One that particually made my blood boil

[steve1987]

This chap, Pat Murphy, also works for BBC Radio Five Live.

He has been a cricket correspondent of theirs for years, and now seems to be their chief Midlands football reporter - so obviously has an affinity with the area.

His comments on Five Live last night were very similar to those in his article.

I still cannot believe that Murphy is still referring to Wenger's dodgy eyesight. Those in the know, those who go to Wenger's press conferences etc, know that it has now become a joke almost, and not a distasteful one - Wenger does not like to criticise his players, and good for him.

But this is exceptional - it was awful and Wenger had to comment in the heat of the moment. Credit to him he retracted it - Murphy doesn't seem to understand this.

The media have got their principles completely muddled over this one, to my mind.

[Dollface]

Whether he has since retracted them or not, it does not hide the fact that a man as experienced as Wenger was stupid enough to make ill thought, speculative and somewhat insulting comments towards Taylor and his staff after the game before even viewing a replay of the incident. This was wrong, and I don't see any reason why we should let him off the hook because he since retracted them. Would you afford Ferguson similar generosity?

What he has effectively done is tarnished the reputation of an honest player because of his own tendency to spit the dummy whenever a game hasn't gone his way. The petulant reaction of Gallas is symbolic of this sort of mentality at your club, as was most evident in the game at Old Trafford last weekend, something which Murphy rightly points out.

You see from my perspective, I think articles like this:

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foot ... 87310.html

are much more offensive, reading it from a fans point of view. Throughout the whole thing it appears to suggest that the big 4 are completely innocent in regards to the recent spate of heavy or high challenges in the Premiership, which is of course absolute bollocks, and also seems to heavily imply that all the clubs outside this magic sector of skill and imagination have to resort to heavy handed and dangerous challenges in order to make up for their shit quality. Now whilst this may be true of Bolton Wanderers, to everyone else it's frankly an insult and appears to succeed only in lodging the journo's tongue up Wenger's arse rather than
serving any journalistic purpose. Murphy's comments on the other end offer some defence of a player who probably is still shell shocked, trying to figure out what the fuck has happened in the past few days.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting Martin Taylor has came worse off than Eduardo in all this. I'm also not suggesting it was a good challenge or wasn't worthy of a red card, and I do appreciate emotions will run high when such a serious injury is involved, and I should imagine if it was an Aston Villa player who'd been tackled in such a way I'd probably be more likely to side with the journalists who criticise whoever tackled him.

But nonetheless I still don't think this forgives Wenger's needlessly sensational comments, and I think your reaction to Pat Murphy has been equally over the top. It is almost as if this one eyed nature is endemic of your club.

As I say, I am a Villa fan so you can't tarnish me with a bias stick. I have no issue with Arsenal generally - indeed over the past few years I've had a much larger soft spot than I have for Spurs, United, West Ham, Liverpool, Chelsea, but I do grow weary of Wenger's repetitive whingey reaction to dropped points and cup exists. Similarly, I am quite unlikely to leap to the defence of a Birmingham City player!

Anyway, I don't intend this is as a wind up or anything, just thought I'd offer the thoughts of an outsider on the whole affair.

[GoonerJim]

Fuck me take the blinkered glasses off will you! the only way the other teams can deal with the likes of arsenal or even United is to kick two shades of shit out of their players - its indefenceable!

How many times has Wenger warned this type of injury was coming and how many times have you heard pundits and managers tell people the only way to play against them is to get 'stuck in'??

[Gunnerz4life]

Whether he has since retracted them or not, it does not hide the fact that a man as experienced as Wenger was stupid enough to make ill thought, speculative and somewhat insulting comments towards Taylor and his staff after the game before even viewing a replay of the incident. This was wrong, and I don't see any reason why we should let him off the hook because he since retracted them. Would you afford Ferguson similar generosity?

