Last night I caused a bit of a kerfuffle on twitter when I posted this .
Positively Arsenal @Blackburngeorge ·
No doubt in my mind that I want Spurs to beat Chelsea, and beat them well.
Apparently this is unacceptable to the “Local club for local people, proper Arsenal” crew, and was interpreted to mean that I want Spurs to win. Well I don’t want them to win, I don’t want them to win anything, but I do want Chelsea to win less. Much as it irks us, one of them will win the COC, I would prefer that not to be Chelsea.
People who know me ,know that a big part of why I love Arsenal with such passion is down the the ethos and playing style of the the club. Chelsea are the polar opposite of what I respect and love about Arsenal, So yes, I want them to win less than Spurs. And I make no apologies for this.
Of course I understand that for many people who are “local fans” they would want Spurs to lose less. This doesn’t rile me. Its their choice. The reality is though , that I am not a local fan. I have never even met a Spurs fan, so how am I expect to get it?
What does rile me is that these people want to set the parameters for my support. I have to feel like them otherwise I am not a real Arsenal fan. They, the “local club for local people ,proper Arsenal” fans decide what good support is. Is it a coincidence that the ones that resorted to abuse towards me ,are for the most, the same fans who abuse me for my support of Arsene. The same ones who tell me I’m not a real fan because I back him ?
These people are insistent that to be a proper fan you must see Spurs as the biggest rival. Because its a local thing? Right? Yet they seem unable to grasp that local fans do not make up the vast majority of the fan base.
I know hundreds of United fans and not one single Spurs fan, so who am I ‘liable to see as the biggest rival? Who would you think I would want to beat more? Go on , hazard a wild guess !
Did you guess United?
You were right then. But according to these narrow minded halfwits, that means I cant be a real Arsenal supporter.
What is more worrying than anything is that these people can’t grasp it. We all must feel like them to be “proper Arsenal”
Now, there are many non-local fans that see Spurs as our biggest rivals. They may be old enough to remember when Spurs were actually rivals at all in football terms, or they may have simply bought into the traditional rivalry. That’s understandable to me. I get it. But seriously,does that make them better fans? Well it seems they think it does.
Are people from all over the globe expected to see Spurs are the biggest rivals? That’s Spurs, a mid table team that never finishes above Arsenal? Really? Why? Well I will tell you why, its because the “local club for local fan, proper Arsenal” feel they have the right to dictate how other should feel about their club. Because its their club, not our club, its theirs.
Ok I then tweeted these
Here is another bombshell. I dont hate the fans of any club. They are just doing what we do following the club of their choice >
>I dont really see the difference from hating a set of supporters to hating an ethnic group or people from another country.
More howls from the mentally challenged.
Again I make no apologies for this, hating people because they support another football team is tribalism.
Justifying hatred by calling it “football rivalry” is about as lame as it gets in my opinion.
Some people actually told me that I didn’t understand because I have never had a fight with a Spurs fan. They were scum.
What? Are they sub-human?
The notion that its ok to hate people because they are doing exactly what we are doing, supporting the club of their choice is a a notion that has led to all sorts of barbarity in the past.
The very idea that hatred for someone else makes you a better fan is so off its not true.
If you feel the necessity to hate in order to love, you really need to reevaluate your life and your support.
Perhaps start by moving into the 21st century?
Finally I tweeted
I am getting hate because I don’t hate random people I’ve never met, from random people I’ve never met. Seems reasonable.
Think about that for a moment. I think it tells me exactly the type of person we are dealing with here.
Positively Arsenal 
DK @antwond1405 · 30m 30 minutes ago
Chelsea have received about £144 mil for:
Luiz
De Bruyne
Mata
Lukaku
Schurrle
Something dodgy going on at that club
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I like people who stick to their principles.
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As a Spurs fan you are nurtured to hate Arsenal and Chelsea. Neither of my parents support Spurs so it comes down to Spurs supporting friends and their family to pass on this torch of dislike. Has it stuck? Well, I don’t like what Chelsea are about and given the abuse I receive from Arsenal mates it’s fun to watch them fail. Do I hate them? No,
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When I check the W/E results I always check for a Spuds loss.
