By Apres Match
September 27 2004

Listening to the Saturday afternoon post-match phone-ins, I was amused at the one-eyed diatribe coming through the airways. There were a number of callers from the blue half of Manchester and the white side of North London expressing their disappointment in the day’s results.
Listening to the Saturday afternoon post-match phone-ins, I was amused at the one-eyed diatribe coming through the airways. There were a number of callers from the blue half of Manchester and the white side of North London expressing their disappointment in the day’s results.

Manchester City and Tottenham where both beaten by a single goal. The reason for this, according to their faithful fans, was not that they were playing superior opposition, it wasn’t even that they were unlucky, that it just wasn’t their day – or in City’s case, the tactical ineptitude of their manager – NO, it was the referee! Now we are not just talking about a one-off decision that proved to be the fulcrum upon which the match turned. These impassioned callers protested that they were victims of the greatest conspiracy since Bill Kenwright cashed his 20 million pound cheque.

Now this may have been temporary insanity brought on by the realisation that seven games into the season the best they can hope for is mid-table obscurity, or at worst (particularly in City’s case), a nerve-bitting regelation battle. Maybe they awoke on Sunday morning, after a night of drowning their sorrows, having forgotten about accusing the Premier League and the FA on national radio of plotting to Keep Manchester United and Arsenal at the top of the table.

I can understand being disappointed when your team loses and the desire to find someone to blame, but the reason Manchester United and Arsenal have enjoyed great success in recent years has nothing to do with a Machiavellian plan hatched in the corridors of Soho House.

Manchester United and Arsenal are where they are because they have great managers who, over time, and with support from their boards and back room staff, have gathered together a collection of players and moulded them into extremely effective teams. Would Rio Ferdinand have received an eight-month ban if the authorities wanted United to maintain its lofty position? Surely then Arsenal’s request for some alleviation from fixture congestion at the business end of last season would have been met favourably if the theory was to ring true. Fans of all clubs (mine included) need to accept triumph and failure with equal amounts of grace and good sportsmanship and not waste time looking for excuses; but then again, that would take all the fun out of it.

Marc Furlong