A campaign of misinformation

It's funny how those who know they are in the wrong will change their story time and time again because there is no logic to their argument, well we've seen this in classical fashion with the bizarre justifications for the booing of Emmanuel Eboue. I know it's all getting rather boring, but this story is running and running in the media and it's getting twisted to resemble nothing close to the reality of the situation. Even tonight I've heard football pundits saying that the Arsenal fans were right to make a stand against diving by booing Eboue, this campaign of misinformation should not continue.

Firstly it is pretty clear that a rather large majority of Gooners feel that the booing was bang out of line, so any talk of this being some kind of majority of opinion is well wide of the mark, it was very un-Arsenal like as Goodplaya puts it. Next the idea that Eboue was booed for his performance is at best only partially true, he was abused by our so called 'supporters' even while he warmed up on saturday, this abuse certainly continued and reached a crescendo later on, so this talk of him being abused for his performance is a manipulation of the facts. Likewise the reasoning that our poor performances have been down to Eboue is not born out by the facts, he was one of our better players against Fulham, didn't play against Stoke, City and Villa, while he by no means stood out as our worst player against Hull.

I've not doubt he's not the answer to our left midfield gap, however he's a very decent back up right back and he has put in a few decent performances in the centre of the park this season, he's a very useful squad player. He has also stopped the theatrics in which he indulged on a regular basis. Anyway that's enough of Eboue, because this isn't about Eboue, it's not about fans making a stand against cheating. It also wasn't a protest against Arsene Wenger, if anyone wants to make a protest then may I suggest they start booing Arsene at our next home game and I hope the people sitting near them tell them where to stick that one. As Alan Hansen writes so eloquently, when has booing ever helped a player, this pathetic behaviour can be amazingly counterproductive and destructive for individuals and for teams.

Eboue was a scapegoat, he was an easy target for the lazy cretins who can't be bothered to engage their solitary neurones on more than a monthly basis, Denilson and Song have been scapegoated to a lesser degree at other times this season. Eboue has been abused at other games this season, for example the Hull game, he wasn't playing that badly and he certainly wasn't diving, but this didn't stop some of our lovely supporters venting their spleens. For example after one game in which Song completed 55 of 58 passes and which we won against very high quality opposition, one expert blogger thought that he would lay into the young man and criticise how many times he gave the ball away. This sums up the level of cretinism we are dealing with here.

As society becomes more materialistic and litigious, people are more and more aware of what they do not have, rather than being appreciative of what they do have. The sad thing is that these people will only realise what they had when it is gone. Like the morons that were calling for Fergie to be sacked a couple of years back, these supporters have lost touch with reality and see success not as a possibility but as a divine right to which they are more entitled than anyone else.

Arseblogger spoke of the Eboue abuse : "This wasn't an orchestrated campaign, it was a spontaneous reaction". No doubt it wasn't orchestrated, however this does not make it ok, far from it, it was a deeply embarrassing moment for many a proper Arsenal fan. Many angry mobs have done some very nasty things in a spontaneous fashion, this doesn't make it ok. The booing of Emmanuel Eboue was a disgrace, he didn't deserve the treatment he got on Saturday and he hasn't deserved the abuse he's received at many other games this season. I know it's controversial and unpopular to say so but some of our fans are idiots of the highest order, it's only a small minority but it's a minority that's getting bigger and that's ruining games for the majority of us who want to support our team. If anyone starts abusing an Arsenal player at any Arsenal game in the future then I suggest you turn to them and tell them to f*ck off and support Tottenham instead.