The Crow - You can’t bank on a greedy club to build team spirit
Published: 29 September, 2011
ARSENAL
YOU know we all hate bankers? Hate them.
Absolute can’t stand them. Absolutely the worst people, worse than estate agents and journalists and BBC Glastonbury presenters and spiders and chuggers and the studio audience of Mock The Week and people pretending to be statues for tourists all day on the South Bank and Nick O’Teen trading ciggies at the school gates, even worse than him.
Worse than all of them.
Well, we are ordered to hate them because of the banking crisis caused by their greed, we are told by ‘people’.
The bankers helped themselves to more money and then even more money, cashed bonuses that could buy Cesc Fabregas back, bought fast cars and then it all went bits up.
And then because they frazzled all the money, somehow nobody else had any money either.
Greedy ol’ bankers.
We all hate bankers.
But how can that be so?
If ALL of us hate bankers ALL would include Man City fans. And how can Man City hate the bankers.
Their club has done just the same thing: greedy players signing for greedy contracts, a club buying things it doesn’t need, like 25 strikers, and then imploding with childish infighting.
New rule: Man City fans are not allowed to “blame the bankers” down the pub any more for the world’s ills. They are the football equivalent of the bankers.
Seeing them lose to Bayern Munich – yes, the Germans – was a wonderful comeuppance to a set-up built on greed. I’d even support Spurs over them.
RICHARD OSLEY
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
THE sight of a marauding Spurs midfield and forward line in sync is a glorious one.
Scott Parker is built like the proverbial “outhouse” for one so small, dominating in the middle of the park.
However offerings like the one given to Wigan’s Mohamed Diame by a nonchalant Benoit Assou-Ekotto is the poltergeist that haunts Tottenham’s house. A 2-1 away win against Wigan is fine, but with the forward line we now possess we should be finishing teams off.
A great Gooner friend of mine, known for his community work and love of the beautiful game, was buried last week: and as hackneyed as it may sound I smiled when Robin van Persie scored his 100th goal for Arsenal because I knew he would have too.
It’s at times like this you realise what’s important and what isn’t.
I have many friends and acquaintances who are Arsenal fans, and I’m frequently reminding them, of course, that it’s not their fault.
Some I avoid like the plague because they’re not about football just team.
Michael Alexander wasn’t one of them.
He was a connoisseur of the game; such was his popularity that a letter of condolence was sent by arguably the best footballer that ever lived, Pele.
A staunch Arsenal supporter who loved football and what it gave to individuals and communities, no matter who they supported.
So let’s hope that he’s chilling with other Arsenal greats that the world lost too early.
TONY DALLAS