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I believe that you should not define yourself as a supporter by how much you hate another club. Depressingly, it sometimes seems that a lot of fans would much prefer to see their rivals fail than their own team actually succeed, something that has always sat uneasily with me. I happen to support a football club that many others do. How and why we came to the club depends on numerous external factors. It could be a geographical link, it could be because Spurs did a pre-season tour in your country of residence when you started supporting them. These are all happy accidents and in some respects, the only thing that connects us is the love of the club. My granddad supported Arsenal. He always had, having been brought up with the tales of Herbert Chapman’s all-conquering sides of the 1930s. I never asked him if he ever felt disappointed that I had gone against the grain. However he might have felt about this, he never let on and took great delight in winding up a particularly over-zealous and sensitive eight-year old whenever another North London derby saw Spurs roundly humiliated and disappointed. “If there was a Championship for which team had the best kit,” he would playfully mock, “then Spurs would be 10 points clear every year. But football isn’t a fashion parade” Sadly, much of football is driven by rivalry and the fuel for that rivalry is hate. Whilst ideally we, as the entity that is football fandom, would be moving toward eradicating that from the game forever, the reality is that until we are able to embrace and utilise the power we actually have at our fingertips, nothing will ever change. And it won’t change because it is not in the interest of either the game or the media to allow us to change.
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Very dodgy, Eduardo. The whole club is a sham top to bottom
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I read, with interest, the volley of comments to your tweets last night. Once again, you’ve hit the nail on the head with your observations. As a “non-local” fan, I see the “you are not a REAL fan” all too often. I wasn’t around when THFC were considered real rivals. I don’t see them as much of a threat. Therefore, I can dislike the bigger clubs for more pertinent reasons. Guess that makes me “plastic”.
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before paulista even kick a ball at arsenal some people are already talking of who he will likely replace in the starting eleven. i hate it when fans talk about things that are absolutely not their business. we dont even know if he will hit the ground running or if he will adapt to the league. it is the same set of people that will turn on him as not being an arsenal quality if he fails to fulfil their predictions.
every player in the squad is important and has something unique to add to the team. there is no such thing as the strongest eleven. it is the form eleven as players peak and dip at different times in the season. if we are to go by last weekend’s form, it will be stupid for anyone not to put rosicky in our strongest eleven. but it was not so in september and october. i am sure if many of them are given the chance to select our starting eleven against villa, most of them will start coq in the midfield. who would ever believe among them that coq can ever be in arsenal eleven. still if you ask them to select their eleven for next season, they will likely put schneiderlin in his place without considering if he will adapt to our style.
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Congratulations to George on the 2nd anniversary of Positively Arsenal. So we are still waiting for the end of an era and other hysterical, over emotional nonsense.
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Layksite: you have no business posting such intelligent observations on an Arsenal site. No best X!? Playing players in form? Health and mental wealth factors? Tactical considerations? Few truths are black and white. Managerial genius lies in shades of grey.
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And of course you have hit the nail on the head with regard to Coquelin. The manager tells us that he is 99% certain to sign a new contract.and he has looked very good for the last few matches – but he will know, as all players do, that it only needs a stellar signing to push him back down the pecking order. My hope is that he will make himself indispensable over the next few months, and force his way into contention for his national side too. I believe he has the ability to do just that.
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What a pleasure to read a blogger writing something I’ve been saying for a long time and getting abuse for. Banter is fine – hatred is for the young and the ignorant. I can also recognise myself in anicholl5’s comment about screaming abuse when he was younger. Must be an age thing, to a certain extent anyway.
The moral of the story though, PG, is stay off twitter.
Coquelin has done well in his last 3 or 4 games and deserves his chance to establish himself in that DM role. No, he’s not the big bugger many were hoping for, but he’s shown himself to be quick, have good anticipation, bite in the tackle, remarkable aerial ability for his height and good distribution. Sometimes he can be a bit overambitious but that’s better in my eyes than the opposite. I see him more as the Mascherano type of player – small but very effective. I still love that GIF of him telling some whinger to STFU.
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Yido, @ 11:20
That is a very intelligent and well written comment.
The cult of ‘hatred’ seems to be endemic in certain parts of society and is epitomised in football when occasionally it spills over and erupts into physical violence.
As those of us who do not wish to see rivalry change into something more sinister would perhaps say, tongue in cheek – hatred is too strong an emotion to waste on fans/clubs you don’t even like.
At base, hate can be an all-consuming passion and does no good to anyone involved.