What he has effectively done is tarnished the reputation of an honest player because of his own tendency to spit the dummy whenever a game hasn't gone his way. The petulant reaction of Gallas is symbolic of this sort of mentality at your club, as was most evident in the game at Old Trafford last weekend, something which Murphy rightly points out.

You see from my perspective, I think articles like this:

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foot ... 87310.html

are much more offensive, reading it from a fans point of view. Throughout the whole thing it appears to suggest that the big 4 are completely innocent in regards to the recent spate of heavy or high challenges in the Premiership, which is of course absolute bollocks, and also seems to heavily imply that all the clubs outside this magic sector of skill and imagination have to resort to heavy handed and dangerous challenges in order to make up for their shit quality. Now whilst this may be true of Bolton Wanderers, to everyone else it's frankly an insult and appears to succeed only in lodging the journo's tongue up Wenger's arse rather than
serving any journalistic purpose. Murphy's comments on the other end offer some defence of a player who probably is still shell shocked, trying to figure out what the fuck has happened in the past few days.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting Martin Taylor has came worse off than Eduardo in all this. I'm also not suggesting it was a good challenge or wasn't worthy of a red card, and I do appreciate emotions will run high when such a serious injury is involved, and I should imagine if it was an Aston Villa player who'd been tackled in such a way I'd probably be more likely to side with the journalists who criticise whoever tackled him.

But nonetheless I still don't think this forgives Wenger's needlessly sensational comments, and I think your reaction to Pat Murphy has been equally over the top. It is almost as if this one eyed nature is endemic of your club.

As I say, I am a Villa fan so you can't tarnish me with a bias stick. I have no issue with Arsenal generally - indeed over the past few years I've had a much larger soft spot than I have for Spurs, United, West Ham, Liverpool, Chelsea, but I do grow weary of Wenger's repetitive whingey reaction to dropped points and cup exists. Similarly, I am quite unlikely to leap to the defence of a Birmingham City player!

Anyway, I don't intend this is as a wind up or anything, just thought I'd offer the thoughts of an outsider on the whole affair.

Since you mentioned insulting comments, I will tell you what insulting comments were. Insulting comments are of people like Kelly coming out and saying that tackle didnt deserve a red card, insulting comments are of people like Mcleash saying Taylor barely touched Eduardo and Eduardo's feet got caught in the grass. Insulting comments are of those English journalists who quite conveniently shifted the focus from Eduardo's horrific career threatning injury to Arsene's statements after an emotional match. And you seem to think that Arsene's view would have changed if he watched a replay of the tackle. Truth is the tackle looks more and more horrifying each time you see it. Id like to see how other managers would react when a player of their's is in the receiving end of a horror tackle resulting in a career threatning injury.

Wenger's initial response was a bit excessive as he pointed out but understandable after the emotional rollercoaster he had to go through, Wenger's relationship with his players is well documented, hes like a father figure to them. And really is it just Wenger's comments that tarnished the reputation of an honest player that Martin Taylor is said to be? If anything tarnishes his reputation its his actions. Hes a less than average player who shouldnt be playing in the premier league in the first place (no wonder hes in a relegation threatened team). He would have remained unanonymous to the world but thanks to his action he will be remembered as the man who almost ended Eduardo's career. I do think thats a bit harsh on the guy but it certainly has nothing to do with Wenger's comments. Lets not lose our perspective here. If Taylor can earn sympathy and understanding after a horror tackle that could have ended up in the amputation of the leg of a fellow professional then surely so can Wenger after retracting the statements he made in the heat of the moment.

[TheOne2Smooth]

Right lets put this into perspective. Obi Mikel of Chelsea made a similar challenge at the start of the season, lucky enough the other player didnt get injured. Obi Mikel get a Red Card for this challenge quite right imo. he lamblasted by the media he certianly wasn't reffered to a pet name like tiny.
so what does this suggest Johnny Foriegner bad English good! similar to the granny shagger broke hes toe the media started a witch hunt on Calveho.

