on Eduardo was an unfortunate mistake”

“Martin Taylor will regret his challenge on Eduardo for the rest of his career, but can the morons leave it alone now and go and play with the traffic on the M25, instead”

It was one tackle, one mistimed tackle from a bloke trying to do his job. He was clumsy and who hasn't been clumsy?

“Unforgiving Wenger tells Taylor: Only you know if you meant to hurt my striker”

And to cap it all Mr Hatchett provides a list of all the red cards that Arsenal players received during Wenger’s reign:

“ARSENAL more sinned against than sinning? Don't make me laugh - and here's 72 reasons why for a start”

Yes of course I know that the young lad did not deliberately set out to break Eduardo’s leg. But like a negligent driver who doesn’t set out to kill or maim someone shouldn’t he be at all reprimanded for his bad driving?

And if he is reprimanded with a punishment that really is disproportionate with the severity of his “crime” doesn’t it mean that the deterrent nature of the punishment loses al its meaning?

And if all the powers to be come out and support the negligent driver saying things like he wouldn’t hurt a fly and it was just one of those incidents, doesn’t it give the message :

“carry on driving negligently chaps” or in our case “carry on kicking the hell out of skilled players that go past you using legitimate means playing beautiful football”

Doesn’t it mean that managers like McCleish and other footballers will carry on their detestable tactics of kicking the opposition straight to the hospital beds and probably to an early retirement?

Because Wenger is right. When they can’t beat you at football they revert to kicking you out of football. Just like Manchester United did when they broke the Invincibles undefeated run by a dodgy penalty and a lenient referee.

But the crux of the matter is that this is the mentality that pervades throughout the football world in this country. It is embedded in the psyche of the nation.

Taylor executed the act but the moral instigators of this crime are football managers, referees and the media.

As long as the powers to be allow football skills to be countered with brutal force and feel that “it’s just one of those things that happen on the football field” then there will never be any hope for English football.

Omar left this comment on this site which I think encapsulates the state of the media in England:

“This is just typical of an English Press. If this kind of foul was committed on Wayne Rooney the English Press would be in an uproar.

This kind of injury was a long time coming. Remember Abou Diaby about two years ago?


This is the second time in two years an Arsenal player have suffered such injury.

Arsene is correct when he said that there is a notion out there that to defeat Arsenal is to kick Arsenal. The Manager of Birmingham stated before the game that they would have to put steel to Arsenal and this is exactly what Matt Taylor did to Da Silva.

I don't think he intended to hurt the lad but when managers request of their players to be physical with another team, what do you expect to happen?

This is exactly why Jose Reyes left the Premiership; because of the brutality.

Sorry to say but this brand of Football is now close to Rugby”

Thanks Omar for those comments.




Media, coaches and referees are to blame for career threatening tackles