The handshake

Written by Paul Williams on Thursday, March 19, 2009

Results

Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
17 Mar	7:45 PM	FA	Hull City (H)	2	1	Win

The following is taken from the November 10 edition of the Daily Telegraph, 2 days after we beat Manchester United and a few weeks after our 2-1 home defeat at the hands of Hull City:

"I have been fascinated by the criticism that has been levelled at Arsène Wenger over the last few days ... but nobody in the game of football, certainly not at my level, can criticise him for what he has done for Arsenal over the past 10 years. He is a model for any young coach, manager or chairman who want to achieve.

"Not only has Arsène got a hold of that football club and taken them to a new stadium and a new training ground, he has taken the style of football from a 1-0, back-four mentality to massive levels of entertainment, and I have nothing but admiration for him.

"When I first came into coaching 10 years ago I had the good fortune to sit down with him to talk about management. At the time he was living in Hertfordshire, in a hotel which became a focal point for him and his initial plans.

"We spent an hour or two talking about his philosophy of the game, and it was, frankly, inspiring. There was a young foreign manager coming in, driven by a vision that he had for Arsenal. Now all of a sudden he has gone past his vision. The fans are now expecting the side to win titles year-in year-out, but he has a grander dream - such as playing entertaining football and cultivating youth.

"As far as I am concerned, he should be a template for any young coach or manager. Any one wanting to get started in the game, should study Arsène Wenger."

As strange as it may seem, the author of these words is one Phil Brown, permatanned, bluetooth headset wearing manager of Hull City.

Phil, of course, had this to say on Tuesday night:

"He wouldn't shake my hand when we beat them fairly 2-1 at the Emirates, he wouldn't shake my hand when they beat us, fairly, 3-1 at the KC Stadium."

Really, Phil? Are you sure about that? What are football fans in this country to make of the following image then?

That looks like a handshake to me. Although, to be fair, it could be an Arshavinesque attempt to sell you a dummy and leave sprawled, like your right back, on the turf. Thinking back to Tuesday night and the boss at the final whistle, he did look like he waited a few seconds to shake Phil's hand. but only after he'd blown his nose into his own hand first. Which would have been the least Brown deserved.

The man comes across a demonstrable liar, how can the FA take anything he says about Cesc seriously? As for his heated post match interview, deriding the name of our great club, surely he is guilty of bringing the game into disrepute? I'm sure I remember Arsène Wenger being charged with the same when he spoke out about Ruud van Nistelrooy's cheating and there was televised evidence all over the place to prove Wenger's words. What is there to prove this spitting charge? The word of a liar. That's all.

Brown was upset, it's easy to understand why, but what does it matter to him what Cesc was wearing? What does it matter to him that Cesc chose to go onto the pitch (our own pitch, by the way) and salute fans and team? It matters to him only because he lost a game he obviously feels he shouldn't have.

I loved the comment about Arsène getting his goalkeeper booked, as if we should have tolerated Hull's time wasting. It was interesting to note, not only the time taken over goal kicks and free kicks whilst Hull were winning then losing. But also the fact that after Myhill got booked, he left that free kick to be taken by another slowcoach.

It rather seems to me that Brown lost his head, perhaps he realises it now, but has gone too far to come back.

Not to finish on too unsavoury a note, Theo Walcott has been talking up the "big hitters" returning to the side and the contribution made to the team by William Gallas since being stripped of the captaincy. You can read about that here.

User Comments

9

Mark

Posted on 24 Mar, 2009 at 05:30 PM - Reply

Indeed.

8

gunning

Posted on 20 Mar, 2009 at 10:40 AM - Reply

Great article, shame none of the newspapers feel obliged to look at the rest of the story, instead focusing on our 'hoody wearing' (knife-toting, granny mugging?) captain - who should apparently know better than to come on the the pitch to celebrate with the team he has been unable to participate with for three months. Hilarious journalism!!

7

4evergunner

Posted on 20 Mar, 2009 at 03:31 AM - Reply

Brownie guy behaving hysterically(mentally not sound) whether on the stand or in their camp. I believe this creature is not well.(Live televised scene)

6

Xyan

Posted on 20 Mar, 2009 at 02:24 AM - Reply

Arsene, despite his occasional faults, is a true gentleman. I have no doubt of that! Great article. The FA should read this.

5

Gunnerfishing

Posted on 20 Mar, 2009 at 12:00 AM - Reply

Wenger did not shake any ones hand after this last game, but while walking to the tunnel he did look twice to see if their was anyone that wanted to shake Wenger's hand and they were not around, so he left. Big deal. The way they were standing by the pitch with their arms folded then clapping when one of their players get booked for a bad tackle is disgracfull, no class.
Good article by the way.

4

Kim Andersen

Posted on 19 Mar, 2009 at 10:44 PM - Reply

It is very hard to believe and respect Brown after his post-match complaints on tuesday. Good luck on Wembley to Arsenal and Wenger.

3

stevme

Posted on 19 Mar, 2009 at 09:59 PM - Reply

Unfortunately the media is on overdrive against arsenal the football club. while pictures and videos like these are readily availlable on the net, to them it's not newsworthy. what is is arsenal and their players so here we go.

last time it was arshavin signed for late (24 hours not 1day) they chose to ignore stoke city's 48hours. or benjani's move to mancity que defoe to pombey which were several days late.

do we as arsenal fans really need to read these papers given the ubiquity of news sources nowadays, maybe we could start by boycotting specific ones.

2

John

Posted on 19 Mar, 2009 at 09:17 PM - Reply

Unfortunately, Arsenal really ought to have tolerated Hull's time wasting (for as long as the officials allowed them to get away with it), and that is because Arsenal are as responsible for the ridiculous difference between those clubs that have most in the game, and those that have the scraps, as anyone.

On Tuesday night, the game was, statistically (according to the Premier League table), a meeting of the current fourth-best team in the country and the 13th-best.

In any other era that would have likely produced a match fought between two teams of similar - though obviously not identical - abilities. In any other era, then, time wasting so early would be something to be frowned at.

Such an unfortunate fact for Arsenal that as one of the founder clubs of the Premier League (the league that forever more would separate not just the resources of itself from the other clubs under the jurisdiction of the FA, but - almost 20 years on - of the majority of the clubs even within it so vastly), that we now have the ludicrous spectacle of a team separated by only nine others in ability to the one they're facing holding onto an early lead by any means possible - of which time wasting can be an effective weapon.

Sunderland did it too, the other week (and that was with the score at 0-0!).

It's not something new and it's not something outrageous... it's a thing called reality (a reality Arsenal helped to create), which is one thing the Big Four appear to have lost sight of a long, long time ago.

1

paul

Posted on 19 Mar, 2009 at 08:54 PM - Reply

You are a real muppet, that is not Phil Brown or anyone else associated with Hull!

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