Finally, a player backs Arsene! Well said Murphy. Two down in Jan?

Well if Arsene Wenger doesn’t give either Vito Mannone of Wojiech Szczesny a chance to prove themselves by the turn of the year it seems we could lose both. Mannone has followed in the footsteps of Szczesny and said that he is the answer to all our goal-keeping troubles.

Last year I played nine games and with me, Arsenal never lost. They brought Almunia back and then Fabianski started in the game at Chelsea, I get annoyed when I don’t play, it’s not as if the other two do that well.

Of course he is right, neither Fabianski or Almunia have done that well again this season and yes, my view is that both he and Szczesny should have had a chance to prove themselves but leaving isn’t the answer. They are both young and should wait for their chance and unless Wenger Buys a keeper in January, I don’t think that chance will be too long in coming.

Mannone is seeking a loan, Szczesny however is free to talk to other clubs in January! Both could go out on loan but should that happen they will get the bug of playing every week and I doubt we will see either again in the shirt of our club…

Paddy reckons ‘his club’ could be in with a shout a winning the Premier League this season. When I say ‘his club’ of course I mean us, The Arsenal. Thats the club he loves not the side he plays for now which he says a full of ‘huge individuals’, he says we have more stability and could quite easily lift the trophy come May!

This last bit pleases me, not the fact that it has been written but finally a player who does not play for us, has had his say about the horror tackles in the game of football.

Danny Murphy has had this to say about things and he holds their high profile managers responsible.

Stoke, Blackburn and Wolves, you can say they’re doing what they can to win the game. But the fact is that the managers are sending the players out so pumped up that inevitably there are going to be problems.

You can look at the players and blame them. But every team has a captain and a manager who is in charge. The thing I think people miss is that it is the managers who dictate what the players do and how they behave.

If you have a manager in control of his team, who doesn’t allow these things to go on, you have a more disciplined team.”

Fulham under Roy Hodgson were top of the Fair Play League because he wouldn’t accept talking back to the referee or stupid tackles. You don’t have these problems with Roy. Dario Gradi at Crewe when I started was the same.

Murphy, 33, also believes some players are giving no thought to the consequences of their actions.

The pace some of the players are going into tackles is ridiculous. There are no brains in the players doing that. I don’t believe they are going out to break the legs of their opponents but there’s no logic or intelligence in what they are doing. If you’re going in at a certain pace and don’t get it right you are going to hurt someone.

Players need to be more intelligent, especially the ones who are doing it repeatedly. They are culpable in that. I think there’s an argument for retrospective punishments. Referees can’t always get it right.

It would help if there was a board of ex-professionals who know what was a bad tackle or whether a decision was right or wrong. It’s not that difficult and there’s no cost issue these days.

Then the people who deserve to get punished will get punished. It’s not just fouls, I think we should punish cheating, simulation… a lot of things.

I wonder how Mick McCarthy, Fat Sam and Tony Pulis will feel after reading the Newspapers this morning, it’s them who Murphy names and shames. This time they cannot accuse ‘Whinging Wenger’ can they? 

Have a good one all…..