Thursday 27 August 2009

Moronic media makes me mad

The media reaction to Eduardo's dive last night has been completely out of proportion to the crime, if ever there was an example of just how inconsistent their reactions are then this is it. It was a very soft penalty, it was a 1% penalty, we were indeed lucky, however it clearly did not affect the result, Celtic are mediocre and offer a similar threat to Hull City in the attacking department. Eduardo saw the Celtic keeper lunge and dived out the way, the keeper pulled out of the challenge and clipped Eduardo with the slightest of touches, to me it was not cheating, it was also not a penalty, Eduardo had to dive, if he had not dived and the Celtic keeper had not pulled out, then he may well have taken a nasty knock.

Either way that's all just nitpicking, the media reaction since has been way way over the top. Every tom, dick and numpty has been having their say on the TV, on the radio and in the papers; Eduardo is cheating scum, the moronic fools have had their cake, eaten it and excreted it into the media. I would like to tell them to f*ck off. This talk of a retrospective ban is also rubbish, either organisations like UEFA, FIFA and the FA start acting consistently and banning all divers consistently, or they can bugger off. Any disciplinary process must be consistent, it must be fair, it should not be subject to the whims of the likes of Andy Gray and Richard Keys. On ITV last night I was rather impressed by the nonchalant pragmatism of Kenny Dalglish who refused to slag Eduardo off and just said it how it was without letting sensationalism intervene. Unfortunately Dalglish has been an exception to the rule, most people have been jumping on the moral bandwagon that seems to be enjoying this Eduardo bashing frenzy.

As Arseblogger points out, when Owen dives it's clever, when Rooney dives it's just him losing balance, when Ronaldo dives it's just his nature, when Gerrard dives it never happened m'lud, when Gerrard attacks with two fists it also never happened m'lud, when Lampard dives he's searching for a new variety of pastry, when Drogba dives it's more of an Eduardo like reaction, anyway I'm ranting, the point is that the media love to criticise people they dislike while they love to ignore the blatant crimes of the scum they love, what a moronic bunch they are. Lay off Eduardo. I'm all for some consistent disciplinary procedure, but all we seem to get is these pathetic media witch hunts that nail a few unfortunate individuals, it's just not good enough.

Anyway the Champions League draw isn't bad, we've got Liege, Alkmaar and Olympiakos. On the way home from work yet another moronic BBC sports correspondent wound me up by hyping up just how hard our group is, utter rubbish. Liege are solid enough but there is no team there that we should fear, on our day we should go through if we play to our potential, gone our the days of worrying about the draw, we just need to concentrate on our own game and ignore the opposition. Strange how that thick twat from the BBC didn't think Liverpool having Fiorentina and Lyon and Chelsea having Atletico and Porto was a bit more significant than us having the mighty Liege. In reality all the English clubs will nbe feared by their opponents, our league is just so strong these days, the media seem to want to make stories out of nothing, how very tedious. There also the small matter of a game in Manchester this weekend, can't quite remember who it's against, come on you Gunners.

11 comments:

Drew said...

I know this is a bit unrelated, but it worries me still: did anyone else notice how no Arsenal player congratulated Arshavin after his goal on Wednesday? He sort of just jogged out to the middle of the field with his finger to his lips alone. It might just be me trying to find something to worry about, but it's definitely unsettling.

Uncle Mike said...

Wow, I almost thought I was reading Arseblogger. This was nasty/funny enough to stand alongside his usual material, which cracks me up to know end. He is a mad genius.

And isn't it funny how, when an Arsenal player may have committed a foul, they make fun of Le Boss for saying, "I didn't see it"; but when England's Rose himself, Steven Gerrard, does it, they don't say they didn't see it, they say it didn't happen. Useless bastards.

I thought it was just a pro-English, anti-foreigner thing, but then I remembered Purseboy is from France, Kuyt from Portugal and Dogbreath from the Netherlands... or do I have that mixed up? Does it matter? Those three have gotten away with hideous dives, time and time again. To say nothing of the breeze-throughs of Gerrard, Owen and The Boy Wooney.

In fact, I'm wondering what the record is for dives in a CL match. I think Drogba had five in last year's Chelski-Barca semi, and got away with all of them, and then had the nerve to call the officiating a disgrace? You bet it was, Dogbreath, but it was to your benefit!

Well played, King Kenny. Thank you for not "just standing there." As for the rest of the media, Gray's on his knees, Keys is on his knees... and if anyone has an additional punchline, clean or dirty, I won't stop you.

