Arsène talked sense despite his later retraction (24/2)

[gooner.ed]

http://www.onlinegooner.com/exclusive/index.php?id=540

usual thread starter… It’s interesting that Wenger made the statement late last night. He was understandably emotive after the game, but I suspect what he felt uncomfortable with was his call for Martin Taylor to be banned from the game, the original insinuation being that the challenge was committed with malice rather than being mis-timed.

Do you think this was Arsène trying to rise above the level of emotional hysteria to set an example or do you think he genuinely changed his mind about Taylor’s intent?

[proudtosaythatname]

I think he genuinely changed his mind and was big enough to say so. I'll follow Arsene's murder analogy; I think it was clumsy and a bit reckless but , given his past record and from what we were allowed to see of the challenge, there is 'reasonable doubt' that the outcome was not truly intended. Well done Arsene - you have my respect for the retraction, but I can understand why you said it in the heat of the moment as anyone who did intend to do something like that - remember Roy Keane's admission - should be banned for life from football. And I'm so, so sad for Eduardo at a personal level. I hope it hasn't ended what was looking such a promising career.

[I Hate Hleb]

APPARENTLY, DURING THE PRESS CONFERENCE WITH THE WRITTEN MEDIA, WENGER WAS TOLD BY SOME OF THEM THAT HIS WORDS RE: TAYLOR WERE TOO STRONG AND THAT WENGER COULDN'T/SHOULDN'T ADVOCATE A LIFE BAN FOR THE BIRMINGHAM PLAYER FOR A PURELY MISTIMED TACKLE. THEY SEEMED TO BE BRAGGING ABOUT THAT FACT ON TV TODAY.

ALTHOUGH TO BE FAIR, I ALSO BELIEVED AT THE TIME THAT WENGER'S WORDS WERE A SLIGHT OVER-REACTION, DUE TO ALL THE EVENTS OF THE DAY, WHICH INCLUDED BLOWING A LEAD IN THE LAST MINUTE OF INJURY TIME!

[GoonerBrat]

Fellow Gooners Hi to all - this is my first posting. So sad it has to be in response to Dudu's injury.

Agree with Le Boss that at some stage totally inferior teams who want to 'get in our face' might cause a terrible injury. Our first thoughs about taylor was just the same too - an incompetent who shouldn't be allowed to play again - it was like i t had happened to one of our family.

What got me so cross this morning was hearing tosser sherwood on 5 live (on the manc broadcasting corporation...) saying that Arsene's comments were 'outrageous'....typical spud. I have seen get well postings from fans of many clubs but none from a spud. Whether Le Boss was right or wrong to say what he said at the time is debatable; 'outrageous' definitely not - just showed me how Arsene is the head of a family not just the manager.

So hope those spuds lose this afternoon and get to cry in their 5-1 mugs!!

[Red Gunner]

Do you think this was Arsène trying to rise above the level of emotional hysteria to set an example or do you think he genuinely changed his mind about Taylor’s intent?

I think Arsene Wenger was very angry after the match like all Gooners. I still think Taylor should be banned for some period of time. I agree with this post-match quote that Arsene Wenger made:

"I knew something like this would happen one day. It goes with the idea that to beat Arsenal, you have to kick Arsenal."

I hope Arsene doesn't apologize about his comments to anyone at all. Such demands from media are stupid.

[REB]

it was heat of the moment stuff,, we know it was a shocking tackle but theres no way he wanted to break his leg,, sometimes arsene is a bit of a whinger and we have to take off her gooner tinted glass's for a moment and realise that

[donaldo]

The Manc loving media have been waiting all season to stick the knife in Wenger.In my opinion the worst culprits have been the BBC(radio 5 and MOTD) I"m fed up with hearing and reading what a nice guy taylor is and that he didn"t mean to hurt Dudo. But he did.Why are the media giving him an easy ride.Why aren"t they demanding an apolpgy from him?If you listen to the muppets on MOTD what Gallas did was worse than Taylor

How come Paul Davis got a 9 match ban for breaking Cockrill"s jaw yet this crunt Taylor gets a 3 match ban for maybe ending a players career.

[26may1989]

The Manc loving media have been waiting all season to stick the knife in Wenger.In my opinion the worst culprits have been the BBC(radio 5 and MOTD) I"m fed up with hearing and reading what a nice guy taylor is and that he didn"t mean to hurt Dudo. But he did.Why are the media giving him an easy ride.Why aren"t they demanding an apolpgy from him?If you listen to the muppets on MOTD what Gallas did was worse than Taylor

How come Paul Davis got a 9 match ban for breaking Cockrill"s jaw yet this crunt Taylor gets a 3 match ban for maybe ending a players career.

Although I originally thought Wenger's comments probably were too much, I now take a different view of the challenge. Put simply, Taylor went to take the man out, and (at best) he wasn't bothered how much damage he caused as a result.

I understand why Wenger felt the need to tone his comments down so as to avoid the issue becoming his comments, but I do think his first comments were not only his most authentic on the subject, but were also right.

Like Donaldo, I am pretty shocked that Taylor is getting away with this. This is hardly an original point, but if this had been a foreign defender (say Samba at Blackburn) breaking the leg of a talented English player (say Rooney), there would certainly be a different media view being taken. But because Taylor appears to fit into the honest cart-horse category of English defender, and because Eddie is a not-so-charismatic and not established Brazilian/Croatian striker, the culprit in all this gets away with it, and will probably get a 3-4 game ban.

That shows there's something very wrong in our football media and in our football authorities.