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Costa’s three match ban is upheld, but I wonder if that will be the end of it. Time was that the word would go round the pro circuit about those who needed to be taught a lesson, and I wonder if he might encounter more than his fair share of attention for having so cynically jeopardised a fellow-pro’s career.
Fabregas has been interesting in the last three Chelsea matches too. Not quite the all-conquering hero that he was in the Autumn, and while he has little to prove, world-class player that he is, it will be fascinating to see how he choses to exert his influence for the rest of the season.
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A supporter managed to get himself on camera during a north London FA Cup match, mugging for us at home as he showed off the back of his Arsenal shirt making the highly original point that ‘I 8 Spurs’. Considering how much replica shirts and printing cost in today’s cash-strapped world, it would appear that this charming man has an inexhaustible amount of disposable income if he’s prepared to spend upwards of sixty quid to tell the world how much he ‘8s’ my club. We should be flattered, I suppose. If nothing else, we should laugh. What’s no laughing matter is when this supposed tribalism spills over into blind hatred for the sake of provocation. The word ‘tribe’ evokes primitive imagery. It connotes something underdeveloped and primal. Whilst I am aware that football’s subcultures in the past took on some of these traits in order to forge a sense of identity, there needs to be a realisation that football has evolved as both a game and as a tool of socialisation. That’s not to say that rivalry between supporters should not exist. I’d be a hypocrite if I was to say that I’m about to embark upon a love-in with Chelsea Football Club but the point I’m making is that supporters as one unified body should be mindful of the commonalities that exist between us all. Message boards are filled with bile towards opposing sets of fans. The infamous Leeds chant aimed at Manchester United’s darkest hour in Munich fifty years ago being a case in point. Or Spurs fans, abusing Sol Campbell with disgraceful insinuations and racial jibes. There are too many who hate their rivals with such passion that they’d rather see their ‘enemies’ suffer than their team succeed. All this attitude ever seems to achieve is the confirmation of pre-conceived notions about football by those who have no great love for it. Of course I want Spurs to beat Arsenal, each time we meet, but I just don’t have it in me to spit venom at their fans. I’ll have a joke with them and a banter, and comment from time to time on Positively Arsenal but the very idea of an Arsenal fan being on their own in a pub full of Spurs fans, fearing for their safety is just something that should not happen. Are all Millwall fans racist? Are all Spurs fans Jewish? Do all Newcastle fans have a fetish for going topless? Of course not. And neither are we all tattooed, beer-guzzling, skinheads with a propensity for lewd behaviour. One of my favourite moments in my many years of going to White Hart Lane was having a chat with a West Brom fan after a 1-1 draw. We assessed the game. We shrugged. I wished him luck for his team’s battle against relegation. He wished Spurs luck for the rest of the season. We went our separate ways. The moment’s simplicity and mutual respect has stayed with me ever since.
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I remember not so many years ago a certain Didier Drogba who came to Chelsea and started throwing himself to the turf all the time. Didn’t take long before press reports and hooting and whistling from opposing fans made him revise his strategy. Turned him into a much better player.
Costa is similar – he’s doing here what he got away him countless times in Spain. Anyone who watched the Atletico – Barca game the other night will be under no illusions about the brutal tactics employed, especially by Atletico players, and a refereeing performance which was below abysmal. The suspension is phase one of his learning curve.
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“… what he got away with …”
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Those of us who are lucky enough to go to work will likely have many friends and colleagues who support different sides. I have my own list of sides I don’t like: Liverpool and Chelsea are right up there, as are United (although I often admired the way they played) but I have friends who do like them. And so we talk, and I listen, and when one of the sides I loathe wins, at least I have the knowledge that it has made them happy, and that is a nice thing, as long as they haven’t won against us.
We have seen enough of hatred and what it leads to in the past: after all, it all but led to the end of professional game in this country and those of us who remember watching matches from behind the fencing, and seeing the surges as away fans infiltrated home areas will be glad that those days are gone.
Or at least, if not gone for ever, at least relegated to Social Media and the chance for the disenfranchised to play virtual skinheads.
