"You can't buy Class"??

[Kano]

what a horrible attitude and awful argument.

oh no, do we have a purist on our hands?

the 70's are that way >>>>>>

[She Wore A Yellow Ribbon]

excellent coherent argument, well played sir.

[BOBN]

good thoughts on diving. people who go on and on about it are so boring

Good Point On Diving
I had to laugh at the streams of disproportionate moral outrage pouring out of the English media in response to Ashley Young's dive yesterday. You'd think the Mail had discovered a new drug.

Practitioners of the dark art don't often let on, but defending is inherently cynical. Key skills include knowing the right time and place to give away a free kick, blocking off opponents when the ref is looking the other way and pushing a striker just hard enough to unbalance him without knocking him over. And, of course, appearing unhinged enough to make opponents fear for their safety without getting sent off all the time. As every Stoke fan knows, footballers aren't half as good when they fear for their safety. Nothing plays into our hands more than a forward determined to uphold the sacred spirit of the game and play proper English football for real men who stay on their feet innit. As long as we can avoid knocking them over, we can foul them all we want and the ref will only rarely give a free kick.

The pundits will always side with the defenders. I bet no one even knows who it was that grabbed Danny Welbeck's shirt as he was running in behind against Wigan last week. There was no universal outcry or condemnation of this blatant act of cheating. In England at least, defenders have somehow created a moral monopoly on cynicism in football. When a defender tugs a player back, happy to take a yellow card in order to stop a promising break, it's described as 'using his experience', or 'being quite clever there', or any one of an array of euphemisms. Never 'cheating', which is what it is. Only forwards are capable of 'cheating', thereby making them a 'disgrace' and prompting calls for all kinds of ridiculous punishments as 'the only way we'll stamp out this blight on our game.'

Spare us.
Will, Manchester

[Kano]

excellent coherent argument, well played sir.

an argument built on sand deserves to be pissed on

[LDG]

an argument built on sand deserves to be pissed on

Like your face.

[Kano]

as long as it's free

[Niall_Quinn]

Wenger failed to congratulate Wigan on their win yesterday, didn't shake Martinez's hand either. Not exactly evidence of "class" is it? RVP also was ungracious by pushing Caldwell away when he went for a handshake. I'm not overly bothered by these incidents but it does highlight the rank hypocrisy of those who claim we occupy some moral highground and are classier than other teams, when we're not. I've accepted that so don't get flustered by these incidents. However, for the "true believers" they'll have to explain how these sorts of incidents (remember Ferguson did praise Wigan when they beat Man Utd) fit into the narrative of us being a classy team. Maybe those supporters can be honest and say this "class" thing was never about football, rather it was a piece of class snobbery highlighted how we have a greater proportion of middle class, affluent supporters than other clubs.

All teams need to be equal. Then there needs to be a small group of people who are more equal than the rest who should dictate. All players should be on the same wages. The crowd should wear the same clothes, preferably boiler suits with a picture of the glorious leader stamped on the front. This country should be renamed North Korea FFS! Why hasn't this happened yet?

Back in the real world, there's no proof Wenger didn't shake Martinez's hand. It could have been done at any time after the game. Was it done in front of the cameras, did both managers ensure they presented their best profile? Don't know, hard to be worried about such triviality. Caldwell is a genuinely classless prick. If some **** comes up to you in the street and starts mouthing off at you, do you take it, get on your knees and ask if he would like his cock sucked?

Oh you do! Well fair enough. Good argument then.

[Olivier's xmas twist]

All teams need to be equal. Then there needs to be a small group of people who are more equal than the rest who should dictate. All players should be on the same wages. The crowd should wear the same clothes, preferably boiler suits with a picture of the glorious leader stamped on the front. This country should be renamed North Korea FFS! Why hasn't this happened yet?

Back in the real world, there's no proof Wenger didn't shake Martinez's hand. It could have been done at any time after the game. Was it done in front of the cameras, did both managers ensure they presented their best profile? Don't know, hard to be worried about such triviality. Caldwell is a genuinely classless prick. If some **** comes up to you in the street and starts mouthing off at you, do you take it, get on your knees and ask if he would like his cock sucked?

Oh you do! Well fair enough. Good argument then.

this.

[Olivier's xmas twist]

Being as effective in his 5 minute cameo role as Walcott is in his 90 minute full game

[Özil's Panoramic View]

All teams need to be equal. Then there needs to be a small group of people who are more equal than the rest who should dictate. All players should be on the same wages. The crowd should wear the same clothes, preferably boiler suits with a picture of the glorious leader stamped on the front. This country should be renamed North Korea FFS! Why hasn't this happened yet?

Back in the real world, there's no proof Wenger didn't shake Martinez's hand. It could have been done at any time after the game. Was it done in front of the cameras, did both managers ensure they presented their best profile? Don't know, hard to be worried about such triviality. Caldwell is a genuinely classless prick. If some **** comes up to you in the street and starts mouthing off at you, do you take it, get on your knees and ask if he would like his cock sucked?

Oh you do! Well fair enough. Good argument then.

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