march 27th
08.56 – No doubt you’ve all seen, and been appalled by, ex-Chelsea players Peter Osgood’s comments about Francis Jeffers. His spineless desire to see a player get hurt begs belief really, and rather than draw attention to Franny’s lightness on his feet, he’s just outed himself as a total idiot to the whole of the footballing world. Jeffers reply is here.
It seems to have escaped his attention that Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink dived to get Pascal Cygan sent off, that Gianfranco Zola got 9.7 from the judges for his tumble over Edu and that players now make the most of physical contact week in-week out. Singling out Jeffers is wrong and cowardly. Osgood was recently sacked from his hospitatlity post at Stamford Bridge (he was the match-day butler or something like that) – and while Chelsea’s reputation is stained by coin throwing thugs, the last thing they need is for an ex-player and club ’employee’ to embarass the club even further.
Yes, twice this season Jeffers has appeared to dive. Once to rescue a point against Liverpool, and secondly to win a penalty which was subsequently saved against Chelsea in the first FA Cup tie. The net gain for Arsenal – 1 league point.
When Michael Owen dived to win a penalty against Argentina in the World Cup in 98 he was a hero. Alan Shearer has admitted diving to win penalties for England and his clubs. Beckham dives, Robbie Savage dives, Kewell dives, Bellamy dives…the list goes on. What about Ruud van Nistelrooy whose diving is close to legendary? He has winning penatlies down to a fine art, and why no mention of the fact that his shocking dive last season against Ipswich ultimately cost them their Premiership place. If Jeffers plays any part for England in the upcoming internationals and he ‘wins’ a penalty in the last few minutes to give England a victory, will anybody complain then? My shiny metal ass they will.
I’m not saying diving is right and proper by any means. Sometimes the sight of a big strong athlete tumbling to the ground as if they’d been hit by American ‘friendly fire’ is embarassing to say the least. But singling out one player above all the others who do it is wrong, wishing him serious injury is worse and being a twat like Peter Osgood must be a fucking curse. Would it be hypocrytical of me to wish comedy cartoon 1 ton weight fell on his head?
Patrick Vieira is an Arsenal legend. Tell us something we don’t know. More in the Telegraph as well. According to The Sun, AW is set to bid £12m for John Terry after his contract talks with Chelsea broke down. Arsenal will play in gold in the FA Cup semi-final against Sheffield United, and if you’re into omens and all that, the Arsenal fans will be at the same end of the ground we were for the last two semi-finals, which we both won.
International week coming up….zzzzzzzzzz.
