april 20th
Yesterday it was announced that the commission put in place to look at the Colegate affair will sit on the 17th and 18th of May having been due to start their proceedings next week. According to the commission ‘”the nature and complexity of the defence put forward by the parties has necessitated the gathering of more evidence and witness statements.”
It’s believed that Ashley Cole’s defence will be that the Premier League rules represent a restraint of trade and he should be allowed talk to other employers like in any other position. I was afraid it would go down this road. It’s quite sad that it has because it’s just typical of football, and society in general, these days. Nobody is willing to take any responsibility for their actions, always looking to shift the blame elsewhere or chip away at fine print to get away with whatever it is they did to break the rules in the first place.
Cole and Barnett’s complaint this it’s a restraint of trade may, on paper, be valid but the bottom line is they knew the rules. You don’t have to be fucking Einstein to know that you don’t go and meet another club on the eve of a big game to talk about a transfer when you’re already under contract. You don’t do it because the rules say you’re not allowed. You don’t do it to the club you’ve supported since you were a boy because morally it’s just not the right thing to do. You certainly don’t do it in a London hotel where the people you’re going to meet are well known and anyone who sees you together doesn’t need to be a genius to put 1 and 1 together and figure out what you’re doing there. And Christ give me strength you don’t do it when you’ve been offered a raise from £27,000 to £60,000 a week, turn it down and then leak stories about how Arsenal only offered £5,000 more or all of a sudden took £5,000 off the agreed salary because nobody believes you Jonathan Barnett. Ashley Cole was offered a contract which doubled his money but he and his money-grabbing agent went looking for more from Chelsea knowing fine well they’d get it. Chelsea’s money pot is endless, Arsenal’s is not. Then again Peter Hill-Wood hasn’t ammassed a fortune from taking advantage of millions of poor people, having his rivals mysteriously ‘disappear’ and plundering Britain’s natural resources. At least I think he hasn’t.
This bullshit about football being the same as any other job gives me a pain in my hole as well. As much as you’d like to try and say so, it just isn’t. It’s a job, yes, but it’s a sport and sport needs rules and regulations to protect what’s left of the integrity of the game because sportsmen these days seem few and far between. You just can’t say the guy earning £60,000 a week needs the same rights as a bloke earning £20,000 a year. They just don’t. This restraint of trade defence is, to my mind, the end of Ashley Cole as an Arsenal player. The manager said yesterday that he was ‘100% certain‘ Cole would stay and sign a new contract. Even though he’s a fantastic player you’ll excuse me if I don’t greet that news with anything more than a Roger Moore style raised eyebrow.
Ashley Cole knew fine well who he was going to meet, in my opinion. For him to actually be at the meeting means there must have been previous contact with his agent who would have told him what was going on. He knew he wasn’t going to meet some European team, and even if he was that’s no defence. He was prepared, a couple of days before the Manchester United game which had a big impact on our season, to go and meet one of our closest rivals to discuss a transfer even though Arsenal had offered him a fantastic contract. Now that he’s been caught he’s prepared to drag football through the courts to minimise the punishments handed out to him and his agent rather than accept responsibility for what he did.
If he’d stood up and said “Yes, I went to meet them, sorry,” I’d have some respect for him, however, from what I’m told he still seems to think it was all about getting the best deal for himself. As it is we’ve got the club on tenterhooks as this meeting takes place just days before the FA Cup final. Not ideal preparation and strange symmetry from the last United game, eh? You’ll excuse me if I wave aside those people who say Cole is professional enough to put it out of his mind and not let it affect him. If he was professional he wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place and the club deserves better than having this shit impact on the build up to the biggest game of the season. And all this is leaving aside Chelea’s behaviour in the whole thing but then should we expect anything better from a club run by who it’s run by? Exactly.
Anyway, as far as I’m concerned Chelsea and Cole and Barnett and Mourinho and Kenyon are welcome to each other. A shower of feckless, mendacious, villainous cunts, the lot of them.
In other news ahead of tonight’s game Thierry Henry is definitely out but Sol Campbell is back. Who he replaces at centre-half will be interesting. No news yet on Freddie so Cesc could start on the right, and who will he play up top? I’d like to see Reyes and van Persie start although I think he’ll go with Dennis and one of the youngsters.
Andy Todd has been charged with violent conduct after trying to remove Robin van Persie’s head at the Millenium Stadium last weekend. Naturally Blackburn say they’re going to appeal. No word on whether the FA are going to do anything about this though.
Finally, don’t forget the DVD competition. See yesterday’s or Monday’s blog for more details on how to enter and thanks to ILC Sport for kindly providing the prizes.