The weird thing is, I used to think Andy Gray was pro-Arsenal. No, seriously. It was from watching a video from the return leg of the '07 Mouse Cup, hearing him laugh as the Gooners sang "Two Nil and You... " at the hopeless Spurs, and saying only a miracle can save them now -- and it didn't come. As Arsenal fan Roger Daltrey would say, I won't get fooled by him again.

Bernardo said...

drew, i have to say i was a bit puzzled by the "celebration" of arshavin's goal. i then thought perhaps it is because it was already 2-0 and job done, celtic would never score more than 3 anyway, so it did not mean anything... i am hoping it was just that...

Obsinho said...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/7697235.stm

have a little read of this write up of Liverpools 1-1 game against Atletico last season. Then have a think back to the the incident that lead to the "very soft indeed" penalty, baring in mind that "Liverpool will feel an injustice was done given the earlier decisions". It was one of the worst dives I have seen - running sideways across the box, gerrard just about got a foot in the at the corner of the box and fell over when no defender even tried to make a tackle. No keeper was sliding out, no defender was biting at his ankles. Nothing.

I think this result even put the Scousers through ahead of Atletico. Where was the opprobrium then, why was Gerrard not banned for 2 games?

Yes Eduardo dived, but just fuck off with the bullshit reaction. If they ban eddy for any amount of games, then why can we not appeal to have the above dive reviewed? Or Rooneys at Old Trafford? If you're going to make up rules and apply them retrospectively then why not ban every player for 2 games for every dive, foul, pulled shirt, swear at the ref, handball they have ever done and got away with? Absolutely ridiculous.

1979gooner said...

well said.

the charge for eduardo makes a mockery of the disciplinary system

it is a very dangerous precedent to set, as now will every dive be retrospectively punished?

i doubt it, and that will mean the system is complete fucking shit and inconsistent

1979gooner said...

also as obs said, why was there not the outcry for far worse dives like steven 'attack-dog' gerrard?

why no ban there for a far more blatant dive?

eduardo's wasn't even that bad, the keeper slid in and pulled out very late, he had to jump out the way and still there was some contact,

this pisses me off massively

Anonymous said...

Now that UEFA have charged Eduardo with attempting to deceive the referee this smacks of an action that is anti Arsenal, anti foreign players or maybe both. The number of dives resulting in free kickes and penalties (Ashley Youngs last night for example looked a bit soft)but have gone unchallenged by the media is huge. So why pick on Eduardo?? There should now be retrospective action taken on all sorts of fouls, dives etc etc.
I suspect an ulterior motive....

Rhinogooner said...

Spot on Obs. I remember that incident with Gerrard vividly as I screamed vitriol through the TV at him when I watched it happen.

And I remember thinking about how no one will call him on it because he's English and one of the stars of the England national team. Not to mention he plays for media darlings Liverpool.

It infuriates me how there is such a blatant double standard purveyed in the English media, the FA and Uefa and no one of any standings points it out.

It does my head in because it insults my intelligence so audaciously!

Anyroad, here is the link I found to the video of THAT Gerrard dive:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwfgbHOZHE0

Anonymous said...

the media really blew it all out of proportion.

i think it has a lot to do with the media culture - because there was so much sympahty after his injury, the media is ready to bring him down. build em up, bring em down.

it doesn't help he's not english. i don't see that happening for english guys.

its really interesting what uefa is doing, because they usually leave the decisions on the pitch alone. if the ref missed it, it didn't happen.

they didn't look into the PIQUE handball in the chelsea-barca semifinal that would have changed everything.

they didn't look when SCHOLES threw the ball into the net against Zenit in that cup winners game.

what referees need to do is give yellow cards on the field when it happens. here the ref got it wrong, and thats fine. that happens. story done, except the press got into it...

-rahul-

Anonymous said...

well scholes got a red card, but thats the point, if the ref gets you, the ref gets you, if he doesn't he doesn't. i'm not saying diving is right, i dont like it, i don't like that eduardo did it, i don't like when cesc does it, but ..

also with Ballack after he ran after the ref screaming at him, Uefa didn't do anything becuase they said it "happened on the pitch" and the ref dealt with it, same thing here...

-rahul-

Uncle Mike said...

Rahul has an excellent point: The ref made a decision. If he made no decision, and UEFA decided there should be a punishment, that's different. But he did issue a yellow card, and if it was good enough for the ref, it should be good enough for his bosses.

Basically, UEFA is telling this ref, "You're not good enough to issue the proper punishment." All this talk about being fair to officials, which I approve, so long as the officials get their calls right, and even when they get them wrong, just tell them, don't beat them up over it. But UEFA won't be fair to their own official? To hell with them! Platini, you can go to... The Lane!