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“virtual skinheads” running amok on Twitter – that is really very good
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let me first congratulate the fa for doing the right thing despite pressure from some ex-pros. i have to say i’m very disappointed by comments and tweets from some ex footballers who did their best impression to get the attention and please the special failure maureen. i’m talking about gary neville, scholes and of course our own thierry henry. as far as scholes is concerned, costa was provoked severally and he is justified to stamp on the ankle of emre can. so anytime you are provoked just stamp on any player on the floor.
neville was even more ridiculous in his tweet. only costa can tell if it was accidental or delibrate. so the fa has to ask costa if it was delibrate. and if he say it wasnt, then we forgive him and move on right?
honestly i’m not too disappointed with these two ex manure players because they want chelski to face shity with their best so as to have the chance of victory over their club’s local rival. but thierry henry ( i fear for him in his new sky career ) was the worst. according to him, it was a red but since the ref didnt see it, we should move on. so next time a ref pretends not to see an incident or a player delibrately injured or hit or even punch a player when the player knows the ref was not paying attention, we should move on. at a period when so many are calling for instant video review to help the officials, henry is against a retrospective punishment.
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Schurrle getting the feck out of Chelsea is the best thing he could do for his career. That FFP is biting the Chavs in the buttocks.
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last night I went to AISA event to promote the book “Geordie Armstrong on the wing” by Dave Seager, which by the way I highly recomend. The evening was hosted by Tom Watt and supported by Frank Mclintock and Eddie Kelly. The lads come out withg some great stories and some statements that were very relevent today. Frank told how the whole squad felt the burden of the 17 tears w/o a major trophy, just imagine what the doomers would have been saying then. He also said that George’s energy was so important to the team and Sanchez was the nearest player he has seen to Armstrong since. Also in attendance was Mark Gonnela, ARSENAL comms director. After being initally embaressed by a question from the floor about why ARSENAL dont pay the London living wage or insist on third parties too (something I wasnt aware of) anyway Tom pushed him to give us something juicy and at first he couldnt thinkm of anything but then he said young Bielik had made a really big impression on everyone at the club already and they are really hopeful of big things from him.
Back on to subject Adrian Clarkes dad was a spurs supporter and merse and all his family were chelski, which explains alot.
yido6061 had it right when he said “The moment’s simplicity and mutual respect has stayed with me ever since”
football is a universall languge and all our affiliation ties us with a bond
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Yido6061 is a wonderful poster . Makes you think?
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He is isn’t he George. But for the fact that the bus that went to WHL was on the other side of the road, and the bus to Finsbury Park was on the same side of the road as my house it could have all been quite different.
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https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B8moqRbIIAEEtrS.jpg:large
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George you aren’t a bad poster yourself, maybe a guest poster in the future?
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“virtual Skinheads” was stolen by me for twitter.
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I’m glad Welbeck is on the way back from whatever niggle was bothering him. He had a pretty hectic four months between September and December. One moment playing for Man United against MK Dons, the next being signed up for The Arsenal on deadline day. Since then he has scored good goals for his new club, and for England. Memorable moments already: the hat trick in the Champions League, first Arsenal goal against Villa, the towering header away at West Brom stand out for me. He almost scored a worldy against West Ham too, before limping off and we haven’t seen him since. The break from action will have done him the world of good I reckon and I am as excited about him as any of our forward players, especially if he is able to forge a better partnership with Alexis. And on that note, a couple of weeks rest won’t be doing him any harm either, and I see Oxlade has a spell of R and R booked too. Those three carried a lot of the burden up until Christmas, and I suspect their injuries are as much to recharge the batteries as anything else.
I wonder who will start on Sunday? Giroud up front no doubt. Walcott, Cazorla, Ozil and Ramsey just behind with Coquelin keeping it all steady? Can’t do the defence as we suddenly seem to have too many to choose from!
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PG, persuade yido6061,to do the Spurs v Arsenal preview. Will there be a tsunami?
IF, one uses Google maps to survey the area of that that stadium, someone has identified the house where Baby P was tortured.
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Great picture, Eddy. The past present and future all in one.
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I’m backing our new Yido mate for the Arsenal v Spurs preview as well. That would be brilliant.
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Sounds good to me
And NOTH – You are a great poster – but wtf is the Baby P crack about ?
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Injured:
Alexis (hamstring doubt), probably could play if needed,
Welbeck (thigh), is back in training and AW said he could play if really needed
Wilshere (ankle), back in full training Monday week
Chamberlain (groin), expected to miss the Tottnum game as well as the Aston Villa game
Arteta (ankle), AW suggests he will be the first of the long term injured to return
Debuchy (shoulder), 3 months
Diaby (calf), looks like he will not play for us again
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Bayern getting a formidable doing in Wolfsburg 3-0 after 52 minutes and it could be more.