[Gunnerz4life]

You see from my perspective, I think articles like this:

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foot ... 87310.html

are much more offensive, reading it from a fans point of view. Throughout the whole thing it appears to suggest that the big 4 are completely innocent in regards to the recent spate of heavy or high challenges in the Premiership, which is of course absolute bollocks, and also seems to heavily imply that all the clubs outside this magic sector of skill and imagination have to resort to heavy handed and dangerous challenges in order to make up for their shit quality. Now whilst this may be true of Bolton Wanderers, to everyone else it's frankly an insult and appears to succeed only in lodging the journo's tongue up Wenger's arse rather than
serving any journalistic purpose. Murphy's comments on the other end offer some defence of a player who probably is still shell shocked, trying to figure out what the fuck has happened in the past few days.

I dont know what league you have been watching but its certainly more than just Bolton who have started kicking to make up for their lack of quality. Over the years teams have adopted heavy handed tactics against Arsenal, its a commonly known fact that if you decide to beat Arsenal in their own game, more than likely you will get hammered. Teams like Blackburn Rovers, Sheffield United have done it time and again. And i dont know where you see that the journalist said that its all the teams outside the top resorts to such heavy handed tactics. Lets not be alien to the fact that there are far too many average and below average players playing for teams in the top tier of English football. The journalist was quite right focusing on the acceptability of the physical game these players with limited ability and the teams with limited resources resort to. That is the big picture of the Eduardo incident, he certainly wasnt trying to lick Wenger's arse, id call that excellent journalism.

Murphy's comments on the other hand simply turns the attention from the major issue and focuses on a comment that have been retracted. As if its just Wenger's initial comment would ruin the guys career. Ermmmm no it wont, its his actions that could. We should feel sorry for Taylor if it is made to believe he intended to break Eduardo's leg with his tackle, because i dont think too many people believe thats the case, we should feel sorry for him if he indeed is receiving death threats because he doesnt deserve that. However I dont see a reason to feel sorry for him just cause he is shell shocked by what happened. He should be shell shocked by what happened, he nearly ended a fellow professional's career, intentionally or not is irrelevant.

[steve1987]

I think this is a general issue for football, as James Lawton in the Independent points out.

The dangerous tackling has become too commonplace, will people bandying around phrases like
'we had to get stuck into them'
'he only tried to shake him up a bit'
(and not in reference to the Eduardo tackle in particular)

Remember the Cech-Stephen Hunt clash?

Well I think / am v sure that Hunt did that deliberately. I accept that he did not want to give Cech serious head injuries and put him out for months, but he wanted to 'shake him up' / 'let him know he was there'.

Which is unacceptable.

If you leave your foot in like that (and like Eboue does time and time again) then that is a cowardly act that has no place.

Similarly, going out to throw in some token heavy challenges seems unacceptable - by all means go for the ball, but this?

What is worrying is that Taylor was probably following his managers instructions, to get stuck in early etc. Unfortunately, but as Arsene says, entirely inevitably someone got badly badly hurt this time.

[MK Gould]

This season has seen an increasing number of dreadful tackles, any number of which were worse than Taylor's. A month or two ago I seem to recall 2 or 3 on one edition of MOTD - and no-one was even sent off!

Indeed, one of the worst tackles I've seen this season - and I had a very good view of it from the family enclosure - was Eboue's lunge at John Terry. How he didn't get sent off I've no idea. And how come the media didn't give him a hard time left me equally baffled. And I'm ashamed to admit that at the time I was just delighted to see Terry leave the field!

So, while I'm gutted for Eduardo, and gutted for us and gutted for Croatia - as this has severely dented their Euro Championship chances - I think Taylor should be judged on the intent rather than the result. And, unlike with Eboue (!!), I'm not convinced that he intended to do real damage....

[LadyGooner07]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/a ... hor_id=342

Worth a read! first half decent story i have read since saturday!

[SPUDMASHER]

Well spotted ladygooner07
I've passed the link to the editor of the Birmingham Post and asked him to use it to educate his sportswriter.