Thinking sensibly

It's easy to get carried away when things don't go one's way, it's easy to lose all reason and perspective, it's easy to slag people off without thinking, people I may add who don't deserve it. Arseblogger makes this point quite excellently in his blog today. I really can't imagine who he's talking about.

"Now, it’s natural when you go through a bad spell like we did for people to be critical. I think most football fans are critical by nature and I suspect that Arsenal fans are probably the most critical of all. We analyse our players so very closely that there’s really no margin for error. I’ve done it, many of you have done it, all the other websites do it to one extent or the other, and I wonder if we’re not making life that bit tougher for ourselves in doing so. It’s like the line that’s trotted out about Adebayor - reading around some sites you can find the most amazingly critical pieces about him.........."

It's a welcome hint that it's worth putting recent events into perspective, something I wholeheartedly agree with. Many of the over the top criticisms of our manager and team do not merit comment. It is also ironic that some rather keen criticisers reckon that they are beyond criticism themselves, I don't think it shows much integrity to shut oneself off from polite reasoned criticism or debate, rather the opposite in fact.

Even Sir Alex Ferguson has backed Arsene Wenger and reiterated what many of us have said about the difficulties associated with trying to bring in quality during the January transfer window, while Arsene has explained his decisions; some people would do well to listen to his considered explanation, is it often very easy to slag off decisions in the eye of retrospect.

In fact football management is very easy with the eye of retrospect, but time travel is not yet possible and those who are happy to attack our manager and players in vitriolic fashion with both barrels would do well to take a more pragmatic approach by joining the real world and leaving their Championship Manager frenzy behind. Sunday's trip to Old Trafford is going to be extremely tough, facing a very strong Untited side with injuries and suspensions keeping key players out, even a point must surely be seen as an oustanding result.