Oops. 3-1
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That’s 4thats it
* note to Pep
Dante is shite
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An interesting foretaste of the World Cup in Qatar 2022?
Currently being played there is the World Cup in Handball – not something that would get many column inches in the UK. The Final will be between France and …. Qatar.
Yes, Qatar – who have never been in the top 16 before. Their team includes players from France, Spain, Cuba, Bosnia, Montenegro – all bought and given Qatari citizenship. Remarkable that the trainer (with the very Qatari name of Valero Rivera) has managed to mould them into a team that could get to the final but still a huge joke in sporting terms. Like in football, as hosts the Qatari team didn’t need to qualify for the tournament final rounds.
It will be interesting to see if they try the same trick in 2022. I’m sure the FIFA board are ordering their Rolls Royces already. Gareth Bale to play for Qatar in 2022 anyone?
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NB52 on for the last 7 minutes
It could get bloody
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Just read Yido’s post at 1.01 pm. His story of his meeting with the West Brom fan reminds me of being in a pub up Wembley way after the Charlie George Final. It was a huge place and loads of Liverpool fans came in. They were very magnanimous in defeat and bought us drinks – which we of course reciprocated – and we had a good time together. That post-match experience has always left me with a soft spot for Liverpool fans. I also have two very close friends who are Chelsea fans.
Life is too short for hatred.
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Bendtner on for the last 7 minutes eh? He must feel like he’s never left the Arsenal.
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As a latecomer to putting fingertips to keys, Arsenal Opinion was one of the first blogs that actually “clicked” with me. Positively Arsenal is a finely balanced blend struck between musing about the game of football and pouring out large doses of life experiences. negative responses (so long as they are balanced against positive ones) generally means you have said something which is important or profound and is making people speak, which is what a football blog or column should be all about. If it was safe and easy then no-one would read it, and they certainly wouldn’t comment. The abusive trolls are inevitable with a medium like the internet around. It’s been a pleasure interacting with you lot over these few week’s mate, and I will continue to do so, whether it’s commenting on posts or previewing Arsenal / Spurs!
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Sorry Yido6061, this from gunners town (http://wp.me/p3Yt1s-2VP) made me giggle too much…
“Oh, and his name is Gabriel, the Paulista bit is due to him being from São Paolo. This is similar to why the singer Adele, from Tottenham, rarely uses her full name of Adele Shithole”.
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Time to dust off the banjo. Happy to have a Brazilian player in the first team again. Here’s all you need to know about Gabriel with words from the master himself.
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jan/30/arsene-wenger-gabriel-paulista-signing
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I really hate people who don’t format long texts into bite sized paragraphs.
I bet they kick puppies too.
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DK
The oil micro-states have being doing much the same in athletics for the last 10 years.
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South Korea in ’02 was interesting? The Argentinian Junta’s influence on proceedings in ’78 has been mentioned by one or two…FUFA: thoroughly decent chaps.
–
I thank the football gods for the Arsenal.
Could be interesting without Sanchez, Welbeck and Chamberlain. That’s a lot of pace out of the attack. Özil destroyed villa in the earlier game but I don’t think Walcott and Özil will be quite up to speed just yet. FB selections could be different to what you or I imagine. Will this game be an opportunity for Cazorla, Özil and Rosicky to all start?
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Dortmund with a draw have gone bottom of the league in Germany.
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chelsea 1-1 man city
If Arsenal win tomorrow v Aston Villa, we go 6pts off 2nd placed city.
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please dont anyone ever tell me chelski are a better footballing team than ARSENAL we had our problems but we have always tried to play as a fan that is a a basic. If I owned a club and wanted to live the footballing dream as roman was supposed to then maureen would get the sack in the morning.
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Ed, isnt it amazing that the media are making a big thing of our injuries clearing up when we have seven injuries you have listed and Hayden who is also a first team squad member makes eight. Amazing that the so called brilliant managers of money laden clubs cant cope with missing two or three players and their clubs are supposed to have more quality squads, makes you think well makes reasonably intelligent think obviously eternal critics just flatline.
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Sorry, I thought everyone would remember the disturbing case of Baby P or Baby Peter Connelly.
Even the then Government was involved.
I was checking the distance between The Emirates and the new White Hart Lane development. It would seem that Baby P, lived and died of his injuries near the latter stadium.
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