Well what can I say, it has been nearly a week now and I have only just calmed down about the whole Shawcross v Ramsey saga. Now do not get me wrong Shawcross did not mean to break our young Welshmans leg but he did, so why the hell am I being made, by the media, to feel bad for Shawcross rather than A.Ramsey?
The media in this country can sometimes be a little bit too ‘England players are committed, you cant take that away from them’. But this commitment and passion is causing injuries like Ramsey’s leg break. You would not see the media be more in favour of the legbreaker than the person who has had his leg breaked in Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Italy and Germany. It is not just the media of course, you struggle to see these type of injuries happen in those countries.
Our English passion, commitment and determination has done nothing for our countries national team. International referees at that level will not allow our players to get away with challenges like Shawcross’s, so our players do not behave like this at international level. When they do, they get sent off!
We can’t handle playing another way, this is shown in our lack of international achievement. But hey, we did it once in 1966, so that is alright.
You do not see teams like Bolton, Stoke and Blackburn achieving anything in football with the way they play, Chelsea’s whose approach to the game is physical, but that does not mean that their players make stupid challenges and rash attempts at challenges. They mix their physical play with stylish football from back to front, occasionally adding in a long hoof by the goalkeeper.
Now if studying Sports Development has told me anything it is that, this is purely not a elite football problem. From grassroots football to Semi pro football it is the same, grassroots English footballers from 8-55 years old are complimented on their hard challenges and their commitment. If a player would to do a piece of skill and beat a player or two they would be called a fancy arrogant selfish player, I am sure more man of the match performances in grassroots football go to the player who was the most committed and showed pride.
Again this is not to say that all players should have less passion for their team that Robinho playing away at Scunthorpe, of course you need to be able to give as much as you can for your team and not come away from a game wishing you had done more.
From grassroots we need to start to introduce more emphasis on skill and ball control. Arsene Wenger has always said that English players generally, lack the general ball control compared to their European colleagues. This is why Wenger will choose to buy a cheaper foreign player than a less developed English player. Who can say that he is wrong?
I could go on all day about how grassroots football in this country needs developing, and the magnitude of volunteers who are underqualified to coach an appropriate way of playing football when young people start to play football as early as 7.
Sort it out the Football Association
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Now what can I say about our league position. Since losing to Man Utd 3-1 we have lost to Chelsea, beat Liverpool 1-0 thanks to Abou Diaby (brilliant film by an Arsenal fan about ‘A Night At The Emirates’), lost to Porto in the Champions League but we got the crucial away goal, an Eboue inspired win against Sunderland and we beat Stoke 3-1 where we showed a great mentality to deal with a horrific injury to win the game.
Performance highlights come from Manu Eboue for his performance v Sunderland, Nicklas Bendtner for his goal scoring form (3 in his last 3 for club and country) and finally, Aaron Ramsey for his performance against Sunderland and then against Stoke, unfortunately his form was increasing rapidly and he would have continued to improve if it wasnt for a late challenge. It really is a shame that such a young player is going to miss a crucial part of his development in football, while we are made to feel guilty for Ryan Shawcross who is not going to change his style of play.
Ramsey get well soon and I cant wait to see you back in an Arsenal shirt doing what you do best.
Cummon Arsenal do it for Rambo!
With all
I'm no Nelson Vivas but... 